Buying an Employee Handbook for your church is a big investment of money and time, so it’s best to ask some questions before you ever start down this road. Here are the top 10 questions to ask when considering what to buy and from whom:
1-Do We even need a Church Employee Handbook?
Not everyone does. No employees? Then you don’t need it, even if you are working with numerous volunteers or 1099 contractors. As the name implies, these are policy manuals specifically for employees. Your relationship with contractors is better governed by a detailed contract. Your relationship with volunteers is probably better served by a simple list of rules. You don’t have the same amount of control over either of these groups, nor the same responsibilities like offering benefits and pay.
Just starting a ministry? You may need one, especially if you anticipate hiring staff within the next few months. It is actually a smart approach to have your employee policies in place before your hire up, because it prevents a lot of bad habits from even getting started. It also shows that your ministry is a professional one, ready to go from Day One.
2- Will this Church Employee Handbook be Legally Compliant?
You can find lots of free or cheap templates out there, but do they follow the latest legal guidelines? Something written ten years ago and posted on the internet most likely won’t be compliant. The factors that could affect your ministry include federal laws, state laws, local laws, and even the size of your ministry staff. Laws deal with wages, hours worked, harassment, disabilities, paid leaves, pay periods, employee classification, and so much more.
In addition, does this handbook service understand religious exceptions and the need for a shared belief among staff? Are you confident that the free or cheap version that you found will address all these rules and laws appropriately?
3- How Much Money and Time will this Church Employee Handbook Cost Us?
There are some good, legally-compliant template programs available online. Expect to pay $400 or more for one. However, you will now have to spend hundreds of labor hours learning the program, deciding what applies to your church or not, and then compiling your final Employee Handbook.
After all that work, it will still just be an online document. To now print it, requires exporting the online Handbook and converting it into a print form and then printing and binding those manuals. Expect another $100 or so to get those Employee Handbooks finished and ready to distribute.
So the cost of creating your own Church Employee Handbook from a good template can easily range into the thousands of dollars when you count all your labor hours. For some that have more time than money, this could be the better route. For most, hiring a professional makes sense, because your handbook ends up being less expensive and you get your deliverable much quicker.
For a professional service, expect to pay anywhere from $1500 to $4000, depending on the size and complexity of your ministry. If you choose to go with a lawyer who specializes in labor law (which is recommended for ministries that have high-regulated industries under their umbrella, for international ministries, and for some others), expect the price to be much higher because you will be paying for their expertise.
4. Is this only an online Church Staff Handbook?
Many services offer only an online handbook. You answer questions and that decides which forms the program will generate in your digital staff manual. There is no paper version, just an online one. That rises other questions. Who will have access to this online document? Do you have to pay for each employee’s online access? How do you get it to your staff, especially if not everyone uses a computer for their work? Where is that online handbook hosted? (Almost always it is kept at the website of whoever you hired and not on your own servers.) What happens when you lose power or internet connection?
When your employees have a printed copy of an Employee Handbook, then there is no excuse for not knowing church policy. In addition, pastors and supervisors have it in print as well, ready to use wherever its needed.
5- Do We have to Sign-Up for an Ongoing Service?
Many companies offer an Employee Handbook if you will commit to a monthly HR service that costs thousands of dollars per year. That’s the fad in all industries: to make money through monthly subscriptions. Their hope, much like a gym with its memberships, is to make their money on how little you use the services over the coming months and years. The enticement is an online HR support, but how thorough and complete is that service?
Remember, you came there for the best Employee Handbook for your church, not for all those other bells and whistles. Is their offered service going to generate a great manual for you or just a mediocre, cookie-cutter handbook? All that other stuff might sound good, but what are they really offering you when it comes to Employee Policies?
6- Who Controls Our Church Employee Handbook?
When your Church Employee Handbook is part of an ongoing service or is hosted on someone else’s site, it usually means you are at their whim when it comes to access. Stop their monthly service and it disappears. Refuse to renew a yearly license for your online handbook and get locked out.
To prevent any of that, you should insist on receiving the final files of your Church Employee Handbook, including printable versions of the document. This Church Staff Handbook should be yours to control and to edit as you want.
7- Can We Edit Our Church Staff Handbook Later?
Editing an Employee Handbook should always be done with caution, but sometimes church leadership needs to update things. Maybe there’s change in benefits. Maybe you’ve updated your dress code. For major changes, you should go back to your original provider, but you should have the ability to carefully make minor changes.
Unfortunately, if all that you have is a pdf or an online copy, you might not be able to change things easily. Check to see what’s provided to you and if you will be able to make changes on your own.
8- Will We Receive Printed Copies of my Employee Handbook for Our Staff?
Most companies will not complete that “last mile” to you. They help your get a Church Employee Handbook put together. They might even create a print version as a Word document or a pdf. However, they don’t actually print out the Church Employee Handbook and ship it to your office. That requires extra work and extra commitment on their part. It is much easier to leave the printing to you, but that will cost you.
If you are having to print your new Church Staff Handbook yourself, expect a cost of $100 or more. You will have to get the file prepped and sent to a printer, pay their charges, and then travel there to pick up your copies. It is so much easier when you get all your Employee Handbooks already printed and delivered, ready to distribute to your team.
9- Will the Church Employee Handbook have Customized Policies Specifically for Our Ministry?
All good service providers will get you the basic policies needed for your organization. Things like overtime rules and sick leave, employee classifications and pay periods. However, will they customize to your specific needs and wants? You might need ministry-specific policies for “pastor accountability” or “working with minors” or any number of other reasons.
Ministry-specific policies can address areas like food-handling, church vehicles, working with volunteers, sabbaticals, leave for short-term missions, licensing and credentials, church membership, and so much more. Will your provider craft custom forms just for you?
10- Does this Church Staff Handbook Come with any Guarantee?
Does the provider of your Employee Handbook service stand behind their product? Do the guarantee satisfaction? Do they take care of legal updates? (If so, for how long? 30 days/ 90 days/ 1 year?)
You should get an Employee Handbook with appropriate support behind it.
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