SOP 11 – EmployeeHandbook

This employee handbook defines who we are and how we work together. we will do everything possible to create a fair and productive workplace, but we need your help. We’ve created this handbook to guide you.

This handbook isn’t a contract or a guarantee of employment. It’s a collection of our expectations, commitments and responsibilities. Please read this employee handbook carefully and consult it whenever you need to.

Employment basics

In this section, we explain our employee contract types and define our basic employment policies.

Equal opportunity employment

Alpha Greeno Management Consultants is an equal opportunity employer. We don’t tolerate discrimination against protected characteristics (gender, age, sexual orientation, race, nationality, ethnicity, religion, disability, veteran status.) We want all employees (including executives and HR) to treat others with respect and professionalism. In practice, this means that we:

Hire and promote people based on skills, experience or potential and try to reduce bias in every process (e.g. through structured interviews.
Make accommodations to help people with disabilities move about safely on our premises and use our products, services and equipment.

Use inclusive, diversity-sensitive language in all official documents, signs and job ads.

Conduct diversity and communication training.

Apart from those actions, we commit to penalizing every discriminatory, offensive or inappropriate behavior. To do this properly, we ask you to report any discriminatory action against yourself or your colleagues to HR. Our company will not retaliate against you if you file a complaint or discrimination lawsuit. Any employee who retaliates or discriminates will face disciplinary action.

Recruitment and selection process

Our hiring steps might vary across roles, but we always aim for a process that is fair and effective in hiring great people. If you are hiring for an open role, you will likely go through these steps:

Identify the need for a new job opening.
Decide whether to hire externally or internally.

Review job descriptions and write a job ad.

Get approval for your job ad.
Select appropriate sources (external or internal) to post your job opening.
Decide on hiring stages and possible timeframes.

Review resumes in our company database/ATS.
Source passive candidates.

Shortlist applicants.
Screen and interview candidates.
Run background checks and check references.

Select the most suitable candidate.
Make an official offer.

Steps may overlap, so skip steps when appropriate. Each member of a hiring team might have different responsibilities (e.g. recruiters source and hiring managers interview candidates.)

Throughout this process, we aim to keep candidates informed, communicate well with each other and give everyone an equal opportunity to work with us. Ask our recruiters for help whenever you need to enhance candidate experience or write an inclusive job description.

Background checks

If you want to run background checks on candidates, ask HR for guidance. This process is sensitive and we must always abide by laws and ensure candidates understand our intentions. As a general rule, commission a background check for finalists only. Use our contracted provider and ensure you have your candidates’ permission.

Referrals

If you know someone who you think would be a good fit for a position at our company, feel free to refer them. If we end up hiring your referred candidate, you are eligible for certain referral bonus.

Additional rules for rewards:

We guarantee that every reward will be paid out within a month of the date we hired a candidate.

There is no cap on the number of referrals an employee can make. All rewards will be paid accordingly.

If two or more employees refer the same candidate, only the first referrer will receive the referral incentives.

Referrers are still eligible for rewards even if a candidate is hired at a later time or gets hired for another position.

Who can be referred?

We have two conditions for candidates who can qualify you for our rewards. They should:

Have not applied to our company for at least a year.
Be hired as permanent full- or part-time employees (not as temporary employees or contractors.)

Generally, we encourage you to check our open positions and consider your social networks and external networks as potential resources for referred candidates.

Keep in mind that rewards may be subject to taxation. Please contact HR or our referral program manager for more information.

Attendance

We expect you to be present during your scheduled working hours. If you face an emergency that prevents you from coming to work one day, contact your manager as soon as possible. We will excuse unreported absences in cases of serious accidents, acute medical emergencies. But, whenever possible, we should know when you won’t be coming in.

Workplace policies

This section describes policies that apply to everyone at our company: employees, contractors, volunteers, vendors and stakeholders alike. These policies help us build a productive, lawful and pleasant workplace.

Confidentiality and data protection

We want to ensure that private information about clients, employees, partners and our company is well-protected. Examples of confidential information are:

Employee records
Unpublished financial information
Data of customers/partners/vendors
Customer lists (existing and prospective)
Unpublished goals, forecasts and initiatives marked as confidential

As part of our hiring process, we may ask you to sign non-compete and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs.) We are also committed to:

Restrict and monitor access to sensitive data.
Develop transparent data collection procedures.
Train employees in online privacy and security measures.
Build secure networks to protect online data from cyberattacks.
Establish data protection practices (e.g. secure locks, data encryption, frequent backups, access authorization.)

We also expect you to act responsibly when handling confidential information.

You must:

Lock or secure confidential information at all times.
Shred confidential documents when they’re no longer needed.
Make sure you view confidential information on secure devices only.
Only disclose information to other employees when it’s necessary and authorized.
Keep confidential documents inside our company’s premises unless it’s absolutely necessary to move them.

You must not:

Use confidential information for your personal benefit or profit.
Disclose confidential information to anyone outside of our company.
Replicate confidential documents and files and store them on insecure devices.

This policy is important for our company’s legality and reputation. We will terminate any employee who breaches our confidentiality guidelines for personal profit.

