Running a business can be very demanding. You need to sort out business dealings while focusing on how to attract new customers and retain old ones. Apart from focusing on your prospects, you need to make sure that your employees are satisfied. When your schedule is busy, it can be difficult to track what employees are doing. However, this problem can be solved with an employee handbook.
An employee handbook is a set of policies that should guide your workers. It includes the working conditions and expectations for your company. It can make the management expectations clear for both employees and team-leads. Most companies create policies when starting a business. However, if you do not have one, it is never too late to create a useful employee handbook. Here are top reasons why you need to create one and how you can benefit from it.
Contents:
1. Showing Your Goals & Vision
2. Determining Company Policies
3. Setting Rules Employee Conduct
4. Allowing You to Address Employees Expectations
5. Reducing Company Risks
6. Minimizing Chances of Lawsuits
7. Ensuring That the Company Policies Are Enforced
8. Showing the Benefits of Working with You
Final Thoughts
1. Showing Your Goals & Vision
Everything that you do should be a reflection of your company’s mission, vision and goals. These three summed up to create your work culture. It sets the framework for everything you do. Whenever you want to make changes, you need to make sure that it meets your values.
Therefore, when you employ new people, you want them to understand what your goals and values are. It will help them work with you to reach your goals. The employee handbook should be written clearly so that everyone can easily understand your goals and values.
2. Determining Company Policies
If you want employees to bring their A-game, you need to focus on creating a handbook. This will outline employee expectations.
When creating a guideline, make sure you know your goals first. This will help you create something suitable. It should indicate how you expect your workers to behave and conduct themselves.
It should also include information about how you conduct your business. An employee handbook can create a room for transparency between you and your workers. Aside from stating what is required of each employee, it also gives information about what would happen if any rules or requirements are breached.
3. Setting Rules Employee Conduct
A comprehensive handbook should guide employees on what you expect from them. This may include a story about business’s culture and include other attributes, for example:
- Work ethics
- Dress code
- Timekeeping
- Work hours
- Payment details
It also shows them how to deal with any grievances and who to address the complaints. A guideline will ensure that everyone in your company knows the requirements you need them to fulfill.
When there is a sense of clarity, it reduces the burden of closely monitoring teams. This creates a level of confidence in the employees and management. Clarity also boosts employee motivation and thus productivity.
4. Allowing You to Address Employees Expectations
When you hire a new employee they have certain expectations that they expect your business to deliver. It is similar to how you expect your workers to deliver the best services. A proper handbook is a good way to outline what employees should expect from your business. Also, you ask them to share their experience over social media using employee advocacy platforms. In this process they can help to boost your brand awareness as well their commitment towards your company.
It allows you to create a professional tone while showing that you understand the basic needs of each person working for your company. This will help you to create a positive working environment that promotes productivity.
5. Reducing Company Risks
When expectations are not communicated, conflicts can arise. Even when you have policies but do not enforce them, a similar problem can occur. One of the main reasons why companies get lawsuits is due to the lack of clear policies about legal issues.
Employees may sue because of unfair treatment. That is why the employee handbook design should also include details about:
- Code of conduct
- Compensation & benefits
- Wrongful termination of contracts
- Racial, gender, disability discrimination
- Harassment issues
Discrimination and harrasment are one of the main reasons why small companies get sued. In other cases, it can be a result of failure to notify employees of the company policies. If you don’t have a handbook, the chances of having lawsuits are rather high. Setting a clear policy for your business can help you to overcome such risks.
6. Minimizing Chances of Lawsuits
Each industry requires companies to meet certain policies set by the federal state or local government. Without this, you could face lawsuits or charges that may not only affect your finances but the image of your business as well.
The handbook can also include the state’s policies that each employee should meet. You can also add a separate list with additional information about the state’s policies as it is imperative that your employees know their rights as workers.
7. Ensuring that the Company Policies Are Enforced
It is one thing to have policies and to enforce them. You might start out having goals and objectives for your business. As you employ people, your goals may become diluted. To avoid this, you should provide a handbook. It will help you to know what matters most.
You can also use it as a reference whenever there is a dispute. Having a handbook and giving it to each new member on your team will help you ensure that everyone is up to date with what you expect.
A written guideline is very important for management. It details what is expected from management. That way everyone at your company will have a clear understanding of individual responsibilities.
8. Showing the Benefits of Working with You
Before employees join your business, they look at what you can offer for them. What you provide matters, especially when you are in a highly competitive industry. A handbook can help you to showcase what benefits employees can expect from your business.
The benefits package can help you to highlight what employees can enjoy and get from your company. This not only means you can attract the most skilled workers. It also helps you to retain the best employees on your team.
Final Thoughts
An employee handbook is a vitally important document. It allows you to set and showcase your company goals and vision. This method can help you to know how to build a product roadmap and focus on what to achieve in the future.
Besides this, creating one helps you to clearly state what you expect from each member of your team. Another benefit of the employee handbook is that it reduces the chances of having lawsuits from employees and the government. You can increase motivation and productivity in your organization by having a handbook in place. So if you don’t have one, start creating one for your business right away!
