Hi Rahul,

What has the reason been for having multiple handbooks, and what are the problems?

I am in a slowly internationalising company and we have to have multiple handbooks because of different laws and practices in different countries - so we have some "core" elements that are the same - but sections on benefits and pay are different for different places. I'm not sure what your reason is for different handbooks across your employees, but I would start from looking at which bits are the same and which are different (and, if there is any business need for some bits to remain different)

In reply to Polly:

Hi Polly, thanks for getting back to me so quickly . Our company has been through multiple mergers and acquisitions and over time these handbooks have not been integrated to have one handbook for employees( same location same company only difference is their date of joining based on Merger) . Hence causing administrative issues so now we are thinking about doing so. Can you advice on what should be the factors I should consider? I have already reviewed and have the comparisons but I wonder where to get started and to ensure employees don't get adversely impacted and how this can be positioned to employees.

In reply to Rahul:

Ah I see! I would create a list/spreadsheet of all the different sections of the handbook(s) and review them to see where they are essentially the same content worded differently, and where there would be actual changes to policy/benefits that would affect staff. Then review those and see if there are any instances where you can extend the most generous version to everyone at low/no cost

e.g. About the Company is likely to be the same for everyone (or should be!), policies like data protection, health and safety, etc should be similar and can be made the same?

I'm not sure what difference you have on benefits but is it 'core' things like sick pay/annual leave allowance/flexibility on hours and home working? Or things like discounts, private insurance, etc?