Critical Evaluation

The HR manager is evaluating the salaries in the logistics department. What is the mode of the salary values $55,000, $55,000, $55,000, $55,000, $60,000, $60,000, $60,000, $63,000, $65,000, and $65,000?

$55,000 Rationale: The mode is the most frequently occurring value. There are four salaries at $55,000, three at 60,000, one at $63,000, and two at $65,000.

A small division of a company lacks a formal compensation structure for employees. Due to recent recruitment and retention challenges, the division recognizes the need to review newly hired and existing employees' pay rates to ensure market competitiveness and internal equity among staff. For a number of years, the division has lacked human resources support and relied upon the general managers to determine initial pay rates for new hires as well as promotional rates for internal staff based on the amount of hours worked and the employee's attendance record. No pay ranges currently exist, and leaders have the discretion to pay whatever fits within their budget. On occasion, a human resources representative from another division has offered general advice on pay practices to the division's leadership. However, they have their own divisional responsibilities, and therefore there has been very little oversight. The divisional president is considering whether or not to bring in a contract human resources leader to research, design, and implement an appropriate pay structure for all positions. Why should the division president be concerned about having a compensation structure?

A compensation structure can help to reduce turnover by offering competitive salaries to attract new talent while promoting fair pay practices to retain tenured staff. Rationale: this addresses the recruitment and retention issues that impact achieving the overall organizational objectives.

An HR team has mined the ERP database for data related to implementation of the performance management system. What step must they complete before proceeding to analysis of the data?

Aggregation Rationale: Once the data has been acquired or collected, it must be aggregated (combined) and organized in a way that supports the goals of the analysis.

An HR vice president briefly reviews the company's employee performance scores and relevant compensation increases over the past four years. The data reveals a .7 correlation between performance scores and salary increases and a significance level of less than .05. Additionally, the HR VP finds that the use of personal days increases by 30% around the annual performance review time and production falls by 5%. Over the past three years, there has been a steady decline in profits and employee morale. Employees seem less engaged, and both the voluntary and involuntary turnover rates are currently 15 percentage points over the industry average. The senior team asks HR if there is any correlation between the performance scores, decreased production, and employee engagement. As the HR VP is conducting a cursory review of the current performance management system and analyzing the data to make recommendations, the CEO asks the HR VP to increase all salaries by 4%, citing the correlation between salaries and performance as a rationale. The next week, at the weekly management team meeting, one of the senior leaders states that at her previous company the employees were 80% engaged, and she suggests using the same number as an engagement benchmark. The CEO likes this number and asks the HR VP to put a plan in place to meet this engagement number. Another senior leader suggests to the HR VP that the company should prohibit the use of personal leave before, during, and after the review period. How should the HR VP respond to the CEO's request to increase all salaries by 4%?

Agree with the CEO in regard to the strong correlation; however, since the data does not reveal causation, more research and discussion would be needed prior to increasing everybody's salary. Rationale: since the CEO is educated on both causation and the need for additional research.

A company has four full-time sales employees who receive a base salary, a 10% commission on new sales to existing clients, and a 30% commission on new sales to new clients. One sales employee has an existing, established territory. The clients were established prior to the salesperson's employment, and sales to these clients are strong and consistent, providing an excellent income for the employee. This employee makes no effort for new sales due to satisfaction with the current income level. The other three sales employees are in new territories and work hard to make sales. Their income levels are lower than that of the first sales employee. Management believes that the current sales compensation structure is unfair and that the first sales employee is overpaid in comparison to the others. Additionally, the current structure does not provide any incentive for the first sales employee to obtain new clients. Management has requested the HR director to reduce the first sales employee's compensation to be consistent with that of the other three sales employees. Which action should the HR director take if management is interested in exploring other compensation systems?

Analyze, evaluate, and price the jobs and compare how various compensation systems align with the organization's strategy. Rationale: The HR director should evaluate the jobs, develop a comparison, and show how each system aligns to the organizational strategy.

A call center needs to hire more than 1,000 employees over the next three months to meet its hiring needs for a new health-care contract. The terms of the contract require that all employees have clear background screenings and at least half be multilingual. Currently, 25 managers and 10 employees meet all the requirements. Senior management has offered to actively participate in the hiring process and has made many suggestions, including group interviews, mass training, and virtual hiring and training. The CEO has asked HR to take the lead in putting together a comprehensive project plan within the next week to be presented to the management team. The call center's HR department consists of 10 employees: the HR director, the recruiting manager, the talent development manager, the employee relations manager, the total rewards manager, the payroll director, two recruiters, and two entry-level HR professionals. Which strategy should the HR director use to decrease turnover of the multilingual new-hire population?

Assign the 35 qualified current employees to serve as peer mentors for the new hires. Rationale: The HR director is making sure that new hires are assimilating into the organization by assigning each one a peer mentor to provide comprehensive support and encouragement. This demonstrates the Global and Cultural Effectiveness competency.

