How To Create An Employee Handbook
TL;DR
To create an employee handbook, you should start by defining your purpose, gathering policies, and choosing a structure that makes sense before designing it for engagement while keeping it on brand. Employee handbook tools like AirMason can help you create a powerful employee handbook that keeps your workforce informed, compliant, and aligned to your culture.
Table of Contents
What Makes A Great Employee Handbook?
What To Include In Your Employee Handbook
Why Should You Use An Employee Handbook Tool?
You know your company’s mission. You know the responsibilities your employees must shoulder. And you probably think you’ve set expectations. Or maybe you haven’t.
Either way, your employees need clarity, and you need to set your policies straight to keep your organization compliant. That's where an employee handbook comes in: to help you shape the culture of your organization, ensure compliance, and keep your team aligned. Do it right, and your handbook becomes a roadmap to engagement, accountability, and efficiency. Do it wrong, or skip it entirely, and you’re leaving your company exposed to legal liability, miscommunication, and disengaged employees.
The good news is, creating a handbook that works is extremely easy, provided you follow the right steps. In this guide, we're showing you exactly how to create an employee handbook plus a powerful tool you can use to automate the entire process.
What Makes A Great Employee Handbook?
A good handbook tells people what to do. But a great handbook serves as a powerful internal communications tool that guides behaviour, protects the business, and actually gets read.
Here’s what separates the two:
- Simple, human language, so your team won't need a lawyer to decode it.
- Clear policies that are spelled out, not implied.
- Consistent tone and branding.
- Easy to update so you can change policies as they evolve.
- Digital, searchable access so people find the information they need fast.
- Acknowledgement tracking so you’re covered when someone claims ignorance.
- Mobile-friendly formatting to accommodate mobile-first users.
What To Include In Your Employee Handbook
Welcome Message
One of the best ways to make your employees feel connected to your organisation is telling them the story behind it and the people driving its direction. In fact, according to The Business Model Analyst, powerful onboarding experiences can improve new hire productivity way over 70% and retention by 82%. Therefore, it's always good practice to include a welcome message from the higher offices, show the faces of C-suite executives and share your mission and vision.
To drive the most impact, we recommend you turn it into an employee experience platform complete with videos, images and more so you can resonate with your employees.
Workplace Policies
Workplace policies set the tone and culture of your work environment, and according to the Polyglot Group, they are the link between your organization's operations, vision and values. Therefore, both new hires and long-time employees will need to refer to them from time to time.
Make sure your paperless HR policies include confidentiality and data-protection rules, anti-harassment and violence policies, health and safety protocols (especially for remote or hazardous work), and mental-well-being guidelines.
Code of Conduct
Employee misconduct is by far one of the trickiest areas HR departments have to navigate, and Employment Hero agrees. Therefore, it is always good practice to explain how employees should act day-to-day. Dress code, cyber-security, conflicts of interest, relationships at work, and solicitation policies all belong here.
Compensation & Development
Letting employees know how they’re paid, what their schedule is, how performance reviews work, and what training or development opportunities exist, doesn’t just keep them informed – it goes a long way in ensuring fairness and alignment with organizational goals, according to Qureos, and adding it simply shows your team that you value them.
Benefits & Perks
Never assume your team knows all the perks. In fact, Savvi Financial states that 3 out of 10 employees admit that they don't fully understand their benefits. So, make sure you put everything in easy-to-understand writing, from wellness programs and equipment usage to remote-work options, expense policies, company car or parking benefits, and more.
Working Hours, PTO & Vacation
One of the most common sources of confusion when it comes to company policies is how much time off people have, how to request it, and how far in advance one should request it. So, make sure it's highlighted clearly, and don't forget to mention overtime, sick leaves, parental leaves, holidays, jury duty, bereavement leave, voting leave and remote work allowance.
Employee Resignation & Termination
Resignations and terminations can get really messy. So, even though it’s the last place you want to live, your handbook should include how you handle resignations, terminations, notice periods, severance, and returning equipment. Trust us, being transparent will help you avoid misunderstandings in the future.
How To Create An Employee Handbook Step-By-Step
1. Define Your Purpose
Before you even decide what should go in your handbook or how to write an employee handbook, take time to ask yourself why you need to create it. Is it to simplify onboarding? Perhaps you want to ensure legal compliance or reinforce your culture. Either way, knowing the reason behind why you're creating it makes it easy for you to decide on the tone, content, and visual elements you want to use.
That said, keep in mind that a handbook made only to please auditors reads differently from one made to inspire employees.
