Writing the Report
Phoenix Advertising Human Resources Department 420 W. Craighead Road Charlotte, NC 28206 October 1, 2012 Phoenix Advertising Executive Team 420 W. Craighead Road Charlotte, NC 28206 Dear Executive Team: The Roanoke branch of Phoenix Advertising has been one of the company’s most successful branches for many years, handling large accounts all over the Mid-Atlantic region and continues to increase their client load. However, recent difficulties have put a strain on the human resources department and their practices.
Key personnel have left the Roanoke branch to work for competitors and others are threatening to leave their jobs, sharp declines in productivity and employee morale issues have reached the corporate office. As Vice President of Human Resources for Phoenix Advertising and at the request of company President, Mr. Gregory Forest, I have conducted a 2 day investigation into the causes of the difficulties at the Roanoke branch and have identified one critical problem: Employee loss of morale due to required overtime work.
I have developed a proposal that will align the employee’s attitude to the company’s interests and to rebuild and strengthen the employees support for occasional overtime, thus ensuring the company’s mission of delivering quality advertising to its clients. Background My investigation of the Roanoke Branch consisted of a 2 day observation of the branch’s operations, meetings and question and answer sessions with the individual departments and surveys administered to the employees and to the 4 clients that have complained to Mr.
Forest as well as personally meeting with those clients.
Although there are several factors that have brought on the required overtime for our salaried workers, it was disappointing to find that only 10% of our employees volunteer to stay late to meet deadlines for our clients. “Overtime” work is essential in our industry, client needs are continually changing and new accounts are added by the sales department. This employee malaise in regard to “working late” is therefore a serious Executive Team – 2 roblem that the executive team of Phoenix Advertising must address. Although the impact of this situation continuing in the Roanoke branch is grave, it is also a concern regarding other Phoenix Advertising branches. As the branches across the country often collaborate there is the chance this aversion to occasionally working “overtime” may spread, thus the cause of this problem in Roanoke must be addressed and corrected.
Upon investigation, I found that there a 2 reasonable causes for the problems in Roanoke regarding their low morale and declining productivity.
First, survey’s revealed that 75% of the salaried employees are unaware of the stipulation in the company’s handbook that “overtime” hours are uncompensated as an hourly wage, and that in place of this lack of compensation, the branch general manager must allocate paid time off or “comp” time for salaried employees who find themselves working beyond the normal office hours to meet deadlines. I also found that the branch general manager and the department heads have not been following the policy regarding comp time for the workers.
Together the lack of understanding and implementation of the company “comp” time policy is the main cause of the problems experienced by the salaried employees of the Roanoke branch. Without proper orientation and implementation of Phoenix Advertising policy regarding overtime, I have concluded that the employees altogether believe the company is taking advantage of them by asking them to work “overtime” without compensation. This assumption brings about the proposed 3 part plan of action that I believe will be necessary to overcome and correct this problem.
Conduct an orientation with salaried employees on their rights and responsibilities regarding overtime work with Phoenix Advertising. •Brief the general manager and the department heads on the execution of overtime/comp time policies for salaried employees in a formal meeting. •Re-visit the Roanoke branch and re-evaluate the overtime hours rendered, the salaried employee’s attitudes toward the overtime and the client satisfaction in 3 months time. Proposal
The proposal set forth in this correspondence to the executive team of Phoenix Advertising is the plan of action to bring about measurable change within the Roanoke branch through re-orientation of salaried employees, properly re-training managers and rigorously evaluating outcomes. The first phase of the proposal will be to have salaried employees attend an orientation session where the company’s policies on overtime work will be discussed, especially the policy on granting compensation time (comp time) for overtime work rendered.
This phase will be both Executive Team – 3 nformative and have persuasive goals. Primarily the orientation intends to clarify that salaried employees by the nature of their contract, have the responsibility to render overtime service when the need arises. It also intends to clarify that while overtime rendered is not compensated as an hourly wage, rather that the employee will be credited with comp time by their appropriate manager and may be used at a later date. This orientation session will also attempt to instill a leadership culture, where the employees view the company as an extension of themselves and their careers.
