The Problems With Creating Your Own Pet Sitting Employee Manual

Developing a pet sitting employee manual may be one of the most overwhelming projects you undergo in your pet sitting company. Yet, unfortunately, the employee manual is necessary in your business. Without one, how are you able to regulate your employees processes and ensure that your companies policies are being withheld? That’s why there is so much emphasis on making sure the employee manual is full of all the different components of your company creating a complete and well done manual.

Today we will discuss some of the problems with creating your own employee manual:

• Time
• Constantly Changing
• Legal Jargon
• Including a Training Manual
• Professional Writing

But don’t worry! We will also discuss solutions.

The Problems With Creating Your Own Pet Sitting Employee Manual

Time

Creating an employee manual takes TIME. A lot of it. Sometimes, it can even take up to a year. This is because you’ll be writing, conducting research, gathering helpful resources, and consulting with experts. These experts may include an HR representative, lawyer, editor, and a typesetter. It takes time to gather all of the necessary information to develop a complete employee manual. Once you have it all put together, you’ll need to have it lawyer reviewed which can also take time.

Ultimately, because this is such a large project, you’ll be spending a large portion of your time working on this document. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but you should be prepared to make a major time commitment!

The cost of creating your own pet sitting and dog walking employee handbook

Constantly Changing

Business is ALWAYS changing, and as this happens, you’ll need to update your employee manual accordingly. If you decide to change a policy or procedure, you’ll have to update your manual. What if state laws change? You’ll have to update your manual. If anything slightly changes with your employees, you’ll have to update you manual.

It’s crucial that all of your new hires have the correct information.

With that being said, it can be extremely difficult to stay on top with all of the changes in your business. Ensure that you review your employee manual often so that you can make necessary changes as needed. You don’t want it to become outdated!

Legal Jargon

Employee manuals are not just all about your business practices and procedures. There’s lots of legal mumbo-jumbo that has to be in there too. This includes portions such as jury duty and equal opportunity employment. In order to write this, it will be very research-heavy and therefore, time consuming. Consider the fact that you will have to spend time not only researching the law, but interpreting what you’re reading. Then you’ll have to finally narrow down exactly what to include in the document. This is where having a lawyer on your team becomes VERY helpful!

Including A Training Manual

When creating your pet sitting employee manual, you’ll have to decide if you want to include your training manual as well. What’s even the difference?

While I personally think they should be two separate documents, some pet sitting companies choose to include it. If you decide to include the training manual, you’ll want to be sure that your document presents all of the relevant information in an order that makes sense. Or if you decide not to include the manual, you’ll want to decide which information you want to include in each document.

Professional Writing

The writing used in an employee manual or training manual is not nearly as fun as writing blogs. Oftentimes it can be difficult to write professionally, in a way that your document is well-respected. Again this is where having a lawyer and an editor on your team comes in handy. Remember that this document will be given to your new hires, and will represent and be the foundation of your business. You want to make sure that it paints you and your company in the best light!

So I know this sounds like a lot, and you may be wondering when you’re ever going to have the time to undergo this overwhelming project. If you just simply don’t have the time to create your own pet sitting employee manual, consider outsourcing the task. We currently offer a fully customizable pet sitting employee manual where you can input your information and be DONE. You won’t have to worry about missing anything, as our document is already lawyer reviewed! Learn more here: http://jumpconsulting.net/pet-sitting-employee-manual-handbook/

If you do want to continue with creating your own pet sitting employee manual, more power to you! Just be sure to consider the costs of creating your own employee manual here.