"Well, I'm working on it. I bought this great, do-it-yourself Employee Handbook software package a few months back. And I'm going to do it as soon as I have the time...or maybe I'll give it to my assistant, but she's really pretty busy..."

You're right. She's busy. You're a small business - You're all busy!

"I thought this would be easy. I downloaded one of those free Employee Manuals, supposedly written by one of those high-priced business consultants. I found out why it was free. Its price reflected its content! All fluff, no specifics. I'm back to square one."

Your Employee Handbook should spell out your company policies and procedures.

"Yeah, I got one of those fill-in-the-blank packages too. It's OK, I guess. But it covers a lot of stuff we just don't do. And, boy, it's kind of hard to understand. I'm afraid it'll generate more questions than it answers."

Your Employee Handbook should be concise, comprehensive and clear.

"Oh, yes. We have one. It's kind of based on one of those free sample employee handbooks. But it's really pretty jumbled. All the personnel policies and procedures just seem to run together. I guess I really need somebody to fix it up, maybe reorganize it."

Your Employee Handbook should be well-organized and easy to understand.

"OK. I know we need one. A friend of mine just went through a really messy and expensive lawsuit, because she couldn't prove that the employee she fired had broken company rules. She didn't have a Handbook because she couldn't afford one."

Right. But what she learned was - You can't afford NOT to have one!

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