Author: Douglas S. Zucker, Bauch Zucker Hatfield LLC

Many employers use an employee handbook as an effective and efficient way to memorialize, maintain and communicate the employer's policies to employees. An employee handbook only can be effective and provide legal protections for employers if the handbook accurately reflects the employer's current policies, practices and procedures. Therefore, best practice is for employers to review the handbook annually to ensure that it reflects current realities with regard to existing policies, and to add any additional policies based on changes within the organization and developments in the law. To amend and update the employee handbook as necessary, the employer should do the following.