Contract guide
Employee Handbook — What to Include
An employee handbook explains workplace policies, benefits, conduct, and reporting procedures. Learn what to include and how to adapt it for your team.
Written and reviewed by Talking Tree's legal team · Last reviewed September 2026
When every employee gets a different answer about time off, expenses, or workplace concerns, small inconsistencies become recurring problems. An Employee Handbook gives your team a shared reference for how the workplace operates and where to get help.
What Is an Employee Handbook?
An Employee Handbook is a collection of workplace policies explaining expectations, procedures, and available benefits. It supports consistent onboarding and management. It is distinct from an individual employment agreement: the handbook generally describes workplace rules, while an agreement records terms specific to the employee. Its legal effect depends on its wording and applicable law.
When Do You Need One?
- You are hiring your first employees or formalizing an existing team
- Managers need consistent guidance on leave, attendance, and conduct
- Employees work in multiple states or countries
- Your existing policies are scattered across emails and onboarding documents
What Should an Employee Handbook Include?
1. Scope and Employment Relationship
Identify the employer, covered employees, and policy owner. Explain the handbook's relationship to individual agreements and applicable law. Use any at-will language only where appropriate; do not assume one statement works in every jurisdiction.
2. Equal Opportunity and Accommodations
Explain how employees request disability, religious, pregnancy-related, or other legally required accommodations. Identify a contact and describe the process without making employees resolve the legal standard themselves.
3. Harassment, Complaints, and Non-Retaliation
Give employees multiple reporting options, including an alternative if their supervisor is involved. Describe prompt review, appropriate confidentiality, and protection against retaliation for legally protected complaints.
4. Pay, Timekeeping, and Expenses
Explain payroll schedules, time entry, overtime approval, and expense submission. An approval rule should not tell employees to omit time actually worked. Have local requirements checked before setting reimbursement or deduction rules.
5. Hours, Attendance, and Remote Work
Cover scheduling, attendance reporting, remote work approval, and breaks. Clarify where employees may work and when a location change requires approval so the company can assess local obligations.
6. Leave and Benefits
Explain available leave, holidays, and how to request time off. Coordinate summaries with benefit plan documents and use location-specific supplements where entitlements differ.
7. Conduct, Safety, and Technology
Describe safety reporting, acceptable use of company systems, information security, and workplace behavior. Link to detailed policies instead of maintaining conflicting copies in several documents.
8. Performance and Discipline
Explain feedback and possible corrective action without promising a rigid sequence the business cannot always follow. Apply policies consistently and preserve legally required procedures.
9. Departure and Acknowledgment
Cover return of property, access removal, and where to ask about final pay or benefits. Have employees acknowledge receipt and access to updates; an acknowledgment should not be presented as a blanket waiver of rights.
Common Mistakes Founders Make
Using the same handbook everywhere. Leave, reimbursement, notices, and other obligations depend on location. Add appropriate supplements and assign responsibility for keeping them current.
Prohibiting discussion of pay. Broad confidentiality or conduct rules can interfere with protected workplace activity.
Publishing procedures no one follows. Train managers and keep reporting channels functional. A policy is only useful if employees can rely on it.
Why This Matters for Founders
A handbook reduces repeated questions and gives managers a common starting point. For founders, the practical benefit is consistency: employees know what to expect, and concerns have a defined path to resolution.
Use it alongside an Employment Agreement, a Generative AI Policy, and a Personal Mobile Device Use Policy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is an employee handbook an employment contract?
It is generally a workplace policy document, but its wording and applicable law can create enforceable obligations. Coordinate it with individual employment agreements.
Can one handbook cover employees in different states?
A common handbook can be supplemented with location-specific policies after reviewing local requirements.
What should an employee handbook include?
Employment policies, reporting procedures, pay and timekeeping, leave, benefits, conduct, safety, technology use, and acknowledgment procedures.
Legal and Practical Context
Covered employees may act together about pay and working conditions, including in nonunion workplaces. Review handbook restrictions with that protection in mind. NLRB guidance on concerted activity.
This guide focuses on common U.S. business considerations. Requirements and enforceability depend on the jurisdiction and the facts of the arrangement.
Explore Talking Tree's Contract Studio
Cedar, Talking Tree's Contract Studio, brings document preparation and signing into one workflow. Use this guide to organize your requirements, then explore the available templates and tailor the document to your business.
Get started with Talking Tree.
This page is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For advice specific to your situation, consult a licensed attorney.