Implementing R & R and Hardship Pay

After you’ve discussed the details of your intended R & R and/or Hardship pay policies with the approval authorities and agreed on a plan  provide specific benefits in specific amounts, do the following in order to get started:

    1. Write the proposed policy down and send it to the CR and RD for their written approvals.
    2. After receiving written approval, announce the policy by email and at a staff meeting, and post the policy in the office to make sure everyone understands exactly what the policy is, to whom it applies, and why.
    3. In the announcements and in the policy statement, make sure staff know when the benefit will end (or tell them the date on which you will be re-examining the policy and the criteria you will use to decide whether or not to end it at that time).
    4. Set a specific time (as reminders on your calendar?) in the future that management will review the policy and consider changing it or ending it.
    5. Before ending any benefit, make sure to send a reminder to staff that it is ending at a few key benchmark points before it is discontinued.  For example, announce that Hardship Payments will be ending in two months then follow with other reminders at one month, two weeks and the day it ends.

Tip:

Be prepared to explain your R & R and Hardship Pay decisions to staff.  This can be a sensitive topic, so be prepared with sound reasoning.