Creating Your Employee Handbook : A Do-It-Yourself Kit for Nonprofits - Softcover

Bernstein, Leyna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0787948446 ISBN 13: 9780787948443

Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 1999

Synopsis

Sponsored by The Management Center

At last, busy nonprofits can produce their own employee handbooks without the usual worries or frustrations. And employees can finally look to a single source for all the policies and procedures that bear on their day-to-day work. This unique book has everything you need to craft an employee handbook that is tailored to your organization's mission, culture, and goals. It is The Management Center's most comprehensive human resources toolkit for nonprofits across the country--filled with sample policies and examples of how to adapt each policy to your specific objectives.

Flexible and user-friendly, Creating Your Employee Handbook offers a unique three-level approach, capturing the complexity and diversity of your nonprofit. Many of the sample policies appear in versions that correspond to large, medium-sized, or small nonprofits. Sample policies also reflect different organizational cultures. For each policy,you can choose--mixing or matching as needed--the language, form, and style that best reflect your purpose and work culture. Topics include: employment and employee development, benefits, workplace healthy and safety, standards of conduct, work hours and pay, and much more. You can create a new employee handbook from start to finish, update existing policies, or identify new ones.

This hands-on manual can also help you gain insight into why certain policies are legally necessary. Such important policies are tagged throughout the handbook and there is even a state-by-state listing of specific statutes and mandates to help broaden your knowledge of employment law. Above all, Creating Your Employee Handbook shows how to make your handbook an effective employee communications tool.

About this title

About the Author

LEYNA BERNSTEIN is a consultant and trainer with expertise inorganizational development and human resources management. She is aprincipal with Bernstein & Associates in San Francisco andserves as an affiliate consultant in human resources with TheManagement Center. Bernstein has provided consulting and trainingservices to organizations since l993, and now works exclusivelywith the nonprofit sector. Prior to founding her own firm, shespent over a decade as a human resources executive with some of theBay Area's leading socially responsible companies.

From the Back Cover

Employee Handbooks Made Easy!

At last, busy nonprofits can produce their own employee handbooks without the usual worries or frustrations. And employees can finally look to a single source for all the policies and procedures that bear on their day-to-day work. This unique book has everything you need to craft an employee handbook that is tailored to your organization's mission, culture, and goals. It is The Management Center's most comprehensive human resources toolkit for nonprofits across the country, filled with sample policies and examples of how to adapt each policy to your specific objectives.

Flexible and user-friendly, Creating Your Employee Handbook offers a unique three-level approach, capturing the complexity and diversity of your nonprofit. Many of the sample policies appear in versions that correspond to large, medium-sized, or small nonprofits. Sample policies also reflect different organizational cultures. For each policy, you can choose--mixing or matching as needed--the language, form, and style that best reflect your purpose and work culture. Topics include: employment and employee development, benefits, workplace healthy and safety, standards of conduct, work hours and pay, and much more. You can create a new employee handbook from start to finish, update existing policies, or identify new ones.

This hands-on manual can also help you gain insight into why certain policies are legally necessary. Such important policies are tagged throughout the handbook and there is even a state-by-state listing of specific statutes and mandates to help broaden your knowledge of employment law. Above all, Creating Your Employee Handbook shows how to make your handbook an effective employee communications tool.

