Program Supports Business Strategygains Creating

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Program Supports Business Strategygains Creating

Introduction and Alignment

For many employees, the current state of the workplace is depleting,
dispiriting and stressful. “Doing more with less” often means demands
are exceeding capacity, draining people of the energy needed to fulfill
their potential. Technology links us 24/7 to a flood of information,
and Americans are spending more and more hours working with little
downtime. How do we, as HR professionals, change this picture? (Mark
Schmidt, as cited in Porath, 2016, p. iii.)

For this Dropbox assignment, you will review the Chapter 13—“Unions” in the textbook and read SHRM Foundation’s Effective Practice Guidelines Series Creating a More Human Workplace Where Employees and Business Thrive, and then write a business case.

Upon completion of this assignment, you should be able to:

  • Develop biblically-based strategies that promote sustainable
    organizational practices in the utilization of human, financial, and
    environmental resources.

Resources

Background Information

Considering unions . . .

If your business isn’t unionized now, it’s unlikely that it ever will
be. Still, workers do have the legal right to form unions and, despite
the odds, a union could be formed in your workplace. What’s more, even
non-union employees have the right to act together to improve working
terms and conditions. So you need a basic understanding of workers’
rights, as well as your own. (Steingold, 2015, p. 328)

Perhaps “the best way to avoid unionization is to take preventative
measures that make it difficult for unions to gain a foothold in your
workforce” (“How to prevent a union,” 2017, para. 3). The proposed
solution is to make the workplace more human (and more spiritual)—so
that employees and the business can both thrive.

The Business Case for a More Human Workplace:

Organizations reap many benefits from creating more human workplaces,
including better employee performance, improved safety and health, and
greater worker satisfaction and commitment. This finding is true across
industries and applies to blue- and white-collar employees and to small
and large organizations. Evidence shows that employees thrive in
caring workplaces. Thriving employees are not only satisfied and
productive, but are also actively engaged in shaping their own and the
organization’s future.

A thriving workforce means greater engagement of each employee’s
physical, cognitive and emotional energies. Engagement then spurs
employee’s feelings of vitality and progress. People feel good when
they are “plugged in” and connected in the workplace. Research has
demonstrated that a human, caring culture ultimately leads to improved
customer service, better client health outcomes and all-around
satisfaction. (Porath, 2016, p. 1)

For this Dropbox assignment, you will be writing a business case to
make a proposal for how the selected organization (your current
organization or one with which you are familiar). You might draft
policies and procedures, initiate programs and/or provide services to
help the employees and the business to thrive—based on the principles
found in the SHRM report “Creating a More Human Workplace Where
Employees and Business Thrive” and the biblical principles described in
the supplemental reading in the devotional.

A business case serves the purpose of but is not limited to the following:

  • Shows how the program supports business strategy
  • Gains senior management support (and funding)
  • Provides clear outline of options
  • Makes clear recommendations
  • Describes how to measure success and benefits

In essence it [a Business Case] is a communication tool used to
generate support for and acceptance of your project but it should not
stop there. Your business case, as the last bullet shows, should also
define success and the benefits gained as well as how these will be
measured. This means that once the project is approved and underway, you
should refer back to the business case for reference as a tool to
ensure your project is and remains aligned to meet the goals and deliver
the success and benefits presented. (Larrivee, 2012, para. 1-2)

Human resource professionals are called upon to build a case for many
HR initiatives—whether for a revised healthcare plan, a move of the
company’s 401k to a new third party administrator, a new wellness
program, or any number of other opportunities to add value to the
organization. This project will enable you to build skills of business
case development, while also working on a very worthwhile
project—helping the organization become more human.

The business case includes six (6) main areas: executive summary,
introduction, general project information, high-level business impact,
alternatives and analysis, and preferred solution. The reason for
including four (4) alternatives and then selecting one of them as the
preferred solution is that it shows that you have given good thought to
the proposed project and determined with good logic and critical
thinking that you have selected the best option. Oftentimes, by
providing more than one possible solution, most questions, like
questions related to costs and the big WHY? question: “Why this solution
over others?” that would have been asked by management will already be
answered in your analysis and recommendations. What is sought when
considering the four alternatives is to provide a range of options with
consideration of cost, benefits, time to implement, resources required,
and so forth.

How to prevent a union. (2017, June 10). Retrieved June 15, 2017, from http://www.gaebler.com/How-to-Prevent-Unionization…

Larrivee,
B. (2012, December 6). Business case: The purpose and benefit.
Retrieved from
http://community.aiim.org/blogs/bob-larrivee/2012/…

Porath, C. (2016). Creating a more human workplace where employees and business thrive. [SHRM
Foundation’s Effective Practice Guidelines Series]. Retrieved from
https://www.shrm.org/hrtoday/trends-and-forecastin…

Steingold, F. S. (2015, May). The employer’s legal handbook (12th ed.). Berkeley CA: NOLO.

Instructions

  1. Review Chapter 13—“Unions” in The Employer’s Legal Handbook.
  2. Review the devotional reading What Principles Should Distinguish a Christian Business?
  3. Download and read SHRM Foundation’s Effective Practice Guidelines Series Creating a More Human Workplace Where Employees and Business Thrive.
  4. Download and review the Business Case Template.
  5. Write a business case using the Business Case Template framework and the instructions as a guide.
    1. Be sure to include four (4) alternative options for how best to
      implement ways to make the workplace more conducive to human thriving
      based on the situational context of the organization.
    2. Select one of the four alternatives as the preferred solution. The
      proposed solution is to be supported by at least two (2) references from
      scholarly or professional journals.
    3. Include as part of your case study an integration of concepts
      learned in the devotional reading. (The location of the integration
      within your business case is up to you.)
    4. For successful completion of the project, first write the business
      case, then complete the executive summary, and lastly, update the table
      of contents for correct page numbers.
    5. Write the business case paragraphs in single space, with double spacing between paragraphs.
    6. The body of the business case should be 4-5 pages in length, not
      including title page, table of contents, references page, or pages
      located in the appendices.
    7. The references and citations in the body of the paper are to be in APA format.
  6. Answers must be substantive with use of the language of business and
    employment law. See the Assignment Criteria grading rubric for
    assignment expectations.
  7. Before submitting this assignment, thoroughly edit the written paper:
    1. Run a Word spelling and grammar check and make corrections as needed.
    2. Run a Grammarly report and make appropriate changes. Click on Grammarly to learn more about the software. Click on the following link for Grammarly sign-up to set up an account.
    3. Check for proper APA 6e Guide formatting, citations, and references.
    4. Checkmark the instructions for this assignment and checkmark the rubric to be sure your paper has fulfilled all requirements.