Competencies Quizzes - SHRM-CP

Which factor is essential for the success of a diversity and inclusion initiative?

Executive Commitment Strong and consistent support of top executives is essential for the sustaining an organization's diversity and inclusion efforts. Employee commitment is important as well, but this will follow the leadership's launch and commitment to such an effort.

- Motivation theory that states that effort increases in relation to one's confidence that the behavior will result in a positive outcome and reward - Includes Vroom's theory

Expectancy Theory

- Societies or groups characterized by complex, usually long-standing networks of relationships - Members share a rich history of common experience, so the way they interact and interpret events is often not apparent to outsiders

High-Context Cultures

Ratio of net income (gross sales minus expenses and taxes) to net sales

Net Profit Margin

Process of developing mutually beneficial contacts through the exchange of information

Networking

Refers to a workforce that approaches problems using different conceptual thought approaches that may stem from atypical brain structure, for example, attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and anything categorized as existing on the autism spectrum (autism spectrum disorder, or ASD)

Neurodiversity

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

Regression Analysis

Extent to which a measurement instrument provides consistent results

Reliability

Several employees have contacted the HR department multiple times about the company's lack of environmentally sustainable practices. In particular, employees have suggested that the company use reusable containers and utensils at official company events instead of plastic bottles and cups. Employees have provided alternative solutions, such as a cost estimate of a reusable liquid container with the company logo. Each time, the HR specialists have politely thanked the employees for their input but have not taken any specific action to avoid having to change contracts with the long-term vendor of supplies. At a recent company meeting, plastic cups and plates were used to serve refreshments and snacks. One of the employees who had been contacting the HR department was at the meeting. Upon seeing the plastic materials, the employee became very upset, expressed criticism for the company not taking any action, and left the meeting. The HR manager is put in charge of looking into environmentally friendly practices as well as resolving the conflict with this employee. The HR manager learns that the company's long-term vendor does not offer environmentally friendly options. How should the HR manager move forward with procuring such products?

Request that the long-term vendor offer environmentally sustainable products

Money an organization owes its vendors and suppliers

Accounts Payable

Money an organization's customers owe the organization

Accounts Receivable

- Communication technique to increase the engagement between communicators and their audiences - It involves two-way communication and attention to nonverbal signs that indicate interest and reactions to the message and speaker

Active Listening

What budgeting method is based on how much it costs to perform different enterprise activities and allocates funding according to the strategic significance of the activities?

Activity-Based Activity-based budgeting recognizes the interrelationships among various activities required to create value in an organization. It is based on how much it costs to perform different enterprise activities. Funding may be allocated based on the strategic significance of the activities.

The critical care unit (CCU) at a large, reputable hospital is understaffed for registered nurse positions. Traditionally, there is a series of career hurdles a nurse must overcome to assume a role in the hospital's CCU, but it's essential for the hospital to have these positions filled. The CCU's head nurse, who directs nursing service activities for unit patients, has approached the hospital's HR manager with these staffing concerns and needs. In addition to presenting the HR manager with the current staffing problem, the head nurse recommends a strategy to staff the unit. The strategy described by the head nurse includes creating a pilot program where internal nurses, working in other departments with translatable skill sets, can enroll in an accelerated critical care course. Once those nurses successfully complete the accelerated course, they will be offered positions in the hospital's CCU. The head nurse tells the HR manager that both the organization and nurses would benefit from a program like this because it is an opportunity for career development and fulfills an organizational need. Additionally, this would reduce the burden on current CCU nurses who are overworked and experiencing burnout. What should the HR manager do to investigate whether the lack of CCU nurses is impacting the quality of care?

Administer a patient satisfaction survey upon discharge to collect feedback about the care received in the CCU

An HR manager receives a memo from a department director for termination of a groundskeeping employee. The company's recreational vehicle resort is at the same location as company headquarters. The terminated employee works and lives at the resort, and has no prior record of performance issues in his 10 year career. The memo states that the director terminated the employee yesterday for gross misconduct. The groundskeeper was working in the heat all morning and then informed the director he was going home for lunch. Later the groundskeeper radioed the director that he was running late in returning from lunch. Subsequent communications led to the director sending a student worker to the employee's trailer to pick him up and return to the office. Upon their return, the groundskeeper smelled of alcohol, and the student worker reported to the director that the intoxicated groundskeeper offered the under-aged student worker a beer, which was refused. The student worker stressed that she did not want to get the groundskeeper in any trouble; however, the groundskeeper insisted that he be allowed to drive the golf cart back to the office after drinking beer, which made the student feel uncomfortable. Two weeks after discharge, the groundskeeper contacts the HR manager and claims he was discriminated against due to his age and presumptions that he could not meet that the physical demands of the job, particularly during the summer heat. He points out that this is why the director hired much younger college students. How should the HR manager respond?

