Employee Handbooks

Employee Handbooks expert: Malcolm Martin

Malcolm Martin is the Managing Director of Employee Solutions Ltd, co-author of the best seller Personnel Practice, and the Employment Law Pocketbook and his company is supported by links with Lancaster University.

Contact Malcolm Martin.

How to Write Them

by Malcolm Martin

This series of articles explains how to develop employee handbooks and other documentation you need when you employ someone. In particular, these articles discuss:

the benefits of having well-written employee handbooks
how to establish employee contracts
how to produce employee handbooks

Benefits

Well-written employee handbooks have a number of benefits, including:

Recruiting the best staff
Improved performance
Legal Compliance

There is more discussion of these topics in the article benefits of employee handbooks

Written particulars

These are a starting point, and often referred to as "Contracts of employment". But in practice it is the agreement between two parties, even a handshake perhaps, that is the contract itself.

There are guidelines on how to produce such written particular in the article on employee contracts.

Employee Handbooks

There are many aspects of the employment relationship where the employee does not need to be provided with written material. Such aspects merely need to be "reasonably accessible".

Employee handbooks are a practical way of providing such information. They can be just a single document held in some place accessible to the employee, such as the personnel office. That at least ensures there is only one up-to-date copy.

However, at the extreme this may not be adequate (the employee might argue they were intimidated by going into an office) so it is better practice to provide every employee with a copy or to make it accessible on an intranet or via the internet.

There is another article that describes how to produce employee handbooks.

Finally

The time and care put into written particulars and employee handbooks will be repaid many times. Don't be put off by the task.

There are also ways of reducing its size. Employer Solutions can provide expertise to lessen the burden and, with our online solution, we might save you more in printing costs than you pay for our professional advice. If you need more information please contact Malcolm Martin.

The technical aspects of these notes are for general guidance only.