We may also discipline any unintentional breach of this policy depending on its frequency and seriousness. We will terminate employees who repeatedly disregard this policy, even when they do so unintentionally.

Harassment and violence

To build a happy and productive workplace, we need everyone to treat others well and help them feel safe. Each of us should do our part to prevent harassment and workplace violence.

Workplace harassment

Harassment is a broad term and may include seemingly harmless actions, like gossip. We can’t create an exhaustive list, but here are some instances that we consider harassment:

Sabotaging someone’s work on purpose.
Engaging in frequent or unwanted advances of any nature.
Commenting derogatorily on a person’s ethnic heritage or religious beliefs.
Starting or spreading rumors about a person’s personal life.
Ridiculing someone in front of others or singling them out to perform tasks unrelated to their job (e.g. bringing coffee) against their will

Sexual harassment is illegal and we will seriously investigate relevant reports. If an employee is found guilty of sexual harassment, they will be terminated.

If you’re being harassed, whether by a colleague, customer or vendor, you can choose to talk to any of these people:

Offenders. If you suspect that an offender doesn’t realize they are guilty of harassment, you could talk to them directly in an effort to resolve the harassment. This tactic is appropriate for cases of minor harassment (e.g. inappropriate jokes between colleagues.) Avoid using this approach with customers or stakeholders.

Your manager. If customers, stakeholders or team members are involved in your claim, you may reach out to your manager. Your manager will assess your situation and may contact HR if appropriate.

HR. Feel free to reach out to HR in any case of harassment no matter how minor it may seem. For your safety, contact HR as soon as possible in cases of serious harassment (e.g. sexual advances) or if your manager is involved in your claim. Anything you disclose will remain confidential.

Workplace violence

Violence in our workplace is a serious form of harassment. It includes physical and sexual assault, destruction of property, threats to harm a person or property and verbal and psychological abuse. We want to avoid those incidents altogether, but we also want to be ready to respond if needed.

For this reason, we ask you to:

Report to HR if you suspect or know that someone is being violent. Your report will be confidential and we will investigate the situation with discretion.

Call our building’s security if you witness incidents of severe physical violence (e.g. ones that involve a lethal weapon.) For your safety, avoid getting involved.

We will treat employees who verbally threaten others as high risk and they will receive an appropriate penalty. If HR finds that an employee commits an act of violence, we will terminate that employee and possibly press criminal charges. Employees who damage property deliberately will be solely responsible for paying for it.

Get help early on

Seek help from others early on to mitigate conflicts. For example:

If you experience conflicts with a colleague, ask your manager for advice before tensions escalate. If these conflicts persist, ask HR whether you could attend conflict resolution seminars with your colleague.

Our workplace is founded on mutual respect and we won’t allow anyone to compromise this foundation.

Workplace safety and health

Our company is committed to creating a hazard-free workplace. To this end, we will ensure workplace safety through preventative action and emergency management.

Preventative action

Preventative actions are any actions we take to avoid injuries or illnesses related to the workplace. We will periodically conduct risk assessments and job hazard analyses through a workplace safety committee to uncover health risks to employees. And we will establish preventative measures to address risks accordingly.

At a minimum, we will:

Hold employee training sessions on safety standards and procedures.
Make sure employees who work in dangerous locations are safe.

We also expect you to take safety seriously. Always use protective equipment and follow standards whenever necessary. If you deliberately disregard our guidelines, we may terminate you for your own and others’ safety.

Emergency management

Emergency management refers to our plan to deal with sudden catastrophes like fire, floods, earthquakes or explosions. Our emergency management provisions include:

Fire extinguishers and other fire protection equipment that are easily accessible.
An evacuation plan posted on each floor and online.
Fire escapes and safety exits that are clearly indicated.

Smoking

Alpha Greeno Management Consultants is a smoke-free workplace. You can smoke in [designated smoking areas, back alley] Any other area in our workplace (like restrooms, lobby, offices, staircases, warehouses) is strictly smoke-free to protect non-smokers.

We also advise you to:

Extinguish your cigarettes and discard them in outdoor ashtrays, cigarette urns.
Avoid smoking when you have scheduled meetings with clients or vendors.
Avoid smoking near flammable objects and areas.

Setting off fire alarms and causing fires by smoking are serious offenses. If you are found responsible, you may face disciplinary action up to and including termination.

Drug-free workplace

Alpha Greeno Management Consultants is a drug-free workplace. Whether you are an employee, contractor or visitor, you must not bring, use, give away or sell any drugs on company premises. If you are caught with illegal drugs, or show that you are under the influence of substances, you will face disciplinary action up to and including termination.

Alcohol

We prohibit employees from consuming alcohol during working hours, but they may consume alcoholic drinks in moderation at company events.

Prescription drugs

If you feel that a prescription drug (e.g. an anxiety mediation) unexpectedly affects your senses, thinking or movement, ask for the rest of your day off. If your manager suspects substance abuse, you may face disciplinary action.

