Question

Write a “bad news” memo to a group of employees in response to this scenario: You are the Human Resources Director at Natural Beauty Cosmetics, a manufacturer of multiple cosmetics lines sold across the globe. Your headquarters and manufacturing plant are in Syracuse, New York, and all told, the company employs 250 people. Many of your employees have degrees in chemistry and other product development fields. Over the past five years, your sales have declined by 6%, as your market has become more dominated by more inexpensive products from overseas. At best, your company projects sales to be flat over the next few years. Additionally, your company’s payments to provide health care for your employees have gone up by 18% since 2013. Until now, Natural Beauty Cosmetics has covered the entire cost of health care, but now your company has been forced to ask employees to pay 25% of their premiums. To explain these changes, your Assistant Director of HR, Marylou Masters will hold a meeting with affected employees at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, November 4 in Room 223 to discuss the new plan, answer any questions, and explain in detail which cost-cutting options, such as choosing a less expensive plan with higher deductibles, will be available. Asking employees to pay for their health care will have a number of benefits. It will help the company remain viable for the foreseeable future, and it will allow the company to keep everyone employed at the Syracuse headquarters. Everyone will still be able to keep his or her current level of medical coverage, and co-pays for any treatment will stay the same. Because this is a difficult decision, and you know that your most-talented employees may be tempted to look for work elsewhere, you are convinced that a face-to-face meeting will ensure that your employees choose the best option for themselves and their families. To make sure that everyone is aware of the meeting, your company will send this memo internally to all of the employees, informing them of the increase in premium payments as well as the meeting.

Answer 1

To: All Employees

From: HR Director

Date: September,18, 2019

Subject: Change in the Premium payments of healthcare; Meeting regarding the same

National beauty Cosmetics has always been an employee friendly company with many employee's health care-benefit-packages. The company is proud of its highly qualified workforce who is working as a team to achieve its goal.

Last five years have not been very good for the company's sales and we are expecting this downturn to remain same for next few years also. To remain cost effective and to run its operations successfully, company has to decrease the premium cover of health care by 25% which will now be paid by the employees. This change will bring down the health care cost of the company which will eventually benefit the employees in terms of job safety.

To address the issues related to this policy change, our assistant director of HR, Marlyu masters wants to meet all of you at 4 November, Wednesday at 4 PM in Room no 223. He will explain the possible choices and their results to everyone.

While, increased premium is unavoidable at this level of sales, I do assure that the company will do its best to protect its employees from any adverse scenario. I appreciate the hard work of all of you and looking forward to work with all of you for all the coming years.