ESS3

Corollary Communications Scenario

Corollary Communications provides advertising and public relations services to small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB). Corollary Communications has offices in major cities throughout the country. The company is known for its creative expertise and ability to generate a sustainable flow of new sales leads for its clients across many industries.

Due to recent world events and new social standards regarding people management, the company’s leadership team determined that a strong and more experienced human resources (HR) leader was needed to assist them in establishing more modern and responsive people policies. An executive search was conducted by an outside recruiting firm, and Michael Thomas was selected to be Corollary’s new senior vice president (SVP) of HR. Michael had mostly big company experience, reporting directly to HR leaders in each of his prior employers. Corollary Communications’ CEO, Mei Kim, gave Michael broad authority in establishing modern policies that would bring the company up to date with contemporary practices. The HR department consists of Michael Thomas (SVP), Anika Martin (manager), two additional staff and one HR liaison in each office. This HR team handles new hire orientation, benefits, compensation planning, people policies, and performance review administration.

Michael wasted no time assessing the current situation at Corollary Communications, reviewing all available company documentation on people policies. Based on thorough document research and past corporate experience, Michael decided to establish a work-from-home policy, something Corollary Communications had previously thought about testing but never did because it caused too much debate among senior leaders. The main issues debated were the loss of productivity from remote work and the inability to schedule coverage for all client-facing functions across its offices.

Michael shared with Mei his rationale behind the decision, including past experiences, stating confidently that the two issues previously debated by Corollary’s leaders could be managed successfully. The plan was to have leaders in all offices inform their direct reports (managers) about the new policy and how it was to be implemented. Michael’s hope was that a new schedule detailing remote working days for employees would be created at each location and compiled into a master calendar by Anika. His recommended target date to be given to all office leaders for having their schedules completed and returned to Anika would be 30 days from the date of Michael’s email announcement. Mei agreed with Michael’s plan, albeit acknowledging the timeline was overly aggressive based on historical new program rollouts. Mei then approved Michael to communicate the new policy to all of Corollary’s leaders.

Michael quickly crafted an email to announce the new work-from-home policy. He then reviewed it quickly with Anika, asking for her feedback. Anika, being with Corollary for 12 years, believed the email communication was clear but suggested Michael have in-person or virtual one-on-ones with each of Corollary’s office leaders to review the new policy and ensure their buy-in. Michael, without pause, replied that those one-on-ones would take too much time, delaying the work-from-home plan’s implementation. Anika acquiesced, and Michael sent the following email to all company leaders:

March 1, __________

Dear _______________________,

Mei Kim, our CEO, and I, your SVP of HR, have decided to establish a new work-from-home policy for all employees. This is in keeping with twenty-first-century progressive people policies in the marketplace. Many of Corollary’s competitors already have this employee benefit in place. Our people will appreciate the flexibility and savings in transportation expenses provided by the opportunity to work one to three days per week from home, subject to manager approval. Manager approval of the number of days and the specific days of the week for each individual will be based upon having the necessary coverage for client office visits and important project brainstorming and departmental strategy meetings that require employees’ presence in our offices. Prepopulated templates with your employees’ names will be provided by my HR manager, Anika Martin, to create your work-from-home schedules. Please work with your direct-report managers to complete and return them back to her by March 30, ____________. We look forward to the increases in Corollary’s employee morale and competitiveness resulting from the successful implementation of this new policy.

Respectfully,

Michael Thomas, SVP HR

Within the first few days following the work-from-home policy announcement, 90% of senior leaders across Corollary’s offices replied to Michael’s email with a thumbs-up emoji or messages to that effect (e.g., “understood,” “okay,” “sounds good”). By March 28, no work-from-home schedules had been received by Anika. On March 30, two schedules were received by Anika—one from the public relations manager in CMO Robert Garcia’s marketing unit, and one from the accounting manager in CFO Fatima Lelani’s finance unit. Over the next few weeks, two more schedules were received. None of the schedules had all employees from their respective areas included.

Concerned that the program’s successful implementation was in jeopardy, Michael requested time to discuss the situation on the senior leadership team’s weekly virtual meeting agenda. A consultant (you) whom Michael had worked with in his past employer companies was hired. The consultant was to analyze the problem and recommend a solution to these senior leaders at their team meeting. Members in attendance were the following:

• Mei Kim, CEO

• Michael Thomas, SVP HR

• Fatima Lelani, CFO

• Robert Garcia, CMO

• Andi Andersen, SVP Operations

• Iris Goldstein, SVP/GM Northwest

• Jeffrey Osborne, SVP/GM Central

• Paula Bronsen, SVP/GM Southwest

• You, the consultant

Corollary Communications Scenario

Corollary Communications provides advertising and public relations services to small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB). Corollary Communications has offices in major cities throughout the country. The company is known for its creative expertise and ability to generate a sustainable flow of new sales leads for its clients across many industries.

