Procedures Manual: Employee Entries and Exits

This month, you’re writing Chapter 4 of your Procedures Manual about new employees and departing employees. When you finish answering these questions, you will have completed one third of the manual! Or are you still working on the previous chapters (Payroll Processing and Entering and Paying Bills). Don’t worry there’s still time to catch up!

It’s easier than you thought, isn’t it?

New Employees

When new employees start working at your organization, show them your best side on their first day. Here’s a simple way to do that – present their salary and benefits materials professionally, simply and efficiently. This will inspire their confidence in you that you take their compensation seriously.  Let’s get started.

1. Do you have a “new employee” packet that includes:
   1. State, federal and local (W-4, I-9) payroll forms
   2. Personal information forms (contact telephone number, birthday, emergency contact information)
   3. Direct deposit bank deposit forms
   4. A calendar of pay dates
   5. A list of employee benefits and eligibility (health insurance, disability insurance, retirement plan, paid holidays, number of sick and vacation days, accrual of sick and vacation days, jury duty time, family leave…)
   6. Insurance applications
   7. Retirement plan applications
2. Where do you keep the blank forms or packets? Are they in digital or hard copy format?
3. Who presents this packet to the new employee?
4. Who reviews the packet with the new employee?
5. Who reviews the completed forms?
6. Who processes the completed forms?
7. After they’ve been processed, where do you keep the completed forms?
8. Who has access to these completed forms?
9. How long do you keep them?
10. Who provides the payroll service with the necessary information about the new employee?
11. Who provides the insurance provider with the necessary information about the new employee?
12. Who provides the retirement plan administrator with the necessary information about the new employee?

Departing Employees

When an employee leaves an organization through their choice or through the organization’s actions, the employee needs to complete a process that will remove them from all of the organization’s systems. Why not make this process as painless as possible.

1. Who manages/handles employee departures?
2. Do you have a “departing employee” packet that includes:
   • Exit interview forms
   • Final time sheet showing hours worked up to and including the separation date, vacation, sick leave, and/or excused absences
   • COBRA application forms
3. Where do you keep the blank forms or packets? Are they digital or printed?
4. Who presents these forms to and reviews these forms with the departing employee?
5. Who processes these completed forms?
6. If you offer severance pay, who produces that check?
7. Who calculates the amount of the final paycheck? (States vary about the timing of the final paycheck and whether it must also include all accrued unused vacation time.)
8. Who processes the departing employee’s reimbursements for expenses covered by your organization (business-related travel or training)?
9. Who notifies the payroll service about the employee’s departure?
10. Who contacts insurers about the employee’s departure?
11. Who processes the COBRA application?
12. Who notifies the retirement plan administrator?
13. If the employee has received any cash advances, who receives the return of the cash advance?
14. If the employee had access to the petty cash fund, who removes their name from the list of authorized users?
15. If the employee is a signer on bank accounts, who notifies the bank to terminate their signing authority?
16. If the employee possesses an organization-issued credit card, who requests the card from the employee?

Now that you’ve answered all of these questions, you are ready to welcome the new employee and say goodbye to a departing one. All done with grace, ease and diplomacy.