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Top 5 Employee Handbook Policies Every ABA Business Needs · ABA Business Leaders

• speaker-0: Welcome to ABA Business Leaders, brought to you by 3Pie Squares, where we discuss topics on how to create and grow an ethical and sustainable ABA practice. speaker-1: Whether you're starting, scaling, or thinking about selling your business, we're here to share insights, stories, and strategies to help you on the journey. speaker-0: He owned a successful ABA practice for over ten years. speaker-1: And now we help other ABA business owners do the same without all the chaos. speaker-0: Stick around, you're in the right place. speaker-1: Hello everyone. We're excited. Get that energy level up. Get ready. Because we are gonna talk more about handbooks. Today we're gonna talk about the top five things you should have in your employee handbook. So, yes, you need to have an employee handbook before you get started. With policies and procedures and all the things are important. So of course, you need to have those. Policies and procedures. ⁓ but we will identify specific ones here in a moment. it's important for clear understanding, right? And I don't know. I'm not gonna go through the top five today. We're just gonna take it one by one. Because I don't it's luck. Okay. Well the third one is believe a benefit policy. Yes. The fourth one is procedures for reporting and addressing grievances. And the fifth one is termination. I don't know. Maybe that just sounded bleak to me and I just don't want to go there yet. Anyway, so we will start with the first one. Comprehensive policies on confidential confidentiality and privacy. Those are very important things. They're critical for protecting client information and complying with HIPAA regulations, and they should be in your employee handbook. speaker-0: Yes. And you probably also and we talked about this in the last one, but you probably also need HIPAA policies above and beyond the notice of privacy practices and how we protect PHI. Like so like a breach response, a sanctions policy, data backup policy, risk assessment, all that good stuff. We're not gonna get into that stuff. That'll be another podcast. but like, you know, how you protect PHI, ⁓ what what if there is an issue? How are you gonna report it? Right. those are the things that would be in the employee handbook. like things like social media policy on you know, don't post pictures of clients on your TikTok. ⁓ you know, that that may seem obvious. ⁓ email policy, ⁓ so they're not destroying records if you know, I mean i i if You're doing this willy-nilly on the fly. You may have a lot of productive health information in your email. So you just want to make sure that you have a policy on that. unless you have a very robust system where no, we don't ⁓ email back and forth session notes or treatment plans. And of course I have a backup of that somewhere. But if you don't, then it's really important that you just have like a a an across the company ban on deleting emails. Period. End of story. You can put them in a folder or wherever, but we don't delete emails. Never ever ever, right? ⁓ that may be just something that you want to put in there just in case. It may even come to if there's important information that you told to a client or an employee in in email, you want to save those. So again, having that ban on that can help with privacy, protecting client information, things like that. speaker-1: Yeah, yeah. ⁓ you know, what comes to mind when I think of this is, you know, a lot of times on on social media and a lot of the groups you know for B C B A business owners, ⁓ you'll hear the question a lot of or even from B C B A line text too. But the question will be asked a lot about what if I have a company logo shirt on when I'm going accompanying a family to a park? something like that. Those types of questions, like for privacy, right? Those types of questions get asked so much. And while they are important to look at and decide how you're going to address those things and and to what level, there is a layer of privacy Policy, confidential conf I can't say that word today. Confidentiality policy kind of on that businessy level that we don't think of. There's so many more mistakes and so many more, you know, unknowns in that level, that realm of it, more so than what if I have a company t-shirt on when I go ⁓ to the park with a client. What if I have an autism speaker-0: Yeah, it's way worse too. Way worse. speaker-1: bumper sticker on my car and I'm parked in front of there, whatever, you know, like any of that stuff, which not something is not important to think about and decide where you stand on it as company. But this layer of like texting and pictures and you know, ⁓ what if I'm ⁓ I'm just gonna text ⁓ I'm gonna set take a couple of pictures for my client's program because my BCBA asked me to like send something or like the BCBA is like, hey tech, when you're there, can you send me la la la and then you send it. And what if there's you know like the live versions on and maybe they speaker-0: Yeah. speaker-1: the client in the background and then you text it on your personal phone and then it's in your iCloud and then it's in the like speaker-0: Yes. Or e even like like i issues with email like phishing emails or that's where you're going to run into issues. You're like i i the issue isn't gonna be what what do I do if ⁓ a staff member has to Uber to a a client's as that like in the scheme of things, that's not as big a concern as some person clicking on an email that looks legit and it's got a link in there and then it puts spyware on that device. Like that's where the risk is, right? Like ⁓ on the level of things that I would worry about, right? It's having it it's that. So that's all. Like it's just it's really important that you ⁓ have a good understanding of of electronic safety for your staff because I can guarantee you that there's gonna be some ⁓ what technology allergic staff. speaker-1: Are you Well, I mean, you know, or like you have your you know, my generation, I'm you know you know, like nearing