Employee Handbook Template for Small Businesses

What goes in an employee handbook?

Eight sections cover what a small team needs. The third column is how to stop each one growing.

Section 8 is the one that keeps the rest honest. If the handbook lists every policy with an owner, it's easy to see which ones are missing or out of date.

Employee handbook template (copy this)

Copy this into Word, Google Docs, Notion or whatever your team already opens. Replace the square brackets with your own words, and delete any line that doesn't apply.

[BUSINESS NAME] EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK
Version: [v1.0]    Approved by: [Name, role]    Date: [Date]
Owner: [One named person]    Next review: [Date]

1. WELCOME AND HOW TO USE THIS HANDBOOK
   What we do and who for: [Two or three sentences]
   How this handbook works: It gives the main points. The full rules are in
   the policies listed in section 8. If the two ever disagree, the policy wins.
   Who to ask: [Role and name]

2. THE ESSENTIALS
   Working hours and core hours: [Hours, or "see your contract"]
   Where we work: [Office, home, hybrid. Link the remote working policy]
   Who you report to: [How reporting lines work here]
   Probation: [Length and how it's reviewed, or "see your contract"]

3. PAY, EXPENSES AND TIME OFF
   Pay day: [Date or rule]
   Expenses: [One line. Link the expenses policy]
   Booking holiday: [How, how far ahead, who approves]
   Reporting an absence: [Who to tell, how and by when]

4. HOW WE WORK
   Our main tools: [List them, and where logins are managed. Never passwords]
   Where files live: [Folder or system]
   Meetings: [Which ones, when, who attends]
   Handing work over: [Link your handover checklist or SOPs]

5. CONDUCT AND STANDARDS
   How we treat each other and clients: [Three to five plain lines]
   Using IT, email and AI tools: [One line each. Link the policies]
   Confidentiality and data: [One line. Link the policy]

6. RAISING A PROBLEM
   If something's wrong at work: [Who to go to first, and who if it's them]
   What happens next: [Link the grievance policy]

7. LEAVING
   Notice: [See your contract]
   Before your last day: [Handover, equipment, access removed]

8. POLICY LIST
   Policy | Owner | Where it lives | Version | Next review
   [One row per policy]

I have read this handbook and know where to find the policies.
Name: [        ]   Signed: [        ]   Date: [        ]

The signature line at the end matters more than it looks. It's your record that each person has seen the current version, and it tells you who to chase when a policy changes.

Handbook, contract or policy: what goes where?

The quickest way to shorten a handbook is to move things out of it. Each document has its own job.

Be careful with anything that touches pay, hours, where someone works or their duties. Those can be contract terms, so changing them in a handbook may not be enough. Take advice before you change them.

In the UK, employers must give employees and workers a written statement of their main terms of employment, with the main part due on their first day. GOV.UK sets out what the written statement must include, and which parts can go in a separate document. Rules elsewhere differ, so use official guidance where you are. Nothing here is legal advice.

How to keep a handbook short

A long handbook gets skimmed once and never opened again. Five habits keep it readable.

Write each rule once. If the remote working rule is in the handbook, the policy and an old email, someone will find the wrong one. Keep the rule in the policy, and have the handbook point to it.

Put a number wherever someone would ask "how much?" "Reasonable notice" leads to an argument. "At least two working days' notice" doesn't.

Point to other documents, never copy them. If your office days are set in your operations manual, the handbook says where to find them.

Keep each policy to about a page. If it won't fit, it's usually two policies, or it's carrying procedure that belongs in an SOP. The format is in small business policy templates.

Try it on someone new. Ask someone who hasn't read it to find three answers, such as how to book holiday, who to tell when they're off and how to claim an expense. Wherever they stall, the handbook needs work.

Keep it current with a policy register

A handbook goes out of date one rule at a time. A policy register is the list that stops that: one row per policy, with an owner and a review date, so changes happen on a schedule.

A typical example, with made-up policies and dates.

The Basis column is worth adding early. Mark each policy as required by law, expected by clients, insurers or good practice, or simply your choice. Check official guidance before you mark anything as required by law. The column tells you which policies need advice when they change, and which ones you're free to simplify.

When a policy changes, update the policy, then the register, then the handbook's policy list, and ask everyone it covers to confirm they've read the new version. Keep the old version, marked as replaced, so you can show what applied when.

Is your handbook ready?

Run through this with your draft. Tick what's true.

A typical example

Here's a made-up but familiar case. An eleven-person agency has rules in three places: a handbook written when the team was four, a shared drive of policies and a run of emails from the owner. The expenses rule exists in two versions, and nobody's sure whether the remote working policy was ever finished.

The operations lead starts with a register, not the handbook. In an afternoon she lists every rule she can find, marks two as missing and one as duplicated, and gives each an owner. Then she cuts the handbook down to the eight sections above, with the detail moved into the policies it points to. The handbook goes out with a sign-off line, and the register shows two people still to confirm.

The rule about extra home working days, which had caused the most mixed answers, is now one line in one policy, with a number in it.

Common handbook mistakes

Copying a long template from the internet. You end up with policies that don't fit how you work, and rules nobody follows. Start with your own rules, then check for gaps.

Putting everything in the handbook. It grows until nobody reads it. Keep the detail in policies and SOPs.

No owner and no review date. The handbook is right on the day it's written, then drifts. One owner and a date per policy keeps it current.

Managers giving their own answers. If staff ask around until they hear yes, the rule isn't clear enough, or managers haven't been told it. Settle the answer once and give every manager the same one.

Changing terms quietly. A rule about pay, hours or place of work may be part of someone's contract. Check and take advice before changing it.

The handbook is one document in a bigger set. For how the day-to-day work gets written down, read how to write an operations manual, and for a new starter's first weeks, the employee onboarding checklist. The editable Policy Register and Policy Drafting Sheet come with the Communication, Governance and Visibility Vault, as done-for-you templates in Word and PDF with a filled-in example and a guide.