Good fences make good neighbors, and good policies make good shared workspaces. We make the case for company handbooks at incubators and coworking hubs.

When we talk to business owners about coworking spaces and tech incubators, they tend to focus on the positives: amenities, learning from and networking with other business owners, and the opportunities to develop their business with help from experts.

One thing that doesn’t seem to come up much: house rules – the kinds of policies that would normally be outlined in a company handbook.

That’s a problem. In fact, it’s a problem not only for for the organizations running these spaces but also for the businesses considering working from the shared space. Without policies in place, there’s no clear protocol for how to behave if something goes wrong.

Here’s a look at why shared working spaces need HR policies and how you can put these policies into action if you’re in charge of running such a space.