fifty, right? What? Of you know, like I like I didn't grow up on computers. I don't know, right? And I you know, I'm not saying everybody that's like my age is like dumb at computers, but like, you know, it there's just a lot of things that that I didn't think about or I didn't think of I like I don't think about how how it all works and behind the scenes and ⁓ and all the pieces of it. ⁓ like I might think about other parts of the business in the clin more even in the clinical side of things, right? My brain is very analytical in thinking about all the different options and all the different ⁓ scenarios and where things could fail and how things could go bad and what I need to do to like put all those procedures in place. But ⁓ behind the scenes of the technology stuff, that's just not something that that I think about sometimes, right? Or didn't. ⁓ now, Steven taught me all the things. ⁓ All right. So I think that really that I mean that gives a general covering of that confidentiality and privacy. You you gotta you gotta have it in there. You can you you have to. ⁓ so the next is the clear understanding of what happens in an emergency or an accident. ⁓ we talked a little bit about this. I don't know. I I even feel like maybe I should stop saying, ⁓ we talked about this in other podcasts unless I could like tell you podcasts three on season two, I don't know, right? Because we talk about this stuff a lot and some things we repeat ourselves ⁓ numerous times and I think that's it your benefit, you that are that's listening a lot. Your benefit. So then it 'cause it really these are the things that are super important. But an emergency in accident. So, you know, you need the basic fire, you know, depending on whether you're clinic or you're at home, sometimes these apply to both. ⁓ fire safety, what do you call it? Like the weather, like tornadoes or You know, or for you if you live in an area where there's, you know, mudfire mud flights and flooding and fi you know, forest fire, like that type of fire versus an instructure fire. You've got active shooter, you've got thunderstorms, you know, like if you live in an area where thunderstorms can could produ can produce, you know, tornadoes or bad weather really quickly. Do I send my sta or you know, do we put a hold on sessions or do we send staff out in that weather? Or do we wait? ⁓ you know. speaker-0: Top shit. speaker-1: Allergy you know, allergies that are ⁓ like life threatening allergies. animals. speaker-0: And and then like what what happens in that situation. So like, okay, you have these policies, but yet it's still something terrible happen. What does the staff do in that? You know, obviously it's get to safety, call ⁓ like get to ⁓ call nine one one, you know, that's ⁓ you know, having having the parent in the home. Like there's gotta be an adult in the home. That's why, because you're you don't wanna be responsible for you know grandma who's in the bedroom upstairs or ⁓ you know, if there are four kids in the home, like and you know, y you just that's not your staff's you know, while like n we don't want anything terrible to happen. It's not your staff's responsibility to say, Man, I could have saved two more kids if I just had more time. Like that like who wants that, right? So like speaker-1: Clinic, right? Like we hear the discussion a lot about is it okay for one staff member to be there alone with children? Whether it's one or more. ⁓ and and our and our advice is no, like you should always have that second adult, whether you're in client, like in clinic or in home. You always have to. It just depends on what type of adult, whether it's in clinic, it's gonna be one of your staff members versus in home, you're going to it has to be a guardian or of age person who can of able body. speaker-0: And then you may want to look at your like professional liability, general liability, insurance lines, because they may stipulate who has to be there and if your sure insurance is even valid, if if no one's in the home and you're kind of babysitter slash ABA person. Like so those are just things that you need to make sure. And then, you know, okay, we've gotten through the emergency. Now we need to fill out the incident report, you know, like and we wanna fill that out as quickly as as possible so that the you know, w ⁓ the incident is fresh in the person's mind. ⁓ and then what do we do with the incident report? So, you know, we should have a safety officer and safety officer should review it and and then how do we do our best to prevent this thing from ever happening again if there's anything that we can do. Now obviously there are some things that just aren't preventable, but if there are things in this that are preventable or maybe some way we can mitigate some of that risk, then we should do that, right? Yeah. So that that's really what you kinda wanna have on that. And then the other piece of an emergency or an accident is did the staff get injured? Is there a workers' comp claim? Right. So like all of these things are are really important that you have in place. Running an ABA practice comes with its unique set of challenges. speaker-1: Absolutely. And while you're focused on providing the best care, it's essential to have solid foundations for your practices operations. speaker-0: That's where our company policy manual comes in. Designed specifically for ABA practices, it's your comprehensive guide to setting clear expectations and procedures. speaker-1: It covers everything from your detailed job descriptions to how to handle unexpected situations that might arise in your practice. speaker-0: This isn't just any manual, it is tailored with ABA practices in mind, ensuring that you're prepared for both day to day operation and the unexpected. speaker-1: And the best part? It's fully customizable. You can adapt it to fit your practice's specific needs and culture, making sure it works for you and your team. speaker-0: Don't let administrative uncertainty slow you down. With our company policy manual, you'll have peace of mind to focus on what you do best, helping your clients thrive. speaker-1: Head over to Feepy