Employees join companies with their own unique backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.
These differences also include the way they communicate in a workplace, the way they deliver, and the policies that they believe in. It can get very difficult to talk to a team of 30 or say 100 people and get them on board with the company’s ideas and ways.
5 Things Employee Handbook Takes Care Of For You
This is where the employee handbook comes to the rescue of the company and HR Managers!
With an employee handbook, you can set the expectations, help employees blend in, and also save the company the hassle of going through lawsuits.
Here are five things that the employee handbook takes care of for you:
1. Frequently Asked Questions
A well-written employee handbook helps get employee’s commonly asked questions addressed as precisely as possible.
These questions include things like how many holidays, what are the procedures to get one, advance salary and can I bring my dog to work, etc.
While some employee handbooks come with pre-written FAQs, you can always customize this section to cater to the questions which you think are relevant to your company.
Creating an employee HR manual that is thorough and easy to understand saves the employee from going to HR again and again with all their questions and also helps the company keep everyone on the same page.
It also advises employees on whom to contact for what and have access to clear accessible information at all times.
2. Communicate Policies
Every company has several policies for several things in place and it increases as the size and the scope of the company increases.
To communicate all of them in the first 30 minutes of orientation is not only overwhelming for the new recruit but also difficult for the employer to pull off.
The handbook helps the company communicate their policies clearly in written form to each and everyone in the same manner and having a copy at hand helps the new person check policies every now and then as they please.
3. Culture, Mission & Vision
The new recruit comes into the organization with their understanding of how a company works, whether it’s too corporate or is it casual work family-style etc.
The employee handbook, especially the way it’s written, tells the employee about the company culture, how the company expects them to behave and what they should expect in return.
The design and writing style plays a vital role in speaking on behalf of the culture of the company and helps the employee blend in quickly.
4. Growth/ Promotion Criteria
The first question people usually ask around is about the promotional criteria of a company, the performance measurement, or the appraisal criteria of the company.
While it’s true that it’s different for everyone since all the departments are different and working styles are different, the inclusion of these criteria helps employees have a road map of what their responsibilities are and how they can achieve their career goals.
This not only helps the company evaluate employees consistently but also helps the employees know their appraisal criteria to perform better
5. Employee Onboarding Becomes Easier
Documenting every process in the employee handbook although a very tedious task helps make the onboarding and training procedure of employees much easier.
This allows the new employees to start bringing in revenue for the company much quicker. Also, the senior person training the staff takes less time and ultimately saves the company money and the new recruit confusion about their role.
All in all, having an employee handbook that is well written and designed is always better than not having one to create a healthy workplace.
Keeping everyone from CEO to tech department to people in the customer service all accountable and getting rewards on the same criteria creating harmony among people working together.
