How to Create an Employee Handbook

As a business owner or HR professional, you have many priorities, like hiring, training, and ensuring operations run smoothly. Your employee handbook can help you perform these tasks by giving employees easy access to the necessary information.

Employee handbooks give all employees clear guidance on your company’s policies, procedures, and expectations. Better yet, an effective employee handbook benefits people at all levels of your organization — from new hires on day one to managers celebrating ten years at the company.

In this article, we’ll explain what an employee handbook is, why it’s important to have one, and what it should include.

We’ll also discuss when to create your employee handbook and provide guidelines to help you get started.

Lastly, we’ll go over the various platforms you can use to create your employee handbook, including Microsoft Word, Google Docs, knowledge management platforms, or specialized employee handbook software like Blissbook.

By the end of this article, you’ll better understand how to create a valuable employee handbook that will benefit your employees and your business.

What is an Employee Handbook?

An employee handbook is a comprehensive document outlining your company’s policies, procedures, and employee expectations. It provides clarity and guidance on all aspects of your business and answers many of the questions employees frequently ask related to their employment.

For a more detailed explanation of an employee handbook, check out this article: What is an Employee Handbook?

What are the Benefits of an Employee Handbook?

Here are some of the key perks to maintaining a thorough, up-to-date employee handbook:

• Communication: Most successful companies have one major thing in common: healthy communication across all channels. Your employee handbook is a great way to hammer home your organization’s mission, vision, value, and goals while simultaneously highlighting the benefits and resources available to employees. An employee handbook sets the bar for how you’ll communicate with employees, instilling confidence that they’ll have the information they need to succeed in their roles.

• Setting Expectations: Whether your employees are new to the team or have been at the company for years, everyone benefits when expectations are clear. Your handbook should establish easy-to-follow policies and procedures for employees, outlining everything from workplace behavior and job responsibilities to ethical conduct. Put things in writing to ensure everyone is on the same page. Then, if misunderstandings or disputes arise, you’ll know where to find the clarification you need: your employee handbook.

• Consistency: The best workplaces treat their employees fairly and equitably. When it comes to employee handbooks, this means consistently applying policies and procedures to all employees. If you handle situations on a case-by-case basis, you’re at risk of playing favorites or being discriminatory — whether intentional or not. An employee handbook incentivizes you to create documentation for how your company does things, making  it easier to treat employees as equals.

• Legal protection: As much as we at Blissbook know employee handbooks can do so much more than protect your company – mitigating legal risk is certainly a benefit. In the rare case, your company ends up on the wrong side of a lawsuit, you’ll have peace of mind knowing your policies and procedures are clearly explained — like those related to equal employment opportunity and harassment, as an example. Your employee handbook should also outline the consequences of violations so everyone understands the potential repercussions.

In short, an employee handbook helps your company facilitate communication between leadership and employees, set employee expectations, adhere to consistent practices, and provide legal protection.

As an added bonus, your employee handbook is a great resource to solidify your company culture. A strong sense of company culture can help your company increase employee engagement and productivity and improve job satisfaction and employee retention rates.

When is the Ideal Time to Create an Employee Handbook?

Next comes the big question: When should your company create an employee handbook? 

There’s not a magic number of employees that triggers the need for an employee handbook at your company. 

Instead, it’s ideal to develop an employee handbook once your business starts to grow and increase its headcount.

At first, you’ll want to start with generalized policies that don’t include too many specifics. 

If you develop a library of detailed policies you’re unable to enforce, you’ll create more confusion and risk than if you’d done nothing at all. So, initially keep your handbook simple. 

Once your company grows and your team has the bandwidth to oversee more formalized policies and procedures, you can expand on your handbook and make it more robust. But, when you start, be sure you set up a sustainable, manageable system.

Also, depending on company size and location, certain policies are required after surpassing minimum employee count thresholds. Here are some geography-specific examples: 

• California employers with 15 or more employees must provide Organ, Bone Marrow, and Blood Donor Leave
• Illinois employers with 50 or more employees must provide leave related to a child’s school activities
• Maine employers with 15 or more employers must follow certain requirements related to sexual harassment training
• New York employers with 10 or more employees must provide Jury Duty Leave
• Oregon employers with 6 or more employees must allow certain time off related to domestic violence 

And the list goes on! 

Employee handbooks aren’t a one-and-done kind of project. Instead, the best employee handbooks are reviewed and updated on a regular basis to ensure adherence to legal updates and organizational changes.

What Should an Employee Handbook Include?

An effective employee handbook should include the following components at a minimum. Your company can decide the best way to organize your content so employees can easily find the information they seek. 

We recommend you put the content you think employees care most about in the beginning. There’s no better way to lose your audience’s attention than to start with boring stuff they don’t care about.

Table of Contents

The table of contents is a quick reference guide to help employees navigate the handbook. It’s helpful in print and electronic settings because it enables employees to browse for their topic of interest quickly. 

Employee handbook software, like Blissbook, can generate this for you automatically.

Make your handbook as intuitive as possible by grouping similar policies and procedures together.

