Crafting a Culture of Transparency: Your Ultimate Employee Handbook Guide

Accelerate your employee handbook design

Creating or revamping an employee handbook can feel like an enormous task, especially if you're looking to foster a culture of transparency. But fear not, Open Org is here to assist you on this journey!

Over the recent months, we've been diligently assembling a comprehensive employee handbook template on Notion. This isn't simply an exercise in collating generic pointers, but a painstaking effort to gather and present exceptional practices from some of the most transparent companies around. We've sifted through the open-source wisdom of ✨ People People from Juro, Whereby, Aula, Accurx, Wonder, Remote, Meet Edgar, CharlieHR, Oyster, Nylas, Learnerbly, Pento, Runa, Sourcegraph, Clipboard Health, Monito, Clef, Sparksuite, Nebulab.

These organisations are trailblazers, carving new paths towards transparency, and we're ecstatic to incorporate their best practices into our ultimate employee handbook guide.

‍

‍

What we're offering here is more than just a template. It's a versatile tool brimming with live examples for each section, designed to ignite your inspiration and guide you in crafting your own unique handbook. Think of it as a beacon of motivation, a flexible framework that you can mould to mirror your company's identity and ethos.

A well-defined, comprehensive, and transparent employee handbook can be a powerful instrument in nurturing trust and engagement among your team members. By taking this template and making it your own, you're embracing transparency and distancing your organisation from the perils of ambiguity.

In true transparent spirit, we're sharing this resource without a price tag. It's ready for you to use, adapt, and shape into something that genuinely echoes with your company's culture. By doing so, we're collectively paving the way towards a more transparent working environment.

We encourage you to use this guide as a catalyst for fostering transparency within your organisation. Share it with your network, spread the word, and let's band together to promote more openness in our workplaces. Because, at the end of the day, transparency is a team sport!

Now, without further ado, let's dive into the specifics.

‍

Here's what you can expect from our ultimate employee handbook guide‍

‍
The Big Picture

‍Find out why your organisation exists (Juro), your core values (Runa), and details about funding and investors (Wonder).

‍

Business Performance

‍Get insights into your metrics (Clipboard Health).

‍

Our Team

‍A guide to creating a "ways of working" document (Accurx) and an organisational chart (Sourcegraph).

‍

Compensation

‍Understand the compensation framework (Juro), equity (Clef), and compensation philosophy (Whereby).

‍

Learning & Development

‍Guidelines for 1-on-1 meetings (MeetEdgar), nurturing investment time (Nebulab), and a career framework (Learnerbly).

‍

Performance

‍Understand the performance framework (Juro) and high performance behaviours (CharlieHR).

‍

Flexibility

‍Learn about flexible working (Whereby), observed holidays (Sparksuite), and flexible working hours (Accurx).

‍

Hiring

‍Learn about the hiring process (Accurx), onboarding (Accurx), hiring metrics (Gitlab), and candidate experience surveys (Remote).

‍

People Policies

‍Learn about the overarching policy (Whereby) and parental leave guide (Remote).

‍

Culture aka ‘how we work’

‍Learn how to work effectively (Oyster, Runa), have effective meetings (Wonder, Pento), and use essential tools (Monito).

‍

Diversity & Inclusion

‍Understand the philosophy of diversity and inclusion (Wonder, Remote), reports on gender pay gaps (Aula), and resources on inclusion, diversity, equity, and awareness (Juro).

‍

Benefits & Perks

‍Get a detailed outline of the benefits and perks offered to your employees (Whereby, Nylas).

Remember to customize these resources according to your company's requirements. I hope this will be helpful to you. Enjoy creating your company's transparent and engaging employee handbook!

‍

Where to get the ultimate employee handbook guide? 

You can download it here from our notion 👉 Free Open Org Employee Handbook Guide