Reference no: EM132455292

You are a supervisor with Advice Unlimited Ltd., a medium-sized firm of consultants. You received a call yesterday from Alice Liang, the president of ACME Engineering, one of your most important customers. Alice was dismayed last week when she arrived back at ACME's office after a meeting, only to find seven of her company's 10 high-priced engineers huddled outside ACME's office building smoking cigarettes. She has asked you to find out how serious the problem is and to recommend appropriate action.

After asking around, you have discovered that two-thirds of ACME's entire staff of 45 engineers are smokers. A quick calculation on the back of an envelope tells you that time lost on smoking breaks is costing ACME $100,000 a year - not to mention the sick days taken by employees suffering from smoking-related illnesses.

You have also discovered that premiums on ACME's employee life-insurance policy are $40 per month per employee, half paid by the company and half by the employee. ACME's insurance company will reduce the premiums for non-smokers to $20 per month, because Health Canada has reported that smokers die, on average, eight years younger than non-smokers.

Personnel directors in several other companies have recommended Smoke No More, the leading company in Canada offering a stop-smoking program. A recent study by the University of Timmins reports that Smoke No More's programs have been 75% successful. When you called Smoke No More, they sent you a proposal to run lunch-hour sessions three days a week for six months in ACME's offices, starting in December. The cost is $2,000 for each employee who participates; at least 12 employees must enroll before Smoke No More will run the program. You believe that ACME should pay the entire cost if it decides to adopt the program.

Write an informal report to Alice outlining the problem and recommending whether or not she should hire Smoke No More. Include your reasons. Since the program will only work if employees co-operate, one section of your message should outline for Alice the employee benefits she would cite to convince employees to participate.

Use the principles we have discussed in class to decide whether to use memo or letter format for your report. Make up any addresses or other information you need. Submit your assignment in class on Friday, November 13.