
Employee handbooks are important tools for communicating policies, rules and regulations, company expectations, company mission and values to the employees. Creating an effective employee handbook for a company requires attention to detail and can provide many benefits to a company if it is kept up-to-date with policies on a case to case basis. One of many such benefits is promoting teamwork.
In order to promote teamwork, a company has to focus on good communication, inclusive work environment, trust and defined team milestones among employees. It helps make work effortless, builds supportive, constructive and an overall incredible environment in the workplace. Here’s how an employee handbook is helpful in doing so:
1. Define Team Objectives And Responsibilities
Differences tend to occur in teams when there are no defined objectives or responsibilities. This increases the chances of creating a power vacuum in a team. While it is important to give the team the decision making power, it is equally important to have some key milestones defined. And an employee handbook helps with it.
While the employee handbook doesn’t define one rigid way of working, it certainly defines the goals the team is expected to achieve. This is a healthy practice and helps build an atmosphere of clarity and helps avoid unnecessary conflict among teams. In case there happens to be one, an employee handbook should also state penalties for misconduct. Communicating all of this to the employees would be difficult if everything is not compiled into an employee handbook!
2. Feedback Mechanism
One thing that makes any workplace healthy to work in is the feedback mechanism and the employee review process. When employees have the freedom to provide feedback regarding the workplace, employers can improve it better. And when employers have a way of reviewing the employees’ work, it will help the employees improve.
Employee handbooks contain the procedure of the annual review process and rewards and penalties accordingly. This helps team building because when employees know that the employer is actively participating in employee performance, they tend to work better and more efficiently!
3. Team Rewards
People tend to work better when they have something to look forward to. This is important in getting effective results and increasing performance. An employee handbook defines the policies for employees which also include rewards for achieving milestones. Things can also be kept interesting by introducing different team rewards from time to time in the employee handbook using a handbook software which contains an editing and updating feature for the employee handbook.
This will encourage teams to work together and promote healthy competition among teams to achieve the most effective and best results, directly benefiting the company!
4. Mandatory Social Activities
Another way an employee handbook can promote team building is by stating mandatory social activities for teams to participate in. Team building does not only happen by working together, but also by socializing. Because this helps build better communication among employees. Simple things like team dinners sponsored by the company or other activities like fundraisers mandated by the companies for teams can be stated in an employee handbook like many companies like to add their annual dinners or volunteer activities for employees to build corporate social responsibility.
Hence employee handbooks can be anything and everything you need them to be! They communicate a company’s specific policies to the employees and can be used to put forward helpful policies as mentioned above to help promote team building, healthy competition, and achieve better results which are directly beneficial for the company and showcase the effort it puts towards the well being of its employees.