If you are writing your own restaurant employee handbook, then it is a good idea to begin with a restaurant forms template of an employee handbook or manual. The template already provides sections and sub-sections of the fundamental employment and management policies a company should have in accordance to the law. This cuts the time in formulating the outline for your employee handbook. However, when you begin editing the restaurant forms template, it is best to keep the following tips in mind.

Write a brief acknowledgement as a prelude to the contents of your restaurant employee handbook. This acknowledgment, which the employee signs in agreement, states that he or she has read the policies in the handbook, understands them and promises to comply with them as long as they are in your employ. This acknowledgment works like a contract between you and your employees.

After preparing this acknowledgment, you should be ready to begin writing. Your restaurant employee handbook should be easy to understand. The use of legalese terms or complicated explanations confuses the meaning of your policies. This leads to misinterpretations by your employees. Ultimately, your business becomes vulnerable to mismanagement, especially when your employees find the loopholes in your restaurant policies.

Use simple English words or phrases when editing your restaurant employee handbook. Keep in mind that some of your employees may have been using English as a second language. If you have been employing immigrants in your restaurant, then it is a good idea to write your restaurant employee handbook in other languages, such as Spanish.

Another consideration is the level of education that majority of your employees have. Some restaurants, such as fast food chains, hire college-level students as part-time waiters and food servers. Other restaurants, such as small-scale diners, hire employees straight out of high school. Keep the readability of your restaurant employee handbook at a level they find easy to understand.

However, if you have employees with different types of employment agreements, then you might want to look into the level of confidentiality you want to build with your employees. If you share too much information regarding your company’s rules, especially rules on compensation and benefits, in a universal handbook, then it also leaves open a vulnerable spot for employee-management issues to arise. Writing a separate employee handbook for regular employees and another employee handbook for contractual or at-will employees may be a better option.

Drafting separate handbooks for different positions and types of employment opens the opportunity to apply different procedures in dealing with policy violations. Regular employees receive warnings several times before the manager decides to terminate them. At-will employees, on the other hand, do not have the same privileges as regular employees because employers can fire them without just cause.

Lastly, after drafting your restaurant employee handbook, remember to run through your text with a legal team to pick out inconsistencies and legal impediments. Make sure your policies follow the law and that your policies do not oppress the rights of your employees.

Author Bio: Jerome Chiaro is a Restaurant Owner & Consultant out of Orange County, CA. Don’t train your staff alone! He can help you spend LESS TIME and become MORE EFFECTIVE… Claim your copy of his Free Restaurant Employee Handbook. Success doesn’t happen alone! Join a mastermind of restaurant owners and a wealth of resources, at his Free Restaurant Forms Blog.

Category: Business Management
Keywords: restaurant employee handbook, restaurant forms