Navigating the Handbook

Policy Lifecycle
Six Steps to Succeed in Your Policy Journey
 Navigating the Handbook
Policy Lifecycle
Six Steps to Succeed in Your Policy Journey

Author: XpertHR Editorial Team

Your company’s employee handbook (or collection of

individual employee policies) is a critical resource that
serves many important purposes: it promotes fairness
and consistency across the organization, reinforces your
company’s culture, informs employees and supervisors
of their rights and responsibilities, and, critically,
demonstrates compliance with employment laws
and regulations.

Yet your handbook is only effective if it is up to date.

Consider it a “living” document that is continuously
updated to reflect changes in law and evolving
workplace trends. If outdated, a handbook could not
only damage employee morale and engagement but
increase the risk of liability and litigation.

To help minimize these risks, here are six key steps

to help you succeed at handbook policy lifecycle
management and ensure your handbook stays relevant
and legally compliant.

February 2024 www.xperthr.com

 Navigating the Handbook Policy Lifecycle:
Six Steps to Succeed in Your Policy Journey

Determine Whether a Written

Policy is Required
When considering if you should have a written policy on
3
a particular topic, issue or law, first determine if a policy
is legally required. In addition to federal employment
law requirements, you’ll need to identify the state and
local employment laws that are effective in jurisdictions
where you have physical operations and where remote
employees are physically located and their work is
being performed. Not including a policy when required
to do so can expose an employer to litigation and
reputational risk.
The chart below provides an overview of the policies
that are required by law to be included in a handbook
if you have one. The chart only includes states and
localities that have these requirements. The list is
current as of January 2024, but it is critical to stay
informed of developments that impact your handbook.
Further details regarding employer coverage and
requirements can be found in XpertHR’s Required
Employee Handbook Policies by State and
Municipality 50-state chart.

Jurisdiction Employee Handbook Statement

Federal • Family and Medical Leave

• Lactation Accommodation
• Family Care and Medical Leave [5-49 Employees]
California
• Family and Medical Leave [50+ Employees]
• Pregnancy and Pregnancy-Related Disabilities Leave and Accommodation

• Family Friendly Workplace

California • Lactation Accommodation
(San Francisco) • Supplemental Compensation for Military Leave
• Supplemental Compensation for New Child Bonding [20+ Employees]

• Acknowledgement of Receipt of Colorado Overtime and Minimum Pay Standards

Colorado
(COMPS Order #38)

February 2024 www.xperthr.com

 Navigating the Handbook Policy Lifecycle:
Six Steps to Succeed in Your Policy Journey

Jurisdiction Employee Handbook Statement

District of • Family and Medical Leave [20-49 Employees]

Columbia • Family and Medical Leave [50+ Employees]

• Equal Employment Opportunity

• Paid Leave for All Workers Act Notice Handbook Addendum
Illinois • Religious Accommodation
• Sexual and Other Unlawful Harassment
• Pregnancy Accommodation

Illinois
• Paid Leave Notice Handbook Addendum
(Cook County)

Maryland • Pregnancy Accommodation

Maryland
• Lactation Accommodation
(Baltimore)

Michigan • Social Security Number Privacy

• Pregnancy and Lactation Accommodation Notice Handbook Addendum

Minnesota • Sick and Safe Time Notice of Employee Rights Handbook Addendum
• Wage Disclosure Protection

Minnesota
• Sick and Safe Leave Notice of Employee Rights Handbook Addendum
(Bloomington)

Minnesota • Sick and Safe Time [1-5 Employees; Accrual Method]

(Minneapolis) • Sick and Safe Time [6+ Employees; Accrual Method]

Minnesota • Minimum Wage Rights

(St.Paul) • Paid Sick and Safe Time [Accrual Method]

February 2024 www.xperthr.com

 Navigating the Handbook Policy Lifecycle:
Six Steps to Succeed in Your Policy Journey

Jurisdiction Employee Handbook Statement

• Airborne Infectious Disease Exposure Prevention Plan

New York
• Paid Family Leave Benefits

• Wage Theft Notice

Pennsylvania
• Sick Time [1-9 Employees, Excluding Chain Establishments]
(Philadelphia)
• Paid Sick Time [10+ Employees, Employees Working in Chain Establishments]

Tennessee • Parental Leave

Utah • Accommodations for Pregnancy, Childbirth, Breastfeeding or Related Conditions

• Pregnancy Accommodation
Virginia
• Reasonable Accommodations for Individuals with Disabilities

Even if you don’t have a handbook, there are still
several laws that require employers to create, adopt,
develop or maintain a policy. For instance, while not
required to include in a handbook, Chicago's Human
Rights Ordinance requires that all employers whose
employees work in Chicago have a written policy
prohibiting sexual harassment. Therefore, it is equally
crucial to consider these laws as well, when making
policy decisions.
Other policies may not be legally required in the
handbook, but you may opt to include them to inform
employees of their rights and to demonstrate company
compliance with the underlying law (e.g., EEO, meal
breaks, voting leave).
You may also be considering adding a handbook
policy that addresses current workforce trends, such
as remote work, or that helps your organization stay
competitive, such as tuition reimbursement or paid
volunteer time. Including such policies is a way to keep
and attract employees, respond to employees’ needs
and promote the company’s values.
Before drafting any of these policies, HR may need
buy-in from various stakeholders, especially for the
policies that are not legally required.

