An employee handbook serves several important functions, including:

Employers must take steps to ensure their handbooks are well-drafted, as a poorly drafted handbook can increase an employer's financial and legal exposure. For example, both unionized and nonunionized employers can violate Section 8(a)(1) of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by maintaining a policy that would "reasonably tend to chill" employees from exercising their rights under the NLRA. In addition, a court may view overly rigid disciplinary procedures as creating a contractual obligation on the part of the employer.

To create a legally compliant handbook, employers should:

In addition, employers should adopt best practices related to maintenance and distribution of their handbooks to ensure employees are informed of the most current policies.

The State Employee Handbook Toolkit provides several state content resources employers can use to create, maintain and distribute employee handbooks. It includes model state content policies broken down by state that have integrated notes with important explanations and drafting tips. The model state content policies are organized like a typical handbook policy with suggested headings. For more information on organizing an Employee Handbook, see Practice Note, Employee Handbooks: Best Practices: Tips for Organizing a Handbook.

For jurisdiction neutral versions of Handbook policies, see the Employee Handbook Toolkit.