Square to get your copy. Start building a stronger, more organized practice today. speaker-0: ⁓ and don't forget, it comes with three updates. speaker-1: Yeah, that's important that you definitely know workers come up, right? Because like even things like if you're doing in home, you know, a ⁓ employee slips slips on an icy step going into the house or slips and that like has a trip or fall. speaker-0: ⁓ Right. speaker-1: that that or, you know, gets in injured from by the client, like a fight or a hit or you know, whatever. ⁓ yeah, so any small injury is a worker's ⁓ you know, on the job is a worker's hump ⁓ thing. Sometimes I think that also gets overlooked and forgotten about. speaker-0: Yes. Yep, absolutely. speaker-1: All right, so I think that covers ⁓ the the big pieces of emergency ⁓ policies needed. ⁓ so the next is the third thing is detailed leave and benefits policies. So it's very important to outline the types of leave available, whether it be BTO, FLA, ⁓ and eligibility for benefits, ⁓ promoting that supportive work environment. speaker-0: Yeah, so if you have like is is sick time separate from vacation time or is it just all pay time off and you can use it however you want, right? What what happens if they leave? Do they get their PTO or is it, you know, and does it ⁓ carry over from year to year? You know, these are things again, we're not attorneys. ⁓ and so, you know, you need to follow your state regs ⁓ on how you have ⁓ how staff accumulate pay time off if there are any rules on that in your state, ⁓ but you know, you want to have ⁓ an outline on this. And even like, how do I use my paytime? How much time how much notice do I have to give? And you know, like th these are things that I I know because we were there and many of the people that we consult with have struggled with this. Like, ⁓ we say we you need to give two weeks notice and I don't follow it and what you know and then I can't I follow it for a little bit and I can't how how do I hold people to account? And what if they only do a a week and five days instead of fourteen days, right? Like w what do I do? Do I give it to them? Do I not? So like just like having a good system in place for how you allow it and something that you're gonna stick with. speaker-1: Yeah, or you know, change as as your the needs change, but then of course like up like updating the policies and procedures and notifying everyone. yeah, I mean it's even a lot of the small pieces as far as like how do they ask ⁓ for time offs. ⁓ is it a first comes first served basis? Is that like especially if you're smaller and you have fewer staff or you only have one BCBA, and you have certain things that have to run, you know, like with that. particular staff member there, you know, like you know, people get sick, they get sick, but ⁓ knowing those very specific policies, knowing who to call or the how do you call if you already woke up sick or you have a sick child at home and you're not able to come into work, who do you call? How do you remedy that? ⁓ do you call the client? Do you call the front office? You know, like all of those, like just think about just a task essentially a task analysis of every tiny step that's necessary for each variation of call out ⁓ it needed and and you know it's it's it can be difficult too because you can't like what are your what's like if it goes out of the bound, right? Like if you're like, okay, you must have two weeks notice or whatever. But or I could all I only have X amount of certain staff ⁓ job like staff descriptions like that like certain ⁓ what am i trying to say like r bt or b C B A or admin, you could only have a certain amount of those out at a time. and but let's say there's a wedding and it takes, you know, several people that's the way the big things, right? Like you you can't tell someone no, they can't go to a friend's wedding, especially if they're asking in for like a year in advance or can you? Right. And then like ⁓ Lots of these questions get asked, right? And so then like looking at ⁓ so are do you have substitutes, do you have floaters? Do you have, you know, how do you handle a situation when you're understaffed? Do you close services for the day? Or you know, let's say a sickness goes through or, you know, natural disaster happens. Do you close? speaker-0: Yeah, and you know, n another frequently ⁓ asked question is what do you do if you know you do offer pay time off and ⁓ they use it all up? Like do we allow them to take another day off? Or ⁓ you know, how does that work? And and so yeah, ha having all of this ⁓ easy to understand, you know, expectations are there and you follow, right? Like with any of these policies and procedures, you know, we we Yeah, I know you said w we need to stop talking about previous podcasts, but like we talked about this at a previous podcast. So like you know, like if if if you speaker-1: People are gonna make a drinking beer. speaker-0: If you read your policies and you're like, I don't like the sound of this, then you know, this isn't something you are going to follow, right? You're not gonna hold somebody to account. So, like, don't don't do that, right? Like, if it like make the policy something that you can actually follow and you will hold people to account. And so if that's like You know, okay, they had to give me three days notice. and but everybody on Facebook says I have to give t who cares, right? Like if you're good with that and you can live with that, then live with that. And then maybe you get comfortable with that and then you may get four days, right? Like who like it's do you do you, don't it? Like and so it has to be something that you feel good about. speaker-1: Right. And you figure out like what what you what has to take place for you to make it happen. If it's a really small shop here and like you're like, ⁓ okay, well I just have to go fill in for them if they can't go and I just need to know in time to like drive there. Right. Or, you know, I'm already at the clinic and I can just step in. Okay, you can go take care of this thing, I'll step in free. I mean Yeah, but then as you grow speaker-0: And and that may work. Like, I can't handle this no more, and then you put something, right? But it needs to be something that you can follow that you're gonna hold people to account, you're gonna treat everybody equally. Because if you fire someone over this policy, ⁓ because they didn't follow it five times, and and they can prove ⁓ that no one else followed this thing, they're getting unemployment. So, you know, like it at at minimum. Right. So like just yeah, it it really needs to be something that you're comfortable holding people account to and you'll hold yourself to account, ⁓ too, right? 