Everyone in HR already has a job description a mile long. Our positions can closely relate to therapists, employment lawyers, compliance experts, accountants, and let's be honest, daycare providers. 

Just kidding. Sort of. 

One thing is certain, time is not our friend. So without further ado...

1. Time is Essential - With so many projects and issues to handle every day, anything that can be streamlined should be streamlined. Every company worth its weight has a handbook and when HR has to create one for the first time or update a seriously out of date one, using an Employee Handbook Builder instead of a template saves days of work. It also keeps everything digital for faster updating and reference. 

2. Automatic Compliance Updates - Keeping your handbook in compliance means editing your company handbook every time an employment law changes on a Federal, State, local or industry level. That's a lot for you to keep up with. Depending on your location in the U.S and industry, you could be looking at 2-20 changes every month. Depending on the handbook builder, these edits could go from hours of work to an electronic system that keeps up with it for you.

This handbook builder updates for you. 

3. Editing is a Breeze - In this digital age, keeping a handbook in an editable file is as simple as using Word. But Word won't tell you when a policy is no longer compliant. This Company Handbook Builder will though. 

4. Policy Creation - No one relishes the day they have to create and implement new HR policies. Most of us in HR dread them. Researching, formatting and witing and possibly running it past the company lawyer for a sizeable cost, can all be a headache. Not to mention mingling the new policy into the company culture, obtaining employee signatures, and answering everyone's questions. 

Can you imagine your handbook writing these for you instead? Just a simple search in a database, and there it is. An ERISA-Attorney approved policy to customize. It can't chase down WArehouse John and make him sign it, but it can make the policy creation itself much more enjoyable. 

Your company may or may not have implemented a policy against creating employee nicknames. 

Have a policy to create today and want to see how easy it is? See if this company has a sample policy free. 

5. Electronic Signatures -  So I lied. Some handbook builders do have extra features available, like electronic signatures. So it will, in fact, chase down Warehouse John... digitally. If he hasn't signed it you can just keep hitting send until he gives in and complies. Which makes compliance easier on everyone. 

6. Recordkeeping - "Is our handbook up to date? Who updated it last and when was that? What was updated? Was everyone notified?" 

Imagine a dashboard that keeps pristine records of every update without effort.

7. Environmentally Friendly - Besides being HR person-friendly, having your handbook accessible digitally is environmentally friendly, and who isn't on board with that?

8. Makes Compliance Easy - All of a sudden, your handbook becomes its own compliance expert hands-free. A good employee handbook builder will help you build your handbook. A great employee handbook builder will update itself. And the latter can sometimes even cost less. Besides featuring automatic compliance updates, this particular handbook builder will alert you when policies are out of compliance. A few clicks is all it takes to get your handbook back in shape again. Sure beats hours and hours of manual research. 

9. Multistate Options - For companies with multistate locations, compliance can prove incredibly difficult. Great handbook systems come with additional features, such as multistate compliance options. I've had to use this feature for a few clients and I'll break down the extra steps you will need to take. 

Additional step one: Add the extra states. 

That's it.

This handbook builder system finds the necessary compliance for each state based on the number of employees, city location, industry, and a few other specifications. They create one handbook, it breaks it into the number of states you've selected. 

10. Cost - If you've read this far, you are most likely really curious what a handbook builder like the ones above might cost. We've seen some HR companies sell just a simple handbook template for $50-$200. And many companies will pay it not knowing there's a better way.

The employee handbook builder I referenced in the posts above, costs only $225 a year. I was skeptical about the quality until I tried it for free. They also offer a quick system tour or you can check out a . 

Better yet, for $99 a month, a self-updating handbook is the icing on the HR cake. Check out how ou can get employee training, a professionla HR team and much more free for two weeks. 

If you do decide you'd rather begin from scratch and spend days on a tedious project, at least take this handbook template free. 

Would you lie to take a look at 8 other tools all HR Pros should know exist?

Written by Amber E, HR Manager with tryHRIS