Health and Safety in the Workplace

Last week, you met with Jackie about her time and attendance issues. She said that she understood and would try to do better.

A few days ago, one of the female employees calls you and tells you that Jackie is passed out in the Lady’s Room. You rush over, having called the EMT’s. When you arrive there, you see that Jackie is unconscious and is lying on the floor. Next to her is a rolled up dollar bill with white powder by it.

The EMT’s take Jackie to the hospital. Several days later, she calls you and tells you that her Primary Care Physician has approved her to return to work with no restrictions.

How do you handle this situation?

If Jackie filed for Worker’s Comp, based upon your knowledge of the situation, does she have a claim and should the company oppose her request?

If so, why so? If not, why not?

Please use academic and/or professional support to sustain your analysis.

OSHA

You are the Manager of a multi- story office building, which requires siding repair work.

One contractor gives you a proposal, that includes the usage of appropriate scaffolding, per OSHA requirements, alongside the walls in order to protect the workers. The price for the job will be an inclusive $10,000

Another contractor comes to you and makes a proposal whereby he will do the work for $5,000.00. He does not think that there is a need for scaffolding, as he has been doing this type of work for twenty years, has always relied upon ladders and has never had anyone fall.

The owner of the company is constantly facing a cash crisis and wants to go with the lower price.

How do you handle this issue? In your answer, please explain what employers should do to remain in compliance with governmental health and safety rules and regulations.

The owner has gone with the lower bid. One day the OSHA inspector comes upon the scene. It is rumored that the company who did not get the bid called the inspector to let OSHA know that work was being done without scaffolding.

How do you handle the owner’s response and the OSHA issue?

Ethics in the Work Place

You are the Regional Vice President of Sales for a large company. The company sponsors an annual trip to a MLB game. While there recently, you meet your colleague from another region. While talking with him, you offer to buy him a beer. He declines, stating that he is a weekly regular in AA and has been alcohol free for 8 years. He tells you that you are the first person in the company, who knows this, and that he would like to keep this matter private between the two of you.
Last week, you learn that you and he are up for promotion to Vice President of Sales for the whole company. The job requires a great deal of travelling and lots of socializing/wining/dining of current and potential customers and suppliers.
One of the members of the screening committee is a personal friend. You truly want this job and believe that, if it just slips out that the other person has had a drinking problem, such would tip the scale in your favor.
Do you tell or not? Why? Why not?

Please use formal academic and/or professional support to sustain your position.

Drug Usage in the Work Place

I remit a link to an article concerning drug usage in the workplace.

http://mashable.com/2014/09/17/going-to-work-high/

1. What measures might Halcrow take to increase its retention of young professional graduates? 

    

    

   1. What measures might Halcrow take to increase its retention of young professional graduates?

    

   Introduction to Halcrow

   Halcrow Group Limited is a multidisciplinary consultancy group specialising in the provision of planning, design and management services for infrastructure development throughout the world. Within this, the Group’s main interests are transportation, water,property and consulting. Although Halcrow has a background in civil engineering and associated specialisms,in recent years the group has extended its range of disciplines to cover architecture, project management, environmental science, transport planning and other non-engineering but related skills.

   Unlike many organisations, Halcrow does not have a mission statement, arguing that their ‘purpose … to sustain and improve the quality of people’s lives’describes their approach better (Halcrow, 2003). This purpose is underpinned by a series of values which outline those things that are important to the Group:‘Skills and innovation; Enjoying what we do; Delivering within time and budget’, codes of business behaviour and business principles.Halcrow’s first projects outside the UK were undertaken in the 1890s, such work now accounting for nearly 40 per cent of an annual turnover in excess of £200 million with the Group currently undertaking projects in over 70 countries. Recent projects in which Halcrow have been involved include the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, road construction near the Stonehenge World heritage Site, the International Congress Centre in Rome, Kuala Lumpur International Airport, new and refurbished stands for Chelsea Football Club, coordination of wetland conservation and river basin management for the Danube and its tributaries and managing pollution risk from the animal mass burial sites arising from the UK’s 2001 foot and mouth disease outbreak.