'Cause people watch you. And so if you're like just calling out and ⁓ doing whatever you want, then you know that may probably yeah. Anyway. speaker-1: Well we told you it's gonna be, you know, it's just gonna be one of those podcasts. All right, so the next thing, number four, or procedures for reporting and addressing grievances. So blower, yeah. Well these establish a clear process for employees to report concerns and how these concerns will be resolved. speaker-0: I think we're on number four. And I would also add whistle blowing. Yeah. So like there's no what is it? ⁓ my goodness, I can't think of the word. You know, like there's no Holy crow, what is that word when like, you know, somebody complains about something and ⁓ like you get attacked because you complained about it? What what's that? There's like a a word for that. speaker-1: Brain fog? Yeah. Brain fog Brain Fox sword. speaker-0: retaliation. speaker-1: Retaliate. speaker-0: That felt like at least ten minutes. Probably was more like a minute. But anyway, so yeah, there's no there's ⁓ no retaliation involved in this. ⁓ that they they you know, because i if Yeah, one thing that we talk about quite often, not on a podcast that I can recall, is is like ⁓ you know, gossip is very toxic, right? And so if there's an you know, like we just we we want this to be an easy process where people can come with concerns and complaints so that they're not left to the only other option, which is gossip and complain to others and say, I don't know, nothing ever happens around here. Like we just don't want that. speaker-1: going to take your business down faster. Yeah. speaker-0: Yeah. So like you really wanna make sure that you have a real easy way for people to express concerns and they feel like when they do express concerns that they that that it's important because it is important and we that they will be resolved in a timely manner. Now obviously not everything can be resolved and made perfect, but there is an attempt to r r like remove that barrier or that concern from From the system if possible. speaker-1: I I almost hate to say this because I can't remember who to give credit for. But there was some research done. ⁓ I can't remember now, but something to the fact ⁓ yeah if there's a problem at at work and you bring a problem to your superior and speaker-0: Retaliation. speaker-1: You're like there's like an open door like real open door policy and there's like that compassion and genuineness there. And you go and you share these concerns and you feel heard and validated and you see some action that there is some change or some something. going towards like y what your situation like. An attempt. An attempt. It can it can increase sat job satisfaction more. ⁓ which I remember reading that and I was thinking, ⁓ well that's really interesting, right? speaker-0: Yeah, I mean there's nothing more demoralizing than, you know, like I I think it's an office episode where like ⁓ y you got a complaint, here's the complaint department and it's a trash can, right? Like like if that's like if that's really ⁓ what people feel like, then there is nothing left but to complain and gossip, right? Because that's all there is. And ⁓ like you said, nothing i is more like there is nothing more toxic than that. I still like You you have this environment and then you bring on a new person and the first thing they hear is, yeah, that thing's been broken for eight months, so they're never gonna fix it. Like, wow, okay, I'm in the wrong place. Right. Right. so y you just you know, if you can have that open environment where people feel because they should feel this, that their opinion matters, ⁓ that that you wanna remove barriers from their job. ⁓ that their concerns will be addressed and resolved. ⁓ yeah, it it's just really important. And then I do highly recommend having a whistleblower policy. ⁓ again, it may not be necessary, hopefully, if there's like three employees, but when you get to 50 and you're not in everything, you don't know every staff member, you don't know every parent, you you don't know every funder anymore ⁓ anymore. You don't you don't know ⁓ how who's billing or like you you may know the person but you don't you're not watching it. speaker-1: You don't have any kind of link relationship with you know you're kind of speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, you're just not in in as intimate into the process micromanaging and then controlling every second of every day anymore because you can't. then you do want that whistleblower policy because you want again, you want that open door policy, but you also want people to say, No, like this is this is not being done correctly, like there's you know, there I I've seen abuse or we're we're speaker-1: Okay and normal as you grow up. speaker-0: Billing fraudulently or something, you know, like so you want that whistleblower policy so they can go to someone and that this could potentially save your practice, right? Like so these are just important things that as again many people just say, Yeah, I'm gonna wing it, right? Well, I'm small, it's easy. I I can handle this myself. And then it it it always happens. You can handle it until it and like and then until and then you have nothing in place. And then you're like, ⁓ wow, this just happened. So Like do it now versus you know when when you can't do it anymore because you don't have any more time. You can only work a hundred hours a week for so many weeks. Some people could do it for two years, some people could do it for