Weighted mean

Average of data that adds factors to reflect the importance of different values.

Mean

Average score or value.

A small division of a company lacks a formal compensation structure for employees. Due to recent recruitment and retention challenges, the division recognizes the need to review newly hired and existing employees' pay rates to ensure market competitiveness and internal equity among staff. For a number of years, the division has lacked human resources support and relied upon the general managers to determine initial pay rates for new hires as well as promotional rates for internal staff based on the amount of hours worked and the employee's attendance record. No pay ranges currently exist, and leaders have the discretion to pay whatever fits within their budget. On occasion, a human resources representative from another division has offered general advice on pay practices to the division's leadership. However, they have their own divisional responsibilities, and therefore there has been very little oversight. The divisional president is considering whether or not to bring in a contract human resources leader to research, design, and implement an appropriate pay structure for all positions. How should the HR leader address the information uncovered in relation to promotional pay practices?

Benchmark multiple data sources and recommend a comprehensive structure for all positions. Rationale: Multiple data sources should be considered in developing a new, comprehensive compensation structure.

A restaurant chain located in multiple regions with thousands of employees makes a policy change in its payment procedures. The new policy requires servers at sit-down restaurants to take table orders from patrons and collect payment before the meal is brought to the table instead of after the food is served and consumed. A few months after implementation, several customers file complaints of unfair treatment, alleging that servers are being selective and not all guests are asked to pay for their meal immediately after the order is placed. An investigation by the VP of HR reveals that indeed not all employees are following the new protocol, resulting in different service experiences. The VP of HR identifies a critical, immediate need for training to mitigate risk related to any future allegations of unfair treatment of guests. The company's president is in agreement with the idea. However, she will support only a limited financial contribution for the training. The VP of HR shares the purpose of the training, the time line, and key deliverables during an HR team meeting. The team expresses concerns about the nonnegotiable, short time frame, the total number of employees to be trained, and the impact on other initiatives in progress. What is the best course of action for the VP of HR to take to ensure high employee engagement during the retraining?

Certify the HR managers to deliver the training. Rationale: Equipping the instructors with evidence of technical expertise will increase their confidence, improve the effectiveness of the training, and build trust with employees who take the training.

A company has four full-time sales employees who receive a base salary, a 10% commission on new sales to existing clients, and a 30% commission on new sales to new clients. One sales employee has an existing, established territory. The clients were established prior to the salesperson's employment, and sales to these clients are strong and consistent, providing an excellent income for the employee. This employee makes no effort for new sales due to satisfaction with the current income level. The other three sales employees are in new territories and work hard to make sales. Their income levels are lower than that of the first sales employee. Management believes that the current sales compensation structure is unfair and that the first sales employee is overpaid in comparison to the others. Additionally, the current structure does not provide any incentive for the first sales employee to obtain new clients. Management has requested the HR director to reduce the first sales employee's compensation to be consistent with that of the other three sales employees. Which action should the HR director take regarding the compensation structure? Answers

Compare the current structure to the organizational strategy to evaluate alignment. Rationale: An assessment should be completed, and the system must be compared to the organizational strategy. The system must also be equitable.

A small division of a company lacks a formal compensation structure for employees. Due to recent recruitment and retention challenges, the division recognizes the need to review newly hired and existing employees' pay rates to ensure market competitiveness and internal equity among staff. For a number of years, the division has lacked human resources support and relied upon the general managers to determine initial pay rates for new hires as well as promotional rates for internal staff based on the amount of hours worked and the employee's attendance record. No pay ranges currently exist, and leaders have the discretion to pay whatever fits within their budget. On occasion, a human resources representative from another division has offered general advice on pay practices to the division's leadership. However, they have their own divisional responsibilities, and therefore there has been very little oversight. The divisional president is considering whether or not to bring in a contract human resources leader to research, design, and implement an appropriate pay structure for all positions. What should the human resources leader do to establish new pay ranges?

Compare, contrast, and analyze multiple different benchmark data sources to design a new wage structure that is best for the division. Rationale: it is important to consider multiple sources, particularly if the job titles are unique. This will facilitate a broader, more inclusive approach to examining wages across different regions as well as varying types of positions. The organization's culture and willingness to pay also factor into the final product.

Ratio analysis

Comparing the sizes of two variables to produce an index or percentage; commonly used to analyze financial statements.

