Changes to 1999 Employee Guide & Handbook

elbeeIN

We are in the process of updating and redefining areas of our Handbook which was written in 1999. One specific area is the Personal Leave or PTO time. Originally, I believe it was set up to be used for sick days and personal time out of the office. We allow 48 hours of personal time per year but in the past the employees have been allowed to make up their time and not use the personal time. Instead they are using it for extra vacation days. I want to redefine this area and be more specific about the use of personal leave. I'm not changing the time allowed, only changing how it can be used. I also have several other areas that need to be clarified but not changed. I know the manual is being misinterpreted or in some cases being used to suit a situation. Has anyone else tackled this?

stilldazed

Welcome to the forum.

I think many forumites have at one time or another. With all due respect, I'm not clear about your question. Are you asking about how to change a time off policy, whether a change can be made, or how best to undertake a major revision in company policies (including publication of the change in the employee handbook)?

Clarification would be helpful.

elbeeIN

Thank you for responding. This is my first submission - I'll get better. At this point, my first question is can I take a current Personal Leave policy (eff 11/1/1999) that does not define what is allowed under it and now put a more thorough description on how it can be used? The policy right now just states the amount of time ("employees will be granted 48 hours of personal leave per anniversary leave", "employee can elect to be compensated up to 48 hours, or elect to roll it over up to 120 hours". There is no mention about what the intended use is for Personal Leave. Can I expand on what is allowed? Thanks for your help!

cnghr

I go in and "fine tune" the policies in our handbook often in order to clarify them for our employees, and this often includes expanding the details of what the policies cover. You aren't changing the actual amount of time off allowed, you just want to explain the policy a little bit better. If you aren't the person who has the final say on how your handbook is written, check with whoever is and ask them if there is any reason why you shouldn't expand on what is allowed under the personal leave policy.

stilldazed

You're among friends in the forum.

Unless there is a state specific regulation that restricts your ability to 'tweak' your benefits, you can and should review the policies periodically and change, modify, ammend, etc. as appropriate. It is wise if you have the time to do so to advertise changes to staff before the changes are implemented, sometimes for as long as 60 days if possible. Doing so will afford you the opportunity to answer questions, clarify concerns, and generally get buy in and support for the changes before they occur. The alternative is to change without advance warning and spend at least 60 days smoothing ruffled feathers, calming angry emotions, justifying after the fact, . . ., etc.

Anything more than tweaking should most definitely be advertised to staff ahead of time. Anything that has to do with $$ may have some regulatory restrictions. Your state may have some specific regulations that are more restrictive than federal regulations. It's always good to check all the bases.

best wishes.

cnghr

If you haven't been doing it previously, it's a good idea to have an attorney that specializes in labor law review your handbook to make sure there's nothing in the way any of your policies are written that may be problematic legally. As I said in my earlier post, I work on ours fairly often, clarifying policies so they are easier for the employees to understand and updating policies that have changed. Then we have our attorney review it every five years or so. The last time that was done, he had some good suggestions that we implemented as far as the wording of some of our policies was concerned....not changing the policies, but wording them in a way that was clearer and didn't leave any doubt as to the true intent of the policies.

Rockie

I generally review and update my employee manual once a year to keep pace with any changes in laws and regulations or policy changes. In this way I don't have to do a major "overhaul" as I did when I came here 8 1/2 years ago.

As far as Paid Time Off (PTO), my general rule of thumb in a policy is if the time is in the bank, it has to be utilized in lieu of Leave Without Pay. We have people who would take Leave Without Pay and build up a huge PTO bank and then want to take 2-3 weeks off at a time. We do not allow Leave Without Pay unless the PTO bank has been totally exhausted.