six months, right? Like but at some point you're gonna have to stop because you can't do it. ⁓ and so having this these policies and procedures, these expectations, so that if you do want to go on a vacation, things will still work. ⁓ it it's really important to have them in place. Okay. speaker-1: Alright, so termination. Yeah. Some ways it's in some ways this we did. I mean it's termination, I I think I think ⁓ termination i i in a way can it I don't know, I wouldn't say it's like one of my favorite things to talk about, but that sounds really worth it speaker-0: We did a podcast on that. That sounds really weird. Yeah, well I I judged that. speaker-1: Because who wants to be fired? But here's the thing. I am probably one of the most non confrontational, like people pleasing, like pr like back away from conflict people ever. And speaker-0: We called her the hammer. Cause the hammer's coming down. speaker-1: And and and But like when it came like but we had such clear expectations and guidelines and policy around termination and I gave people a lot of I gave people a lot of chances and I really worked hard and I poured a lot into helping people to become the best employee that they could become. And then when it came down to it, and we had checked all the boxes and we had done all the things and it's just not working, right? Sometimes that was a long process over years, and sometimes that was like hours. ⁓ But if they're not if they're not working for your company, they're a danger to your company. And you know, termination doesn't always have to be a terrible thing. It could be it's just not the right fit and they don't have the right their the skill sets for the job. But if you have all of those things clearly defined and laid out, it makes the pr process so black and white. Or it can. It can help it. It can help someone like me who hates confrontation. ⁓ And does not want to hurt someone's feelings, right? Like I don't wanna like they have what did they have? They have rents, they have bills, they have a family pr maybe, they have responsibilities and you know, maybe sometimes they're trying their best, but it just still is not working out. And and you gotta you gotta say you gotta say goodbye and you you have to let them let them fly. Anyways, it's so important to have those policies and it's important to have those policies up front, like even before you hire somebody, so that you know how to fire them if that is needed. speaker-0: Yeah, I mean you all you know again, hopefully you don't have to do this often, right? But you're going to. You're gonna have to. You might as well accept that now. and so having those systems in place, you know, like written and verbal warnings, super important. So, you know, what are they doing wrong? You know, what it'd be very explicit. Again, we're not attorneys, so having that ex clear expectations of what policy they violated. speaker-1: Right. speaker-0: how they can improve and how long they have to improve. ⁓ and and then, you know, going through that process, very detailed ⁓ expectations, and then ⁓ having having an action plan in place. And if they don't meet that, if they don't follow that action plan over that certain amount of time, then then it you have to terminate. And there may be other things in there that are just like, dude, you do this, you're gone, right? Like, you know, fraudulently ⁓ time in, time out. speaker-1: Immediate termination. speaker-0: There's a media termination. I am not an attorney. speaker-1: ⁓ So it does though, right? It's not it's something that d depends, right? speaker-0: So I I would talk to an attorney and make sure, but you should have an a list of immediate terminations. So like ⁓ like obviously if somebody fights somebody in the clinic that you're not no, like ⁓ if you see them incorrectly putting their time in and time out so that they get paid more. ⁓ if somebody is fraudulently billing, you know, like they're cloning their ⁓ their ⁓ their time sheets ⁓ session notes. Like these are just things that ⁓ there's sexual abuse. Just these are obvious things, a legal active like there's just so many but like sleeping on the job, ⁓ on their phone ⁓ w with a cli like you know, there's gonna be a list there's gonna be a list of things that you're like, Yeah, if this happens it's immediate termination. And but also on that list again, I'm not on a turn that you would say this is not an all encompassing list, right? These are just stupid obvious and then there speaker-1: Okay. speaker-0: Yes. And then there's gonna be other things, right? That you're like, I didn't how? Why did this how who? What? And and you're gonna just say, Yeah, you're done. And so like those are just things that you wanna have in place. And then, you know, if you do have to terminate, and and it's not just about like if somebody leaves the company on good terms, maybe they're moving across country or you know, whatever. ⁓ terminating their access. So Like if you have a pin pad on the front door of your clinic, like how how do you remove it so they can't come in the in the building? do they have an iPad or a computer? Like are you wiping their devices? And what if they don't give them back right away? ⁓ you know are speaker-1: Yeah, policy of like ⁓ any client information that they may have on the person. speaker-0: How do you do that? But this is a question I hear all the time. Like, they they got they quit and they won't bring back the stuff, right? They won't bring back their device, they won't bring back the binder. They've well, okay, then you know, we always recommend talking to a drink, but talk to your visa. But like if if you you know you have that policy, return on property policy, and this is an expectation, and then you send a certified letter and say, Look, you have You you are no longer an employee of this company. You have private health information that you are not allowed to have. ⁓ and and I'm I'm I'm we're reporting this to the police as theft. ⁓ that typically you'll get the your property back quite quickly, right? speaker-1: No. ⁓ that's one thing that we do. And I just I just feel like I can't let