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With winter officially over, employers may start thinking about doing some “spring cleaning.” Now might be the perfect time to dust off your employee handbook to ensure it is up to date with any recent developments in employment law.

Reviewing your handbook on a regular basis, at least annually, is a best practice since regulations and workplace trends change frequently. Another reason to revisit your handbook or personnel policies is when your business dynamics change. This could include expanding your employee headcount or hiring across multiple states, including hiring remote employees.

You should always aim to be ahead of the game when it comes to maintaining strong policies and procedures, since outdated policies can leave your organization vulnerable to miscommunication. Here are a few things to think about when reviewing your handbook:

  • Do your internal policies and procedures reflect actual practices?
  • Does your handbook include names of employees who no longer work for your organization?
  • Has your headcount changed, so that you are now subject to certain compliance requirements? Growing to 20, 50, or 100 employees are common milestone markers when it comes to federal and state compliance requirements.
  • Are there any local or state-specific policies that need to be added, such as paid sick time, medical marijuana policies, paid family leave, or pregnancy accommodation?
  • Do you have policies that expressly prohibit employees from discussing their wages? This is a protected employee activity, and such policies are barred under several labor laws.
  • Does your handbook include a clear employment-at-will statement?
  • Do you have a robust Prevention Against Harassment Policy? Does your policy include a prohibition against retaliation?
  • Does the format of your handbook reflect your company’s brand and culture?
  • Has it been awhile since you last distributed your handbook to employees?

This is not an all-inclusive list, but rather a good starting point for assessing the state of your handbook. If reviewing your handbook is one of those to-do tasks that you never seem to have the time to get to, we are here to help!

Want to develop an employee handbook for your company? Or revamp one that was created a decade ago? We can get you through it! To learn more about our services, please contact us.