Handbook Checklist:
Required Changes and the 12 Most Common Mistakes
In this 75-minute training, you will learn:
‘Must do’ handbook changes.
Discover the new or changed compliance requirements for the second half of 2021.
The most common mistakes.
Learn the 12 easily fixable mistakes that are hidden in many employee handbooks.
Pandemic-related updates.
What should your handbook say about vaccines, masks, hygiene, remote work and more?
Legal risks are lurking in your handbook: Do you know what to look for?
With laws and regulations changing rapidly during the pandemic, keeping your employee handbook in strict compliance has been a big struggle. Poorly worded (or missing) policies lead to expensive lawsuits. And your C-suite expects you to keep every word in your handbook up-to-date.
This 75-minute training session will give you a simple checklist of the crucial changes you need to make for the second half of 2021, and we’ll highlight the 12 most common mistakes employers are making in their handbooks this year.
You can’t afford to let your handbook go stale. Use this checklist to make all the necessary handbook updates for each state you operate in.
Agenda for Handbook Checklist
- Essential updates. Up-to-the-minute HR changes to add to your handbooks now.
- The “Dirty Dozen” mistakes. 12 handbook errors that will get you creamed in court (and how to avoid them).
- Templated handbooks. How to correctly customize them to stay out of court.
- The “accidental contract.” Identify wording that will tie your hands to future changes and give up your right to fire at will.
- Pandemic policies. Make sure your handbook reflects legally safe policies on vaccinations, masks and more.
- Employee leave. What to include and what to leave out regarding FMLA, ADA, reasonable accommodation and workers’ comp.
- Mental health. Why you should include EAP information in the handbook and establish health and safety rules.
- Remote work. Every handbook needs a section on telework—what should it say?
- Dress and grooming, including how to set rules on appropriate attire, behavior and backgrounds during Zoom meetings.
- Sexual and other harassment. Even if employees are remote, you need rules on email, telework, texting and off-site meetings.
- Speech and civility rules. When you can restrict what employees say and when you can’t (salaries, politics, hate speech, etc.).
- Overtime. Why you need to include overtime rules in the handbook for managers and employees.
- Handbook maintenance. When to review, how to update and who should approve.
Anniken Davenport is a noted employment law attorney and the editor of the HR Specialist: Employment Law newsletter series. She has authored several books, including Bullet-Proof Your Employee Handbook and Overtime & Other Tricky Pay Issues, published by HR Specialist. She is the co-author of the upcoming Labor & Employment Law for the 21st Century by Prentice Hall. Anniken has served as a professor at Penn State University, where she taught business law and HR management, and she directed the Legal Studies Program at Wilson College. Her legal career includes representing government units in discrimination and other employment law cases and representing school districts in labor negotiations.
Anniken Davenport Attorney and author
View a free clip:
Professional Certification Credit Hours Included
Business Management Daily is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for the SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP®.
The use of this official seal confirms that this Activity has met HR Certification Institute’s® (HRCI®) criteria for recertification credit pre-approval.
We promise you'll be satisfied.
If Handbook Checklist fails to meet your needs, we will refund every penny you paid – no hassles, no questions asked.