HRx - Customized Employee Handbooks

HRx Client Success Story

25% of my business has been assisting organizations with their employee handbooks. I originally thought that most of my handbook work would be creating employee handbooks from scratch. But, interestingly, most of my projects are auditing and rewriting handbooks that have already been developed.

One of my most challenging (and fun) projects was the merging of two employee handbooks from two very different organizations. One of the merging companies was a small non-profit and it was acquiring a larger for-profit company. As you can imagine, the philosophies of the two organizations were totally different.

It was most likely my longest employee handbook recreation, but it was so interesting to be part of the discussion on each key area. Time off benefits, which is typically the most difficult policy to merge in any event, was quite an elaborate discussion. The issues with trying to balance generous employee philosophies with budgeting realities was intricate and interesting. There were no tempers or personality issues in any of the discussions, but a room full of deep thinkers committed to getting everything fair and right was great to observe and participate in.

Employee handbooks seem, at face value, to be routine fill-in-the-blank documents, but there’s so much that goes into them. And since they are dynamic with continual legal and operational changes, as soon as we put it to rest, something else pops up and needs addressing!