Webinar: You’re One Step Away from a Smarter Employee Handbook

New Employee handbook training presentation

Are you 100% certain that your employee handbook is completely up-to-date? Employers often have a bad habit of neglecting their handbook once they’ve created it; but the truth is, your handbook is only valuable if it reflects the policies and practices you use today.

Build a compliant, downloadable employee handbook— in just minutes!

Watch this session in which we provided a demonstration of our Smart Employee Handbook Builder. Presented with our HR partner Mineral, we also broke down the essentials of a well-structured, up-to-date handbook and shared practical tips to keep it compliant and relevant. You’ll see step-by-step how easy it is to put together.

This user-friendly tool helps you:

  • Generate a compliant Federal and single-state handbook without having to start from scratch.
  • Stay ahead of policy updates with automated changes as laws evolve.
  • Get expert guidance whenever you need it from seasoned HR professionals.

Updating and maintaining your employee handbook should not be a chore that falls to the bottom of your to-do list. Take the stress out of handbook maintenance—for good!

This session was recorded live on April 24th, 2025

 Transcript

Susannah Forbes: Wonderful. Well, good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to today’s webinar on creating a smart employee handbook.

00:00:07.598 –> 00:00:21.148

Susannah Forbes: My name is Susanna Forbes, and I am an Hr. Business partner with Commonwealth Payroll and Hr. My role here is to support the Hr. Needs of our Hr. Services clients.

00:00:21.368 –> 00:00:42.268

Susannah Forbes: I am joined today by Andrew Pinto from mineral mineral supports the technology behind our commonwealth compliance center, where the smart employee handbook tool sits. Andrew is a seasoned expert in Hr technology and will really guide us through all the powerful features of the Handbook today.

00:00:42.268 –> 00:01:07.627

Susannah Forbes: and show us sort of how to create, distribute, and maintain all of your employment policies and procedures to help ensure compliance and improve accessibility to your handbook. So with that, Andrew, thank you for joining us today. And I will mention, unfortunately, we’re having a little bit of technological difficulty today, and Andrew’s camera is not working, but he still is going to give us a great run through. So take it away, Andrew.

00:01:07.908 –> 00:01:19.578

Andrew Pinto: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Susanna, and welcome everybody to today’s webinar, as you mentioned. Unfortunately, my camera is not working, but I am going to go ahead and share my screen so that we can get to our feature presentation here.

00:01:20.758 –> 00:01:30.757

Andrew Pinto: So thank you all once again for joining. We really appreciate your time as we go through the smart employee, handbook builder. And just to confirm Susanna, can you see my screen? Okay.

00:01:30.928 –> 00:01:32.488

Susannah Forbes: Yes, you’re all set.

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Andrew Pinto: Okay, perfect. So the access to the the mineral Hr. And compliance is through the commonwealth compliance center.

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Andrew Pinto: So you would only have access to this. If you have the Hr services to have access to the Commonwealth compliance center, we’ll be going through on the mineral platform where to find the smart employee handbooks how to create the Handbook.

00:01:57.378 –> 00:02:08.397

Andrew Pinto: how to manage the Handbook as well as look for alerts, and then any ways to contact the Hr experts. If you have any questions concerning policies, or really anything regarding the Handbook as well.

00:02:09.018 –> 00:02:14.817

Andrew Pinto: so to start us off, I just wanted to confirm something with everybody and launch a quick poll. Here.

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Andrew Pinto: you’ll see this appear on screen. So feel free to answer.

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Andrew Pinto: If you have ever logged into the Commonwealth compliance center.

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Andrew Pinto: I will give everyone just a minute or so to answer.

00:02:35.388 –> 00:02:38.068

Andrew Pinto: okay, just a couple more seconds here.

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Andrew Pinto: Okay, get a few more answers in there.

00:02:57.648 –> 00:03:02.237

Andrew Pinto: Okay, so I’m going to end that poll and show the results on screen.

00:03:03.038 –> 00:03:07.418

Andrew Pinto: Looks like a a good amount of us have not logged in before. So that’s okay.

 

00:03:09.098 –> 00:03:18.198

Andrew Pinto: to take us back. Now, what you would see once you log in through the Commonwealth compliance center is this main dashboard? That’s the 1st page that you would see.

00:03:20.158 –> 00:03:26.098

Andrew Pinto: So with that, to get to the actual portion that contains the handbooks.

00:03:26.368 –> 00:03:32.318

Andrew Pinto: you would go up under company policies listed up here, handbooks simple as that.

00:03:37.818 –> 00:03:51.598

Andrew Pinto: So once we land at this section, you you land in the Handbook library. We can see a bunch of handbooks that I have already created in here. If you have never logged in before, the 1st time you log in, you won’t see anything, it’ll actually prompt you to create a handbook in the middle of the screen.

