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Employee Handbooks Make Sense For Small Employers
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Article 7: Get Help Writing Your Employee Handbook
Employee handbooks are critical to business success. But who wants to be bothered putting one together? Researching and writing a handbook from scratch requires many hours of work.
Take heart. Help is at hand in the form of pre-written handbooks available at minimal cost on the Internet or in published books and software programs.
“You can buy off-the-shelf employee handbook programs for $100 to $300 or so,” says John Rico, director of human resources for National PEO, a professional employer organization with offices in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Boca Raton, Fla. “These low-cost options are good if you want a generalized handbook.”
Unfortunately, a generic handbook can’t address your company’s vision or mission or culture, points out Rico. For that you may hire an outside human resources consultant who will interview you and make sure your policies reflect the environment you want to convey to employees.
Prices for such work can vary widely.
Rico points out, though, that a firm such as his will often write a handbook at a reduced rate to land a new client for future work. Rico’s firm will often write a customized handbook for less than $400.
Rico also cautions that because off-the-shelf handbooks are generic, they may contain sections that violate your state’s laws or department of labor regulations. That’s why it’s so important to run your handbook by legal counsel before you go to press.
“Packaged handbooks can be a starting point for your own work,” says Katherine E. Bierma Pregel, an associate with the Washington, D.C., office of Littler Mendelson, the nation’s largest labor and employment law firm. “You can pick and choose the policies that apply to your business and then have a legal review performed by an attorney.”
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