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Read the case study titled “Revitalizing a Brand”, located in the online course shell. Use the Internet or Strayer databases to research the branding and communication strategies of one (1) health services organization that is similar to the health services organizations mentioned in the case study.

Write a four to six (4-6) page paper in which you:

1. Describe the current marketing communication, identity, and brand position of Plaza Home Health Services.
2. Conduct a Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats (SWOT) analysis associated with the current marketing communication, identity, and brand position of Plaza Home Health Services.
3. Assess the importance of benchmarking in Plaza Home Health Services’ development and implementation of an effective brand strategy (marketing communication, identity, and brand position).
4. Compare branding and communication strategies of a similar health services organization with that of Plaza Home Health Services. Determine whether or not Plaza Home Health Services should apply additional best practices into its current branding and communication strategies. Provide a rationale and support for your response.
5. Use at least five (5) quality academic resources. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources. 

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Examine the marketing research process and market segmentation strategies in the health care industry.
• Analyze business planning based on an analysis of domestic and global operating environments, market dynamics (supply and demand), commercialization, and product-market expansion.
• Explain how branding strategies apply to the health care market for existing and new products.
• Determine the marketing communications strategy used in health care services.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in health services strategic marketing.
• Write clearly and concisely about health services strategic marketing using proper writing mechanics.

 Please Read, follow directions!!

Human Services work is very rewarding for both the client and  professional. In order to ensure effectiveness, it is crucial that the  professional set the tone of a helping relationship from the beginning. This  includes setting the relationship intentions and maintaining healthy  boundaries. 

Part 1: Research

Conduct  some independent research. Using Rasmussen and other resources, locate an  article on maintaining healthy  relationships in Human Services.

Part 2: Reflect

For this assignment, you will use your critical thinking  skills and reflect upon building positive, helping relationships with clients.

In a minimum of two-pages (not counting the title page and  reference page) address the following:

• Discuss how to create  a positive, healthy helping relationship with a client.
• Distinguish between a  friendship and a helping relationship.
• Identify  characteristics of a helping relationship.
• Identify  personalization within the helping relationship.
• Include a strategy for  maintaining and/or ending the helping relationship.
• Discuss your strengths  and weaknesses and ways to improve helping skills.
• Explain what area of  the helping relationship you feel is most helpful for the client and specific  ways you plan to emphasize the area.
• Incorporate one (1)  credible resource to support your communication style. Cite source used. 

Use professional language including complete sentences and proper  grammar, spelling, and punctuation throughout your paper. Be sure to cite any  research sources in APA format.

Companies can take one of four approaches to compensation. Which do you think is the best approach? Why?

Frame your post as an argument.

Learn to support your arguments

• The home-country-based approach. The objective of a home-based compensation program is to equalize the employee to a standard of living enjoyed in his or her home country. The 2016 Cartus Global Mobility Policy & Practices Survey found that 76 percent of long-term assignments and 75 percent of short-term assignments use a home country pay structure.1 Under this system, the employee’s base salary is broken down into four general categories: taxes, housing, goods and services, and discretionary income.
• The host-country-based approach. With this approach, the expatriate employee’s compensation is based on local national rates. Many companies continue to cover the employee in its defined contribution or defined benefit pension schemes and provide housing allowances. Only 14 percent of long-term assignments and 5 percent of short-term assignments base pay on local rates, according to the Cartus survey.2
• The headquarters-based approach. This approach assumes that all assignees, regardless of location, are in one country (i.e., a U.S. company pays all assignees a U.S.-based salary, regardless of geography). Cartus found that a small percentage of companies use headquarters-based approaches for long-term assignments (4 percent) and short-term assignments (5 percent).3
• Balance sheet approach. In this scenario, the compensation is calculated using the home-country-based approach with all allowances, deductions and reimbursements. After the net salary has been determined, it is then converted to the host country’s currency. Since one of the primary goals of an international compensation management program is to maintain the expatriate’s current standard of living, developing an equitable and functional compensation plan that combines balance and flexibility is extremely challenging for multinational companies. To this end, many companies adopt a balance sheet approach. This approach guarantees that employees in international assignments maintain the same standard of living they enjoyed in their home country. A worksheet lists the costs of major expenses in the home and host countries, and any differences are used to increase or decrease the compensation to keep it in balance.
• Source: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/designingglobalcompensation.aspx (Note that this source requires a paid subscription to SHRM to view the full article.)