Advise the groundskeeper that the HR manager can schedule a time and day for him to come in to the office to discuss the situation

Despite the fact that an employee's team is scheduled to work from 9:00am - 5:00pm each day, the employee consistently stays out late for lunch and makes up the time at the end of the day. A new manager has recently taken over the department and notices this pattern of behavior. During an informal conversation, the manager mentions to the employee that the individual is taking extended lunches. The employee responds with, "What does it matter? I stay and make up the time." The manager is concerned that the behavior was previously allowed and wants to start documenting the tardiness. Additionally, the manager worries that the morale of the team is suffering, as three team members have approached her about the situation since she was hired. After a discussion with the manager, which recommendation should the HR generalist provide?

Advise the manager to individually reset expectations with the employee in person

- Leadership approach in which the leader creates strong relationships with and inside the team - Team members are motivated by loyalty

Affiliative Leadership Approach

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

Affinity Diagramming

What best describes an employee resource group?

Affinity group that can serve as a social and professional network for employees An employee resource group (ERG) is a voluntary group in the organization to allow employees who share a particular diversity dimension to provide support to one another. An ERG does not decide on training funds, and it is not a management task force or a labor-management committee.

After the merger of two business entities, the new VP of HR would like the benefits manager to develop a plan to address six different post-merger vacation policies, each with slightly different criteria and provisions. Pressured by one of the business heads to prevent a power struggle among the new leadership, the benefits manager must decide if the organization should try to harmonize the policies from the merged entities or let them continue to coexist. Given the sensitive nature of the merger, which approach should HR implement to communicate changes to the vacation policy?

After leadership approval, directly communicate to all stakeholders the decision and the impact on them and the business

An HR team has mined the enterprise resource planning (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 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.

Which is the best example of authenticity in the workplace?

An HR Manager serves as an ethical agent by calling out ethics issues to supervisors and subordinates alike Authenticity refers to a person's ability to stay true to their values and maintain their integrity in both their personal and professional lives. It also refers to an individual's approach to forming and maintaining relationships with colleagues and others in the organization. An individual who remains true to themselves while being able to adapt and cope with rapidly changing events is authentic. A person who is brave enough to call out ethics issues even when this is with a superior is authentic. However, covering is not authentic behavior, nor is putting on an act to influence people. Abiding by social norms and avoiding conflicts of interest is honesty rather than authenticity.

Applications that can analyze data faster and in more ways than traditional relational databases, offering a multidimensional analysis of business data

Analytical Processing

A clothing retail company in business for over three years has three locations in a popular beach resort area. There are similar retailers in the same area competing for both the customers and labor pool. Recently the company has had extensive growth due to a new clothing design, however, employees are leaving within 90 days of hire. This turnover is now affecting customer satisfaction and increasing the workload on the remaining staff. Most of the management staff started as sales floor employees and received little to no management training. One of the key criteria used in promoting staff is their success on the sales floor, leading to complaints of internal selection unfairness. Recent exit interviews suggest low morale, poor leadership, and lack of work/life balance as the top three reasons for leaving the company. Knowing that there are plans to launch two new product lines in the near future, the CEO has asked the HR director to find a new vendor to provide new employee orientation. Twenty companies have submitted proposals, and the CEO wants a short list in the next two days. Which action should the HR director take first to create a robust workforce plan that addresses the expected organizational growth?

Analyze current labor trends along with internal staffing metrics to ensure appropriate staffing levels to meet expected organizational growth

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. The HR manager would like to determine the diversity of the hospital's workforce. What should the HR manager do?

Analyze employee data to determine in which jobs and departments underrepresentation is occurring in the hospital

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

The critical care unit (CCU) at a large, reputable hospital is understaffed for registered nurse positions. Traditionally, there is a series of career hurdles a nurse must overcome to assume a role in the hospital's CCU, but it's essential for the hospital to have these positions filled. The CCU's head nurse, who directs nursing service activities for unit patients, has approached the hospital's HR manager with these staffing concerns and needs. In addition to presenting the HR manager with the current staffing problem, the head nurse recommends a strategy to staff the unit. The strategy described by the head nurse includes creating a pilot program where internal nurses, working in other departments with translatable skill sets, can enroll in an accelerated critical care course. Once those nurses successfully complete the accelerated course, they will be offered positions in the hospital's CCU. The head nurse tells the HR manager that both the organization and nurses would benefit from a program like this because it is an opportunity for career development and fulfills an organizational need. Additionally, this would reduce the burden on current CCU nurses who are overworked and experiencing burnout. What should the HR manager do in response to the head nurse's staffing recommendation?

