Assume that you are a member of an HR consulting team providing human resource management (HRM) consultation for a new small business that will have 15-25 employees (full-time and part-time). The business will open soon, and you are now developing a policy manual/employee handbook.
Select a minimum of 4 issues that you will want to include in the policy manual. These issues must correspond with the general topics addressed in the textbook and supported in the research paper. For each issue, write a relevant policy that you believe would be needed in your business. This is not to be an all-inclusive policy manual; you are only providing a few of the elements of a policy manual for the purpose of this course.
Write your policy for each issue and format it the way you would like to include it in your policy manual. Write a policy that is truly meaningful and useful to you and that reflects your personal philosophy. You are a strategic partner to the business owner and this must be an area that you want to make sure to cover. However, do not write it as a contract between 2 individuals. A policy manual is provided to employees from the standpoint of the organization.
In addition, include a cover page that is formatted as if the document were an authentic employee manual (i.e., do not format the cover page according to current APA standards).
Your submission for the policy manual must be 5-6 pages in addition to the cover page. Points will be deducted for each page over the 6-page limit.
Note: You are encouraged to spend time researching other policy manuals to develop an understanding of how material is formatted and presented to potential employees. However, the policy manual submission must be completely original work. Cutting and pasting or utilizing content from other sources is not permitted and will be considered plagiarism.)
HR POLICY RESEARCH PAPER INSTRUCTIONS
In a research paper, provide researched rationale for the nature and substance of your 4 selected, distinct policies. This paper is to be reflective of an academic research paper. You will not include specific references to the fictitious company in this paper. The research paper must address the reasoning or rationale for the inclusion of the selected policy elements in your policy manual.
The selected policies must correctly address employment legislation pertinent to the stated size of the company (15-25 employees). In elaborating on the rationale, you may want to consider the following questions: Why should these elements be in a policy manual? What laws or principles mandate an organization follow these guidelines? What cases have established precedent for this issue to be addressed clearly in an organization's employee policy manual?
Support your rationale with at least 10 scholarly references in addition to the textbook and the Bible. Remember, government websites and previous/current court cases are useful but will not be included in the "scholarly" reference requirement.
The paper must be not less than 7 pages and not more than 10 pages in addition to the cover page, the abstract, and the references page. It must be written in current APA format. Three points will be deducted for each page over the 10-page limit (for the body of the paper). To earn full credit, the paper should be 10 pages in length (see the grading rubric).
Following are some examples of HR policy topics. These are only examples. You may identify/select other topics that would be relevant and appropriate for a general employee policy manual/handbook.
• Dress Code
• Technology Use
• Code of Conduct
• Confidentiality
• Harassment
• Benefits (This can be more specific to areas such as "paid time off," health care benefits, and so forth.)
• Training Opportunities/Expectations