1. Introduction
2. Employment, Induction and Training
3. Hours of Work and Attendance
4. Wage and Salary Administration
5. Rules and Requirements
6. Employee Development
7. Employee Benefits
8. Employment Separation
9. Personnel Procedures
10. Training Policies
11. Training Procedures
12. Manual Revisions Record
“Meridian,” the highest point stars reach in their courses, inspires our vision.
Together, we will create an organization that reaches the highest levels of innovation, expertise, and compassionate care.
Our mission is to provide services of the finest quality, so that those we serve will be able to realize their dreams.
To achieve our mission, we are dedicated to valuing creativity, seeking innovative practices, and achieving expertise.
We will conduct our operations in an ethical manner, maintain excellent standards, and strive always to do our best.
Above all, we will uphold a tradition of service and caring for others.
Our Advisory Board, Officers, Administrators, and Directors will provide leadership and direction which reflects the mission, vision, and philosophical beliefs of the organization.
Our consumers’ preferences and choices will determine the direction of their pursuits of meaningful life choices and desired outcomes.
Our services will be provided with a person-centered approach and according to the unique interests and aptitudes of the individuals being served.
Our services will be delivered in a manner which promotes the respect, dignity and rights of each individual.
We will assist individuals to achieve independent and integrated community options that are meaningful and provide personal growth opportunities.
Our services will facilitate the individuals’ ability to make informed decisions with regard to their choice of community living opportunities and will not be based on program convenience or availability.
Our services will assist individuals to obtain necessary accommodations which promote their potential for successful community living.
We will develop respectful partnerships with community members by exchanging education and resources that promote successful outcomes.
Our services will respect each individual’s right to confidentiality and will be provided in accordance with data privacy regulations.
Our services will be provided by trained and qualified staff utilizing the most current practices.
Our marketing efforts will be conducted in a professional manner that is honest, image enhancing and delivered with integrity.
Our financial planning and management will comply with best business practices and applicable legal requirements.
Our staff will refrain from providing services which presents a potential conflict of interest and that interfere with the ethical standards of our organization.
If our staff engage in supervisory approved personal fundraising, which supports their own or other’s volunteer activities, they will do so without pressuring or unduly influencing their coworkers.
Our services will be provided to individuals without regard to race, age, religion, sex, disability, marital status, affectional preference, public assistance status, ex-offender status, or national origin.
Our contractual relationships will be approved, authorized and signed by our Chief Executive Officer and/or our Chief Financial Officer.
All staff will be respectful and professional in their use of social media including in their identification of the agency and their coworkers. No person served information or photos will be used on social media without a written release of information and photo consent.
There will be no exchange of personal gifts, money, gratuities and property between agency staff and the persons served or their families.
All staff will establish and interact with respect to professional boundaries with the persons served.
All legal documents for the organization will be signed with a witness present.
B. Responsibility
C. Intent
D. Adopting and Amending Policies
E. Application
A. Recruiting
B. Interviewing and Selection
a) Experience: Applicants must meet the minimum experience requirements for the position they are applying to fill.
b) Age: Applicants must be at least 16 years old
c) Education: Applicants must meet the minimum education requirements for the position they are applying to fill.
d) Training and Licensing Requirements: Applicants must meet the minimum training and licensing requirements for the position they are applying to fill.
a) Interviews: Interviews for management level candidates may be conducted by individual interviewers, by interview teams, or by a combination of both in multiple interviews.
b) Selection: The organization reserves the right to determine whether the position will be filled with an internal candidate, as in the case of a promotion or lateral transfer, or with an external candidate.
c) Salaries: Salaries will be determined on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration the organization’s Salary Guidelines and the experience of the candidate filling the position. Based on this criterion, salaries may be variable.
a. Person Served Family Members: The organization will not employ family members of a person served to work with that person in a residential program setting, including the parent, guardian, children, or spouse of a person served by the organization. The organization may employ family members of a person served to work with that person in an In-Home Services setting.
b. Employee Family Members: The employment of a family member of a current employee, in the same program, department or geographic region must be approved by the Chief Administrative Officer.
C. Verification
D. Equal Employment Opportunity / Affirmative Action
E. Employing Former Employees
F. Pre-employment Requirements
a) Position Requirements: Proof may be requested of new employees' physical or mental ability to carry out the job duties and responsibilities assigned to them in their position. New employees must disclose to the organization if they are physically or mentally unable to do the job assigned to them.
b) Physicals: New employees may be required to have a current (within the past year) physical examination, undertaken by a health care professional, to make sure they can do certain job-related activities, or to meet bonafide job requirements, or to make sure that they are free of communicable disease, or if it is required by licensing standards.
c) Cost: A physical examination may be administered by the organization's own health care professionals, under the organization's account, at no cost to the employee. If an employee is unable to keep a scheduled appointment for a physical exam, it is their responsibility to cancel and reschedule the appointment, more than four (4) hours before the appointment. Employees who fail to do so will have any "No Show" or “Late Cancellation” charges deducted from their wages.
d) Assessments: New employees may be required to have a psychological assessment, at the expense of the organization and administered by a licensed psychologist, done to make sure they are suitable to perform certain job-related activities.
