Many small business owners assume employee handbooks are only for large corporations.
A good rule of thumb for small business owners is that, if you have more than five employees, you should create a handbook.
It helps create unity because all the employees know exactly what they can and cannot do.
It makes it easier for owners to enforce their policies because they have them in writing.
Many small business owners don't have handbooks because they feel they are too corporate and they prefer to keep things small.
You still can keep your company small and homey-feeling with a handbook.
One way for a small business to know when it is time to create employee handbooks is when the owner faces questions regarding the company that he or she isn't sure how to answer.
You won't have to worry about telling an employee one thing and then telling another employee something else.
Handbooks will make sure you provide uniform answers to all your employees' questions and needs.
This is a small reason why small businesses should have a handbook.
However, it is not the only reason, nor is it the most important reason.
The most important reason for small businesses to use employee handbooks is for protection.
Like it or not, we are in the age of lawsuits.
People sue every day over situations that wouldn't have mattered years ago.
As a small business owner, you are liable to lawsuits from your own employees.
Having a handbook can help you protect your business because you will have the policies in writing.
Courts actually consider employee handbooks to be a contractual obligation.
This can save your company from having pointless lawsuits from disgruntled employees.
If you think you will avoid lawsuits because you are a small business, keep in mind that accidents happen and there is always the possibility of a lawsuit in every business setting.
Besides protection yourself and your company, having employee handbooks help your employees know how they should do their job.
Your employees will be able to do their jobs better because they know what the rules are.
They won't have to worry about maybe doing something wrong because they will know the rules ahead of time.
Handbooks also are a good place to lay out all your expectations of your employees' ethics.
It may be easy to assume that your few employees know how they should act ethically, but if you don't tell them, how will you know that they know? Because you understand why it is important for small businesses to use employee handbooks, the next step is to create one.
Although it is tempting to borrow another company's handbook and altering to your needs, don't.
The handbook sets the tone of your company and all companies are different.
Many companies use other handbooks as guidelines, which is fine as long as it really is a guideline and not a copy.
You can use it to see what type of information they included in their handbook.
But make sure you create your own that fits your company's model.