From the Inside Flap

Employee Handbooks Made Easy!At last, busy nonprofits can produce their own employee handbooks without the usual worries or frustrations. And employees can finally look to a single source for all the policies and procedures that bear on their day-to-day work. This unique book-and-disk set has everything you need to craft an employee handbook that is tailored to your organization's mission, culture, and goals. It is The Management Center's most comprehensive human resources toolkit for nonprofits across the country―filled with sample policies and examples of how to adapt each policy to your specific objectives.Flexible and user-friAndly, Creating Your Employee Handbook offers a unique three-level approach, capturing the complexity and diversity of your nonprofit. Many of the sample policies appear in versions that correspond to large, medium-sized, or small nonprofits. Sample policies also reflect different organizational cultures. For each policy, you can choose―mixing or matching as needed―the language, form, and style that best reflect your purpose and work culture. Topics include: employment and employee development, benefits, workplace healthy and safety, standards of conduct, work hours and pay, and much more. You can create a new employee handbook from start to finish, update existing policies, or identify new ones.This hands-on manual can also help you gain insight into why certain policies are legally necessary. Such important policies are tagged throughout the handbook and there is even a state-by-state listing of specific statutes and mandates to help broaden your knowledge of employment law. Above all, Creating Your Employee Handbook shows how to make your handbook an effective employee communications tool.Use the Disk for Easy Customization and ImplementationThe do-it-yourself kit includes a computer disk complete with all of the sample policies in PC format. The policies are organized into folders that correspond to

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

How an Effective Employee Handbook Can Improve Your Organization

Most of us tend to think of an employee handbook as a dry, rather boring document written in legalese. Although your handbook is a legal document that can help protect your organization from employment litigation by clearly spelling out organizational policies, there are many other reasons to provide a handbook to each of your employees.

An employee handbook is not the same thing as a compendium of every policy your organization uses in its operations. An employee handbook is a communication tool for you to use with your employees. Your employee handbook should contain the policies and information your employees need to guide them on a day-to-day basis.

Your employee handbook has the potential to be a powerful tool for communicating and emphasizing organizational values and the benefits of employment with you. Most new employees start work carrying a large package of assumptions about their new work environment. This is especially true of employees who are new to the nonprofit sector. Because the work of nonprofits is so strongly mission-based, many new employees arrive with expectations of an idealized work environment. These expectations can differ widely from the reality of your organization's work culture and practices.

Use your employee handbook to communicate clearly the kind of workplace you offer: not only policies and procedures but also the "personality" and values unique to your organization. The tone in which the book is written, the specific language used in the book, and even the typeface are all factors that communicate information about what kind of organization you are.

Use the information in your employee handbook to establish job performance expectations and to set the stage for the kind of behaviors you want to promote in the work environment. Your employee handbook should also be an integral part of your orientation program for new employees. Be sure to give new employees the opportunity to read the handbook, and set aside time for their questions about its content.

Include copies of job descriptions, performance evaluations, and frequently used personnel forms in each handbook so that you create opportunities for your employees to use the hand-book throughout their employment. (Compiling your handbook in a binder format allows for the inclusion of forms and other documents.)

Think of your employee handbook as an internal marketing and communication tool. Much as brochures, newsletters, and annual reports help your organization present a message to donors and others in the community you serve, an effectively written handbook helps you communicate with your employees.

Every handbook should have an acknowledgment form for the employee to return and sign. The form should indicate that the employee has read the handbook and understands the policies it contains (see the sample in Resource C). The acknowledgment form is also the means by which you reinforce at-will employment status (if you are an at-will employer). Be certain that every new employee signs such an acknowledgment and that the signed acknowledgment is placed in his or her personnel file.

There is no one perfect way to write an employee handbook. However, too many handbooks get read once and then languish in a desk drawer. You may never create a "bestseller," but my hope is that this book will help you create the best possible handbook for your nonprofit organization.

How to Use This Handbook As a Template

This handbook is designed to be used as a template or guide for creating your own nonprofit personnel policy handbook. The order in which the policies are presented is logical but somewhat arbitrary. Certainly there is no one right way to produce an employee handbook, and you should modify, delete, or rearrange policies to suit your needs.

To Update Existing Policies

Scan this book for policies that are missing from your own. Pay particular attention to policies that are marked with this symbol:

It means that the policy is required by or related to a state or federal labor law. You will find state-by-state listings of specific statutes that mandate personnel policies in the Resources section of this book.

To Enhance Existing Policies

Even if your own employee handbook is up-to-date, you can find ideas here for improving communication of information, adding innovative practices, and rearranging the format of your handbook. Look for this symbol: It indicates innovative policies.

Edition details

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0787948446
• ISBN 13: 9780787948443
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272