Creating an Employee Handbook
Congratulations! Since our firm is rapidly expanding, I believe that we need a HR upgrade due to some recent unfortunate employment situations at the company.
I have chosen you to begin drafting the first employee handbook for our company in an effort to hopefully avoid some of the recent costly legal problems the company has faced.
You are welcome to consult other resources out there, but you must cite/quote appropriately or risk an academic integrity violation (Assume that the company is now large enough that all major federal employment laws apply and you are based here in Texas):
1. The general terms and conditions of employment and the responsibilities of the employer and employee, including, but not limited to, events of separation, pay and vacation.
2. How the company will conduct the testing of its employees for drugs and alcohol
3. What are the workers expectations of privacy in the company and privacy rights with regards to equipment and physical facilities
4. A comprehensive reporting and investigation policy with regards to discrimination, with a specific emphasis on sexual harassment.
As this is a new company, many employees don't know much about sexual harassment and will need a comprehensive explanation of what it is and its ramifications. Pretend they know nothing and use this as a vehicle to show your knowledge on the subject.
5. The companies FMLA policy, especially as it relates to vacation and sick leave.
The visual appearance of the manual is up to you, but it must be appear "professional" in all respects.
Paper must be 10 pages in length (no including title, contents, and references), the handbook much be legally compliant in all respects and provides enough detail and explanation such that an employee of slightly below average intellectual ability will easily know what to do in each of the discussed situations are.
The general grading breakdown is:
1. GraGrammatically Correct - One error per every other page is the baseline for full credit. You will lose 5 points for every error per page on average beyond one.
2. Comprehensibility - Can I easily understand what I must do to comply?
3. Professional Appearance
4. Citations - The President does not care which citation method you use, but he doesn't want us to be facing a plagiarism situation. You should only be citing the text, laws or news articles on the subject, as the consultation of other employee handbooks is prohibited.
5. Content - Did you substantively provide what was asked for in a legally compliant manner?