Copyright ©2001. All Rights Reserved. Copyright ©2001. All Rights Reserved. Copyright ©2001. All Rights Reserved. Copyright ©2001. All Rights Reserved. Copyright ©2001. All Rights Reserved. Copyright ©2001. All Rights Reserved. Copyright ©2001. All Rights Reserved. Copyright ©2001. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 1985 Harvard Business Publishing. All Rights Reserved. Additional restrictions may apply including the use of this content as assigned course material. Please consult your institution's librarian about any restrictions that might apply under the license with your institution. For more information and teaching resources from Harvard Business Publishing including Harvard Business School Cases, eLearning products, and business simulations please visit hbsp.harvard.edu. OL 600 Milestone Two Guidelines and Rubric Performance Management: Employee and Labor Relations Overview: For this milestone, due in Module Five, you will analyze HR strategic initiatives of employee and labor relations that positively impact organizational effectiveness. The three critical element focus on employee discipline, performance management, and employee and labor relations. Prompt: First, read Chapters 8 and 14 in your text, the Harvard Business Review article Discipline Without Punishment – At Last, and the Grievance Procedures: What are the Steps Typically Found in a Grievance Procedure? SHRM article. Refer to the chapter readings and module resources to support your responses to each of the three critical elements below. Carefully read and address each critical element as written, using detailed and informative analysis that conveys critical thinking. The three critical element are aligned to the organization technical competency within the HR knowledge domain. Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed: • Employee Discipline: Analyze punitive and nonpunitive disciplinary approaches, and explain their impacts on employee relations. • Performance Management: Determine the elements of an effective performance management system, and explain how well the employer’s system meets organizational needs. • Employee and Labor Relations: Determine the differences between union grievance procedures and nonunion complaint processes, and describe improvements that could be made to a nonunion complaint process. Be sure to incorporate instructor feedback on this milestone into your final submission. Rubric Guidelines for Submission: This milestone must be submitted as a 3- to 4-page Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, and one- inch margins. Use the latest edition of the APA manual for formatting and citations. Note that the grading rubric for this milestone submission is not identical to that of the final project. The Final Project Rubric will include an additional “Exemplary” category that provides guidance as to how you can go above and beyond “Profici.

1. Copyright ©2001. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright ©2001. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright ©2001. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright ©2001. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright ©2001. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright ©2001. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright ©2001. All Rights Reserved.
Copyright ©2001. All Rights Reserved.

2. Copyright 1985 Harvard Business Publishing. All Rights
Reserved. Additional restrictions
may apply including the use of this content as assigned course
material. Please consult your
institution's librarian about any restrictions that might apply
under the license with your
institution. For more information and teaching resources from
Harvard Business Publishing
including Harvard Business School Cases, eLearning products,
and business simulations
please visit hbsp.harvard.edu.
OL 600 Milestone Two Guidelines and Rubric
Performance Management: Employee and Labor Relations
Overview: For this milestone, due in Module Five, you will
analyze HR strategic initiatives of employee and labor relations
that positively impact organizational
effectiveness. The three critical element focus on employee
discipline, performance management, and employee and labor
relations.
Prompt: First, read Chapters 8 and 14 in your text, the Harvard
Business Review article Discipline Without Punishment – At
Last, and the Grievance Procedures:
What are the Steps Typically Found in a Grievance Procedure?
SHRM article.
Refer to the chapter readings and module resources to support
your responses to each of the three critical elements below.
Carefully read and address each

3. critical element as written, using detailed and informative
analysis that conveys critical thinking. The three critical
element are aligned to the organization
technical competency within the HR knowledge domain.
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
• Employee Discipline: Analyze punitive and nonpunitive
disciplinary approaches, and explain their impacts on employee
relations.
• Performance Management: Determine the elements of an
effective performance management system, and explain how
well the employer’s system
meets organizational needs.
• Employee and Labor Relations: Determine the differences
between union grievance procedures and nonunion complaint
processes, and describe
improvements that could be made to a nonunion complaint
process.
Be sure to incorporate instructor feedback on this milestone into
your final submission.
Rubric
Guidelines for Submission: This milestone must be submitted as
a 3- to 4-page Word document with double spacing, 12-point
Times New Roman font, and one-
inch margins. Use the latest edition of the APA manual for
formatting and citations.
Note that the grading rubric for this milestone submission is not

4. identical to that of the final project. The Final Project Rubric
will include an additional
“Exemplary” category that provides guidance as to how you can
go above and beyond “Proficient” in your final submission.
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Critical Elements Proficient (100%) Needs Improvement (70%)
Not Evident (0%) Value
Employee Discipline Analyzes punitive and nonpunitive
disciplinary approaches and explains
their impacts on employee relations,
using specific examples
Analyzes punitive and nonpunitive
disciplinary approaches and explains
their impacts on employee relations,
using specific examples, but
explanation is cursory or contains
inaccuracies, or examples are
inappropriate
Does not analyze punitive and

5. nonpunitive disciplinary approaches
30
Performance Management Determines the elements of an
effective performance management
system and explains how well the
employer’s system meets
organizational needs, using specific
examples
Determines the elements of an
effective performance management
system and explains how well the
employer’s system meets
organizational needs, using specific
examples, but explanation is cursory
or contains inaccuracies, or examples
are inappropriate
Does not determine the elements of
an effective performance
management system
30
Employee and Labor
Relations
Determines the differences between
union grievance procedures and
nonunion complaint processes and
describes improvements that could
be made to a nonunion complaint
process, using specific examples