You must not use medical marijuana in our workplace. We have the right to terminate you if your off-duty use of medical marijuana makes you unable to complete your job duties correctly.

We expect employees who hold safety-sensitive jobs (e.g. machine operators or drivers) to be fully alert and capable of performing their duties at all times. We may terminate you if we conclude your prescription drug use creates severe safety risks. If you need to use prescription drugs for a limited time and you think they may impair your abilities, use your PSWH or sick leave.

If your job includes secondary tasks that are safety-sensitive and your prescribed drugs affect your ability to perform these tasks, we can make reasonable accommodations to ensure you and your colleagues’ safety.

Employee Code of Conduct

As an employee, all company policies mentioned above apply to you. We have some additional expectations about your behavior at work, which we outline here. We can’t cover every single case of conduct, but we trust you to always use your best judgement. Reach out to your manager or HR if you face any issues or have any questions.

Dress code

Our company’s official dress code is Alpha Greeno Uniform. However, an employee’s position may also inform how they should dress. If you frequently meet with clients or prospects, conform to a more formal dress code. We expect you to be clean when coming to work and avoid wearing clothes that are unprofessional (e.g. workout clothes.)

As long as you conform with our guidelines above, we don’t have specific expectations about what types of clothes or accessories you should wear.

We also respect and permit grooming styles, clothing and accessories that are dictated by religious beliefs, ethnicity or disability.

Cyber security and digital devices

This section deals with all things digital at work. We want to set some guidelines for using computers, phones, our internet connection and social media to ensure security and protect our assets.

Internet usage

Our corporate internet connection is primarily for business. But, you can occasionally use our connection for personal purposes as long as they don’t interfere with your job responsibilities. Also, we expect you to temporarily halt personal activities that slow down our internet connection (e.g. uploading photos) if you’re asked to.

You must not use our internet connection to:

Download or upload obscene, offensive or illegal material.
Send confidential information to unauthorized recipients.
Invade another person’s privacy and gain access to sensitive information.
Download or upload pirated movies, music, material or software.
Visit potentially dangerous websites that can compromise our network and computers’ safety.
Perform unauthorized or illegal actions, like hacking, fraud or buying/selling illegal goods.

Cell phone

We allow use of cell phones at work. But, we also want to ensure that your devices won’t distract you from your work or disrupt our workplace. We ask you to follow a few simple rules:

Use your cell phone in a manner that benefits your work (business calls, productivity apps, calendars.)

Keep personal calls brief and use an empty meeting room or common area so as not to disturb your colleagues.

Avoid playing games on your phone or texting excessively.

Avoid using your phone for any reason while driving a company vehicle.

Don’t use your phone to record confidential information.

Don’t download or upload inappropriate, illegal or obscene material using our corporate internet connection.

Also, you must not use your phone in areas where cell phone use is explicitly prohibited (e.g. laboratories.)

Corporate email

Email is essential to our work. You should use your company email primarily for work, but we allow some uses of your company email for personal reasons.

Work-related use. You can use your corporate email for work-related purposes without limitations. For example, you can sign up for newsletters and online services that will help you in your job or professional growth.

Personal use. You can use your email for personal reasons as long as you keep it safe, and avoid spamming and disclosing confidential information. For example, you can send emails to friends and family and download ebooks, guides and other safe content for your personal use.

Our general expectations

No matter how you use your corporate email, we expect you to avoid:

Signing up for illegal, unreliable, disreputable or suspect websites and services.
Sending unauthorized marketing content or emails.
Registering for a competitor’s services, unless authorized.
Sending insulting or discriminatory messages and content.
Intentionally spamming other people’s emails, including your coworkers.

In general, use strong passwords and be vigilant in catching emails that carry malware or phishing attempts.

Social media

We want to provide practical advice to prevent careless use of social media in our workplace.

We address two types of social media uses: using personal social media at work and representing our company through social media.

Using personal social media at work

You are not permitted to access your personal accounts at work. You will have an Alpha Greeno Social Media Account. This is to ensure that you stay productive. When you are using Alpha Greeno Social Media Account. we ask you to:

Discipline yourself. Avoid getting sidetracked by your social platforms.

Ensure others know that your personal account or statements don’t represent our company. For example, use a disclaimer such as “opinions are my own.”

Avoid sharing intellectual property (e.g trademarks) or confidential information. Ask your manager or PR first before you share company news that’s not officially announced.

Avoid any defamatory, offensive or derogatory content. You may violate our company’s anti-harassment policy if you direct such content towards colleagues, clients or partners.

Representing our company through social media

If you handle our social media accounts or speak on our company’s behalf, we expect you to protect our company’s image and reputation. Specifically, you should:

Be respectful, polite and patient.
Avoid speaking on matters outside your field of expertise when possible.
Follow our confidentiality and data protection policies and observe laws governing copyrights, trademarks, plagiarism and fair use.
Coordinate with our PR/Marketing department when you’re about to share any major-impact content.
Avoid deleting or ignoring comments for no reason.
Correct or remove any misleading or false content as quickly as possible.

