Every business needs an employee handbook, right? This contains all those fun legal things like the fact that you’re an at-will employee, that you need to comply with a code of conduct, and what the dress code is (among other things). So, it’s a really, really important document. Except that maybe that’s not true. Linda Itskovitz, VP of marketing for employee communications company GuideSpark, says the handbook is a very unimportant document.
Why? Because no one actually reads it. “The employee handbook, as a medium, is not important because the majority of employees never open their handbook in the first place, especially millennials,” Itskovitz says.
However, she clarifies, the information in the handbook is critical. “The information in the handbook, and the handbook as the traditional method, is one of the first things shared with new hires, and sets the first impression of a company to employees. It contains critical information — the expectations and code of conduct and culture for working within a specific company. Unfortunately, the current medium, the handbook, is not doing its job.”
To keep reading, click here: How to Reinvent the Employee Handbook
I am so tired of being told by employees that nothing in the employee handbook matters because we are an “employment at will” state. I tell them to look at it as a two-way street. It tell them what to expect from the company and what the company expects from them, and life will be a lot smoother for them if they are aware of the expectations on both sides.
We are fairly small (116 emp), and don’t have a lot of new hires. I do review the handbook during new employee orientation. The handbook alone takes 2 hours (including their questions). When we occasionally have a lot of new hires, I do have an orientation class with all of them at one time.
I schedule their orientation on a day they are not training, allow snacks and drinks, and let them know that yes, it’s a lot of information to cover, but it gives expectations, it is important, and that’s why we take the time to review it with them. If they zone out, that’s fine, they can always review it again on our Intranet.