Welcome Statement

Your welcome statement serves as a brief introduction to the company and outlines the purpose of the handbook. Here at Blissbook, we refer to this as “Start with Why” content.

If employees understand why your company exists and are excited to contribute, they’re more likely to read the handbook.

A well-crafted welcome statement creates a positive first impression before diving into the details. Have fun with it!

For a more detailed explanation of a Welcome Letter like this, refer to this article: How to Create a Welcome Statement for an Employee Handbook.

Mission, Vision, and Values

Another great way to Start with Why is by highlighting company culture content, such as your mission, values, vision, purpose, credo, ethos, or whatever you call it. 

Your employees should understand your company’s goals for the future and the values you’ll embrace to get there. 

Again, employees will be more engaged if they understand the company’s motivation — the big “why” — and realize the handbook is more than a list of ways they can get fired. 

In other words, you want your employees to think, “I’m joining a team on a mission with some rules for how they work together successfully.” 

Disclaimer Page

An employee handbook isn’t a contract, and it’s important to include that message in your handbook. Protect your company by stating that you have the right to change policies and procedures at any time. 

Your handbook is more approachable when the disclaimer is at the end. But keep in mind that, in some states like South Carolina, it has to be on the first page. We recommend that you also consult with your company lawyer to ensure that you are compliant with state regulations.

Employment Policies

These policies relate to your commitment to your employees or, in Blissbook terms, how you create “A Workspace for All.”

Example policies include equal employment opportunity, anti-discrimination, and how the company makes accommodations for disabilities and religious reasons.  

Workplace Policies

Workplace policies can also be described as policies related to “Office Life.” 

These typically include details about day-to-day employee behaviors and expectations, such as dress code, attendance, and acceptable use of technology.

Code of Conduct

Your code of conduct and related policies provide additional guidance about employee expectations, but these tend to be more formal. They provide clear expectations for employee conduct, including professional standards and ethical behavior. 

Examples include conflicts of interest, outside employment, and handling confidential information.

Compensation and Performance

Your employee handbook should include information about employee compensation and performance. Compensation policies should cover items like pay periods, timekeeping, overtime, and rest breaks. 

Your performance policies should go over the employee review process, opportunities for promotions, progressive discipline, and the like.

Employee Benefits

It’s also good to showcase the perks of working at your company. This section covers information like health insurance, retirement plans, and tuition reimbursement opportunities.

Time Off and Leaves of Absence

You’ll want to provide employees with easy access to information related to taking time off of work. This includes vacation time, holidays, and other avenues for paid time off. 

Additionally, you’ll want to provide information about sick time and other leaves of absence. Examples include Family and Medical Leave of Absence (FMLA), jury duty, and bereavement leave.

Termination Policies

Toward the end of your handbook, you’ll also want to include termination policies related to resignation, returning company equipment, and the like. 

Employee Handbook Acknowledgement

To better protect your organization from lawsuits and to better prepare for audits, employees should sign an acknowledgment form confirming their receipt of your handbook. You may want to go a step further and include language that has employees attest to reading, understanding, and/or adhering to the policies. 

Blissbook’s electronic signatures functionality makes it easy to collect and track these acknowledgments. 

Guidelines When Creating Your Employee Handbook

When creating your employee handbook, there are several principles to keep in mind:

• Make sure your handbook is clear and concise, avoiding overly technical language or jargon. You want policies to be easily understood and simple to follow.
  • For example, in Blissbook, you can provide a high-level overview of a handbook policy and hide the details behind a “Read More” button, making the entire handbook less overwhelming and easier to read. 
• When possible, start your policies with the “why” behind them. For example, your policy about recording time becomes more appealing to an employee when it starts off like this: “We want to make sure you’re properly paid for all the work you do for us.” Your policy about performance reviews is more enticing if it begins with language about potential promotions or pay raises. 
• Be consistent when creating your policies and procedures. They should be designed in a way that makes them easy to apply fairly and equally to all employees. 
• Proactively develop a process that will help you keep your handbook up to date. This includes revisions to reflect changes in laws, regulations, and company policies.
• Don’t forget to add the fun! Remember this isn’t merely a list of dos and don’ts. In addition to the welcome statement, mission, vision, and values covered earlier, look for other ways to showcase your company culture throughout your employee handbook. Check out our free eBook for more recommendations: How to Write a Culture-First Employee Handbook.

How to Develop Employee Handbook Content

Whether you’re creating your company’s first handbook or revamping an outdated one, keep in mind that companies everywhere have gone through this process. Instead of staring at a blank screen, start with research. 

A good first step is to refamiliarize yourself with the content that already exists within your organization. 

When doing a review of all the information you have, you might realize your website’s hiring page, for example, contains useful language related to equal employment opportunity. 

You might recall a company-wide email or a page on your intranet that clarifies certain topics, like time tracking, working remotely, or what to wear. However, if you can’t find much existing content to repurpose, that’s okay. 

A quick online search about employee handbooks yields countless results, including sample tables of contents, policy examples, and even entire handbooks. 

As you develop the framework for your employee handbook, it’s important to consult with members of your HR department, legal counsel, and industry experts to ensure your outline covers all applicable laws and regulations. 

