Employee handbooks can be useful tools, and employers should be careful in crafting them to suit their business and legal needs. Of course, not every handbook is perfect, and many contain issues that may seem minor but could have significant ramifications. The following are some of the more common problems with handbooks that employers should consider:

1. The Handbook Is Not Easily Understandable

Although commonly written by attorneys, handbooks should not read as if they were. A handbook that cannot be understood by an average employee is of limited use. For example, many defenses in harassment claims hinge on whether the employer has a reasonable reporting mechanism (more on that later) to notify the employer of workplace issues. If an avenue to report inappropriate conduct is incomprehensible, courts are unlikely to consider the reporting mechanism to be reasonable, thus making the employer's defense substantially more difficult. A handbook should be written in plain language.