   Halcrow was founded in 1868 by Thomas Meik,the company becoming Sir William Halcrow & Partners in 1941. In 1985 a private limited company bearing the same name was formed, the most recent change being in 1998, when the various Halcrow businesses and departments became Halcrow Group Limited. The Halcrow Trust owns 90 per cent of Halcrow, with the remaining 10 per cent by its employees. Halcrow has grown extensively over the past decade and now operates through a network of 29 UK and 32 international offices. As part of this growth, the number of employees has increased from 1,700 to nearly 5,000 worldwide. Approximately 80 per cent of Halcrow’s employees are classified by the Group as professional and technical (P&T) staff who have a minimum of an undergraduate degree in engineering or a related subject. The majority are engineers who are also members of a relevant professional institution or are undergoing training to gain membership. The remaining 20 per cent of employees, including those in human resources, are classified by Halcrow as non-P&T and provide corporate support services.

   Halcrow Group’s strategy

   As a result of restructuring to meet the future needs of the business environment, Halcrow’s operations were brought together in 2001 as four main business groups: Consulting, Property, Transport and Water. These operate as a matrix structure across the Group’s eight geographical regions, this structure facilitating appropriate employees or teams to be brought together for specific projects throughout the world (Figure 1). Each of the four business groups is led by a management team comprising five people including a Group board director or managing director.

   Within each business group, P&T staff are assigned to technical skills groups the leader of whom is responsible for their training and career development. Employees are also assigned to an office in one of the regions. These vary in size from less than ten to more than 500 employees. The business groups and regional offices are supported by Corporate Support Services, comprising all the corporate and business support functions, including human resources, and located predominantly within the UK. At the time of writing, the human resource function had 31 employees divided between three teams: Personnel (22), Pensions (3) and Training (6) with a director at the executive level.

   In 2004, Halcrow launched its change program, ‘Act now’, which was designed to help the Group ‘to continue to develop in a dynamic and sustainable way’. The focus of ‘Act now’ was to align employees’ behaviors and approaches to Halcrow’s purpose, values, codes of behavior and business principles thereby improving individual, team and overall business performance. This was summarized in Act Now: Your Pocket Guide to Halcrow’s Change Program (Halcrow, 2004b: 8) as:

   To take Halcrow’s existing personality, strengthen all those things that are good about it, for example,

   our …

   •  technical competence
   •  dependability
   •  friendliness
   •  reputation for being a safe pair of hands
   •  Commitment
   •  pride in one’s profession

   … and give it some added extras …

   •  passion
   •  dynamism
   •  fleetness of foot
   •  better listening skills
   •  excitement
   •  innovation
   •  confidence (with a clear sense of self)
   •  being more celebratory
   •  consistent delivery to expectation
   •  greater commercial edge
   •  being performance driven.

   This change program is intended to be continuous rather than having a specific end date. It emphasizes the need for flexibility and the sharing of good practices and learning throughout the Group, the centrality of employees to achieving this, and the need to monitor and evaluate.

    

   SHRM at Halcrow

   The ‘Act now’ change program is central to everything that Halcrow plans to do in relation to the HRM strategy. The overriding concern is to change the organization’s culture. It is often said that the Group is full of people who are professional engineers and who take pride in a job well done. In essence, technical excellence takes precedence over commercial success. By the very nature of their training, Halcrow people tend to be concerned with ‘detail’ rather than seeing the bigger picture.

   This has served the Group well. But a recent client satisfaction survey commissioned by the Group did not show Halcrow in a uniformly glowing light. It reported that Halcrow emerged as technically excellent and a ‘safe pair of hands’ but those clients were looking for much more than technical competence and a track record. They wanted business partners whose behaviors were aligned to their own needs. In addition the Group was also seen as rather ‘grey’. The challenge for Halcrow is to retain the reputation for technical excellence and reliability while becoming increasingly commercially aware, flexible and,above all, more responsive to customer needs.

   Halcrow has designed several key HRM initiatives to support the change program. These are:

   The development of core competences –This is seen as important because Halcrow employees have traditionally emphasised the importance of professional qualifications above all else. The development of a core competence programme is designed to move the emphasis from what people know to what they can do.

