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John - We use Paychex for our payroll service, and I've seen their offers for other services, looked into them and shopped around, I find their pricing to be a bit on the high side.
If you want a turn key publication rest assured they'll give you a nice product. But it may lack the personality of your company. You mentioned in the thread about bonuses that you do hire the right people. A manual is critical to have, as it is a tool that helps to communicate expectations and lay out the working arrangement between employee and employer. How you word and express things tells people about you. You may or may not like what you see from Paychex after you get it. I might ask them for some samples to see if their style will work with your company.
I see an employee manual as ever changing and always requiring updating. We keep a working manual on hand where we make notes and updates throughout the year, reissuing each spring with the updates that added from the previous year. This year we added short and long term disibility insurance to the list of benefits, so we'll add an area describing how the benefit works and who is eligible. Ther is always something new to add.
One thing to consider, an "employee handbook" is really about company policies as they relate to their employment relationship with the company. Some will confuse a procedures manual with a policy manual. The procedures are more operations related and would be separate from your handbook.
Here is one other thought about the handbook - you could simply start off by writing down the things that you want to include in it. Build your own manual over time communicating the ideas that are important to you. If you're under a certain size you don't have to deal with FMLA, COBRA, and other headaches. Address those things that are the biggest frustrations that you have or that you have to repeat yourself on all the time when making a new hire. Avoid the legal stuff for now. If you don't have it in writing (e.g. drug policy, disciplinary procedures, sexual harrassment, etc.) you'll be no worse off legally than you are now. In some cases you might be better not having it in writing, but when you do put the legal stuff down, get a lawyer to review it. I just wonder whether or not the lawyer needs to review your uniform policy and other daily operational things that aren't so much affected by legal considerations. Having somethign now is better than nothing if it relieves some headaches, particularly if you're seeking an alternative to the $3800 in the meantime.
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