Question: Case

You are a HR practitioner in a medium-sized company that hires approximately 25 employees per year in entry-level positions. The average age of your company's new employees is 25 years old (typically post-secondary graduates with 1-2 years of work experience) and approximately 57 per cent of your new employees are female. Approximately half of your female new hires take maternity leave within three years of hire, necessitating the hiring of temporary employees and the redistribution of some tasks.

Your boss has expressed frustration with the cost and work associated with accommodating maternity leaves. After three relatively new employees announced they were pregnant last week, the boss has directed you to "do something" about this problem and has authorized you to propose changes to job design, HR planning, recruitment, and selection that will function to reduce the number of maternity leaves in the company. Your boss requires a memo to senior management in response to this request by the end of the week.

Instructions

1. This assignment has two components:a memo of approximately 500 words.
2. a 1000-word reflection and analysis of your memo.
3. Full sentences and paragraphs are required, although you may use bulleted or numbered lists where they increase clarity.
4. Before writing the memo, consult the tipsheet "Writing Memos" at the bottom of the HRMT 386/ORGB 386 course website. When writing the memo, consider all of the different ways in which you might respond to your manager's request. Consider the pros and cons of each, and select the option you will advance. Then begin drafting your memo.
5. After writing your memo, reflect on and analyze your memo, and address the following questions in about 1000 words:What organizational goals were you trying to achieve in writing this memo?
6. Who were the two audiences for this memo? What did each audience "need" from this memo?
7. Did the manager's direction cause you any discomfort? (Hint: it should have.) What was the nature and cause of this discomfort?
8. Why did you make the recommendation that you made?
9. Clearly reference the source of any information that you paraphrase or quote directly, including material you find in the Study Guide. Please use APA Style. 
10. For help on using APA format, visit OWL at Purdue University-Using APA Format or consult the AU Centre for Psychology APA Style Tutorial.