Stiletto heels and repossession: Why do I need an employee handbook?

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Many businesses start out on their kitchen table, and while some never move from a home office, others grow in a different direction and require you, as the business owner, to invest in the unknown – employees.

The most interesting challenges we have encountered revolved around our employees. When we contemplated opening up a retail store, no one warned us about the time commitment around retail hours and “what do you do when your employees call out sick?”

In an office-based environment, it is easier to manage one person missing. In a retail environment, if that one person is your 8-4 shift, you are challenged to find a replacement at 7 a.m. or open the store yourself. As you will see, the “calling out sick” has been the least of our headaches.

1. Dress code. What you think is appropriate business attire, may not be what your staff thinks is business attire. We have a retail store where one of our activities is assisting businesses with their back office shipping. Therefore, it is necessary for all employees to be able to lift 50 pounds (which is in our handbook).

We had an employee who showed up wearing a mini-dress and 4-inch stiletto heels after interviewing in a suit. In this outfit, which she saw as business attire, she was unable to perform the duties of the job.

Develop your dress code with three things in mind – brand image, job functional attire and remembering what you allow for one employee, you allow for everyone.

2. Harassment. Establishing a harassment policy was one area we never thought we’d have an issue, and yet we did. We hired a young man followed shortly thereafter by a young woman who was to be his supervisor.

He approached me asking how well I knew this woman. I knew her a little better than a typical employee but . . . .We sat down and he explained that he felt comfortable working for the owner (a woman) but not for a woman he did not know because he did not want her to falsely accuse him of sexual harassment. I was a bit perplexed on this one since she had not even started yet, but explained that we had a harassment policy in the employee handbook and if he still had concerns, to discuss them further.

3. Inclement weather. Remember the blizzard? Would you ever think that your employees would expect to get paid since Mother Nature stopped them from getting to work? Think again! Best to address how you will handle inclement weather for both exempt and non-exempt employees.

A handbook is not going to cover every situation, but you hope that it helps you through most of them. And when a situation arises, like the day a man arrived at the store to repossess our employee’s car, you might revise your handbook to cover something new like – pay advances.

But, no matter how small your business is, establishing an employee handbook will help you tackle some uncomfortable situations.