Employee Handbooks: 2018 Compliance Issues

         After running a successful "Employee Handbooks: Critical Issues in 2017" we got loads of requests for the same for 2018. Around March of 2019 is the right time to update your employee handbook.

         Employee handbook are probably not required by law, but there are excellent reasons why you want to have a handbook. You are responsible for ensuring your company is in compliance with all federal, state, and local laws, rules, and regulations. No matter what state you do business in, or how many employees you have, you will be subject to state and federal employment laws. From employment-at-will policies, to wage and hour classifications, to the treatment of independent contractors, organizations will have to ensure that they properly define and manage these issues. For federal contractors, they will additionally have to ensure that they comply with recent changes and updates. All these become confusing and difficult to apply and monitor if they have no central location. Employee handbook is the answer to these. Employee handbooks are in the best interests of both the company and the employees. They provide a set of guidelines for how things will be handled in your company.

         From a management perspective, employee handbooks are taking on new importance. A few of the 'Whys' and 'Hows' an employee handbooks is needed will be explained and also know:

• The importance of employee handbook with regards to the organization's culture, mission and values
• How from federal, state laws & litigation angel, employee handbook with company policy is a business necessity?
• Ways in which employee handbook can keep employees updated
• How employee handbooks are attorney, legal counsel approved, and customized for each state law?
• Let employees know where to turn for help and help market the benefits of employment with your organization
• Increasingly it will be answering the question: Why should employees work for you?

         Ensure that once you've taken the time to write a handbook, it does not sit on the shelf. Also plan on updating your handbook regularly, and change your written policies, if needed, to conform to actual practice or changes in the law. Advantages of writing an employee handbook will materialize only if you consistently follow through with policies outlined in the handbook is extremely important to keep in mind as you draft your handbook so that you don't include policies that look good on paper, but are impossible or difficult to enforce in real life.

         As the survey report noted, in many organizations there is a disconnection between the drafting and issuing of handbook policies and the practices that ensure those policies are effectively implemented. These issues will become more important and a greater liability in 2017.

         This webinar reviews key employee handbook issues and discusses how your organization can reduce the gap between policy issuance and effective implementation. Thus to increase the effectiveness of your employment policies, your organization will have to:

• Enhance its business, operational, and legal intelligence to ensure it has identified the changing external and internal factors that affect its policies
• Increase internal stakeholder participation in the handbook development process to obtain greater employee commitment and operational alignment
• Establish new metrics to assess handbook policies and practices performance and measure the achievement of the organization's goals and
• Implement internal controls that identify and alert management when employee handbook processes fail

• Review the key findings of the recent employee handbook survey
• Review the basics of employee handbook development
• Discuss the expanding purposes and scope of employee handbooks
• Learn the dimensions of critical handbook policies
• Understand the framework of employee handbook audits activities
• Develop employee handbook Key Performance Indicators

This will benefit a wide array of Professionals such as:

• HR Professionals
• Operations managers
• External and Internal Auditors
• CEO's and CFO's
• Risk Managers