Employee Handbook Dilemma: Should I Include Titles with Manager Names?

Hi everyone! I have a question. I have created an employee handbook for new employees. I have added the names of managers along with their pictures in the handbook. I need to know if I can add titles (Mr./Ms.) to their names?

Hi, that's up to you to add or not. If you are adding the title, it would be more respectful.

Regards,
Alex

Organizational Culture and Addressing Managers

What is your organizational culture? Do you address your managers by their first names? If that is the case, it would be okay if you dropped the titles. However, I suggest you check your management team profile on the company website. If they use just the names without the title, I suggest you follow the same convention here. If your organization is formal and hierarchical, then I suggest adding the title.

Prefixing the names with Mr./Ms. is not important. However, I agree with Narmadha. When one signs below a communication (letter/email), I have not seen many people prefixing their names with Mr./Ms. In some cases, you may get confused about the gender of the person, especially when receiving communication from other countries. However, in your case, you are providing a photograph of the person, so any gender mix-up will not occur.

This entirely depends on your organization's culture, whether they have a modern approach where managers can be called by their first names or a conventional approach where seniors are addressed with salutations like sir, madam, etc.

As it is a welcome handbook, the placement of the title before the names plays a psychological role. This helps a new entrant prepare their mind for the cultural approach of the organization. So, I would suggest if your organization follows a modern approach, don't use titles, and if they follow a conventional approach, definitely use the title.

It's nice to know your organization has a handbook for new employees for good onboarding. Putting the names of managers in different departments in the handbook is a matter to be decided by your management.

In many MNCs where employee handbooks are in place, only the CEO/MD/COO or topmost ranks are allowed to be printed in the handbook along with a detailed profile of the person.

Here, apart from the essential organizational information, you can clearly show the organizational hierarchy with the designations, roles and responsibilities, business functions, regional structures (for MNCs), and so on.

Since lower-level employees tend to leave the job more than top-level executives, it would be a good idea to print your handbook only with top-level people's profiles. Usually, CEOs and MDs serve for a long time in organizations.

At the same time, you can use the same book in a more detailed form as a soft copy in PDF format, which can include all your present managers starting from top to bottom positions with their designations and salutations. It is easy to include their photos and brief profiles and can edit it whenever needed.

On the first day when an employee joins, they are welcomed with this soft copy of the handbook sent from the Corporate HR department to their new Email ID (official) along with other statutory forms to go through and get filled up, and returned to the HR department on the same day itself.

You can add a lot of other information in corporate PowerPoint presentations with commentary and videos to let the new joiner get accustomed to the new environment very soon. These can be uploaded in the common shared drives of your organization or in the local intranet. In organizations I have worked (and currently working), we follow these practices.

Thank you.

Wow! I appreciate you for providing such detailed information, Mr. Binu. This detailed information gives me a scope to add more details to the handbook. I like the idea of a soft copy handbook. However, since we are in Retail and Hospitality, we do not provide email IDs to all employees; only Managers and employees at the above level are given them. Nonetheless, we can use soft copies for Managers and those at a higher level.

We do have an Orientation/Induction presentation. This handbook will be given to employees once they have completed the presentation. The whole idea here is to give them a brief overview of everything related to the company, and the handbook contains more detailed information that they can read at their own pace and comfort. They can reach out to us if they have any questions. 

Happy to see you concerned about micro-level details as well. This is a very subjective thing. Yes, people have mentioned very correctly that it's the culture that defines whether the prefix should be used or not. Adding them would not harm anything if they are not used. However, not adding them if they are used would create an issue.

It entirely depends on the culture of the organization and/or the preferences of the top management. If you have an opportunity to discuss with the top management, it is suggested to use the names with the prefix (Mr. or Ms.) in official or public records. Such prefixes can be dropped in informal conversations.

Thank you very much for your answers. They have helped me in many ways. I am pleased to inform you that I have successfully launched the New Employee Handbook for our company.

Regards,
Ashlesha Telang