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Updating your employee handbook will help your employees stay in-the-know regarding your nonprofit’s evolving rules and regulations—a process that, when well executed, can protect your organization from undue employment problems and improper unemployment claims, as well as build employee relations and secure a healthier internal culture.

Taking the time to alter employee handbook policies at least once a year can mitigate employment related lawsuits and ensure your nonprofit’s overall progression.

As milestone employment laws change, even laws not directly impacting employment– including state-by-state changes in regulations regarding medical marijuana and gun carry permits– your employee handbook must clearly identify and address your organization’s policies regarding legal changes that impact your organization.

If you don’t help keep your staff properly informed, you can’t expect them to decipher what’s work appropriate and what’s not. And if you do leave it up to individual employees to decipher what is an isn’t appropriate, your organization is left open to employment related lawsuits and expensive, improperly collected unemployment benefit claims.

Some of the most important policies you should re-examine, if you haven’t done so in the past 6 months are:

• Employee benefits
• Break time for nursing mothers
• Discipline processes
• Hourly employee regulations

Remember, you need to be consistent and effective with employee handbook updates. Rather than completely changing everything, learn how to simplify wording and tweak pre-existing policies. (There’s no need to reinvent the wheel if you don’t absolutely need to.)

But the most important thing that you must do is educate your employees on their behavior and rights at the workplace; it’s beneficial to all parties involved.

Whenever the Handbook is updated, take the time to double check that you have proof of receipt from everyone since it’s imperative that you keep these easily accessible at all times. Without proof of receipt, your organization is open to improper unemployment claims, lawsuits, and all sorts of other slippery slopes.

When everyone at your organization shares the same views on organizational rules and expectations, you lessen the risk of confusion and unintended misconduct.  An updated handbook leads to a consensus on expected behavior and attitude—paving the way for a more harmonious work experience for everyone.

Learn more about how to update your Employee Handbook here.