Broker - Do I need an Employee Handbook

It's a great question. Is it a small company? Does having an HR/Employee Manual make you seem like a much bigger company? We try to thread the needle because the more policies you have, the more things you have to comply with. If you look in the 2-0 Compliance > 2-72 Employment Screening Hiring and Termination section, you will find the basic employee procedures/handbook. Then, in the 2-9 IT Security > 2--94 Remote Work, there are additional policies that deal with employee setup and onboarding.

For a small broker, especially, your operating procedure is your Quality Control Plan. Application Taking, Processing, and Submission (Sections 1 through 5 of your 1-A Quality Control Plan - plus your post-closing Quality Control Section 6). That's what brokers and non-delegated correspondents do.

The distinction between what works for a small company and a large company primarily hinges on scale. If you have many delegated tasks that need to be scaled up to manage a larger operation, you will need increasingly detailed procedures to handle this. For instance, some companies have processors who handle everything from cradle to grave, while others break it up and have file openers, verification specialists, vendor order specialists, customer support, pre-underwriters, and closing coordinators.

We prefer not to overwhelm small companies with excessive policies. Furthermore, regulators actually criticize this ("these procedures seem like they are for a much larger company. Please refine to reflect the size and scope of your company.") If you need it for an audit, we can provide you with that, but we recommend using that section of the Compliance Manual and QC plans. Conversely, if you purchased the small broker/corr package and intend to scale, we recommend purchasing the Complete Correspondent Package.