During an accident investigation, an HR manager determines that the injured employee could not read the safety data sheet (SDS). The manager reviews the company's training database and discovers that 10% to 15% of the current employees possess poor reading comprehension and cannot read the lockout/tagout (LOTO) procedures for machinery or the SDS for hazardous chemicals. Upon further investigation, the HR manager learns that these employees ask coworkers for assistance with LOTO and MSDS. Fortunately the company has not had a major catastrophic injury or death related to these areas, although a review of historic data on employee injury rates indicates a high percentage of minor injuries involving chemical burns and skin abrasions. These injuries have resulted in a higher-than-average experience modification rate that has adversely impacted the company's workers' compensation insurance premiums. The HR manager decides to develop a reading literacy program to provide coaching and tutoring to raise the reading and comprehension levels for all employees, soliciting a local educational institution to develop these reading courses. Which criteria should the HR manager use to justify the proposed reading improvement program?

Comparison of on-the-job injury rates for employees whose reading levels are below the national average to the rates for employees at or above the national average Rationale: it identifies the specific reasons for on-the-job injuries that occur as a result of employees who cannot read at the national level for adults. The HR manager can use real data to show that employees who can read are able to avoid such dangerous situations or conditions.

An HR manager is asked by the vice president of HR to define and implement a simulation-based assessment center that uses specially trained observers to rate each candidate's performance. The need is to assess which employees have potential for promotion into management. The VP of HR is familiar with this practice, having used the technique in a prior company, and she sees the assessment center as a best practice innovation. The VP of HR is new and comes from a large but entirely domestic organization with an aging workforce. Her new company is a global organization with eight operations located around the world. It is highly diverse in terms of ethnicity, and the average worker is probably 15 to 20 years younger than the VP of HR is used to. In researching methodologies, the HR manager stumbles onto an online assessment system that requires no trainers and raters, takes 75% less time to complete than the assessment center process, and has higher validity and reliability as an assessment technique. What should the HR manager do with the information he has uncovered?

Create a business case including cost-benefit analyses of both options. Rationale: he HR manager can add value to the VP of HR's decision making by analyzing and comparing the economic and noneconomic costs and benefits of the two approaches.

Affinity diagramming

Data-sorting technique in which a group categorizes and subcategorizes data until relationships are clearly drawn.

Mind mapping

Data-sorting technique in which group members add related ideas and indicate logical connections, eventually grouping similar ideas.

An HR manager is asked by the vice president of HR to define and implement a simulation-based assessment center that uses specially trained observers to rate each candidate's performance. The need is to assess which employees have potential for promotion into management. The VP of HR is familiar with this practice, having used the technique in a prior company, and she sees the assessment center as a best practice innovation. The VP of HR is new and comes from a large but entirely domestic organization with an aging workforce. Her new company is a global organization with eight operations located around the world. It is highly diverse in terms of ethnicity, and the average worker is probably 15 to 20 years younger than the VP of HR is used to. In researching methodologies, the HR manager stumbles onto an online assessment system that requires no trainers and raters, takes 75% less time to complete than the assessment center process, and has higher validity and reliability as an assessment technique. In this situation, what ethical consideration should be mostly highly considered in crafting a talent assessment tool?

Definition of criteria for success in management positions Rationale: The definition of criteria for success is important, since overt or hidden bias can shape the criteria in such a way that candidates are unfairly excluded from opportunities.

Which approach describes the form of data gathering in which experts take turns presenting their assumptions and refining a composite answer but never meet face to face?

Delphi technique Rationale: In the Delphi technique, members work as a group without ever meeting. Managerial estimates and trend analysis are generally completed by individuals and presented to management. The nominal group technique requires face-to-face meetings.

A call center needs to hire more than 1,000 employees over the next three months to meet its hiring needs for a new health-care contract. The terms of the contract require that all employees have clear background screenings and at least half be multilingual. Currently, 25 managers and 10 employees meet all the requirements. Senior management has offered to actively participate in the hiring process and has made many suggestions, including group interviews, mass training, and virtual hiring and training. The CEO has asked HR to take the lead in putting together a comprehensive project plan within the next week to be presented to the management team. The call center's HR department consists of 10 employees: the HR director, the recruiting manager, the talent development manager, the employee relations manager, the total rewards manager, the payroll director, two recruiters, and two entry-level HR professionals. Which should be the first step the HR director includes in the project plan to meet hiring needs and contract requirements?

Develop a recruiting strategy to reach as many potential applicants as possible. Rationale: The HR director demonstrates the Critical Evaluation competency by first developing a recruitment strategy to reach a large group of candidates.

Standard deviation

Distance of any data point from the center of a distribution when data is distributed in a "normal" or expected pattern.

What is a practical way to develop the credibility of HR staff as data advocates?

Ensure that the results of all HR activities are measured. Rationale: The best way to establish HR as a data advocate is to be prepared to discuss the effectiveness of HR programs based on program results. This helps create a culture in which evidence is expected and used to make decisions.

