When you hire employees who live and work in Arizona, your employee handbook must comply with Arizona state employment laws. Employers aren’t required to create and distribute employee handbooks, but they’re an excellent resource for employees and employers alike. They can provide an introduction to your organization, set expectations, explain important company policies, and mitigate your legal risk. If you fail to ensure that your Arizona employee handbook complies with state-specific laws, you could leave your company open to significant risk if a lawsuit arises.
Fortunately, SixFifty’s employment documents platform makes it easy and cost-effective to generate your own customized, state-specific employee handbooks for all 50 states.
Here’s what you need to know about Arizona employee handbooks.
Required Arizona employee handbook policies
Every state has different employment laws. Your Arizona employee handbook must include the five following state-specific policies:
- Crime Victim Leave (for companies with 50 or more employees)
- Immigration Law Compliance
- Jury Duty Leave
- Paid Sick Leave
- Paid Time Off Requirements (If your organization provides PTO)
- Voting Leave
As you draft each policy, it’s important that the text specifically complies with Arizona employment laws and regulations.
Optional Arizona employee handbook policies
In addition to the five required Arizona state policies, employers are free to include any or all of the optional employee handbook policies. Whether you include any of the following typically depends on your company type, employment type, industry, and company structure:
- Affinity Group Policy
- Arbitration Policy
- At-Will Employment Policy
- Background Check Policy
- Business Expense Policy
- Company Property Policy
- Confidentiality and Trade Secrets Policy
- Desk Hoteling Policy
- Direct Deposit Policy
- Dress Code Policy
- Drug and Alcohol Abuse Policy
- Electronic Devices While Driving Policy
- Employee Benefits Policy
- Employee Classification Policy
- Employee Dating Policy
- Employee References Policy
- Employment of Relatives Policy
- Exit Interview Policy
- Gifts Policy
- Health and Safety Policy
- Holidays
- Lactation Accommodation Policy
- Leave Policies, including: Parental Leave; Bereavement Leave; Organ, Bone Marrow, and Blood Donor Leave; Domestic Violence Leave; Witness Duty Leave; Civil Service Leave; School Activity Leave
- Marijuana Policy
- Off-Duty Use of Facilities
- Outside Employment Policy
- Overtime Policy
- Payment of Wages Policy
- Payroll Deductions Policy
- Performance Review Policy
- Personnel Files Policy
- Pets in the Workplace Policy
- Progressive Discipline Policy
- Public Relations Policy
- Punctuality and Attendance Policy
- Salary Pay Policy
- Social Media Policy
- Solicitation and Distribution of Literature Policy
- Technology Systems Policy
- Telecommuting Policy
- Temporary Relocation Policy
- Timekeeping Policy
- Video Conferencing Policy
- Workers’ Compensation Policy
- Workplace Violence Policy
- Workplace Visitor Policy
- Workweek and Work Schedules Policy
Don’t feel obligated to include them all: not every policy on this list will fit your company. For example, if your employees all work from home, there’s probably no reason to include pets in the workplace policy or off-duty use of facilities policy.
Required federal employee handbook policies
Finally, if you choose to create an employee handbook, you must also include required federal employee handbook policies:
- Equal Employment and Anti-Discrimination Policy
- Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Policy (for companies with more than 50 employees)
- Jury Duty Leave
- Military Service Leave
- Sexual Harassment Policy
- Lactation Accommodation Policy
- Religious Accommodations Policy
Federal law supersedes state law, so these policies will remain the same in all 50 states. Therefore, all of your employee handbooks should contain all of these policies (assuming the organization meets the 50-employee requirement for FMLA).
How to create an Arizona employee handbook
Researching Arizona employment laws and drafting a compliant Arizona handbook is a daunting task, even if you only plan to include the required state and federal policies. Furthermore, creating your own handbook can be risky. If you accidentally violate federal or state employment laws, your company could find themselves legally liable.
There are several options to ensure that all of your state-specific employee handbooks are compliant. Some companies hire attorneys or ask their legal departments to draft handbooks. This is a safe option, but when you’re hiring employees in more than one state, that can quickly become expensive and time-consuming.
While you might be tempted to use online templates—or worse, copy and paste from existing employee handbooks—that is a risky choice. Not only can copying and pasting be a copyright violation, but there’s no guarantee that templates or another handbook will include all the required policies and language.
SixFifty simplifies Arizona employee handbook creation
SixFifty knows the challenges involved in creating an Arizona employee handbook—and we’ve created a better solution. Rather than hiring an attorney, drafting your own handbook, or using a one-size-fits-all template, let us do the hard work for you. SixFifty’s Employment Docs platform has been designed to guide employers through every stage of employment, from offer letters to termination and offboarding.
We make it easy to create top-tier employment documents like employee handbooks for a fraction of the time and cost of hiring an attorney or doing it yourself. Plus, our legal team keeps a close eye on changes to employment legislation nationwide. You’ll be notified if there are any new changes so you can regenerate and redistribute your handbooks as needed.
Ready to learn more? Schedule a demo today!
