Scenario HR Conference

1
Scenario HR Conference

• You have recruited a world-class Researcher from
  Harvard
• The Department and Faculty have provided a
  deluxe start-up package, including lab
  relocation, and agreed, at the Researchers
  insistence, to hire members of his research team
  (a scientific director and a research
  associates)
• He will want to hire an administrative assistant
  and research assistant in Edmonton.
• The team arrives in Edmonton and the plot
  thickens

2
Discussion Question 1

• You have now been made aware that the Research
  Associate, who is accompanying the researcher
  from Harvard, is the Researchers live-in
  partner. What would you do to resolve this
  situation?

3
Discussion Question 2

• The Research Associate is not a Canadian Citizen
  or permanent resident. She is a British citizen
  working in the United States on a work visa. The
  researcher has expectations that the research
  associate begin work tomorrow. What do you do?

4
Discussion Question 3

• The team has had an unwritten rule that
  publishing is one for all all for one. The
  scientific director has had a publication
  accepted and has not included her colleagues as
  co-authors. The Researcher comes to you with this
  issue as well as a litany of other complaints
  about the scientific director and threatens to
  quit if you dont do something about it.

5
Discussion Question 4

• The administrative assistant is requesting that
  she be paid 3 months salary as compensation for
  overtime. She travels to conferences around the
  world as the personal assistant for the
  Researcher and, at times, with the scientific
  director. Your department APO has indicated that
  he has been aware of this unusual practice but
  felt powerless to stop it give the status of the
  Researcher. How do you deal with the overtime
  payment request?

6
Discussion Question 5

• The new Research Assistant is upset and comes to
  see you. She is a single parent and has
  commitments at home that require her to leave
  most evenings before 530 pm. She says she
  explained this situation in her interview. There
  are many times that the group has expectations
  that she stay well into the evening. On top of
  this, her supervisor has made a number of
  suggestive remarks which she has been ignoring
  and has asked her to go out with him to dinner on
  a number of occasions. She refused since this
  time the fact that she needs to leave at the end
  of the day has become an issue. The supervisor
  is also claiming there are inaccuracies in her
  work.