HR Peep Show

Episode 6: Employee Handbooks

• HR Peep Show • Season 1 • Episode 6

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In this episode, HR professionals delve into the often-overlooked employee handbook. They discuss its significance, common misconceptions, and the essential role it plays in setting clear and consistent expectations at work. The conversation covers the legal implications, the balance between comprehensiveness and accessibility, and the importance of regular updates. Tune in for practical advice and hot takes to help build sustainable, people-driven companies.

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Employee Handbooks - Show Notes & Transcript


Acknowledgments

This episode was produced by Krista Lane, and it is hosted by AnnE Diemer, Claire Baker, and Krista Lane. It was edited by AnnE Diemer and Krista Lane. Music was composed for the Royalty Free Music Library by Rik Pfenninger. 


We also thank our friends who gave feedback on early takes of episode 1, and those we spoke to about making a podcast— especially Kamrin Klauschie, Kevin Landucci, and Jenna Lane for their invaluable expertise and advice.


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Additional Reading and References

Materials we recommend and/or links referenced in the episode, if you want to keep nerding out on this topic:


Transcript

Krista: Welcome to HR Peep Show, where we pull back the curtain of life in human resources in the United States.

AnnE: I'm AnnE Diemer.

Claire: I'm Claire Baker. 

Krista Lane: I'm Krista Lane, and we are your hosts. We may be new to podcasting, but not when it comes to people work. We are each fractional consultants at the intersection of people and operations with a collective several decades of experience, both in-house and consulting under our belts. 

Krista: we're talking about handbooks now. So employee handbooks. Most of the time these are, you know, we think about these as like a legal document. It's one of the like boring checklist items that comes up in your offer letter that you, or your onboarding documentation that you have to like, sign that you've read. It's where you know, you as an employee might go to look up which days are paid holidays, but also contained in the fine print of this very long and dry document are often policies about dos and don'ts at the company that if you should violate them, HR or legal might point out that you are "subject to disciplinary action up to and including possible termination." Have either of you ever heard that phrase?

Claire: Why, why, Yes, I have, and I have even written that phrase.

AnnE: I have that phrase tattooed on the inside of my eyelids. I'm pretty sure.

Krista: Yeah. So, uh, you know, it, it comes up, but, uh, I, I don't know how anybody can reasonably ever be expected to follow, when they read like the fine print terms and conditions that everybody clicks through when you like, buy a plane ticket or something else. And I don't like, obviously I'm not a lawyer and none of us here are, but how is that even enforceable, if like nobody can be reasonably expected to understand its contents?

That could be a different conversation for a different time. But in any case, uh, I think because of that, you know, how often do documents get reviewed or updated, um, and why if they're so outdated, are we still holding people to the policies within them? We can't just pick and choose like, oh, well this policy's outdated and we're ignoring it, but this policy is still current and we're gonna enforce it and fire you for it or whatever. Anyway. What are your hot takes about handbooks?

Claire: Well, they're not supposed to be like the the bar exam. They're, they're not supposed to be taken as a giant body of work, it's supposed to be something that you can reference in specific situations to make decisions in gray areas. And the majority of it should be intuitive, like don't be violent at work.

or, uh, you know,. Don't steal money, but that, I mean, that is where there's a lot of legalese, but I think like where people miss opportunities on handbooks are things like how your PTO works or, um, other things that are not coming into my brain right now. Uh, 

Krista: I think like expense, like expense decision making trees. Like what, what do we consider to be like good decision making about things like expenses or reimbursements? What's reimbursable? Stuff like that.

Claire: Yeah, like "I am leaving my job. When does my health plan end>” for example, That should be in your handbook. And I think the times that like we wind up, up to and including firing somebody is like, "You have no call, no showed five of the last 10 business days. You keep saying that you're sick. I hope you feel better. This is starting to be a problem and we need to draw a line." And, and that's kind of where the handbook starts to be a sword and a shield.

