Florida Employee Handbook Requirements: What You Need to Include

Getting ready to hire employees in Florida? When you’re building it, don’t forget the Florida employee handbook requirements, where you’ll need to include certain federal and state laws—then choose from over 50 optional policies, as needed. 

Employee handbooks are a good way to describe your company policies, including mandated state and federal policies. It also provides a framework for employee expectations, conflict resolution or more. Whether you’re hiring remotely, or all your workers are located in Florida, your state-specific handbook needs to cover all the bases. Not only does this protect your employees’ rights, but it ensures that you’re compliant whenever a conflict may arise.

No matter which policies you include, you’ll also need to stay on top of changes in the law. Researching state-specific employment laws, creating your handbook, and keeping it updated is a monumental task. Plus, if you’re hiring remote workers, you’ll need to do this for each state in which you hire. That can be time consuming and expensive, especially if you don’t have your own legal team.

SixFifty makes it easy to create and update employee handbooks in all 50 states. Read on to learn about required and optional Florida employee handbook policies—then find out how we can do the heavy lifting for you.

Required Federal Employee Handbook Policies (Updated 2023)

Federal law supersedes state law. Each of the required policies must be included in all employee handbooks, no matter in which state you’re hiring. These policies cover critical worker rights, such as certain types of leave, sexual harassment policies and anti-discrimination policies.

That’s the easy part: since they’re the same across all 50 states, it’s easy to include them in all of your state-specific employee handbooks. Keep in mind that whenever there’s a change to federal employment law, you’ll need to make the appropriate changes in all of your state employee handbooks. 

Each of the following policies must be included in your employee handbook:

• Equal Employment and Anti-Discrimination Policy
• Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Policy (50 Employees)
• Jury Duty Leave
• Military Service Leave
• Sexual Harassment Policy
• Lactation Accommodation Policy

Required Florida Employee Handbook Policies (Updated 2023)

In addition to the five required federal policies, Florida also has six required state employee handbook policies. You might notice that both federal and state policies include a jury duty policy: while federal law supersedes state law, states are allowed to create additional rules, requirements, rights, and obligations on behalf of their citizens. 

The state also makes provisions for meal and rest breaks for minors, voting policies and certain types of leave. Even if these policies don’t currently apply to your employees—for example, if your company doesn’t hire minors—you must include them and keep them updated.

Florida employee handbooks must include these additional state policies:

• Civil Air Patrol Leave (15 Employees)
• Domestic Violence Leave (50 Employees)
• Jury Duty Leave
• Meal and Rest Breaks (minors only)
• Voting Policy
• Whistleblower
• Witness Duty Leave

Optional Florida Employee Handbook Policies

The 11 policies above are required in every Florida employee handbook. However, you may wish to include additional policies as necessary.

Not all of these policies will fit every business—you should pick and choose the optional policies that make sense for your company model and specific challenges. Most companies will include dress codes, at-will employment policies, holiday policies, and wage policies. 

Other policies should be added as needed. For instance, if your employees drive as part of their job duties, you may want to include policies that address drug and alcohol abuse and using electronic devices while driving. Other companies might want to address telecommuting, videoconferencing and whether employees are entitled to use the premises when off-duty.

Here are over 50 Florida state-specific optional employee handbook policies:

• Affinity Group Policy
• Arbitration Policy
• At-Will Employment Policy
• Background Check Policy
• Business Expense Policy
• Company Property Policy
• Confidentiality and Trade Secrets Policy
• Desk Hoteling Policy
• Direct Deposit Policy
• Dress Code Policy
• Drug and Alcohol Abuse Policy
• Electronic Devices While Driving Policy
• Employee Benefits Policy
• Employee Classification Policy
• Employee Dating Policy
• Employee References Policy
• Employment of Relatives Policy
• Exit Interview Policy
• Gifts Policy
• Health and Safety Policy
• Holidays
• Immigration Law Compliance
• Lactation Accommodation Policy
• Leave Policies, including: Paid Sick Leave; Parental Leave; Bereavement Leave; Organ, Bone Marrow, and Blood Donor Leave; Crime Victim Leave; Activity Leave
• Marijuana Policy 
• Off-Duty Use of Facilities
• Outside Employment Policy
• Overtime Policy 
• Payment of Wages Policy
• Payroll Deductions Policy
• Performance Review Policy
• Personnel Files Policy
• Pets in the Workplace Policy
• Progressive Discipline Policy
• Public Relations Policy
• Punctuality and Attendance Policy
• Salary Pay Policy
• Social Media Policy
• Solicitation and Distribution of Literature Policy
• Technology Systems Policy 
• Telecommuting Policy
• Temporary Relocation Policy 
• Timekeeping Policy
• Vacation/Paid Time Off
• Video Conferencing Policy
• Workers’ Compensation Policy
• Workplace Violence Policy
• Workplace Visitor Policy
• Workweek and Work Schedules Policy 

SixFifty Helps Employers Meet Florida Employee Handbook Requirements

Staying on top of these policies can be a full-time job in and of itself. Not to worry: SixFifty wants to make it easier for you. 

We’ve combined the convenience of automation with real legal expertise from some of the nation’s top lawyers. With our proprietary legal technology, you can automatically generate and update your Florida employee handbook in just a few clicks.

We can save you time and billable hours. Just answer a few questions about your company, download the generated handbook, and have your lawyers approve. Best of all, we’ll let you know when state or federal laws change. Your company will stay protected in all 50 states.

Questions? Want to see how it works? Schedule a free demo with SixFifty today!