G. Orientation and Mentoring
H. Drivers and Vehicles
I. Initial Period of Review
2) Duration: Unless employment terminates at the will of the employee or employer, this initial period of review is six (6) months in length. It begins on the employee's starting date and lasts for six (6) full months.
3) Evaluations: Performance evaluations may be done periodically during the initial period of review and/or at the end of it. They are done by the employee's immediate supervisor. Generally, one (1) performance evaluation is done on each new employee during the initial period of review. This evaluation takes place at Six (6) Months.
4) Expectations for All Employees: During this entire period, employees are expected to meet or exceed the demands placed on them by their supervisor in the performance of their job description and in the completion of their orientation and initial training program. At a minimum, new employees need to affirmatively demonstrate the following:
J. Employee Classifications
K. Chain of Command
2) Direct Support Professionals II
3) Direct Support Professionals III
4) Program Specialists
5) Lead Direct Support Professionals
6) Program Managers
6) Director of Finance
7) Payroll and Accounts Receivable Manager
8) Accounts Payable Manager
9) Accounts Specialist
10) Accounting Assistant
11) Human Resources Associates
12) Human Resources Administrative Assistants
13) Case Managers
A. Work Schedules
D. Leaves of Absence
2) Supervisors may elect to deny or delay an employee’s participation in a particular volunteer activity or activities, but require them to remain on duty, due to their essential nature of their position’s role in meeting the current needs of the organization
a) Notification: Employees need to inform their supervisor as early as possible of their intention to continue breastfeeding following maternity leave of absence or FMLA. This will provide Meridian Services, Incorporated time to make necessary arrangements.
b) Equipment: The employees will bring their own pump.
c) Flexible Scheduling: A breastfeeding employee shall be allowed a flexible schedule to express breast milk for her infant child. The time allowed will not exceed the normal time allowed for lunch and breaks. Breaktime must, if possible, run concurrently with any break time already provided to the employee. The department is not required to provide break time if to do so would unduly disrupt the department’s operation. All requests for time above and beyond normal lunch and breaks are subject to approval by Meridian Services, Incorporated, based on operational needs.
d) Privacy/Accommodations/Designated Lactation Space: Meridian Services, Incorporated will make reasonable effort to provide a clean lockable private room, not a toilet stall or public restroom, or other location, near the work area, where an employee can express her milk in privacy. The room should have a chair and accessible electrical outlets for an electric breast pump and if possible, a small table. A clean water source for washing hands and rinsing out any nursing equipment must be available; a restroom or break room with a sink does satisfy this requirement. It is the employee’s responsibility to keep the location clean after each use and remove any personal items.
e) Nursing Child: Bringing a child to the workplace is not recommended. However, a mother may elect to nurse her child during the scheduled breaks in the designated area. The mother will make the necessary arrangements with her supervisor and childcare giver. The childcare giver will meet at the designated location and time. It is important that these scheduled times do not disrupt the operations of the department. It is the supervisor’s discretion to determine if disruptions do occur and may terminate the direct nursing of child and provide accommodations for pumping only.
f) Storing Breast Milk: Breastfeeding women will provide their own containers and storage unit such as small ice chest or thermos from home. If breast milk is stored in a common refrigerator, the expressed milk container must be placed in a clean plastic box with lid, which has the mother’s name on it, and placed on a high shelf in the shared refrigerator, not in the door panel. It is the employee’s responsibility to remove expressed milk at the end of each day.
F. Earned Sick and Safe Time
Pursuant to Minnesota’s Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST) law, employees are entitled to earn sick and safe leave immediately upon hire. The terms under which employees earn and the permitted use of this leave are set forth below.
1) Paid Time Off
2) Access to Records
3) Access to Records on Computer
4) Exiting an Employee
5) Health Requirements for Meridian Services, Incorporated Employees
6) Work Related Injury Plan
7) Recruitment
8) Screening of Applicants
9) Interviewing
10) Hiring for Employees
11) Department of Labor Compliance
12) Development and Implementation of Wage and Salary Compensation
13) Change of Wage or Salary
14) Travel / Food Allowance Reimbursement
15) Compensation Time / Work Schedules
16) Lateral or Lower Transfers to a Different Work Site
17) Lateral or Lower Transfers: Increase Hours in Same Position
18) Promotional Transfers
19) Subcontractor / Consultant Contract Changes
20) Staff Reassignment
21) Staff Reinstatement
22) Use of Temporary Employment Positions
23) Holiday Benefits Application
24) Determining Eligibility and Use of Benefit Accrual
25) Evaluations and Reviews
26) Auditing Personnel Records
27) Posting of Job Openings
28) Reference Checks
29) Employee Reference Releases
30) Equal Employment Opportunity / Affirmative Action and Sexual Harassment Complaints Mechanism
31) Implementation of Equal Employment Opportunity / Affirmative Action Requirements
32) Scheduling of Management Staff
33) Scheduling of Residential Meridian Services, Incorporated Direct Service Staff
34) Development and Change for Staffing Patterns and Positions
35) Coverage of Open Shifts Utilizing Program Specialist Staff
36) Employee Satisfaction
37) Clean Air Act Procedure