this go. Like no know what you're allowed to do. Like you're most of the times you are not allowed to hold someone's pay. So just speaker-0: Again, talk to an attorney. Yeah, ne like careful. Never hold somebody's pay. I don't know of any situation where that is a good idea. ⁓ and you can get in a lot of trouble for that. ⁓ so yeah, don't mess with pay. ⁓ the government will yeah, they're pro like it. I don't know that it matters what state. The guy like that's that's ⁓ yeah, there's a lot of safety measures in place for for staff on that. So yeah, don't don't hold pay. Talk to an attorney, but typically A certified letter where they have to sign for it ⁓ from the company. maybe their final check is in there. You're not holding back, whatever. ⁓ and they have to sign for that and the letter's in there. ⁓ and and it it just simply says, Look, you have private health information that you're not supposed to have anymore. Here's the policy, ⁓ the return of a company property policy. You're in violation of this. We have no other recourse but to contact the police and let them know that. ⁓ you are you you you have our property, right? And and then that's it. ⁓ so that that's something that ⁓ that you wanna have in place is how do you remove access. And like if you're like us, you you're probably gonna have a whole bunch of accounts for these people. So maybe you've got a Dropbox account, you've got a practice management software account, maybe they've got a a training account on some site, maybe they got a CEU account. Who knows? All the A accounts. So having a list of all of those users is great. So you can just remove their access immediately and you're not thinking, ⁓ which ones do they have like you just don't want to be in that situation. You want to remove their access from all of this stuff immediately. ⁓ you know, we talked about pin pin number key like a a keypad on the door versus locks is is probably a better option because You can just remove access immediately and you don't have to worry about keys, right? speaker-1: I mean, even though you might feel at the beginning that that's an expense, ⁓ but just think about the expense of having to re re ⁓ put a new lock and new keys and issuing them out to everyone. speaker-0: Three keys that Yeah, that's just that it not even the expense, like it's just the time that it takes. And ⁓ well, I didn't get the new key and because I was out on the weekend and now I can't get to my set like just that, just one miss or two missed sessions because they don't have the keys to get it, i is gonna pay for the door lock with the pin pad, right? Like it just so it it's just I would get it right away, it just makes your life easier. and you know, with all of these things. ⁓ you have to keep privacy, HIPAA compliance, state privacy law in mind. ⁓ and again, an attorney highly recommend you have an attorney ⁓ for all of these things. ⁓ but it's really important that you have clear expectations on termination, ⁓ what could be defined as immediate termination, ⁓ having those very extensive written and verbal warnings with clear expectations and then having that exit interview and ⁓ the termination of access. And and typically I would recommend giving an exit interview to anybody that'll fill it out. And y you may not get great information, but ⁓ you may see a trend ⁓ that you wouldn't have otherwise. ⁓ so i you shouldn't just get a exit interview for people that are leaving on good terms. I I I would recommend an exit interview for everyone. speaker-1: Right. And we did a ⁓ sometimes you'll be surprised, like some pe times you get more feedback from people who don't leave on good terms. ⁓ we for I don't even remember who we used it. We used a third party at one point. I can't remember if it was just like somebody that like a virtual assistant type person that we hired. but a third party to collect the like to have a like a quick phone interview, ⁓ to collect that exit interview. And I do feel like I was surprised that we did get some feedback from people who who were willing to take the time to tell us how terrible we were. ⁓ and so we got some feedback and I mean it was helpful. Like all feedback is great, right? And ⁓ is it really No, it really is. I mean sometimes you can you can weed out, right? You you can definitely weed out, but you cannot like I like to look back and say, okay, well where you know, what was our part in this, right? And how can we make this better? If nothing else, how can we communicate more clearly next time, right? So but yes, X NRVs are definitely an important thing to have. Well, so now here comes to the time of the this series of podcasts that we share with you a little s snippet of the ⁓ handbook. speaker-0: Mm-hmm. Okay, so this is the employee handbook, very similar to the client handbook. If you've watched the series of on the handbooks, you know the formatting is the same. We have the placeholders. ⁓ I'm not gonna show it this time, but if you double-click here, you'll get a pop-up and it'll say, What's your company number? What's your company address? What's your company fax number? It will change it throughout this document. ⁓ some of them, if you see here, some of them have tax limits just because spacing issues. ⁓ if if the character limit that we have on it is not enough for you. You can just do a find all replace all. and and you know this just helps with the you know making these your own ⁓ quicker. ⁓ again we are not attorneys the and I don't know what you're doing with these things. So I do highly recommend that you have someone with HR competency review these after you finalize them. And then you're gonna remove all these disclaimers, put your own logo in, and do what you will. this one, ⁓ I think this is the 2023 version, so not everything is in this one, but I think we're at 95 pages now. you know, we talked about ⁓ you know what, we didn't talk about this, but like interviewee non-disclosure and interviewee questions. Super important of standard interviewee questions. and then we have the ⁓ employee verbal warning, we have the written warning. We have the interview question exit interview