5 Scary Things that Might Be Lurking in Your Employee Handbook

No matter how frightening your Halloween may get, cracking open your employee handbook can be even more terrifying if your organization hasn't appropriately addressed the 5 A's every reliable handbook should cover.

1. Anti-Harassment
Does your handbook cover harassment policy in a high level, vague manner, leaving it open for interpretation? A reliable anti-harassment policy clearly spells out an absolute zero tolerance for unlawful employee harassment. This includes clear examples of what constitutes prohibited conduct, especially sexual harassment, complaint procedures and penalties.

As part of our mission to support Texas employers, Handbook Hero offers our full Anti-Harassment policy, available in all of our handbook editions, free of charge with no obligation. This includes an Acknowledgement page employees sign and date indicating they've read and understand the policy. Contact us today and reference "Anti-Harassment Policy" in your comments to receive your free copy.

2. At-Will Employment
At-will employment means an employer has the right to terminate, transfer or demote an employee at any time, with or without reason, and with or without notice. In other words, "just cause" is not needed for private sector employers to take an adverse job action against a non-union employee. Without a properly worded at-will employment statement, employers can be hampered in their ability to take lawful steps to manage their business strategy and workforce how they see fit.

3. Arbitration
Virtually all employers at some point will experience an employment dispute brought by an employee alleging wrongful action or conduct. This could be on the part of the organization, a co-worker, and often both. Compared to the court system, requiring all disputes that escalate to litigation be handled through arbitration means expediting resolution and controlling costs while retaining an objective, fair-minded and binding third-party decision.

4. Absenteeism
Is your organization crippled by attendance problems like tardiness, absenteeism and even what should rise to job abandonment in extreme cases? If your handbook doesn't clearly state attendance-control expectations and consequences, productivity, morale and operations will continue to suffer.

5. Acknowledgement Forms
Of course none of this may matter if you're unable to document that employees have received, read and understood your handbook policies. That's solved with acknowledgement forms in your handbook that employees sign and return to you.

Beyond these scary pitfalls is the reality of not having a handbook at all. If your organization doesn't document and communicate rules, standards and expectations to your workforce, it's like having no policies at all.

A reliable employee handbook helps set a positive, respectful and professional tone for your organization and workforce, while protecting employers from many types of employment-related liability.

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