Personally Yours is a personal assistant firm founded in 1997. After years of struggling to balance...

 

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Personally Yours is a personal assistant firm founded in 1997. After years of struggling to balance work and family, Sarah Winters established this company to address some of the challenges working professionals face in their busy lives. Personally Yours provides a wide range of services, including residential housekeeping, grocery shopping, household organization, home companion, adult day care and even handyperson services. Sarah Winters started the company in her hometown of Tampa, Florida, with the help of a small business grant, personal savings, and three employees (her mother, sister and cousin). After several rocky years, Winters now has 15 branch offices located throughout central Florida and Miami. Each branch employs a branch manager who is responsible for administrative duties and approximately 15 employees who work either full time or part time. The rest of her 250 employees are located at the Tampa headquarters. To keep operations lean, Winters has kept central administrative staff to a minimum; she has outsourced services such as payroll, accounts payable and legal services. But as the company grows, Winters has been re- thinking this strategy. ROLE OF GARY GARCIA, HR SUPERVISOR Gary Garcia has been the HR supervisor at Personally Yours for the past 9 years. His immediate supervisor is HR Manager Alyssa Williams. After attending a meeting at the local SHRM chapter, Garcia came away with some great ideas about how their organization could improve HR operations. Overall, things are running pretty efficiently; but Personally Yours is a quickly growing, medium-sized organization, and in many ways it still operates like the small, family-owned and operated business it was just a few years ago. For example, hiring processes are now standardized at headquarters and at the branch offices. Each job applicant completes a standardized application, submits a rsum (if appropriate for the position), does pre-employment testing, and undergoes a screening that includes contacting references and former employers and a criminal background check. However, this was not the case when the company first started, and many longtime employees have never gone through a background check. This is extremely troubling to Garcia, in light of the fact that their employees work in clients' homes and have contact with vulnerable individuals (e.g., children, elderly, infirm). Assignment This is a two-part activity. Part 1: You and the HR manager, along with suggestions from the branch manager, must determine if background checks on all employees are necessary. If so, develop a protocol to conduct them (e.g., which employees; how thorough). Time allotted: 15 minutes. Part 2: It has come to Branch Manager Violet Jennings's attention that one of her longtime employees, Jackson Tibbits, a handyman, is on the Florida Sexual Offender list. After doing more research, they learn that 17 years ago, when Tibbits was 24, he was convicted of having unlawful sexual contact with a 15-year-old female. As a registered sexual offender, Tibbits cannot live within 1,000 yards of a school and must register with the state any time he moves. Also, he is prohibited by law from holding positions such as schoolteacher and health care professional. You, Williams, and Jennings must decide whether you should terminate Tibbits based on this newly discovered information. Personally Yours is a personal assistant firm founded in 1997. After years of struggling to balance work and family, Sarah Winters established this company to address some of the challenges working professionals face in their busy lives. Personally Yours provides a wide range of services, including residential housekeeping, grocery shopping, household organization, home companion, adult day care and even handyperson services. Sarah Winters started the company in her hometown of Tampa, Florida, with the help of a small business grant, personal savings, and three employees (her mother, sister and cousin). After several rocky years, Winters now has 15 branch offices located throughout central Florida and Miami. Each branch employs a branch manager who is responsible for administrative duties and approximately 15 employees who work either full time or part time. The rest of her 250 employees are located at the Tampa headquarters. To keep operations lean, Winters has kept central administrative staff to a minimum; she has outsourced services such as payroll, accounts payable and legal services. But as the company grows, Winters has been re- thinking this strategy. ROLE OF GARY GARCIA, HR SUPERVISOR Gary Garcia has been the HR supervisor at Personally Yours for the past 9 years. His immediate supervisor is HR Manager Alyssa Williams. After attending a meeting at the local SHRM chapter, Garcia came away with some great ideas about how their organization could improve HR operations. Overall, things are running pretty efficiently; but Personally Yours is a quickly growing, medium-sized organization, and in many ways it still operates like the small, family-owned and operated business it was just a few years ago. For example, hiring processes are now standardized at headquarters and at the branch offices. Each job applicant completes a standardized application, submits a rsum (if appropriate for the position), does pre-employment testing, and undergoes a screening that includes contacting references and former employers and a criminal background check. However, this was not the case when the company first started, and many longtime employees have never gone through a background check. This is extremely troubling to Garcia, in light of the fact that their employees work in clients' homes and have contact with vulnerable individuals (e.g., children, elderly, infirm). Assignment This is a two-part activity. Part 1: You and the HR manager, along with suggestions from the branch manager, must determine if background checks on all employees are necessary. If so, develop a protocol to conduct them (e.g., which employees; how thorough). Time allotted: 15 minutes. Part 2: It has come to Branch Manager Violet Jennings's attention that one of her longtime employees, Jackson Tibbits, a handyman, is on the Florida Sexual Offender list. After doing more research, they learn that 17 years ago, when Tibbits was 24, he was convicted of having unlawful sexual contact with a 15-year-old female. As a registered sexual offender, Tibbits cannot live within 1,000 yards of a school and must register with the state any time he moves. Also, he is prohibited by law from holding positions such as schoolteacher and health care professional. You, Williams, and Jennings must decide whether you should terminate Tibbits based on this newly discovered information.