Everything You Need to Include in Your Employee Handbook
An employee handbook or manual is a guide that is issued to every employee when they join a company. It consists of company policies, the company’s mission, and vision as well as an insight into company culture and expectations. Handbooks can take several different forms, including PowerPoint presentations, long-form documents, or PDFs. These handbooks can be issued as a way of aligning your new hires with your mission and policies while maintaining certain standards as a business.
You can require your new hires/team to give you a written agreement to the handbook to acknowledge that they understand your policies and expectations. It is highly recommended that you issue your employee handbook to new hires on their first day, this not only makes them aware of your policies and goals but also acts as a guide for their first few days and can significantly increase efficiency.
You’ll learn:
- What do you need to include in your handbook?
- Three useful software picks for creating your employee handbook
- Examples of handbooks you should use for inspiration
Ready to build your remote team?
Use the DigiWorks platform to hire, manage, and pay remote talent from all over the world.
What do you need to include in your handbook?
1. An overview of your business – This should be an introduction to your company, what you do, and who you are.
2. Your company’s background – Background stories are nice to include as it gives a little history of your company, why you decided to start it, and your journey along the way. You can even include some insight into who you are as a founder.
3. Welcome message – This is a nice little touch to add when issuing your handbook to new employees. It makes them feel welcomed and part of the team from the start. This is your chance to start off with new team members on a positive note!
4. Your mission, vision, and company culture – It’s important to state what you’re trying to achieve and why. You need to clearly establish the kind of culture you foster in your team to make sure new members are a good fit.
5. Equal Employment Opportunity – your team should know that you value diversity and equality in the workplace regardless of race, gender, age, or culture.
6. Company policies and procedures – it’s useful to summarize each of your high-priority policies and procedures, this can include things like paid time off, sick leave, anti-discrimination laws, fair labor standards, etc.
7. Code of conduct – this is basically how you expect your employees to behave in the workplace and certain standards they need to adhere to. This can include dress code, attendance, workplace language, punctuality, and so on.
8. Compensation and performance information – this does not mean there’s a section that discusses actual salaries but rather that you are compliant with all federal laws. You can also include information about benefits, incentives, and performance reviews.
9. An acknowledgment page – this is essentially a section for your employee to sign or give you written consent to show that they are in agreement with your employee handbook and acknowledge everything in it.
Three useful software picks for creating your employee handbook
Creating employee handbooks can be a daunting and time-consuming task which is why it’s good to have a few hacks handy and making use of HR software is an efficient way to go.
1. Blissbook is extremely helpful for creating your handbook. It provides you with the tools you need to create, distribute, and maintain your employee handbook. Blissbook offers a free trial and allows you to customize your plan according to your specific requirements and needs. Pricing for 1-124 employees starts from $75 per Month.
2. Igloo is next on the list and gives your employees easy access to their digital employee handbook. Igloo also offers an introductory consultation call to get you started creating your handbook. Igloo offers tailored pricing based on your needs.
3. Handbooks is our third mention and is probably the quickest way to create your handbook as it automatically generates a handbook for you that you can easily edit as a word document to fit your needs. The Free Basic Handbook includes 17 Pages of essential policies and is a completely free download. You can upgrade this package for the Comprehensive Handbook download which is priced at $39.95.
Ready to build your remote team?
Use the DigiWorks platform to hire, manage, and pay remote talent from all over the world.
Examples of handbooks you should use for inspiration
There are tons of really useful and unique handbooks out there and when deciding which format you want to go with you need to think about what best represents your brand and what would be the most efficient and beneficial for your team.
1. Hubspot – The best thing about the Hubspot employee handbook is that it’s simple, clear, and very easy to follow. The use of PowerPoint slides works extremely well for this as it keeps each slide minimal and avoids overloading your team with information and long, hard to read sentences.
2. Netflix – This is probably my favorite handbook on the list because it’s very interactive right from the start and is really well aligned with the Netflix brand. It’s also really cool that this handbook starts off with company culture as its highest priority. Similar to the HubSpot handbook, this one is nicely summarized, easy to follow, and concise!
3. ZGM – This handbook is right on the money! It uses imagery and colour in a really clever way that keeps readers engaged. It also keeps things really concise and “cuts out the fluff” with short, easy-to-read paragraphs. Overall, this one is a fun and interactive read that meshes really well with the ZGM brand.
4. Zappos – Zappos is really well known for its emphasis on company culture, and this really shows in its employee handbook. It highlights team-building activities, community outreach, and Zappos’ commitment to its team’s physical and mental health. It’s a really fun handbook filled with events, team pictures, and overall is a good representation of their commitment to company culture.
5. Valve – This is probably the most detailed employee handbook on the whole list. Valve’s viral employee handbook is extremely well structured, and informative, and covers the onboarding process extensively. This handbook gives a detailed retelling of the company’s philosophy, history, and goals and has some quirky illustrations to accompany them. It’s especially helpful to new hires and a great way to make their team members feel a little extra prepared.
If you’re thinking about creating your own company handbook, you should really go for it. Using the HR software linked above and borrowing some ideas from the listed examples is a great place to start. If you still aren’t sure of where to start, joining an online course to walk you through the steps is a huge help. The CEO of DigiWorks is currently hosting a free course for business owners looking to have a good framework in place and create these resources. This is a brief guide from the course on how to start introducing your company to new employees in your handbook.
Related Articles
About DigiWorks
DigiWorks is an easy-to-use platform that helps small businesses and start ups hire amazing remote talent from around the world. DigiWorks offers a way for you to hire, manage and pay people from all countries. If you find an amazing virtual assistant from Philippines, a content writer from Nigeria, or operations manager from South Africa – manage and pay your entire team from one platform with no hassle.
If you’re looking for a more affordable and sustainable option you might consider making use of a hiring platform like DigiWorks. Virtual assistant companies or platforms like DigiWorks are amazing as they not only match you with pre-vetted and assessed remote workers that can take care of all your business needs but they will also handle all onboarding and payroll needs as well.