Chapter 10., Section 5. Developing Personnel Policies — Main Section | Community Tool Box

• What are personnel policies?

• What are general policies?

• Why are hiring and employment status procedures important?

• What are everyday policies and procedures?

If you've reached the point of developing personnel policies, your organization has taken on an important responsibility: creating clear and fair expectations for the people who work there. Employees and volunteers are central to most organizations, and thoughtful personnel policies can support effective work, consistent decision-making, respectful relationships, and a healthy workplace.

What are personnel policies?

Personnel policies establish expectations, responsibilities, protections, and procedures affecting people who work for an organization. They help explain how employment decisions are made, how people are expected to work together, what employees can expect from the organization, and what procedures apply when questions or problems arise.

Personnel policies do not replace applicable law, employment agreements, collective-bargaining agreements, grant or contract requirements, or professional standards. They should be reviewed for consistency with those requirements and updated when the law, organization, workforce, technology, or nature of the work changes.

What do personnel policies include?

Personnel policies vary significantly among organizations. They may address relationships among employees and supervisors, hours and schedules, compensation and benefits, leave, performance, nondiscrimination, safety, privacy and confidentiality, technology, use of organizational resources, discipline, complaints, and many other matters affecting employees and organizational operations.

Not every subject needs the same level of detail. Some topics may require formal Board-approved policies, while others may be handled through administrative procedures, employee handbooks, supervisor guidance, or role-specific protocols.

What do personnel policies look like?

Personnel policies should be written in clear, understandable language and organized so employees can find the information they need. Organizations may maintain an employee handbook, a secure digital policy library, printed materials, or a combination of formats. Policies should have clear effective dates and version control so employees and supervisors know which rules are current.

Employee handbooks often include information about the organization's mission, employment practices, compensation and benefits, workplace expectations, reporting procedures, leave, safety, technology, and other policies. More detailed procedures may be maintained separately so they can be updated without rewriting the entire handbook.

When developing or revising personnel policies, seek input from people who administer the policies and people affected by them. Existing workplace practices can provide useful information, but don't preserve a practice merely because it has been used for a long time. Ask whether it is fair, lawful, workable, consistent with the organization's mission, and appropriate for current conditions.

Personnel policies should also reflect the organization's values in the way employees are treated. A community organization that values respect, accessibility, participation, accountability, and inclusion should consider how those values appear in its hiring, supervision, compensation, workplace, and complaint procedures.

Personnel policies can be grouped in many ways. For purposes of this section, we'll consider three broad categories:

• General Policies address organization-wide expectations and protections, such as equal employment opportunity, harassment prevention, workplace substance use, technology and information security, conflicts of interest, confidentiality, safety, political and public activities, and employee concerns.
• Hiring and Employment Status Policies address recruitment, hiring, orientation, classification, compensation, benefits, personnel records, performance management, advancement, corrective action, separation, and related matters.
• Everyday Procedural Policies address schedules, leave procedures, remote or hybrid work, overtime, payroll, dress or safety requirements, security, technology, travel, records, and other recurring aspects of work.

What are general policies?

General policies address organization-wide expectations, protections, responsibilities, and procedures affecting the working environment.

These may include:

• Equal Employment Opportunity and Reasonable Accommodation. Policies should prohibit unlawful discrimination in recruitment, hiring, compensation, assignments, training, promotion, discipline, termination, and other terms and conditions of employment. They should identify how employees and applicants can request reasonable accommodation and how the organization responds to those requests. Applicable federal, state, tribal, and local requirements may protect additional characteristics or impose additional obligations.
• Anti-Harassment and Anti-Retaliation. The organization should explain prohibited harassment and retaliation, provide more than one reasonable way to report concerns when possible, protect confidentiality to the extent practical and lawful, investigate concerns promptly and impartially, and take appropriate corrective action. Policies should also protect people from retaliation for making good-faith reports or participating in investigations.
• Alcohol, Drugs, Cannabis, and Impairment in the Workplace. Clearly define prohibited workplace conduct, including working while impaired when that creates safety, performance, or other legitimate concerns. If the organization conducts testing, employs people in safety-sensitive positions, receives funding with drug-free-workplace requirements, or imposes restrictions on off-duty conduct, make sure those requirements are consistent with applicable federal, state, and local law. Policies should also address lawful prescription medication, treatment or recovery issues, accommodation where applicable, and the consequences of policy violations.
• Technology, Electronic Communications, and Information Security. Policies may address organizational devices, personal devices used for work, email, messaging, internet access, cloud services, remote access, social media, approved software, artificial-intelligence tools, cybersecurity, passwords, multifactor authentication, phishing, confidential information, data storage, monitoring where permitted, and reporting lost devices or suspected security incidents.
• Contracts, Purchasing, and Authority to Bind the Organization. Clearly identify who can sign contracts, approve purchases, accept obligations, establish partnerships, authorize spending, or otherwise make commitments on behalf of the organization. Less formal arrangements, such as shared events, donated services, facility use, or collaboration with another organization, may also require defined approval procedures.

