Create Your Own Employee Handbook: A Legal & Practical Guide for Employers

by Lisa Guerin J.D., Amy DelPo Attorney

Overview

Make—or update—your employee handbook today with this user-friendly guide! Every company should have an employee handbook to communicate with employees, manage workers effectively, ensure consistent treatment across the organization, and protect itself from lawsuits.

But creating a handbook from scratch can be daunting—and hiring a lawyer to draft one can easily cost thousands of dollars. That’s where Create Your Own Employee Handbook can help. It provides everything managers or HR professionals need to create an effective handbook—or update an existing one—all in plain English. Inside, you’ll find up-to-date legal information, practical suggestions, and policy language on:

• wages and hours
• at-will employment
• time off
• discrimination and harassment
• email, social media, mobile devices, and other workplace technology
• drugs and alcohol
• complaints and investigations
• workplace privacy
• and much more.
  

The 10th edition is completely updated to include federal and state law changes affecting employer policies, such as paid sick leave (including time off for reasons relating to the coronavirus); minimum wage laws (including rules for employees who receive cash tips); drug and alcohol testing (including medical and legal marijuana laws); discrimination; family and medical leave; and much more. The 10th edition also provides policy language and legal information on working from home, a vitally important topic in the age of Covid-19.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781413328783
Publisher:	NOLO
Publication date:	05/25/2021
Edition description:	Tenth Edition
Pages:	464
Sales rank:	669,473
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 10.80(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Lisa Guerin is the author or co-author of several Nolo books, including The Manager's Legal Handbook, Dealing with Problem Employees, The Essential Guide to Federal Employment Laws, The Essential Guide to Workplace Investigations, and Create Your Own Employee Handbook. Guerin has practiced employment law in government, public interest, and private practice where she represented clients at all levels of state and federal courts and in agency proceedings. She is a graduate of Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley.

Amy DelPo is an author and consulting editor who specializes in employment and family law issues. She brings years of criminal and civil law experience to her work at Nolo, having litigated cases in all levels of state and federal courts, including the California Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court. Since leaving the active practice of law, she has earned a master’s degree in library and information science, specializing in legal research and law librarianship. She has written numerous employment law titles, including The Performance Appraisal Handbook, Dealing with Problem Employees, and Create Your Own Employee Handbook. Ms. DelPo received her law degree with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Table of Contents

What an Employee Handbook Can Do for Your Organization

1. Handbook Introduction

2. At-Will Protections

3. Hiring

4. New Employee Information

5. Employee Classifications

6. Hours

7. Pay Policies

8. Employee Benefits

9. Use of Company Property

10. Leave and Time Off

11. Performance

12. Workplace Behavior

13. Health and Safety

14. Employee Privacy

15. Computers, Email, and the Internet

16. Employee Records

17. Drugs and Alcohol

18. Trade Secrets and Conflicts of Interest

19. Discrimination and Harassment

20. Complaint Policies

21. Ending Employment

Appendixes

A. Creating Your Handbook

B. Where to Go for Further Information

Index

What People are Saying About This

"Create Your Own Employee Handbook provides all the information and policies managers, HR professionals and business owners need to create their own reader-friendly guide. HR Magazine Create Your Own Employee Handbook provides all the information and policies managers, HR professionals and business owners need to create their own reader-friendly guide. " HR Magazine
"Create Your own Employee Handbook, published by Nolo, can help owners put their own handbooks together..."  Washington Post
"Has all the information and advice you'll need to clearly communicate your firm's policies and procedures." Accounting Today

Interviews

If you’re tasked with creating or updating an employee handbook for your employer or your own business, Create Your Own Employee Handbook can help you get it done right—without having to hire an expensive lawyer to draft the document for you. This user-friendly guide will give you up-to-date legal information—including detailed charts on state laws—as well as practical suggestions and policy language.

The 10th edition is completely updated to include federal and state law changes affecting employer policies, such as paid sick leave (including time off for reasons relating to the coronavirus); minimum wage laws (including rules for employees who receive cash tips); drug and alcohol testing (including medical and legal marijuana laws); discrimination; family and medical leave; and much more. The 10th edition also provides policy language and legal information on working from home, a vitally important topic in the age of Covid-19.

Editorial Reviews

"Create Your Own Employee Handbook provides all the information and policies managers, HR professionals and business owners need to create their own reader-friendly guide. HR Magazine

"Create Your own Employee Handbook, published by Nolo, can help owners put their own handbooks together..." Washington Post

"Has all the information and advice you'll need to clearly communicate your firm's policies and procedures." Accounting Today

"This guide is intended for employers, business owners, managers, and HR professionals in companies of all sizes (except those in unionized workplaces or workplaces with federal, state, or local government employees). The book provides standard language that readers can use to create an employee handbook, plus examples and guidance on writing their own language. The guide presents current law and best practices in areas such as wages, time off, drugs and alcohol, trade secrets, personal blogs, and discrimination. The book contains worksheets throughout, plus margin space for writing notes. Appendix A offers a list of forms for creating a handbook, and Appendix B lists state departments of labor and agencies that enforce laws prohibiting discrimination in employment. A companion web site for the book contains forms and updated legal info; the publisher’s main web site provides an employment law center, articles, FAQs, and more forms. This eighth edition is updated to reflect current state and federal law related to areas such as social media, e-cigarettes, and photography at work.." Eithne O'Leyne, Editor Ringgold, Inc. ProtoView

From the Publisher

You don't have shell out big bucks to a professional handbook developer. Instead, turn to the pages of Create Your Own Employee Handbook.

EntrepreneurialConnection.com

Has all the information and advice you'll need to clearly communicate your firm's policies and procedures.

Accounting Today

Lets you cut and paste standard policies into your own employee handbook, modifying them as needed.

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Create Your Own Employee Handbook provides all the information and policies managers, HR professionals and business owners need to create their own reader-friendly guide.

HR Magazine

Create Your own Employee Handbook, published by Nolo, can help owners put their own handbooks together...

Washington Post