An HR vice president briefly reviews the company's employee performance scores and relevant compensation increases over the past four years. The data reveals a .7 correlation between performance scores and salary increases and a significance level of less than .05. Additionally, the HR VP finds that the use of personal days increases by 30% around the annual performance review time and production falls by 5%. Over the past three years, there has been a steady decline in profits and employee morale. Employees seem less engaged, and both the voluntary and involuntary turnover rates are currently 15 percentage points over the industry average. The senior team asks HR if there is any correlation between the performance scores, decreased production, and employee engagement. As the HR VP is conducting a cursory review of the current performance management system and analyzing the data to make recommendations, the CEO asks the HR VP to increase all salaries by 4%, citing the correlation between salaries and performance as a rationale. The next week, at the weekly management team meeting, one of the senior leaders states that at her previous company the employees were 80% engaged, and she suggests using the same number as an engagement benchmark. The CEO likes this number and asks the HR VP to put a plan in place to meet this engagement number. Another senior leader suggests to the HR VP that the company should prohibit the use of personal leave before, during, and after the review period. How should the HR VP respond to the CEO's request to use a benchmark figure of 80%?

Explain that all engagement surveys and organizations are not equal and additional research is needed before launching an engagement survey and establishing a benchmark. Rationale: When recommending any organizational assessment, it is important to set the correct expectations for all stakeholders, including the CEO. An HR VP would not want to agree to a number without performing due diligence to ensure that it is a viable, realistic, and attainable number for the company to benchmark against.

Validity

Extent to which a measurement instrument measures what it is intended to measure.

Reliability

Extent to which a measurement instrument provides consistent results.

During an accident investigation, an HR manager determines that the injured employee could not read the safety data sheet (SDS). The manager reviews the company's training database and discovers that 10% to 15% of the current employees possess poor reading comprehension and cannot read the lockout/tagout (LOTO) procedures for machinery or the SDS for hazardous chemicals. Upon further investigation, the HR manager learns that these employees ask coworkers for assistance with LOTO and MSDS. Fortunately the company has not had a major catastrophic injury or death related to these areas, although a review of historic data on employee injury rates indicates a high percentage of minor injuries involving chemical burns and skin abrasions. These injuries have resulted in a higher-than-average experience modification rate that has adversely impacted the company's workers' compensation insurance premiums. The HR manager decides to develop a reading literacy program to provide coaching and tutoring to raise the reading and comprehension levels for all employees, soliciting a local educational institution to develop these reading courses. After consideration and budget approval from the CEO and the CFO, what is the first step the HR manager should take to introduce the reading program to company employees?

Form a small pilot group of employees, including employees with a reading level below the national average, and test the program. Rationale: Forming a test sample group will contribute to the overall success of the program; program issues can be resolved before the final rollout.

How do HR analytics differ from HR metrics?

HR analytics provide context to data. Rationale: Analytics convert a metric into a decision support tool by adding context. HR measures collect and tabulate data. HR objectives and strategies stem from analytics.

Which feature should HR incorporate into a pre-employment test for a position that requires a high degree of accuracy, with any mistakes by the incumbent being dangerous?

High validity Rationale: Validity indicates that there is linkage between test performance and job performance-that the test is measuring what it is intended to measure. A selection tool that offers high validity is important, because hiring an unqualified worker for this position would present a risk and the potential for a costly situation.

An HR vice president briefly reviews the company's employee performance scores and relevant compensation increases over the past four years. The data reveals a .7 correlation between performance scores and salary increases and a significance level of less than .05. Additionally, the HR VP finds that the use of personal days increases by 30% around the annual performance review time and production falls by 5%. Over the past three years, there has been a steady decline in profits and employee morale. Employees seem less engaged, and both the voluntary and involuntary turnover rates are currently 15 percentage points over the industry average. The senior team asks HR if there is any correlation between the performance scores, decreased production, and employee engagement. As the HR VP is conducting a cursory review of the current performance management system and analyzing the data to make recommendations, the CEO asks the HR VP to increase all salaries by 4%, citing the correlation between salaries and performance as a rationale. The next week, at the weekly management team meeting, one of the senior leaders states that at her previous company the employees were 80% engaged, and she suggests using the same number as an engagement benchmark. The CEO likes this number and asks the HR VP to put a plan in place to meet this engagement number. Another senior leader suggests to the HR VP that the company should prohibit the use of personal leave before, during, and after the review period. How should the HR VP respond to the request to prohibit personal leave near the performance review time?

Inform the leader that current turnover and production decreases are likely a systemic issue from low engagement and recommend not decreasing personal days. Rationale: this clearly shows that the HR VP has a firm understanding of the research. Based on the data, reducing personal days will not solve the company's problem and could, perhaps, make the problem worse.