AnnE: I have a love/hate thing with employee handbooks. I love employee handbooks because I love clear expectations and I love consistent expectations, and so the first thing I do anytime I take on a new client or I join a new org is I wanna read the handbook. Because it, when done well, can teach you a lot about the culture, can set clear expectations, can give you a sense for how things work, and that's what I find a handbook particularly useful for.

It does also have that like legal stuff in it that you have to have. And you do have to have it, and I don't think that like your average employee necessarily needs to engage with that part. I'm trying to decide if I'm gonna regret saying that or not because of course, like you want people to do things legally.

You want all of that stuff, but I want a handbook to really introduce someone to the org about how things work and why they work this way. That's what I find them really helpful for, and just making sure things are happening consistently. But I think to do this well, it has to be really intentional, like all HR work.

And I think so often employee handbooks are not intentional. You got 'em off of the SHRM website, which I dunno, is anyone even using SHRM anymore? And it's just legalese and it doesn't mean anything. But I think if you make your handbook have something meaningful in it and you really try to make it useful, I think it can be a really important doc for your org.

And help your org scale. And so often it's just not.

[00:05:52] Claire: Well, when I'm writing a handbook, like I try to include why decisions were made in this particular way, um, because you can't anticipate every situation. But if you can articulate the reason why our part-time employees have accrued time off and our full-time employees have front loaded time off is because our part-time people should not have as much time off as a full-time person. That wouldn't be fair. And so like some part-time people work 10 hours, some part-time people work 30 hours. And this is how we just make sure it's fair. And maybe not in that many words, but um, just explaining some of that to people that like they might object to if they, if somebody hasn't explained it to them and just proactively being like, look, this is why it is. We're not trying to screw you. We don't think that you are any less than. It's just a practicality. 

Um, another thing might be like if it's the type of handbook, uh, section that you are giving somebody guidance on how to make a decision, like, not everybody gets to take the week of the holidays off. Um, how are we going to make this decision in those cases, you're not talking to the frontline employee necessarily. You're talking to the managers and you're saying, here is how you're supposed to make this decision. We are gonna hold you accountable to this. And if you're the employee that feels like you're being unreasonably denied something, it can actually be something that you can use to advocate for yourself.

Krista: I love that. I, I think what, what you're getting at also is this assumption that practice and policy are the same.

Krista: that is often not true with handbooks, especially really outdated ones. Um. I like to say that like the gap between practice and policy is like at its widest between an outdated handbook that's full of legalese that nobody has read or even remembers what's in it and like daily life at a fast-paced org, or even not a fast-paced org frankly.

like I wonder if, and, and it would be curious to like bring a lawyer into this conversation if that would actually. Open a company up to liability if they don't consistently operate according to the terms of their handbook. Like, can they even enforce something if they don't consistently operate that way?

Like it, you know, that sort of goes back to, to what, what AnnE was talking about with clear expectations like it's supposed to be like, kind of a living document, right? Like it's, it's a document about like how your company operates and like what, maybe not an employment contract, because that gets into like a whole other thing, but just like what you are agreeing to by being an employee here. Like what are your rights? Also, like how do we do, how do we make disciplinary decisions? How do we make other decisions at the company, like what do we think about in terms of compensation? What's our compensation philosophy? Um, like those kinds of things can really codify what a company's culture looks like. And like, sometimes it's its own statement that like, you just have this template handbook that you bought off of some website. That is a, a statement in and of itself about how you value, um, not just handbooks, but also like the people function in general and how you leverage employees at your company.

But yeah, I, I'm curious like what do you think is the right balance between something that's really comprehensive and, and, but like, versus something that's overly prescriptive?

Claire: I mean, I think that if you're not using your handbook as what I call a cultural artifact, like you're, you're missing an opportunity. So like you get an email at 5:37PM. Are you expected to respond or can it wait until tomorrow? Um, you're not gonna get fired for that, but if nobody tells you, you have to figure it out. And, it sucks when you figure it out the hard way. And so those types of things that just say, this is how we do this here. I think can be really, really useful. And I don't think that enough companies use their handbook as an opportunity to to give that sort of information, and that's more engaging too. 'Cause it feels relevant to people.

