We’ve recently completed an employee handbook for a multi-national in Malaysia. For 17 years, we’ve looked at hundreds or even thousands of employee handbooks and we’ve seen a radical change in the way terms are being presented today.
If you are working on your employee handbook, here are a few learnings we can offer:
Employer’s protection
Your employee handbook must contain clauses giving employers a right to act on certain instances. Modernised handbook tend to contain only employee-centric clauses on benefits. Be on a look out for employer’s rights and have the handbook covered on those aspects.
Chapterising your handbook
This, to us, is very important. Your employee handbook would often, be an exciting piece of document for new joiners. Design it in such a way where the handbook begins with terms relevant for a new joiner while bringing them across all phases of employment. Some handbooks have termination clauses and retirement in the first chapter – surely demoralising for an employee who is about to start his / her career with you.
Don’t ctrl-c, ctrl-v!
Don’t copy and paste someone else’s employee handbook. HR professionals somehow just love templates. It’s not helping. Think about it, do you want to have the same employee handbook with hundreds of other companies out there because everyone downloaded the same thing?
Your role as HR would be, in our opinion, to think beyond normal practices. Speak to the operating Managers, gather feedback, throw ideas and formalise something of your own.
Presenting your handbook
The handbook needs to be presentable. It needs to easy on the eyes of the readers. Know who your employees are, then implement it in a way that would entice them to read. 80 pager documents on a white Microsoft word document won’t work now. We’ve properly designed handbooks using corporate colours and images to make it more relatable. We’ve done handbooks on place cards placed on a lanyard! Possibilities are endless, be creative.
Communication and reminders
The job is not done when the handbook is drafted and designed. In fact, it just got started. The bigger picture is to have employees understanding their terms and conditions of service. We’ve done townhalls to communicate changes. Is that sufficient? No! Think about a wholesome initiative. Have short sessions, videos, posters, FAQs, etc. Explore open agenda sessions for employees to talk about their hardships. Address misunderstandings openly or even, prepare bite size decks for better understanding.
For us, a good handbook does not depend on who drafted the document or how does it appear physically. Invest in implementation, don’t limit it to just having a document chucked in a server for no apparent reason.
If you’re reading this article and you’re in need of some assistance, drop us a call. We’ll offer a free assessment of your current handbook and provide you with some ideas.
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