A restaurant chain located in multiple regions with thousands of employees makes a policy change in its payment procedures. The new policy requires servers at sit-down restaurants to take table orders from patrons and collect payment before the meal is brought to the table instead of after the food is served and consumed. A few months after implementation, several customers file complaints of unfair treatment, alleging that servers are being selective and not all guests are asked to pay for their meal immediately after the order is placed. An investigation by the VP of HR reveals that indeed not all employees are following the new protocol, resulting in different service experiences. The VP of HR identifies a critical, immediate need for training to mitigate risk related to any future allegations of unfair treatment of guests. The company's president is in agreement with the idea. However, she will support only a limited financial contribution for the training. The VP of HR shares the purpose of the training, the time line, and key deliverables during an HR team meeting. The team expresses concerns about the nonnegotiable, short time frame, the total number of employees to be trained, and the impact on other initiatives in progress. How should the VP of HR ensure the effectiveness of the training?

Invite HR managers and randomly selected employees to a pilot class and make adjustments based on their feedback. Rationale: This would be the best way to gauge the effectiveness of the training and receive feedback, since the HR managers and the employees will be directly involved in the training.

The HR department is calculating the average employee compensation for each position in the company. What measure of central tendency should be used to determine this?

Mean Rationale: Mean is synonymous with average. The mode is the number that occurs most frequently, and the median is the middle number in the data set. The midpoint is used when calculating the median; it is not a measure of central tendency.

Management has requested that HR conduct a focus group to better understand the results of a recent compensation survey. Which is the most important factor HR will want to consider when forming the focus groups?

Members should be a representative sample of the employee population. Focus groups provide valuable data and elicit opinions that may be verified by surveying the larger employee population. They may also be used to elicit qualitative information that can help explain quantitative survey results. It is important to select members who are representative of the employee population at large and to appoint a moderator who is unrelated to the participants. Objectives should be specific so the organization gets the information it needs.

Median

Middle value in a range of values.

What data-gathering method requires a face-to-face meeting?

Nominal group technique Rationale: The nominal group technique uses a variety of individuals associated with the industry to forecast ideas and assumptions. This technique requires that the individuals meet face to face. The Delphi technique is performed individually but anonymously and is therefore not performed face to face.

A restaurant chain located in multiple regions with thousands of employees makes a policy change in its payment procedures. The new policy requires servers at sit-down restaurants to take table orders from patrons and collect payment before the meal is brought to the table instead of after the food is served and consumed. A few months after implementation, several customers file complaints of unfair treatment, alleging that servers are being selective and not all guests are asked to pay for their meal immediately after the order is placed. An investigation by the VP of HR reveals that indeed not all employees are following the new protocol, resulting in different service experiences. The VP of HR identifies a critical, immediate need for training to mitigate risk related to any future allegations of unfair treatment of guests. The company's president is in agreement with the idea. However, she will support only a limited financial contribution for the training. The VP of HR shares the purpose of the training, the time line, and key deliverables during an HR team meeting. The team expresses concerns about the nonnegotiable, short time frame, the total number of employees to be trained, and the impact on other initiatives in progress. Which metrics should the VP of HR share to demonstrate the impact of the training on company goals?

Number of complaints received Rationale: The results level of Kirkpatrick's evaluation model measures the impact to the business.

What is the first step in evidence-based decision making (EBDM)?

Phrasing the problem in the form of a question to be answered Rationale: The first step in EBDM is to ask the question that will guide the subsequent search for relevant data. What problem are we trying to solve?

Unweighted mean

Raw average of data that gives equal weight to all values, with no regard for other factors.

A call center needs to hire more than 1,000 employees over the next three months to meet its hiring needs for a new health-care contract. The terms of the contract require that all employees have clear background screenings and at least half be multilingual. Currently, 25 managers and 10 employees meet all the requirements. Senior management has offered to actively participate in the hiring process and has made many suggestions, including group interviews, mass training, and virtual hiring and training. The CEO has asked HR to take the lead in putting together a comprehensive project plan within the next week to be presented to the management team. The call center's HR department consists of 10 employees: the HR director, the recruiting manager, the talent development manager, the employee relations manager, the total rewards manager, the payroll director, two recruiters, and two entry-level HR professionals. Which stakeholders are the most critical for the HR director to include in the initial project planning process?

Recruiting manager, talent development manager, and employee relations manager Rationale: The HR director should include stakeholders from the human resource department. The Consultation competency is demonstrated by the HR director selecting the appropriate stakeholders for the project planning process.

A group of applicants is given the same assessment at the same time across three consecutive days. Which statistical strength of the assessment is being measured with this method?

Reliability Rationale: Reliability is the ability of a data-gathering tool to produce consistent results.