00:03:52.197 –> 00:03:57.438

Andrew Pinto: but you can always go up to the upper right and create one on the upper right there with the create button.

00:03:57.578 –> 00:04:05.988

Andrew Pinto: A nice part of the mineral platform as well is that the action button create, manage. You know, options. Anything like that is always up on the upper right.

00:04:08.368 –> 00:04:34.667

Andrew Pinto: So now, as we go through a couple good things to keep in mind, every company should really have a handbook. It helps you handle your compliance. Matters, steer free of any sort of legal issues, really make sure that everything is kind of set in stone as it should be. And the nice thing about Mineral’s smart employee handbook is that it creates policies that are based on your company, your state, your industry, the amount of people who work in each location

00:04:35.318 –> 00:04:43.568

Andrew Pinto: and so on. There’s quite a few automatic features that it gives, based on the information that is already in the system under you.

 

00:04:44.108 –> 00:04:45.407

Andrew Pinto: which is really nice.

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Andrew Pinto: so you can rest assured that when you create a handbook for your company it is aligned already with all the policies and procedures. However, it’s also advisable to go through and check on each of those policies as well, just to make sure that everything is as you need it to be.

00:05:00.678 –> 00:05:02.388

Andrew Pinto: So I’ll show you what that looks like

00:05:03.268 –> 00:05:07.588

Andrew Pinto: to create a handbook. We go to the upper right and choose, create new handbook.

00:05:12.838 –> 00:05:15.427

Andrew Pinto: Now this expands the 1st page of the editor.

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Andrew Pinto: We have the option to name this handbook. So I’m going to call this 2025 Compliance Handbook.

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Andrew Pinto: For lack of a better term.

00:05:25.248 –> 00:05:33.717

Andrew Pinto: we get to choose the option of Federal policies plus single State policies, all included or Federal only policies.

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Andrew Pinto: Now there is an option for an upgraded smart employee handbook plus which does include the option for multiple states, a multi-state handbook as well as E-signature and Spanish translation.

 

00:05:46.558 –> 00:05:58.848

Andrew Pinto: We’re not going to be covering that functionality during today’s webinar. But just know that that option is available. And if you’re interested, you can absolutely contact Susanna or your your customer service representative from commonwealth.

00:06:01.368 –> 00:06:04.658

Andrew Pinto: For now we’re going to focus on the Federal plus one State Handbook.

00:06:06.158 –> 00:06:14.527

Andrew Pinto: We can see here that my company’s name is Rocket Moon Co. I can upload my own company logo. If I have a file in Jpeg or Png format

00:06:14.858 –> 00:06:16.048

Andrew Pinto: to really brand it.

00:06:16.628 –> 00:06:24.038

Andrew Pinto: we can choose how I refer to my company. We can say it’s an Agency Bank Club Company Corporation. There’s quite a few options here

00:06:24.258 –> 00:06:25.288

Andrew Pinto: which is nice.

00:06:25.888 –> 00:06:32.398

Andrew Pinto: I’ll stick with the company. And then how do you refer to your employees. We can say employees, associates, staff members, team members.

00:06:33.648 –> 00:06:44.298

Andrew Pinto: And now we get to choose who is the head of the company. So in this case I’m going to put myself because I represent just a 1 person company. But this would typically be reserved for, say, the CEO,

00:06:45.958 –> 00:06:48.378

Andrew Pinto: and we can even give it. The title as such

00:06:48.718 –> 00:06:51.727

Andrew Pinto: looks like I’ve typed in that answer before. So it’s recommending it to me.

 

00:06:52.408 –> 00:06:58.608

Andrew Pinto: Now, what we type in here is actually going to replace the hypertext that we see in the prefit policies.

00:06:58.838 –> 00:07:08.228

Andrew Pinto: So in the policies that are generated again, based on your location, your industry, your your company size. It has prefit language that will be replaced by that.

00:07:08.758 –> 00:07:10.258

Andrew Pinto: I’ll show you what that looks like.

00:07:10.848 –> 00:07:19.617

Andrew Pinto: Since I’m also a single person company. I’m listing myself as the primary contact. But the primary contact is for the Hr. Admin, who is creating and managing the Handbook.

00:07:20.158 –> 00:07:25.328

Andrew Pinto: The person who would basically be in charge of the edits who created it, basically the handbook admin.

00:07:25.768 –> 00:07:27.158

Andrew Pinto: So I’ll mark it as myself.

00:07:27.398 –> 00:07:28.258

Andrew Pinto: And then

00:07:28.408 –> 00:07:38.158

Andrew Pinto: how do you refer to your managers or supervisors at the company that replaces the manager, Supervisor Field. You want to keep this singular, I’m going to say, manager.

00:07:41.208 –> 00:07:54.618

Andrew Pinto: okay. And now we get to choose. As this is a federal plus one state handbook we get to choose which state we are based out of. So I’m going to choose California and choose add State. That’s because I am based out of California.

