As a craft brewer, your focus is on making the best beer possible. However, being a craft brewer means you are also a small business owner. That fact means that you also have to focus on managing a successful business. As your brewery grows, your business grows. This growth inevitably leads to hiring employees.
Being an employer is rewarding, the right employees are valuable assets. However, becoming an employer can also be scary at times because having employees presents additional risks. One of the keys to being a successful employer, having happy employees and limiting your liability, is to have an employee handbook.
Whether you have one or one hundred employees, an employee handbook should be completed. Employee handbooks reduce the inherent risks presented by having employees. One easy example is harassment. Today, all businesses should have an anti-harassment policy. To not have such a policy is akin to not having any business insurance. The employee handbook presents a perfect place for your anti-harassment policy to be communicated, as well as other key policies and procedures you need your employees to know and understand. You should consider the employee handbook as the cornerstone of your relationship with your employees. It will serve as a policy and procedure resource, as well as the foundation of the culture you want your brewery to embody.