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An apple a day keeps the doctor away, but what keeps the law suits away? We have learned lots about the legalities of running a business over the years. One that I want to talk about today is your Employee Manual.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away, but what keeps the law suits away? We have learned lots about the legalities of running a business over the years. One that I want to talk about today is your Employee Manual.

We created our first one nearly 30 years ago. It gave us a warm, fuzzy feeling that we were well covered. When we applied for our ISO 9001 certification, the auditors were impressed that we actually had one. Over the years it was used solely as a peace keeping tool. Everyone knew the rules and everyone was treated equally. But when we created the Health and Safety Committee, the Employee Manual took on a new life. It now became the manifesto of employers’ and employees' rights. As technology came into the business, we added more to the Employee Manual.

Now with Bill 168 soon coming into effect, it was just a small change to our Manual. Most of the issues that Bill 168 deals with were already covered in some way or other in our manual. This bill deals with your responsibilities as an employer. You can check it on the internet. Are you reviewing your Employee Manual every year? It’s well worth the time and effort. The big secret of ISO certification is this: Write down how you do things, do your job as per the written instructions, review the results and write down the improvements you can make, do your job as per the written instructions ...