00:07:54.728 –> 00:08:01.007

Andrew Pinto: So we can see that when I add this, it shows the state, and it shows the number of employees that are in that state.

00:08:02.468 –> 00:08:05.678

Andrew Pinto: Now, if that number looks incorrect when I’m adding my state.

00:08:05.828 –> 00:08:12.117

Andrew Pinto: what I would want to do at this point is, again, if this is incorrect. Choose save handbook and exit.

00:08:13.348 –> 00:08:18.468

Andrew Pinto: and then I would want to go up under the admin icon. Here she looks like a person

00:08:18.638 –> 00:08:19.988

Andrew Pinto: go to company

00:08:25.068 –> 00:08:29.688

Andrew Pinto: and under the company settings. I would want to update my employee, count

00:08:30.988 –> 00:08:34.518

Andrew Pinto: that information is down. If I scroll down here.

00:08:34.828 –> 00:08:49.617

Andrew Pinto: It is the number of employees at this location. It’s important on the mineral platform to always keep this number up to date that way. You’re getting the best up-to-date compliance alerts, especially for your handbooks. So I just want to correct this number here and then choose safe settings

00:08:50.048 –> 00:08:51.557

Andrew Pinto: before I continue

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Andrew Pinto: back to the Handbook.

00:08:57.978 –> 00:09:23.397

Andrew Pinto: Now, as I go ahead. And I finalize all this information on this page. I might notice this in the corner subscribe to email alerts for this handbook. So this is basically why we call it the smart Employee Handbook. It’s smart, because not only does it generate those policies which are automatically based on again your metrics that I’ve described. But it keeps you up to date. It actually sends you notifications on the platform and via email when there are policy changes and updates.

00:09:23.478 –> 00:09:31.848

Andrew Pinto: So when a policy or a law changes that would affect a policy that’s in your handbook. You get automatically notified. As long as this is left checked on

00:09:32.488 –> 00:09:39.997

Andrew Pinto: automatically, it is checked on, so you would have to make the effort to uncheck it if you don’t want those alerts. But I really recommend leaving that on.

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Andrew Pinto: and with that we can go through to the Save and review policies. Option. That is the next step of the editor.

00:09:50.138 –> 00:09:51.907

Andrew Pinto: Now, as we get into this.

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Andrew Pinto: I want to know. I want to launch another quick poll here before we get to the table of contents, which is what we’re seeing on this screen.

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Andrew Pinto: And then next one is, do you actually have a company handbook?

00:10:03.138 –> 00:10:06.388

Andrew Pinto: You’d be surprised at how many companies do? How many companies do not

00:10:06.568 –> 00:10:09.987

Andrew Pinto: but feel free to just answer as as honestly as possible.

00:10:22.248 –> 00:10:23.788

Andrew Pinto: I’ll give that a little more time

 

00:10:23.968 –> 00:10:27.097

Andrew Pinto: and thank you all for your participation. We really appreciate it.

00:10:37.498 –> 00:10:39.607

Andrew Pinto: I’ll give it just a couple more seconds.

00:10:47.178 –> 00:10:50.938

Andrew Pinto: Okay, so I’ll end that poll and share some results.

00:10:51.988 –> 00:10:57.608

Andrew Pinto: It looks like a good must. A good amount of us feel confident that we do have a company handbook. However.

00:10:57.958 –> 00:11:13.358

Andrew Pinto: I’ll stop the share here with the smart employee handbook builder once again. It is keeping you up to date automatically. So you don’t have to do any deep diving to be notified when there are policy alerts and changes. So I’ll show you how that works and what that looks like.

00:11:14.558 –> 00:11:18.007

Andrew Pinto: Now, with this we get through to the

00:11:18.728 –> 00:11:28.308

Andrew Pinto: the dashboard of the Handbook, essentially the table of contents, and there’s a couple of different sections to be aware of. Up Top. There’s core policies, which means Federal policies.

00:11:28.788 –> 00:11:37.317

Andrew Pinto: And down below we have the State specific policies. I chose California. So all California specific policies are listed down here in this section.

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Andrew Pinto: Now, if I click to expand one of these sections, it’ll show me the policies inside.

 

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Andrew Pinto: We can see a black checkmark for best practices, meaning those are policies that are just a best practice to have. It’s a best practice to have a welcome policy right at the beginning, welcoming the reader to the Handbook.

00:11:54.238 –> 00:12:05.577

Andrew Pinto: But there’s also the red star for required now that is required at the Federal level, and there will also be required ones at the State level, too, at will. Employment is required. So that’s why it’s listed there as well

00:12:06.968 –> 00:12:11.028

Andrew Pinto: within different sections. We can see the breakdown of what is included in each one.

00:12:11.428 –> 00:12:19.437

Andrew Pinto: However, these can all be reordered, and in the appearance and the occurrence of how they are showing up in the handbook with the reorder button.

