Acknowledge Employee Manual

pattyo · November 2003

What are the pros and cons to having employees sign or not sign an acknowledgement of having access to the Employee Manual. Our manual is on-line and we do not provide hard copies to our employees but notify them of the manual's location and any updates when they are made.

Don D · November 2003

The only reason to have the acknowledgement is to later be able to produce evidence that they had it. Signed acknowledgements have won thousands of unemployment insurance appeals for employers. They also have allowed employers to prevail in a multitude of other hearing forums; EEOC, DOL Wage-Hour, DOL FMLA, NLRB, Court, on and on. You need to find a way to get a paper acknowledgement in their file if you can't get a computerized acknowledgement from your system. There are no 'cons' to having them.

janeS · November 2003

Ditto everything Don just said...plus we hit almost the entire Manual during Orientation and having reviewed the Manual is on the Orientation sign-off sheet as well. Both acknowledgements go in the ee file...and has proven extremely helpful...and penny-wise.

mrsbowden · November 2003

I agree..no cons...but a big pro for us is that we can also use this page to include our employment at-will statement.

blw · November 2003

Make sure that your acknowledgement form contains a statement to the effect that any printed copy of a policy is considered obsolete as soon as it is printed. You might want to consider this statement on the log-in page to the SOP manual, or a pop-up window any time someone logs on to it.

When your policy is online, you want to ensure that a copy printed two weeks ago before your update last week isn't used against you.

This was brought up in a seminar I attended last year on writing and developing policies and procedures.

Don D · November 2003

>Make sure that your acknowledgement form
>contains a statement to the effect that any
>printed copy of a policy is considered obsolete
>as soon as it is printed.

I don't follow you. Let's assume you're in a hearing defending your position that the ee was given a copy of a policy. And you're explaining the policy to the hearing officer. You're speaking from a copy of the policy and the hearing officer is looking at the acknowledgement form. The hearing officer asks you, "Are you telling me that you are reading to this court from an obsolete copy of a prior policy?"

pattyo · December 2003

I guess I'll have to determine some way of proving that we have advised our employees of any revisions. Our on-line manual can be downloaded and printed out should someone want a hard copy - which some of the older employees prefer. Thanks for all your help.

Yahoo · December 2003

I've used screenprints of our intranet announcement re: updates to policies & it's always held up for me in unemployment hearings. I would assume that a copy of an e-mail addressed to all would work as well.

Margaret Morford · December 2003

I've got a paper acknowledgement I'll send you that includes the "at-will" language as well as the right to change any policy, with or without prior notice. Even if you go electronic, it will give you some wording to use. E-mail me if you want it.

Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]

Rockie · December 2003

Our manual is also on line. In orientation, I have everyone sign a statement advising that our manual is on line and they have instructions on how to access.

When we update the manual, generally at the beginning of each year, we simply attach a written synopsis of the changes to the paystubs. (Each employee gets a pay stub). You can also publish your updates via your Intranet site provided everyone has access to it.

Acknowledge Employee Manual

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