questionnaire. We have the exit interview checklist. So again, what services, you know, practice management, email, calendar, cloud storage, what access to the have to company information. How do we stop that? You know, we're an equal opportunity employer. we have the accidents at work, right? So the incident report or safety policy, ⁓ the return of company property power the the return of company property policy that we talked about, the employee ⁓ the email ⁓ account policy, social media policy. So, you know, all of these things are in here. ⁓ I'm just gonna go to one ⁓ policy. So this is the overview of the company, welcome to the family. This is the acknowledgement of receipt of the handbook. This is like pro how probationary period works. How training works. Again, yellow highlights are in here for areas that you definitely need to ⁓ go over, ⁓ but you need to review this entire handbook before you give it to someone like on the last podcast we talked about this, but like You you don't want you don't want to give somebody ⁓ a handbook and be learning about a policy that you have in place at the same time as them, right? Like that's not the way to do it. You want to know what is in your handbook. You want to be able to stand by what is in your handbook, and you want to make sure, like we talked about already, but like what is your paid time off policy and how much time do they have to give? Like you want that to be something that you can follow, that you agree with, that you will hold people to account. And that's it. So if you do have any other questions, you wanna see ⁓ some of the policies in more detail, ⁓ feel free to book a free consult on our website. Okay, so that's the handbook. speaker-1: Hooray. All right, so now we are on to frequently asked questions. ⁓ all right, so I'll just hop right in. ⁓ the first question is, how detailed should job descriptions be in the handbook? Well that I'm gonna answer that one. speaker-0: Excited, aren't you? Yeah. Okay. speaker-1: It's it's a detailed like it as as well as you want someone to understand what's expected of them. ⁓ of course, general dot job descriptions for a specific position ⁓ are not gonna always be all encompassing, right? Like you're gonna try to put all the pieces as much as possible. speaker-0: So we have our super detailed job descriptions and our company policy handbook. So these are like, you know, have been like they have the how much weight are you gonna lift and like, you know, how much travel time are you gonna be doing and you know, things like that. ⁓ but in the client handbook, these are like or sorry, the employee handbook, these are just kind of general terms and then you're describing more in the employee handbook of what What are the details of the job that they're expected to do? Not so much you will be required to lift 25 pounds. Like that's not what we're doing here. Like, how do you fill out an incident report? What happens in an emergency? What ⁓ you know, is there what happens in a fire ⁓ in a home? Right? How are how do you interact with families? ⁓ dual relationship, right? Like things like that that they're going to actually ⁓ run into on the day-to-day thing. Does that make sense? And then our company policies, we talk about infectious disease and ⁓ OSHA requirements like, you know, lifting and ⁓ cleaning and and cleaning supplies and things like that. Does that make sense? So yeah. So in in an employee and the client handbook, they're kind of general. And then ⁓ on on the company side, like again for management, you have these very detailed specific job descriptions of each level. So your clinical director, your Director of operations, maybe you have a lead B C B A or something like that, a a regular B C B A, a tech, an admin person. speaker-1: Then of course part of your your onboarding ship and training that's specific to your company and your staff, right? And is to have a very specific, clear job description job further than a job description really, right? Like and that's where we you can even go into like the check. speaker-0: Yeah, that yeah, that and that's really what the the employee handbook is like above and beyond what what a job description would be, I guess. Does that make sense? Yeah. What the job description is, right? It's like what you're going to run into on a day-to-day basis. speaker-1: An employee handbook. Above and beyond ⁓ yeah, like all the policies and procedures and how to handle them. Right. Not just the day to day correct collect collecting data. Right. No, I know what you mean. But I'm just saying like as far as like very specific, like the ABA nitty gritty of like taking data on how to do that and you know, all of that clinical piece is A gonna be part of your company. Right. Your guidelines and your training process. But also like there's we have like checklists and stuff, like very expensive. That's what I'm saying. It's like all of those little nitty gritty pieces of all the very particular clinical side of things. Yes. speaker-0: Yes, and that's sort of the R B T checklist. speaker-1: next question, what's the best approach to developing a comprehensive benefits section? speaker-0: Yeah, it i it this again it depends on the state is the first thing. So like some of this you may not even be able to say I'm not doing this, like mileage. Like you have to pay for drive time. I and you know what, leave a comment. I don't care. So yes you do. Yes you do. So ⁓ but you may not have to you may not have to pay mileage, so the Fed just it just says job site to job site, you have to pay drive time. It's required. and then they they there was even a case here recently about they were very descriptive on you know they had I think six different scenarios on what would be considered job site to job site. They very specific ⁓ so you can look that up. but it's it's you have to pay for drive time. ⁓ but you may not have to pay for mileage. And then your your state may require that again an employee works X amount of hours a week, they get X amount of pay time off during that period. So you may be forced to provide pay time off. ⁓ so some of these things