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Policy Brief: Design Engineering Services, Essay Example

Pages: 5

Words: 1270

Essay

Executive Summary

The clarity of the policy document entitled “Employee’s Handbook” of Design Engineering Services (2011) is not satisfactory, and there are several areas that need to be revised in order to align the document with current regulations and employment law. I believe that clarifying terms and conditions of the employment would promote effective communication with new and existing companies. We selected the “Employee’s Handbook” because it outlines the basic rights and obligations of employees in line with the contract between the individual employee and the organization; therefore, it has an important role of communicating responsibilities and entitlements of employees. Some of the restrictive elements of the document can be viewed as giving the employer too much freedom of decision, while others might be considered discriminative. The issues will be stated and analyzed below.

Statement of Issues
One of the major problems of the document is that it focuses on the employees’ obligations and does not cover all their rights; therefore, it is not attractive for new prospective workers. Further, when applying restrictions and explaining policies, some of the text of the document is unclear and uses generalized terms. There are several examples for this issue in the “employment at will” section and disciplinary policies. These sections will be reviewed below in order to provide suggestions for the management.
Employment at Will: The policy document (2011) states that “employees are free to resign at any time, with or without cause, and Design Engineering Services, PC may terminate the employment relationship at any time, with or without cause or advance notice” (p. 7). In this case, it seems like the company does not have to provide any reason for terminating the employment, which is a common procedure, especially in case of seasonal work or unstable market conditions. However, the phrase “with or without cause or advance notice” creates uncertainty and certainly needs to be revised. The clarification of when the company is able to terminate the employment without notice should be added, or employees may feel uncertain about their prospects and their future within the company.
Disciplinary: Further, the “Employee Handbook” (2011) states, “In most cases, Design Engineering Services, PC will use progressive disciplinary actions before dismissing an employee. However, certain actions warrant immediate termination” (p. 34). It is important that this part of the “Employee Handbook” refers to a certain policy or explains the nature of these actions in detail, or, again, employees may feel a sense of uncertainty.
Conflict of Interest: The company allows employment outside of the company; however, the Employee’s Handbook does not adequately protect intellectual property rights, which would be relevant to the engineering industry. While the policy states that “Design Engineering Services, PC’s office space, equipment, and materials are not to be used for purposes related to outside employment” (p. 12), it does not cover conflicts of interest and intellectual property rights within the confidentiality agreement related to outside employment. This means that the company is not protecting its rights to intellectual property and can suffer damages through unique technologies developed by the firm shared by employees.
Smoking: Smoking policies need to be revised because they could be considered discriminatory. There are no designated smoking areas highlighted, and this can be viewed as a form of discrimination against smokers. While the policy states that “employees are encouraged to quit smoking. Design Engineering Services, PC will pay the cost of patches, gum, prescription medications, or other approved methods to assist in this endeavor” (p. 31), it does not consider that not all employees would be successful in the program. The success rate of quitting smoking, according to statistics is less than 50 percent.

Disciplinary Actions: There is a lack of clarity within the “Disciplinary Actions” part of the policy as well. The company states that “disciplinary action may involve any of the following: verbal warning, written warning, suspension with or without pay, and termination of employment, depending on the severity of the problem and the frequency of occurrence” (p. 34). Since the term “any of the following” is used, the policy lacks clarity and clear definition of causes for different disciplinary actions. A step-by-step intervention framework that is valid for all cases needs to be created to protect the rights of employees and prevent unlawful dismissal cases filed against the company.

Background

Design Engineering Services PC is a privately held firm. It operates at one single location, in Newport, VA and has an estimated annual revenue of 2.54 million dollars. It has less than 50 full time employees. It is a profitable private firm, currently looking at expanding its team, according to Internet sources. Therefore, in order to attract engineering talent, the employee handbook and employment policies need to be revised in order to clarify some of the above issues highlighted.

Pre-existing Policies

The pre-existing policy of the company needs revision to focus more on employee rights and clarify employment terms, disciplinary action procedures, and conflict of interest. Indeed, the policy does not provide enough protection for employees, but it also fails to protect the interest of the company. Without clarifying the areas within the “Employee’s Handbook,” the company could potentially face lawsuits from employees based on inadequate information provided for them.

Policy Options

One of the options related to making the policy more effective is to clarify only the above noted sections and add a separate policy that relates to intellectual property rights and conflict of interest. However, a more complex approach would be to create sub-sections within the document that separate employee rights from employee obligations, to detail disciplinary actions, and to outline ethical behavioral guidelines (including harassment and anti-discrimination policies). The second approach would make the document not only clearer but also easier to navigate for employees.

Sources of Recommendation

In order to clarify some employment terms and conditions, the company should seek recommendations from the American Association of Engineering Societies. As Design Engineering PC is a relatively small, centralized firm, it is likely that it does not have a separate human resources department. For the implementation of intellectual property policies in the document, the management should review the guidelines created by Laney (n.d.) to create an effective regulation within the organization. Further, in order to cover the discrepancies highlighted above, the company should review the recommendations of HG Legal Resources, detailing “At Will” employment clarity, workers’ compensation dependents, and other issues. Further, the company should negotiate the new document with The Virginia Department of Labor and Industry in order to ensure one hundred percent clarity and compliance with the law.

Final Recommendations

As the above review has shown, there are several points where the “Employee’s Handbook” needs to be revised and clarified. In order to clarify some of the aspects of employment, it will be necessary to refer to statewide legislation-related employee rights and obligations, as well as trade organization recommendations. The disciplinary procedure needs to align with anti-discrimination laws, outline procedures and steps taken to prevent disciplinary actions, as well as support provided for employees. Further, smoking-related, potentially discriminative sections of the “Employee Handbook” need to be revised to be fully compliant with related policies, such as the Virginia Human Rights Act
Virginia Code Chapter 39. It is also recommended that support will be offered for employees and intervention through one-on-one support.

References

Design Engineering Services. (2011) Employee’s handbook. Retrieved from: <http://www.des- pc.com/Forms/handbook_Rev_11_30_2011.pdf>

Laney, O. (n.d.) Intellectual property and the employee engineer. IEEE USA Professional Guideline Series. Retrieved from: <https://www.ieeeusa.org/members/IPandtheengineer.pdf>

Virginia Human Rights Act. Virginia Code Chapter 39. Retrieved from: <http://chr.vipnet.org/act.html>International Committee of Women Leaders for Mental Health. Online. http://www.cartercenter.org/health/mental_health/intl_women.html

O’Hagan, M. (2009) Leadership for Empowerment and Equality: A proposed model for mental health user/survivor leadership. International Journal of Leadership in Public Services Volume 5, Issue 4, December 2009.

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