H.R. is Drinking From a Fire Hose

In any organization, it is easy to place blame on someone when something goes wrong. When something goes wrong in H.R. however, the blame usually traces back to company policies and procedures.

Those policies and procedures are usually housed in one central place - The Employee Handbook. So, it should be simple to conclude that the H.R. team should focus on having an up to date and perfectly written Employee Handbook. Yet that is seldom the case. Why? The answer is simple: H.R. is like drinking from a fire hose!

1. H.R. is usually understaffed

2. H.R. is often executing multiple strategies and projects at once

3. H.R. deals with issues that "pop up" and cannot be planned for

There are many reasons why the Employee Handbook is either incomplete, old and out of date, or not even written yet. So, what is the best practice for making sure this document is written properly, updated on a timely basis, and reflects company policies and procedures?

Outsource it. Let someone from the outside write it for you. Make sure they have a sound process for writing Employee Handbooks. Also make sure they can write it in a timely manner; it should not take more than a few weeks to write a great Employee Handbook.

Rick Maher

CEO

TurningPoint HCM

www.TurningPointHCM.com