A useful piece by my friend and partner, Jennifer Sandberg. While she wrote this piece for credit unions, the recommendations apply to any industry setting. This article was also featured at www.cumanagement.org. Jennifer is one of our attorneys who most focuses on developing practical business processes, as well as serving as one of our Affirmative Action Plan/Government Contracts Practice Leaders.
HR Answers: Creating a Great Employee Handbook
Date: February 12, 2014
By Jennifer Sandberg Given the myriad government regulations applicable to credit unions and the need for strict financial controls, a credit union might perceive that an employee handbook is low on its list of priorities. However, no credit union can function without a strong team of employees and, oddly enough, employees like to know the rules. No matter the industry, no matter the company size, any company with even a few employees benefits from an up-to-date, lawful employee handbook.
An employee handbook serves many purposes. It communicates the credit union’s rules and performance standards to employees, encourages employees to behave in a certain way, helps ensure employees are treated consistently, publicizes the employment benefits your credit union offers and maximizes the credit union’s ability to win unemployment claims and lawsuits.
A well-written, lawful employee handbook has no downsides; it provides a credit union with all the flexibility necessary to address innumerable possibilities when it comes to employee actions and inactions. If you ever believed an employee handbook could do more harm than good, you’d be doing your credit union a great disservice because those days are gone.
Employees Want to Know the Rules and Performance Requirements
Even though employees won’t always follow the rules, they do like to know the rules. Employees — both good and bad — like knowledge of what conduct is expected by the credit union and what repercussions to expect if they fail to follow the rules.
An employee handbook is primarily a rule book. Written correctly, a handbook allows a company to address a wide variety of rule violations without limiting the credit union’s ability to respond on a case-by-case basis as necessary. For this reason, we generally suggest that most employers avoid a formal, progressive discipline policy wherein a list of rule violations is associated with a particular “punishment.” Most credit unions are much better off training managers to respond appropriately and in a timely manner to employee rule violations and/or poor performance rather than simply imposing disciplinary measures.
Employees Need to Behave in a Certain Way
Your credit union handbook should tell employees what your credit union expects from them, not only to avoid disciplinary action, but to succeed.
For example, the employee handbook should tell an employee how to: request time off, inform the appropriate manager about possible harassment or discrimination, keep a time record, report possible theft, dress in an appropriate manner, refrain from drug and alcohol use, maintain confidential information, interact via social media, use various electronic resources, comply with applicable laws, etc.
Employees Should be Treated Consistently (And They Want to be Treated That Way)
Various managers working in the same or even remote branch locations ideally will respond to similar rule and performance violations in a similar manner. A well-written handbook tailored to the manner in which your credit union does business helps to ensure this desired consistency.
While a handbook should not be a manager’s “instruction book” on how to manage or deal with every conceivable problem or issue, it should provide a framework for managers to follow in dealing with various circumstances.
Do remember, however, the primary purpose of a handbook is to provide instructions to employees — not to serve as a “manager’s guide.” To the extent that your credit union uses a manager’s guide or believes such a guide is a good idea, that guide should be a separate (but
well-coordinated) document from the employee handbook.
The Credit Union Should Sell the Benefits it Offers
Credit unions spend a great deal of money on each and every employee in ways employees often do not see or appreciate. An employee handbook is an excellent way for a credit union to take credit for all that it does for its employees.
Without providing a great deal of detail that could become outdated quickly, an employee handbook should list all the benefits the credit union provides at no cost to employees (for example, workers’ compensation in most states); those the credit union subsidizes (for example, many types of insurance benefits); and those it makes available for purchase at reduced rates due to the credit union’s group purchasing power (for example, supplemental insurance).
Additionally, a handbook should include the various types of paid and unpaid time off or leave offered to employees — even if such leave is mandated by the government.
The Credit Union Wants to Win Unemployment Claims
In most states, winning an unemployment claim for a terminated employee requires proof that the terminated employee was on notice of a certain rule (or rules) and had been warned that violating the rule would lead to disciplinary action up to and including immediate termination.
A well-written employee handbook lays the foundation for a successful unemployment defense. The page of the handbook containing the applicable policy, as well as the employee’s signed acknowledgement page, should be the first step of any unemployment paperwork submission for a rule violation or poor performance termination.
The Credit Union Wants to Win Lawsuits
Many employment-based lawsuits hinge on consistent treatment of employees and/or ensuring employees were on notice of important credit union policies and procedures. A well-written employee handbook that reflects a credit union’s actual practices serves both of these purposes.
The employee handbook and the employee’s signed acknowledgement form are almost always exhibits in a lawsuit and can help a credit union win a lawsuit. Imagine a jury looking at your employee handbook. What does your current employee handbook “say” about your credit union? What image does it portray?
Is the handbook out of date? Does the handbook contain unlawful provisions or provisions that are no longer followed by the credit union? Does the handbook look “homemade” or cobbled together from multiple sources and documents?
