A lot of companies fall into this trap. Maybe you haven’t updated your employee handbook and onboarding resources for a while. As a general rule, business is busy, and time passes quickly. While business leaders are often laser-focused on policy at an initial stage, they can allow things to stagnate as the business moves forward and grows.
If your employee handbook is behind the times, here are some things to look at to be deliberate about crafting policy, building a better corporate culture, and protecting individual workers as well as the company itself. Read on for some tips from one of the most engaged Staffing Agencies in Chino, California.
Look for Social Media and Technology Updates
In the last 10 years, business technology has advanced enormously. You could even make the case that there have been groundbreaking and industry-changing advancements within the last year or two.
In today’s high-tech digital world, technology changes move at an incredibly fast pace. That’s why it’s important to evaluate whether the technologies that your business runs on are clearly spelled out in the employee handbook. How do workers deal with sensitive digital information? How do they secure digital assets against data breaches? All of this needs to be a key part of planning updates to employee materials.
Another major component of change is social media. Years ago, we didn’t have these easy platforms where we could reveal our emotions at will. People didn’t fire back at their employers on Facebook and Twitter. An innocent remark wasn’t recorded for posterity and didn’t turn into an angry storm of digital volleys with numerous responders piling on the ‘for’ and ‘against’ columns.
Social media can bring significant liability to a business. It’s helpful to update the employee handbook to include clear rules on what employees can and can’t-do on social media.
Update for New Operations and Processes
Do you do things the way you did them the last time the employee handbook was rewritten? Probably not. There may be different methods in place for product handling, different inventory management techniques, different sales paradigms, and in general, things that people do that are different than what they used to do. All of these tasks need to be included in employee handbook materials. So when you’re at the table brainstorming, be sure to cover the newest changes that you’ve made in workforce operations.
Problems that Pop-Up
Too many employee handbook updates are the direct result of serious problems that have happened because rules weren’t previously in place. Workplace conflict is a big one — if your company didn’t have an operational policy or some kind of conflict resolution framework in place, you want to add that. If there was no policy governing use of company materials or employee discounts or some other kind of opportunity, you may find yourself scrambling to clarify these details. Always be sure to include a list of documented problems in the employee manual update and if possible, work proactively to make sure you fix the omission before the problem appears.
Write Toward a Corporate Culture
Another good tip for employee handbook updates is that they should reflect the vision and philosophy that business leaders have about their businesses. There are many ways to do this, but in general, when you go to the drawing board, think about how each policy reflects the reputation and vision of the business. This will result in much better documentation and assist in charting a course forward.
About Full Steam Staffing
Full Steam Staffing is a full-service staffing agency in Chino, California focused on providing clerical and light industrial staffing solutions to manufacturers, distribution centers and other organizations that need qualified, reliable workers. If you are currently looking to hire and grow your workforce, contact our team of skilled recruiters today!