A small division of a company lacks a formal compensation structure for employees. Due to recent recruitment and retention challenges, the division recognizes the need to review newly hired and existing employees' pay rates to ensure market competitiveness and internal equity among staff. For a number of years, the division has lacked human resources support and relied upon the general managers to determine initial pay rates for new hires as well as promotional rates for internal staff based on the amount of hours worked and the employee's attendance record. No pay ranges currently exist, and leaders have the discretion to pay whatever fits within their budget. On occasion, a human resources representative from another division has offered general advice on pay practices to the division's leadership. However, they have their own divisional responsibilities, and therefore there has been very little oversight. The divisional president is considering whether or not to bring in a contract human resources leader to research, design, and implement an appropriate pay structure for all positions. How should the HR leader approach analyzing internal equity among the employee population as part of the compensation structure project?

Review employees' rates of pay to determine if they are appropriately positioned within the range. Rationale: understanding where current employees are in the pay range is a key first step in analyzing internal equity. This also takes into account tenure and overall experience and would need to be completed before introducing any new hire into the same position and range.

A new CEO has asked the HR team to complete an engagement survey to assess the organization's culture. The CEO requests that tenured employees must participate. What type of bias does this present?

Sampling Rationale: This is sampling bias. Depending on the demographic composition of the tenured employees, the sample may not represent the general population. The other answer choices do not address potential flaws in the sample.

Which tool would be best for analyzing and presenting data about the relationship between years of education and amount of income?

Scatter diagram Rationale: A scatter diagram shows possible relationships between two variables. For example, if an HR professional wants to find out if there is a relationship between years of education and amount of income, he or she could create a scatter diagram with the years of education placed on one axis and the amount of income on the other.

An HR strategic planning team wants to see what the effects on payroll will be if management realigns production capacity in different ways. Which analytical tool should HR use?

Scenario analysis Rationale: Scenario analysis is the appropriate tool here because it projects outcomes under different conditions (in this case, the production options).

A restaurant chain located in multiple regions with thousands of employees makes a policy change in its payment procedures. The new policy requires servers at sit-down restaurants to take table orders from patrons and collect payment before the meal is brought to the table instead of after the food is served and consumed. A few months after implementation, several customers file complaints of unfair treatment, alleging that servers are being selective and not all guests are asked to pay for their meal immediately after the order is placed. An investigation by the VP of HR reveals that indeed not all employees are following the new protocol, resulting in different service experiences. The VP of HR identifies a critical, immediate need for training to mitigate risk related to any future allegations of unfair treatment of guests. The company's president is in agreement with the idea. However, she will support only a limited financial contribution for the training. The VP of HR shares the purpose of the training, the time line, and key deliverables during an HR team meeting. The team expresses concerns about the nonnegotiable, short time frame, the total number of employees to be trained, and the impact on other initiatives in progress. What step should the VP of HR take to communicate the reason for the training?

Send a video to employees from the president explaining the revised policy and the training. Rationale: Since the training is organization-wide, communication from the president gives the workshop the necessary sponsorship from senior leadership in addition to credibility.

A company has four full-time sales employees who receive a base salary, a 10% commission on new sales to existing clients, and a 30% commission on new sales to new clients. One sales employee has an existing, established territory. The clients were established prior to the salesperson's employment, and sales to these clients are strong and consistent, providing an excellent income for the employee. This employee makes no effort for new sales due to satisfaction with the current income level. The other three sales employees are in new territories and work hard to make sales. Their income levels are lower than that of the first sales employee. Management believes that the current sales compensation structure is unfair and that the first sales employee is overpaid in comparison to the others. Additionally, the current structure does not provide any incentive for the first sales employee to obtain new clients. Management has requested the HR director to reduce the first sales employee's compensation to be consistent with that of the other three sales employees. Management recommends that the first sales employee be paid a straight salary, since the employee is not generating new sales from new clients. What action should the HR director take to address this recommendation?

Share an analysis of the benefits of a commission structure aligned with business goals. Rationale: demonstrates the HR director's ability to use objective information in consulting with management.

Focus group

Small group of invited persons (typically six to twelve) who actively participate in a structured discussion, led by a facilitator, for the purpose of eliciting their input.

Which action best illustrates the use of evidence-based decision making in HR?

Staff performs a regression analysis to identify likely factors for success in candidate profiles. Rationale: The best example of evidence-based decision making is the gathering and analysis of candidate data against job performance to identify critical success factors. It is not simply gathering expertise; it is applying information to make better decisions.

Variance analysis

Statistical method for identifying the degree of difference between planned and actual performance or outcomes.

Trend analysis

Statistical method that examines data from different points in time to determine if a variance is an isolated event or if it is part of a longer trend.

Regression analysis

Statistical method used to determine whether a relationship exists between variables and the strength of the relationship.

Scenario/what-if analysis

Statistical method used to test the possible effects of altering the details of a strategy to see if the likely outcome can be improved.