Please post initial response by Saturday at 11:59 pm EST and respond to two students (total) by Tuesday at 11:59 pm EST. 

1.What are some of the benefits of a diverse workforce in the workplace? How have you seen these impacted in places you have worked or you personally?

2.In a brief essay, explain the difference between job enrichment and job enlargement.

The assignment is to answer the question provided above in essay form. This is to be in narrative form and should be as thorough as possible. Bullet points should not to be used. The paper should be at least 1.5 – 2 pages in length, Times New Roman 12-pt font, double-spaced, 1 inch margins and utilizing at least one outside scholarly or professional source related to human resource management. The textbook should also be utilized. Do not insert excess line spacing. APA formatting and citation should be used.

Section 3 – PMO Recommendations

The purpose of the Portfolio Project is to synthesize current research about the project management office (PMO) for the purpose of developing a PMO recommendation. The Portfolio Project is structured to help you demonstrate understanding of the course material, as well as the implications of new knowledge gained from research beyond the course readings and lectures.

Your Portfolio Project will be developed in three independent but cohesive sections, which considered in whole constitutes your PMO recommendation. The three sections are:

• Section 1: Subject Organization and Rationale
• Section 2: PMO Mission, Charter, and Competency
• Section 3: PMO Recommendations

Sections 1 and 2 will be submitted as Portfolio Project milestones in Modules 3 and 6, respectively.

Section 3 will constitute your final Portfolio Project assignment, which due at the end of the course in Module 8.

Based on your Section 1 choice, one of the two PMO recommendation options will be performed for your Portfolio Project assignment, which are described as:

Option #2: Recommendation for the advancement of an existing PMO

For Section 1 (submitted in Week 3): Subject Organization and Rationale of the Portfolio Project, you are required to select a subject organization for developing a PMO recommendation. The subject organization must have an international/global aspect and may be your workplace, an organization that you are familiar with, or an organization that is based on your research.

For Option 1, the subject organization must exhibit the characteristics and attributes of a viable candidate for benefiting from a PMO.

For Option 2, the subject organization must exhibit a functioning PMO as qualified by the PMO competency continuum.

A key aspect of the Portfolio Project Section 1 is to secure instructor approval for the Portfolio Project subject organization selected, which is required before commencing with subsequent Portfolio Project sections.

Based on your research of the subject organization, substantively address the following key elements:

• Subject organization information: 
  • Organization name
  • Organization’s mission, vision, and values statement
  • Industry type and organization demographics
  • Description of organization’s culture
  • Executive sponsor and key stakeholders
• PMO business case: 
  • Assessment of existing project management: 
    • Project management methods
    • Project management tools
    • Project management experience
    • Project management maturity
  • Perceived PMO benefits for the organization: 
    • Overarching business rationale
    • Long term measurable goals (2-3)
    • First year specific goals and metrics
    • Quantified value proposition (short and long term)

For Section 2 (submitted in Week 6): PMO Mission, Charter, and Competency of the Portfolio Project, you will build on the information detailed in your Portfolio Project Section 1. Based on analysis of your subject organization and further research, purpose the PMO’s mission and vision, PMO charter, and PMO competency continuum stage resultant from your Option 1 or Option 2 recommendation. To this end, substantively address the following key elements for your subject organization’s PMO recommendation:

• Develop the PMO’s Mission and Vision including: 
  • State the PMO’ mission and vision.
  • Validate alignment with subject organization’s mission and vision.
  • Designate key PMO stakeholders.
• Develop the PMO’s Charter: 
  • State the PMO’s business purpose.
  • Describe the PMO’s business alignment and affiliation.
  • Designate the PMO’s empowerment authority.
  • Describe the PMO’s fiscal management.
  • Identify the Charter approval.
• Relate to the PMO competency continuum 
  • Designate the PMO competency continuum stage.
  • Justify the subject organization’s designated PMO competency continuum stage determination.
  • Correlate the designated PMO competency continuum stage to the Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3).

