Writing employee handbooks is hard. Making employees interested and excited to hear about your employee policies is even harder!
There are hundreds of policies to remember — walls of text that are hard to read and so much suffocating legalese that new hires won’t even make it past the second page. Your handbook needs to stand out just as much as your company does! We’re here to help — Airmason has put together the top 10 employee policies that you need to include in your employee handbook.
Companies with a strong onboarding process improve employee productivity by 70%! Your employee handbook is the first step to developing an excellent onboarding process and boosting employee engagement.
The number one thing that your employees want to see is a company handbook that has all the essential employee policies they need to know. While there may be many policies you need to include, let’s cover the 10 best employee policies that you just can’t miss!
Employee Policy #1 – Code of Conduct
Each company has its own rules and procedures that employees need to keep in mind. That’s why at the very top of our list we’ve included your code of conduct!
A code of conduct can be quite multifaceted and made up of many policies. Here are some of the most important parts of your code of conduct to include:
- Dress code (employee uniform if applicable)
- Workplace safety protocols
- Work meeting protocols
- Code of ethics
While the code of conduct is essential for your employees to have access to for their own sake, it is equally as important to have this policy for your organization. Setting employee expectations early on can reduce or even fully eliminate confusion and only boosts the chances of employees succeeding in achieving the goals they set out for themselves. After all, happy employees lead to higher productivity, and what company doesn’t want that?
Employee Policy #2 – Benefits
Another essential employee policy for your company handbook is a list of all of the benefits you offer and how to access them! Benefits such as health insurance, retirement packages, flexible work schedules and beyond need to be properly documented.
This section will without a doubt be one of your employees’ largest points of interest. Because of that, assuring it has a place in your handbook is incredibly important. Simply put, think of all the questions you would want to be answered as a new hire and don’t hesitate to include them. If you find yourself struggling — Airmason can help figure out the right questions that need answering with our copywriting services.
Employee Policy #3 – Compensation
The number one question — money. Whether it’s hourly, salaried or commission-based, your employees will want to know how they’re getting paid. Employee policies to include such as payment schedules and a breakdown of deductions are some examples of what would be expected in this section.
In addition, information regarding raises or promotions would also be a valuable employee policy to include.
Employee Policy #4 – Company Story
Your company is unique and has had an interesting journey so far! How about sharing that with your employees? This employee policy helps build employee engagement instantly, making your employees feel that they’re part of the team right from the start and that they have meaning within the organization.
Seamless integration from “employee” to team member is essential for successful onboarding. A whopping 54% of companies with onboarding programs reported higher employee engagement. Aspects such as company history, mission statement, current values or future goals are just some examples to include as employee policies!
Employee Policy #5 – Electronic Signature
It takes a lot of time and effort to write a fantastic employee handbook — you want to make sure your employees took the time to read and understand everything! There are many ways to achieve this, but one easy employee policy that will fix this is implementing an electronic signature.
AirMason has this feature built into the platform! AirMason helps make sure that each employee who reads your handbook understands every section while remaining engaged, while also allowing you to see their time spent reading the handbook.
Employee Policy #6 – Onboarding
New hires are always exciting! Having your team grow is always an exciting time, but what employee policies do you have in place for these new hires? Including policies such as welcome packages, orientation periods, and to-do lists are some of the best employee policies to include to help make onboarding easier.
A walkthrough of their first week, month, to three-month process and expectations sets the stage for exactly what a new employee needs to start on the right track and milestones they will want to hit right off the bat.
It’s found that when managers take an active role in their onboarding process, employees are 3.4 times more likely to say their onboarding experience was exceptional. Consider a more personal onboarding experience for new hires featuring their direct managers and see productivity boom!
Employee Policy #7 – Time Off and Vacation
Your employees will need time away from work, either through sick days, vacation or other scenarios. Including a section dedicated to time off is an essential employee policy to include. Making sure you provide information regarding sick days, vacations and leave of absences helps ease the onboarding and day-to-day function of your organization.
Eliminating the need for questions answered in the employee handbook every time an employee needs time off leads to better workflow, less confusion and overall higher productivity for your company.
Employee Policy #8 – Termination and Resignation
Sometimes team members will move and change. Because of that, employee policies that deal with termination and resignation are essential for employees to understand how to have a smooth exit.
Having your employees understand what is a fireable offence, how to put in their resignation and other policies are essential to have in place for both your employees and your organization to avoid conflict and set expectations early on.
Employee Policy #9 – Meet the Team
One of the biggest parts of having a new hire is having them integrate well with the team! Having an employee policy section in your handbook dedicated to listing the team they’ll be working with is a fantastic way to increase employee engagement and have your new hires feel more familiar with the team.
Including quotes or anecdotes on different aspects of the business from employees at all levels gets the team involved and adds the personal touch your employee handbook needs. Pictures of the team in combination with a short about me section will do wonders in growing your team’s engagement!
Employee Policy #10 – Overtime
Finally, a very important employee policy to include is a section dedicated to overtime and the pay structure of employees who work extra hours. Very important for hourly workers — this information needs to be documented to assure that employees are getting paid correctly!