[00:10:37] Krista: That's also like the area that that really gets my goat about, like the difference between practice and policy is that like a lot of handbooks will always say like, we expect you to be working 40 hours a week or whatever for full-time employees. Um, and then of course like some manager is like, oh no, that's not how we do it here. And I'm like, okay, but let's just take that part out then I guess? I don't know.

AnnE: Oh my God. I. There was an experience I had with a friend who was a manager at an org, and this org had unlimited paid time off and one of this person's direct reports requested like three weeks off to do a big trip to somewhere. And the manager approved it because they checked the handbook policy and the policy said unlimited time off. So they were like, okay, good to go. And then HR declined it and HR said, “no, you can't take more than two weeks consecutively.” And my HR brain was immediately like, where is it written? Put it in the handbook. If this is a policy, I wanna see it. And so that's a case where like. Do a midyear handbook update if you're doing something like that, because can't just spring that on someone. That's confusing. This manager didn't know they were doing anything wrong when they approved pTO

Claire: Words matter. Flexible, PTO, not unlimited.

AnnE: I really like what you said, Krista, about handbooks are a bit of a representation of how much an org has invested in their people processes and structures and their people operations. Because I def, I definitely see that, and I don't mean to shame. There's definitely startup people listening to this who are like, oh, we don't have a handbook 'cause we're going so fast. We got so much going on. And I'm like, I don't mean to shame you for that. And I do think having this for your employees, having consistent expectations for your employees, sets them up for success. Clearly communicating about your values and how you want to operate sets them up for success and therefore sets your business up for success.

 What was the question? What am I answering?

Krista: Uh, good question. And it wasn't even the question that I actually intended to ask. I just messed it up. I guess where this was coming from is like, I also will look, you know, it's a cultural artifact, whether or not it's intended to be. And I can look at how somebody has written policies and say like, oh, somebody did something. There was an event that occurred that caused this policy to be written.

Claire: Yes.

Krista: like the little footprints.

AnnE: I love thinking about that. I love thinking about, okay, here's the policy on what to wear to work. What happened that got this put in? Because sometimes you don't, you don't necessarily need to have that or the, uh, weapons in a workplace. Sometimes you legally you have to have that in particular states and sometimes you're like, “Oh, someone brought a weapon in and then we needed to add that to the handbook.” So yeah, I think it does tell you a little bit about the history of the org and I don't know that everyone always realizes that.

Claire: Yeah, I love reading. Any policy, even public policy for this and just being like, what happened here that somebody had to write this down, like one that's coming to mind right now is, I think it's Wisconsin? There's a reasonable accommodation law where. They have to let you sit down and if there is a seat available while you're on the clock, you're allowed to use that seat while you're off the clock. And I'm just like, what the hell happened here? Like, what was, I mean, toll booth operator. Like what? What was the situation that somebody had to write down, "if something is a chair, you're allowed to put your butt in it. No matter whether you're getting paid or not.”

AnnE: Yeah. 

Krista: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Strange, uh, strange, strange little artifacts that policies can really be, um, so that sort of brings me to like, you know, how often should we be reviewing handbooks? Like, are we, are we embracing them as living documents that get updated all the time or as needed? Or do we set a schedule? How do you, how do you think about it for your clients?

[00:15:07] AnnE: I'm actually gonna be really curious to hear what we all think about this, because I was looking for this the other day and I don't think there's like a set standard. I'm gonna be interested if someone knows that and I don't, and I guess I missed that question on my HR test, but I tend to update them once a year. Because if you're updating them more than that, I want employees to be informed that it's being updated more than that, so that they can review and understand what has changed. So if you're updating it continuously and making it a living document, I don't want employees to have to be reading it once a month, especially because these are long documents. So I would say once a year, and then you kind of make an announcement that you've updated it, explain the why behind some of those changes and then have folks, you know, re-acknowledge that they've read it again. But I think if you do it more than that, maybe twice a year, then it becomes noise and it doesn't become as helpful.

