When you plan to hire employees in Alaska, your employment documents need to comply with federal and Alaska employment law—including your Alaska employee handbook.
While employers aren’t required to create and distribute employee handbooks, they are required to implement and comply with a variety of policies in the workplace. Employee handbooks are a good resource because they allow employers to easily document the required policies and show that they have complied with applicable law.
Employee handbooks also play a crucial role in introducing new employees to the company, setting expectations, and reducing legal liability. However, if your Alaska employee handbook fails to align with state and federal laws, it could expose your organization to legal risk.
Developing your own employee handbooks through research and writing can be a time-consuming and costly prospect, especially when you are hiring in multiple states. That’s where SixFifty comes in: our employment documents platform helps employers craft their own personalized, state-specific employee handbooks at a fraction of the usual cost and time investment.
Here’s what you need to know about Alaska’s employee handbook requirements.
Required Alaska employee handbook policies
Alaska requires employers to implement and comply with six state-specific policies:
- Crime Victim Leave
- Equal Employment Opportunity
- Jury Duty Leave
- Meal and Rest Breaks (minors only)
- Overtime Policy
- Voting Leave
Note that the Meal and Rest Breaks Policy only applies to employees who are minors. If your company doesn’t hire minors in any capacity, you may not need to include it.
Optional Alaska employee handbook policies
In addition to the six required Alaska handbook policies, employers may also choose to include any or all of the following optional policies:
- Affinity Group Policy
- Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption Policy
- Arbitration Policy
- At-Will Employment Policy
- Background Check Policy
- COBRA Policy
- Cell Phone Policy
- Code of Conduct Policy
- Business Expense Policy
- Company Property Policy
- Confidentiality and Trade Secrets Policy
- Desk Hoteling Policy
- Direct Deposit Policy
- Dress Code Policy
- Drug and Alcohol Abuse Policy
- Electronic Devices While Driving Policy
- Employee Benefits Policy
- Employee Classification Policy
- Employee Dating Policy
- Employee References Policy
- Employment of Relatives Policy
- Exit Interview Policy
- Gifts Policy
- Health and Safety Policy
- Home Office Reimbursement Policy
- Job Duties Policy
- Key or Access Card Policy
- Holidays
- Immigration Law Compliance
- Cannabis Policy
- Off-Duty Use of Facilities
- Outside Employment Policy
- Overtime Policy
- Leave Policies, including: Paid Sick Leave; Parental Leave; Bereavement Leave; Organ, Bone Marrow, and Blood Donor Leave; Domestic Violence Leave; Witness Duty Leave; Civil Service Leave; School Activity Leave
- Payment of Wages Policy
- Payroll Deductions Policy
- Performance Review Policy
- Personnel Files Policy
- Pets in the Workplace Policy
- Progressive Discipline Policy
- Public Relations Policy
- Punctuality and Attendance Policy
- Record Retention Policy
- Remote Working Policy
- Salary Pay Policy
- Smoking Policy
- Social Media Policy
- Solicitation and Distribution of Literature Policy
- Technology Systems Policy
- Temporary Relocation Policy
- Timekeeping Policy
- Vacation/Paid Time Off
- Video Conferencing Policy
- Weapons in the Workplace
- Workers’ Compensation Policy
- Workplace Violence Policy
- Workplace Visitor Policy
- Workweek and Work Schedules Policy
Depending on your business and industry type, structure, employment type and other factors, you may not want or need to include these optional policies. For example, a punctuality and attendance policy may not be necessary if all of your employees work remotely.
Required federal employee handbook policies
If you choose to create an employee handbook, you should include these policies that are required by federal employment law:
- Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)(15+ Employees)
- Employment and Anti-Discrimination Policy
- Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Policy (50 Employees)
- Jury Duty Leave
- Military Service Leave
- Sexual Harassment Policy
- Lactation Accommodation Policy
- Religious Accommodations Policy
Employers in all 50 states are required to implement these policies, in addition to any that are required by the specific state(s) in which they do business. Therefore, all of your employee handbooks should contain these federal policies (if your organization meets the 50-employee requirement for the FMLA Policy).
How to create an Alaska employee handbook
Crafting a customized, Alaska-specific employee handbook that complies with both state and federal laws can be overwhelming, especially when attempting to include all the required policies. Plus, the risks involved are substantial. Any inadvertent breach of state or federal employment laws could lead to legal liability.
To ensure your handbook’s compliance, you could hire an attorney. While this approach can be effective, it may become expensive, particularly if you have hiring operations in multiple states. Alternatively, some companies use one-size-fits-all online templates, but this is far from ideal. There’s no guarantee that a template encompasses all the necessary federal and state-specific policies and language.
We recognize the challenges employers encounter when striving for compliant documents. That’s why SixFifty has created an employee handbook creator. This tool supports employers throughout the entire employment life cycle—from crafting offer letters and employee handbooks to handling terminations and offboarding. We simplify the process and make it easy to generate top-tier employment documents, including Alaska-specific handbooks. Better yet, our legal team monitors changes to employment law nationwide. Should any updates occur, you’ll be notified, so you can regenerate your handbooks as needed.
Ready to learn more? Schedule a demo today!
Looking to create an employee handbook for a different state? View our interactive map for required employee handbook policies by state.
