Answer:

To maintain compliance with oft-changing employment laws, it’s important to regularly review and update your employee handbook. That doesn’t mean you need to be constantly updating it, though.

You should go through your handbook every 3-5 years at least. You should also review it during changes in administrations and when related legislation takes effect.

Policies related to social media use, drug testing, sexual harassment and parental leave need to be updated sooner rather than later, and may be worth reviewing right now in case they are currently out of date.

Make sure your sexual harassment policies detail not only what is and is not acceptable, but what the process is for dealing with inappropriate behavior or filing a complaint.

Your parental leave policies may also be out of date unless they are allowing for both parents to take leave after the birth of a child.

You may also need to change the availability of your handbook. Electronic handbooks are common now, cheaper to update and readily available for your employees to access.

Employee handbooks are vital, but complicated documents that are best created and updated with the guidance of appropriate, knowledgeable legal counsel.