Here are a few Blissbook resources to help you create the next employee handbook at your company:

• How to Write Policies & Procedures: From team collaboration to technical writing and distribution, this is your complete how-to guide for company policies and procedures. This guide includes stories and expert advice from HR professionals and employment attorneys. All topped off with best practices for creating, championing, and communicating your policies and procedures.
  
• How to Write a Culture-First Employee Handbook: This step-by-step guide provides everything employers need to know about creating a positive and meaningful employee handbook — one you’ll be proud to share with your employees. It compiles research from several books, hundreds of conversations with customers and experts, and years of experience helping companies create, share, and manage culture-first HR policies.

How to Create an Employee Handbook

Now that you know what an employee handbook is, what it should include, and why it’s important to have one, let’s discuss the various ways you can actually create one. 

There are several options available, like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or specialized employee handbook software like Blissbook.

Throughout the creation process, you should request feedback from members of your HR department, legal counsel, and other relevant stakeholders to ensure the document is accurate, comprehensive, and up to date. 

More info on this, including a worksheet of who to talk to and what to talk to them about, is available in our How to Write Policies & Procedures guide.

Creating an Employee Handbook using Word

First, let’s dive into an obvious choice: Microsoft Word. 

Most of the pertinent collaborators will already be familiar with and have access to Word. By using a program most people understand, your contributors can focus more on the content and less on learning a new tool. 

However, Microsoft Word presents challenges because, when it comes time to distribute the employee handbook, you’ll need to develop a thorough process to ensure employees are made aware of handbook changes and, if necessary, signatures are collected. “Plain PDFs on the intranet” are not exactly inspiring to employees, either.

You also run the risk of version control issues if too many people can edit the document — or if you have to save and organize many versions of the document you’re sending around via email.

Creating an Employee Handbook using Google Docs

Google Docs is another popular option for creating an employee handbook. It’s free and accessible from any device with an internet connection. 

Google Docs enables you to collaborate with others in real time, but this can become problematic when it comes to employee handbooks. 

In many cases, your employees will be asked to sign and acknowledge policy updates, and this can be difficult to track if there are multiple editors and an inability to capture signatures electronically. 

You’ll also need to establish a process for granting access to new employees and de-provisioning access after employee separations.

Creating an Employee Handbook using the Intranet, a Wiki, or a Knowledge Management Tool

Additional options for creating your employee handbook include programs like Sharepoint, Slite, Slab, Guru, and more. 

If you’re already using a program like this, you can easily include your handbook alongside other employee-focused content. 

On the other hand, if it’s sitting in a sea of documentation, does it stand out as the most important resource your employees can access?

These platforms are focused on helping organizations create, manage, and share peer-to-peer knowledge, whereas an employee handbook is a top-down communication from a small group of people to a larger audience. 

If this distinction isn’t clear to employees, you can inadvertently trivialize your handbook — making mandatory policies look more like suggestions. 

It can also invite confusion and risk as leaders in different parts of your business may feel empowered to write and share their policies, just like they do with the other content stored on these platforms. 

You should present your employee handbook in a way that conveys its importance and makes it clear that the information comes from an official, trusted source.

Creating an Employee Handbook using Software

Specialized software like Blissbook can streamline the process of creating an employee handbook. Blissbook offers many helpful features, like adding co-editors and content reviewers as collaborators, annotating handbook updates, and collecting electronic signatures. 

Blissbook’s interface is user-friendly and intuitive, making creating a professional and comprehensive employee handbook easy. 

Here are a few examples of what Blissbook looks like.

Easily make edits using a familiar formatting toolbar. This simplifies the handbook editing process, enabling minor changes to be made and published in seconds.

Assign permissions so each collaborator has the appropriate access level. Employee handbooks involve input from a lot of people, which can be overwhelming (and error prone) at times. Permission settings provide peace of mind by ensuring people can perform their relevant tasks — without breaking anything!

Customize your acknowledgment form and easily keep track of who has signed and who needs a reminder email (or set up automated reminders). Instead of sifting through papers and reaching out to employees individually, Blissbook provides a quick snapshot of where you stand and can nudge employees for you. 

Overall, using software like Blissbook can save you time and ensure your employee handbook is thorough, compliant, and up-to-date. If you’re considering moving to a digital employee handbook, schedule a demo with Blissbook today.

“Putting our employee manual online has been a game changer. The ability to connect with employees across 64 worksites and provide searchable, attractive, and easy-to-use content on a mobile-friendly platform like Blissbook is a great advantage. I highly recommend.”

Kim Scott, VP Human Resources at Caspers

Final Thoughts

Creating an employee handbook can be a daunting task, but it’s an essential one for any business. 

In this article, we’ve discussed what an employee handbook is, the benefits of having one, when to create it, what it should include, and some guidelines for creating it. 

We also explored various ways to create an employee handbook, including using Word, Google Docs, a knowledge management platform, or software like Blissbook. 

By using a tool like Blissbook, you can protect your company without taking away from the people-first culture you’re trying to build. Ready to create an online employee handbook? Try Blissbook or request a demo today.