PRACTICE$$Improving a Memo Requesting Additional Personnel

Objective

The CVFMC and SSSAP principles can be applied to any message, not just to presentations. This exercise is intended to give you practice at applying those principles to a memo requesting authority to hire an additional employee.

Directions

Do the following:

Read the following document.

TO: VP of Human Resources DATE:

FROM: M$.$ Petuous, Senior Mktg$.$ Admin. RE: Marketing Staffing Issues

The marketing department is struggling$$we need to hire another person, if not two, very quickly. We currently have $12$ full$$time staff, but one person is on administrative duty with the strategic planning group, and three or four of our people just don$$t have the analytical and technological skills to do what needs to be done. I know that money is tight, but even if we can$$t fire the underachievers to free up some resources, we still need to hire someone who is willing to pick up their share of the work.

Another issue is related to the new performance evaluation system the board said we had to begin using by next quarter. We have to finalize the categories we will use to evaluate all employees, and then train every manager in the department on how to conduct the interviews and complete the forms. I get a knot in my stomach just thinking about how tough it will be to roll out this new system. Although we heard at the division meeting last week that performance assessment is important to the company, no one has time to work on developing the categories that are expected$$and which will protect us from getting sued by a frustrated employee. Hiring an additional person or two would help us address that problem. It is no secret that the president is very enthusiastic about the new performance evaluation system, so it is not hard to imagine that failing to get this process on track in the next couple of months will result in a number of heads rolling, including mine and perhaps yours.

After $10$ years of service I am committed to this company, but I can$$t see how we can retain new employees who have less invested here if we don$$t do something to take the pressure off them. Expectations continue to climb, but there are no increases in pay or other benefits to make people feel that it$$s worth it$,$ particularly when you$$ve got people who$$ve been here for $30$ years refusing to learn the new technology and insisting on doing things $$the way we$$ve always done it$.$

The Board of Directors meeting is coming up in a few weeks, and I know that they like to micromanage things and may want to review any new authorizations to hire, so I hope that you agree that the marketing department should be given authorization to hire and that you are willing to present that case to the board. It is embarrassing when the chair of the board$$s son is working as an intern in a department that is so understaffed that instead of giving him the typical copying and gophering jobs intended for interns but being done by the old$$timers$,$ he is getting stuck developing new marketing campaigns.

I$$m sorry for dumping a load of problems on you, but someone has to speak up for our department and not just hope things will change.

Redesign the document, or one suggested by your instructor, using the CVFMC and SSSAP principles. Use your editing and layout skills to make this document more user$$friendly$.$ Make any changes in wording, organization, tone, layout, or design that you think would make the document more effective.

Review the discussion questions below. Prepare answers to share with others.

Discussion Questions

Discuss the following questions in groups or as a class:

What are the main flaws in the document as it was originally written? What do you think would happen if the vice president of human resources received the original memo? What would you do if you were in that position?

Do you think that anyone would ever write a memo like this one? Why or why not?

How does the tone of the memo affect your perception of the credibility of the writer?