If you plan to hire employees in South Carolina, your employee handbook must comply with all federal and South Carolina 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.
A customized, state-specific employee handbook can allow employers to easily document the required policies and serve as an introduction and guide to your company. Properly drafted employee handbooks also protect the company against legal risk, should an issue arise. If proper drafting wasn’t already, it has become incredibly important in light of the NLRB’s decision in Stericycle, Inc. and Teamsters Local 628. In that decision, the NLRB made it clear that any work rule or policy instituted by employers must advance a legitimate business interest and not infringe on employee rights under Section 7 of the NLRA.
If your handbook fails to meet all federal and South Carolina employee handbook requirements, it could leave your company subject to liability. Unfortunately, researching and drafting customized employee handbooks in all 50 states is a challenging task. SixFifty’s employment documents platform empowers employers to make state-specific employment handbooks in a cost-effective manner.
“South Carolina doesn’t have a lot of state specific required policies, but the ones it does have can be tricky for employers who haven’t operated in the state before,” said Seth Barany, Legal Product Counsel at SixFifty. “Things like the Handbook Acknowledgement and Disclaimer and the Isolation and Quarantine Leave policy just aren’t common in other states.”
Here’s what you need to know about creating your own South Carolina employee handbooks.
Required South Carolina employee handbook policies
South Carolina has seven required state employment law policies:
- Equal Employment Opportunity
- Handbook Acknowledgement and Disclaimer (1st page)
- Immigration Law Compliance
- Isolation and Quarantine Leave (Sick Leave)
- Jury Duty Leave
- Volunteer Emergency Responder Leave
- Witness Duty Leave
If your organization doesn’t meet the 20 employee threshold, you don’t have to include bone marrow donation leave. However, if you’re close to meeting that requirement, you may wish to include it anyway as a measure of safety for when your company grows.
“Pay attention to South Carolina’s immigration requirements,” said Barany. “It’s one of a minority of states that require employers to use the federal government’s E-Verify system to vet any employees they hire in the state.”
Optional South Carolina employee handbook policies
In addition to South Carolina’s required employee handbook policies, employers are free to include other optional policies. At SixFifty, we are constantly building new custom policies. Some that we currently offer are below:
- 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
- Leave Policies, including: Paid Sick Leave; Parental Leave; Bereavement Leave; Domestic Violence Leave; Crime Victim Leave; Voting Leave; Civil Service Leave; School Activity Leave
- Cannabis Policy
- Off-Duty Use of Facilities
- Outside Employment Policy
- Overtime Policy
- Pay Transparency 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
Whether you choose to include these policies typically depends on your organization and employment type, industry, and other factors. For example, you may not need to include a dress code or workplace visitor policy when your employees all work from home. Further, if your business interests require you to institute other policies not on this list, you can do so; just be sure that your policies don’t infringe on employee rights under the NLRA.
Required federal employee handbook policies
Every employee handbook, regardless of state, must 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 as well as any that are required by the specific state(s) where they do business. All employee handbooks should contain these federal policies if the organization meets the employee thresholds.
How to create a South Carolina employee handbook
Creating state-specific employee handbooks requires careful research and drafting. This can be a major undertaking, even if you only intend to include required federal and state policies for a single state. It can also be risky. If your written policies accidentally violate federal or South Carolina state employment laws, your organization could be liable.
Organizations have a few options to ensure their handbooks are compliant. You can hire an attorney or have your legal team draft the handbook. This is a good way to ensure compliance, but if you’re hiring employees in multiple states, the legal fees accumulate quickly.
Some companies turn to online templates, or copy and paste from existing employee handbooks. That’s a fairly risky option. The handbooks you model yours on or the templates you use may not have all the required state-specific policies. Furthermore, using templates even a month old can be riddled with overly-broad policies that could now be found unlawful in light of the NLRB decision.
SixFifty’s employee handbook creator platform is designed to ensure your South Carolina employee handbook meets all your state-specific legal requirements. Our platform helps employers through every stage of the employment life cycle, starting with offer letters and continuing through separation and offboarding. Our platform makes it easier than ever to create top-tier employment documents, in a fraction of the time and cost you’d spend otherwise. Best of all, our legal team keeps a close eye on changes to employment law nationwide. If there’s any new legislation, we’ll notify you 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.
