An employee policy handbook is basically a manual that tells employees what you expect from them – while also letting them know what they should expect from you. It will provide standardized policies for your employees to follow, and in doing so avoid incidents of favoritism or discrimination.
For an employee policy handbook to be effective it needs to be simple, clear, and straightforward. It also needs to be comprehensive, which is why you need to ensure that you don’t forget about these three often-overlooked essentials you may want to include:
- Remote work policy
Working from home (or other remote locations) became far more commonplace during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. However many companies failed to incorporate guidelines for it in their employee policy handbooks – leading to lots of confusion regarding what is expected of employees working remotely.
If your company allows employees to work remotely, its employee policy handbook should be updated with relevant guidelines. That includes roles allowed to work remotely, work hour time tracking, compensation, necessary tools or HR software, details about communication and collaboration, and so on.
- Employee monitoring policy
Many companies nowadays use employee monitoring tools like Controlio to track employee activity, boost productivity, and improve security. If so, your employee policy handbook should go over how exactly Controlio will be used – be it as a business internet monitoring software, or productivity tool.
It is best of your employee monitoring policy clearly defines what activity will be tracked while providing a justification as to why it is important. For example, Controlio’s features will let you track apps that are used, browsing history, emails, IM messages, file transfers, keystrokes, and more. However your company may only want to track some activities – not all.
- Whistleblower policy
A whistleblower policy should contain guidelines for employees who may want to notify management regarding potential employee policy violations as well as fraudulent or illegal activity. It is one of the more important parts of your employee handbook as it will let employees know how to make such reports, and explain how their privacy will be protected should they choose to do so.
At the end of the day it would be nice if you never needed this policy in the first place. However all too often there may be violations that take place or even illegal activity – and knowing about it early will help you to take steps to prevent the fallout from being too great.
As you can see, each of these policies has an important role to play in most modern companies. A remote work policy can avoid confusion among remote workers, an employee monitoring policy can make it more palatable, and a whistleblower policy can help you to identify violations and unwanted activity early on.
Make no mistake, there are lots of other essentials that should be in all employee policy handbooks – and these three are just the ones that are often overlooked. The more comprehensive your handbook is, the more effective it will be.
