As you wrap up your Q4 projects and take stock of your nonprofit organization heading into the new year, it’s a good time to revisit the documentation and information that your team uses. In addition to internal docs and guides, one of the most central and visible resources that each employee and volunteer utilizes is the employee handbook. Although there is no law requiring you to compile documents into a handbook, the various state and federal laws that govern employment and require you to provide documents explaining employee rights make employee handbooks standard practice in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors.
Because each new year can and often does bring a raft of legislative and legal changes, it’s a good idea to work with your HR team, legal counsel, and third-party advisors to come up with and announce any changes to the employee handbook. The exact changes you are required to make can vary quite a bit depending on the political landscape as well as the nature of your organization. As such, there is no one-size-fits-all guide to the changes you might need to make to your handbook in 2025. However, these key areas of focus will help you zero in on what your specific needs are:
Document internal changes and policies
While not legally binding necessarily, it’s critical that you make a habit of documenting any significant changes to your organizational chart, structure, and internal code of conduct or values. Because these are not legally required or enforced except in highly specific situations, it can be easy to de-prioritize them as something to update. However, treating your employee handbook as a “living document” subject to these kinds of frequent updates can help you develop both a process for easily updating it and a deeper knowledge of what your employees are seeing when they look at the handbook.
Take stock of your organization
The most important efforts you can make when updating your employee handbook are those that give you a clear idea of what laws might apply to your organization. These steps can seem fairly straightforward but often get mired in legal gray areas. For example, if you have a distributed team with people living in multiple states and abroad, what is the minimum wage for these employees? Is it the place where your organization is based, or is it unique to each employee? These sorts of issues are becoming more and more common.
Remote and hybrid work
The proliferation of remote workers has led to some complex legal battles and legislative efforts, as states, municipalities, and the federal government all create new regulations for taxation, labor relations, and health and safety. Even if your team is remote but all working in the same state, you may still need to include the OSHA guidance on work-from-home safety and health.
Proprietary data management
As organizations of all sizes become more dependent on technological changes like cloud data storage, communications tools like Slack, and other distributed platforms, legislation has been enacted to help guide the legal use of organizational and personal data. As with remote work, these situations can quickly become complicated, particularly as tools like smartphones, tablets, and computers that your organization uses might also be used to check personal email or engage in other personal activities. Adding information and offering data security training resources as part of your employee handbook can help you codify and set a basic level of understanding and best practices among employees.
This is another area where taking organizational stock is essential — different employees in different states may be subject to different legal stipulations regarding data management, algorithmic tracking, and data gathering. To meet this kind of compliance, you’ll need to build up a list of relevant states and then build these regulations into your employee handbook as needed. In the interest of simplicity, some organizations simply comply with the most stringent legal requirements as a rule and are then de facto in compliance with less strict state and federal laws. This is just one approach, however.
Emerging technologies and platforms
The injection of large language models (LLMs) and AI-based decision-making into many platforms has created pressure on governments and organizations to legislate on the use of these tools. A high profile but relatively ‘toothless’ example was New York City’s requirement that any organization utilizing AI in their recruitment efforts disclose this usage to applicants. This rule is a relatively minor one compared to the scale of legal frameworks like CCPA and GDPR, but it will likely not be the only rule enacted.
If your organization uses algorithmic data gathering, decision-making, AI chatbots, and other emerging technologies, you will need to keep track of any new developments or requirements in legislation governing these tools. The significant outlays of investment being churned into AI in particular will mean that these tools will become more widespread but also will invite further attention from regulators, politicians, and lawyers. As you reexamine the state of your organization, you should task your internal teams with disclosing any current or potential future uses of LLM, AI, or other highly automated tools. Once you have a clear picture of what and where these tools are being used, you can proactively document legal rulings or changes that may impact them.
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The information contained in this article is not a substitute for legal advice or counsel and has been pulled from multiple sources.
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