Related policies should distinguish between employees speaking or acting on behalf of the organization and employees expressing personal views in their individual capacity. If the organization is subject to restrictions connected with tax-exempt status, government funding, lobbying, political-campaign activity, confidentiality, or another legal obligation, describe the actual restriction rather than using a vague requirement of "political neutrality."

Policies governing employee speech, social media, or public discussion should also be reviewed carefully so they do not improperly restrict legally protected activity concerning wages, hours, working conditions, or other employment matters.

• Confidentiality, Privacy, and Records. Employees should understand which information is confidential, who is authorized to access it, how it may be used or disclosed, how records must be stored and transmitted, what rules apply to remote work and personal devices, how suspected privacy or security incidents are reported, and how information is retained and destroyed. Policies should reflect the specific privacy and confidentiality laws, contracts, professional duties, and ethical requirements that apply to the organization's work.

Some employees may have legal reporting duties that create exceptions to ordinary confidentiality. Those duties vary by profession, service setting, and jurisdiction and may include reporting suspected abuse, neglect, exploitation, threats, or other circumstances defined by law. Policies should identify the actual rules that apply and explain those limits accurately to employees and, where appropriate, to the people receiving services.

• Conflicts of Interest. Define actual, potential, and perceived conflicts that may affect organizational decisions. Employees and other covered individuals should disclose relevant conflicts, and the policy should explain who reviews them, when recusal or another safeguard is required, and how the decision is documented.
• Political, Advocacy, and Civic Activities. Clarify what employees may do as part of their job, when they are authorized to speak for the organization, what tax, funding, lobbying, campaign, or ethics restrictions actually apply, and how employees should distinguish personal political participation from organizational activity. Policies should not unnecessarily restrict lawful personal activity or other legally protected employee conduct.
• Safety, Health, and Workplace Violence Prevention. Establish procedures appropriate to the hazards employees actually face. These may address emergency response, injuries and illness, field work, home visits, working alone, transportation, severe weather, hazardous materials, ergonomics, workplace violence, threats, de-escalation, emergency communications, and reporting unsafe conditions. Training should be understandable to the employees expected to use it.
• Tobacco, Nicotine, Vaping, and Smoke-Free Workplace Rules. State where smoking, vaping, or other covered use is prohibited and what rules apply to buildings, vehicles, grounds, remote work while representing the organization, and breaks. Policies should comply with applicable law and address any accommodations or treatment resources the organization provides.
• Complaints, Grievances, and Reporting Concerns. Employees should know how to raise concerns about discrimination, harassment, retaliation, safety, wages, supervision, ethics, policy violations, working conditions, or other employment matters. Provide an alternative reporting channel when the normal contact person is involved in the concern. Explain how reports are reviewed, what confidentiality can and cannot be promised, and how retaliation is prohibited.
• Relationships with Participants, Community Members, and Partner Organizations. Policies should establish respectful, ethical, and culturally responsive conduct and appropriate professional boundaries based on the nature of the work. Depending on the organization, this may include confidentiality, dual relationships, gifts, social media contact, transportation, physical contact, financial relationships, home visits, mandatory reporting, and other boundary questions. Avoid assuming that either friendship or emotional distance is appropriate in every setting.

