Multi-State/National Employee Handbooks

heights · January 2002

I work in HR for a multi-state and multi-national small non-profit employer. We have about 70 employees total who work in New York, California, Toronto, and Massachusetts. I am wondering what other folks out there do in their employee handbooks to cover the different regulations in different places. Do you have supplements to the handbook that cover the differences in state regulations? Do you create very general statements that would cover everyone? Do you have different sections within the handbook for each state? For example, New York and California have different Short Term Disability benefit payout amounts - how would something like this be addressed in a multi-state handbook. And, as we all know, Canada and the US have some very different labor laws. Do you do create a totally separate handbook for Canada?
Thanks in advance for any comments.

Gillian · January 2002

Based upon experience with a past employer with operations in numerous states I recommend a general handbook and supplements that are given to the employees in the various locations. If you try to put everything in one handbook you are bound to be out of date because some state passed a new law while you were updating it from the last time.

BC · January 2002

I, like you, work for a multi-state employer. We are a payroll service/software development firm. We have developed a server based communication tool that has an employee handbook feature. Our policies are general in nature and state specific information is distributed when special circumstances arise.

I will be glad to discuss what has worked for us and the software that we are using.

You can reach me at 615.591.3769 or by email.

Barry D. Campbell, SPHR
Human Resource Manager
PayMaxx, Inc.
[email]bcampbell@paymaxx.net[/email]

Multi-State/National Employee Handbooks

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