Conflict of interest

When you are experiencing a conflict of interest, your personal goals are no longer aligned with your responsibilities towards us. For example, accepting a bribe may benefit you financially, but it is illegal and against our business code of ethics. If we become aware of such behaviour, you will lose your job and may face legal trouble.

For this reason, conflicts of interest are a serious issue for all of us. We expect you to be vigilant to spot circumstances that create conflicts of interest, either to yourself or for your direct reports. Follow our policies and always act in our company’s best interests. Whenever possible, do not let personal or financial interests get in the way of your job. If you are experiencing an ethical dilemma, talk to your manager or HR and we will try to help you resolve it.

Employee relationships

We want to ensure that relationships between employees are appropriate and harmonious. We outline our guidelines and we ask you to always behave professionally.

Fraternization

Fraternization refers to dating or being friends with your colleagues. In this policy, “dating” equals consensual romantic relationships and sexual relations. Non-consensual relationships constitute sexual violence and we prohibit them explicitly.

Friendships at work

Employees who work together may naturally form friendships either in or outside of the workplace. We encourage this relationship between peers, as it can help you communicate and collaborate. But, we expect you to focus on your work and keep personal disputes outside of our workplace.

Employment of relatives

Everyone in our company should be hired, recognized or promoted because of their skills, character and work ethic. We would not like to see phenomena of nepotism, favoritism or conflicts of interest, so we will place some restrictions on hiring employees’ relatives.

To our company, a “relative” is someone who is related by blood or marriage within the third degree to an employee. This includes: parents, grandparents, in-laws, spouses or domestic partners, children, grandchildren, siblings, uncles, aunts, nieces, nephews, step-parents, step-children and adopted children.

As an employee, you can refer your relatives to work with our company. Here are our only restrictions:

You must not be involved in a supervisory/reporting relationship with a relative.
You cannot be transferred, promoted or hired inside a reporting relationship with a relative.
You cannot be part of a hiring committee, when your relative is interviewed for that position.

If you become related to a manager or direct report after you both become employed by our company, we may have to transfer one of you.

Workplace visitors

If you want to invite a visitor to our offices, please ask for permission from your immediate superior first. Also, inform our reception of your visitor’s arrival. Visitors should sign in and show identification.

When you have office visitors, you also have responsibilities. You should:

Always tend to your visitors (especially when they are underage.)

Keep your visitors away from areas where there are dangerous machines, chemicals, confidential records or sensitive equipment.

Prevent your visitors from proselytizing your colleagues, gathering donations or requesting participation in activities while on our premises.

Anyone who delivers orders, mail or packages for employees should remain at our building’s reception or gate. If you are expecting a delivery, front office employees will notify you so you may collect it.

Solicitation and distribution

Solicitation is any form of requesting money, support or participation for products, groups, organizations or causes which are unrelated to our company (e.g. religious proselytism, asking for petition signatures.) Distribution means disseminating literature or material for commercial or political purposes.

We don’t allow solicitation and distribution by non-employees in our workplace. As an employee, you may solicit from your colleagues only when you want to:

Ask colleagues to help organize events for another employee (e.g. adoption/birth of a child, promotion, retiring.)
Seek support for a cause, charity or fundraising event sponsored, funded, organized or authorized by our company.
Invite colleagues to employee activities for an authorized non-business purpose (e.g. recreation, volunteering.)
Ask colleagues to participate in employment-related activities or groups protected by law (e.g. trade unions.)

In all cases, we ask that you do not disturb or distract colleagues from their work.

Compensation & development

In this section, we outline our guidelines for compensating employees according to their employment status. We also describe our performance management and employee development policies.

Overtime

Occasionally, we may need you to work more than your regular working hours.

Payroll

We pay your salary or wage [before 7^th of the following month] by [bank transfers.] If you are an hourly employee, you should be diligent [in clocking in and out using our web based method] so we can accurately calculate your pay.

Performance management

We have built our performance management practices to:

Ensure you understand your job responsibilities and have specific goals to meet.
Provide you with actionable and timely feedback on your work.
Invest in development opportunities that help you grow professionally.
Recognize and reward your work in financial or non-financial ways (e.g. employee awards.)

To meet these objectives, we have:

Established [ bi-annual] performance reviews. During these reviews, your manager will fill out your performance evaluation report and arrange a meeting with you to discuss it. Through these discussions, managers aim to recognize employees who are good at their jobs, identify areas of improvement and talk about career moves. Pay increases or bonuses are not guaranteed. But, we encourage managers to recommend rewards for their team members when they deserve them. There won’t be any forced ranking or other comparison between employees, as our goal is to help all employees improve and develop their careers.

Instructed all managers to meet with their team members once per [week] to provide feedback and talk about their work and motivations. This way, you can receive feedback in a timely manner and avoid surprises during your [bi-annual] performance review.

How we expect managers to lead employees

If you manage a team, you are responsible for your team members’ performance. To conduct effective regular meetings and performance evaluations, we expect you to:

Set clear objectives. Your team members should know what you expect of them. When you first hire someone to your team, ensure they understand their job duties. Set specific goals for each team member (and team-wide if applicable.) Revisit those goals during [bi-annual] performance reviews.