What are hiring and employment status policies, and why are they important?

These policies govern important parts of the employment relationship and explain what employees and the organization can expect from one another. They should support fair, consistent decision-making while recognizing that applicable law, contracts, collective-bargaining agreements, funding requirements, and individual circumstances may affect particular cases.

Employment policies can also express organizational values. A group that describes itself as collaborative, inclusive, or community-centered should consider whether its compensation, supervision, workplace access, communication, advancement, and complaint procedures support those values in practice.

Some of the most common hiring and employment-status policies cover:

• Hiring procedures and orientation
• Job classification, title, and compensation
• Benefits, leave, deductions, and travel
• Personnel records
• Performance management and reviews
• Promotions and internal opportunities
• Workplace concerns and corrective action
• Separation and termination

Hiring Procedures & Orientation

Hiring and onboarding shape an employee's understanding of the organization from the beginning. Policies should identify who has hiring authority, how positions are approved and advertised, how applicants are evaluated, what checks or documentation may be required, how offers are made, and how new employees are oriented to their responsibilities.

Orientation should give employees the information and tools necessary to begin safely and effectively. Depending on the position, that may include the organization's mission and structure, the job description, supervision, payroll, benefits, leave, technology, information security, safety, confidentiality, nondiscrimination and harassment policies, accommodation procedures, required training, and community or program context.

Some organizations use an introductory or evaluation period during the first months of employment. If your organization does so, explain its purpose, duration, performance-review process, benefits implications if any, and what happens at its conclusion. An introductory period does not eliminate legal rights or automatically allow termination without regard to discrimination, retaliation, wage-and-hour law, protected leave, contracts, collective-bargaining agreements, or other applicable requirements.

Job Classification, Title, and Compensation

Job titles should accurately reflect the position's function, level of responsibility, authority, and relationship to other roles. Avoid using an inflated title as a substitute for appropriate pay or organizational authority.

Compensation policies may establish salary or wage ranges, job classifications, procedures for setting starting pay, internal-equity considerations, market information, differentials, increases, promotions, and any pay-transparency requirements that apply.

Compensation decisions should use defined, job-related factors rather than personal negotiation alone. Depending on the organization, relevant factors may include responsibilities, required qualifications, experience, market conditions, internal equity, performance, available funding, and collective-bargaining or contractual requirements.

Benefits, Leave, Deductions, and Travel

Clearly explain which benefits apply to which employees, eligibility requirements, enrollment procedures, employee and employer contributions, and where employees can obtain current plan information.

Policies may address:

• Health, dental, vision, and other health-related benefits: eligibility, enrollment periods, employee contributions, dependent coverage, and where employees can find current plan documents.
• Disability and income-protection benefits: what programs are offered, eligibility, waiting periods, employee contributions, and how claims are initiated.
• Travel and expense reimbursement: which expenses are reimbursable, authorization requirements, documentation, lodging and meal rules, mileage or vehicle reimbursement, use of organizational vehicles, travel time, and reimbursement deadlines. If mileage is reimbursed using an external rate, identify how the organization determines and updates that rate rather than hard-coding an outdated amount into the policy.
• Vacation or paid time off: accrual, eligibility, approval procedures, scheduling, carryover, payout where applicable, and any restrictions required by law or policy.
• Sick, family, medical, parental, bereavement, military, jury-duty, voting, and other leave: identify organizational benefits separately from leave rights required by applicable federal, state, tribal, or local law.
• Retirement plans, such as a 401(k), 403(b), pension, or other plan where offered
• Life insurance and other voluntary or employer-sponsored benefits

Deductions

Explain legally required deductions and any voluntary deductions the organization offers, including the authorization process where required. Payroll deductions must comply with applicable wage, tax, benefit-plan, garnishment, and other requirements. Employees should receive clear information about how deductions affect their pay and whom to contact with payroll questions.

Personnel Records

Personnel records should contain information needed for legitimate employment, payroll, benefits, performance, compliance, and administrative purposes. Policies should define what records are maintained, who is allowed to access them, how access is authorized, how long different records are retained, how records are secured, and how they are disposed of.

