Customer Reviews

Create Your Own Employee Handbook: A Legal & Practical Guide

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a complete kit for making your company's own employee handbook. There is legal information, state specific information, resources to follow for your specific needs, and then, the best part of all, there is CD that comes with this that has everything you need already typed for you. All you have to do is insert the CD and save the files, which are in MS Word, and voila - you have it. The only thing you have to do is decide which policies you want for your company, fill in a few blanks, change the TOC and you are ready to print it out! A very practical and easy way to create your own employee handbook! I was quite impressed.

I am very pleased with this book. I was placed in charge of writing an employee handbook for a small office and this book (and accompanying CD-ROM) made my job very easy. The CD-ROM allows you to easily cut and paste most of the general verbage of the handbook - and customize to your needs. It is also very helpful in educating on laws. I highly recommend this for anyone taking on the task of creating an employee handbook.

When my boss asked me to write an employee handbook I freaked. I had no idea where to start. This book gave me everything I needed to get what my boss wanted. Everyone was happy. This is the book you need.

This guide takes you step-by-step through writing a well-organized handbook. The computer files are RTF format and load perfectly in MS Word. It's easy to cut and paste in blocks of text. Make no mistake, you'll have to rewrite many sentences for your company, but having the text is still faster than a full retype.

Absolutely delivers on the promises it advertises. Weeknesses are present. Could be a little more indepth on the legal side. Has many great tables about laws where you can look up your state's laws specifically but also is missing several tables that would be nice, and refers you to your state labor website instead...understandable, but could be more complete.

Uses "you/we" language in its text templates, which has a really large corporate stuffy feel to it, even if the language is kept simple. "We require you..." sort of feeling. I changed all 'we' to name of the company and while less 'personal' it actually sounds more team oriented. It's not hard to do since every sentence just has to be gone over anyway. Still, don't get the idea it's 'difficult,' using the templates is handy in many ways, quicker than retyping, and enforces a great outline organization for your handbook.

You can build a complete and good handbook with this and proper research within your company and about your state's laws. As they say, a lawyer will be a necessary part at some point if you want to be careful, but you may not need to pay one to read the whole thing, just to consult on sticky parts for your business or your state.

We'll finish our handbook within a month. I've heard of some small companies taking a year to complete one. I know this book has helped tremendously.

This book has all the major policies and considerations for an employee handbook. I appreciate its clear concise language. It points out the policy considerations in choosing between options. It is current. (Laws change enough each year that I wouldn't suggest anyone buy a legal text over 5 years old or even a couple of years old in some cases.) The CD is easy to use. I'm a lawyer and was curious about it so I bought it. I was pleased with its thoroughness. If you are in a unionized environment remember that you can't just implement many of the policies therein without negotiating with your union. It would, however, give you language to discuss and the pros and cons of the alternatives.

Note that I bump this down one star solely because it lacks sample telework policies. Other than that, this is an incredibly good deal for the price. The CD-ROM has sample policies you can customize, and the book explains the why and how of each policy and the alternative options. Aside from teleworking, this book really covers the basics--travel, pay, vacation, etc.--and also offers state-by-state exceptions where applicable.

This book works well for creating or reviewing an entire handbook or individual policies. The format and organization make it easy to find what you need. I found the references to state specific requirements and resources particularly helpful.

I used the book for a class and found it full of a lot of helpful and useful information.