John & Roy - Plastec Company

Abstract

Plastec Company, a small plastic company produces small plastic parts for computer keyboards, toys, airplanes and a wide variety of other components. Recently hired, Paul the Director of HR has noticed some issues within the company specifically related to employee turnover. Upon further analysis of exit interviews and other HR metric Paul discussed his findings with John and Roy (Roy is John's manager). John and Roy were informed of Paul's findings as to why the employee turnover was so high. Concluding Paul's findings he recommended John and Roy be enrolled in a Diversity and Respect training series to gain a better understanding and more knowledge of how to deal with a diverse workforce and what legal risks the company is vulnerable to due to current behavior. Along with John and Roy, Paul needs to be aware of what employment laws and regulations affect the company, be looking at HR metrics to better determine strengths and weaknesses along with developing and updating job descriptions for current and future employees.

Plastec Employee and Management Opportunities

Fifteen years ago two brothers started a small plastic company called Plastec Company. In the past three to four years, the company has experienced a rapid growth spurt due to the increased demand of small plastic parts. Paul, hired on by the two brothers as Director of HR was directed to keep the company well staffed and to keep the company out of court and away from any legal discrepancies. Currently, Plastec has a single location which operates in a large industrial park just outside a major metropolitan area. In the past few years the metropolitan area has increased and is now home to many different ethnicities. At this moment in time, Plastec employees are comprised primarily of Caucasians and African-Americas with a few Hispanics and Vietnamese. Plastec is expecting to a lot of growth within the next couple of years and realizes staffing needs to be bumped up. Upon further analysis Paul notices Plastec is experiencing high turnover. As Paul looked through the notes of the exit interview he notices a pattern that was not seen before. Many people have left Plastec because they got a better job offer or went to a company that had better promotion opportunities and all employees who have left have been women or minorities. Paul realizes in order to keep the company well staffed and away from any legal issues changes need to be made. Paul, with the help of John and Roy need to analyze what has been taking place within the company and implement and abide by laws and regulations, develop and start capturing company metrics, as well as working on updated job descriptions for all employees and positions.

Based on the recent events and the reasons given for employees exiting the company, Paul needs to focus on a number of different laws and regulations which Plastec should be following. Since reading the exit interview notes, Paul should be greatly concerned with discrimination. Consequently, Paul needs to pay special attention to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII. He must also pay attention to the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which states that an employee's sex, race, color, religion or national origin cannot play a role in employment practices (as cited in Human Resource Management, Mathis and Jackson, 2011, p. 79). It seems that harassment may be an issue for Plastec as well. The comments made about Hispanic women not wanting "to be the boss" could be considered harassment and discrimination. There have also been instances where crude jokes and innuendos are made around other employees. This type of behavior can create a hostile work environment. Lastly, their comments about Asians