Provide useful feedback. During scheduled meetings with your team members, give them both guidance and praise, as appropriate. Be fair and specific to help them understand and implement your feedback.

Keep your team members involved. There should be two-way communication between you and your team. Make your expectations clear, but always take your team members’ motivations and aspirations into account. Discuss training and development opportunities that may interest your team members.

Keep logs with important incidents about each one of your team members. These logs help you evaluate your team, but may also prove useful when rewarding, promoting or terminating your team members.

Employee training and development

We owe our success to our employees. To show our gratitude, we will invest in our employees professional development. We want employees to feel confident about improving their efficiency and productivity. We also want to help our employees achieve personal growth and success.

Apart from online courses, we offer these training opportunities:

Formal training sessions (individual or corporate.)
Employee coaching and mentoring.
Seats at industry conferences.
On-the-job training.
Job shadowing.
Job rotation.

Development is a collective process. Team members and managers should regularly discuss learning needs and opportunities. And it’s HR’s responsibility to facilitate any development activities and processes.

Benefits and perks

In this section, we describe what we offer to our employees. We provide information on our health insurance plans and benefits like work from home options and company-issued equipment.

Employee health

Employee health is important to us. We don’t discriminate against people with disabilities or health conditions, but we want to do everything possible to help employees stay healthy. At a minimum, we provide RM 50 per clinic visit to all eligible employees.

We have also established non-smoking and substance abuse policies to protect employee health. We will create a workplace with minimal noise and good lighting and offer [free healthy snacks.]

Workers’ compensation (SOCSO)

The purpose of SOCSO is to provide social security protection in the form of cash payments and benefits to employees in the private sector in the event of workplace injuries, emergencies, occupational diseases, and even death.

Generally, SOCSO has two protection schemes for registered members, namely the Employment Injury Scheme and the Invalidity Pension Scheme.

1) Employment Injury Scheme

According to the SOCSO website, the Employment Injury Scheme “provides protection to an employee against accident or an occupational disease arising out of and in the course of his employment”. Under this scheme, it covers industrial and commuting accidents as well as accidents during emergency, and occupational diseases.

2) Invalidity Pension Scheme

Invalidity Pension Scheme offers 24-hour coverage against invalidity. Invalidity refers to a morbid condition that is impossible or unlikely to be cured. For examples, people suffering from malignant cancer, terminal diseases, and stroke, which prohibits them from daily activities and earning a living.

Work from home

If your job doesn’t require you to be present at our premises, you can occasionally work from home (WFH).

Please inform your manager that you want to work from home [using our internal reporting] at least [seven days] in advance. You may work from home without having received prior approval, but call or email your manager as soon as possible.

When you are working from home, please use an internet connection and devices that are fast and secure. Choose a place without loud noises or distractions. And, check in with your team frequently to make collaboration easier.

If there is inclement weather (e.g. a blizzard) please check your [email] to see if the office is officially closed. If you judge that your commute during inclement weather is dangerous, let us know. We will not force you to come to work if your safety is at stake or if there is an official travel warning.

Employee expenses

There are some expenses that we will pay directly on your behalf (e.g. hotel rooms for work-related travel.) But, we ask you to keep track and report on those reimbursable expenses that you pay yourself. We reimburse employee expenses that are related to:

[Business travel]

Not all travel expenses are reimbursable. For example, we will pay for your transportation to an airport for work-related travel, but not to a museum for a personal visit. Before traveling for business, contact HR to clarify which expenses are reimbursable within your particular trip.

Please keep receipts for all reimbursable expenses. You can submit them to your manager [through our system] within [three months] after the date of each expense. If your manager approves your expenses, you will receive your reimbursement within [two months] pay periods [by bank transfer.]

Company car

You may drive a company car if you:

Need it as an indispensable part of your job (e.g. truck drivers and delivery drivers.)
Receive it as a benefit attached to your job.

Either way, your car belongs to our company. You may use your company vehicle for personal reasons as our policy permits. You will get reimbursed only for approved, business-related expenses.

To get a company car, you should have a valid driver’s license and a clean driving record for at least [two years.] Drive safe and sober and respect traffic laws and fellow motorists. You should also check your car regularly to ensure gas, tire pressure and all car fluids are at appropriate levels.

We expect you to avoid:

Smoking in a company car.
Leasing, selling or lending a company car.
Using a company car to teach someone how to drive.
Leaving your company car unlocked, unattended or parked in dangerous areas.
Allowing unauthorized people to drive a company car, unless an emergency mandates it.

On our part, we will ensure that our cars are safe and in good condition, as well as appropriately insured.

Accidents

If you are involved in an accident with a company car, contact our HR department immediately, so we can get in touch with our insurance provider. You shouldn’t accept responsibility or guarantee payment to another person without authorization.

Follow this policy’s guidelines to avoid disciplinary action. For minor offenses, like allowing unauthorized people to drive a company car, we will reprimand you or reclaim your car. But for more serious offenses, like causing an accident while intoxicated, we may terminate you.