2. Gather Your Policies And Legal Requirements
Take a look at the policies you already have and decide whether you want to add new ones altogether. And to make sure you don't leave anything out or compromise on compliance, it's always a great idea to have human resources, legal, and department heads involved. Operating across multiple locations? Make sure you double-check employment laws in every region so you’re never caught off guard.
3. Choose A Structure That Makes Sense
Don't be afraid to make your handbook more engaging. That means breaking it down into logical sections for readability and sticking to simple language. You can also incorporate different formatting options, such as headings and bullet points, to make it easier to go through and find what you need quicker.
4. Keep It On-Brand
Your handbook should sound like your company. Therefore, if your culture is relaxed, keep the language conversational, and if you’re more corporate, a crisp and professional tone will do the trick. Moreover, make sure you stick to your brand guidelines when designing it so everything looks and feels cohesive.
5. Design For Engagement
Go the extra mile by making your employee handbook visually appealing, interactive, and accessible on any device. That means including images, videos, and links to make content more visually appealing. After all, no matter how much we may want to deny it, people do judge a book by its cover, and if you want to be taken seriously, it is wise to ensure all aspects of your employee handbook look professional and engaging.
6. Collect Feedback Before You Launch
Once your draft is ready, you may want to share it with everyone involved to make sure everything was done right. We also recommend sharing it with a few trusted employees for feedback. That way, it will be much easier for you to see what could be written better, any gaps you missed, and more from the perspective of the people you're actually creating the employee handbook for.
7. Launch, Track, And Update
Policies evolve all the time, laws change, and your culture grows as you do. So, make your employee handbook a living document that grows with you.
With software like AirMason, you can instantly publish updates, track acknowledgments, and even use analytics to see which sections employees actually read and which ones they ignore. That’s how you keep everyone aligned and compliant year-round.
Why Should You Use An Employee Handbook Tool?
Between formatting, tracking updates, collecting acknowledgments, and making sure everything stays compliant, HR teams can quickly find themselves buried in documents and emails. A good employee handbook platform automates the tedious stuff, helps you stay audit-ready, and gives your employees a digital hub they can actually use.
AirMason offers a complete ecosystem designed to make your employee communications clear, compliant, and engaging for your employees, whether you’re onboarding new hires, updating policies, or managing version control across teams.
Here's what it offers:
- Drag and drop interactive handbook builder that supports rich media, branding and responsive design.
- Common pages system that allows you to use reusable content blocks, and auto-update across all documents.
- Full handbook versioning history, restore points and instant publishing of policy changes.
- Automated policy updates powered by AI to suggest and apply changes.
- Digital signatures and acknowledgement tracking to collect, remind and report on employee signatures.
- Role-based access to editing, change tracking, and approval workflows.
- Employee sync and HRIS/SSO integrations such as BambooHR, ADP, Okta, Google, etc.
- Automated distribution and notifications so you can keep staff updated.
- Analytics and reporting to help you track engagement, views and signatures.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an employee handbook?
An employee handbook is a comprehensive guide that details company information including the vision, mission, policies, values, and important HR-related procedures.
Why should I create an employee handbook?
It prevents confusion by communicating your values and expectations – so employees don’t have to guess what acceptable looks like – while protecting your business legally.
What is the best employee handbook software?
AirMason is the best employee handbook software in the market, and it is trusted by many leading companies worldwide. It provides the simplest user interface, allowing HR experts to make and manage handbooks without a steep learning curve.
How often should I update my employee handbook?
At least once a year or whenever there’s a major legal, procedural, or cultural change.
How do I notify employees of policy changes?
AirMason automatically distributes your updates, notifies employees, and tracks who’s viewed and acknowledged them, simplifying HR document management as a result.
Can I revert to prior versions of my handbook?
Yes. AirMason offers full version history with restore points, so you can roll back to earlier versions of your handbook at any time.
To Conclude
Knowing how to write an employee handbook is the easy part. Putting everything together is what's hard. Luckily, employee handbook platforms like AirMason make all the difference by taking the headache out of handbook creation and management and making it a frictionless process, powered by intelligence.
So, if you’re serious about improving employee experience, protecting your business, and simplifying HR operations, start with AirMason. Give it a try for free.
REFERENCES
The Business Model Analyst. (n.d.). 80 welcome to the team messages for new employees. https://businessmodelanalyst.com
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The Polyglot Group. (n.d.). 5 reasons why policies & procedures are crucial for businesses. https://www.thepolyglotgroup.com
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Employment Hero. (n.d.). Employee code of conduct: What is it and why is it important? https://employmenthero.com
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Qureos. (n.d.). Top AI recruitment software in UAE & Middle East. https://www.qureos.com
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Savvi Financial. (n.d.). The real cost of confusion: How benefits misunderstanding undermines employer ROI. https://www.savvifi.com