00:12:21.168 –> 00:12:22.687

Andrew Pinto: Now, before I get to that.

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Andrew Pinto: if we click into a policy, or if we click edit, it does the same thing. It brings us into the actual policy.

00:12:31.838 –> 00:12:37.197

Andrew Pinto: This way we can see what has been designed for our company and for our State, or at a Federal level.

00:12:38.968 –> 00:12:52.658

Andrew Pinto: So welcome policy is is pretty straightforward again. It’s not a required one, but it shows you welcome. You’ve just joined a dedicated organization. We hope that your employment with and this is where that company name field that we filled at the beginning would come into play

00:12:52.758 –> 00:12:54.508

Andrew Pinto: will be rewarding and challenging.

 

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Andrew Pinto: We take pride in our employees because I chose the employee term as well as in the products and services we provide. So with this, this is freely editable. You can edit this to be really anything that you want it to be. However, the caution that comes with that is really just the part of using the smart employee handbook, where you just have to be cautious of edits that you’re making in particular to the required policies.

00:13:20.168 –> 00:13:24.788

Andrew Pinto: In other words, if you’re making a change to a required policy. You want to make sure that it’s the right change.

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Andrew Pinto: and if you’re ever unsure, if it is the right change to make. Say that you’re making a change to a required policy. And you’re just not sure if it’s really a compliance statement.

00:13:35.128 –> 00:13:39.908

Andrew Pinto: you can always contact the Hr. Experts. They are available at any point

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Andrew Pinto: down under this button. Get help

00:13:43.218 –> 00:13:48.257

Andrew Pinto: if I expand that I can see contact an Hr. Expert down at the bottom right here.

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Andrew Pinto: and if I click that, it opens up another window where I can fill out a form page by page

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Andrew Pinto: that would take me to submitting a case to the Hr experts.

00:14:00.378 –> 00:14:09.857

Andrew Pinto: Once you submit the case, then that case would live up under the admin icon my cases section. That’s where you can monitor any cases that you have open with them

 

00:14:10.698 –> 00:14:12.358

Andrew Pinto: for a little more detail on that.

00:14:12.738 –> 00:14:24.808

Andrew Pinto: There’s a couple different ways that you can go about contacting them. If you have handbook related questions, one of them being by calling the phone number here 877-80-6675. And they’re available at the time listed

00:14:25.758 –> 00:14:26.928

Andrew Pinto: times listed.

00:14:27.648 –> 00:14:32.427

Andrew Pinto: You can also, instead of calling, you can fill out the form as follows.

00:14:33.208 –> 00:14:45.707

Andrew Pinto: my company is based out of 2 different States. But this handbook is based out of California with 80 employees. So I’m going to choose that. And we can see that this commitment to get a response by question, by phone or online is one day.

00:14:45.898 –> 00:15:00.647

Andrew Pinto: So by the end of one business day I should have a response to my question. Now that could be them asking for more information, it could be a direct response. So it’s best to check back. But you’ll also receive an email if you submit a case, too.

00:15:00.848 –> 00:15:08.078

Andrew Pinto: So when somebody responds on it, you’ll receive a response that way, or you may potentially receive a call back if you request a call back.

00:15:09.358 –> 00:15:24.408

Andrew Pinto: but just know the response. Time is about a day turnaround, and if I click next now, I can ask my question or issue, and I can attach files. So this is nice because I can attach the handbook that I’ve been working on, and I can reference, maybe the page or the section or the specific policy.

00:15:24.818 –> 00:15:28.867

Andrew Pinto: I can also double, check my contact info on the right and then click, submit.

 

00:15:30.288 –> 00:15:34.068

Andrew Pinto: If I call them, they would be creating the case for me.

00:15:34.968 –> 00:15:40.467

Andrew Pinto: So once again, if you submit online, that creates the case, then it lives in your my cases section.

00:15:41.108 –> 00:15:53.327

Andrew Pinto: If I call them, they create the case for me, and then that also lives in my my cases section, and I can click into that my cases button right there to see the cases that have been submitted and the ones that are being worked on.

00:15:54.418 –> 00:15:59.418

Andrew Pinto: This is also a nice way to ask an expert on the right there, as well to open up a new case.

00:15:59.568 –> 00:16:06.428

Andrew Pinto: and fear not if you receive a response that maybe you don’t fully understand. Each case has the option to ask a follow-up question as well.

00:16:09.508 –> 00:16:11.088

Andrew Pinto: So back to the Handbook

00:16:11.198 –> 00:16:19.128

Andrew Pinto: and to the policy that we were editing once again. If I’m making a change, I’m not sure that it’s compliant. Ask an expert right down there, always on the bottom. Right

00:16:19.728 –> 00:16:22.177

Andrew Pinto: now. With this I can preview the policy.