So that's what I've done. But I'm super curious what you all have seen.

Claire: Krista looks like she's got something, 

so 

Krista: Oh, I mean, I can, I can talk about it. Okay. So my initial guess was quarterly. Um, I've definitely seen annually. 

But it's not a full review. Like you're, you're giving me a, a wild look as if I'm, you know, rewriting the whole thing. Um,

AnnE: It's just a lot of work. It's a lot of work to review a handbook. That's, that's my reaction to that.

Krista: I get that, I get that. But I do, I think it, it probably depends on the pace of the org. Like, you know, in some startups, like you are a completely different company a year from now and many other things have changed, right? So I think it needs to match maybe not one-to-one with the pace of the org, but at least update at some regular cadence that is a reasonable, like if we know... it's kind of like growing shoe sizes, like as a kid, right? Like sure, you can, you can buy a shoe that's like one or two sizes too big and it's probably gonna be fine and maybe your kid trips for a little bit, but they'll grow into it.

Um, and that'll last a little bit longer than something else. Um. So I'm not saying like buy exactly the shoe size and you know, always update whenever you get the new one. But, um, some, some amount of wiggle room and growth room. But still keeping it in pace with how the company like really is right, like keeping the gap between your practice and your policy, really tight. Again, it doesn't have to be like one-to-one, but and maybe that pace is a every year, right? Like I remember I worked at bigger companies where every year when we're doing open enrollment, we also get updates about the employee handbook. And, I get a little summary that's like, here are the things that changed this year. Here are the policy updates. Please sign that you have like, acknowledged and read these updates. And they're never more than like a page long, So I don't actually have to go back and read the whole document again. I just have to read the change summary. Anyway, so that would be my recommendation.

AnnE: I like that. I think that actually makes sense because we're not doing a review of the whole thing. And I think the other thing I wanna be clear with folks is that we're not redoing our organizational values or key operating principles once a quarter. Like it is important to have consistency, and I want this doc to be about consistency, too. So when Krista is saying updating it, it is about keeping it current, keeping it aligned with the current practices that you're actually using in your org. Don't change your values every quarter because we've all seen the startups who do that, and that gets so confusing and it's all over the place and it's not a good use of time. So you wanna keep things consistent and you want your practice to align with your policy. I think that's a really good balance to clarify, Krista, thank you.

Claire: Yeah, I mean, I think that, like, I, I don't think of the handbook as one giant document. I'm thinking of it as 23 separate documents that are compiled in this anthology that is 'ye oldie handbook'. Um, but like things can come up throughout the year that need an update to the handbook. And so, you know, maybe there's an incident, you have to update your social media policy, and you need to respond to it because maybe there's something going on in the world and people need guidance and you need it written down because you need to hold people accountable to it.

Um, and then you can use that as a sweep to get all of the little less urgent things that have come up in the past quarter or so. Um, and then I won't, I mean, I'm not reissuing the whole handbook and telling everybody to read it. I'll say, you know, we have a new social media policy. Please read it. You know, here's a PDF of the new social media policy. You'll be getting, e-sign requests through our, you know, whatever it is, our payroll provider, wherever you have those documents, um, and, and just having like the change management and the comms around whatever the major change is.

But I, I think it should be almost like the legislature, well, I mean not as like, not as formal as the legislature, but like when something comes up, when there is a bill, when there is a proposed change, um, you should respond to the change with the urgency that it requires, and then more focus on the communications. And the communication should be about what is changing about how you operate. It should not be about the document. And the document should just be something that is the bookend for: We all agree that this is how we are all handling this situation moving forward.

It also gives you an opportunity for people to ask questions, object if they need to. If they want to leave because of it, which sometimes happens rarely. But, um, uh I think that a lot of organizations get distracted by the document itself and are not focusing on the behavior that it's, it's meant to describe.

