Hands-on workshop to focus on creating employee handbooks
Crossroads small business owners interested in creating or editing an employee handbook will be able to get professional guidance through a workshop hosted by the University of Houston-Victoria Small Business Development Center.
The Employee Handbook Clinic will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 20 at the new UHV SBDC location on the fourth floor of Victoria Tower, 1908 N. Laurent St. The clinic will be presented by Deirdre Pattillo, a project manager for Employer Services for the South-West Texas Border SBDC Region’s Procurement Technical Assistance Center at the University of Texas at San Antonio Institute for Economic Development.
“Deirdre is an outstanding instructor who always brings valuable experience and knowledge to the area when she comes,” UHV SBDC Director Joe Humphreys said. “She is a certified human resource professional and will be available to advise workshop attendees both during and after the clinic.”
Attendees will spend the day crafting employee handbooks for their businesses or reviewing current handbooks to ensure policies are updated for situations faced by modern businesses, such as social media and cellphone use.
“Employee handbooks are important because they set the ground rules for how a business should be run,” Humphreys said. “By putting what should or should not be done and what is expected of employees in writing, businesses create clear expectations and a foundation for success.”
Every business should have a handbook, Humphreys said. One of the important lessons people will learn in the workshop is that a handbook doesn’t have to be complicated.
There is a $195 fee to attend the clinic. However, the cost of the daylong clinic is affordable compared with how much a business owner would pay to have a consultant create a handbook, Humphreys said.
To register for the workshop, contact the UHV SBDC at 361-485-4485, 877-895-7232 or sbdc@uhv.edu. Participants also can sign up through the SBDC at www.uhvsbdc.com.
The UHV SBDC is part of a nationwide small business assistance program that serves the small business community in partnership with federal, state and local governments. The center offers business advising, training and technical assistance to existing and start-up businesses in an 11-county area.
The University of Houston-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 80 academic programs in the schools of Arts & Sciences; Business Administration; and Education, Health Professions & Human Development. UHV provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as an instructional site in Katy, Texas, and online classes that students can take from anywhere. UHV supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.
