Creating an Employee Handbook

An employee handbook is a valuable way to communicate with your employees. It should include all policies and procedures that are relevant to your business.

Provide an employee handbook upon first hiring a new employee and provide training so they know how to be successful at their job. Training may be in-person or remote and should include references to the handbook so the employee can refer back to the handbook for important details as they work.

The specifics of an employee handbook will differ depending on your business, what you offer employees as part of their employment such as benefits, what you expect from employees for their work and how you compensate them for that work.

If you are an employee and do not have access to an employee handbook, encourage your business owner or studio owner to write down their policies and procedures so they are standardized and compliant with all relevant employment law.

When you create an employee handbook, consider also creating a schedule to review and update the handbook as laws, tools, policies or procedures change. Make sure to create a clear process to make those updates and to communicate them out to all employees.

For a physical business such as a studio, consider printing out a copy of the handbook and having it available in an employee area such as a lounge or reception desk for reference.

A sample outline of an employee handbook can be found here.