HR499 Unit 3 Issue Identification Memo Example

Not Only a No-Show Problem: A Unit 3 Issue Identification Memo for a Craft Chain

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

HR499: Bachelor's Capstone in Human Resource Management

Unit 3 Issue Identification Memo

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

Hobbyline Crafts, its directors and every figure are composite and illustrative, carried from the Unit 2 situation analysis; the statute and studies cited are real.

Header

To: Vice President, Human Resources

From: HR Business Partner, Stores

Date: March 9

Subject: The no-show complaint and the four issues beneath it

The Presenting Complaint

The store directors' memo of February 20 wants absences handled more strictly, on a twelve-point scale ending in dismissal, along with a $250 bonus for each new hire to refill the ranks faster. Their complaint is accurate in its core. The timekeeping system recorded 1,046 unexcused absences last year, up from 870 the year before, and every one leaves a register, a cutting counter or a class short. The directors are describing a real cost they absorb every week. When an associate misses a Saturday morning, the manager either calls in someone on a day off, works the counter alone or cancels a class and refunds the students, and the directors are right that each of those choices costs money and goodwill.

The question for this memo is whether no-shows are the problem or a symptom. Each candidate issue below was tested the same way: would fixing it reduce no-shows? Only issues that pass that test are listed.

The Four Underlying Issues

1. Short notice. Schedules are posted Thursday for a week that begins Sunday, three days ahead. An associate who has a class, a second job or a child care change learns of the conflict after the schedule is set. Evidence: the posting sequence documented in Unit 2. Functions touched: store operations and the support center, whose forecast arrives Wednesday. Passes the test: earlier posting gives associates time to trade shifts through the approved process instead of simply not appearing.

2. Rest between shifts. In the four-week sample, 19 percent of part-time associates had at least one close-then-open pair with less than ten hours of rest. Evidence: timekeeping sample. Functions touched: store operations. Passes the test: an associate who closed at 10 p.m. and is due back at 7 a.m. is the associate most likely to miss the morning.

3. The hours cap. Because part-timers must average under 29 hours, reliable associates cannot absorb open shifts, so the shifts go to newer associates with less attachment to the store. Evidence: the corporate hours rule and managers' interviews. Functions touched: benefits and store operations. Passes the test: shifts held by proven associates are less likely to go unfilled.

4. The legal deadline. The city ordinance reaches nine stores in seven months. Evidence: case file. Functions touched: legal, payroll and the nine stores. Passes the test indirectly: the ordinance's notice and rest provisions address issues 1 and 2 at the covered stores whether or not Hobbyline acts first.

How the Issues Connect

The cap and short notice compound each other. Holding part-timers under 29 hours means more part-time heads per store, and more heads means more availability to reconcile each week, which is part of why schedules wait until Thursday. Lambert (2008) traced how employers hand the cost of unpredictable demand to the people paid by the hour; at Hobbyline that hand-off shows up in the no-show count.

Hobbyline's no-shows are what three days' notice, back-to-back shifts and a 29-hour ceiling look like from the store floor.

Urgency

The issues are ranked by date and exposure, not by size. The ordinance comes first, even though it reaches only nine of 34 stores, because its effective date cannot move and noncompliance carries premiums and penalties. Short notice and rest come next, because the ordinance will force changes to both at the covered stores and the chain will then run two scheduling systems unless it decides otherwise. The cap comes last in urgency but first in cost, and it belongs to the alternatives comparison in Unit 4.

The Attendance Policy

The directors' proposal would treat the symptom and leave all four issues untouched. It could also create exposure the directors have not considered. A no-fault point system that counts absences protected by the Family and Medical Leave Act would interfere with those rights, which federal law prohibits (Family and Medical Leave Act, 2018), and the case file's ordinance includes its own paid sick leave provision for covered stores. Any revised attendance policy would need to exclude protected absences before it could be adopted. Schneider and Harknett (2019) also found that schedule instability is closely tied to sleep problems and distress among hourly workers, which suggests a stricter policy alone would raise terminations without changing the conditions behind the absences.

Recommendation for the Next Step

Carry the four issues, not the attendance policy, into the alternatives comparison, and include the directors' proposal as one of the options so it is judged on the same criteria as the rest.

References

Family and Medical Leave Act, 29 U.S.C. § 2615 (2018).

Lambert, S. J. (2008). Passing the buck: Labor flexibility practices that transfer risk onto hourly workers. Human Relations, 61(9), 1203-1227. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726708094910

Schneider, D., & Harknett, K. (2019). Consequences of routine work-schedule instability for worker health and well-being. American Sociological Review, 84(1), 82-114. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122418823184