Issuing of employee handbooks

tpace · March 2006

When do you issue employee handbooks? On first day of hire or do you mail with offer letter?

I currently issue on the 1st day; however, our training committee is requesting that it be mailed with the offer letter.

In the HR Prof Development courses I took this fall for my PHR certification it was highly discouraged to mail as employee handbooks contain proprietory information.

Just checking to see how many follow this procedure. Personally, I do not recall ever receiving a handbook prior to my first day with past employers.

Thanks in advance for your input.

HR Hat · March 2006

We handle this several ways.

For new staff, we hand out employee handbooks during new staff orientation.

We have a quantity of them made once a year (they are updated fairly often), then distribute to all staff.

Also, the handbook is available to staff "online" as well. The online version is always the latest version.

We do have a single page handout describing our benefits that we give to people we interview. We would not give out our handbook to a non-staff member.

Hope this helps!

HR Hat

atrimble · March 2006

Ditto to all items on HR Hat's list.

AJ SPHR · March 2006

A question for HR Hat - if you have the handbook online, why do you hand out copies? We have our handbook online and give the location of it and acknowledgement form to new hires on the day they start. We stopped making any paper copies so that we're assured the info they're reading is the most current (and it saves paper!). Just curious why you still use paper copies, unless perhaps not all employees have access to the intranet?

NaeNae55 · March 2006

We do both because the employee cannot access the online version while at home. They can take their book home, or to the employee lounge if they want to.

When we do an update all employees are notified. Also, we make it clear to all employees that the online version is the one that is up to date and matters most.

Nae

pork1 · March 2006

TPACE: We provide each new enrollee an up-dated employee handbook, and they sign for that copy which also has their agreement that they are tasked to read and have their questions/concerns address early on in the employment activity before the learn new tricks from the employee base.

When there is an amendment we publish that amendment and put it with the pay-checks for that week. If we issue a new up-dated handbook it will go to all with a signature page for their use to acknowledge they did get their copy. We have sent out minor changes in pay-check on 4 changes. We have not issued a new handbook since the year 2002.

PORK

Whirlwind · March 2006

We give them out and have employees sign for them as part of completing all their other new hire paperwork on their first day of work

We don't do offer letters, but I wouldn't send the handbook with them even if we did.

ray a · March 2006

Handbooks and offer letters are given on first day of employment. Some professionals request the offer letter in advance and we accomodate them, but only the letter, not the book.

Rockie · March 2006

We have our handbook on line and do not have paper copies. I try to limit updates to once a year (sometimes I have to do it twice). I spent untold amounts of money and time trying to keep a paper handbook updated and it's just easier to keep it on line. Everyone at work has access to it on line and there's really no reason for them to view it at home unless they just want to.

I enhance all the changes to the handbook in red so employees will know what has changed. We also have an audit trail when an employee accesses the handbook page. They cannot print the handbook, only view it.

Beth Balen · March 2006

We issue on the first day of hiring. Actually, we now keep our employee handbook on the company network so employees can access it from inside and outside the office. The first day of work they are given a paper copy to read, but they don't keep that one. It was just too hard to keep it updated when there were a bazillion copies floating around. I would hate to have the expense of printing and mailing to new employees in advance of their first day.

Paul in Cannon Beach · April 2006

Beth, welcome to the forum! I noticed you are in Anchorage, Alaska. I have never been there myself but have many friends from Alaska.

Just curious, do you have a pilots license? I read somewhere that 1 out of 3 people living in Alaska have a pilots license.

Issuing of employee handbooks

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