You are the director of human resources at Association of Vision Health, a nonprofit organization that educates and works for policies regarding eye sight and vision issues. The organization employs thirty full-time employees and five part-time employees at its headquarters office.
You have been working with the executive director of the association for months on making updates and changes to the employee handbook. The handbook lists proper procedures and organization policies for employees to follow. The handbook addresses employee benefits, administration policies, operating policies and financial policies.
The next item for policy discussion will be employee bereavement leave. Bereavement leave is when an employee takes leave due to a death and is paid normal working wages without having to take annual leave. The Association of Vision Health has no official laws or policies the organization must follow, so it is up to the organization to create its own bereavement leave policy. Bereavement leave is used for an employee to plan and/or attend funeral services, travel and attend to details.
The executive director has confirmed an HR best practice for the association of allowing three days of bereavement leave for the death of an employee’s mother, father, stepmother, stepfather, mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister, brother, child, stepchild or spouse.
The executive director wants you to develop a policy for the following employee bereavement occurrences:
- Death of an employee’s grandmother, grandfather, grandchild, aunt, uncle, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, cousin, spouse’s grandparent/grandchild
- Death of a current or former Association of Vision Health employee
After establishing the official bereavement leave policies, the executive director would like your thoughts on unofficial policies that the workplace can offer grieving employees. The policies do not need to be listed in the employee handbook, but simply serve as considerate practices and/or accommodations the organization can offer employees.