you may not have an option to do. I think California now requires that you provide health insurance to employees. So like some of these things you may have to do right from the get go because of state law. And then there are other things that maybe you know, you may not be required by law, but maybe you can't provide health insurance right now. But you can provide mileage reimbursement because that's that's just an easy write-off and it's a benefit that, you know, can be very helpful to staff. And so yeah, I can't I maybe I can give you a hundred dollar stipend for healthcare. I can't I can't provide healthcare right now, but I can give you that and mileage reimbursement, or I'll give you some pay time off. ⁓ you know, but other, you know, as you grow, you may want to add four ⁓ one K, ⁓ short term and long term disability, ⁓ you know, even CEU packages so that you're paying for their their CEUs. ⁓ you know, so those are things that, you know, over time we added to our pa our our benefits. We didn't start off with, you know, amazing healthcare and vacation time and sick time and you know, like this is stuff that we added over time slowly as we could afford it. So I don't know if that kinda answers this question. but it it that that's stuff that you can develop over time. But again, follow your state requirements to make sure that you are doing what you are legally required to. Does that make sense? Mm-hmm. speaker-1: Next question, how can I make my code of conduct reflect ABA ethical guidelines? speaker-0: I mean, n you know, we get asked this quite often, like, should I make my own code of conduct? And really like I I I would just recommend pointing to the BACB's guidelines and like if you're an RBT or a B C B A, you should know your ethics. speaker-1: Well too like if you're if you're in your state if you're governed by the medical board, if you have a license, then you also have ⁓ speaker-0: Yeah. You're right. Yeah. speaker-1: In what ways can I ensure my handbook is accessible and understandable to all employees? speaker-0: And I I think we last podcast, ⁓ we we talked about this though, like having quizzes can be very helpful. Open book quizzes ⁓ that can tell you if if it's understandable or not and getting feedback, right? Like you know, as you're doing the onboarding process, like getting feedback from these people and saying, How was that? Was that easy to understand or you know, was that like ⁓ I see it took longer for you to complete this section than you know we we say you should. what what happened in that scenario? Like you may get some feedback, say, yeah, this doesn't really make sense to me or it takes longer than than you say. Well ⁓ but yeah, just getting that taking that feedback can be very helpful. and and having the quizzes in place. speaker-1: And how how, you know, having the most recent up to date version available and like whatever digital like whatever like portal, ⁓ employee portal that you have, whether that's like an up SharePoint or a ⁓ Google D ⁓ Google Drive or wh however you ⁓ have that information for your for your staff and so that it can be easily accessed ⁓ in the most recent version of it. ⁓ How do I handle updates and changes to the handbook, especially with evolving AVA practices? Well, first of all, anytime you update the policy or procedure and you put it into place, you have to notify all of your staff and have them read it and sign it, receive it, acknowledge it. And then that following year you can ⁓ speaker-0: Yeah. ⁓ speaker-1: ⁓ like combine it all together. speaker-0: Like you know, in our company policies, we have how you update policies, right? So, like you should have a process on this as well, as stupid as that may sound. Like, like, how do I process for your process? So, yeah, so like it's ⁓ man. So it just it is what it is. ⁓ but yeah, so just having okay, this is what we're gonna do when we add a policy, this is how we distribute it out, this is how we know that people have read it. ⁓ yeah, you just wanna have again, when you have three people, this may sound stupid and ridiculous and take more time than it should. When you can simply just go over to someone and say, Hey, can you see this policy? Can you just read it real quick? But when you get fifty people, that doesn't work anymore, right? And somebody's yeah, I read it and they didn't read it, right? And so like this just takes that out. And so you might as well build it out from the start. speaker-1: on that note. ⁓ well thank you. That well that's that's all I have today. Yeah. So that ⁓ speaker-0: Bye bro. And if you do want to see them again, like just do a free free consult on our website. click on the about us or hover over the about us, you'll see the booking pages and you can select there. ⁓ or there's also link on the bottom of the website in the in the footer. So yeah, ⁓ sign up for a free consult, we'll show it to you. ⁓ but they also come with free updates. Free updates. So speaker-1: Well, thank you so much for joining in today and learning what type five what top five things you should have in your employee handbook. And ⁓ we thank you for taking time with us out of your busy schedule and we look forward to next time. speaker-0: ⁓ like, subscribe, comment. Only if you have a good comment though. And ⁓ yeah, just share us as much as possible. because we need to get paid. speaker-1: Or perhaps it's because we want to get the word out to help have more ethical quality ABA businesses out there. Alright, so we're gonna go hydrate ourselves hydrate and get over this cold and brain fog that seems to have been affected us anyways. Have a great day. Bye guys. Thanks for joining us on ABA Business Leaders. speaker-0: We provide mentorship, courses, handbooks, billing support, credentialing, HIPAA support, web design, and more. Everything you need to build an ethical and sustainable ABA practice. speaker-1: You can find all of our resources at threepiesquared.com. speaker-0: Don't forget to subscribe and share this podcast with other ABA business. speaker-1: We'll see you next time, and remember, you don't have to build your practice alone. Okay.