Landscape Employee Handbook Template

A handbook isn’t there to protect the company from its crew. It’s there so a new hire knows what’s expected before their first Monday, and so everyone on the crew, not just the newest person, is held to the same standard. This template gives you the structure to build that handbook: what to cover in each section, not what to say. The decisions, and the wording, are still yours to make.

Before you use this

This is a starting structure, not a finished handbook, and it isn’t legal advice. Wage and hour rules, paid leave requirements, and workplace safety obligations vary significantly by state, and sometimes by city. What’s standard in one place may be required, restricted, or handled completely differently somewhere else. Nothing in this template should be copied into a real handbook and handed to a crew as-is. Before you distribute anything to employees, have an employment attorney or your state labor department review the finished document. Every section below is a prompt for a decision you need to make, not an answer that’s already filled in.

Welcome & company overview

Open with a short welcome. This is the one section that’s genuinely about your company, not general policy, so write it yourself. Cover:

Who you are: when the company started, what areas you serve, and the kind of work you do (mowing, landscape install, snow and ice, chemical applications, or some mix).
What you want a customer to experience when your crew shows up. This sets the tone for the rest of the handbook.
The two or three things you actually care about most. Many landscaping companies land on some version of reliability, safety, and quality of work, but write your own version.

Keep it short. A new hire will remember three priorities. They won’t remember twelve.

Code of conduct

This section sets the ground rules for how crew members carry themselves on the job. Decide and document your policy on:

Professionalism on customer properties. How to handle a customer who’s outside talking, how to treat pets, gates, and property lines, and what’s off-limits during a job.
Respectful treatment of coworkers and customers. State plainly that harassment, discrimination, and abusive language aren’t tolerated, and say who a crew member reports it to and what happens next.
Phones and personal devices. When it’s fine to have a phone out (checking job notes, a customer call) and when it isn’t (earbuds in around running equipment, texting while driving).
Substance policy. Where the company stands on alcohol and drugs during work hours and drive time, and whether that extends to anyone on call for storm or snow work.

Attendance & scheduling

Landscaping runs on a schedule that moves. Crews start early, routes shift, and weather rewrites the day more often than in most other jobs. This section should cover:

What “on time” actually means (at the shop, at the first stop of the day, or somewhere else) and how tardiness gets handled the first time versus the fifth.
How a call-out gets reported: who to contact and by when, so a crew lead isn’t finding out someone’s missing after the truck is already loaded.
How weather delays and reschedules get communicated. Rain days and heat-driven changes are routine in this work, so spell out who makes that call and how the crew hears about it.

This is also a natural place to note how your crews actually get their schedule. At companies running the crew mobile app, the day’s route and any changes show up right on the crew’s phone, which is worth mentioning here since that’s exactly what this section is about.

Safety policy

Safety is where guidance matters more than boilerplate. Exact requirements depend on your equipment, your state, and the work you do. A mowing crew and a chemical applicator aren’t operating under the same rules. Decide and document your policy on:

PPE requirements. What’s required for which tasks: eye and ear protection around trimmers and blowers, gloves for chemical handling, high-visibility gear near roadways, chaps or guards for chainsaw work.
Equipment operation rules. Who’s authorized to run what (a first-week hire probably isn’t on a skid steer yet) and what training or sign-off happens before someone’s cleared.
Reporting injuries. What a crew member does immediately after any injury, however small, and exactly who they tell. Even a minor cut on day one should have an obvious next step.
Heat and cold exposure. How you handle water breaks, shade, and pace on high-heat days, and the cold-weather equivalent for snow and ice work.

This section is also the one most likely to touch actual legal requirements: OSHA obligations, state rules for chemical applicators, and similar. That’s why it belongs in front of your attorney or labor department, not a reason to leave it thin.

Equipment & vehicle use

Cover who’s allowed to operate what, and what happens when something goes wrong:

Which roles are authorized to drive company vehicles, and what you require before someone’s cleared to drive one: valid license, minimum age, a ride-along first.
How equipment damage gets reported (a mower that hit a rock, a trailer backed into something) and how quickly.
Your policy on personal use of company vehicles and equipment, including whether a truck can be taken home overnight and whether personal errands are ever allowed mid-route.

Pay, time off & benefits

This section is a placeholder more than any other. Don’t publish it with real-sounding numbers you haven’t decided on yet, fill it in once you know the answer, ideally after a professional has looked at it.

Pay schedule. [Decide and state your pay schedule here (weekly, biweekly, or otherwise) and how crew members can check their hours.]
Overtime. [Decide and state your overtime policy here.] Overtime is some of the more heavily regulated ground in employment law and varies by state, so it isn’t one to guess at.
Paid time off and sick time. [Decide and state how PTO and sick time are earned, accrued, and requested here, including how much notice is expected for a planned day off versus a same-morning call-out.]
Benefits. [State whatever you actually offer here.] If the honest answer right now is “none yet,” say that plainly rather than leaving it vague.

Leave the brackets out of the version you actually hand to your crew. They’re here to mark exactly where your own decisions need to go.

Communication & feedback

This section is about keeping small problems small. Cover:

How a crew member raises a concern (about a job, a coworker, or a customer) and who they take it to first.
How performance feedback happens. A regular check-in and an as-needed conversation are both workable, but the crew should know which one you’re running.
Chain of command for site issues. If something comes up mid-job (an upset customer, a safety concern, a question about scope), the crew should know who to call and in what order.

How to use this template

Work through it section by section and replace the guidance with your actual policy. Plain language your crew will read beats anything that sounds like a courtroom wrote it. Once it’s filled in, have an employment attorney or your state labor department review it, especially the safety, pay, and time-off sections. Then date it, and revisit it at least once a year. Crews change, the work changes, and so does the law.