How much does it cost to have an employee handbook written?

The cost of an employee handbook tracks four questions: who writes it, who reviews it, how much of it is written for your business rather than for every business, and whether anyone keeps it current after delivery. Each route answers them differently.

• A downloaded template is the cheapest route. It leaves the fitting, the review and every later update with whoever in your business has the time.
• A freelance HR writer drafts to your brief for a fee agreed by the hour or for the job. An independent legal review is a separate cost.
• A legal practice usually costs the most, billed by the hour or under an engagement letter. It is the right place to go when you need advice on a live situation rather than a document.
• PolicyDrafters, a fixed-price drafting firm, quotes one figure before work starts. It has the draft reviewed by our legal team and keeps it current under a maintenance plan.

An employee handbook is the document that sets out an employer's rules, benefits and procedures for its staff in one place, with an acknowledgement each employee signs to record that they have read it. That definition matters for the price, because the second half of it, the record that each person has read the rules, is where a cheap handbook becomes expensive. A document nobody can rely on in a grievance or a dismissal is not a saving.

In Great Britain the handbook also does statutory work. Section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 requires an employer to give every worker a written statement of particulars no later than the first day of employment [1]. Section 3 requires that statement to include a note of the disciplinary rules and the disciplinary and dismissal procedure, or a reference to a reasonably accessible document that sets them out. It must also say who the worker can take a grievance to [2]. That document is often the handbook.

The Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures, in force since 11 March 2015, asks in paragraph 2 for those rules and procedures to be set down in writing and to be specific and clear, and employment tribunals take the Code into account [3].

PolicyDrafters drafts the handbook from an intake, has it reviewed by our legal team, delivers it in Word and PDF and keeps it current under a subscription. The intake is the part that replaces the brief: it asks where your staff are employed, how you hire, pay, review and let people go, what leave you offer, how grievances and discipline are handled, and which of your current documents still apply. Where you have no answer, it offers the common options and you choose one.

Our employee handbook is $1,200 to $2,500. The quote fixes one figure in that band before we start and does not change. The first draft arrives ten working days after a complete intake, one round of revisions is included, and the handbook comes with an acknowledgement form, a document ID and a revision block that records the legal team's review. The maintenance plan is $29 to $99 a month, depending on how many documents are tracked. The full tariff is on the pricing page.

What PolicyDrafters does not do is advise on your legal position. We draft, our legal team reviews the draft, and you receive a document. Whether to adopt it, and how it applies to a particular person on a particular day, is a decision for you and for any adviser you choose.

Four facts move a handbook from the bottom of the band to the top. The intake asks for all four, so the quote can be fixed before any drafting begins.

The first is the number of jurisdictions. A handbook for staff employed in one country or one state is drafted against one set of rules. Staff in two places means two leave sections, two sets of statutory references and two notice regimes, and some sections have to be written twice rather than once.

In Great Britain, for instance, section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 sets the employer's minimum notice at one week for an employee with at least one month's but less than two years' continuous employment, one week for each year of continuous employment from two to twelve years, and twelve weeks from twelve years [4]. A multi-country handbook is scoped in the intake and quoted as one figure.

The second is headcount. A company of ten has fewer roles, fewer managers applying the document and fewer of the obligations that employment law attaches to larger employers. As headcount grows, more rules apply and more sections are needed to carry them, so the headcount band you give at intake sets part of the quote.

In the United States, for example, the Family and Medical Leave Act covers a private employer with 50 or more employees for each working day during each of 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year [5]. A covered employer with any eligible employee must then give the FMLA general notice through its handbook or other written guidance on benefits or leave, where such materials exist, or hand a copy to each new employee on hiring [6].

The third is what you already have. Contracts, offer letters, a page of house rules, a previous handbook: name them in the intake and send them once we reply. We keep what still matches the rule, rewrite what does not and mark every change. Reconciling that material against the current rules is work in its own right, so a handbook that carries forward existing documents sits higher in its band than one drafted from a clean start. The review by our legal team takes the same care either way.

The fourth is the number of policies. Every handbook carries the core sections: employment basics, leave, conduct, performance and discipline, grievances and leaving. Beyond those, each additional policy, such as remote working, expenses, whistleblowing, staff data protection or drug and alcohol use, adds pages to draft and to review. You name the extras at intake, and the quote covers them.

Nothing about the quote changes after it is issued. If the intake turns out to have missed something, we tell you before drafting, not after, and you decide whether the scope grows.