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Does a small business owned and operated by a family need the professional employee handbook management practices used by other small to mid-sized companies? The short answer to that question is “yes,” but most family business owners would disagree. After all, we are talking about family, here. Do you really need protection practices like a handbook, safety policy, notification compliance and employment documentation to work with your wife, children, brother or other family members?

Absolutely. Regardless of whom you employ, both state and federal laws require that you treat your employees equally, safely and inform them of their rights. Family is still entitled to unemployment compensation, OSHA protections, equal rights and workers compensation in case of injury. (There are some exemptions for family members who are part owners.)

Unclear Lines of Communication Can be Cleared up with An Employee Handbook

The lines between family and employer/employee relationships get blurred with the business. This can cause breakdowns in how efficiently the business runs as well as resentment in the structure of the business. Treating your family as families at home, and as employees at work clarifies those boundaries and improves relationships all around.

What about the perspective of non-family employees? Managing relatives to a different standard than non-family employees is a real morale killer and one of the best ways to guarantee continuous turnover. Professional employee management practices ensure that everyone is pulling their weight and not taking advantage of the clan connection.

The professional employee handbook management practices used by larger companies do more than protect a business from unemployment or workers compensation claims or lawsuits. They create a structure for employees to do their best. Employees are the most productive when they know exactly what their duties are, and the standards they are expected to meet. Having things like a handbook, job descriptions and procedures for handling conflict creates an atmosphere of security. Employees take their job more seriously because they know their paycheck isn’t subject to family politics.

All of that may sound like a lot of paperwork, but there are affordable management systems available for the small business. An hour or two on a slow afternoon and you are ready to manage both groups for maximum productivity.

The final point I want to make is that over the years, I have worked with many small business owners who placed complete trust in their family employees. They are stunned to find out their son has stolen from them or their daughter is having an affair with a married employee. These are the kinds of situations all companies guard against. In the business, the son doesn’t consider taking without asking is stealing because it is “his” money. The daughter doesn’t consider her behavior inappropriate because “who’s gonna fire me?’

The family-run business can create a sense of entitlement of ownership in members who have no ownership position. Brothers will enter into bad contracts they are not authorized to negotiate. Sons will decide to go in a direction that the true owners have not approved if the proper management structure has not been put in place. Setting boundaries for family is more important, in my opinion, than for non-family employees. It protects this all-important asset that supports everyone – the family business.

I own and operated such a business. I know that we start businesses to make a better life for the people we love the most. But just because they are related to us doesn’t mean they don’t make mistakes or poor decisions. Professional management practices, including an employee handbook, allow members to grow and learn in the business without putting it at risk. And that is why even a family-run business needs human resources management systems.

Here’s an excellent summary of ways to mitigate tensions in this type of business, provided as a free PDF download by the Small Business Administration.

And, of course, our own “Your Employee Handbook” contains clear, concise, and fair policies that will help improve communication among all employees, including family members. Click here for more information.

Cell Phones, Smart Phones and PDA Devices Policy Released

We’ve created a brand-new policy for companies with employees who use cell phone (isn’t that everybody?). This policy addresses employees who use their phone for work purposes, with language for employee-owned phones or company-provided phones.

There is also language include most new “smartphone” models, texting and other messaging, and the correct times to use, and not use the phone.

Those who have purchased Your Employee Handbook will be sent the new policy, and it will be available for download in the Download Area.

If you have not purchased Your Employee Handbook (why not?), you can get the new “Cell Phone, Smart Phone and PDA Device” policy free — as in “no charge” — so you can see a typical sample of the policies in our handbooks.

Click the “Download” button below and receive the policy instantly! Of course, once you’ve reviewed the policy, we hope you’ll return to buy one of the industry versions of Your Employee Handbook!

Enjoy!

Gary Smith
Publisher, Your Employee Handbook

1. Our initial site was a very simple HTML site and promoted one product, Your Employee Handbook for Offices.

2. Then in 2001, we did our first redesign, staying with an HTML site.

3. In 2002, we moved the whole shebang into the Postnuke Content Management System so we could offer memberships, security for our downloads, and a blogging platform, plus easier maintenance of the content we were adding. That was a pretty stable platform and lasted until…

4. …2008, when we moved it into WordPress. At that time we re-designed again and added even more functionality, including a very robust e-commerce system and member management, better security for our product files, and even better tools to communicate and organize the content on the site.

5. Since then, we’ve steadily added content that would be useful to our members and visitors, added five more handbook versions, many more publications that make up the system, and published our first non-handbook book (“Ask the Right Questions. Hire the Right Employee!”), which is available on Kindle, through Amazon.com, and on this site.

6. Now, we’ve re-designed once again, sticking with the latest WordPress version, but re-organizing the site for better access the the content we know visitors and members want. We’ve added even more functionality behind the scenes that will create even more value for purchasers. And we’re revving up the writers to produce even more useful content and publications we’ll be unveiling soon.

And something that I’m very excited about is our new partnership with Ray Temple of emobileHR, a human resources consultant with a large network of HR professionals who offer the type of services small businesses often need, but can’t often afford. Services such as job descriptions, custom handbook policy development, full-fledged safety program development, and more. We’re an integral part of that network, and proud to be so. The result of more than a year’s of development and negotiation, this will allow YourEmployeeHandbook.com members to reach even more valuable and and affordable services.

Read more at the emobileHR website, Facebook page, or our own Partner page.

We completed our move to a massive new server last month that has already provided some huge speed increases in delivering pages to you and loading them in your browser.

We expect to have the transition done by the end of the day on Tuesday, July 5. But in the meantime, you may run across some glitches on pages, mostly in graphics, etc. The ordering process should work just fine.

We appreciate your patience. We’re open for business, so if there is something you need and can’t find, just drop me an email, and I’ll be happy to make it available to you.

Gary Smith

Publisher, Your Employee Handbook