00:16:22.698 –> 00:16:25.708

Andrew Pinto: and I can see what it will look like in the actual handbook itself.

00:16:26.448 –> 00:16:33.978

Andrew Pinto: With all this it it maps all the language that we chose. So the company name becomes Rocket Moon Co. Employee term becomes employees, and so on.

 

00:16:34.858 –> 00:16:48.277

Andrew Pinto: If I don’t like the changes that I made, or I really need to change something back to the way that it was. I can choose default policy, and then it will bring it back to this original language. So there’s always a way to bring it back. If you’ve made changes that you don’t like.

00:16:50.908 –> 00:16:55.717

Andrew Pinto: Okay, so with this, I’m going to take a step back here.

00:16:58.218 –> 00:17:06.018

Andrew Pinto: I do see that there is a question or so in the chat, and don’t worry. At the end we’re going to have a short Q&A session to address some of the questions that come up so hang tight

00:17:07.588 –> 00:17:11.467

Andrew Pinto: once again, required policies that come with the red asterisk.

00:17:12.908 –> 00:17:18.987

Andrew Pinto: The same concept applies. If you make changes to this and you’re unsure, then you can always

00:17:19.208 –> 00:17:30.837

Andrew Pinto: contact the Hr experts you can always default if you need to bring it back to what it was, but rest assured that this is out of the box compliant for the State and Federal policies that are listed within the handbook.

00:17:35.218 –> 00:17:49.797

Andrew Pinto: There’s also a toggle option for certain policies, so you can withhold them if you so choose. It’s this green switch on the right hand side. So if I wanted to withhold a welcome policy, or maybe an optional policy. I could turn that off. And then, when I share this handbook, that policy will not be part of it.

 

00:17:53.098 –> 00:17:56.828

Andrew Pinto: You might see blue dots for optional policies as well.

 

00:17:57.858 –> 00:18:10.027

Andrew Pinto: such as this one for affirmative action for Federal contractors. The optional policies by default are turned off, so you have to switch them on and then double check them before making making sure that they’re in the Handbook.

00:18:13.218 –> 00:18:25.328

Andrew Pinto: Okay? As I mentioned, there’s core policies, Aka Federal policies up top versus State specific policies down below, but if I want to reorder them in the order that they show up in, I can click the reorder button here.

00:18:25.698 –> 00:18:30.357

Andrew Pinto: and then I can drag the whole sections up or down to make them appear sooner or later.

00:18:31.418 –> 00:18:36.888

Andrew Pinto: I can also drag the policies within each section up and down to make them appear sooner or later.

00:18:37.638 –> 00:18:45.198

Andrew Pinto: Again, this is separate from toggling them off and on. That’s in the regular menu. This reorder is just to make things appear sooner or later.

00:18:47.048 –> 00:18:55.787

Andrew Pinto: and, if need be, though not highly recommended, the option is available for me to drag the State policies up into

00:18:56.238 –> 00:18:58.238

Andrew Pinto: the Federal policies as well.

00:18:58.498 –> 00:19:01.977

Andrew Pinto: That option is available, though we recommend keeping them separate.

00:19:04.248 –> 00:19:14.278

Andrew Pinto: Once I’m done, I can always choose, restore defaults by the way, to bring it back to the original order in which it was presented, and I can also undo. But if I’ve made some edits that I want to keep, I would choose save.

 

00:19:15.118 –> 00:19:16.898

Andrew Pinto: and then the nice part about that

00:19:19.968 –> 00:19:26.058

Andrew Pinto: is once I have made some changes, I can go up under the actions menu

00:19:26.468 –> 00:19:31.507

Andrew Pinto: and I can view the activity stream. So this is essentially the audit trail for the Handbook.

00:19:31.658 –> 00:19:35.988

Andrew Pinto: The activity stream. When I expand it, will show the date and time that it was created

00:19:36.498 –> 00:19:55.628

Andrew Pinto: who created it. So I’m logged in as this person. I can see that I created this here. I disabled the welcome policy, and then I re-enabled it, and then what I just did was rearrange the order of policies, so I can see who did what and at what time, and if applicable. There is a view, details button. There’s also a way to search the edits that were made to.

00:19:56.888 –> 00:20:00.768

Andrew Pinto: So it’s a nice way just to keep track of all the changes that have been made.

00:20:01.668 –> 00:20:09.428

Andrew Pinto: You can also use the search, bar up top to search for specific policies. If you don’t feel like scrolling through everything and expanding every line, you can always search for them.

00:20:12.808 –> 00:20:20.559

Andrew Pinto: And once I’ve made the changes that I needed to make once I’ve double checked. Oh, actually, before I get to that sorry one last thing.

00:20:21.868 –> 00:20:42.538

Andrew Pinto: you might see some best practice policies with the black checkmark again that have a requires customization orange text next to it. This is why I mentioned that it’s a good idea to review the entire handbook before sending it out, though all of the required policies, and most of the best practice policies are already customized to be kind of out of the box compliant.