Does the handbook contain inconsistencies? Could the handbook be a better reflection of your credit union? If you don’t think a jury would be impressed with the quality of your handbook, consider revising and updating your handbook right away.
The Credit Union Needs to Keep the Handbook Current and Relevant
Maybe your credit union has taken many of the steps outlined in this article – only it did so five, 10 or 20 years ago. If so, it is time for a comprehensive update. Not only do the laws change, but the issues change.
If it has been a while since your handbook was reviewed, it may not cover social media, personal electronic devices, texting, e-cigarettes, tattoos, piercings or other emerging issues employers face. Likewise, many policies could be out of date and no longer reflect best practices. The credit union should consider its handbook a “living” document that is updated and revised frequently to be a consistently accurate reflection of its strong employment-related practices.
Important Considerations for any Employee Handbook
Your handbook needs to reflect compliance with applicable federal, state and local laws related to the employment relationship. This does not mean every law needs to be specifically addressed and reiterated in detail in the handbook. Rather, the handbook should not conflict with any applicable law and should contain a clear statement that the company intends to comply with all applicable laws.
Your handbook should be tailored to the employment practices at your credit union and should clearly reflect how your credit union does business. Copying another credit union’s handbook or just adopting a handbook you find online — even from a very reputable source — may do more harm than good.
Your handbook is a reflection of the credit union overall, as well as a reflection of how much the credit union values its employees. Handbooks that contain typos, are copied askew, are out of date, contain another credit union’s name, contain policies that don’t apply to your credit union in whole or in part, and look sloppy or unprofessional send a message that the company doesn’t really care about its employees.
For the investment of a few dollars per employee, any credit union can publish a well-edited, well-written, employment law attorney-vetted, professional-looking employee handbook.
The handbook can be published in hard copy or online. Publishing the handbook online saves printing costs and is just as effective as a printed copy, as long as all employees have very easy and private access to the online handbook and the credit union obtains proof that each employee “has read or will read” the employee handbook.
In the end, even the very best handbook fails to provide a benefit to the credit union if employees do not have easy access to it and if the credit union cannot “prove” the employee received the handbook and understood that he or she was required to abide by the handbook. To have such proof, a credit union needs a signed acknowledgement form for a printed handbook or electronic acknowledgement receipt for an online handbook.
By creating a custom handbook for your credit union that complies with the points listed above, both the credit union and its employees benefit.
This article was also featured on www.cumanagement.org
Howard Mavity 
Foolish Comments and Inconsistent Appearing Discipline Get You Sued
Not just supervisors, but also Safety professionals routinely have to respond to or try to prevent various types of employment claims. Why you may ask? Partly because the supervisor and employees figure that “regulations are regulations,” so the safety dude probably knows about EEOC requirements and anything that smacks of weird regulatory stuff. Also, safety professionals often are accessible to employees and may learn of issues before other members of management. Finally, designing job descriptions and JSA’s often involves ADA considerations, as does determining if an employee can return to duty following a workplace injury. Safety professionals are also front line defenses to avoid and manage employment law claims.
So here are a few recent developments worth remembering . . . .
Don’t Live Up to Forrest Gump’s Explanation that “Stupid Is As Stupid Does.”
Let’s start with the problems created by foolish or thoughtless comments. A single arguably discriminatory comment generally does not alone prove discrimination. However, that comment may be enough to get the plaintiff’s lawsuit past the employer’s summary judgment motion and before a jury. In a January 2014 Federal court decision, the Judge allowed a claimant to take before a jury, his FMLA claim by an HIV-positive manager in part because of a comment that “managers who take FMLA leave are useless.” The decision is scary because you’ve probably encountered similar unwise statements in your workplace. Oops. I meant in your “competitor’s workplaces.”
I like Marie Symeou’s apropos comment: “Life isn’t about just talking, it’s about thinking too.” How about Haz rat Ali Ibu Abu-Talib’s remonstrance: “Take care of your tongue like the way you take care of your gold and silver.”
Or as Mark Twain commented, “It’s better to keep one’s mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt.”
Appearing Inconsistent Gets You Sued
In a Pittsburgh claim, the Plaintiff said that he was treated differently than a White employee. The employer grabbed a woman’s rear and “placed his fingers near her private parts.” He came up behind her and did this while the nurse was helping a patient “and he lifted her off the ground.” The last time I checked, that’s an assault and battery, and never tolerable. When she protested, he one-lined, “that was for Valentine’s Day, they call me walking chocolate.” He should have been fired for that obnoxious line alone.
This guy made it past summary judgment because the Judge strained to conclude that White employee’s were not terminated after engaging in “similar conduct.” He considered paramedics striking in self-defense, drunken patients who were attacking them.
I think this decision was simply wrong. But the point remains that you must check to ensure that you are being consistent in applying discipline, and if you do choose to deviate from past practice, document your good reasons for doing so.
Howard
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