The Impact of the Employee Handbook on Organizations Essay

The Impact of the Employee enchiridion on Organizations - Essay ExampleWhat is an employee handbook There atomic number 18 many attorneys with internet presences offering free advice on handbook drafting in laymans language (Dickson Wright).Look for simple definitions on the internet and you may be cross however, Schaefer goes to some trouble to distinguish it from the much larger manual of policies and proceduresAn employee handbook is designed to familiarize employees with raw material company policies and benefits programs, and although it draws topics from the far broader policies manual, it presents them with much less detail. (43)Also, the reader may have direct experience of sign an acknowledgement often including a statement, a disclaimer, to the effect that you agree that the handbook does non in itself present an employment contract (Schaefer 43) which is a key point in understanding them. Handbooks are informational, non-contractual documents that cover the employee transit from induction to discharge. Implicit in them is the legal idea of consensus in idem (agreement in the same liaison), widely acknowledged to be an advantage of these documents (Newcomb). For the purposes of this essay we result only consider large-scale enterprises which are usually where they are used.Handbooks can be most useful for employee induction, as a basis for answer disputes or reducing a companys exposure to law suits arising from health and safety legislation, claims for harassment and for unfair paper bag indeed, it could be a combination of all of these and more. Although it may be assumed that the handbook may not be well received by some employees, this misses the point in that it is a top-down, employer-created document and they moldiness comply with its rules and spirit. In a unionized workplace, much of the content would depend of the relative bargaining strengths of the parties. Employer interests will inevitably dominate and, ironically in some res pects, be separated from their employees, e.g. consider McDonalds policies on no solicitation, no loitering (McDonalds 9). It may prescribe the use of safety goggles or a uniform (McDonalds 13), hardly also describe, say, an attitude that shop floor staff must have toward customers, as illustrated by McDonalds concept of customer delight (10). If we compare and contrast the handbooks for a commercial concern, McDonalds Australia, the University of Chicago and The State of Iowa, we can identify immediately that although covering broadly similar themes, they are tailored to the organization to take account of their extra corporate culture and aims, e.g. differing health and safety requirements, differing staff profiles (diverse age group or predominantly progeny people), the mission of the organization, etc.. One is aimed primarily at inexperienced young adults, one at a take off of staff from clerical to collegiate, degree-educated academics and one at an American state with pro bably the broadest and most diverse employee profile.Handbook content is broadly similar regardless of the organizations purpose and covers matters such as absence and sick leave, benefits, curry code, health and safety, performance and appraisal,