How to Write Company Policies and Procedures

Most service businesses handle policy violations the same way: someone does something wrong, the owner gets frustrated, has a conversation, and hopes it doesn't happen again. No documentation. No defined consequence. When it happens a second time, the owner is in exactly the same position — except now they're angrier and the employee has no reason to believe anything will actually change.

Clear guidelines fix this. Not because they prevent every problem, but because they give everyone the same reference point. When the manager enforcing a rule and the employee receiving the consequence are working from the same established guidelines, enforcement is consistent and decisions are defensible. That's what protects your company's reputation, reduces legal risks, and creates the respectful work environment your best techs want to work in.

This guide focuses on what your company policies and procedures should actually say — the content layer underneath the structure. It covers the key policies that matter most for service businesses, what each workplace policy should address, and the potential consequences of getting them wrong. For guidance on organizing all of this into a complete employee handbook, see the employee handbook guide.

Important: Before finalizing any HR policies, have them reviewed by an employment attorney licensed in your state. What's legally permissible varies significantly, and this guide is not a substitute for specific guidance from legal counsel.

Federal Laws You Need to Know

Understanding the federal laws that govern your daily operations is the foundation of legal compliance. These laws constrain what you can require, restrict, or discipline for — and violating them, even unintentionally, can result in fines, back pay awards, and workplace discrimination claims.

Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) — Entitles eligible employees at companies with 50 or more employees to up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for qualifying medical and family reasons. DOL FMLA page

Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) — Requires employers to allow employees and their families to continue health insurance coverage after leaving the company, at the employee's cost.

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEOC) — Federal anti-discrimination law covering hiring, firing, compensation and benefits, and every other term of employment. Protected characteristics include race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, and genetic information. Your workplace policies must ensure fairness across all of these. EEOC prohibited practices

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) — Prohibits discrimination against employees with disabilities and requires reasonable accommodations. Applies to employers with 15 or more employees.

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) — Sets federal standards on minimum wage, overtime, work hours, recordkeeping, and child labor. Your timekeeping and compensation and benefits policy must align with it. DOL FLSA overview — check here for the current overtime salary threshold, which changes periodically.

Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) — Establishes and enforces workplace health and safety requirements through the health administration. For trades businesses, OSHA compliance is not optional. OSHA small business resources

For industry-specific requirements, the DOL's industry resources page covers the trades.

Writing Policies That Actually Work

The difference between a workplace policy and a vague expectation is specificity. A policy that aims to ensure employees arrive on time isn't a policy — it's a wish. "Arriving more than 10 minutes after your scheduled start time without prior notification counts as a tardy. Three tardy incidents within 30 days will result in a written warning. A fourth within the same period may result in suspension or termination" — that's a policy that can be enforced consistently and handled fairly.

For every policy you write, define: what the rule is, what counts as a violation, and what the potential consequences are. If any of those three are missing, the policy outlines won't hold up when you need them to. HR professionals call this a structured approach to discipline — and it's what keeps decision making consistent across managers.

Employee Code of Conduct

Your conduct policy is the foundation of employee relations at your company. It defines acceptable workplace behavior, ethical standards, and the boundaries employees are expected to maintain — both in your facility and in customers' homes. For residential service businesses, the employee code of conduct has to reflect that your techs often work alone with customers, which creates both trust requirements and legal exposure that a standard office policy doesn't address.

Behaviors your anti-harassment policy and conduct policy should cover explicitly:

• Alcohol and drug use on the job, including reporting to work impaired
• Possession of weapons on company property or in company vehicles
• Harassment of any form — sexual harassment, hostile work environment, and other forms of harassment based on protected characteristics. An anti-harassment policy should define both types (quid pro quo and hostile environment), state that harassment by anyone — managers, coworkers, customers, vendors — will not be tolerated, and provide a clear reporting process
• Workplace discrimination based on protected characteristics
• Fighting, threats, or intimidating behavior
• Theft, fraud, or falsifying company documents — including timekeeping records
• Willful destruction of company or customer property
• Inappropriate conduct in customers' homes (entering without permission, unauthorized access to areas of the home, etc.)
• Illegal activities of any kind during work hours or using company resources
• Insubordination

For each behavior, state clearly whether it results in immediate termination or a progressive disciplinary process. Theft, falsifying records, and physical violence warrant immediate termination. Attendance issues and phone use are typically handled through a stepped process.

Workplace Health and Safety Policy

Your workplace health and safety policy represents the company's commitment to ensuring employees can safely perform their work. For HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and other trades businesses, this is both a legal requirement and a direct protection for your crew. A tech injured on a job with no documented safety training is a fundamentally different liability situation than one with training records, provided PPE, and a signed safety policy acknowledgment in their personnel file.

Your occupational safety policy should cover:

• The specific PPE required for each job type — by trade. HVAC techs, electricians, and plumbers have different requirements. Be specific; a generic list creates gaps.
• Emergency procedures on a job site — what to do if an injury occurs, a gas leak is detected, or another emergency arises
• How to report a workplace injury, unsafe condition, or near-miss — the process, timeline, and who receives it
• Consequences for bypassing safety requirements
• Workers' compensation — how claims are filed and that retaliation for filing is prohibited

OSHA's Small Business Handbook covers federal requirements. Your state may have additional workplace health requirements — check your state OSHA program.

