When you plan to hire employees who work in Oregon, your employee handbook must comply with all applicable federal and Oregon employee handbook requirements. 

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 Oregon employee handbook fails to comply with state-specific employment laws, you could leave your company open to significant risk.

If you’re hiring employees in more than one state, researching employment laws and drafting state-specific employee handbooks can be time-consuming and expensive. Fortunately, SixFifty has created an employment document platform to help employers comply with applicable laws in all 50 states. 

Here’s what to know when you’re creating an Oregon employee handbook.

Required Oregon employee handbook policies

Oregon has 15 state-specific policies which must be included in every Oregon-specific employee handbook:

  • Bereavement Leave Policy (for companies with 25 or more employees)
  • Bone Marrow Donor Leave Policy
  • Crime Victim Leave Policy (for companies with six or more employees)
  • Domestic Violence Leave Policy (for companies with six or more employees)
  • FMLA  Policy (for companies with 25 or more employees)
  • Jury Duty Leave  Policy(for companies with 10 or more employees)
  • Meal and Rest Breaks Policy
  • Military Service Leave Policy
  • Pay Transparency Policy
  • Paid Sick Leave Policy (for companies with 10 or more employees or six or more employees when located in Portland)
  • Retirement Savings Plan Policy
  • Sexual Harassment Policy
  • Volunteer Firefighter Leave Policy
  • Whistleblower Policy
  • Witness Duty Leave Policy

Note that several policies include a threshold for the number of employees, and the paid sick leave policy’s threshold also depends on whether a company is located in Portland. Furthermore, Oregon state’s FMLA protections kick in at a lower threshold than federal protections.

Optional Oregon employee handbook policies

In addition to the 15 Oregon employee handbook requirements, employers may choose to include any or all of the following policies:

  • Affinity Group Policy
  • Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption Policy
  • Arbitration Policy
  • At-Will Employment Policy
  • Background Check Policy
  • Business Expense Policy
  • Cell Phone Policy
  • Code of Conduct 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
  • Home Office Reimbursement Policy
  • Immigration Law Compliance
  • Job Duties Policy
  • Key or Access Card Policy
  • Lactation Accommodation Policy
  • Leave Policies, including: Parental Leave; Voting Leave; School 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
  • Record Retention Policy
  • Remote Working Policy
  • Salary Pay Policy
  • Social Media Policy
  • Solicitation and Distribution of Literature Policy
  • Technology Systems Policy 
  • Temporary/Permanent Relocation Policy 
  • Timekeeping Policy
  • Video Conferencing Policy
  • Weapons in the Workplace Policy
  • Workers’ Compensation Policy
  • Workplace Violence Policy
  • Workplace Visitor Policy
  • Workweek and Work Schedules Policy

Depending on your company structure, employment type, industry, and other considerations, you may not need or want to include all of the optional policies.

Required federal employee handbook policies

Every employee handbook must include the following federal policies:

  • Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Policy
  • Equal Employment and Anti-Discrimination Policy
  • Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Policy (for companies with more than 50 employees)
  • Jury Duty Leave
  • Military Service Leave
  • Sexual Harassment Policy
  • Lactation Accommodation Policy
  • Religious Accommodation 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 an Oregon employee handbook

Researching and drafting your own state-specific employee handbooks can be time-consuming and challenging. Even if only plan to include the mandatory state and federal policies, it can be risky. If your written policies violate federal or Oregon state employment laws, even accidentally, it could expose your company open to legal risk.

In turn, organizations have a few options. First, you can hire an attorney to draft a handbook for you. This ensures that you’ll be in compliance, but if you’re creating more than one state-specific employee handbook, the billable hours can add up fast.

Other companies may turn to one-size-fits-all online templates. This is cheaper, but also risky: there’s no guarantee the language will be compliant in each state, nor that you’ll have all the required state employment policies.

SixFifty understands the challenges associated with creating state-specific employee handbooks, so we’ve created a better option. Our Employment Docs platform is designed to help employers through every stage of the employment life cycle, starting with offer letters all the way through separation, termination, and offboarding. Our employment tools make it easier and more affordable than ever to create top-tier employment documents, like Oregon employee handbooks and their requirements. Best of all, our legal team keeps an eye on the changes to employment law nationwide. If there’s any new legislation, we’ll notify you so you can update your handbooks as appropriate.

Ready to learn more? Schedule a demo today!