For California employers, well-written and up-to-date workplace policies are essential to maintaining compliance, consistency, and a positive employee experience. With evolving employment laws and increased enforcement activity, February 2026 is the perfect time to review and strengthen your HR policies. Continental Business Solutions’ HR Services is highlighting policy development best practices to help California employers reduce risk and support effective workforce management.
Employee Handbooks and Workplace Guidelines
An employee handbook serves as the foundation of your HR compliance efforts. It communicates expectations, outlines employee rights, and provides guidance on workplace conduct.
Best practices include:
- Regularly reviewing and updating handbook content to reflect current California and federal laws
- Clearly defining standards of conduct, anti-discrimination and harassment policies, and complaint procedures
- Ensuring policies are written in clear, accessible language and applied consistently
A well-maintained handbook helps protect employers while setting clear expectations for employees.
Leave Policies
California’s complex leave laws make policy clarity especially important. Employers must ensure leave policies accurately reflect applicable requirements while remaining easy for employees to understand.
Key considerations include:
- Aligning policies with state-mandated leaves such as paid sick leave, family and medical leave, and pregnancy disability leave
- Clearly explaining eligibility, accruals, usage, and coordination between different leave types
- Training managers to properly administer leave requests and avoid retaliation risks
Attendance Rules
Consistent and compliant attendance policies help manage operations while minimizing legal exposure.
Best practices for attendance policies include:
- Defining expectations for punctuality and attendance
- Establishing clear call-in and reporting procedures
- Applying attendance rules uniformly to avoid discrimination claims
- Ensuring attendance policies do not conflict with protected leave rights
Employers should regularly review attendance rules to ensure they support business needs without violating employee protections.
PTO Management
Paid Time Off (PTO) policies must be carefully managed in California, where accrued vacation is considered earned wages.
Effective PTO management includes:
- Clearly defining accrual methods, caps, and carryover rules
- Ensuring policies comply with California’s wage and hour requirements
- Accurately tracking balances and payouts upon separation
- Communicating PTO policies clearly to employees and managers
How Continental Business Solutions Can Help
Policy development is not a one-size-fits-all process. Continental Business Solutions’ HR Services works with California employers to develop, update, and maintain compliant, practical workplace policies tailored to their operations. From handbook reviews to leave policy alignment and manager training, our team helps you stay compliant while supporting a productive workplace.
February is an ideal time to strengthen your HR foundation. Proactive policy development today can help prevent disputes, improve consistency, and support long-term compliance.
Continental Business Solutions – Business Solutions for Today’s Workforce.