Parking

We will prioritize parking space assignments for [employees with disabilities, executives and employees who drive company vehicles.] We will then allocate our remaining parking spaces on a first-come, first-served basis. Interns and trainees may also receive parking spaces. If you want to receive a parking spot, file your request with our [HR department/ facilities manager.]

We expect you to keep our parking lot clean and use only your assigned space. Please behave responsibly to avoid causing damage, injury or loss of property.

We will not assume any liability for theft, vandalism, fire or damage regarding an employee’s vehicle in our parking lot.

Company-issued equipment

As an employee, you may receive [company cell phone, laptop or other device, furniture.] Unless otherwise mentioned in your contract, any equipment we offer belongs to our company and you may not sell it or give it away. You are also responsible for keeping our equipment safe and in as good condition as possible. If your equipment breaks or malfunctions, let us know so we can arrange to get it repaired.

If you are part of our corporate cell phone plan, please use your phone within our plan’s restraints. You may have to pay any extra charges yourself.

Theft and damage of company equipment

Our equipment is insured for theft and damage. We ask you to inform us within [24 hours] if your equipment is stolen or damaged. We might be able to trace stolen laptops and cell phones. Please also file a theft statement (affidavit) with the police and submit a copy to us.

Security of company issued devices

We advise you to keep your company-issued computer, tablet and cell phone secure. You can do this if you:

Keep all devices password-protected.
Ensure you do not leave your devices unattended.
Install security updates for browsers and other systems as soon as updates are available.
Log into company accounts and systems through secure and private networks only.
Follow all instructions for disk encryption, anti-malware protection and password management that you received along with your equipment.

Time

In this section, we explain our provisions for your working hours and time off.

Working hours

Please refer to your appointment letter as the working hours varies from one to another.

Paid Swapped Working Hours off (PSWH)

In certain unforeseen circumstances, the company might at time require you to work on your off days. Upon mutual agreement of you and your immediate superior, the total number of workings hours in your off day could be swapped with working days.

e.g.

Thursday is your off day.

Company requires you to work for 5 hours on Thursday in a road show in a shopping mall. Upon mutual agreement, you could replace the 5 hours on the following Monday.

Vice versa, employee could request PSWH provided it is not within the training, classes, workshop, tutorial or lecture hours (TCWTL) hours.

Holidays

Our company observes the following holidays:

Chinese New Year Day 1
Chinese New Year Day 2
Workers’ Day
Hari Raya 1
Hari Raya 2
the Birthday of the Ruler or the Yang di-Pertua Negeri
Birthday of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong
National Day
Malaysia Day
Christmas Day

If the public holidays fall on working day. Employee shall have 2 options

Replace the holiday on semester break
Replace the total number of working hours with non-TCWTL working hours

e.g.

Scenario 1

Should Chinese New Year Day 1 & 2 fall on on 5^th February (Tuesday) & 6^th February (Wednesday).

Tuesday & Wednesday is a working day.

Employee will be entitled 2 days of holidays

Declared semester break is from 4^th February (Monday) to 10^th February (Sunday).

Employee could choose to replace the two days of holiday on 4^th February (Monday), 9^th February (Saturday) or 10^th February (Sunday).

Scenario 2

Employee workings hours on Monday is 8 hours with 1 hour break. 1:00 pm – 10:15 pm.

Should Malaysia Day falls on 16 September (Monday).

Employee is required to conduct the class Monday night 7.45 pm- 9.45 pm (2 hours).

There are 6 replacement hours left.

Employee could choose to replace the number of workings hours on Monday from 1:00 pm – 7:00pm. (5 hours)

and Tuesday 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm (3 hours). Employee will report to work from 4:00 pm – 10.15pm.

Working on a holiday

These holidays are considered “off-days” for most employees. If you need a team member to work on a holiday, inform them at least [three days] in advance.

We [won’t] count hours you worked on a holiday to decide whether you are entitled to overtime pay.

Annual Leave

(1) An employee shall be entitled to paid annual leave of—

(a) eight days for every twelve months of continuous service with the same employer if he has been employed by that employer for a period of less than two years;

(b) twelve days for every twelve months of continuous service with the same employer if he has been employed by that employer for a period of two years or more but less than five years; and

(c) sixteen days for every twelve months of continuous service with the same employer if he has been employed by that employer for a period of five years or more, and if he has not completed twelve months of continuous service with the same employer during the year in which his contract of service terminates, his entitlement to paid annual leave shall be in direct proportion to the number of completed months of service:

Provided that any fraction of a day of annual leave so calculated which is less than one-half of a day shall be disregarded, and where the fraction of a day is one-half or more it shall be deemed to be one day;

And provided further that where an employee absents himself from work without the permission of his employer and without reasonable excuse for more than ten per centum of the working days during the twelve months of continuous service in respect of which his entitlement to such leave accrues he shall not be entitled to such leave.

(1A) The paid annual leave to which an employee is entitled under subsection (1) shall be in addition to rest days and paid holidays.

