Employee Handbook

(Editor's note: In the last issue of the HOTLINE, Phil Sprick suggested topics for your employee handbook. HOTLINE advisor Dana Turner continues with those suggestions here.)

An employee handbook is an excellent way to tell employees what you expect of them and what they can expect of you. Hopefully, you insist that employees (this includes directors and executives, and sometimes other "insiders") sign a written acknowledgment of the terms and conditions of their employment or service positions periodically-at the time of hiring, position change and each time they receive a performance review.

Sometimes overlooked in the writing of the employee handbook are policy and procedure statements that will help the personnel and security departments conduct investigations. Consider adding statements:

Referring to the institution's Code of Conduct:
Requiring them to cooperate with an investigation, and advising them that their failure to cooperate may result in disciplinary action;
Informing them that the institution is required to report, and will prosecute, any employee or board member for embezzlement-related activity;
Advising them that they may be held personally liable for acts of willful misconduct or gross negligence;
Advising them that you will review a current credit report and, where applicable, a conflict of interest and personal financial statement, during the annual performance review;
Advising them that their accounts at the institution may be reviewed by the institution's auditors or investigators at any time;
Advising them that all lockers, desks, cabinets and similar places where things may be stored belong to the institution, and that these items and locations may be searched by the institution's representatives at any time;

Governing their access to work areas during mandatory time off or enforced leave, and addressing the removal of documents, computer files and work papers from the institution's premises, for work to be conducted at another site. Including the above may sound harsh at first-but the auditor and the security officer will be grateful for the freedom to conduct an investigation the way it should be without fear of a lawsuit.

Copyright © 1997 Bankers' Hotline. Originally appeared in Bankers' Hotline, Vol. 7, No. 8, 7/97