This can be done by comparing the relationship between overtime and meeting deadlines which benefits the company and thus corresponds to greater gains for the employees. The orientation will also emphasize how the use of comp time support for overtime hours worked make the extra hours appear very reasonable to the employees.
In the second phase of the proposal, I will conduct a formal meeting with the Roanoke branch management. We will discuss the current situation at the branch and what management needs to do to bring back and boost employee morale.
I will discuss in detail the proper allocation of comp time for salaried employees who work overtime and the establishment of a feedback system between management and employees that will develop a leadership culture in the organization. In the third phase I will return to the Roanoke branch in three months time and re-evaluate and assess the overtime situation and the morale of the employees. I will conduct the same data gathering as in the initial branch assessment visit.
I will analyze and re-evaluate the data with the previous assessment to see if there has been measureable improvement.
Proposal Schedule: Phase:Date/Time RequiredImpact on Operations Orientation for Salaried Employees Nov. 2 3 hoursProfessional Development Time used for the month of November ; December Formal Meeting with Nov. 2 2 hoursNone Roanoke Management Evaluation and Assessment Visit Feb. 48 hoursFew/Travel Time Away from (1 day in Roanoke ; remainder Headquarters for Evaluating the Data) Executive Team – 4 Staffing I will serve as the main resource person for the employee orientation along with two of my human resource specialists. We will utilize a power point presentation, brainstorming and culture building activities.
We have the necessary background in HR development and knowledge of the company policies that are required to conduct the orientation at the Roanoke branch described in the proposal.
I will have the Roanoke branch management delegate the physical arrangement details for the 3 hour orientation for the salaried employees. Starting the orientation, one of my HR specialists will present the policies of the company regarding overtime and comp time and address questions that the employees may have. Subsequently, I will discuss the relationship that Phoenix Advertising wishes to build with all its employees and develop the employees’ understand of a leadership enriched culture. Lastly, my other HR specialist will facilitate a culture building activity for the employees.
In the management meeting stage I and my HR specialists would meet with the Roanoke branch management to discuss proper management and culture development practices at the branch. I shall lead the discussion and my staff will assist. I am the most suitable person to present the solution to the branch management as I was the one who formulated the proposal solution. In the evaluation phase I will make the trip back to the Roanoke branch on my own and conduct the same procedures that I did in the initial assessment. I am the most suitable for this phase as I conducted the first assessment.
Budget BUDGET PhaseExpenseUnit CostParticipantsTotal Cost Orientation with Salaried EmployeesMeeting Supplies: Handouts (copying) Food and Beverage $10.
00 $40. 00 15 $750. 0 Meeting with Branch ManagementRefreshment $10. 00 5 $50. 00 Orientation & MeetingTravel & Meal Per diem/ HR Team $425.
00 3 $1275. 00 Evaluation Travel Expense $425. 00 1 $425. 00 Total Expense for Proposal $2500. 00 Executive Team – 5 Request for Authorization This proposal is a cost effective yet promising means to solve an existing and growing problem at a key branch of Phoenix Advertising.
The employees have low morale because they do not fully understand company policies and the organizational culture is not properly oriented towards the leadership culture Phoenix Advertising promotes.
This proposal will persuasively educate employees and decisively align management practices with HR development goals. Upon your approval of the plan, I propose to leave for the Roanoke branch by Nov. 1, 2012, conduct the orientation and meeting on Nov. 2nd and return to Charlotte on November 3, 2012. The evaluation will be conducted 3 months later on December 3, 2012.
Should the executive team approve this proposal I will need to know by Oct.
20th, so that my Human Resources Department has time to complete the audio-visuals needed and set up travel arrangements for the orientation session and meeting in Roanoke. My staff and I look forward to facing these challenges at the Roanoke branch and hope to glean even more information and input from the employees during the orientation that will benefit not only those that work in Roanoke but the entire Phoenix Advertising organization. Sincerely, Vice President of Human Resources
