[johnkeegan]

Did most of you develop an employee handbook through a lawyer or by yourself (while referencing applicable laws)? My payroll company offers the service, as well. Any rough ideas on the cost?

[Matt Kulp]

We developed ours mostly ourselves, however our attorney looked it over and made verbage changes to sound as if an attorney wrote it as well as make sure we were within our rights under state law. Our handbook took a long time to create, we have over 50 pages as of today and there are always things that come up that we insert as addendum's. It spells out everything from incentive programs we have in place to how and when raises are handed out, and other company specific procedures and rules.
I started out with something "generic" from our attorney years ago, however as you get more employees, it is very important to have everything spelled out to the T and you will want it company specific.

John,
If you want to pm me your email address, I can give you some information I used as an outline to get started.

[TrickyDick]

We are in the process of creating one. I read through it yesterday and felt that there were a few sections that definately needed to be looked at by a lawyer, which means I need to find a lawyer. The one we used to date sucks. I think that it would be pretty risky to try to write on subjects like discrimination and safety without involving a lawyer. I would think the price could vary quite a bit depending on how involved you want them to be. Just editing 5 or 10 pages would probably run three or four hours at most.

[Matt Kulp]

Originally posted by TrickyDick
We are in the process of creating one. I read through it yesterday and felt that there were a few sections that definately needed to be looked at by a lawyer, which means I need to find a lawyer. The one we used to date sucks. I think that it would be pretty risky to try to write on subjects like discrimination and safety without involving a lawyer. I would think the price could vary quite a bit depending on how involved you want them to be. Just editing 5 or 10 pages would probably run three or four hours at most.

Have the attorney read everything when you have it together. You would be surprised on how your wording has to read to be considered a employee/employer contract. For our attorney to read and make changes to our handbook, it cost around $1,500.

[Daniel Hanson]

We purchased a pretty nice employee handbook through Planet. It came on disc and has an English and Spanish version in Microsoft Word format. From what I understand it was developed with input from several large landscape companies. I've been quite pleased with it. We're just now finishing up our few modifications and I'll probably have an attorney review it before we start using it.

I have realized that once you get past a certain size an employee handbook is invaluable. We plan on making all employees, existing and new sign a statement acknowledging that they have read and understand the policies in the handbook. So many personnel problems that we have experienced could have been avoided if we had all of our policies in writing and in one place for the employees to reference.

[site]

There are free templates online. I found one that had highlited areas where you filled in the company's name, or other appropriate info. There are a million options online. don't waste time reinventing the wheel.

[johnkeegan]

Paychex quoted me a "a package deal" of approx. $3,800 to create a handbook specific to us and to come and do OSHA compliant training for all (4) employees. After which they all sign on the dotted line. They create all the proper forms and procedures for every aspect of HR and safety. Plus every year it's $325/ year to keep us compliant on any updates, approve and create any changes to policy and free consults on any issues. There's an initial sticker shock obviously but I'm wondering if I wouldn't sleep better at night not worrying if I didn't miss something. Kinda like having an accountant or payroll company handling payroll/taxes rules and regs. One less hat to wear.
Feedback appreciated.

[Matt Kulp]

Originally posted by johnkeegan
Paychex quoted me a "a package deal" of approx. $3,800 to create a handbook specific to us and to come and do OSHA compliant training for all (4) employees. After which they all sign on the dotted line. They create all the proper forms and procedures for every aspect of HR and safety. Plus every year it's $325/ year to keep us compliant on any updates, approve and create any changes to policy and free consults on any issues. There's an initial sticker shock obviously but I'm wondering if I wouldn't sleep better at night not worrying if I didn't miss something. Kinda like having an accountant or payroll company handling payroll/taxes rules and regs. One less hat to wear.
Feedback appreciated.

That doesn't sound too bad for the HR stuff, but you are still going to have to put some thought into YOUR policies, I don't think paychex can advise you on that. I like the idea of yearly review and maintenance for updates. I would imagine that they would carry some of the liability to make sure that your manuals are compliant with all current laws.

Here is a good site for HR stuff that we found, tons of good info if you don't mind a mind numbing read once in a while1

www.shrm.org

[Lawn Lad]

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.

[johnkeegan]

Thanks Lawn.
...as a warning also I clicked on the link above to the "employee handbook" related areas and one of the sites listed as selling handbooks may have a virus related to it. I got a "virus warning" immediately after leaving the site. Seemed like the one with the $99.95 offer.