00:20:42.778 –> 00:20:49.167

Andrew Pinto: Some of these need your customization mission statement, for example, though it’s not required.

00:20:50.198 –> 00:21:08.468

Andrew Pinto: We don’t have a general mission statement for your company, because that is very personal and very different, depending on who’s creating the Handbook. So in this case it just says, Insert your company’s mission statement here you’ll see once again that orange text and orange label on any policies that should require your input.

00:21:15.108 –> 00:21:29.147

Andrew Pinto: So let’s say that I’ve gone through. I’ve reordered things as needed, maybe adjusted a few things turned off or on some optional policies. I’ve contacted an Hr. Expert when I had a question about a policy that I really wasn’t sure if was compliant or not.

00:21:29.538 –> 00:21:32.768

Andrew Pinto: and at this point I feel confident and ready to share it.

00:21:33.308 –> 00:21:41.567

Andrew Pinto: So there’s a couple of ways that I can do that. I can go up to the actions button on the upper right. I can download it as a word Doc, or a Pdf. And share it either way.

00:21:42.038 –> 00:21:45.478

Andrew Pinto: or I can share this handbook directly from

00:21:46.118 –> 00:21:52.448

Andrew Pinto: the handbook section. Now that I’ve created it, it will show up in my library, and we can see

00:21:52.918 –> 00:21:56.218

Andrew Pinto: that it was updated today.

00:21:57.368 –> 00:22:24.857

Andrew Pinto: This 1, 2025 compliance handbook. I just created it. It’s for one state with 80 employees. And I can see that it was updated today. So I can go to the actions. Button and I have all those options to download as a word or a Pdf. Doc, I can even copy the Handbook. I can delete the Handbook from here, and if I do delete a handbook it would show up in my deleted handbook section. So there’s always a way to backtrack and go back to the deleted handbooks and recover them if needed.

00:22:28.358 –> 00:22:37.287

Andrew Pinto: We can see that I have quite a few here. Most companies won’t have that many, but we can see, there’s a restore handbook option which is very handy for recovering something that was lost.

00:22:37.488 –> 00:22:41.457

Andrew Pinto: Also, there is a custom policy section that you might have been noticing

00:22:42.318 –> 00:22:59.078

Andrew Pinto: custom policies I like to call sort of a last resort. If you have reviewed the policies that are already in there, and you don’t, you can’t just make any edits to kind of shape it to what you want your company to represent, and you truly need something. Custom that is not in there. You can go to custom policies.

00:22:59.818 –> 00:23:03.578

Andrew Pinto: oops, looks like I already clicked it. And you can create a custom policy.

00:23:04.158 –> 00:23:04.998

Andrew Pinto: Now.

00:23:05.248 –> 00:23:17.358

Andrew Pinto: the best path to do this is to create the handbook. 1st review it, see that there’s nothing that matches what you need specifically for that policy, then go to create new custom policy.

00:23:18.428 –> 00:23:27.727

Andrew Pinto: And then, when you create that policy, you can link it to that existing handbook. So once again create the handbook, review it, and then create the custom policy. If needed.

 

00:23:27.958 –> 00:23:31.118

Andrew Pinto: We can give it an internal name, a display name.

00:23:31.338 –> 00:23:37.688

Andrew Pinto: and then you have an option to automatically include that custom policy in all new handbooks moving forward

00:23:37.908 –> 00:23:40.428

Andrew Pinto: just as a heads up. This is permanent.

00:23:41.243 –> 00:23:51.617

Andrew Pinto: If if it’s created by mistake, then you can absolutely contact our technical support team, which is down here under contact, technical support or chat with technical support if needed.

00:23:52.308 –> 00:24:05.388

Andrew Pinto: But just know that having this option toggle on would typically include it in all new handbooks that you have moving forward, and once you have all of that, you would choose save policy, and then on the next screen you can link it to an existing handbook.

00:24:11.238 –> 00:24:14.970

Andrew Pinto: So with that keeping track of the time that we have as well.

00:24:17.668 –> 00:24:31.278

Andrew Pinto: if you are interested in the smart employee handbook plus builder, the one that has the multi-state e-signature and Spanish translation. You can absolutely contact Susanna or your customer support representative from commonwealth.

00:24:31.458 –> 00:24:35.117

Andrew Pinto: and they would be happy to advise you further on the path to upgrade

00:24:37.488 –> 00:24:49.107

Andrew Pinto: as well as that. If you ever have any questions on using the handbook builder, and you need some help with the Handbook. You can also contact Susanna as well. Is that fair to say, Susanna, just to confirm with you.

00:24:49.488 –> 00:25:00.417

Susannah Forbes: Yes, it is. Yes. You know, my clients who have access to this tool can either ask the question of the Hr. Expert throughout the platform, or they can reach out to me, and I can help them as well.