(1B) Where an employee who is on paid annual leave becomes entitled to sick leave or maternity leave while on such annual leave, the employee shall be granted the sick leave or the maternity leave, as the case may be, and the annual leave shall be deemed

to have not been taken in respect of the days for which sick leave or maternity leave is so granted.

(2) The employer shall grant and the employee shall take such leave not later than twelve months after the end of every twelve months continuous service and any employee who fails to take such leave at the end of such period shall thereupon cease to be entitled thereto:

Provided that an employee shall be entitled to payment in lieu of such annual leave if, at the request of his employer, he agrees in writing not to avail himself of any or all of his annual leave entitlement.

(2A) Notwithstanding subsection (2), upon the termination of an employee’s contract of service, the employee shall be entitled to take before such termination takes place the paid annual leave due to be taken in the year in which the termination takes place

in respect of the twelve months of service preceding the year in which the termination takes place, and, in addition, the leave accrued in respect of the completed months of service during the year in which the termination takes place.

(3) The employer shall pay the employee his ordinary rate of pay for every day of paid annual leave, and an employee on a monthly rate of pay shall be deemed to have received the annual leave pay if he receives his monthly wages, without abatement in respect of such annual leave, for the month in which he takes such annual leave.

(3A) If the contract of service has been terminated by either party before an employee has taken the paid annual leave to which he is entitled under this section, the employer shall pay the employee his ordinary rate of pay in respect of every day of such leave:

Provided that this subsection shall not apply where an employee

is dismissed under paragraph 14(1)(a).

(3B) Where an employee is granted leave of absence without pay by his employer during any period of twelve months and the period of absence exceeds in the aggregate thirty days, that period of leave of absence shall be disregarded for the purpose of computing his length of service with the employer under this section.

(4) The Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, fix the periods when and prescribe the manner in which annual leave shall be granted to employees in different types of employment or in different classes of industries.

Sick leave

Employee is entitled paid sick leave where no hospitalization is necessary,—

of fourteen days in the aggregate in each calendar year if the employee has been employed for less than two years;
of eighteen days in the aggregate in each calendar year if the employee has been employed for two years or more but less than five years;
of twenty-two days in the aggregate in each calendar year if the employee has been employed for five years or more; or
of sixty days in the aggregate in each calendar year if hospitalization is necessary, as may be certified by such registered medical practitioner or medical officer

And provided And provided further that if an employee is certified by such registered medical practitioner or medical officer to be ill enough to need to be hospitalized but is not hospitalized for any reason whatsoever, the employee shall be deemed to be hospitalized for the purposes of this section.

Jury duty and voting

If you are called for jury duty and you are an exempt employee, you can take [one day] off without deduction from your salary. If local or national law stipulates more days of paid jury duty leave, we will follow the law. On election day, you can take [two hours] off to vote. You can take [a paid half-day off] if you need to travel a short distance to vote. If your trip lasts more days, please use your PSWH.

Hourly employees may take [one unpaid day] off for jury duty and voting. If local or national law obliges us to provide hourly employees with paid jury duty leave, we will follow the law.

To keep good records, we ask you to bring us [a copy of your summons for jury duty and a document that proves you served.]

Parental leave

Maternity leave

Length of eligible period and entitlement to maternity allowance

(1) (a) Every female employee shall be entitled to maternity leave for a period of not less than sixty consecutive days (also referred to in this Part as the eligible period) in respect of each confinement and, subject to this Part, she shall be entitled to receive from her employer a maternity allowance to be calculated or prescribed as provided in subsection (2) in respect of the eligible period.

(aa) Where a female employee is entitled to maternity leave under paragraph (a) but is not entitled to receive maternity allowance from her employer for the eligible period under paragraph (c), or

because she has not fulfilled the conditions set out in paragraph (2)(a), she may, with the consent of the employer, commence work at any time during the eligible period if she has been certified fit to resume work by a registered medical practitioner.

(b) Subject to section 40, maternity leave shall not commence earlier than a period of thirty days immediately preceding the confinement of a female employee or later than the day immediately following her confinement:

Provided that where a medical officer or the registered medical practitioner appointed by the employer certifies that the female employee as a result of her advanced state of pregnancy is unable to perform her duties satisfactorily, the employee may be required to commence her maternity leave at any time during a period of fourteen days preceding the date of her confinement as determined in advance by the medical officer or the registered medical practitioner appointed by the employer.

(bb) Where a female employee abstains from work to commence her maternity leave on a date earlier than the period of thirty days immediately preceding her confinement, such abstention shall not be treated as maternity leave and she shall not be entitled to any maternity allowance in respect of the days during which she abstains from work in excess of the period of thirty days immediately preceding her confinement.

(c) Notwithstanding paragraph (a), a female employee shall not be entitled to any maternity allowance if at the time of her confinement she has five or more surviving children.

(d) For the purposes of this Part, “children” means all natural

children, irrespective of age.

(2) (a) A female employee shall be entitled to receive maternity allowance for the eligible period from her employer if—

(i) she has been employed by the employer at any time in the twelve months immediately before her confinement; and

(b) A female employee who is eligible for maternity allowance under paragraph (1)(a) shall be entitled to receive from the employer for each day of the eligible period a maternity allowance at her ordinary rate of pay for one day,

(c) A female employee employed on a monthly rate of pay shall be deemed to have received her maternity allowance if she continues to receive her monthly wages during her abstention from work during the eligible period without abatement in respect of the abstention.