   The introduction of 360-degree appraisal-It is envisaged that this will make a significant contribution the ‘Act now’ culture change initiative. The Group’s culture has always tended to reinforce the importance of hierarchy in that employees have been very conscious of their position in the organization. In addition, there had been something of an ‘ignore and deflect culture’ in which people sought to evade responsibility for mistakes rather than being open enough to learn from them. By opening up the system of employee appraisal to people above and below the individual being appraised and by seeking the views of significant other stakeholders, particularly customers, Halcrow management believe that a far greater degree of openness will be developed.

   The instigation of a profit share bonus scheme– This is particularly designed to create in employees a greater awareness of the Group’s profit performance. In the view of senior Halcrow management, this has the potential to make a major contribution to fostering in Halcrow employees more commercially aware values. In view of the fact that senior management have set clear targets for increases in Halcrow’s profit performance, greater knowledge of the Group’s profitability is seen as an effective way of focusing the minds of employees on profit performance.

   The development of ‘ideas labs’ – This is an important part of the Halcrow management of innovation programme which is designed to promote innovative thinking and enable commercially valuable ideas to be implemented. It is designed to:

   add value to the business;

   • encourage cross-integration between disciplines;
   • give staff ownership of the ideas put forward.

   Overall, the key change issue that is driving SHRM is the need for Halcrow to be more responsive in the light of a more competitive industry. Therefore,the principal aim of the new HR initiatives is to generate more competitive employee behaviours which, in turn, is envisaged will generate better all-round employee and business performance.

   There are other critical issues facing HR at Halcrow.An important one of these is a consequence of customer feedback. Increasingly this shows that customers are taking technical excellence for granted when making decisions about which consultancy group to employ. In view of Halcrow’s reputation for technical excellence among customers, this is bad news for the Group. As the HR director explained the world has moved on. Clients are now more demanding and want more all the time. Among the most demanding clients are the public sector. In the UK, Halcrow management feel that the UK government’s Private Finance Initiative (PFI) has contributed to change in the industry. (The PFI is a mechanism developed by the government to raise money to pay for new buildings and services.Under PFI schemes a public authority buys the services of private-sector companies to design,build, finance and operate a public facility, such as a hospital. The private-sector companies borrow the money for the scheme and then the government pays an annual fee to the companies under a longterm operating contract for the services.)

   Three examples of the more demanding nature of clients are evident, each of which demands an HR response. The first is clients asking for an assurance that the staff commencing work on a project willstay with the Group for the duration of the project. This is a key issue in an industry where the reputation of the consultancy is such that, in effect, the staff appointed to a project can be a more important factor in the client’s decision to engage a particular consultancy than the consultancy group itself. Theimplications for HR are twofold. First, it must assure both external and internal clients that succession planning is in place. In the past this was not an HR strength at Halcrow or other similar consultancies,but is an issue that is now receiving more attention.The second implication is the problem of retention.There is a shortage of high-quality consultants throughout the construction and engineering sectors and competition for consultants is high. Like the sector in general, staff turnover is high at Halcrow.

   This is an issue that senior management knows must be addressed. The problem is exacerbated by the declining number of construction-related graduates in the UK, the number of students studying relevant courses in the UK dropping by 10 per cent in the late 1990s.

   A second example of the more demanding nature of clients is the requirement that companies state their policy and practice on employee diversity and equal opportunities. Again this presents a problem for companies in this sector, like Halcrow, which has been traditionally male dominated and has, until recently,employed considerable numbers of expatriates in its overseas operations. In the UK onstruction industry as a whole, the proportion of women employed is less than 9 per cent (Egan, 1998).

   The third example of client demands is the requirement that companies offer assurances over corporate governance. In the light of corporate scandals such as Enron and Parmalat, this is understandable.

   The HR response to this is to ensure that global training of key staff to ensure compliance with industry standards takes place. In addition, organizational structure issues, such as the revision of reporting relationships to ensure greater transparency, are receiving attention.

   The level of staff turnover at Halcrow and decline in the number of graduates entering the construction-related industry has shaped another HR priority for the Group. This is to define more clearly a people statement that states more precisely what is meant by ‘employer of choice’. In particular, Halcrow is concerned about losing high-quality graduates to the financial sector, both at the time of graduation and after they have worked with the Group for a short period. High-quality graduates can earn more money in financial services. In addition, younger graduates are more concerned with the work–life balance issues and their own staff development than were their predecessors. A measure of the significance of this issue to Halcrow is the large number of graduates employed each year, this being 133 in 2003.

