New Year: New Handbook? What to Leave Behind in 2023

It’s no secret that the past couple of years have been revolutionary in terms of how we approach the workforce. As we forge ahead with year three “post”-pandemic, it’s likely time to get your employee handbook (you do have one, don’t you?) out of storage and give it a dust off. Here’s a start at what you should be thinking about in 2023.

Salary Transparency Laws

We wrote about this already this year, but salary transparency is quickly becoming a non-negotiable in business. Beginning in January, California, Rhode Island and Washington have all added some level of salary disclosure to state mandates according to CNBC. New York City is also slated to require this by September, and Massachusetts and South Carolina have similar legislation pending. All told, approximately 1 in 4 workers will be covered by a state or local law that requires pay transparency for organizations this year, and it’s quickly going to become the norm across all types of jobs. Get in front of this curve - especially if you live in one of the states or cities that legally mandate it - to be both legally compliant and the most attractive to applicants.

Bereavement Policies

Sadly, COVID made it crystal clear that it’s a hard sell to consider bereavement leave “optional.” Bloomberg reports that 90% of companies now offer bereavement leave, up from 79% pre-pandemic. In addition to the offering of paid days upon the death of a loved one, the most progressive organizations are changing the way they think about bereavement. Many have expanded qualifiers on who “counts” as a death that’s permissible to take paid time for, including the loss of a pregnancy. Even better are the organizations who have eliminated the quantifiers on bereavement altogether.

Parental Leave Policies

Last week, the Pentagon announced that military parents would be eligible for 12 weeks of paid parental leave, a shift that doubles the amount of leave available and removes the distinction between primary and secondary caregivers. The time off can be taken in increments in the first year and is for all parents who welcome a new child into their home in any manner. The Pentagon isn’t the first and most certainly won’t be the last to make sweeping changes to parental policy. In addition to allowing for more of it, many companies are doing away with the tenure requirement for leave, cutting it from a year to as little as zero months.

Gender Neutral Language

Does your handbook include terms like he/she and his/hers? Worse, does it just pick a gender and run with it? If so, it’s more than past time to discard these outdated binary identifiers in favor of the much more inclusive (and smoother reading) they/them/they. In addition, when referring to family members (think about those bereavement policies again), transition from binary terms by using terms like: grandparent, sibling of a parent, parent’s sibling, parent.

Consideration of the CROWN Act

Standing for the “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” the CROWN Act is aimed at ending race-based discrimination on hairstyle. Already enacted in 19 states, the legislation may well be passed nationwide in the future. Given that a black woman is 80% more likely than her white counterpart to change her natural hair to meet societal norms or expectations at work, it’s long past time to ensure your handbook’s grooming, presentation and dress policies aren’t out of touch with reality.

Need Help?

We offer a comprehensive employee handbook review as well as complete handbook rewrites, and we carefully take into account your business needs when doing so. Reach out to schedule a handbook consultation today!