6. Determines the differences between
union grievance procedures and
nonunion complaint processes and
describes improvements that could
be made to a nonunion complaint
process, using specific examples, but
description is cursory or contains
inaccuracies, or examples are
inappropriate
Does not determine the differences
between union grievance procedures
and nonunion complaint processes
30
Articulation of Response Submission has no major errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, or organization
Submission has major errors related
to citations, grammar, spelling,
syntax, or organization that
negatively impact readability and
articulation of main ideas
Submission has critical errors related
to citations, grammar, spelling,
syntax, or organization that prevent
understanding of ideas
10
Total 100%

7. What are the steps typi-
cally foxind in a grievance
procedure?
A grievance is generally deñned as
a claim by an employee that he or
she is adversely impacted by the
misinterpretation or misapplication of a
written company policy or a collectively
bargained agreement. To address griev-
ances, employers typically implement a
grievance procedure.
A grievance procedure is a means of
internal dispute resolution by which an
employee may have his or her grievance
addressed. An effective grievance proce-
dure can help employees resolve issues
of concern and may help employers cor-
rect problems before they become more
serious or result in litigation.
Most collective bargaining agree-
ments include procedures for filing and
resolving grievances. Within a union
environment, the grievance processes
will typically involve the employee,
union representatives and members of
the employer's management team.
Grievance processes may differ

8. somewhat from employer to employer
and under collective bargaining agree-
ments. However, most will have certain
general processes in common.
Grievances are typically brought to
the employee's immediate supervisor.
This initial step may represent either
an informal process or the beginning
of the formal process. Generally, there
will be a requirement that the grievance
be submitted in writing using a griev-
ance form. Usually, the supervisor and
the union representative will review
the grievance to determine whether it is
valid. Also, most grievance procedures
will require that the grievance be sub-
mitted within a specified time following
the event or incident.
Three possible outcomes may occur
at this stage:
• The supervisor and union represen-
tative determine that no valid griev-
ance exists.
• The grievance is resolved.
• The grievance is not resolved to the
employee's satisfaction, and it will
move forward to the next step.
The next step typically involves the
next supervisor in the company hierar-

9. chy. In most union environments, the em-
ployee will be represented by the union
and is not present in the review process.
If the grievance still is unresolved, it
will be reviewed at a higher level of man-
agement and potentially by a higher-
level union representative. Ultimately,
the grievance may reach the highest lev-
els as set forth by the contract.
When agreement still can't be
reached, many procedures include a
provision for an outside arbitrator to re-
solve the issue. Senior leaders from the
union and the company are typically
involved in the arbitration. Union con-
tracts may include mediation, nonbind-
ing arbitration, binding arbitration or a
combination of the three. In mediation
and nonbinding arbitration, failure to
resolve the issue could lead to litigation.
—Edward Yost
What should we consider
when amending company
policies?
Policies set behavioral expectations
and reflect an employer's stan-
dards relative to employee activi-
ties and employment-related matters. As
companies expand and laws and regula-
tions change, so must policies.

10. Employers often question how to
make changes to their policies. Must
employees be given advance notice?
What is the best way to communicate
changes? Must the company obtain em-
ployees' signatures acknowledging a
change?
Consider the steps below when revis-
ing a policy:
• Ensure that the actual policy or the
handbook has a disclaimer that the
employer may change or modify the
policy at any time. This reduces the risk
of policies being seen as a binding con-
tract. If there is no policy modification
disclaimer, consult with legal counsel to
ensure that changes can be enforced.
• Obtain buy-in. Some employers will
develop a committee of employees and
other stakeholders to review the policy
and make recommendations for revision.
• Determine if state or federal laws
will impact the proposed policy change.
For example, some states have provi-
sions regulating the payment for unused
vacation time or paid time off when an
individual's employment is terminated.
• Communicate the new information
to employees as soon as the revised pol-
icy has been approved by company lead-
ership and legal counsel. While advance
notice of most policy changes is not
required, it is a good HR practice. Con-

11. sider the impact on morale as well as the
impact on employees' finances, benefits,
work/life balance and job expectations
when determining how much advance
notice to give and how to communicate
the changes. For example, changes to
a vacation policy may call for several
months of notice to allow employees
time to adjust their vacation sched-
ules. Some states require that pay day
changes be accompanied by an expla-
nation of the impact on take-home pay
and advance notice of at least one to two
pay periods to allow employees to adjust
for any personal financial impact. But a
change to hiring practices may not call
for any notice prior to implementation if
it has no impact on current employees.
• Obtain acknowledgments that
employees have received information
regarding significant or important pol-
icy revisions. This can be accomplished
by any method that works for your orga-
nization, including a written signature,
e-mail verification or some other form
of electronic signature. The wording
of the acknowledgment can demon-
strate that the employee has received
the updated policy and understands
the information. Again, this step is not
required, but it is a good HR practice.
Following the steps above will help
employers change their policies effec-
tively and ensure that employees under-

12. stand and comply with the changes.
—Yvette Lee
ShariLau, GPHR, SPHR-CA, Edward Yost,
SPHR, and Yvette Lee, GPHR, PHR-CA, are
HR knowledge advisors in SHRM's HR Knowl-
edge Center.
May 2012 • HR Magazine 21
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