Leave and Benefits Policy

Vacation

No federal law requires paid vacation. Your benefits policy should specify how vacation time accrues, the maximum accrual, notice requirements, approval process, and whether unused paid time pays out at termination. Some states treat accrued vacation as earned wages that cannot be forfeited — check your state's law before writing this section.

Sick Leave

Many states now mandate paid sick leave, and your benefits policy must comply with your state's minimum. NCSL's paid sick leave tracker shows current state requirements. Note whether sick leave can be used for a sick family member, since some states require this.

Family and Medical Leave

If you have 50 or more employees, FMLA applies. If fewer, check your state. Your policy should spell out eligibility, qualifying reasons, how leave is requested, and return-to-work rights.

Bereavement

Define the number of paid days available (typically 3–5 for immediate family, 1 for others), which relationships qualify as immediate family, and the process for requesting leave. Vague bereavement policies generate disputes. A list of qualifying relationships eliminates ambiguity.

Jury Duty and Voting Leave

State laws vary significantly on both. Some require paid time off; others require unpaid leave. Your state's labor department website is the authoritative source. Whatever your policy says, ensure compliance with your state's specific requirements.

Timekeeping, Pay, and Salary Structures

Timekeeping and Work Hours

Define how hours are recorded, who reviews and approves timesheets, submission deadlines, and the consequences for falsifying records. For field service businesses using GPS-verified time tracking via mobile app, the policy should reference this and state clearly that clocking in for another employee is grounds for termination.

Overtime

Non-exempt employees must be paid at 1.5x their regular rate for hours over 40 in a workweek under the FLSA. Some states require daily overtime. Your policy should state whether overtime requires prior approval and the consequence for unauthorized overtime. Salary structures for non-exempt employees must account for this — misclassifying employees as exempt to avoid overtime is one of the more common and costly FLSA violations.

Reimbursements

Define what qualifies for reimbursement, required documentation, submission deadlines, and the timeline for payment. For the current state-specific payday requirements, DOL's payday requirements by state covers what your state mandates.

Equipment, Vehicles, and Company Property

Your company property policy outlines expectations for equipment loaned to employees — tools, vehicles, phones, tablets — including the condition they must be returned in, whether personal use is permitted, and the process when employment ends. Get this signed before the tech takes the keys.

For company vehicles: state whether personal use is permitted, any restrictions (valid driver's license required, no unauthorized passengers, compliance with traffic laws), and what the driver is responsible for if an accident occurs.

Data Security Policy

As service businesses increasingly use mobile apps, cloud-based scheduling, and digital customer records, data security has become a real concern. A data security policy should cover: how confidential information and trade secrets are handled, what counts as acceptable use of company systems and devices, what employees may and may not access or share, and the consequences for data breaches or unauthorized disclosure. Protecting customer information is both a legal obligation and a protection for your company's reputation. HR teams managing digital records should also be covered by this policy.

For remote employees or remote work situations, data security expectations need to be explicit — personal networks and personal devices create vulnerabilities that company-issued equipment on a company network doesn't.

Phone and Social Media

Acceptable Use

Your acceptable use policy defines the line between permitted and prohibited use of phones during work hours. Key areas: personal calls and texts during jobs, phone use while driving (state compliance with applicable law), personal use of company-owned devices, and what happens if a device is lost or damaged. For techs in customers' homes, address recording explicitly — recording customers without consent creates legal exposure in most states.

Social Media

Your social media policy should cover what employees may post on behalf of the company and what personal social media conduct can result in discipline. The latter is narrower than most employers expect — the National Labor Relations Act protects employees' rights to discuss wages and working conditions online. NLRB guidance on social media policies covers what restrictions are permissible. Have this section reviewed by an attorney before distributing.

Discipline and Termination

Write out your progressive discipline process — verbal warning, written warning, final warning, termination — and define which violations skip steps. Then follow it consistently. The documentation of each step, signed by the employee and kept in their personnel file, is what makes the process defensible in an unemployment claim or wrongful termination dispute.

What your disciplinary policy cannot do, regardless of what it says: levy fines against employees, require unpaid overtime as punishment, or withhold a final paycheck until company equipment is returned. These are illegal in most states.

State termination laws vary significantly — some require final pay on the day of termination, others allow it on the next regular payday. Check your state's specific requirement.

Keep Policies Current

Writing policies once isn't enough. Regularly review your company policies and procedures — at minimum annually — to account for significant changes in federal laws, state regulations, or your own business operations. When you revise policies or make significant changes, distribute updated versions to all employees and collect new acknowledgment signatures. HR professionals recommend keeping a record of every version distributed and when.

The onboarding process is the right time to introduce new employees to your policies. Employees understand expectations better when policies are presented in person, walked through clearly, and followed up with written acknowledgment — not just emailed as a PDF attachment. A structured approach to policy introduction is part of what creates the productive work environment where people do their best work.

Once your policies are complete, compile them into your employee handbook, have an employment attorney review the final document, and distribute it with a signed acknowledgment of receipt.