Right, so there is this item called an employee handbook or policy manual and it should be on your radar because it is the document of ethics and standards that drives your organization forward and insulates it from any actions or behaviors that block progress. And if your current manual is in a format that isn’t engaging, enlightening or even exciting to your staff, then a change is certainly due.
Company leaders today have different motivations for confronting the issue of policy manuals. Some have reached the headcount numbers that they feel warrant a more formal publication of company rules. Others have heard some incredible horror stories about what other business owners have had to confront in their camps. You may have already started the project by harvesting some relevant content from your network of helpful advisors and/or the wonderful world of websites (WWW).
But your next move is crucial. And it has nothing to do with legal jargon or state employment law. It has to do with how well you package this material and how well it is received and understood by a very important target audience — your staff.
Keep two purposes in mind when creating a new employee manual or handbook. Of course, you want to clear up things like vacation time, cell phone expenses and use of company vehicles and property. And there are also the rules and regulations governing employee behavior (or lack thereof at times), conduct, ethics and so on, all of which add up to a document aimed at delivering some form of legal protection to the organization.
Yet the other major purpose for an employee manual is to get your staff on the same page and even excited to be a part of the action. So the manual itself must be viewed as a resource for your business and its employees as well, and to do that you really need to breathe some life into the document and treat it well.
Here are a few thoughts to get that process on the right track:
Change It!
Get out of the standard practice of cobbling up a long, dry series of pages in default Times Roman font with a cover sheet that looks like your middle school book report. No offense, but that homework assignment didn’t look all that interesting then, so why would an even thicker stack of paper be any more appealing to review, much less digest? Typography, layout and design are wonderful tools. With a professional eye and handler, they can be applied to a publication that puts your company image in a far greater light among your own people.
Be Creative.
Employee handbooks go through one of the three scenarios once they are released. They may sit in a desk drawer without seeing another day’s worth of fluorescent light. They could gather dust on a shelf alongside some old unused coffee mugs and family portraits. And if they are digital, well that’s a realm of desktop icons we can’t even begin to imagine.
Many employers have escaped this outcome by putting some creativity into their policy manuals, adding a conversational writing style that can make a policy booklet fresh, readable and engaging. Other firms are even using video or digital formats with page-to-page navigation and graphics, bringing real creativity to the piece. I have even seen interesting examples that borrowed the charm and fun of a children’s book in order to integrate a goal-oriented theme. Being creative is not out of line at all!
Spot Check Your Staff.
Now THIS is where the fun can really take shape, especially if you have the personality and sense of gamesmanship needed to be a leader. Employee manuals can be loaded with terminology that pleases lawyers and labor court judges while leaving your typical staff member in a perpetual state of yawn. No one does well when they encounter a term, phrase or symbol they do not understand, or something they have a partial understanding of at best.
So once in a while, walk over to one of your employees and ask them to pull out their copy of the company manual. Open up any random page, pick a word and ask that staffer for its definition. Ask them to use it in a sentence. Do this for a few words throughout the booklet. If they falter, hem or haw for any reason you should take this as a sign of a misunderstood word. When you spot this, have the employee look it up in a dictionary and go through each available definition of the word until they have a complete understanding of the term and how it is used in the context of the policy manual. Back this up by having your employees create sentences that demonstrate they can apply what they know.
This little practice, when done with the right spirit of play, can create an amazing effect among your team and it is very likely they will keep the manuals in a better place in their minds moving ahead.
