7 Essential Elements of an Employee Handbook

This article serves as a guide for business owners and stakeholders on what to include in their employee handbooks. Whether you already have one or are in the process of creating one, there are core sections that every organisation should include. The elements we recommend adding exist to protect both your employees and your business. 

Every business has its own unique set of rules and the way it operates. From dress code and branding to annual leave policies and bonus systems, every organisation manages things differently. Therefore, it’s important to ensure that one of the first things you teach new starters is how things are handled in your organisation. The quickest way to do this is by providing them with an employee handbook.

Despite each business being significantly different from one another, even if they operate within the same industry, certain elements are universally essential. Whether from a legal perspective or to ensure the overall functionality of the organisation as a whole, some clauses are required in an employee handbook. In this article, we will discuss these clauses and their importance.

7 Essential Elements of an Employee Handbook

Here are seven essentials you need to include in your handbook:

1. Introduction;

2. Non-discrimination policies;

3. Company’s approach to absence and leave ;

4. Data use;

5. Flexible working regulations;

6. Misconduct and disciplinary. 

Businesses of all sizes and industries benefit from creating employee handbooks and distributing them to their teams. The best handbooks help employees understand what to expect from your company and what is expected of them. By summarising key policies and procedures, you’ll safeguard your business while keeping staff well-informed. It’s certainly worth the time and effort.

1. Introduction

Every book begins with an introduction to outline its purpose and relevance. When discussing an employee handbook, it is also intended to provide an overview of your company, including its background, key products and services, mission, aims, and values. Overall, it should summarise what your company is and why you do what you do.

Since you will be providing the handbook as part of the onboarding process, a strong introduction can help integrate and align new staff with your company from the beginning. However, try to keep it at a high level. You don’t want to constantly amend and update the handbook. For example, you can outline the vision that influenced the creation of the company, but avoid providing its complete historical account.

2. Equal Opportunities and Non-discrimination Policies

Your team needs to understand what constitutes acceptable and unacceptable behaviour regarding equal opportunities. Workplace equality is one of the more challenging topics in today’s working landscape. Therefore, every company must actively work to eliminate discrimination in the professional environment.

The policy section should include your stance on things like: 

• Confidentiality;

• Non-acceptance of harassment;

• Complaints process;

• Training;

• Non-discrimination on grounds of race, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, religion, age, trans status or marital status.

Additionally, you should outline the company's immediate response to the policy violation. Avoid explaining the process in full detail, as there is a separate section for misconduct and disciplinary actions, but do mention the most severe possible punishment as an outcome - e.g. termination.

3. Health and Safety Policy

Your employees are your biggest asset, and therefore ensuring they work in safe conditions is your direct responsibility. In fact, if you employ five or more employees, then by law you need to have a written statement on general health and safety policy. It is an important clause to add even when you aren't legally obliged to have it, just to ensure your staff aren’t exposed to any threats at the workplace. 

This section in the handbook should set out:

• Health and safety equipment available; 

• Health and safety representation of employee and employer;

• Risk assessments;

• Manual handling;

• Accidents;

• Representatives for health and safety

Additionally, remember that if your business is involved in activities considered hazardous, you’ll need an extra section in your handbook. The same applies to carrying out the job at locations where your staff could potentially be injured: construction sites, heavy machinery factories, and similar places.

4. Absence and Leave

To be more precise, these two are separate sections. The absence policy should include your company policies on short and long-term absence, basic holiday entitlements, and any additional schemes you offer (such as buying and selling holidays or accrual for special trips). Additionally, you might want to briefly cover time off related to grievances, dependants, jury service, medical/dental appointments, public duties, and domestic emergencies.

Leave, on the other hand, specifically covers family-related time off. You need to explain employee rights and your policies on:

• Maternity leave;

• Paternity leave;

• Adoption leave;

• Parental leave;

Depending on the type of leave, you should include factors such as staff eligibility for leave, length of leave, statutory pay, and procedures for returning to work.

5. Data Use

Businesses must legally have processes in place to ensure they securely store and handle data related to their employees. This section should include a consent form for each employee to sign and should cover:

• Principles of the Data Protection Act that should be followed;

• How your company processes staff data;

• How you handle sensitive staff data;

• Employee rights in relation to accessing and stopping data access.

It is also beneficial to explain what type of data is being collected and why. As the general public becomes increasingly aware of the value of their personal information, many individuals are becoming more conscious of data security. Being transparent in your policy should demonstrate to your staff that you have no malicious intentions and will protect their valuable data.

6. Flexible Working

Flexible working is becoming increasingly common, especially since the coronavirus pandemic. By law, employees who care for adults or children under the age of 16 (or under 18 if they are disabled) can request flexible working. If you have chosen to maintain or introduce flexible working in your company, your handbook should outline:

• Staff eligibility for flexible working;

• Making requests and responding to requests;

• Decisions on flexible working;

• Acceptance/refusal of requests;

• Appeals.

If any of your staff operate on a flexitime basis and you find it hard to keep track, it doesn’t mean the approach doesn’t work. You just need the right software to support it. For example, Timesheet Portal’s flexitime module automatically tracks how many extra hours your staff worked and deducts those hours when they take time off. The timesheets are fully configurable too, with different accumulation, deduction, and capping rules.

7. Misconduct and Disciplinary 

Hopefully, you won’t ever need to reference this section, but it’s a key policy to include nonetheless. It should define what constitutes employee misconduct, outline the procedures for addressing it, and detail the consequences. It’s best to keep your policy flexible by stating that your company reserves the right to evaluate each case independently. However, you should specify the particular offences that would lead to severe disciplinary actions, such as suspension or termination.

In addition to your disciplinary policy, you should include sections outlining policies on general leave (i.e., when a member of staff wants to leave your business), redundancies, and what occurs in the event of termination. Most businesses add clauses that prohibit former employees from working for a competitor for a specified period or from maintaining contact with any clients or suppliers. This is also the section where you should discuss matters such as severance pack entitlement, accumulated holiday pay, and other issues related to the employee leaving your company.

Summary  

Although every company’s handbook will differ based on how their internal and external processes are handled, some clauses are simply necessary to include. Quite a few of them are legally required, while others serve as pillars of ‘business common sense’. Either way, these fundamental sections are important for a reason - they protect both you and your employees from unforeseen circumstances by providing guidance on how to behave.

An employee handbook should clearly outline the fundamental rules and values of the business. The rest can be customised to your needs as necessary. Overall, the purpose of a worker’s handbook is to serve as a tool for uniting your teams by providing them with a set of clear, uniform rules to follow. It can and should be used as onboarding material for new hires, as it will communicate the overall expectations and standards in your organisation.

Do you have an employee handbook? Let’s write one!