February 2024 www.xperthr.com


3
Draft a Handbook Policy
Once HR receives the approval to create the policy,
they may draft it entirely on their own, with the
input of internal or external legal counsel, or using a
3
technology-based handbook maintenance solution,
Distribute the Handbook Policy
All of the efforts put in to creating the policy will be
for nothing if you don’t distribute it to your workforce
and ensure they read it. Distribute the new policy via
email, in paper format, by posting on the company
Intranet or in a physical location in the workplace where
employees will see it. In addition, HR and stakeholders
will need to decide how to distribute new and updated
3
policies, either compiled within an employee handbook
or distributed individually.
Obtain Acknowledgement
Ensure that employees sign a written
acknowledgment that they received, read
and understand the handbook policy. The
acknowledgement serves a couple purposes
First, it sends a signal to the employee that the
organization takes each handbook policy seriously.
Second, an acknowledgement will come in handy
when an employer needs to enforce any of the
policy’s provisions. An employee who signed an
acknowledgment and is facing a violation will have a
hard time claiming to be unaware of the policy or the
consequences for having violated it.
February 2024
4
Navigating the Handbook Policy Lifecycle:
Six Steps to Succeed in Your Policy Journey
such as Aptifore. As part of the process, HR may need
to collaborate and obtain feedback and approval from
various stakeholders across the business.
4
The method and timing of distribution may also
depend on specific legal requirements. For instance,
the Baltimore, Maryland, lactation accommodation
law requires that covered employers distribute a
written policy to: 1) new employees at the time of hire;
2) existing employees within 10 calendar days of any
modification to the policy; and 3) any employee who
requires or inquires about pregnancy or parental leave.
To ensure receipt of employee acknowledgments,
clearly communicate acknowledgment deadlines,
develop a system to track receipt of employee
acknowledgements and create follow up
communications if necessary.
Retain signed acknowledgements either in the
employee’s file or through an online system. Be sure
to follow any specific recordkeeping requirements that
apply to electronic signatures.
www.xperthr.com

Train Supervisors
4
It is critical to train supervisors on policies and
procedures, especially any newly added policies, so
that they do not unknowingly create liability for the
organization or personal liability for themselves for
certain employment law violations.
Avoid these issues by training supervisors on:
• Policies providing employee benefits, rights and
protections;
• Their role in carrying out the organization’s policies;
• How to effectively communicate new or changed
company policies and procedures to their team
members;
Ongoing Review of Policies
Handbooks should be living documents that keep
employees informed of their rights and protections and
company expectations. To that end, ongoing review is
needed to determine if revisions, additions or removals
are needed. These changes may be prompted by:
Legal Developments
Just consider that in 2023 there more than 60 legal
developments on the federal, state and local level that
could impact the employee handbook by requiring
an update to a policy, the need for a new policy or the
removal of a policy. For multistate employers, staying
on top of these developments can be particularly
challenging, and many look to handbook policy
solutions that notify you when a legal development
impacts their organization’s policies.
February 2024
Navigating the Handbook Policy Lifecycle:
Six Steps to Succeed in Your Policy Journey
• Legal requirements and the potential consequences
if they or the organization fails to comply; and
• HR’s role and when to notify HR of any situation that
may trigger the company’s legal obligations so that
issues can be addressed effectively and in a timely
manner.
Overall, training supervisors on company policies is
necessary to ensure that the policies are uniformly
and consistently applied and enforced across the
organization. Doing so is critical to avoiding claims of
discrimination or unequal treatment.
Organizational Changes
When employers hire in new locations or expand
physical operations, they must ensure that their
handbook is updated to include policies covering
employment laws in those new jurisdictions. When the
workforce expands, the more legal developments must
be tracked to determine if their policies need to be
updated to reflect these changes.
Workforce Trends
As part of an ongoing review of the handbook, ensure
policies reflect current and emerging workplace trends.
Language, tone and content should send the message
that each policy is important and that the company is
keeping up with the times. This could include removing
gender-specific references from policies (e.g., replace
www.xperthr.com
 Navigating the Handbook Policy Lifecycle:
Six Steps to Succeed in Your Policy Journey

“he/she” with “they”) or drafting a policy providing
clear guidelines for the consistent and responsible
use of AI in the workplace.
You don’t want to raise any red flags to employees
that the company is not interested in investing in and
supporting their workers or creating a positive work
experience.
Conclusion
While the handbook policy lifecycle starts by
determining which policies to include, it certainly
does not end here. Policy distribution, employee
acknowledgments and training are other key
components. Even after these steps, effective policies
require HR to keep a pulse on all of the legal and
workplace changes that may prompt the creation,
update and removal of policies. And then the cycle
starts again.
Policy management is an ongoing task that when
done correctly can help prevent and serve as a
defense against employee lawsuits, convey workplace
rules and guidelines to employees and supervisors,
and lift an employer’s brand and reputation.

Our portfolio of products

Exclusive suite of reference Pay equity analytics for Intelligent & proactive
material, guidance, inclusive employers employee handbook
templates & tools management

About XpertHR®
Global leader XpertHR empowers organizations to shape HR strategy, manage employee risk and embrace
diverse talent ecosystems to create equitable, high-performing and purposeful workplaces. Since 2002, the data
analytics and intelligent solutions provider has earned a reputation for providing expert insights, trusted resources
and practical tools to help customers achieve greater efficiency, improve compliance and increase employee
engagement. XpertHR is proud to be part of the LexisNexis® portfolio within RELX, a global provider of information-
based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. To learn more visit xperthr.com.

Take XpertHR for a test drive today

XpertHR and its affiliated products have an

Information Security Management System, which
is certified to the ISO/IEC 27001:2013 standard

XpertHR is a trademark of LNRS Data Services Limited.

Copyright © 2024 LexisNexis Risk Solutions Group.
www.xperthr.com