hard copy vs. Intranet

mushroomHR

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 08-19-04 AT 02:19PM (CST)[/font][br][br]I am in the process of revising our employee handbooks. In the past we have always provided a hard copy to the employee however, this revision I would like to put it on the company's Intranet. Do any of you do that and not provide a hard copy to the employee? Pros/cons to doing it that way? What do you do about getting a signed acknowledgment from the employee? Do you word the acknowledgment to say that the handbook is available on the Intranet and it is up to the employee to read it, etc? Do you take blank acknowledgments around and have employees sign them? Thanks for any help you can provide.

Edit: One other thought...what about new employees? Do you just let them peruse the document on the Intranet and not give them a hard copy?

Brad Forrister

I think you'd want at least a signed acknowledgement. I've also seen some systems that keep track of which employees have opened the manual on the intranet - even down to how many pages they viewed. Can't guarantee that they read it or understood it, but you'd at least be able to say, well, the system has recorded that he opened the Cell Phone Use policy on August 19, 2004, and kept it open for 1 minute and 15 seconds.

Brad Forrister
VP/Content
M. Lee Smith Publishers

hr traci

I put our latest revision of the handbook on the intranet and it has worked out fine so far. Our industry is digital graphics services, so it was about time we utilized the same technology to keep our policies up to date. Many employees commented that they appreciated this format much more than a binder that they would lose.

I had employees sign an acknowledgement that they knew how to access the online manual, and had read the policies online. The same acknowledgement is also given to new hires, with a sheet attached explaining how to access the manual.

When this was rolled out, I had a 5 question quiz that I distributed...the answers were regarding policies that had changed and they would only find the answers by actually reading the online manual - responses with all correct answers were then entered in a drawing for free lunch. Made everyone take a look at the manual and made the rollout a little more exciting!

Good luck!

mushroomHR

hr traci: Thanks for your response. How many employees are in your company?

hr traci

We are just under 100 employees