   There is also worry over an ageing workforce in the construction industry in general. It is felt by the HR director that employees and employee issues at Halcrow need to be higher on the list of Group priorities. Staff turnover is now a key performance indicator for the HR director. In her view ‘it is no good imposing things upon people at Halcrow – the Group need to win hearts and minds’. This is typical of companies employing a high proportion of professional staff who tend to define, and act upon, their own standards of professional behavior.

   An HR strategy can be seen to be emerging at Halcrow, one that will demand vision and skill from the HR function. According to the HR director these are not qualities which the function has always displayed. She feels that HR has a major job to do because it has been perceived by Halcrow managers as ineffective in the past. Halcrow managers are critical and demanding and expect to receive effective assistance from the service functions. However, the importance accorded to technical excellence within Halcrow had created a culture where service functions, such as HR, were under-valued. Halcrow has traditionally called its staff ‘professional and technical’ and ‘non-professional and technical’ – the language reinforcing the message of P&T staff as fee-earners being the most important people in the Group. In addition, the HR function has been largely administrative rather than strategic, a situation that is now changing because of the HR challenges that Halcrow faces. The HR director is very conscious of developing professionalism in the HR team by developing team members’ confidence and helping them acquire professional qualifications through the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

   The HR director argues that it is essential to develop a more customer-focused HR team. The lead provided by the HR director is important. Both she and the training manager have experience in leading change programs in their previous companies. It is also a help that the HR director has a close link with the chief executive officer. This enables her to ask for the support necessary to drive through the HR initiatives. The HR director has also started giving increasing amounts of ‘professional’ work to her team members. An example of this was a case where redundancies flowed from business restructuring in one part of the Group. One member of the HR team handled all aspects of this. The HR director is also paying attention to mentoring and coaching her team.

   
   

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Assignment 2: American Disabilities Act (ADA)

The University of Nebraska Medical Center-Omaha hired you as a diversity management consultant. The vice president for center operations wants to highlight the medical center’s reputation for excellence in accommodating individuals with physical disabilities. As per the contract, one of your deliverables is to write an article on this topic for the medical center newsletter.

From your years as a diversity consultant, you are familiar with the ADA. Discuss the key aspects of ADA that you will share with all employees so they understand the importance of the topic. Include a discussion on how ADA assists organizations in maintaining a diverse workforce.

Write a two-page article, in Word, for the medical center’s company newsletter, which clearly identifies the key elements and importance of the ADA and how ADA can be used to help organizations maintain a diverse workforce.  Your article should conform to APA standards and include at least three references from the AU library and/or the Internet which support your assertions.

, deliver your assignment to the M2: Assignment 2 Dropbox.

Assignment 2 Grading Criteria	Maximum Points
Identified and explained the key elements and importance of the ADA.	30
Explained how ADA assists organizations in maintaining a diverse workforce.	30
Supported assertions with examination of evidence and reference to authoritative sources using the online library and text.	30
Applied current APA standards for editorial style, expression of ideas, and format of text, citations, and references.	10
Total:	100       Can you please have this completed by Monday 9/28

 

 

Comfort Zone Sphere Exercise 

•  Take a piece of paper, and draw two large circles on it. Label the inner part “Comfort Zone” and outer part “Panic Zone”.

•  Prepare a list of decisions, situations, or actions you experience and encounter on a different paper. 

•  Now classify and write down above mentioned items as either in the comfort zone or panic zone. The most comfortable ones would be located towards the center and difficult in the outer area that is the panic zone. 

•  Evaluate those actions outside the circle and write a reflection paper on what barriers keep you from having those within the circle.

•  Write an action plan of how you will expand your comfort zone circle. Include specific actions you will do. 

 

Reflect on what you did the first day in class and incorporate that too:

First Day of Class: 

Each student will stand in front of the classroom and answer the following questions:

•  Why did you choose Healthcare?

•  When did you know you were different from everyone else?

•  (Optional) What Values do you bring to this course and what do you want to improve on?

 Write a short paper explaining your feelings in the first day of class exercise, include your feelings on your comfort zone, your comfort zone action plan, and how you will become a servant leader in the future.  Explain what selfless means to you and how you will be so in your career. Overall, how will you and/or are you courageous, selfless, and committed to HC?