Sensitive records may require separate storage or access controls. Medical or accommodation information, background-check information, payroll and tax information, investigation materials, and other records may be subject to particular confidentiality or legal requirements.

Employees should also know whether and how they may review or request corrections to their records under applicable law or organizational policy.

Performance Reviews

Performance-management policies should explain how employees receive expectations, feedback, coaching, and formal evaluation. The process may include regular supervision throughout the year as well as periodic formal reviews.

Policies may clarify:

• Who provides formal evaluations and who may contribute relevant information
• The job-related standards or objectives used to evaluate performance
• Whether self-assessment, supervisor observation, work results, participant feedback, peer input, or other appropriate evidence is considered
• How often formal reviews occur and how ongoing feedback is provided
• How reviews connect with goals, development, compensation, promotion, corrective action, or other employment decisions

Performance standards should focus on the work rather than personality preferences or protected characteristics and should be applied consistently to employees performing comparable responsibilities.

Employee Rights and Workplace Conditions

Employment rights and employer obligations come from many sources, including federal, state, tribal, and local law, collective-bargaining agreements, employment contracts, funding requirements, and organizational policy. These may address wages, overtime, nondiscrimination, reasonable accommodation, protected leave, workplace safety, organizing and concerted activity, whistleblowing, privacy, military service, and other matters.

Personnel policies should explain organizational procedures without suggesting that the handbook is the only source of employee rights. When a legal right or contractual requirement provides greater protection than the handbook, the organization should follow the applicable requirement.

Promotions and Internal Opportunities

If advancement opportunities exist, establish a fair and understandable process. Policies may address:

• Career pathways or levels within job families
• The qualifications, performance, experience, competencies, or other job-related factors used in promotion decisions
• How promotions affect title, responsibilities, classification, and compensation
• How employees learn about internal opportunities and express interest

Apply advancement criteria consistently and review whether informal sponsorship, access to development opportunities, or other workplace practices create unnecessary barriers for some employees.

Workplace Concerns and Corrective Action

Workplace problems can involve performance, communication, supervision, workload, safety, health, accessibility, technology, workplace relationships, or personal circumstances affecting work. Personnel policies should identify where employees can go for assistance and what processes are available.

Depending on the situation, responses may include coaching, clarification of expectations, additional training, workload adjustments, mediation, reasonable accommodation, protected leave, employee-assistance resources, technology or process improvements, or formal corrective action.

Supervisors should focus on observable performance, conduct, and workplace requirements rather than attempting to diagnose an employee's physical or mental health. Employees who need accommodation or protected leave should be directed to the appropriate process while their privacy is respected.

Separation and Termination

Personnel policies should explain the organization's general procedures for resignation, retirement, layoffs or reductions in force, end of temporary employment, discharge for performance or conduct, and other forms of separation.

When performance or conduct problems can reasonably be corrected, an organization may use coaching, documented expectations, warnings, performance-improvement plans, or other forms of progressive corrective action. The policy should not promise a particular sequence in every situation unless the organization intends to be bound by it.

Some serious misconduct may justify accelerated action or immediate termination, subject to applicable law, organizational policy, employment agreements, and collective-bargaining requirements. Avoid universal rules stating that any arrest or felony conviction automatically requires dismissal. Where criminal-history information is relevant, consider the actual legal requirements and relationship between the conduct and the employee's position.

Policies should also address who has termination authority, documentation, return of organizational property, final pay and benefits information, access termination, records, confidentiality obligations that continue after employment, and any appeal or review process the organization provides.

What are everyday policies and procedures?

These policies structure recurring aspects of working life. Individually they may appear routine, but together they strongly affect whether employees understand expectations, can perform their work efficiently, and experience the workplace as fair and sustainable.

Work hours, scheduling, and flexibility

Explain ordinary work schedules and the flexibility the organization permits. Policies should address how hours are recorded where required, expectations for availability, breaks, remote or hybrid work, alternate schedules, and procedures for requesting changes.

