(Disclaimer: This article is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice.)
Your employee handbook should serve as a reference guide for policies and procedures, an overview of your company culture, and protection for your business. However, a poorly written employee handbook can do just the opposite – creating confusion for both managers and employees, implementing ineffective policies, and putting your business at risk.
The good news? Avoiding employee handbook mistakes doesn’t have to be difficult. Simply by knowing the most common mistakes businesses make when it comes to their employee handbook, you’ll be well on your way to creating an effective employee handbook for your organization.
Here are 7 employee handbook mistakes to avoid, including examples and ways to fix them.
1. Relying Heavily on Generic Templates
Many employee handbook mistakes occur when a business owner or HR manager pulls up an employee handbook template online and doesn’t think too hard about customizing it.
Employee handbook templates can be a helpful resource to get you started, but they shouldn’t be considered the finished product. Some policies in a generic employee handbook template might not apply to your organization, important policies for your state might be missing, and the handbook likely won’t capture your company culture.
For example, say you own a restaurant business. You wouldn’t want to implement policies about remote work from an employee handbook written for a tech startup. Or, say you own a tech startup. Policies about dress code from an employee handbook written for a finance company probably aren’t going to work.
Using an employee handbook template that doesn’t make sense for your organization is a common employee handbook mistake because it can lead to ineffective policies and procedures that managers and employees struggle to follow. Plus, it means managers and HR professionals likely will have to go back and make a lot of revisions, which can be time-consuming.
To avoid this employee handbook mistake, think of your template as a starting point, not the finished product. Go through each section of your employee handbook template and ask yourself questions like:
- Does this policy apply to my organization?
- Is this policy required in my state?
- Will this policy mesh well with my managers?
- Will this policy help or hinder my managers in their roles?
- Is this policy enforceable in my workplace?
- Will employees understand this policy?
For example, say you own a brick-and-mortar retail business. An employee handbook for a tech startup might include policies about:
- Flexible working hours
- Unlimited PTO
- Remote work
While these policies may be nice to have, they likely won’t work in your retail business where you have to ensure adequate staffing levels, breaks, and customer coverage. Implementing these policies would likely cause confusion for managers and employees. Plus, HR professionals would likely have to revise the employee handbook later to remove these policies.
Learn more about customizing your employee handbook.
2. Leaving Out Important Legal Disclaimers
Including important legal disclaimers in your employee handbook is critical for protecting your business from unnecessary risk.
For example, in states where at-will employment applies, an at-will employment statement in your employee handbook can help ensure managers and employees understand the at-will employment relationship. Note, however, that you’ll want to tailor this language to reflect any applicable state protections and agreements.
Similarly, it’s a good idea to include language in your employee handbook making it clear that your employee handbook does not constitute an employment contract (if that’s the case) and that your company reserves the right to change, alter, discontinue, or amend policies (subject to applicable law and agreements). Including this language can help protect your business from employees claiming that you promised them certain benefits, terms, or procedures would always be available to them.
When including legal disclaimers in your employee handbook, it’s important to make sure the language is consistent throughout the document. For example, if you include an at-will employment statement in your employee handbook, make sure other policies and procedures aren’t inconsistent with this statement. Otherwise, managers and employees might be confused, and a court might not uphold your at-will employment statement.
When reviewing your employee handbook, read through the entire document, paying attention to any statements that might be construed as promises or guarantees. If necessary, revise language to be more flexible.
3. Letting the Handbook Become Outdated
Even if you avoid the employee handbook mistakes above and implement a well-written employee handbook, it’s still important to periodically review the document to make sure it’s still relevant and accurate. This is especially true if there have been significant changes to your organization in the time since you last made updates (e.g., changes in operations, management, etc.).
If you don’t update your employee handbook on a regular basis, you run the risk of it including inaccurate information (e.g., policies and procedures you no longer follow) and being out of compliance with state and federal laws.
To avoid this employee handbook mistake, treat your employee handbook as a living document. At minimum, it’s a good idea to review your employee handbook once a year to make any necessary updates.
4. Enforcing Policies Inconsistently
No matter how great of an employee handbook you implement, it will be rendered ineffective if policies and procedures aren’t consistently enforced.
Saying one thing and doing another can breed confusion and resentment among employees. Plus, it can put your business at risk. For example, say you have an attendance policy in your employee handbook, and you discipline an employee for violating it. If the employee can demonstrate that other employees violated the attendance policy and weren’t disciplined, it could be more difficult for you to defend disciplining the employee (even if there was a reason for singling out the employee).
This doesn’t mean there can’t ever be exceptions. For example, say you have an attendance policy in your employee handbook, but you give one employee a more flexible schedule. As long as there’s a legitimate reason for deviating from the policy (e.g., the employee requested and you granted a temporary accommodation; the employee is dealing with a documented personal or family emergency; you had a temporary business need, etc.) and you document the exception, you’ll have a record of why the exception was made. Just keep in mind that you should strive to apply similar logic in similar situations.