[00:21:29] Krista: That's a really good point. I, I think that's sort of what leans me toward living document. If, if the, spectrum is, is "living document" or, annual, like "codified set in stone document", um, I think I lean, I lean living document, document for, for the reasons that you've outlined Claire. You know, things change, right? And like, we have to be adaptable. And that's what makes it possible to be adaptable. Building like documentation and communication practices that are flexible to the needs of, of the org.

There's, there's also something about the practice of regularly integrating or updating new policies that I think normalizes in the mindset of continuous change that is not always present in the people function. Because, you know, other leaders are thinking about like all of the other pieces of building your company, right? So they're not necessarily thinking about updating the people policies as consistently as they do their product roadmap or you know, whatever it is, right? And so building the habit and the mindset of regularly reviewing like, what are we doing about this? Or what, how do we approach this? Is that still valid? Is that still what we want to support? Is that still the behavior we want to encourage? Um, you know, your priorities might change over time depending on what kind of growing pains you're experiencing as a company or depending on how the needs of the marketplace have changed and that you need to make different choices. So I think it's, it's a good habit to build to like be thinking about this on a regular basis. Even if you're not like doing an, like a handbook overhaul. Like, I'm not suggesting a handbook overhaul every quarter or anything, to be clear. 

AnnE: Good.

Krista: I, I, I'm just thinking, 

AnnE: No one has time for that. 

Krista: Like it, we just need to like gaze upon it, acknowledge that it exists, and like think in our minds on somewhat of a regular basis, like, oh, that could use updating at the next time that we think about this.

Or like, we're finally at a scale where it makes sense to rethink that policy or whatever it is, you know? 

AnnE: Absolutely. And I think there's something to like making your handbook useful that makes this easier. Because when I first was reacting to your question, I was thinking about some of the handbooks that I've looked at recently and I'm like, oh my God, I don't wanna touch those more than once a year. But if your handbook is something that is actually referenced because you're checking expense policies because you're confirming what working hours are, because you wanna make sure that everyone's like acting consistently with these expectations and it's useful and it's accessible, then I think it makes sense to update it more often. And I also think it'll be easier to update more often because everyone will be more familiar with what's actually in it. So keep it

Krista: Totally. 

AnnE: useful, and understand, and Claire said this really well, understand like the purpose of it and what behaviors you're trying to have happen because of it, then I think it's much easier to update. Because you actually know what's in it and it's not just this foreign document you open once a year and you're like, so what are we doing here with this 90 page document again?

Claire: Well, and also, I mean, we haven't really talked about this, but it. The handbook can become a legal document, even if it is written in an informal tone. Like in if there's ever a complaint. So there are situations where, um, let's just say New York for example, you have to pay out people's PTO at termination unless there is a written handbook policy, um, that says otherwise. And so if you fire somebody and you don't pay out their PTO and they complain, then they're gonna be looking at the handbook that was in force at the time when that person was let go. And so you do wanna have a handbook, to that like startup that hasn't had time, because it just protects you in situations where like, and sometimes it's just like people are doing the best that they can and they just like, they made a mistake and it just says, Look, this is what the company's intention was. We missed the mark here, but we're not systematically trying to screw people out of their PTO payouts or whatever it is. Um, and we're very sorry. We will pay you, you know, what we owe you, but it, you know, can get you out of additional penalties. But also you can't just like write a handbook that goes against the law. So for example, if you're in a state that has mandatory sick time, you can't just say, well, this company doesn't give mandatory sick time, so tr la la la la la la. We don't have to follow the law. But, um, yeah. So I think it does become a legal document in those situations, but that does not mean that it has to be written like you have a stick up your ass.

[00:26:36] Krista: Yeah, I think goes to AnnE's point about accessibility. Sorry, go ahead.