00:25:01.038 –> 00:25:02.108

Andrew Pinto: Fantastic.

00:25:02.588 –> 00:25:18.137

Andrew Pinto: And so with that, there’s also A. A before we get to our Q&A in our final section. Here there is a help center section that is based entirely on this tool with videos guides. You name it. So to get there, you can choose once again, get help.

00:25:18.298 –> 00:25:20.688

Andrew Pinto: And this time you want to go to help topics.

00:25:24.588 –> 00:25:27.268

Andrew Pinto: Once you’re in the help center. Once it loads up

00:25:28.908 –> 00:25:49.818

Andrew Pinto: you’ll see this company policies and smart handbooks section. If you click into here, it will show you any relevant videos that we have on how to do everything that we just talked about, how to create a handbook, how to handle custom policies, the handbook editor overview. These are all videos. By the way, reorganize, review and edit, how to update a handbook. Oh, I did want to touch on that very quickly.

00:25:51.798 –> 00:26:05.568

Andrew Pinto: So just one thing. Just know that these videos, when you click into them, you can favorite them with this favorite star up on the left hand corner here, if you choose that, and favorite it, then it shows up as quick access on your front dashboard.

00:26:05.678 –> 00:26:09.328

Andrew Pinto: which I can get back to by clicking the Commonwealth payroll and Hr. Logo

00:26:10.478 –> 00:26:13.807

Andrew Pinto: on the dashboard. Since I just favorited that item.

00:26:14.158 –> 00:26:16.988

Andrew Pinto: I would scroll down, and I would see the my favorite section.

 

00:26:18.208 –> 00:26:25.237

Andrew Pinto: And I can see that update a handbook. Is this this result down here? Quick access right back to that video for ease of use.

00:26:26.538 –> 00:26:28.898

Andrew Pinto: One last quick thing with the time that we have

00:26:29.698 –> 00:26:36.837

Andrew Pinto: under the handbooks. When you have an updated policy or a law change that would indicate an update that you need to keep track of.

00:26:36.948 –> 00:26:53.697

Andrew Pinto: You’ll notice this flag that appears on the existing handbooks. Now you’ll also receive a notification under the bell up here you’ll also receive an email as it is a living, smart employee handbook, but just know that it’ll also be represented in terms of the flag here, and if I click on that flag

00:26:54.268 –> 00:26:58.887

Andrew Pinto: it will show me what policies need to be updated with this number on the right hand side

00:26:59.168 –> 00:27:03.918

Andrew Pinto: so I can click into this section. I can see that there’s a policy alert for this one.

00:27:05.258 –> 00:27:07.168

Andrew Pinto: and if I click that policy alert.

00:27:08.278 –> 00:27:17.958

Andrew Pinto: it will show me the old language versus the new language. It’ll show me the previous policy language, what it was and what it’s going to be updated to. As long as I approve it.

00:27:18.198 –> 00:27:26.808

Andrew Pinto: The really nice part about this is there is a view text difference, button. If I click it, it’ll show you what’s being removed in red. And what’s being added in green.

 

00:27:27.928 –> 00:27:40.468

Andrew Pinto: So that’s a really nice way to if you’re a visual person like me, that’s a nice way to kind of differentiate it, and once you review it and approve it. And again, at this point you could always pause and contact an Hr. Expert. If something seems unclear. That’s the nice part about the

00:27:40.598 –> 00:27:41.748

Andrew Pinto: compliance center.

00:27:42.248 –> 00:27:47.758

Andrew Pinto: But once you’re finished with that you would choose, accept policy changes, accept the Update.

00:27:48.158 –> 00:27:52.788

Andrew Pinto: and that clears out the flag and the customization that was needed.

00:27:53.078 –> 00:27:55.538

Andrew Pinto: So now this handbook is ready to be shared again.

00:27:58.948 –> 00:28:02.398

Andrew Pinto: Excellent. So now what I would like to do

00:28:03.638 –> 00:28:23.027

Andrew Pinto: is just open up our Q&A as well. Now you’ll notice our final slide here. You can feel free to scan that QR code that’s listed on screen to connect with Susanna for questions or more information about this tool, access to it, the upgrade to the multi-state and e-signature version as well, so absolutely feel free to contact her for that.

00:28:23.568 –> 00:28:26.937

Andrew Pinto: And with that I just want to touch on some of the questions that we received.

00:28:28.088 –> 00:28:57.867

Andrew Pinto: how much complexity into company policies, and the Handbook does multi-state operations introduce in our situation. We are a virtual company based in Massachusetts with Staff, who live in 8 different us States. So that’s a great question, Lindy. Thank you for asking it, I would say, since the Handbook keeps track of these policies for you, you can rest assured that you will always be notified if there is a change, and that’s across all the different States. So if you get the upgraded version that has multi-state.

