You are the Human Resources Director of your organization or an organization with which you are personally familiar and have access.  The Executive Director/CEO/Principal of your organization has asked

(The company at hand that will be used is United States Postal Service)

 Option 1: Original Format: You are the Human Resources Director of your organization or an organization with which you are personally familiar and have access.  The Executive Director/CEO/Principal of your organization has asked you to prepare an analysis of how various HR functions were altered during the recent pandemic and whether or not those changes should be continued into the future.  The Executive Director is particularly interested in what best practices and organizational takeaways occurred during this period of time. 

Specifically, the Executive Director has asked you to review the changes, improvements, challenges, or organizational learning that occurred in the following areas:  performance management, employee engagement, training and development, labor relations (or employee relations), and crisis management. 

Option 2:  Alternative Format:  If you are not currently affiliated with a workplace organization or you are not in a position where you can gather the type of information needed for Option 1, you may do the same assignment but from the perspective of pre-pandemic practices, pandemic practices, and post-pandemic practices, assuming a hybrid workplace where the work force has partially returned to the office and partially works at home.  Use the literature to talk about the evolution of HR practices through these three periods.  What were common best practices before the pandemic in each category below?  What changed during the pandemic and what are best practices now in each of the HR categories below.  Rely on the literature and speak generally rather than about a specific organization.  

Be sure to indicate on your title page, which option you are doing, i.e., Assignment 1: Original Format or Assignment 1: Alternative Format.

Assignment 3 Directions

Prepare an 8–10-page report (not counting the title page and references) in APA 7 format using the following first-level headings.

Introduction (Include a description of your organization, your job, and the charge the Executive Director/CEO/Principal has given you; no references required. If you are doing the Alternative Option, explain that you are discussing how HR functions have changed since before the pandemic, during the pandemic and now.  In either case, include a thesis statement clearly stating the purpose of the paper.

Performance Management (Examples: Performance assessment, performance feedback, Performance metrics) 

Employee Engagement (Examples: Empowerment, recognition programs, team building) 

Training and Development (Includes analysis of training needs) 

Labor Relations (Or Employee Relations, whichever applies) 

Crisis Management (Examples: Policies and procedures) 

Conclusion (No references required) 

References 

A Note About References:  You are required to include at least two current (2017 and newer), peer-reviewed, scholarly references in each paragraph as well as two separate references in each section, as noted above.  Some of the references may be repeated from section to section, but you must use at least eight peer-reviewed references in total. In addition to the eight scholarly articles, you may use textbook references and/or pertinent professional references from websites and publications such as SHRM.com, Forbes, and Fortune Magazines.  

Click on Rubrics to see the Grading Rubric for this assignment in this class.  The alternative rubric will be similar but without the emphasis on a specific organization.