You are preparing a memo of no more than 800 words for the CEO of your hospital to explain at least five of the potential HR issues involving Nurse Cusack, Nurse Minor, Nurse Albert, and the HR department.
You are preparing a memo of no more than 800 words for the CEO of your hospitalA Human Resource Case Study
The goal of this assignment is to review a complex fact pattern and identify where practice failures of staff members, as well as intentional actions of staff members, may be violations of HR policies and procedures. This assignment also requires a recommendation of action to take based upon staff activity. As a health care administrator these are common issues that must be addressed.
Read the following case information to prepare you for this assignment: Human Resource Case Study.
You are preparing a memo of no more than 800 words for the CEO of your hospital to explain at least five of the potential HR issues involving Nurse Cusack, Nurse Minor, Nurse Albert, and the HR department. Your memo may be in a list format, identifying the issues and then providing a recommendation on any action to take against the employment of either Nurse Cusack or Nurse Minor.
In your memo, do not address any potential tort or criminal actions. The CEO at this point in the process is only interested in HR issues.
Learning Materials
Textbook Reading
Read the following in your Pozgar text: chapters located in materials
1. Chapter 19, Labor Relations
2. Chapter 20, Employment at Will, Rights and Responsibilities
Despite the title, Chapter 19 of Pozgar does not focus exclusively on unions in health care organizations. Many of the laws that regulate dealings with employees are explained. Chapter 20 addresses the balancing of organizational needs and employee rights. Issues of fairness, hiring, discipline, and termination are discussed. Also addressed are the basic concepts in the employment relationship. Pozgar notes that there must be a balancing of employees’ rights with their responsibilities to the organization.
Text Lecture
Employee Handbooks
Most workplaces have written guidance for employer-employee interactions. Employee handbooks are the documents that will be relied upon should the actions of the employers be called into question. Language in employee handbooks view as the laws by which we agree the workplace will be governed. Employers and employees agree to follow the rules when they enter into the employment relationship.
Infractions by employees are adjudicated based upon the rules and processes in handbooks. When investigating, taking disciplinary action or terminating employees, managers must think like an attorney who will represent the employee should any allegations of unfair or unjust dealings arise? This means asking yourself the questions that the employee’s attorney would ask of you. Some of those questions would be: To which rule are you referring when challenging the employee’s performance or behavior? How can you demonstrate that the employee was or should have been aware that this rule existed?
Is this a reasonable rule or policy?
How do you know what you state you know about the employee and her actions? What investigation was conduct ed? Was the investigation timely and fairly conducted? What evidence do you have to prove your allegations? What notice was the employee given that an infraction had occurred? Is the notice document ed? What opportunity did the employee have to rebut the allegations? Were all the employees who committed the same or similar infractions treated in the same manner? How was the penalty determine d? Is the penalty fair? Does the penalty fit the infraction? What right does the employee have to appeal the penalty?
One legal concept that most attorneys will have in the backs of their minds when addressing these circumstances is that of Just Cause. Some handbooks will use this term. Some will avoid it. Regardless of the presence of the actual words, most attorneys will be using the basic tenets of Just Cause in assessing an action taken against an employee. Just Cause is thought of as a reasonable cause based on deliberations carried out in good faith, applied fairly, with an opportunity for the employee to have notice of his wrongdoing and the occasion to address any allegations.
Legal Regulation of Employer-Employee Relationships
The second half of the twentieth century saw a fundamental shift in the legislation regulating the relationship between employers and employees. Most of the legislation that you think of governing this relationship was promulgate d after the mid-1960s. Additional responsibilities and obligations were place d on employers to provide discrimination-free workplaces. The Federal Department of Labor and the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission were give n primary responsibility for enforcement of most of these laws.
Most of the laws relate to issues of discrimination in the hiring, promotion, disciplining, and termination of employees. You can use the questions previously mentioned when assessing disciplinary actions taken against employees that might also result in violations of the federal and state laws regarding discrimination.
Most actions relating to other employment practices can be successfully defended if all criteria for the assessment of candidates for a position and employees are based on Bona Fide Occupational Qualifications (BFOQ). These are criteria that can directly link to competent execution of the job’s responsibilities. Each candidate evaluation is base on these justifiable criteria. In fact, all job candidate and employee evaluation criteria should be based on BFOQs.
It is important also in all dealings with employees to remember that you can only assess their work lives.
Their private lives should be off limits. When judging an employee’s actions one should remain firmly focused on a discussion of the work rules, the employee’s actions, and the conclusions that result from a comparison of the two. Finally, to address the personal reasons behind the actions invites claims of discrimination and violations of state and federal laws.
