Louisville Employment Attorneys & Lawyers

What is an Employee Handbook

An employee handbook is a collection of a company's policies and rules of conduct.

A typical employee handbook focuses on policies to follow and lists out what employees cannot do. The employee handbook helps to protect the legal rights and responsibilities of the business, the business owner, and the employee. The employee's rights are sometimes left out of the employee handbook.

An employee handbook can also be used to give a new employee a great first impression of the company. The employee handbook can communicate the company culture and positive benefits as well as policies.

The employee handbook makes sure that each employee understands the expectations of the company. This understanding allows each person to work together as a cohesive team.

The employee handbook can help prevent miscommunication with the team. Typically, a new employee is required to re

What Is Cliff Vesting?

Cliff vesting is the process where an employee gets fully vested on a given date. The employee receives his or her full benefits of the retirement plan on a specific date instead of in amounts over time. The "cliff" described is the date on which you become fully vested. A four-year vesting schedule with a one-year cliff is common.

Cliff vesting is the way that employees of a company can acquire full ownership of incentives or assets of the company's qualified retirement plan account on a specific, agreed-upon date, instead of over a longer period. This period cannot exceed six years. The "cliff" is usually one year in.

Companies put vesting schedules in place as a way to handle pe

What Is Severance Pay?

Severance pay is compensation that you receive when you are released from employment. There are many reasons a person might receive severance pay. Some common ones include:

Company-wide layoffs

Your job is eliminated.

You and your employer agree it's best for you to leave the company.

Mergers

You almost never receive severance pay if you are fired for poor job performance. Packages are determined by your contract. Generally, you receive one to two weeks of pay for every year you were employed. Top-level employees may receive a month's pay for every year with their company.

Severance pay amounts depend on several factors, including:

Company status

Length of employment

Your contract

Past payment packages

Regular employees may receive hundr

Reverse Vesting: What Is It?

Reverse vesting occurs when a company's co-founder receives his or her shares and ownership interest upfront. This exchange is subject to vesting similar to employee stock options. If the co-founder leaves, the company may repurchase a set amount of those shares.

The founder already owns all the shares with reverse vesting and may be forced to sell a specific percentage of them for no profit if the complete vesting period hasn't been finished. Reverse vesting is a term used to define a specific situation where an independent contractor or an employee gets stock that's subject for the company to repurchase at-cost. The right to repurchase lapses the vesting period.

This is the opposite of a normal situation, where a provider for a service gets the right to buy stock or an option, but he or she can't use that right until the provider vests. Many