(A lot has changed within the past year, so if you haven't checked out our 9 Must-Have Employee Handbook Policies for 2022, we highly suggest you do so here.) While a clear-cut handbook sets the tone for a positive employee experience, a poorly written document creates room for undesirable consequences. Keep reading to see the common ones listed below… Confused Employees: Since most handbooks are based on compliance, keeping the policy and compliance language separate is recommended. Worse yet, nearly one fourth of those charges resulted in defense and settlement costs averaging $160,000 per claim. 1. If you are an employer, you live with the risk of facing expensive, time-consuming lawsuits for any number of reasons. In addition to the legal help, a well-written employee handbook offers these great benefits: It is a What Do You Get. Purchase of the SHRM Employee Handbook Builder includes a one-year subscription and policy updates for all 50 states. During this one-year period, you can go in and update your employee handbook as necessary and as many times as you need to do so. You will receive a renewal notice when your subscription period is set to expire. While creating an employee handbook may seem like a daunting task, particularly for a new or small business that is carefully managing its costs, the benefits of doing so cannot be overstated. If done correctly, the time spent creating and distributing an employee handbook will be considerably less than the time and money spent dealing with issues which would have been avoided by having a handbook in the first place. Benefits. Typical benefits like life insurance, health coverage, disability insurance, dental plans and retirement cost thousands of dollars per employee. They require actual spending by the employer. If you're curious to know how much employment taxes and benefits add to a salary, calculate a figure between 1.25 to 1.4 times the base salary. Someone has to do the research for you, make sure you get the best experts and write a policy and procedure manual. The costs include personnel costs, continuing cost of operation, skills, and tools. If you are doing it yourself, make sure you get a manager who is familiar with policies and procedures manual so that he can go through your work and approve it. Employee Handbook for Small Businesses. According to a survey conducted by Gusto, a platform that is dedicated to aiding small enterprises in their ventures, only a meager 26% of small businesses (consisting of 1 to 9 employees) have employee handbooks. The figures are far better (87%) for small enterprises with 10 to 200 people in their employ. What to include in an employee handbook. An effective employee handbook includes: Your company's mission, vision and an overview of its culture. Guidelines for employee conduct. Details on legal aspects of employment. Summaries of perks and benefits. Descriptions of company processes. Craft an outline with these elements in mind. You should also include documents that require signing, such as the at-will employment clause, conflict of interest statement, confidentiality agreement, an equal employment opportunity statement. Keep in mind that you can have your new hires sign documents virtually using eversign. 3. Employee Standard of Conduct. That said most employee handbooks include sim