Shownotes
Employee Handbook Self-Audit
Introduction
Most employment relations experts agree that employee handbooks are an essential part, if not the foundation, of effective human resources (HR) management and positive employee relations. Handbooks can also play a critical role in demonstrating employment law compliance. Properly used, employee handbooks:
- Communicate policies and procedures.
- Play a key role in the orientation process for new employees.
- Serve as a valuable employee relations vehicle for educating current and prospective employees.
- Contribute to uniform and consistent application, interpretation, and enforcement of company policies.
- Protect against claims of improper employer conduct.
While carefully drafted employee handbooks can be an important part of employee relations media, handbooks that are unskillfully or improperly drafted can create organizational and legal headaches. Courts increasingly view employee handbooks as binding contracts subject to judicial enforcement. Accordingly, employers must carefully review every policy and procedure contained in a handbook to minimize potential contract claims and be prepared to update them periodically. The questions in this self-audit are designed to determine whether a handbook:
- Includes positive employee relations provisions that will improve employee morale and create a positive image of an organization.
- Educates employees regarding an organization’s origin, history, and employee relations philosophy.
- Provides a mechanism for two-way communications.
- Contains the necessary protective language to minimize the threat of litigation and/or employee complaints to governmental agencies.
Handbooks that are properly drafted and tailored to an organization’s needs can serve as the cornerstone of human resource management. However, improperly drafted, they can be a disruption that causes serious harm to the future well being of an organization. The questions that follow are designed to help an employer highlight the positive and negative features of an employee handbook.
Questions