Overview
Your employee handbook is a critical risk management tool and needs to show employees how to behave and what procedures must be followed when they don’t. What’s exciting is those handbooks can also play a role in defining company culture!
Do your employees WANT to read your handbook? Is it interesting? Attractive? Positive? Did they have any role in creating it?
How can you take advantage of graphics, multi-media, and online storage, in creating and sharing your handbook?
In this fast-moving training, attorney, author, and speaker, Don Phin, will take us through the basics of handbook compliance including 2026 updates. Don will remind us about the importance of staying compliant with a wide range of laws, including those promulgated by Federal, State, and Municipal governing bodies, along with the myriad of regulations and case laws surrounding the interpretation of those laws.
Then, Don will focus on the opportunities available in creating great employee handbooks. He will discuss how you can focus your handbook on defining and reinforcing your company culture, vision, mission, values, goals, and more.
Finally, he’ll talk about bringing your employee handbook to life and the opportunities that have been created by graphics, media, and the online storage and dissemination of handbooks.
Areas Covered
· Understand the evolution of employee handbooks and their role in today’s workplace
· Discover what must be included in your 2026 employee handbook—and what can be added to strengthen it
· Learn best practices for structuring your handbook, including welcome messages and proper use of disclaimers
· Identify key legal elements such as at-will employment and required disclaimers
· Develop policies for hiring, onboarding, and orientation
· Ensure compliance with wage and hour regulations
· Build effective performance management and disciplinary procedures
· Establish clear workplace communication policies
· Review and update employee benefits and leave management policies
· Address workplace safety, discrimination, and harassment requirements
· Learn how to create a handbook employees will actually read and use
· Explore modern ways to bring your handbook to life using video and digital tools
· Gain practical insights to make your handbook more engaging, compliant, and impactful
