What to look for in an Ontario Employee Handbook Template

What to Look for in an Ontario Employee Handbook Template

An employee handbook is more than just a document—it’s a foundational tool for protecting your business, setting clear expectations, and ensuring compliance with Ontario’s employment laws. Whether you're a small business owner or an HR consultant, choosing the right Ontario employee handbook template is crucial. But not all templates are created equal. Here’s what to look for when selecting the right one for your business.

1. Compliance with Ontario Employment Standards

Ontario has specific employment laws under the Employment Standards Act (ESA), Human Rights Code, and Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA). A good handbook template should align with these regulations to ensure legal compliance. It should include policies on overtime pay, termination, vacation entitlement, leaves of absence, and other ESA-mandated requirements. Without proper compliance, you risk legal disputes and potential fines.

2. Customizable, Not Generic

Many free or low-cost templates provide only a basic framework that might not suit your business. Look for a handbook that allows for easy customization. A high-quality template should provide pre-written, legally reviewed content that you can tailor to reflect your company’s culture, policies, and industry-specific requirements.

3. Includes Essential Workplace Policies

A strong handbook should go beyond the basics. It should include policies on workplace harassment, remote work (if applicable), confidentiality, social media use, discipline, and termination procedures. Additionally, Ontario businesses must comply with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)—your handbook should reflect any required policies for accessibility in the workplace.

4. Clear and Employee-Friendly Language

An overly complicated handbook filled with legal jargon is difficult for employees to understand. A well-structured handbook should be clear, concise, and easy to navigate, ensuring that both employees and managers can quickly reference important policies.

5. Regularly Updated for Changing Laws

Ontario’s employment laws are constantly evolving. Your template should be up to date and come from a reputable source that regularly reviews and revises its content to reflect legal changes. Look for providers who offer updates or guidance on staying compliant over time.

6. Covers Remote and Hybrid Work Policies

With the shift toward remote and hybrid work, Ontario businesses need a handbook that addresses policies for work-from-home arrangements, cybersecurity, and productivity expectations. If your workforce is remote or hybrid, make sure your template includes these modern workplace policies.

Choosing the Right Ontario Employee Handbook Template

Selecting the right template isn’t just about finding one that’s affordable—it’s about choosing a handbook that will protect your business, ensure compliance, and set your employees up for success. Look for a template that is legally compliant, customizable, clear, comprehensive, and regularly updated. Investing in the right handbook now can save you time, money, and potential legal headaches down the road.

Different | Better

Here are the top 10 reasons why the HR Toolkit's Employee Manual Kit offers the best employee handbook or manual template available, hands down!

1. Not just an employee manual template

It's up to you. It can be just a Word employee handbook template; or it can be a complete kit with guidance, tips, and step-by-step instructions to get your provincial employee handbook project over the finish line, from planning to launch. The kit includes 2 types of employee manual templates for your province, help for each topic/policy in your handbook, a sign-off form, and project tools for when you launch your comprehensive manual. It's up to you how much help you access.

2. It's a total bargain

The Employee Manual Kit is one of 22 ready-to assemble kits included in ConnectsUs HR. The templates and kits were created to connect to each other so your HR is aligned and makes sense together, but each template can be used as a stand-alone document.

The Employee Manual Kit alone is worth the entire price of ConnectsUs HR. Even if you don't think you'll need the other kits, the Employee Manual Kit is an affordable and cost-effective tool on its own.

3. Flexible: go basic or comprehensive

You get 2 employee handbook templates for each province we support. Together they sport a menu of 150+ topics / policies. Start with a basic handbook and build on it in stages (we help you figure out what's important and how to prioritize what gets done first). It's up to you if you want to go all the way with a complete HR Manual that doubles as an orientation program for your staff covering everything they need to know about your workplace, from information about your business to operational details.

4. Dead-easy to customize

We've provided click and replace placeholders where you need to place your company-specific information. Structured so you can easily edit add or delete topics. Built with easy-to-use styles so you can brand your employee handbook with a couple of clicks. It provides pre-written text for all policies / topics so you never have to start with a blank page.

5. Help for every topic/policy in the template

You don't just get a template. You get help for each topic / policy in the Handbook and Manual templates. You'll understand the purpose, importance and benefits of each topic; any risks associated with it; level of HR expertise, and time/effort required to customize it; recommendations for legal review; if any key decisions or approvals are required; up-to-date links to the right pages on legislated websites (the good ones, written in plain English); how to get started; tips. SEE TOPIC HELP EXAMPLE for Ontario

6. Help with Word & Excel

We created the employee handbook template, so the Word and Excel help we provide was written by us, specifically for using our templates. You don't need advanced Word or Excel skills to work with ConnectsUs templates, but we know that there's nothing more annoying than getting stuck with a formatting challenge. Get quick snippet videos that tell you exactly how to make your manual look crisp and professional.

7. Always up to date

ConnectsUs Employee Handbook Kit is online so you'll always have access to the latest and greatest version of the templates. We also monitor legislation and let you know when there are changes to consider.

8. It's really well thought out

Seriously, this is a big deal. We've thought of all the details based on decades of helping 1000s of customers create their own employee handbooks. You won't be left hanging and you won't hit a dead end. We've anticipated your roadblocks and answer your questions before you'll even know to ask them.

9. You get product support

Get your questions answered from an extensive FAQ library, or contact us with your questions.

10. It's professional and casual

Casual: Uses business-casual language for today's workforce. Summarizes each policy/topic in plain English

Professional: Beautifully styled. Consistent tone and language throughout. Consistent, hierarchical header flow so the reader quickly learns what to expect. Created by experienced HR professionals, consultants, instructional designers, and provincial employment lawyers

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High ROI. No brainer!"

Zakeana Reid, CHRP | HR | Hummingbird

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What to look for in an Ontario Employee Handbook Template