AnnE: No, absolutely. It needs to be accessible. And there's also, you know, if you're based in multiple states, there's state appendices that you put into your handbook, and state laws are changing all the time. Uh, it's a joke with HR people in the US that we work in 50 different countries because the laws in each state can be wildly different. And so if you're listening to this and thinking, oh, I need to update it every time a state law changes, if you can, great. Yes. Get an updated appendice. If you can't, I think the quarterly or the annual or whatever that still works because the state law takes precedent. So unless the state law says that defers to the handbook, wow, that got me in a weird circle there. But you do wanna try to keep track of the state laws, but it is a lot to keep track of. There are tools that can help with that. So that's something to keep in mind. But I think we're definitely talking about it from like a cultural standpoint more than like allowing people to do illegal things standpoint, because like that's never what the handbook's trying to do.

Krista: No. 

Claire: Ideally. 

Krista: I do wanna kind of wrap us up here, but I wanna make sure we talk about what employees should be thinking about when they're looking at a handbook, um, either at the onboarding or whenever they get some kind of update from HR or from leadership about, you know, new additions.

What are your thoughts? What should employees think about?

Claire: Well, uh, it is not that you are agreeing to let the company fire you. It is just an acknowledgement that you received it. Chill. Like you're not signing away your rights. If your rights are violated, you still have all your rights, like it's just saying that you received the document. Nobody's trying to screw you over. Please just sign it.

AnnE: Yeah, I think that's what I would say too, is I try to be really clear when I write handbooks, that when you're signing it, it's saying like, "I acknowledge that I've read this." I understand why people are hesitant to sign it? Yes.

Krista: my my favorite, Sorry, I totally interrupted you, but I, I just had that thought of like, that person who tries to red line their employee handbook, I don't know if you've had that happen to you before,

AnnE: Yeah. They're like, we just need to make these changes before I sign. Like, no, we're not, we're not doing that. We're not making the changes. I understand sometimes why people don't wanna sign it. I, that's not something that I lose sleep over. Um, I keep a record that I have sent an employee handbook to them. I make sure that it is very accessible so that if something were to happen legally and someone tried to claim, "well, no one ever told me that was a rule," I can say on this date, I sent you the employee handbook. I see that you didn't sign it, but I gave you an opportunity to understand the expectations that we set. So to me, I don't lose sleep over someone not signing it. And Just because you don't sign it doesn't mean you don't have those expectations set for you. 

Claire: It's like being a sovereign citizen. Like sure, okay, you still have to pay your taxes. Um. It, it just, there are certain things that just are in force in certain organizations, nations, whatever the case may be that apply, whether or not you have explicitly agreed to them, whether or not you are aware of them.

 And the handbook is just one of those that, um. You, you are subject to it whether you agree with it or not, and it is not implied that you will agree with every single thing.

[00:30:37] AnnE: And oftentimes the handbook is there to protect you. That's what a lot of the NLRB has done, is make sure that employees are protected in a myriad of ways and that comes up in the handbook. So don't think of it as you know, an enemy, just because it comes from the company which has significantly more power. I think it can also be helpful for you to understand what your rights are and how you can advocate for yourself. And if you can advocate for yourself using the company's own policies, that gives you so much power. So I think employee handbooks, again, when done well, when done with intention, can be empowering for employees too.

Krista: That is a cool point that we should probably end on. Also for anybody who doesn't know, the NLRB is the National Labor Relations Board, um, which has been responsible for many of the labor rights that we enjoy in the United States as woefully inadequate as they may seem on occasion.

AnnE: We're still grateful for all that they've done, and will continue to do.

Krista: Still thrilled to have weekends, thrilled to have at least what we nominally say is a 40 hour work week.

Anyway, I think that was all I had to say about handbooks.

Krista: That's it for today's episode of HR Peep Show with your hosts, Claire Baker, AnnE Diemer, and me Krista Lane. Thank you for listening and stay tuned for future episodes covering both hot takes and practical advice to build sustainable people-driven companies. To view transcripts and full credits or find out more about us, go to hrpeepshow.com. ​