An HR vice president briefly reviews the company's employee performance scores and relevant compensation increases over the past four years. The data reveals a .7 correlation between performance scores and salary increases and a significance level of less than .05. Additionally, the HR VP finds that the use of personal days increases by 30% around the annual performance review time and production falls by 5%. Over the past three years, there has been a steady decline in profits and employee morale. Employees seem less engaged, and both the voluntary and involuntary turnover rates are currently 15 percentage points over the industry average. The senior team asks HR if there is any correlation between the performance scores, decreased production, and employee engagement. As the HR VP is conducting a cursory review of the current performance management system and analyzing the data to make recommendations, the CEO asks the HR VP to increase all salaries by 4%, citing the correlation between salaries and performance as a rationale. The next week, at the weekly management team meeting, one of the senior leaders states that at her previous company the employees were 80% engaged, and she suggests using the same number as an engagement benchmark. The CEO likes this number and asks the HR VP to put a plan in place to meet this engagement number. Another senior leader suggests to the HR VP that the company should prohibit the use of personal leave before, during, and after the review period. Which recommendation should the HR VP make after conducting the review and analysis of the current performance management system?

Suggest a complete review of the performance management system due to perceived central tendency errors. Rationale: A complete and thorough review in which HR looks at all of the data should be a prerequisite before making any recommendations to change the performance appraisal process.

Nominal group technique (NGT)

Technique in which participants each suggest ideas through a series of rounds and then discuss the items, eliminate redundancies and irrelevancies, and agree on the importance of the remaining items.

Delphi technique

Technique that progressively collects information from a group of anonymous respondents.

An HR manager is asked by the vice president of HR to define and implement a simulation-based assessment center that uses specially trained observers to rate each candidate's performance. The need is to assess which employees have potential for promotion into management. The VP of HR is familiar with this practice, having used the technique in a prior company, and she sees the assessment center as a best practice innovation. The VP of HR is new and comes from a large but entirely domestic organization with an aging workforce. Her new company is a global organization with eight operations located around the world. It is highly diverse in terms of ethnicity, and the average worker is probably 15 to 20 years younger than the VP of HR is used to. In researching methodologies, the HR manager stumbles onto an online assessment system that requires no trainers and raters, takes 75% less time to complete than the assessment center process, and has higher validity and reliability as an assessment technique. Given that the VP of HR has already indicated a preference for the assessment center approach, what would be the most effective way to reopen the options for this project?

The HR manager should emphasize business needs met by the online assessment option that are not provided by the traditional method. Rationale: It is objective and focuses on business needs.

During an accident investigation, an HR manager determines that the injured employee could not read the safety data sheet (SDS). The manager reviews the company's training database and discovers that 10% to 15% of the current employees possess poor reading comprehension and cannot read the lockout/tagout (LOTO) procedures for machinery or the SDS for hazardous chemicals. Upon further investigation, the HR manager learns that these employees ask coworkers for assistance with LOTO and MSDS. Fortunately the company has not had a major catastrophic injury or death related to these areas, although a review of historic data on employee injury rates indicates a high percentage of minor injuries involving chemical burns and skin abrasions. These injuries have resulted in a higher-than-average experience modification rate that has adversely impacted the company's workers' compensation insurance premiums. The HR manager decides to develop a reading literacy program to provide coaching and tutoring to raise the reading and comprehension levels for all employees, soliciting a local educational institution to develop these reading courses. What additional benefits could the company gain from successful implementation of the reading program?

The company could use this initiative to improve its employee brand and corporate social responsibility. Rationale: An enhanced employee brand can benefit the company greatly, both in the marketplace and by attracting and retaining high-potential employees.

HR seeks employee volunteers to compare two possible wellness programs. Their responses will be aggregated and analyzed to make a recommendation to senior management. How would you assess this critical analysis?

The sampling approach is flawed. Rationale: The problem with this approach is that employees have volunteered. This may attract participants who are not neutral about the program. A better approach would be to invite a randomly selected group of employees to participate and offer some nominal reward. Sample size would depend on the size of the workforce, which is not indicated here. Assessment tools and training in using them can improve reliability in ratings. The tools themselves can be validated by experienced HR staff.

An HR professional is analyzing retention rates across all the functions and divisions in a large organization. There is a high standard deviation (SD) for the dataset. What does this indicate?

There is a considerable spread in the data from high to low rates. Rationale: The standard deviation indicates the distance from the mean. When the SD is high, this indicates a greater number of outliers, rates that are either much higher or lower than the average.

How should an HR professional use trend analysis?

To plan possible responses to changes in labor supply Rationale: Trend analysis describes patterns in the past and projects future conditions based on those patterns. For example, HR can see when declines in certain types of degrees will become problematic for the organization and require a strategic response. Analyzing the fit of HR-related policies to a specific country's cultural environment, creating strategic alignment, and assessing HR performance do not produce information about what will happen in the future.

