As an employer, you cannot possibly take it upon yourself to communicate various company policies, objectives and other key information to every new hire. This could be quite a time consuming and probably not easy for the employee to retain so much information in such a short span of time.

This is where the employee handbook comes in. This handbook gives employees a detailed overview of the organisation’s policies, procedures, guidelines and so on. For an organisation, an employee handbook can protect it from lawsuits and claims from employees. On the other hand, for employees, this book informs them about their rights and responsibilities.

In this post, we’re sharing some useful tips for effectively communicating various policies to employees. Take a look.

Make User-Friendly

Too much legal jargon and complicated terms can impact the comprehensibility of your employee handbook. Similar to writing business proposals, use a tone and language that employees can easily understand. Also, make your employee handbook more accessible by sharing a digital version.

Don’t Be Too Specific

Yes, a lot of things need to clearly stated in the employee handbook for legal reasons. However, don’t let that influence you into defining everything under the sun in great detail. Try to draft broad policies to avoid creating an unnecessarily lengthy handbook.

Reconsider Social Media Restrictions

Initially, social media was seen as a hindrance by several employers. However, this is no longer the case. Yes, employees should refrain from overly using social media during working hours, but you cannot completely restrict the use of social media. Unless personal social media use is directly impacting your organisation, it’s time to reconsider your outdated social media policies.

Update Periodically

An organisation goes through several changes over time and ideally, your employee handbook should reflect these changes. From new policies to changed guidelines, make sure your employee handbook is updated periodically. There is no point in having an outdated employee handbook.

Make it Engaging

Often, employee handbooks end up being so technical and monotonous that no one actually bothers to read them. If you want to effectively share company culture and policies with new employees, it’s important to make your employee handbook engaging and interesting.

The Bottom Line

Considering the importance of employee handbooks for your employees and organisation, you shouldn’t take this task lightly. If drafting an employee handbook is beyond your skillset, it would be best to hire a technical writing expert.