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

I am manager; responsible for several teams comprised of professional staff, support staff, and other managers. I am often tasked with reviewing or revising policy and procedures manuals. To me it seems that this book is more in the realm of employee relations, as opposed to drafting content for internal policy and procedures manual. Most of this book is outside the scope of any policy or manual that I would be responsible to update or revise.For example, while this book includes some high-level background knowledge that is useful for anyone in management, many of the topics fall under the authority of our HR department (e.g., employee benefits, time off policies, pay policies, health and safety, personnel records retention, and EEO issues). Also, this book isn’t a hornbook on applicable laws. It does summarize applicable laws but the amount of law summary is pretty light. It's not an employee benefits handbook or an employment law guide. It’s really just a guide on how to craft an employee relations handbook, and what types items and disclosures to include in the book, with some background explanations. It is written from the perspective of “how to write” an employee handbook. As in, you should include X, Y, and Z, but not P and Q. And this book assumes all these items (A, B, C, etc.) are procedures that have already been set, formally or informally, by your company.I spend a lot of time working on employee issues though and, while this book won’t be of much use to me in updating policy and procedures manuals, it is still very helpful to have a high forest-level review and reminder of the most important laws and programs surrounding many of the issues that arise on a regular basis.Last comment, the price seems to run a bit high for a NOLO series book. Otherwise, the same good quality and writing for a layman format that you’d expect from any NOLO series book.

I am extremely excited that I found this book as it introduced me to the Nolo brand! I appreciate that these books are written by lawyers yet are easy for the average person to understand.This book is geared towards business owners, managers, supervisors, and human resource professionals. It includes 415 pages of information, an area in each section to write a few notes about the topic, an index for quick reference, and a webpage to download forms or stay up to date on info related to this book.This book assumes that you have policies already in place and helps you communicate those policies to your employees. It gives a general overview of the topic, examples of policies to consider, how to word them, where to exercise caution, and a few sections include the laws that apply to different states.The most valuable thing to me is that the book includes up-to-date information on workplace changes since 2020, contract (freelance) employees, remote work, internet policies, email policies, etc. This information is often hard to find yet the information that is most valuable for digital entrepreneurs!I have taken several classes and read books on how to create an employee handbook. This book blew all of those out of the water! It went in-depth on things I had never even thought to think of! I also learned that some of my former employers were bad examples. lol. Everyone needs this book!

A Legal & Practical Guide for Employers by Lisa Guerin and Amy DelPo is a resource for employers to create their own employee handbook. It provides guidance on essential workplace policies, The book also covers legal requirements and best practices for developing and implementing employee handbooks.

While reading this book, I was constantly reminded that employees will put up with much more than they are required simply because they do not know the law or they assume an employers approach is acceptable. From an employees perspective, reading this book will be an eye opener to what conditions your employer must provide, and from an employers perspective, it is going to challenge what you previously thought as acceptable. For example, in some states "restricting or limiting the right of a mother to breast-feed her child is discriminatory."The book is packed full of useful information for both employer and employee. It is easy to read and break into both manageable and digestible sections. There is a lot covered in this book such as wage garnishments for individuals paying child support, but I will say it doesn't go into exhaustive details like other NOLO books I have read.I love that there are a ton of sample statements throughout the text. These both help you stay on track for a section as well as ensure you're not leaving out the important details.Overall, I think it is a great book that is designed for a younger business that needs to get serious about its employee handbook. More experienced and established businesses may not find it as useful. I do recommend this book.

Info as expected, use when needed. Added to my books inventory for if and when I need it.

I purchased this book on the strength of the publisher's longstanding reputation in the "law for the layperson" publications. I thought I was going to need to create a staff handbook from scratch, but it turned out I did not. But this book is equally relevant to help hone an existing resource. The index is very well organized, and the intro of the book is key to understand how to exploit easily the advice supplied within. It's also very clear about what advice the book provides and what it does not, and frequently urges the reader to check with their own organization's legal requirements and that the handbook you create is in compliance with federal, state, and local jurisprudence. The external links to forms and other documents are a great value-added resource too.