SHRM-CP: Analytical Aptitude

ratio analysis

compares the relative size of two variables and yields a percentage (ex. net profit margin is a ratio that compares net revenue with costs) -many commonly used HR metrics are ratios, such as turnover rate

measurement bias

raters are measuring incorrectly, either unintentionally (because of lack of training or difficult measurement procedures) or intentionally (the result of some type of personal bias)

validity

the ability of an instrument to measure what it is intended to measure; answers the questions "What does the instrument measure?" and "How well does the instrument measure it?" ex. skill tests administered to job applicants must produce valid performance data, which means they must measure skills that are necessary requirements for the job

response bias

the inverse of selection bias; the researchers invite a representative sample to join a study, but the group that accepts or responds is not representative (ex. HR invites all employees to participate in a survey to determine new benefits, but the group that responds is disproportionately young parents)

mode

the most frequently occurring score(s) in a data set

reliability

the ability of a data-gathering instrument or tool (ex. survey) to provide results that are consistent ex. if an applicant takes a motor skills test on consecutive days, the scores should be similar (allowing for the effect of practice) - if all conditions are the same and the scores differ significantly, the test may not be reliable

A company has experienced a high degree of turnover during the past year. Senior leadership is concerned about the amount of turnover and worried that HR is not moving fast enough to fill these positions. The hiring managers say that the applicant pools have been weak lately and they have had trouble finding qualified applicants to hire from within the pools HR provides. HR has relied heavily on recruiting by word of mouth, which in the past has generated applicants that fit the company's culture. The award for referrals that result in hiring has also been popular with employees. What would be the best way for HR to bring in more qualified applicants?

Post job openings on Internet job sites and examine the effect on the applicant pool.

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

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

Sampling

What data analysis tool should be used to show the relationship between employees' formal education and job performance ratings?

Scatter diagram

pie chart

-Depicts as slices of a circle the constituents that comprise 100% of a data group. -Communicates high-level information about data distribution as a percentage of a whole (ex. age breakdown a workforce)

scatter diagram

-Plots data points against two variables -Can be used to test possible causal relationships and narrow focus on subsequent tests -Tightness of clustering indicates strength of relationship -Direction of the line indicates a positive or negative relationship of the variables (ex. workplace accidents mapped against hours of safety training)

trend diagram

-Plots data points of a defined variable over time (ex. analyze workforce demand to identify overall trends in demand as well as high and low points during the calendar year) -Shows cycles or developing trends

pareto chart

-Ranks categories of data -Applies Pareto principle (80% of effects are caused by 20% of causes) -Distinguishes between the "vital few" categories that contribute most of the issues and the "trivial many" categories of infrequent occurrence to support more-focused quality improvement activities (ex. analyze the causes of voluntary separation in an organization)

histogram

-Sorts data into groups and shows relative sizes as columns of varying heights or lengths -Supports rapid comparison of categories of data (ex. recruiting methods in terms of employee performance ratings)

selection bias

-can occur in a controlled study when participants are not randomly assigned to control and experimental groups -can also occur when researchers choose to enroll only certain types of participants

Focus Group Tools: Nominal group technique (NGT)

-proceeds through rounds in which participants each suggest ideas -the rounds continue until no further ideas are proposed -the group then discusses the items, eliminates redundancies and irrelevant items, and agrees on the importance of the remaining items -can be practiced with idea generation by individuals, subgroups, or the entire group

Focus Group Tools: Delphi technique

-progressively collects information from a group on a preselected issue -the first respondent proposes information, the next respondent adds something different, and so on, until a list can be compiled -respondents are anonymous -in the second round, the researcher circulates the list and asks each respondent to refine previous ideas, comment on each idea's strengths and weaknesses for addressing the issue, and to identify new ideas -designed to facilitate group involvement, problem solving, and individual thinking while avoiding "group think" (participants never meet face-to-face)

How to become an HR data advocate

1. Develop a questioning mind (ex. "Why do we do it this way?"; "What is the evidence for thinking that?") 2. Build fluency in the scientific literature for HR 3. Gather data on a continuous basis about the efficacy and efficiency of legacy systems (ex. recruiting) and stakeholder interests 4. Use evidence when communicating with stakeholders 5. Institutionalize the competency in the HR function (ex. establish journal study groups; at regular meetings, designated members research and report on new or important classic articles)

