As businesses grow and expand, previous informal face-to-face methods of communicating company policies cannot guaranty that each employee receives the same messages about rights, policies and benefits. Also, supervisors and managers frequently need a reference in their efforts to communicate with employees about company expectations, workplace rules and employee benefits. Handbooks and policies provide a forum for company supervisors to deliver consistent and positive messages to employees.

Effective and comprehensive handbooks:

• Contain appropriate disclaimers to help prevent expensive legal problems;
• Are written in clear reasonable language;
• Include legally-required policies that are comprehensive, yet to the point;
• Outline company expectations for employees;
• Highlight the company's history and role in its industry and community;
• Can aid the recruitment process to attract new employees; and
• Provide employees with a sense of comfort -- they know what to expect.

Lake Associates, Inc. meets these guidelines through custom handbook services guaranteed to mee the needs of your company. This includes:

• Individual one-on-one services from an experienced and certified human resource professional. We will meet with your company representatives to decide together your company's employment philosophy, the tone and messages you wish to deliver and the contents and topics you want covered.
• Review of your existing employee handbook to insure that it is current, in compliance with state and federal regulations, complete, easy to read and comparable with the area and industry.
• If you are a multi-state employer, review of recent legal cases and laws in all your states of operation.
• Review of related company practices and procedures: new hire orientation checklist, offer of employment letter, terminating employee checklists and letters, application form and waivers.
• Preparation of a new or revised custom employee handbook which complies with state and federal laws, approved by you, in desktop publishing format ready for printing or publishing on your company Intranet or public network directory.
• One-year of policy update services. We will notify you of any recommended changes to your handbook and provide sample policies based on newly enacted legislation in all states represented for one year.
• One-year of unlimited telephone consultation regarding the interpretation of your employee handbook.
• Optional services: translation of portions or the entire handbook into Spanish. ¨
• Optional services: legal review of your custom handbook for a very reasonable fee by our attorneys.
• Optional services: preparation of internal communication materials, such as announcement memos.
• Optional services: preparation and/or delivery of supervisor training materials for use in conjunction with handbook release.
• Optional services: assistance with preparation of specifications for securing printing quotes, evaluation of bids and selection of vendor, supervision of printing and binding process.

To download a comprehensive outline of our handbook services, please click here.

You will need Adobe Acrobat®, which you may download from the Adobe® website.