Procedures involving employee handbooks shouldn’t prompt employees to lie, but many of them do. 

Workers don’t read handbooks from cover to cover or, if they’re electronic, from start to finish. So employers shouldn’t ask employees to sign off on having read the handbook, said Michael Cohen, an attorney with Duane Morris in Philadelphia, at a Society for Human Resource Management 2016 Annual Conference & Exposition preconference session.

Cohen said he still sees companies requiring new workers to state that they have received and read a copy of the handbook. Most will comply with the request, but have they really read the handbook? “No, they haven’t,” he said. “Why ask employees to lie on day one?” Employees likely just use the handbook as a reference when they have a particular issue, like an upcoming leave of absence, or if they want to know who to bring an equal employment opportunity complaint to, he said. 

To read the full text, please visit the Society for Human Resource Management website.