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HR policies and handbooks for small businesses

An employee handbook, the HR procedures behind it and a review of the policies a small business already has, drafted for the managers who apply them, at a fixed price. The employee handbook and the SOP library are each quoted at one fixed figure between $1,200 and $2,500; a policy review is $350 to $500 per document reviewed. Every figure is fixed before we start.

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What you have to show, and to whom

  • Employee handbook, for staff, managers and the investor, buyer or insurer who asks to see it
  • Leave, grievance and disciplinary procedures, for the managers who run them
  • Onboarding and offboarding procedures, for hiring managers and the staff who collect equipment and close access
  • Existing policies, reviewed against the rules they name and returned with every change marked, for the person who maintains them and the staff who look them up

The three services that draft these documents

  • Employee handbook

    $1,200to $2,500

    First draft in 10 working days.

    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 form that each person signs to record that they have read it.

  • SOP library

    $1,200to $2,500

    First draft in 12 working days.

    An SOP library is a set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) written to one template, listed in one register and changed under one change-control procedure.

  • Policy review and update

    $350to $500

    Per document reviewed. First draft in 5 working days.

    Policy review and update is a check of an existing policy against the current text of the rules it names and the facts it states, returned as a marked-up copy, a revised version with every change tracked and a change note saying what moved and why.

What the documents have to do

HR policies are the written rules a small business sets for its staff. HR procedures are the steps its managers follow when leave, absence, a grievance or an exit comes up. An employee handbook is the document that sets them out in one place.

The handbook has to answer the questions staff actually ask, in sentences a new manager can read aloud: how leave is requested and approved, what the working hours and expenses rules are, how a grievance is raised and what happens next, how performance and conduct are handled, and what the organisation expects on confidentiality, equipment and data.

The procedures behind it have to be followable: numbered steps, an owner for each, and the record it leaves. Policies written at different times have to read as one set: each citing the current rules, none contradicting another, and each with an owner and a revision block.

  • New starter

    Document

    Employee handbook

    What they look for

    Leave, hours, expenses, conduct, who to ask

  • Manager

    Document

    SOP library: leave, grievance, discipline, onboarding and offboarding

    What they look for

    The steps for a grievance, a disciplinary, an absence, an exit

  • Investor, buyer or insurer

    Document

    Employee handbook, with the policy set

    What they look for

    Documents that exist, are current and are acknowledged by staff

  • The person who maintains them

    Document

    Policy review and update

    What they look for

    The current rule cited, no contradictions, an owner and a revision block

Who it is for

A small business taking on its first employees, a team that has grown past the point where every manager answers the same question differently, a company whose investor, buyer or insurer has asked to see its HR policies, or a firm with a folder of policies written at different times by different people. The readers are staff and managers first, and the handbook is drafted so that they can act on it without a call.

What we draft

What we draft for the HR set:

  • The employee handbook is drafted against the employment law of the jurisdiction you name, with an acknowledgement form, a document ID and a revision block.
  • The SOP library turns the procedures behind it into numbered, owned steps on one template.
  • Where you already have policies, policy review and update checks each against the current text of the rules it names and your house style. It returns a marked-up copy, a tracked revision and a change note.

The employee handbook and the SOP library are each $1,200 to $2,500. Policy review and update is $350 to $500 per document reviewed. The quote is fixed before we start and does not change. Every document is reviewed by our legal team and delivered in Word and PDF.

The guides on what an employee handbook costs, the difference between a policy and a procedure and how often to review policies go further.

Drafted against

  • Employment law of the jurisdiction you name in the intake
  • Your existing contracts and policies, where you have them
  • ISO 9001:2015 clause 7.5 (documented information) for the structure of procedures

What the intake asks

Where your staff are employed comes first, because the handbook is drafted against that jurisdiction's employment law. For each procedure, the intake asks what starts it, who carries out each step, where a manager has to decide and what is written down. Name the policies you already use, with the rules each one answers and when it was last approved, and send them once we reply. Where you have no answer, the intake offers the common options and you pick one.

Start the intake

Questions about HR policies and handbooks for small businesses

We have twelve staff. Is an employee handbook worth it at our size?
An employee handbook is worth writing once more than one person answers staff questions. It holds the answers managers get asked for: leave, expenses, working hours, what happens when something goes wrong. With a handful of staff those answers can live in the founder's head; once managers start giving different answers, the handbook is where the one answer is written down.
Our staff are in two countries. Can one employee handbook cover both?
One employee handbook can cover staff in two countries, as a scoped job. A handbook is drafted against the employment law of the jurisdiction you name, so the intake asks where each group of staff is employed. Multi-country handbooks are scoped in the intake and quoted before we start.
Can you work from the HR policies we already have?
Existing HR policies can be named in the intake and sent once we reply, and the policy review and update service works from them. It checks each one against the current text of the rules it names and returns a revised copy with every change tracked, with a change note that says what moved and why.
Which HR documents does PolicyDrafters draft for a small business?
PolicyDrafters drafts three sets of HR documents for a small business: the employee handbook, the procedures behind it (leave, grievance, discipline, onboarding and offboarding) as an SOP library, and a review of the policies you already have. Each is reviewed by our legal team before delivery.

Guides that go deeper