(d) Where a female employee claims maternity allowance under this section from more than one employer, she shall not be entitled to receive a maternity allowance of an amount exceeding in the aggregate the amount which she would be entitled to receive if her claim was made against one employer only.

(3) Where there are more employers than one from whom the female employee would be entitled to claim maternity allowance in accordance with subsection (2) the employer who pays the maternity allowance shall be entitled to recover from such other employer, as a civil debt, a contribution which shall bear the same proportion to the amount of the maternity allowance paid to the female employee as the number of days on which she worked for such other employer during the period of nine months immediately preceding her confinement bears to the total number of days on which she worked during the said period:

Provided that if the female employee has failed to comply with subsection 40(1) or (2), the employer who pays the maternity allowance shall not thereby be prevented from recovering contribution calculated in accordance with this subsection.

Leaving our company

In this section, we describe our procedures regarding resignation and termination of our employees. We also refer to our progressive discipline process that may sometimes result in termination. You shall at all times, devote your full attention and skill to the affairs of the Company and will endeavour to your utmost ability to promote and advance the interests of the Company.

Employee is refrained from

Using any Alpha Greeno® logos without a written license.
All employees may not use the Alpha Greeno® name to advertise his/her products, goods or services.
All employees may not disclose Alpha Greeno® as an employee or release information about relationships with Alpha Greeno®, by name or by an indirect or descriptive reference.

Progressive discipline

Here we outline steps we will take to address employee misconduct. We want to give employees a chance to correct their behavior when possible and assist them in doing so. We also want to ensure that we thoroughly investigate and handle serious offenses.

Our progressive discipline process has six steps of increasing severity. These steps are:

Verbal warning
Informal meeting with supervisor

Formal reprimand

Formal disciplinary meeting
Penalties
Termination

Different offenses correspond to different steps in our disciplinary process. For example, minor, one-time offenses (e.g. breach of our dress code policy) will trigger Step 1. More severe violations (e.g. sexual harassment) will trigger step 5.

If you manage employees, inform them when you launch a progressive discipline process. Pointing out a performance issue is not necessarily a verbal warning and may be part of your regular feedback. If you judge that progressive discipline is appropriate, let your team member know and ask HR to help you explain our full procedure.

Managers may skip or repeat steps at their discretion. Our company may treat circumstances differently from that described in this policy. But, we are always obliged to act fairly and lawfully and document every stage of our progressive discipline process.

Keep in mind that our company isn’t obliged to follow the steps of our progressive discipline process. As you are employed “at-will” in the Malaysia, we may terminate you directly without launching a progressive discipline process. For serious offenses (e.g. sexual harassment), we may terminate you without warning.

Resignation

You resign when you voluntarily inform HR or your manager that you will stop working for our company. We also consider you resigned if you don’t come to work for [three] consecutive days without notice.

You are not obliged to give us advance notice before resigning. But, for efficiency’s sake, and to make sure our workplace runs smoothly, we ask that you give at least [2 weeks] notice, if possible. If you hold a highly specialized or executive position, we ask that you give us at least [two months’s] notice, when possible.

We accept verbal resignations, but we prefer that you submit a written and signed notice of resignation for our HR records. We will reply with an acceptance of resignation letter within [three days.] HR will inform your manager that you are resigning if you haven’t already done so. Whether you want to announce your resignation to your team is up to you, but we encourage you to be open.

Tuition or relocation reimbursement

If you have relocated or studied at our company’s expense, you are bound by your contract to remain with us for at least [two years.] If you resign before that period, you may have to reimburse us for part or all of these expenses.

Forced resignation

You can resign anytime at your own free will and nobody should force you into resignation except for employee who has contract with the company. Forcing someone into resigning (directly or indirectly) is constructive dismissal and we won’t tolerate it. Specifically, we prohibit employees from:

Creating a hostile or unpleasant environment.
Demanding or coaxing an employee to resign.
Victimizing, harassing or retaliating against an employee.
Forcing an employee to resign by taking unofficial adverse actions (e.g. demotions, increased workload).

Termination

Terminating an employee is always unpleasant but sometimes necessary. If that happens, we want to ensure we act lawfully and respectfully.

We may terminate an employee either for cause or without cause.

For cause termination is justified when an employee breaches their contract, engages in illegal activities (e.g. embezzlement), disrupts our workplace (e.g. harasses colleagues), performs below acceptable standards or causes damage or financial loss to our company.

Without cause termination refers to redundancies or layoffs that may be necessary if we cease some of our operations or re-assign job duties within teams. We will follow applicable laws regarding notice and payouts.

We may also help employees who were terminated without cause to find work elsewhere, if possible.

If you manage team members, avoid wrongful dismissal. When you terminate an employee for cause, we expect you to be certain you made the right choice and keep accurate performance and/or disciplinary records to support your decision.