Definitions and References To Help Develop an Employee Manual

Before beginning your employee manual, you may find it useful to consult some resources and to review the definitions of policy and procedure.

The article “The Policy and Procedure Manual: Managing By the Book” by Paul Rao, PhD, is an

excellent resource that offers a sample format and table of contents, along with solid advice on how to put a manual together.

The Small Business Chronicle offers a concise four step plan for writing an employee manual in the article “How Do I Develop a Policies and Procedures Manual?” One step they include that many others do not is asking employees to sign a statement saying they have read and understand the manual.

Always a good resource, the Small Business Administration suggests some excellent reasons to write an employee manual, along with a good list of items to include. There are additional links within the article that may be useful.

One useful definition for the word policy is “a consistent guide to be followed under a given set of circumstances.” Good policies are broad, current, comprehensive, and used frequently.

A procedure is a set of steps for completing an activity. Procedures may outline how policies are implemented, but do not take the place of policies.