Employee Handbooks: Critical Issues in 2016

2016 is now here, it is time to plan to update your employee handbook. From a compliance perspective, the NLRB, the DOL, and OFCCP will have significant issues to be addressed in 2016. From employment-at-will policies, to wage and hour classifications, to the treatment of independent contractors, organizations will have to ensure that they properly define and manage these issues. For federal contractors, they will additionally have to ensure you comply with recent changes and updates. From a management perspective, employee handbooks are taking on new importance. Your organization increasingly needs to ensure that it properly communicates key issues that encourage positive employee performance; that it describes the value and importance it receives from positive employees activities; and that it helps market the benefits of employment with your organization. Increasingly you will be answering the question: Why should employees work for you. Unfortunately, a nationwide survey of employers has revealed that while organizations use employee handbooks to address key business, legal, and talent management challenges, they have limited the effectiveness of their handbook policies by using ineffective handbook practices. As the survey report noted, in many organizations there is a disconnection between the drafting and issuing of handbook policies and the practices that ensure those policies are effectively implemented. This issue will become a greater liability in 2016

1) Enhance its business, operational, and legal intelligence to ensure it has identified the changing external and internal factors that affect its policies;

2) Increase internal stakeholder participation in the handbook development process to obtain greater employee commitment and operational alignment;

3) Establish new metrics to assess handbook policies and practices performance and measure the achievement of the organizations goals; &

4) Implement internal controls that identify and alert management when employee handbook processes fail.

This webinar reviews key employee handbook issues and discusses how your organization can reduce the gap between policy issuance and effective implementation

Review the key findings of the recent employee handbook survey