During an accident investigation, an HR manager determines that the injured employee could not read the safety data sheet (SDS). The manager reviews the company's training database and discovers that 10% to 15% of the current employees possess poor reading comprehension and cannot read the lockout/tagout (LOTO) procedures for machinery or the SDS for hazardous chemicals. Upon further investigation, the HR manager learns that these employees ask coworkers for assistance with LOTO and MSDS. Fortunately the company has not had a major catastrophic injury or death related to these areas, although a review of historic data on employee injury rates indicates a high percentage of minor injuries involving chemical burns and skin abrasions. These injuries have resulted in a higher-than-average experience modification rate that has adversely impacted the company's workers' compensation insurance premiums. The HR manager decides to develop a reading literacy program to provide coaching and tutoring to raise the reading and comprehension levels for all employees, soliciting a local educational institution to develop these reading courses. How should the HR manager evaluate the effectiveness of the program?

Track the quarterly accident trends to see if they have decreased since the training began. Rationale: Since the accident and insurance rates are the data and metrics presented to gain executive support for the program, these should be the primary drivers to measure program success.

A call center needs to hire more than 1,000 employees over the next three months to meet its hiring needs for a new health-care contract. The terms of the contract require that all employees have clear background screenings and at least half be multilingual. Currently, 25 managers and 10 employees meet all the requirements. Senior management has offered to actively participate in the hiring process and has made many suggestions, including group interviews, mass training, and virtual hiring and training. The CEO has asked HR to take the lead in putting together a comprehensive project plan within the next week to be presented to the management team. The call center's HR department consists of 10 employees: the HR director, the recruiting manager, the talent development manager, the employee relations manager, the total rewards manager, the payroll director, two recruiters, and two entry-level HR professionals. The HR team decides to implement a structured interview as part of the hiring phase. What should the HR director do to ensure that the interviews provide the same quality and quantity of information on each candidate?

Train a group of HR team members and call center managers to conduct the interviews. Rationale: To provide for consistency in the interview process, the HR director should ensure that the HR team members and call center managers are appropriately trained. This demonstrates the Consultation competency.

Root-cause analysis

Type of analysis that starts with a result and then works backward to identify fundamental cause.

A company has four full-time sales employees who receive a base salary, a 10% commission on new sales to existing clients, and a 30% commission on new sales to new clients. One sales employee has an existing, established territory. The clients were established prior to the salesperson's employment, and sales to these clients are strong and consistent, providing an excellent income for the employee. This employee makes no effort for new sales due to satisfaction with the current income level. The other three sales employees are in new territories and work hard to make sales. Their income levels are lower than that of the first sales employee. Management believes that the current sales compensation structure is unfair and that the first sales employee is overpaid in comparison to the others. Additionally, the current structure does not provide any incentive for the first sales employee to obtain new clients. Management has requested the HR director to reduce the first sales employee's compensation to be consistent with that of the other three sales employees. Which action should the HR director take to make sure that the sales compensation structure is internally and externally equitable?

Use valid external wage information and the organization's strategy to develop a structure that compensates employees for performance. Rationale: It uses external information along with the organizational strategy, and it is transparent to the employees, so they will understand how their performance will affect their compensation.

Which is the most important aspect of a selection test that successfully measures essential job-related skills and abilities?

Validity Rationale: A valid test accurately reflects the content of the job. The skills and aptitudes required for successful test performance are aligned with the skills and aptitudes required for successful job performance.

An HR director is reviewing a company's performance management criteria and questionnaires. He finds that questions to determine an employee's level of accountability do not match with manager impressions of accountability, suggesting that the questionnaire may not be providing accurate data. What statistical principle may be violated during performance reviews?

Validity Rationale: Validity is the ability of an instrument to measure what it is intended to measure. If the job descriptions are not aligned with actual practices, the review tool will not be measuring the desired performance. If a tool is unreliable, it may collect different data with every use. Measurement errors may occur when raters are not trained sufficiently. A performance error occurs when a person changes behavior as the result of being observed; this would not apply to a performance review situation.

An HR manager is asked by the vice president of HR to define and implement a simulation-based assessment center that uses specially trained observers to rate each candidate's performance. The need is to assess which employees have potential for promotion into management. The VP of HR is familiar with this practice, having used the technique in a prior company, and she sees the assessment center as a best practice innovation. The VP of HR is new and comes from a large but entirely domestic organization with an aging workforce. Her new company is a global organization with eight operations located around the world. It is highly diverse in terms of ethnicity, and the average worker is probably 15 to 20 years younger than the VP of HR is used to. In researching methodologies, the HR manager stumbles onto an online assessment system that requires no trainers and raters, takes 75% less time to complete than the assessment center process, and has higher validity and reliability as an assessment technique. What would be the best criteria to use in deciding whether to implement either or both assessment alternatives?

Validity in predicting success and accessibility to all qualified employees Rationale: Validity is crucial to identifying employees with true potential, and accessibility is critical in a global organization.

Mode

Value that occurs most frequently in a set of data.