Introduction: The purpose of an employee handbook or manual is to communicate company policies to employees. Employee handbooks are not step-by-step guides to personnel practices for managers. For this reason, many elements of a company's workforce practices — such as background checks, immigration compliance, and hiring policies — belong only in the company’s Management Policies, not in its employee handbook.

Note: It is essential to have any employee handbook or management policies periodically reviewed by a counselor (lawyer or HR consultant) experienced with such matters. 1) There may be state and local laws or regulations that apply to your company that have not been covered. 2) Laws or regulations may have changed. 3) Someone needs to make sure that the handbook is consistent with your organization's actual practices — that what you say is what you do.

Read HR Navigator articles about POLICIES, HANDBOOKS & MANUALS.

Instructions: The iWorkwell Policy Wizard will help you create or update your employee handbook by providing samples of commonly-adopted policies with recommended best practice wording appropriate for inclusion, and allowing you to customize each default policy to suit your workforce, culture, size, industry and local regulations. There are 3 main steps:

1. Select My Policies: Browse the policies below and add those you wish to "My Handbook." Omit policies (e.g., uniforms or parking) which do not apply to your organization. You may also create your own new policy topics (e.g., alternate work schedules).
2. My Handbook: Custom edit selected policy drafts to fit your organization. You will be able to save more than one version of a policy and choose your favorite draft to be included in the finished manual.
3. Compile your chosen policies in the format of your choice, and print your manual to PDF which will be saved in your Briefcase and can be downloaded.