Employee Handbook

The employee handbook is an addition to the contract of employment and is often referred to in the contract of employment.

The Employee Handbook is intended to cover areas that apply to all employees equally and refers to policies that should be applied consistently across the organisation.  The booklet will often cover the companies policies in many areas including:

• Company mission statement
• Information about the company
• Joining the company (induction)
• Quality & service expectations
• The way the business works – ethics, values, authority, dress code
• Sickness / absence
• Annual leave
• Time off work
• Capability procedure
• Data policy
• Electronic mail & internet policy
• Telephone & mobile phone policy
• Business expenses
• Studies policy
• Smoking policy
• Leaving the company

These documents are often out of date before they are printed, so once you invest in an Employee Handbook, you’ll need to invest in keeping it up to date on a regular basis.  Here at the Yorkshire Powerhouse, we would recommend creating an electronic copy of the employee handbook to allow this maintenance task to be easier.  As you would expect, there are many professional organisations keen to provide you with their services to produce your employee handbook to relieve you of the burden.

As with all aspects of employment law and employing people, we would strongly recommend you reference the excellent information available from www.acas.org.uk

Templates are widely available but think about your own business and the policies you want to utilise. Don’t write about a policy unless you intend to practice and enforce it.  We’d always encourage you to seek professional help and support with employing staff.

Thoughts on creating an employee handbook from Yorkshire Powerhouse

Have you any questions?

Here at Yorkshire Powerhouse, we’re happy to help as much as possible – is there anything else we can do to help you, do you have any further questions or can we help introduce you to an expert – please let us know: