Shaping Your Policy and Company Culture with Employee Handbooks

An employee handbook is an important business document that most companies should have. There are many reasons for having one and at least as many articles on the web that explore those reasons. So, instead of reiterating arguments others have already made, I'd like to discuss how you can use an employee handbook not only to communicate company policies and meet legal requirements, but also to build company culture.

A central part of every onboarding process is integrating new employees into their teams – a process that heavily depends on familiarizing new recruits with the company's culture. This is where an employee handbook that focuses on the needs of the employees themselves can provide guidance.

If you devote part of your employee handbook to topics that brief people on company and team values, communication (e.g. etiquette), common goals (e.g. the vision of what you are all working towards – for us it's to help others work better together), then you can easily communicate those aspects of your company's culture to new team members.