When you plan to hire Virginia employees, all of your employment documents must comply with federal and Virginia-specific employment laws—including your Virginia employee handbook.
Employers aren’t required to create and distribute employee handbooks, but they are required to implement and comply with a variety of policies in the workplace, and documenting those policies in a handbook is typically a good idea. An employee handbook acts as a resource for both employers and employees. It can introduce new employees to the company, explain your key policies and procedures, set expectations for employees, and mitigate your legal liability. However, if your Virginia employee handbook fails to comply with applicable state laws, you could leave your organization open to legal liability.
“When states require employers to follow policies, usually that just means the employer needs to obey the law and provide certain rights and leaves,” said Josh Baca, Legal Product Counsel at SixFifty. “Virginia is one state that actually requires some policies to be written, including their Disability and Pregnancy Accommodations policies.”
An employee handbook acts as a resource for both employers and employees. It can introduce new employees to the company, explain your key policies and procedures, set expectations for employees, and mitigate your legal liability. However, if your Virginia employee handbook fails to comply with applicable state laws, you could leave your organization open to legal liability.
Researching and writing your own employee handbooks can be time-consuming and expensive, especially when you’re hiring in more than one state. Fortunately, SixFifty has created an Employment Docs platform to help businesses create their own customized, state-specific employee handbooks.
Here’s what you need to know about Virginia employee handbook requirements.
Required Virginia employee handbook policies
Virginia requires employers to implement and comply with 13 state-specific policies:
- Civil Air Patrol
- Crime Victim Leave
- Disability Accommodations Policy (See SixFifty’s ADA policy)
- Election Officer Leave
- Emergency Responder Leave
- Equal Employment Opportunity
- Jury Duty Leave
- Meal and Rest Breaks (minors only)
- Military Service Leave
- Organ and Bone Marrow Donation Leave (50+ EEs)
- Pregnancy Accommodations (see SixFifty’s ADA Policy)
- Social Security Number Privacy (see SixFifty’s Social Security Policy)
- Witness Duty and Court Attendance Leave
Note that the meal and rest breaks policy only applies to minors, and that the Organ and Bone Marrow Donation Policy has an employee threshold. This means that employers who don’t employ minors or who don’t meet the threshold generally are not required to implement those policies.
Optional Virginia employee handbook policies
In addition to Virginia’s 13 required employee handbook policies, employers may include 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; Domestic Violence Leave; Civil Service 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 industry, company and employment type, and related considerations, you may not need or want to include all of these policies.
Required federal employee handbook policies
Finally, if you choose to create an employee handbook, you must include these required federal employee handbook policies:
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) (15+ Employees)
- Employment and Anti-Discrimination Policy
- Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Policy (50 EEs)
- 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. All of your employee handbooks, Virginia or otherwise, should contain these policies, assuming you meet the 50-employee requirement for the FMLA Policy.
How to create a Virginia employee handbook
Creating your own Virginia employee handbook that complies with state requirements can be daunting, even if you only plan to include the required federal and state policies. It’s also risky. If you accidentally violate state or federal employment law, your organization could be held liable for any issues which arise.
There are a few different options to ensure your handbook is compliant and legally sound. You could hire an attorney to draft your handbook from scratch. This is a secure option—but if you’re hiring in more than one state, the billable hours can add up quickly.
Some companies use one-size-fits-all templates, but that’s generally not a good solution. There’s no guarantee that templates—or worse, copying from someone else’s handbook—will include all of the state-specific policies and language required to protect your employees and your business.
“Even when a template handbook has all the required policies, you don’t know if they’re current,” said Baca. “Even a template with a solid Employment and Anti-Discrimination policy might not include ethnic origin as a protected characteristic, since it is a relatively recent update to Virginia law.”
SixFifty knows this can be an expensive and lengthy process. That’s why we’ve created an employee handbook creator. Our platform supports employers through every stage of the employment life cycle, beginning with offer letters and employee handbooks and ending with termination and offboarding. We make it easy to generate top-tier employment documents, like Virginia employee handbooks, for a fraction of the time and cost needed for other methods. Best of all, our legal team watches for changes to employment law nationwide. If there are any updates, you’ll be notified so you can regenerate your handbooks as needed.
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.
