Update Your Employee Handbook for 2021

Image by Jan Mesaros from Pixabay

An employee handbook is one of the most important documents you will have for your business. An employee handbook is a living document, meaning that it should be updated at regular intervals once it is written in its entirety. At an absolute minimum, annually.

With all the changes in 2020, updating your employee handbook for 2021 has never been more critical. Before we dive into the top six most important things to update let’s take a look at the reasons why an employee handbook is so important to have.

Reasons to Have an Employee Handbook

• It introduces new employees to the culture, mission, and values that your company has. This helps welcome new employees and sets the tone for what they can expect working at your company. This should also be a point of pride for a company. 
• Ensures that crucial policies are clearly and consistently communicated across the company. The employee handbook should be the “last word” if there is a dispute among employees or managers. 
• Sets clear goals for the company and communicates to your employees what is expected of them. There should be no surprises when it comes to what is expected from employees. Their job description will fill them in on specifics, but the employee handbook will set out the basics. 
• Lets employees know what they can expect from leadership and management. This should also be the place to reference where an employee should go for a particular issue. For example, when it is appropriate to talk to your manager and when it is appropriate to speak to human resources. 
• Ensures compliance with federal and state laws. State laws will differ between locations and update frequently. Make sure you are keeping up with the changes to employment law in your state and county. 
• Assist and defend when it comes to employee claims. Nowadays, while unfortunate, a company should be asking when, and not if, they will face a lawsuit or a similar complaint from an employee, current or previous. When this happens, the best documentation you can provide is your employee handbook. The handbook will prove that the company has exercised a reasonable amount of care towards their employees. This is also why you want to have the employee sign an acknowledgment of receiving the handbook and to confirm they were given an opportunity to ask questions or bring up concerns to their manager or Human Resources. 
• Detailed information about the benefits that employees have the opportunity to take advantage of. This should detail the health, dental, and vision insurance plans offered and the costs. It should detail any other non-health-related benefits like child care stipends, pet insurance, and education reimbursement if offered. 

Dress Code Policy

The first thing to update is to make sure you have a clearly defined dress is code is critical to ensure that all employees know what the expectations are when dressing for work. It also allows management to have a consistent approach when talking to employees who do not follow the dress code.

An important update to add to the employee handbook dress code is your employees’ expectations for wearing masks. 

You’ll want to address the following.

• Do they need to be on when they are in the building? Only in meeting/break rooms? 
• Are employees allowed to remove their masks while at their desks? 
• Clearly define how to wear a mask (example, over the nose and under the chin)
• Describe what kind of mask is acceptable (for example, double layer at minimum) 

Having clear guidelines will help employees understand what is expected of them and help keep your office safe and healthy in the new year.

Flexible Work Arrangement Policy 

With many employees currently working from home. Now is an excellent time to precisely define your policies regarding working from home, if you haven’t already. 

If applicable, define work-from-home eligibility. Not all jobs can be conducted from home. Clearly define what jobs, teams, or positions are eligible to work from home and which jobs need to be on site.

Establish the approval/eligibility process, if needed. Suppose you need your employees to reach a specific eligibility requirement, for example. An employee needs to be employed for a minimum of 90 days, etc. This needs to be clearly documented in your policy. Additionally, if there is an approval process once those eligibility requirements are met, this is where those should be listed as well.

Set Regular Working Hours

Working from home can give employees some flexibility to work earlier to get out earlier or start later and finish later. If there are times that you need your employees to be available for clients or customers this should be clearly noted here as well.

Create Timekeeping Methods for Hourly Employees

Ensure that hourly, non-exempt employees have a clearly defined way to accurately record their clocking in time, clocking out time, breaks, and lunches to make sure you are staying compliant with all local and federal employment laws.

Define Security Standards. 

This can be as specific setting up a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to protect all users and business information. Or it can be as general as not allowing your employees to work from the public, unprotected Wi-Fi (like Panera or Starbucks). This is also where you would state that work should only be done on company approved technology. That means no answering emails from a personal laptop or phone. 

Sick Leave 

Now is an absolutely essential time to update your sick leave policy. Establish the following

• The requirement when an employee has tested positive for COVID.
• The protocol if they have a family member they live with test positive. 
• Will you require a negative test before that employee is allowed to come back? 
• Will they have to quarantine at home for a certain amount of time before returning to the office?

All these points should be defined in the employee handbook so that consistent action is taken throughout the company to ensure everyone’s safety. 

While there are many other things to keep updated in your employee handbook (benefits information, sexual harassment, and zero-tolerance policies). These six sections must be updated for 2021 to keep everyone safe and healthy. 

Do you have an employee handbook at your business/where you work? When was it last updated? Comment Below.

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