Starting and running a small business can be an exhilarating challenge—a dream come true laced with a never-ending to-do list. Amid the excitement and the chaos, the structural elements of running a business can fall to the wayside in favor of the hustle necessary to get things off the ground.
That’s why important business tools like employee handbooks are often overlooked until there’s a pressing need.
Perhaps your business is so successful that it’s been rapidly growing, but now you have dozens of new employees trying to understand unwritten rules and norms around everything, from taking time off to promotion possibilities.
Luckily, early in the new year is a great time to introduce changes like the launch of a new employee handbook.
What is an employee handbook?
Sometimes called employee manuals, an employee handbook is designed to be a one-stop shop for all company information. Got policies and procedures for PTO, volunteer time off, or even sabbaticals? What about all of the in’s and out’s of employee benefits like health benefits, commuter benefits, office perks and more? An employee handbook is the place to centralize that information in one easy to access location.
Employee handbooks can be physical, digital, or (ideally) both. Once you have one written up, the best practice is to provide all of your new hires with it on their first day. Think back to the last time you started a new job—there was at least some confusion, wasn’t there? By offering an employee handbook to new and existing hires, you can help cut the confusion and create consistency across the company.
Why do small businesses have employee handbooks?
It can be tempting to see official documents like employee handbooks as stuffy corporate paperwork that small businesses don’t have to deal with. While that can be true for some of the bureaucracy that comes with large businesses, there are good reasons for even the smallest businesses to spend time compiling an employee handbook.
Small businesses are often (if not always!) growing and changing. An employee handbook (especially a digital one) allows for efficient and effective change management. As new policies and procedures are added and edited, employees can rest assured that they know where to consistently turn for up-to-date information.
Keeping all of your business’ pertinent information in one place helps reduce inconsistencies between teams and across the company. If one manager has a freewheeling approach to PTO while another opts for a more rigid take, resentment can start to build. Keeping things consistent and accurately updated in an employee handbook can help keep things equitable and predictable for all of your employees, which can be a boon to employee happiness and satisfaction (two major factors for talent retention).
What to include in an employee handbook
Convinced you need an employee handbook but not sure where to start? Here are the main pieces to cover:
Starting from scratch can be hard. Luckily, many businesses before you have compiled employee handbooks which means there’s plenty of examples to draw from. Some of our favorites include the Small Business Administration’s Model Employee Handbook for Small Businesses, Workable’s example employee handbook, and FormSwift’s employee handbook generator.
Now that you’re armed with examples, go forth and prosper!