Due to recent world events and new social standards regarding people management, the company’s leadership team determined that a strong and more experienced human resources (HR) leader was needed to assist them in establishing more modern and responsive people policies. An executive search was conducted by an outside recruiting firm, and Michael Thomas was selected to be Corollary’s new senior vice president (SVP) of HR. Michael had mostly big company experience, reporting directly to HR leaders in each of his prior employers. Corollary Communications’ CEO, Mei Kim, gave Michael broad authority in establishing modern policies that would bring the company up to date with contemporary practices. The HR department consists of Michael Thomas (SVP), Anika Martin (manager), two additional staff and one HR liaison in each office. This HR team handles new hire orientation, benefits, compensation planning, people policies, and performance review administration.

Michael wasted no time assessing the current situation at Corollary Communications, reviewing all available company documentation on people policies. Based on thorough document research and past corporate experience, Michael decided to establish a work-from-home policy, something Corollary Communications had previously thought about testing but never did because it caused too much debate among senior leaders. The main issues debated were the loss of productivity from remote work and the inability to schedule coverage for all client-facing functions across its offices.

Michael shared with Mei his rationale behind the decision, including past experiences, stating confidently that the two issues previously debated by Corollary’s leaders could be managed successfully. The plan was to have leaders in all offices inform their direct reports (managers) about the new policy and how it was to be implemented. Michael’s hope was that a new schedule detailing remote working days for employees would be created at each location and compiled into a master calendar by Anika. His recommended target date to be given to all office leaders for having their schedules completed and returned to Anika would be 30 days from the date of Michael’s email announcement. Mei agreed with Michael’s plan, albeit acknowledging the timeline was overly aggressive based on historical new program rollouts. Mei then approved Michael to communicate the new policy to all of Corollary’s leaders.

Michael quickly crafted an email to announce the new work-from-home policy. He then reviewed it quickly with Anika, asking for her feedback. Anika, being with Corollary for 12 years, believed the email communication was clear but suggested Michael have in-person or virtual one-on-ones with each of Corollary’s office leaders to review the new policy and ensure their buy-in. Michael, without pause, replied that those one-on-ones would take too much time, delaying the work-from-home plan’s implementation. Anika acquiesced, and Michael sent the following email to all company leaders:

March 1, __________

Dear _______________________,

Mei Kim, our CEO, and I, your SVP of HR, have decided to establish a new work-from-home policy for all employees. This is in keeping with twenty-first-century progressive people policies in the marketplace. Many of Corollary’s competitors already have this employee benefit in place. Our people will appreciate the flexibility and savings in transportation expenses provided by the opportunity to work one to three days per week from home, subject to manager approval. Manager approval of the number of days and the specific days of the week for each individual will be based upon having the necessary coverage for client office visits and important project brainstorming and departmental strategy meetings that require employees’ presence in our offices. Prepopulated templates with your employees’ names will be provided by my HR manager, Anika Martin, to create your work-from-home schedules. Please work with your direct-report managers to complete and return them back to her by March 30, ____________. We look forward to the increases in Corollary’s employee morale and competitiveness resulting from the successful implementation of this new policy.

Respectfully,

Michael Thomas, SVP HR

Within the first few days following the work-from-home policy announcement, 90% of senior leaders across Corollary’s offices replied to Michael’s email with a thumbs-up emoji or messages to that effect (e.g., “understood,” “okay,” “sounds good”). By March 28, no work-from-home schedules had been received by Anika. On March 30, two schedules were received by Anika—one from the public relations manager in CMO Robert Garcia’s marketing unit, and one from the accounting manager in CFO Fatima Lelani’s finance unit. Over the next few weeks, two more schedules were received. None of the schedules had all employees from their respective areas included.

Concerned that the program’s successful implementation was in jeopardy, Michael requested time to discuss the situation on the senior leadership team’s weekly virtual meeting agenda. A consultant (you) whom Michael had worked with in his past employer companies was hired. The consultant was to analyze the problem and recommend a solution to these senior leaders at their team meeting. Members in attendance were the following:

• Mei Kim, CEO

• Michael Thomas, SVP HR

• Fatima Lelani, CFO

• Robert Garcia, CMO

• Andi Andersen, SVP Operations

• Iris Goldstein, SVP/GM Northwest

• Jeffrey Osborne, SVP/GM Central

• Paula Bronsen, SVP/GM Southwest

• You, the consultant