• What paid and unpaid leave is available, and what eligibility and notice procedures apply?
• How are vacations, planned absences, unexpected illness, caregiving responsibilities, and schedule coverage handled?
• Is remote or hybrid work available for some positions? What technology, security, location, scheduling, availability, expense, and performance expectations apply?
• Are compressed, flexible, or alternative schedules permitted, and who approves them?
• How are additional hours handled for exempt and nonexempt employees? If compensatory time is available under applicable law, who is eligible and how is it earned and used?

Overtime

Overtime policy should reflect the employee's legal classification and applicable federal, state, local, contractual, or collective-bargaining requirements. Under federal law, covered nonexempt employees generally must receive overtime pay for hours worked over 40 in a workweek. Additional state or contractual rules may apply.

• Which employees are classified as exempt or nonexempt, and how is that classification determined and reviewed?
• Who may authorize overtime, and how should employees report situations in which additional work is necessary?
• Are there operational limits on scheduling overtime, consistent with applicable law and employee safety?
• How must all hours worked be recorded and reported?

A policy requiring advance approval for overtime does not necessarily eliminate the organization's obligation to pay for compensable overtime that it required or permitted an employee to work. Address unauthorized overtime through the organization's management process rather than by failing to record or pay legally compensable time.

Payday and Payroll

State when employees are paid and how wages are delivered, such as direct deposit, payroll card, check, or other lawful methods available to the organization. Explain how employees receive wage statements, update tax-withholding information, report payroll errors, change bank information, and authorize voluntary deductions.

Payroll frequency, final-pay timing, permitted deductions, wage statements, direct-deposit requirements, and other rules may vary by jurisdiction. The organization should establish its payroll system around the requirements that actually apply rather than assuming one schedule or method works everywhere.

Dress, Uniforms, and Appearance

If the organization has dress or appearance requirements, connect them to actual workplace needs. Relevant considerations might include safety equipment, sanitation, uniforms, identification, interaction with the public, professional responsibilities, or particular program settings.

Apply standards consistently and provide religious or disability-related accommodation as required. Avoid appearance rules based mainly on stereotypes about what particular communities expect or on preferences unrelated to the work.

Physical Security, Workplace Safety, and Cybersecurity

Security policies should reflect the organization's actual risks and protect employees, participants, facilities, equipment, funds, records, and information. Rather than relying on assumptions about particular neighborhoods or individuals, use a risk-based approach.

Policies may address:

• Protection of cash, equipment, identification documents, organizational property, and employees' personal property
• Storage, transmission, access, retention, and secure destruction of confidential or sensitive information
• Access to offices, program areas, equipment, keys, badges, alarm systems, and restricted spaces
• Lone-worker procedures, home visits, field work, after-hours work, emergency contacts, workplace violence, transportation, and other personal-safety considerations
• Password management, multifactor authentication, device security, phishing, software updates, approved applications, remote access, data backups, access privileges, and reporting suspected cyber incidents

Employees should receive training appropriate to the risks and systems they actually use. Policies should also define who responds when an incident occurs and how access, services, or records will be restored or protected.

Records, Forms, and Administrative Workflows

For recurring forms, approvals, records, or digital workflows, explain what must be completed, who is responsible, when it is due, who approves or receives it, where the record is stored, who may access it, and how long it is retained.

Review administrative requirements periodically. A form or approval step that once served a useful purpose may become unnecessary as technology, staffing, regulations, or organizational processes change.

In Summary

Personnel policies establish the rules and procedures that shape the employment relationship and everyday workplace. They help employees understand expectations, provide consistent ways to handle common situations, support legal and ethical compliance, and communicate what kind of workplace the organization intends to create.

Effective policies are clear, accessible, current, and connected with the organization's actual work. They address general workplace protections, hiring and employment status, compensation and benefits, performance, leave, safety, technology, privacy, complaints, separation, and everyday procedures without trying to predict every possible situation.

Personnel policies should also be reviewed regularly. Employment law changes, technology changes, organizations grow, remote and hybrid work evolve, and new risks emerge. A rule that made sense years ago may no longer be lawful, useful, or consistent with the organization's mission.

Finally, written policy is only part of the work. Supervisors and employees need to understand the policies, the organization needs to apply them fairly and consistently, and people need safe ways to ask questions or raise concerns. Clear policies combined with responsible implementation can support both employees and the organization over the long term.