If you want to avoid this employee handbook mistake, train managers not only on policies and procedures included in your employee handbook, but also on enforcing them. Walk managers through your employee handbook and discuss:
- The purpose of each policy and procedure
- How to consistently enforce each policy and procedure
- When they should seek input or guidance from HR
- How to document policy/procedure exceptions and enforcement actions
5. Making the Handbook Too Complicated
Avoid making your employee handbook overly complicated or convoluted. Yes, you should include information in your employee handbook to comply with applicable state and federal laws. However, you don’t want to bog your employee handbook down with unnecessary information and legalese that makes it difficult for managers and employees to understand and use the resource.
For example, instead of including a policy like this in your employee handbook:
Employees shall refrain from engaging in unauthorized dissemination of proprietary, confidential, or otherwise protected company information through electronic, verbal, written, or digital means.
Consider including language like this:
Employees may not share confidential client information, trade secrets, or other people’s sensitive personal data without authorization. This policy does not restrict legally protected discussions about pay or working conditions, or other protected activity.
Not only is the latter option easier to understand, but it’s also more specific, making it easier for employees to adhere to the policy.
6. Missing Essential Policies
An employee handbook should include essential policies and procedures employees need to know about their rights, responsibilities, and expectations at work.
Important policies may include:
- Equal employment opportunity and anti-discrimination
- Anti-harassment and reporting procedures
- Workplace safety
- Timekeeping and attendance
- Wages, overtime, and (when applicable) meal and rest breaks
- Leave and accommodation
- Employee conduct and expected workplace behavior
- Acceptable use of technology, cybersecurity, and data protection
- Remote and hybrid work, if applicable
- AI use and approval, if applicable
- Social media
- Confidentiality
- Discipline and complaint procedures
An employee handbook can’t cover every situation, and shouldn’t try to. But make sure it includes policies that are important to your business and industry, applicable to your employees, and required by law. For more information, check employee handbook requirements by state for each state where you have employees.
Example: Let’s say one of your employees posts a picture to social media. In the background of the picture, they inadvertently include a computer screen showing confidential client information. Without policies addressing confidentiality, data protection, and social media use, it could be harder to appropriately address the situation. Policies in an employee handbook let you establish expectations up front, and provide guidance to managers if or when an issue arises.
7. Forgetting Employee Acknowledgment
Having policies in your employee handbook isn’t enough, you also need to make sure employees:
- Receive the handbook
- Are aware of its policies/procedures
- Understand it’s their responsibility to read and abide by company policies/procedures
That’s where an employee handbook acknowledgment comes in. An employee handbook acknowledgment is a signed document from the employee indicating they received your employee handbook. For remote and/or distributed teams, consider a digital acknowledgment system. Just make sure you’re able to track and store acknowledgments. Store signed acknowledgments in employee files, and remember to obtain updated acknowledgments if or when significant changes are made to your handbook.
Tip: If an employee refuses to sign an acknowledgment form, make sure you have a way to note/document delivery of the handbook. Not having a signed acknowledgment on file doesn’t mean you don’t have any way to prove an employee received your handbook.
What These Mistakes Look Like in Real Life
It’s easy to brush handbook mistakes, such as missing or outdated policies and failure to obtain employee handbook acknowledgments, off as insignificant. But seemingly innocuous handbook mistakes can snowball and lead to bigger problems down the road.
For example:
- Let’s say you had 20 employees and implemented a basic employee handbook. Five years later, you now have 200 employees in three states. Chances are your original employee handbook no longer adequately accounts for your company’s size, employee locations, and the way work is now getting done.
- You have a solid attendance policy. But one manager consistently enforces it (completely documenting tardiness) while another ignores tardiness. Employees may end up confused or frustrated when attendance consequences are meted out, since the policy wasn’t being consistently enforced.
- Your company has a robust employee handbook. But it doesn’t have employee handbook acknowledgments on file for all employees. Later, when an employee contests their termination for allegedly violating a company policy, it may be difficult to prove the employee received the handbook without acknowledgments or other records of handbook distribution.
How to Build a Better Employee Handbook
Instead of thinking of your employee handbook as an afterthought or just another HR task to check off the list, flip your mindset and consider your employee handbook as a critical employee communication tool.
A robust employee handbook will:
- Accurately portray your company’s policies and practices
- Use clear, concise language
- Outline all legally-mandated and critical-to-business policies
- Exclude policies/promises you have no intention of honoring
- Incorporate examples where appropriate
- Undergo periodic review or updates
- Be consistently enforced (by properly-trained managers)
- Accompany a process for obtaining and storing employee handbook acknowledgments
Remember: An employee handbook that’s legally-sound but difficult to decipher isn’t employee-friendly. And an employee handbook that’s employee-friendly but not legally-compliant can get your company in hot water. Strive to achieve the best of both, an employee handbook that protects your business and your employees.
Avoid Employee Handbook Mistakes with Handbooks.io
Your employee handbook shouldn’t collect digital or actual dust on your employee’s computer or in an onboarding portal. It should be a practical, accessible resource your employees and managers can and will confidently turn to time and time again.
Handbooks.io makes it easier for you to build and maintain a comprehensive, clear-cut employee handbook that truly reflects your company’s unique policies/practices and promotes better decision-making. Say goodbye to legalese-laden, out-of-date employee handbook templates.
Ready to create an employee handbook employees will actually read and trust? Get started with Handbooks.io!
Already have an employee handbook? Check out our employee handbook update service.
An effective employee handbook helps you avoid these mistakes and lays the groundwork for a stronger business.