For Section 3 (submitted in Week 8): PMO Recommendations of the Portfolio Project, you will build on the information detailed in your Portfolio Project Sections 1 and 2. Based on analysis of your subject organization and further research, develop either Option 1 or Option 2 recommendations for key aspects of the PMO that optimally support the subject organization’s PMO framework as designated in Section 2. To this end, substantively address the following key elements for your subject organization’s PMO recommendation:

• Designate recommendations, with appropriate rationale, for each of the following PMO key elements: 
  • PMO type
  • PMO structure
  • PMO culture
  • PMO project methods
  • PMO project tools
  • PMO governance
  • PMO risk management
  • PMO business integration
  • PMO global challenges
  • Other relevant PMO considerations
• Recommend professional development for PMO advancement 
  • Apply aspects of the project manager competency development (PMCD) framework for the PMO’s professional development.
  • Designate professional certification requirements.
  • Describe mentorship role.
  • Identify project and portfolio leadership

Submit your Section 3 Portfolio Project final assignment as a single Microsoft Word document to the Module 8 submissions area established for this purpose.

Your essay should address the following requirements:

• Your well-written PMO recommendation essay thesis should be 10 pages in length, which does not include the title, reference, or appendix pages. You need to add headings and subheadings associated with each of the bullet points listed in the Section 3 requirements.
• Format your paper per the CSU Global Guide to Writing & APA (Links to an external site.) standards, which includes an introduction and conclusion.
• Include title and reference pages.
• In addition to your course textbook, cite at least six current (published within the past 5 years) scholarly resources (peer-reviewed, official governmental reports, and other scholarly source) to support your suppositions, assertions, and conclusions. To enhance your learning experience, scholarly resources are available from the CSU Global library.
• Include an appendix for tables and figures as appropriate.

Please write clearly, concisely, and cohesively; use section level headers to organize the key elements of your thesis.

Part 1: Apply the IRAC Formula to Sowards v. Norbar, Inc., 1992. Prepare and post a brief review of the issue, rule, analysis, and conclusion.

                Issue – Did the driver’s manual (employee handbook) provided to and acknowledgment signed by the appellee, form an employment contract?

                Rule – “An at-will employment contract may be modified by the provisions of an employee handbook where the parties manifest an intention to be bound by the terms therein.” (Sowards v. Norbar, Inc., 1992)

                Analysis – The language in the driver’s manual (employee handbook) had very specific “formal discipline” policy which provided the steps for progressive discipline.  The language indicated that the policy was intended to be more than a guideline.  Additionally, The Vice-President of the company is quoted as saying that the company “lived by” the language of the driver’s manual.  The appellee was also required to sign a written acknowledgment stating he received a copy of the manual.  The appellee continued to work for the company after signing the acknowledgment indicating the acceptance to be bound by the terms of the manual.  These facts show an intention by both parties to be bound the terms laid out in the manual and the at-will employment contract has thus been modified by the provision of the manual.    

                Conclusion – The language and the practice of living by the driver’s manual (employee handbook) created an employment contract.   

Part 2: Based on your understanding of Sowards v. Norbar, Inc., which depicts privacy and employee handbook issues, answer the following questions:

    How might an effective employee handbook reduce litigation costs within an organization?

                An effective employee handbook would have a contract disclaimer so that the at-will status of an employee would be clearly stated.  It is also important to have the employee sign an at-will disclaimer “acknowledging the company can terminate them at any time and bypass discipline process” (HR Specialist: Employment Law, July 2018).  Clearly defining the status and having the employee acknowledge reduces litigation cost associated with determining if the employee handbook is an employment contract.  It would also have policies but not detailed procedures.  The specific language of disciplinary process in Sowards v. Nobar, Inc. allowed the argument to be made that it was more than a guideline resulting in litigation cost.

    How important for the HRM professional is understanding the mission and function of an organization? Why?

It is very important for the HRM professional to understand the mission and function of an organization because these will be important factors in the development, implementation, and interpretation of policies.    

    When should an employee handbook be updated? Why?

If laws change that are applicable to your location your handbook should be updated.  Your handbook should not conflict with any applicable laws.   It should also be updated when practices or expectations change.  If a practice or expectation changes but the policy or employee handbook is not updated to reflect this change then it is hard to argue that an employee should be held to the new standard.  For example, at a previous employer an expectation changed for a certification that an employee needed to obtain from 6 months to within 90 days of hire.  The practice had gone on for several years and was verbally discussed in the interviews, but the policy was never updated to reflect this change.  They had an employee who did not obtain the certification within the 90 days.  The supervisor wanted to terminate because the employee did not meet the requirements of the position.  However, when the policy was pulled it still had 6 months listed.  It would not have been a good risk for the company to proceed with the termination given that in writing the policy gave an additional 3 months to complete the certification.