Focus Group Tools: Mind mapping & Affinity diagramming

1. Mind mapping- begins with the discussion of core ideas. Group members add related ideas and indicate logical connections, eventually grouping similar ideas. Can be done on paper, whiteboard, or sticky notes 2. Affinity diagramming- a way of sorting a large amount of data that has already been collected. The group categorizes and subcategorizes data until relationships are clearly drawn

A newly hired HR director of a small nonprofit organization notices that the organization is lacking a comprehensive compensation philosophy and salary rate structure. New hires routinely receive higher pay than more-senior employees. The organization does not have a performance management process, and not all employees receive yearly salary increases. The CEO is concerned that the organization will lose quality staff without a strategic focus on its employees, and she tasks the HR director with designing and implementing a performance management model for the organization. An employee submits a complaint to the HR director stating that he has not received a pay raise in two years because of a physical disability. How should the HR director respond to the complaint?

Analyze salary increase history for all employees in that department.

A newly hired HR director of a small nonprofit organization notices that the organization is lacking a comprehensive compensation philosophy and salary rate structure. New hires routinely receive higher pay than more-senior employees. The organization does not have a performance management process, and not all employees receive yearly salary increases. The CEO is concerned that the organization will lose quality staff without a strategic focus on its employees, and she tasks the HR director with designing and implementing a performance management model for the organization. The CEO decides to implement 360-degree performance assessments for the upcoming year. What should the HR director do to ensure buy-in for this effort?

Arrange training sessions for managers and employees.

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. Which strategy should HR 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.

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.

The HR manager at a hospital is tasked with reviewing hospital job requisition records. Upon doing so, they observe a trend where job applicants who are from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds are not progressing past interviews during the selection process. After observing this trend, the HR manager interviews current hospital employees to seek out why this trend is occurring. The HR manager learns that these applicants typically have language barriers. Additionally, these job applicants have often immigrated to the country after pursuing and completing higher education in their home country. As a result, their medical practice licenses are not always equivalent to the country's requirements. What guidance should the HR manager provide interviewers for candidates who meet the credentialing requirements but struggle with language barriers?

Conduct training with interviewers that focuses on identifying potential biases during the interview process.

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

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. -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.

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 MSDS for hazardous chemicals. Upon further investigation, the HR manager learns that these employees regularly 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.

How do HR analytics differ from HR metrics?

HR analytics provide context to data. -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.

An analyst predicts a total number of voluntary and involuntary separations over the next year and gives the report a statistical rating of P50. What does this mean?

Half of the forecasts will be above the reported number and half will be below.

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.

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.

A company has experienced a high degree of turnover during the past year. Senior leadership is concerned about the amount of turnover and worried that HR is not moving fast enough to fill these positions. The hiring managers say that the applicant pools have been weak lately and they have had trouble finding qualified applicants to hire from within the pools HR provides. HR has relied heavily on recruiting by word of mouth, which in the past has generated applicants that fit the company's culture. The award for referrals that result in hiring has also been popular with employees. What would be the best way for HR to address the senior leaders' concerns about turnover?

Tell senior management that HR will do an analysis of the current turnover rate across fiscal years to determine if the turnover rate has changed drastically.

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. 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.

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 MSDS for hazardous chemicals. Upon further investigation, the HR manager learns that these employees regularly 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 additional benefit 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.

sampling bias

a sample may not represent the general population (ex. HR is studying the effects of an engagement strategy on retention, but the sample contains a higher proportion of older workers than are in the organization's workforce)

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.

How should an HR professional use trend analysis?

To plan possible responses to changes in labor supply -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.

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.

trend analysis

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 -can be used to forecast future conditions by establishing the direction and degree of change over time example- HR can use this to identify the most appropriate times to conduct campus job fairs by tracking the results from events held at different times over multiple years

variance analysis

identifies the degree of difference between planned and actual performance -usually applied to analysis against objective baselines, such as schedules and budgets

performance bias

participants in a controlled study behave differently because they are being studied (ex. increases in productivity being measured are only temporary due to the experiment's design - participants appreciated the increased attention to their welfare)