Someone\u2019s got to be in charge of curating your handbook. That person doesn\u2019t need to write everything, but they need to own the product. If nobody specific is in charge, updates become lax (#notmyresponsibility), voice\/tone lack cohesion, and policies end up housed and distributed in separate places, making them difficult for employees to find. Although it might sound appealing to have different departments own their respective content, you\u2019ll find that this results in a hodgepodge of conflicting policies that quickly become outdated without a true content manager (*cough* lawsuit waiting to happen *cough*).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Customer quote: \u201cWhen I became head of the HR unit, I thought from a process point of view it would be easier to have separate policies on the intranet by department, each \u2018owned and kept current\u2019 by the various departments. After a number of years, this is not working! Policies remain out of date, they are scattered all over the intranet, and no-one reads them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n2. Don\u2019t: Fail to Consider How You\u2019ll Distribute the Handbook<\/strong> 3. Don\u2019t: Allot Insufficient Time for Stakeholder Review<\/strong> 4. Don\u2019t: Leave Out Your Culture and Personality<\/strong> Consider including interesting facts about the company and its leadership, how and why the company was founded, and its driving mission and values. If you can find ways to incorporate some pizzazz, you\u2019re likely to garner more reader attention, which will make the entire project more worthwhile. If you\u2019re ready to make your handbook digital, branding, graphics, video, and interactivity will go a long way in achieving that holy grail: employees who\u2019ve read your handbook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. Don\u2019t: Forget the Handbook is a Living Document<\/strong> For example, if your handbook has multiple versions or is spread across too many files, it can easily become an unorganized mess. Editors won\u2019t know if they\u2019re looking at the latest version, so it can be exceptionally hard to ensure that everyone is updating and accessing the proper content. More importantly, employees will struggle to know if what they\u2019re reading is accurate, which can open employers up to a slew of liability concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s also important to consider your chosen medium and how it will affect the editing process. If you use PDFs with design elements and custom layouts (think InDesign), editing can become a beast. Though it\u2019s great to create an aesthetically pleasing product that goes above and beyond the typical 60-page, black-text-on-white-paper approach, you will find yourself in the throes of an unsustainable editing process. If text changes lead to layout and image adjustments, editing will quickly lose its appeal. Simple, five-minute edits turn into five-week ordeals when they require coordination with a third-party file creator, and, eventually, you\u2019ll just stop making edits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Creating a new handbook or overhauling your existing one is a big undertaking, but it can be simplified by proactively dodging these common handbook hang-ups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whether or not this is your first rodeo, creating or overhauling an employee handbook is a big project. If you know the traps you might encounter along the way, you can devise a plan to avoid them. These five pieces of advice will help you steer clear of common pitfalls during your next handbook project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,32,4,23,25,5,47,57,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blissbook-updates","category-change-management","category-company-culture","category-cya","category-employee-handbooks","category-engagement","category-handbook-content","category-hr-resources","category-policy-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blissbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blissbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blissbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blissbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blissbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1586"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blissbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2545,"href":"https:\/\/blissbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1586\/revisions\/2545"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blissbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blissbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blissbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blissbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
As you\u2019re developing your handbook, it\u2019s easy to forget about a biggie: how you\u2019ll share it with employees. Don\u2019t wait until your new handbook is done and say, \u201cNow what?\u201d Instead, research and choose your distribution method early in case it affects what content you\u2019ll include or how you\u2019ll present it. For example, if you\u2019re going digital, you might opt to incorporate videos or other design elements, which often requires greater lead time and coordination with marketing. Or, if you\u2019re using Blissbook, you\u2019ll have the ability to hide policy content behind a \u201cread more\u201d button, which may change how you organize your content. By considering your medium at the start of the project, you can improve your end product and the chances that employees will actually read it. Boom!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a minimum, your legal team and CEO will want to review and approve your handbook content before it\u2019s distributed to employees. Others may want in on the action, too \u2013 like your head of marketing, HR leaders in other locations, and more. If done thoroughly, it will take weeks or months to receive and reconcile feedback from all parties. Give yourself plenty of time to evaluate the feedback and incorporate the requested changes. You\u2019ll be happy you did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even want to look at it, and, if I<\/em> don\u2019t, our employees definitely don\u2019t want to. We put a lot of time and energy into it, and I want it to be used.\u201d Does this sound like you? \u201cFun\u201d probably isn\u2019t the first word that comes to mind when you think about an employee handbook. However, your handbook can become more than simply a means to communicate policies and procedures; it can give a glimpse into your company\u2019s culture. Aim to make your handbook appealing enough that it\u2019s reasonable to ask an employee to actually read through it \u2013 maybe not every word, but most of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even if you create the most amazing and accurate handbook in the history of handbooks, it will inevitably require updates. While you\u2019re in the midst of creation, it\u2019s important to plan for the unavoidable editing process. If you create a system that enables easy updating, you\u2019ll be thankful down the road. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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