by Ndunuju Adiele

Created on: February 10, 2009   Last Updated: March 27, 2009

An Employee Handbook can be seen as a policy or guide document in a company that details what is expected of a staff, his dos, don'ts, rights, expectations etc. It is a document that contains all the employee needs to refer to at all times to meet the terms and conditions of his/her employment.

The content of an employee handbook varies from company to company. This variation may be because of type of company, size of the company and the overall objective and goal of the firm. A well-prepared employee handbook removes the confusion and doubt resulting from what employers should expect from their employees or vise versa. For a small entrepreneurship business, the sole owner normally writes the handbook to align with his reasons for establishing the business and all that he expects from his employees. In the case of a large establishment, this is normally the work of the Human Resources department or any other committee that may be formed for the sole purpose of preparing the handbook.

Preparing an employee handbook is always a very tedious and sensitive job to do, as it has to put into consideration the expectations of both employers and employees alike. It is so because once the handbook is prepared and circulated as a working document, the information therein becomes policies and guides to action for both the employees and employers. Policies, procedures, rules, guides, and regulations are always decided in advance and agreed upon by those formulating them and passed on to the Management or decision makers for final approval before they are put down in print and circulated as working documents. These ideas agreed on are always presented in simple and straightforward manner by choosing short words that represent the actual reasoning and ideas of those formulating the rules. The contents and policies in an employee handbook should be reviewed periodically by the Human Resources department and amendments effected to reflect the corrections and additions to the existing handbook.

New staff after going through the process of recruitment and orientation is always handed over a copy of the employee handbook to guide him and expose him to all that is expected of him and his rights as an employee of the company. Also, any time the employee handbook is reviewed, the updated version is always circulated to both the existing and new staff alike to keep them abreast of the changes and additions. In most cases, it is advisable to get feedback from existing staff during review

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