The Slim and Practical Employee Handbook

Is your employee handbook a supportive and practical guide or a book of archaic must-follow rules that might cause your most skilled and valued employees to seek employment somewhere more deserving of their talents?

Does your handbook include wording as though some of your employees are potential criminals?  If there is an “us” and a “them” in your company and handbook, your culture is broken!

The good news is that it’s never too late to trust yourself and your awesome team with a slimmed-down employee handbook.

A few common areas to consider:

  • Get rid of rules that might link employee time off from work to disciplinary infractions. If an employee needs time off to manage a personal issue, child’s illness for instance, and they don’t have available paid time to cover the absence, then don’t pay them when allowed – but don’t put a black mark in their file.
  • Abolish the policy that requires employees to bring in a printed funeral notice to prove that a family member passed away, allowing them to take bereavement leave. If you can’t trust employees at a time like that, when can you trust them?
  • Let go of policies and practices that allow a salaried employee to work late into the night on a time sensitive project, and then ding their file the next time they are five minutes late to work.
  • Put to rest the policy that doesn’t recognize or value work outside the normal work schedule or location. Smart employers welcome flextime and flex locations, when possible; as do employees.
  • Remember that across the board pay increase policies often communicate to your best employees that they would be foolish to not look for employment where they are measured by their true market value.
  • Lose the micro-managed dress code policy written with item by item detail on what to wear. Don’t insult all your employees to avoid a few awkward follow-ups.

An employee handbook imbued with a “we are all on the same team” style and slimmed down to a more trusting form is sure to empower your team to natural greatness, and make your company a most attractive landing spot for today’s stars!