One of the more critical issues facing employers in today’s legal environment is whether or not to publish an employee handbook or personnel manual containing the employer’s personnel policies and procedures – and how to draft it. As many employers have learned through experience, an employee handbook – typically distributed to employees for their personal use – or a personnel manual – usually maintained in the human resources office and made available to employees upon request – can be an extremely beneficial tool in accomplishing the employer’s human resources objectives.
A carefully prepared, well-drafted employee handbook or personnel manual provides an employer with an ideal opportunity to communicate to its employees the philosophy of the company with respect to its customers, products and workforce, as well as the employer’s specific expectations as to individual employee performance and conduct. Such a document also permits an employer to establish standard, nondiscriminatory personnel policies that may be applied and administered by company management in a consistent and uniform fashion, thereby minimizing the risk of both groundless and deserving claims of unlawful employment discrimination.
Written employment policies and procedures may also serve to substantially reduce employee dissatisfaction and complaints by providing...
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