Students, please view the “Submit a Clickable Rubric Assignment” in the Student Center.
Instructors, training on how to grade is within the Instructor Center.

Assignment 1: Not All Companies Are Viewed as Equal

Due Week 4 and worth 175 points

In the land of free trade the public does not view all industries as equal. Do you believe that is ethical? Do you believe that some industries are unfairly targeted? Should it be consumers’ choice to partake in products that are not healthy for them, or do those companies have an ethical obligation to protect people? In this assignment you will choose one (1) industry to write about. Possible industries to research could be tobacco, soda, alcohol, casinos, or candy companies, just to name a few.

Write a one and a half to two (1 ½ – 2) page paper in which you:

1.  Become an advocate for either the consumer or the industry. Prepare an argument explaining the major reasons why you support either the consumer or the industry.

2.  Explain the role capitalism plays in corporate decision-making.

3.  Discuss if you believe it is possible for a company to cater to both its best interest and that of the consumer conjointly or if one always has to prevail. Justify your response.

4.  Use at least two (2) quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

·Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

·Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

·Determine the considerations for and process of ethical business decision making to balance corporate and social responsibilities and address moral, economic, and legal concerns.

·Analyze selected business situations using the predominant ethical theories, such as utilitarian, Kantian, and virtue ethics to guide ethical business decision making.

·Use technology and information resources to research issues in business ethics.

·Write clearly and concisely about business ethics using proper writing mechanics.

Click here to view the grading rubric.

Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic / organization of the paper, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric.

Points: 175	Assignment 1: Not All Companies Are Viewed as Equal
Criteria	Unacceptable Below 60% F	Meets Minimum Expectations 60-69% D	Fair 70-79% C	Proficient 80-89% B	Exemplary 90-100% A
1. Become an advocate for either the consumer or the industry. Prepare an argument explaining the major reasons why you support either the consumer or the industry.  Weight: 35%	Did not submit or incompletelyprepared an argument explaining the major reasons why you support either the consumer or the industry.	Insufficientlyprepared an argument explaining the major reasons why you support either the consumer or the industry.	Partiallyprepared an argument explaining the major reasons why you support either the consumer or the industry.	Satisfactorilyprepared an argument explaining the major reasons why you support either the consumer or the industry.	Thoroughlyprepared an argument explaining the major reasons why you support either the consumer or the industry.
2. Explain the role capitalism plays in corporate decision-making. Weight 20%	Did not submit or incompletely explained the role capitalism plays in corporate decision-making.	Insufficiently explained the role capitalism plays in corporate decision-making.	Partially explained the role capitalism plays in corporate decision-making.	Satisfactorily explained the role capitalism plays in corporate decision-making.	Thoroughly explained the role capitalism plays in corporate decision-making..
3. Discuss if you believe it is possible for a company to cater to both its best interest and that of the consumer conjointly or if one always has to prevail. Justify your response. Weight 20%	Did not submit or incompletely discussed if you believe it is possible for a company to cater to both its best interest and that of the consumer conjointly or if one always has to prevail. Did not submit or incompletely justified your response.	Insufficiently discussed if you believe it is possible for a company to cater to both its best interest and that of the consumer conjointly or if one always has to prevail. Insufficiently justified your response.	Partially discussed if you believe it is possible for a company to cater to both its best interest and that of the consumer conjointly or if one always has to prevail. Partially justified your response.	Satisfactorily discussed if you believe it is possible for a company to cater to both its best interest and that of the consumer conjointly or if one always has to prevail. Satisfactorily justified your response.	Thoroughly discussed if you believe it is possible for a company to cater to both its best interest and that of the consumer conjointly or if one always has to prevail. Thoroughly justified your response.
4. 2 references Weight: 10%	No references provided	Does not meet the required number of references; all references poor quality choices.	Does not meet the required number of references; some references poor quality choices.	Meets number of required references; all references high quality choices.	Exceeds number of required references; all references high quality choices.
5. Clarity, writing mechanics, and formatting requirements Weight: 15%	More than 8 errors present	7-8 errors present	5-6 errors present	3-4 errors present	0-2 errors present