00:28:58.618 –> 00:29:05.438

Andrew Pinto: then you would be notified regardless, and you can always come in check on those policies and choose to update them

00:29:06.038 –> 00:29:27.617

Andrew Pinto: now by default. They are compliant right out of the box. So there is a safety net there. You can feel free to preview them as I showed you and choose to update. But if you’re ever unsure, that’s exactly what the Hr experts are there for to handle those kinds of questions, and they’re ready to take those questions, whether it’s over the Internet or a phone call. So we encourage that.

00:29:28.488 –> 00:29:29.168

Susannah Forbes: Okay.

00:29:31.728 –> 00:29:45.508

Andrew Pinto: Now I also see. Can you capture employee signature? Acknowledging the handbook has been reviewed, and that there are no questions that E-signature function would come with the smart employee handbook plus upgrade, the one that I was just mentioning. So that feature is only available for that.

00:29:48.948 –> 00:29:51.128

Andrew Pinto: and thank you for the comment, Lindy, I appreciate it.

00:29:52.838 –> 00:29:54.588

Andrew Pinto: Okay, I see another one here.

00:29:55.442 –> 00:30:02.037

Andrew Pinto: Karen, you said you were having audio issues. So you missed the 1st 5 min, wondering what the cost is associated with this option.

00:30:02.308 –> 00:30:12.918

Andrew Pinto: So the the smart employee, handbook builder without the multi-state upgrade actually comes with your commonwealth. Hr. Compliance, Hr. Services.

 

00:30:13.118 –> 00:30:15.637

Susannah Forbes: Susanna, did you have anything to add to that?

00:30:15.638 –> 00:30:30.748

Susannah Forbes: Yeah. So yes, that was a great way to put it so. Yes, this commonwealth compliance center. And this is just one part of the compliance center, this handbook tool. There’s a training aspect of it. There’s a whole legal compliance section. There’s toolkits, checklists.

00:30:30.748 –> 00:30:50.067

Susannah Forbes: policy templates things like that comes with one of the 3 Hr. Services packages that we have, and I’d be happy to talk to anyone that wants to get more information around pricing, and so on. But you will have access to this tool with any of the 3 Hr. Services that we offer.

00:30:52.368 –> 00:30:53.943

Andrew Pinto: Awesome thanks. So much, Susanna.

00:30:54.718 –> 00:30:56.493

Andrew Pinto: And and with that

00:30:57.128 –> 00:31:27.037

Andrew Pinto: yeah, thank you so much. Everybody for joining us today. We really appreciate it once again, once you get access through the Commonwealth, Hr compliance center with Hr services, you’ll have access to this tool to the help center where you can favorite those videos and guides from the smart employee, handbook section and access to Hr. Experts as well for any questions related to handbooks as you go through it. So think of it as a multi-tiered safety net. You can create a handbook that is automatically going to be compliant for your state and for your company size.

00:31:27.158 –> 00:31:36.848

Andrew Pinto: and then you have options to ask the Hr. Experts for any questions that you have on them as well. If anything’s ever unclear. But it’s meant to keep you within compliance. That’s the power of the tool.

 

00:31:37.458 –> 00:32:02.247

Susannah Forbes: And it’s such a great tool as we all know, an employee handbook handbook. Excuse me, it’s kind of building block for your employee population. It really helps to maintain compliance and create a culture of transparency for your employees, which is so important. So you know the nice aspect about our Hr services with this tool is, you know, you get access to this whole system, but you also have access to me. So I’m really here to help all of our clients deal with the Hr. Needs that arise.

00:32:02.248 –> 00:32:19.518

Susannah Forbes: I wanted to mention as well about the signature aspect of this as you do. Have the ability to download it. Isol does have the ability to upload documents and require acknowledgment through the system. So there is a way as well electronically, to acknowledge the review of a handbook through the isol system as well.

00:32:19.888 –> 00:32:37.627

Susannah Forbes: So thank you so much, Andrew. I appreciate your time today. This was excellent. I think this was a great overview of this tool. I hope folks found it useful, and please feel free to reach out to me directly, as Andrew said, or scan this QR. Code to fill out a form that I’ll receive so we can follow up with you.

00:32:38.188 –> 00:32:50.368

Andrew Pinto: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Susanna, and thank you everybody for joining again. We appreciate your attendance and your attention, and this recording will also be sent to you about a day afterwards, so you should receive it tomorrow at around the same time.

00:32:50.528 –> 00:32:53.978

Andrew Pinto: So thank you all so much, and I hope you have a great day.

00:32:54.178 –> 00:32:56.497

Susannah Forbes: Yeah, thanks. Enjoy the day. Everyone take care

00:32:57.168 –> 00:32:58.937

Andrew Pinto: Thank you. Bye.

00:32:59.248 –> 00:32:59.788

Susannah Forbes: Bye.

 

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