Last date for submission of paper: unknown; Contact person: Training Doyens; OVERVIEWA survey of employers revealed that organizations use employee handbooks to address key business, legal, and talent management issues. Unfortunately, they often limit the effectiveness of their handbook policies by using ineffective employee handbook practices. As the survey report noted, in many organizations there is a disconnect between the drafting and issuing of handbook policies and the practices that ensure those policies are effectively implemented. This disconnect can lead to missed business opportunities, lost strategic goals, increased legal action, and the loss of critical talent.Employee handbooks have become a valuable tool in providing important information to employees. Handbooks describe what employers expect of their employees, and what employees can (should) expect from their employers. Handbooks provide critical information about their employers, workplaces, and HR policies and procedures, and describe how employees are expected to fit in.Additionally, employee handbooks formalize the mutual expectations of organizations and their employees. In delineating these expectations employee handbooks create opportunities and risks for employers. Handbooks provide organizations with the opportunity to enhance the value of their human capital, make their organizations more competitive, and improve individual and organizational performance.Conversely, handbooks can impede the achievement of business objectives, increase employment related liabilities, and reduce managerial prerogatives by making promises or commitments to certain procedural safeguards that the organization did not intend to make. As noted in the recent memorandum from the General Counsel of the NLRB: incorrectly designed employee handbooks can violate the law and have a