HR and You, Vol. 1; A Handguide Relating to BMRF's HR Branches
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HR and You
Chapter 1
What is Human Resources?
(And how can it help me?)
Human Resources - HR for short - is a branch of the Administrative Department that is headed by the HR Branch Manager. The primary directive for HR is to ensure that the most valuable resource available to the Black Mesa Research Facilities is operating properly and more importantly, taken care of. What is this resource? Why, it's you, Black Mesa's wonderful employees!
The Human Resources Branch is first and foremost an ally of the employees of Black Mesa, forever endeavoring to protect the worker's interests and assist in matters relating to compensation and worker's benefits, labor and employee relations, and training and learning.
What does this mean for you? It means that the HR department is capable of aiding workers with situations from them sustaining a workplace injury and requiring an extended sick leave to a subordinate/superior dispute that is unable to be resolved easily.
Remember, HR exists for YOU!
Human Resource's duties do not just end at working with and aiding the day to day employees. We also work closely with the various departmental chiefs and their direct subordinates to ensure that inter-department conflicts and interests are properly handled.
We also assist with recruitment for the departments should they be undermanned and needing aid with staffing their various positions.
Not just that but we assist in keeping the morale of all workers on site high, with recreational events and parties for situations such as: birthdays, major breakthroughs, exceeding the board's expectations and many more!
To be continued next chapter!
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HR and You
Chapter 2
The Structure of Human Resources
(And why it's important to follow the chain)
Black Mesa's various Human Resource branches generally follow a simple structuring formulated to ensure ease of getting issues addressed, both in a timely and resolute manner. The 'chain' of the structure is meant to be followed, either by HR employees filing paperwork or by workers attempting to get a resolution that is acceptable for all affected parties, which includes Black Mesa as an entity.
The organization flows as such:
Head of Administration - The person to who the Branch Manager of HR reports to. No incident that occurs that is related to HR should have to go to this individual in a form other than paperwork.
Branch Manager - The overall leader of Human Resources in a Sector. Their time is important and the majority of issues in a healthy HR environment should be resolved before coming to this person.
Deputy Branch Manager - The chosen right and left hands of the Branch Manager, selected from the Senior Employees of the HR Branch. While they are still considered Senior Employees on the pay scale, these individuals should be where all issues barring the worst get resolved.
Senior Employee - The best and most senior of HR's employees. If an issue is unable to be resolved by the rank and file of HR, these individuals will resolve it in almost every case. These would be considered supervisors in other departments.
Employee - HR workers who have proven their competence become full-time employees. These individuals are who the workers can count on to resolve the majority of their grievances, worker compensation claims, and other Human Resource related issues.
Junior Employee - A newly hired member of an HR branch. While they're novices, they will endeavor to resolve any issue they have the authority to.
There are various reasons as to why the 'chain of command' is to be followed and among the most important are: the size of Black Mesa's Sectors employee base and the size of the HR's leadership versus the day-to-day HR employees.
We all want conflicts, department incidents, pay disputes, worker's compensation claims, and all the various other situations that occur in a workplace as sizable as Black Mesa resolved in an appropriate and timely manner. So follow the chain of command.
To be continued next chapter!
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HR and You
Chapter 3
Who Can Resolve Your Issue?
(And how to properly go up the chain if you're unhappy with the resolution.)
As covered in the previous chapter, Human Resources is structured in a way to allow ease of resolving the myriad of issues that arise in a workplace. However, you may be wondering just who you should approach if your issue is clearly above a junior employee or even a rank and file employee's pay grade.
So, who should you go to if you wish to report inappropriate behavior from your department supervisors or chief? In almost every circumstance you should try to get in contact with a senior employee of some kind, even the Deputy Managers before going straight to the Branch Manager.
In order to demonstrate just what situations are acceptable for going over the standard employee's heads, an example list is provided below:
- Departmental supervisory personnel misconduct or inappropriate worksite behavior
- Incidents that arise in CL4 or 5 projects and any SAP projects.
- Incidents relating to violent crime or sexual misconduct, including harassment.
- Inter-departmental conflicts that have a supervisor involved on either or both sides.
But what if your issue isn't one that went straight to the senior personnel and you're unhappy with the resolution?
If you are unhappy with the resolution that was handed down, you may make an appointment or walk in to meet with the rank of an employee directly above the rank who handled your HR claim.
Meaning if you had a junior employee working to resolve your situation, you would go to a full-time employee.
It goes Junior>Employee>Senior>Deputy>Manager.
However, if you are unable to get in contact with a senior, you are able to skip them and go straight to a Deputy Manager.
You can do this as well for all other ranks except for the jump from Deputy Manager to Manager. The only reason you should do this is if you are unable to get in contact with a deputy manager in a timely manner. So do not just radio in for an HR deputy manager and when you don't get a response, immediately go straight to the manager's office.
To be continued next chapter!
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Locked by
Thriina
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HR and You
Chapter 4
What to Expect From HR Employees
(And how to report the misconduct of HR workers)
Human Resource employees are just like you, meaning they are human and have wants and needs. And also just like you, they are held to standards as an employee underneath the Black Mesa entity.
As a worker, you can and should expect any HR member you interact with to be courteous, respectful and understanding of any grievances you air to them. When mistakes or missteps in dialogue occur that cause you, the worker, to feel you were mistreated by an HR member, you are within full rights to file a report with a senior employee.
If you feel you were mistreated by a senior employee, including a deputy manager, you are invited to send an email to the Manager of the HR branch who represents you in your sector.
The email should include who mistreated you, how they did so, and any relevant information, such as what the grievance you were airing was.
Remember, Human Resources and by extension, Black Mesa wants what you the worker wants: A healthy, productive, and cooperative workplace environment!
To be continued next chapter!
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HR and You
Chapter 5
Formats for Emailing HR
(And then that's it!)
Following formatting is very important when emailing an HR employee about grievances or incidents that you wish resolved.
In this chapter, we will show how to send most emails to HR.
[Dear Name],[Introduction - which is where you would explain the purpose of your email, meaning what type of grievance or issue you need to be resolved, be it pay dispute, workplace harassment, so on.]
[Body - where you provide the majority of the information relevant to the dispute, such as any people besides yourself involved, a basic description of the happenings, and anything else thought to be worth mentioning in the email.]
[Conclusion - this is where you wrap up your email, giving a summary, what type of resolution you would be initially seeking, and whether or not you're wishing to schedule an appointment with HR to discuss the issue further.]
[Sincerly],
[Name of Sender]
[Department]
And with that, volume one of HR and You has been read.
Human Resources and Black Mesa Research Facilities would like to thank you for reading this guide on what we can do for you!
If you have any questions about what this guide covered or are wishing to schedule an appointment with Human Resources, send an email to your branch's workers today!