Scenario
Pretend that you are a newly graduated student who has been hired by a small, startup company to serve as a Human Resource Consultant. The company has contacted you due to concerns regarding the desire, expressed by over 70% of the workforce, to unionize. While the HR Department, in the startup organization, has attempted to listen to the concerns of employees, employees still feel like HR is out of touch and, unfortunately, is not willing to implement some of the needed changes to enhance the workplace.
The HR Department recognizes that they are not the only individuals who are responsible for preventing unionization, but they are at a loss about how to move forward. Therefore, they have asked you to create a 3-page proposalwhich will be emailed to all leaders/managers, addressing the following topics:
- Provide a list of five to seven common reasons cited for a desire to unionize.
- Detail the costs associated with unionization, specifically providing information about average costs associated with salary and benefit increases.
- Identify three ways that leadership can acknowledge and address employee concerns (such as workplace conditions, inadequate pay, lacking benefits, poor management-worker relations, etc.), thereby preventing the likelihood of unionization.
- Provide two to three simple, cost-effective suggestions, based upon past practices used by organizations (which have been published and are cited in your document), that leaders can implement to reduce the likelihood of unionization that do not result in huge costs.