    Who should be involved in the creation of the handbook? What should be considered?

When creating a handbook leadership and HR should be involved.  However, the organization’s attorney should “review your handbook to make sure you haven’t accidentally removed at-will protection” (HR Specialist: Employment Law, July 2018).   I think it would also be good to have a focus group of employees from different areas of the organization to get different perspectives involved.   The policies should be general guidelines and realistic. 

Much variation is present in the United States population’s health care insurance coverage status. This Module’s SLP is intended to allow you to study health insurance status and access to health services in either your home state or your state of current residence. Using the “Health Insurance Coverage of the Total Population” link in the background readings, examine the Table, Map, and Trend Graph for your home state or state of current residence. Refine ‘coverage year’ choice to the most recent coverage year posted in the left side navigation bar on the site. Address the following:

1. Summarize the key insurance findings regarding your state of choice.
2. Who are the primary payers, and to what percentage of the coverages?
3. What percentage of your state’s population is uninsured? Underinsured?
4. What does the trend graph show in terms of the public/private payers and the uninsured? Explain what is changing, for better or for worse, in the last few years.

SLP Assignment Expectations

1. Conduct additional research to gather sufficient information to support your analysis.
2. Provide a response of 3-5 pages, not including title page and references.
3. There are multiple required items to be addressed herein; please use subheadings to show where you are responding to each required item and to ensure that none are omitted.
4. Support your paper with peer-reviewed articles, with at least 3 references. Use the following link for additional information on how to recognize peer-reviewed journals:
   Angelo State University Library. (n.d.). Library Guides: How to recognize peer-reviewed (refereed) journals. Retrieved from https://www.angelo.edu/services/library/handouts/peerrev.php
5. You may use the following source to assist in formatting your assignment:
   Purdue Online Writing Lab. (n.d.). General APA guidelines. Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/.
6. For additional information on reliability of sources, review the following source:
   Georgetown University Library. (n.d.). Evaluating internet resources. Retrieved from https://www.library.georgetown.edu/tutorials/research-guides/evaluating-internet-content

Instructions

In a PowerPoint presentation (approximately 10 slides), explain why organizational structures differ. Define and provide an example of the four reasons why structures differ, which are as follows:

1. strategy,
2. organizational size,
3. technology, and
4. environment.

Be sure to cite any sources used in a reference slide by utilizing APA formatting. Cite at least one scholarly article from the CSU Online Library. Title and reference slides do not count toward the required length of the presentation. You are encouraged to use the slide notes function, when appropriate, to clarify the purpose and intent for each slide.

PowerPoint Best Practices is a tutorial that will help you learn to build a presentation using techniques that make your PowerPoint easy to view and understand. Click here to access this webinar.

Research an article regarding an organization’s recruitment challenges. Explain what they are in your summary. In addition, include your experience (use the 1st person) regarding an organization’s recruitment challenges.  Explain the differences regarding the information that you read and your experience. In this section, communicate the strategies that were utilized to improve and how the recruitment strategies are effective.

Your presentation: Three references in APA 2 pages (excluding encyclopedias and Wikipedia).

Program evaluation procedures can help you identify the needs of a population as you develop programs. They can also help you identify portions of the population who are not accessing services once a program is implemented. In this assignment, you examine issues related to access to services and how program evaluation procedures can be used to address those issues.

To Prepare

Review the Interactive Learning Community’s Community Center and High School in this week’s Learning Resources. Consider the demographics present in the New Harbor High School. Then consider how you could apply research methods to increasing participation in marriage and relationship education programs to one of the largest disadvantaged and/or ethnically diverse families in the community. Use the data from the High School, to choose a population. Finally, consider the measurement and data collection methods presented in the course text and how they could be applied to this issue.

The Assignment (2–3 pages)

• Identify the disadvantaged and/or ethnically diverse population you have chosen in this week’s Interactive Learning Community and why you choose that population to focus on.
• Explain how, as a researcher, you would increase participation of your chosen disadvantaged and/or ethnically diverse populations in marriage and relationship education programs based on their needs.
• The combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to provide more valid, reliable, and generalizable results in research is known as “Mixed Methods” Research. Explain the types of quantitative measures (detailed in this week’s readings) and qualitative data collection methods (detailed in Week 4’s readings) you would employ to obtain more valid, reliable and generalizable results for a program evaluation of the marriage and relationship education programs.