How Allan Industries transformed its employee handbook
About Allan Industries
For over 35 years, Allan Industries has been a leader in commercial cleaning services, employing over 2,000 staff across 12 states in the United States. However, like any organization with dispersed workforces across different states, Allan Industries faced the challenge of maintaining an up-to-date, legally compliant employee handbook—an essential document for ensuring clarity, consistency and compliance.
Subsequently, when Michelle D’Alessandro joined Allan Industries as HR Manager three years ago, she immediately recognized the glaring issue: the company’s employee handbook hadn’t been updated since 2010.
Name: Michelle D’Alessandro
Title: HR Manager
Organization: Allan Industries
Industry: Services
Region: USA
“We had purchased a CD-ROM toolkit back in 2008, and that’s what we used to create our handbook. It was outdated and didn’t include any state-specific policies or best practices.”
How we helped
Tailored alerts and insights to ensure local regulations
Handbook templates reviewed by employment law experts
Streamlined efforts on research and handbook maintenance with AI-powered technology
The challenge
An overwhelming, long-overdue task
Updating the employee handbook felt like a monumental task that loomed over Michelle’s desk. Her first instinct was to ask the organization’s external legal team’s help in updating their handbook as a solution. That proved to be too costly.
Even trying to manually manage the updates internally proved to be a frustrating process.
“We thought we could find relevant information online and update the policies ourselves, then the external legal team could identify and add all the legal policies that we needed. However, when circling back to the external legal team, we were told this approach would actually increase the cost because they’d have to review someone else’s work.”
The reality was stark: what seemed like a cost-saving measure would end up being even more expensive. With so much at stake, Michelle knew she had to find a solution quickly. That’s when she turned to Brightmine Automated Handbook Management (formally Aptifore).
The solution: Brightmine Automated Handbook Management
With Allan Industries already a Brightmine HR & Compliance Center (formerly XpertHR tools and resources) customer, Michelle decided to explore its handbook compliance solution, Automated Handbook Management.
Brightmine Automated Handbook Management is designed to provide HR teams with the opportunity to upload existing handbooks and conduct a thorough gap analysis using AI-powered technology.
Within minutes, the platform identifies what’s required, what’s missing, and what’s recommended. Combined with AI-powered insights and customized updates based on location and employee count, the solution’s comprehensive analysis shows users exactly what steps to take to make their handbook up-to-date and compliant.
“I remember seeing on their website that they had an automated employee handbook tool. I requested a demo, and honestly, it was a no-brainer. I was blown away by all the features”
Implementation & results
Compliance, efficiency and cost savings
As a founding customer, Allan Industries received exclusive early access to the Automated Handbook Management pilot program. This opportunity not only showcased the solution’s capabilities but also fostered meaningful collaboration. Michelle and her team’s feedback was instrumental in refining the solution to meet the real-world needs of HR professionals, paving the way for compliant efficiency, cost savings and seamless collaboration.
Streamlined updates
By using Brightmine Automated Handbook Management, Michelle was able to upload the outdated handbook and quickly began the updating process.
“It literally took five minutes for the analysis to run. At the top of the screen, I could see large icons showing how many policies we had, how many were missing, and what was required by law or recommended as best practice.”
Significant cost savings
With cost being a substantial concern for Michelle’s team, Brightmine Automated Handbook Management policy templates reviewed by legal experts offered a cost-effective solution that both saved the company money and exceeded regulatory compliance expectations.
“Knowing these policies had already been reviewed by a legal team gave me peace of mind, and the cost was a fraction of what the external legal counsel quoted us.”
Simplified compliance maintenance
With tailored regulatory and legislative notifications, keeping the handbook up-to-date became a manageable task.
“The platform notifies me whenever there are any regulatory changes. I don’t have to research updates myself. Because the system knows how many employees we have in each state, I’m only notified about changes that actually impact us. It’s incredibly efficient.”
Most importantly, when recommended updates to policy are presented, Michelle particularly appreciates the platform’s reasoning and explainability features,
“I appreciate how it explains why a policy change is needed, helping me understand and confidently propose updates to my manager, backed by the specific law changes.”
The future: setting and forgetting with Brightmine
Overall, it took Michelle three to four months to update the employee handbook, a process that was significantly streamlined thanks to Brightmine. The platform’s tools and intuitive design turned what once seemed like an overwhelming challenge into an achievable project.
By the end, Michelle had not only a fully compliant employee handbook but also a newfound confidence in managing HR tasks efficiently.
As a result, the Brightmine ‘set it and forget it’ approach means Allan Industries can focus on other HR priorities while staying confident that its handbook is always compliant. As Michelle concludes,
“In the crazy world of HR, you never know when you’re going to have to add a new policy.”
With Brightmine, Michelle can rest easy knowing that any updates or changes will be seamlessly integrated into the employee handbook without disrupting daily operations.
Allan Industries, Inc.
“Brightmine has transformed a daunting, time-consuming process into something manageable, efficient, and cost-effective. It’s a must-have tool for any HR professional who wants to stay ahead.”
Michelle D’Alessandro
HR Manager
Talk to our team about how we can work together
Whether you’re looking to attract talent, build a fair culture or stay on top of your legal obligations, Brightmine has a range of specialist HR software to help you meet your goals.