One minute you're a tight-knit team of five, swapping Slack jokes and onboarding over coffee… and the next, you're onboarding new faces in batches of 20, 50, or even 100 people every quarter. Suddenly, that Word document you emailed around isn't enough.
Welcome to the growth curve, where your employee handbook becomes much more than just a collection of policies.
You may not realize it, but your employee handbook is the first tool in your onboarding toolbox. How it's printed, from its format to its finish, affects everything in terms of how the company is perceived and how usable the guide is.
If you've been tasked with printing employee handbooks for growing teams, you'll need to think about things you may not have considered or even heard of before: Perfect binding? Coated paper? CMYK images?
At OnPress Book Printing, we're here to help it all make sense. Here's what you need to know to design, prepare, and print an employee handbook that gets used and referenced time and time again.
Aren't printed employee handbooks old fashioned?
When the whole world has gone digital, printed employee handbooks can seem old-fashioned or out of date, but their print format is precisely why they work. Consider this:
Print improves accessibility - Not every employee wants to dig through a PDF or slog through a corporate intranet site. A physical handbook is visible and easy to reference in a pinch. And your printed employee handbook will never pester you to change your password or charge your device.
Print means professional - A printed handbook, thoughtfully bound and professionally produced, tells employees that you care about consistency and are willing to help them do what it takes to be successful at your company.
Print promotes retention - Employees are more likely to remember policies, procedures and values if they can make notes, highlight, and flip between pages. Actively writing on physical material helps people understand and remember more than if they just scroll through it.
Print is part of the culture - A printed employee handbook shapes identity and expectations. It also supports accountability and protects your team.
How you print your employee handbook is just as important as what's inside
Before you go to print, you'll need to make several important decisions about your employee handbook's use, durability, and design.
Binding: Saddle-stitched or perfect bound?
Saddle-stitched (stapled) is best for smaller, shorter handbooks (around 64 pages or less). This cost-effective binding lies reasonably flat when open, making it great for reference guides, seasonal policies or supplemental policies.
Perfect bound is best for classic employee handbooks over 65 pages. As your policies expand, you'll want to choose this format as it gives your employee handbook a professional, polished look with a clean spine. Learn more about our book binding styles and how to choose the one that's right for you.
Trim size and templates
Typical trim sizes for employee handbooks are the standard 8.5" x 11", 6" x 9", or 7" x 10" dimensions. Landscape formats can also be used if your handbook uses wide tables or diagrams. We offer free print templates that work with a variety of popular software programs to help make the layout easy and consistent.
Paper choice: coated or uncoated?
Uncoated stock is best for text-heavy manuals and materials that you want employees to take notes in. Coated stock, on the other hand, is better for handbooks with photos or infographics. Heavier weights of paper give your handbook a more durable, premium feel and prevent the text from showing through on two-sided pages.
The paper choice and weight will depend on how your employees will interact with the book – if it's meant to be written in and referenced often, you'll want to choose paper and binding that keeps up with heavy use.
Handbook options based on team size
Different teams have different needs, and your printing choices should shift with scale. Here's what we recommend based on team size and handbook use.
Small teams (10-50 employees)
For small teams, we recommend softcover employee handbooks with perfect binding. These smaller sized handbooks are designed to focus on the essentials: company values, code of conduct, benefits, and basics.
Growing teams (50-200 employees)
Perfect binding with higher page counts works best as your policies standardize. Add sections on performance management, career development, and remote work expectations. This is the sweet spot where handbooks change from being simple manuals to core reference guides.
Mid-size to large teams (200+ employees)
For large teams, employee handbook printing options must include durable formats and clear indexing. This is the stage when you'll really need to pay attention to interior book formatting, which will help ensure that the handbook is easy to read.
Shipping, reprints, and updates
Whether your workforce is local, remote, or distributed across regions, you may want centralized delivery or to split shipments to multiple office locations. Working with a print partner that understands bulk distribution makes this nearly effortless.
Plus, OnPress optimizes your pricing as the number of your employee handbook orders increases, so in many cases, printing 250 or 500 copies is more efficient than repeated small runs.
At the same time, many companies reprint handbooks every year to reflect updated policies, benefits, or legal changes. It's a good idea to work with your printing partner to establish version tracking, annual update schedules, and include templates that make revisions easier so that future production can be as seamless as possible.
At OnPress Book Printing, our expertise in printing books and bound materials is second to none. With helpful book printing templates, short-run and bulk flexibility, and guides to support your team, we're here to give you the options you need to make sure your employee handbooks look as professional as the company that produces them. Start today by getting a free book printing quote on our website and let's work together to onboard your growing team!
TLDR
As teams grow, printed employee handbooks become more important — not less. They support onboarding, reinforce company culture, and make policies easier to access and remember than digital-only documents. The way a handbook is printed impacts how professional, usable, and durable it feels. Key decisions include binding type, paper choice, trim size, and cover treatment. Saddle stitching works for shorter handbooks, while perfect binding is better for longer, more polished guides. Uncoated paper is ideal for note-taking, while coated paper suits visuals. Printing needs also vary by team size, with larger organizations benefiting from durable formats, indexing, and bulk distribution. Working with an experienced print partner helps manage shipping, reprints, and annual updates efficiently, ensuring handbooks stay accurate, professional, and ready to support growing teams.