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What are your obligations with a digital employee handbook?

On Behalf of | Jul 22, 2021 | Employment Law for Employers |

While many companies still print paper employee handbooks for their new hires, many businesses have opted for a digital version. Rather than a booklet that ends up in a drawer or trash basket, a digital version ensures that employees have access to the handbook long after they would have lost a paper version.

An electronic handbook can make updating simpler, too. Rather than making revisions and sending them to be printed, you can update an electronic manual much faster.

Here’s what you should know about having an electronic employee handbook.

Keep track of changes

Every time you made a change with a paper handbook, you still had an old copy of the book on file to reference old policies. As can be the case with long-term employees, there are often misunderstandings about new rules versus old rules, especially when it is unclear when the new rule took effect.

Maintaining an electronic employee handbook can still be streamlined and reliable. When it is time to make changes, it is essential to track the change, when it was sent to employees and when the change took effect.

Require employees to acknowledge

There was a time not too long ago when human resources would send out an amendment regarding a rule change. Employees would need to sign a piece of paper acknowledging they received the notice. The signed document would then go into a file for safekeeping.

Maintaining an electronic handbook makes the process more straightforward, but the acknowledgment step is still important. Recording acknowledgment could be as simple as a digital signature. It could also include a short quiz to ensure the employee read the material.

Electronic handbooks can save you and your employees time and money by making the manual more accessible and easier to navigate.