At the most basic level, employment manuals help employees understand policies and procedures. Because an employment manual is also a legal document, however, human resources must collaborate with legal counsel to make sure that the manual meets all employment laws, contains the proper wording, and covers all relevant topics.

As you work with human resources and other parties to create an employment manual, you use technology such as e-mail and telephone conferencing to increase efficiency and track issues and details. For example, in some cases the human resources department might have already drafted an employment manual. As the attorney, you need to review the content and check that it is legally compliant.

The manual might go back and forth between your office and the human resources department or the client many times before it is accepted. Using the right tools can help you protect documents and collaborate on them more efficiently.

Use the following links to get tools and tips on using the Microsoft Office System to collaborate on creating employment manuals.

• Create an employment manual (Article)
  Learn about best practices for building an employment handbook.
• Collaborate on an employment manual with HR (Article)
  Use Word to collaborate efficiently with human resources.
• Employment manual outline (Template)
  Use this Word template to create an employment manual.