Employee handbooks present all manners of challenges. Human resource professionals hate working on them, employees rarely read them, and management finds them too restrictive. Before writing or updating an employee handbook, revisit the reasons for having one. Handbooks should share your company’s vision, mission, and values, with a theme that permeates every policy. The handbook is also a valuable tool to communicate expectations to employees, let employees know what they can expect from the company, and ensure clarity and consistency. It will also highlight the benefits you offer and let employees know where they can seek assistance with workplace and personal issues. From a legal perspective, handbooks are a compliance tool to ensure compliance with state and federal law and to defend against possible legal claims.
In deciding whether it is time to revise your employee handbook, consider some common problems seen in today’s
handbooks:
- Lack of clarity; too much legalese
- Trying to legislate and anticipate every issue
- Too much copying and pasting
- Too much policy and not enough values
- Redundancy and repetition
- Outdated language which does not reflect company culture
- Putting risk management over people
Upon review, your handbook should be clear, up to date, and readable. It should also reflect your company’s culture and aspirations and say what you actually do. For example, you do not need a comprehensive drug testing policy “just in case” if you do not drug test. Nor should you have a policy citing a process for annual performance evaluations if such evaluations are not done on a schedule.
Handbooks should be reviewed at least annually to account for any changes in state or federal law or change in benefit offerings. Recent federal and state legislation should be covered in your handbook. Important federal issues to be addressed include:
- The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) requires providing reasonable accommodation to pregnant workers.
- The PUMP Act expands protections for nursing mothers beyond what the Affordable Care Act provided and expands coverage to more employers. Protections include break time for nursing mothers, private spaces to express milk, and compensation for break time.
- Employee classifications under the Fair Labor Standards Act should also be reviewed given the number of changes that have occurred over the past few years. The threshold for the salary test has gone up and down several times and currently sits at $684 per week.
New Hampshire has also adopted two new laws which should be addressed in an updated handbook:
- Firearms: Effective Jan. 1, 2025, employees of employers who receive public funds are permitted to store firearms and ammunition in locked vehicles on company property. All employers are prohibited from asking about weapons or searching vehicles. This will require a review of workplace violence and weapons policies to ensure compliance.
- Lactating mothers: Effective July 1, 2025, employees will be allowed at least one 30-minute break to express milk for every three hours the employee works. A private space that is not a bathroom must be provided for this purpose. There are differences between the state and federal law that should be addressed in the policy to make sure the employee is receiving the maximum protection.
It is also beneficial to explore updating long-standing policies that may need a refresh such as communicable disease or remote work policies adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are also policies you may not have that should be considered such as those around the use of Artificial Intelligence in the workplace. Below is a list of such policies to consider amending or adding:
Workplace civility and professionalism
- Remote work
- Office use/hoteling
- Communicable diseases
- Social media
- Artificial intelligence
- Videoconferencing
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Code of ethics/conflicts of interest
- Politics at work/conflict resolution
When revising an employee handbook, focus on clearing out redundancy and wordiness and consider whether you should have the final product translated into other languages. Policies are only useful in conveying information and holding employees accountable if they can read and understand them. Some employers choose to have electronic handbooks only. This can be efficient for editing and cost savings but consider whether most of your workforce has access to and can effectively use electronic media.
In addition, multi-state workforces pose particular challenges. It is critical to be aware of state law changes in the other jurisdictions where your employees live and work as this may affect policies or benefits. Neighboring states such as Vermont and Massachusetts have passed versions of a Crown Act, providing protection for employees with ethnic or religious hairstyles. Both Maine and Massachusetts have paid family and medical leave provisions that are mandatory, unlike NH. Pregnancy and parental leave statutes as well as drug testing differ. Will you use a different handbook in each state or use addenda to a primary handbook? The best choice depends on the workforce and the locations where people are employed.
Your handbook is an important reflection of your company’s culture and values. The policies that most clearly reflect culture and are of primary importance include those addressing workplace civility; leaves of absence, remote work, and flexibility; employee well-being and mental health; and employee advancement and training. The policies related to compliance and legal issues are important but those that reflect how employees will treat each other are of paramount importance.
Charla Bizios Stevens is a retired employment law attorney who consults with businesses and nonprofits on workplace issues. She can be reached at charla@
charlastevensconsulting.com.
