Professional Correspondence

NOTE: Its suppose to be a memo in the business sphere. Rhetorical Situation: You are the CEO of a medium-sized company of 300 employees, and you need to WRITE A MEMO informing all employees that, as of January 1, 2020, they must pay part of the costs for their medical benefits offered through the company. Background: For the past 20 years, your company has been able to pay all of the costs of the medical-benefits plan (except for a modest co-payment), which covered the individual employee and their spouse and dependents. However, financial analyses over the past three years have shown that the annual costs to the company for this benefit have grown, on average, from $8,5000 per employee plan to $12,5000 per employee plan—an increase of 47%, or an increased annual company cost of $1.2 million, since three years ago. The company cannot absorb the full cost of these increases. To that end, the company will continue to absorb most of the current and future increase but pass some of those costs to employees. Further, the new system will charge less for individual employee coverage and more for spouse and dependent coverage. ● Individual employees will pay, on average, $2,000 per year. ● Employees with a spouse or dependent child will pay, on average, $3,000 per year. ● Employees with a household of three or more will pay, on average, $4,000 per year. ● The company will also scale annual costs to the different salary levels of employees (i.e. employees with smaller salaries will pay less than those with larger salaries). ● For all employees, the co-pay for most medical services will increase from $10 per service or office visit to $15. As you draft: Who is your audience? What do you expect their reaction will be? How can you mitigate any negativity this memo might produce? What information must your audience have? What information should you withhold from your audience (if any)? Should this be the only communication your employees receive on this subject? What should they do if they have questions? What are the consequences of not successfully delivering this message?