If you are hiring or plan to hire Missouri employees, your employment-related documents need to comply with state and federal employment laws. While employers aren’t required to create and distribute employee handbooks, they are required to implement and comply with a variety of policies in the workplace. Employee handbooks are a good resource because they allow employers to easily document the required 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, explain important company policies, and mitigate your legal risk. However, if your Missouri employee handbook fails to comply with state-specific employment laws, you could leave your company open to significant risk.
Researching and drafting employee handbooks is time-consuming and expensive, especially when you’re hiring in more than one state. Fortunately, SixFifty has created an employment documents platform to help businesses generate customized, state-specific employee handbooks and more.
Required Missouri employee handbook policies
Missouri requires employers to implement and comply with seven state-specific policies:
- Crime Victim Leave
- Domestic or Sexual Violence Leave (20 Employees)
- Equal Employment Opportunity
- Jury Duty Leave
- Volunteer Emergency Responder and Air Patrol Leave
- Voting Leave
- Witness Duty Leave
Note that the domestic and sexual violence leave policy only applies to companies with 20 or more employees. This means employers who don’t meet the threshold generally aren’t required to implement that policy. If your company is nearing that threshold or plans to expand in the future, you may wish to include the policy regardless of your current employee count.
Optional Missouri employee handbook policies
In addition to Missouri’s seven required state-specific policies, employers may want to include any number of the following optional policies:
- 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
- Leave Policies, including: Paid Sick Leave; Parental Leave; Bereavement Leave; Organ, Bone Marrow, and Blood Donor Leave; School Activity Leave
- Cannabis 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
- 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 company and employment type, industry and other considerations, you may not want to include all of the optional policies. For instance, a workplace visitor policy may not be necessary when all of your Missouri employees work remotely.
Required federal employee handbook policies
If you choose to create an employee handbook for your company, you must also include the following policies to comply with federal law:
- 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 do business. 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 a Missouri employee handbook
Researching and drafting a compliant Missouri handbook can be overwhelming and daunting, even if you’re only including the required federal and state policies. And if you accidentally violate employment law with a faulty policy, your company could be held legally liable for any issues which arise.
There are a few different options to ensure compliance of your employee handbook. You can hire an attorney to draft your handbook. This is a safe option, but if you plan to hire employees in more than one state, you’ll rack up significant billable hours.
Some companies use one-size-fits-all templates, which is never advisable. You risk the possibility that the templates (or copying from another company’s handbook) will not contain all the current, state-specific policies and required language.
SixFifty’s Employment Docs platform is a better solution. Instead of drafting your own handbook, hiring an attorney, or using a template, we’ve done the hard work for you. Our employee handbook creator was designed to guide companies through each stage of the employment life cycle, starting with offer letters and ending with termination and offboarding. Our platform makes it easy to generate top-tier employment documents, like Missouri employee handbooks that meet all requirements, in a quick and cost-effective manner. Best of all, our legal team watches for new developments in employment law nationwide. If there are changes to the law, you’ll be notified so you can regenerate your handbooks.
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.
