Purpose of This Assignment
To increase awareness of and critically engage with issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in professional situations and workplace environments in the United States, including Equal Employment Opportunity policies and current industry best practices
To practice reading and synthesizing information from various sources by presenting it as evidence to support your claims (recommendations)
To present a well constructed and supported argument appropriate for the audience and purpose in two different genres
To learn and practice conventions of writing professional memos and emails
To practice constructing effective sentences (readability)
To practice revising for concision and clarity
Scenario
You are a member of the leadership team of Bee Co., a medium-sized, growing healthcare technology company based in Columbus, OH. The company has experienced success and significant growth over the past 5 yearsfrom six people on the founding team to 50+ employees today, with plans for an additional 40 60% growth in the workforce over the next two years.
As the company has grown, the leadership has been concerned with ensuring their hiring practices allowed them to recruit a diverse set of employees. They proactively implemented best practices in hiring to ensure non-discrimination in hiring and foster diverse applicant pools (working with a recruiter, blind resume reviews, networking with OSU and other community organizations, etc.)
To build on those efforts, the companys leadership is interested in taking additional steps to establish an inclusive workplace culture. Their goal is that employees can be retained, and that they will thrive and do their best work for the company. Discussions in the leadership team have been influenced by reading the article Diversity Doesnt Stick Without Inclusion from the Harvard Business Review and others like it. The ideas presented in this article should in some way inform your work on this project.
Your role is to develop and document a new workplace policy and introduce it to the leadership team. The purpose of the policy is to help the company support a diverse, inclusive, welcoming workplace culture. It should be based on evidence and reasoning from your research on best practices in workplace management.
There are a wide range of workplace practices and programs that might be appropriate in this scenario. As a starting point, consider policies regarding paid leave, pay transparency, review practices, mentorship programs, flexible schedules, and employee resource groups. This is by no means a complete list of options; you will be expected to investigate variations, best practices, and other innovative ideas through research (and then incorporate that research into the rationale for your chosen policy).
Instructions
This assignment has two deliverables:
A memo to the companys employees that succinctly and clearly describes and explains the new policy or program.
An email to your fellow leadership team member that explains and justifies your proposed policy (imagine that you are offering the memo for their approval and buy-in before it is adopted and announced to the employees).
Each of these deliverables must be attentive to audience, purpose, and genre conventions. Use the table below to help inform the development of your deliverables.
Requirements
Treat the following as your checklist for completing this assignment:
Write a 2-page memo (single-spaced, 11 point Calibri/12 point Times New Roman or comparable, 1 margins, left-aligned paragraphs, block formatting, single space between paragraphs).
Follow appropriate memo conventions as discussed in class (see also Memo on Writing Memos).
Be sure to include the general headings with a specific, pertinent subject line (Policy Memo is not a compelling subject) and a clear statement of purpose introducing the memo’s content.
The memo should open with a statement of purpose, followed by a summary. Additional headings/sections and subheadings should be appropriate to a policy memo (e.g., Background, About) and be used to organize information and increase readability.
Use APA style to cite sources (in-text citation and References List). Remember, the reference list does not count as part of the page count.
Write a professional transmittal email to the Leadership Team to deliver the memo for their review (imagine the memo as an attachment).
Use appropriate conventions and best practices for emails discussed in this class and
in the resources (include subject line, greeting, reader-friendly formatting, etc.).
Present evidence from research in the discussion, citing sources with embedded links
to give your reader direct access to the information (remember this is an email).
For both, provide evidence to support your policy decisionsinformation from reputable
organizations or publications that build confidence in your policy/program; these will be referenced in the memo itself, and must be referred to in the transmittal email as part of your justification. You should incorporate research from a minimum of two (2) outside sources. Sources MUST be different than those sources provided as homework or supplementary readings.
Consider the amount and types of evidence that will be needed for the audience and purpose in the respective documents.
Support your claims with (cited) evidence, and be thoughtful and professional in your approach.
Helpful Reminders
As you write, employ writing strategies that support your purpose. You want the information to be easily accessible for your reader, easy to understand the first time through, and engaging. Check out Markel’s “Effective Sentences” for help and use the following formatting elements to assist:
Bulleted lists (do review Using Bullets and Numbered Lists for guidance)
Short paragraphs (7-10 lines max)
Clear, engaging topic sentences and transition statements
Meaningful subject lines and headings
Use 1st person to clearly and professionally articulate your perspective.
Write welluse specific vocabulary, support your claims with (cited) evidence, be thoughtful in your analysis and discussion.
Enhance your analysis with at least two additional sources of information these sources should justify/support your recommended policy and build your ethos.
Draft your memo and email entirely before attending to formatting and editing. The final versions should be well-crafted documents attentive to both content and design. Always double-check formatting and proofread documents before turning in for a grade. Reference: Grading Criteria for Projects in our course syllabus, the assignment rubric, and, as always, ask if you have questions.
