When you plan to hire employees who live and work in Idaho, your employee handbook must align with federal and Idaho state employee handbook requirements. While employers are not obligated to create and distribute employee handbooks, it’s a smart choice. Employers are required to implement and comply with a variety of policies in the workplace, and a handbook is a good way to communicate the company’s policies and show that they have complied with applicable law.
Employee handbooks offer an introduction to the company, act as a resource for employees and managers, set expectations, and mitigate your legal risk. However, if your Idaho employee handbook fails to comply with state-specific employment laws, you could leave your company open to significant risk.
If you hire employees in multiple states, the process of researching and drafting state-specific employment laws can be time-consuming and expensive. To address this, SixFifty has developed an employment documents platform to ensure compliance, save costs, and facilitate the quick drafting of customized handbooks for all 50 states.
Here’s what you need to know about creating your own Idaho employee handbook.
Required Idaho employee handbook policies
Idaho has just three policies employers must implement and comply with:
- Equal Employment Opportunity
- Jury Duty Leave
- Military Service Leave
These policies should be included in all Idaho employee handbooks.
Optional Idaho employee handbook policies
After including the required Idaho employee handbook policies, employers are also welcome to include optional policies like:
- Affinity Group Policy
- Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption Policy
- Arbitration Policy
- At-Will Employment Policy
- Background Check Policy
- COBRA Policy
- Cell Phone Policy
- Code of Conduct 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
- Home Office Reimbursement Policy
- Job Duties Policy
- Key or Access Card Policy
- Holidays
- Immigration Law Compliance
- Cannabis Policy
- Off-Duty Use of Facilities
- Outside Employment Policy
- Leave Policies, including: Paid Sick Leave; Parental Leave; Bereavement Leave; Organ, Bone Marrow, and Blood Donor Leave; Domestic Violence Leave; Crime Victim Leave; Voting Leave; Witness Duty Leave; Civil Service Leave; School Activity Leave
- 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
- Record Retention Policy
- Remote Working Policy
- Salary Pay Policy
- Smoking Policy
- Social Media Policy
- Solicitation and Distribution of Literature Policy
- Technology Systems Policy
- Temporary Relocation Policy
- Timekeeping Policy
- Vacation/Paid Time Off
- Video Conferencing Policy
- Weapons in the Workplace
- Workers’ Compensation Policy
- Workplace Violence Policy
- Workplace Visitor Policy
- Workweek and Work Schedules Policy
Depending on your organization, industry, employment type, and other factors, you probably won’t want or need to include them all. For instance, if all of your employees are hourly workers, a salary pay policy is unnecessary.
Required federal employee handbook policies
Every employee handbook should also include the following federal policies:
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (15+ Employees)
- 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
- Religious Accommodations Policy
Employers in all 50 states are required to implement these policies, in addition to any that are required by the specific state(s) in which they have employees. Therefore, all of your employee handbooks should contain these federal policies (if your organization meets the 50-employee requirement for the FMLA Policy).
How to create an Idaho employee handbook
Researching and drafting your own state-specific employee handbooks can be a challenging task. Even if you only include the required state and federal policies, it still carries inherent risks. Violating federal or Idaho state employment laws in your written policies could leave your company exposed to liability.
Organizations have several options to ensure compliance. One option is to hire an attorney to draft the handbook, guaranteeing compliance with regulations. However, if you need to create multiple state-specific employee handbooks, billable hours can quickly add up.
Alternatively, some companies resort to using one-size-fits-all online templates. While this option is typically inexpensive, it may lead to potential issues: there’s no guarantee that the language will comply with each state’s regulations, nor that you’ll have all the necessary state employment policies.
SixFifty recognizes these challenges and has developed a better solution. Our employee handbook creator is designed to support employers through every stage of the employment life cycle, starting with offer letters and extending all the way through separation, termination, and offboarding. Our employment platform simplifies the process, making it more affordable to create top-tier employment documents. Best of all, our legal team vigilantly monitors changes to employment law nationwide. If any new legislation arises, we promptly notify you, enabling you to regenerate your handbooks and ensure they meet all Idaho employee handbook requirements.
Ready to learn more? Schedule a demo today!
Looking to create an employee handbook for a different state? View our interactive map for required employee handbook policies by state.
