Prompt details

Tested on

Claude Opus 5.5

Length

605 words · 3 fill-ins

Example input

[Your business, headcount and location]: Cedar Hollow Coffee Roasters, a roastery with one café in Bend, Oregon. 12 employees: 4 full-time roasting and production staff, 2 full-time office and wholesale staff, and 6 part-time baristas (16 to 28 hours a week). I'm the owner; a café manager writes the barista schedule. No HR person; payroll runs through an online payroll service.

[How things work now]: Time off: full-timers get "about two weeks" of vacation, handled case by case; part-timers get nothing formal. People ask by text. Sick days: we tell people to stay home, and some get paid and some don't. Last month two people wanted the same week in July off and it got awkward. Scheduling: the café manager posts the barista schedule every Friday for the week starting Monday, in a shared spreadsheet. Shift swaps happen in a group chat with no approval, and we had two no-shows this year. Roasting staff work fixed hours, 7 to 3:30, Monday to Friday. Social media: one barista posted a TikTok complaining about a rude customer that showed the customer's face. Another posted our new wholesale price list before we announced it. We like staff posting about our coffee and tagging us.

[The policies you need]: Paid time off (vacation and sick time), scheduling and shift swaps for the café, and social media. Keep it friendly; we're a small team.

Example output

Cedar Hollow Coffee Roasters: Employee Handbook Draft

This is a draft, not legal advice. An employment lawyer or HR professional in Oregon should review it before anyone signs. Items marked [confirm: …] are my understanding of the law and must be checked. Items marked [your decision: …] are choices only you can make.

Assumptions:

All 12 employees work in Bend, Oregon, and none work in another state.
The café manager approves barista requests. You (the owner) approve requests from everyone else, including the café manager.
Office and wholesale staff hours are set with you, so the scheduling rules below focus on the café.

---

1. Handbook Outline

1. Welcome and About Us: Add later

2. How to Use This Handbook: Add later

3. Employment Basics (at-will employment, full-time vs. part-time, introductory period): Add later

4. Equal Opportunity, Anti-Harassment and Anti-Discrimination: Add soon. Oregon requires a written policy on this [confirm: Oregon Workplace Fairness Act, ORS 659A.375].

5. Pay and Payroll (paydays, timekeeping, overtime, final pay): Add later

6. Hours, Rest Breaks and Meal Periods: Add later. Breaks are touched on in Policy C.

7. Café Scheduling, Shift Swaps and Attendance: Covered (Policy C)

8. Vacation: Covered (Policy A)

9. Paid Sick Time: Covered (Policy B)

10. Other Leave (Paid Leave Oregon, jury duty, military leave, crime victim leave, holidays): Add later

11. Food Safety and Health (food handler cards, hygiene): Add later

12. Workplace Safety and Injuries (roasting equipment, Oregon OSHA, workers' comp): Add later

13. Conduct and Dress Code: Add later

14. Confidential Business Information: Add later. Briefly covered in Policy D.

15. Social Media: Covered (Policy D)

16. Phones and Technology at Work: Add later

17. Staff Drinks and Discounts: Add later

18. Raising Problems and Complaints: Add later

19. Leaving Cedar Hollow (notice, final pay, returning property): Add later

20. Acknowledgement Form: Covered (Part 4)

---

2. Policies

Policy A: Vacation

> Full-time employees earn paid vacation, and everyone asks for it the same way so the rules are fair. When two people want the same days off, we use one set rule to decide.

1. Who this covers. Full-time employees. Part-time employees [your decision: do not earn paid vacation but may ask for unpaid time off using the steps below / earn paid vacation based on hours worked]. Everyone, including part-time staff, earns paid sick time under Policy B.

Claude Opus 5.5

Employee Handbook and HR Policy – Employee handbook prompt for ChatGPT and Claude

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Claude Opus 5.5

This prompt drafts employee handbook policies for a small business. Paste your business, location, how things work now and the policies you need; you get an outline, the drafts, legal points to confirm and an acknowledgement form.

What you get

A handbook outline that marks what this draft covers and what to add later
Each policy you asked for, with a plain summary and short numbered clauses
A table of every legal point to confirm for your location, and where to check
An acknowledgement form for employees to sign

How to use it

1
Describe how things really work
Write how time off, scheduling or whatever you need works today, including what has gone wrong. The policies are built to fix those problems.
2
Make the decisions it leaves you
Fill each [your decision] with your choice. Those are business calls, such as how much vacation, that the prompt will not make for you.
3
Confirm the law before anyone signs
Work through the legal points table with the state agency it names, then have an employment lawyer or HR professional review the handbook before you hand it out.

Better results

Write one policy area at a time if your handbook is long. A focused run gives each policy more care than ten at once.
After you confirm the legal points, paste what you found back in and ask: "Update the policies with these confirmed rules and remove the [confirm] markers."
Ask a new employee to read one policy and tell you what they think it means. If their answer differs from yours, simplify that clause.

Questions

Can ChatGPT write an employee handbook?

Yes, ChatGPT can draft employee handbook policies in plain language from how your business works. It cannot know the current employment law for your state or city, so treat the result as a draft and have an employment lawyer or HR professional review it before employees sign.

What are good AI prompts for HR?

Good AI prompts for HR give the model your real situation, such as headcount, location and how things work now, and ask for a finished document with the legal points marked for checking. Generic prompts produce template policies that may not fit your state.

Does a small business need an employee handbook?

Many small businesses are not required to have one, but a handbook puts rules in writing so they are applied the same way to everyone. Some laws require written policies or notices, such as on sick leave, so check what your state requires.

Can a social media policy stop employees from posting about work?

Not entirely, in many places. A policy can protect confidential information and customer privacy and stop staff speaking for the company, but labor law in many places protects employees discussing pay and working conditions. Have an employment lawyer check your policy.

Updated 8 Nov 2026