Analyze the impact a pilot program would have on staffing in other departments within the hospital

A manufacturing organization is in the decline phase of its life cycle. The organization's largest customer has notified the CEO that it plans to withdraw its business over the next two years. The CEO and his staff must consider options to replace the lost revenue related to this customer account. The company's employees are nervous and uncertain about their future. Two options are quickly identified to replace the expected loss of revenue. Option 1 is to develop a new product that could be manufactured and delivered in one week while the competition delivers product in six weeks. To compete successfully with this approach, the company would also need to design an order entry system so customers could place orders online. This strategy requires engineering to design the product line. It also requires IT staff to design the software and customer portals, marketing and sales to develop sales literature and pricing models, manufacturing to prepare for production, and HR to develop the workforce plan. Option 2 would be to acquire a struggling competitor and quickly turn that company around. The CEO has asked the HR manager to assess possible HR issues for both of these options. Which would be the best strategic action for the HR manager to use to demonstrate HR's value in this new product venture?

Analyze the process throughout, plan with the production manager, determine the staff levels needed, and conduct a job analysis for each position

How is a written code of conduct used in today's work environment?

As a decision-making tool to guide employees and their actions A written code of conduct covers conduct issues in a broader sense than a rule or regulation. Value-based guidelines help employees self-apply benchmarks and standards in many different situations, including those that have not yet occurred.

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

What cultural layer is exemplified by the pasta dishes that are unique to Italy?

Artifacts and products Culture has different layers. At its core are basic assumptions about the way the world works, referred to as implicit culture. The next layer is norms and values based on those assumptions (e.g., respect for elders). Artifacts and products are explicit culture, what we can perceive. This would include clothing, architecture, food, music, art, and so on. The pasta dishes that are unique to Italy fit into the artifacts and products cultural layer.

An HR manager works at a manufacturing company that is hiring new assembly-line employees. The HR manager helped to design and implement the selection system that is used to make these hires. The system includes a physical abilities test, a structured interview, and a personality assessment. The company has evidence demonstrating that each part of the system is a valid predictor of performance. Passing the physical abilities test is the first hurdle in the hiring process. Any applicant who passes this hurdle is interviewed by a plant manager, who then rates the applicant on several competencies. Applicants are not given any information about the competencies or questions prior to the interview. Interview scores and personality assessment scores are combined to rank the applicants. Many plant managers have complained to HR that the test does not assess the level of physical abilities required on the job, and recent hires have not performed well as a result. The HR manager's supervisor meets with the HR manager to discuss these concerns. The HR manager's supervisor wants the HR manager to review the physical abilities test to determine if it can be made more realistic. What should the HR manager do?

Ask plant managers to specify what physical abilities are required

An HR manager receives a memo from a department director for termination of a groundskeeping employee. The company's recreational vehicle resort is at the same location as company headquarters. The terminated employee works and lives at the resort, and has no prior record of performance issues in his 10 year career. The memo states that the director terminated the employee yesterday for gross misconduct. The groundskeeper was working in the heat all morning and then informed the director he was going home for lunch. Later the groundskeeper radioed the director that he was running late in returning from lunch. Subsequent communications led to the director sending a student worker to the employee's trailer to pick him up and return to the office. Upon their return, the groundskeeper smelled of alcohol, and the student worker reported to the director that the intoxicated groundskeeper offered the under-aged student worker a beer, which was refused. The student worker stressed that she did not want to get the groundskeeper in any trouble; however, the groundskeeper insisted that he be allowed to drive the golf cart back to the office after drinking beer, which made the student feel uncomfortable. The day following the groundskeeper's termination, another resort employee calls the HR manager to state that the termination was too severe and that the groundskeeper made a mistake but has otherwise had a good employment record. How should the HR manager respond?

Ask the caller if he was a witness to the incident, and, if so, would he be willing to provide a written statement on what he saw and heard

Leadership approach in which the leader proposes a bold vision or solution and invites the team to join this challenge

Authoritative Leadership Approach

A renowned financial institution, a former leader in the financial market, is now facing decelerated growth. Its product portfolio lacks innovation compared to that of competitors. Although the institution was once a favorite place to work, recently HR has been facing issues attracting top talent, and time-to-hire metrics have deteriorated. A technology gap between the leadership and the employees is beginning to widen. The founder, who is very sales-oriented, is not an early adopter when it comes to technology. Since his client relationships all began with face-to-face contact, he is wary that technology removes the personal element. To create a more collaborative culture and social learning environment, the HR talent development lead (TDL) wants to foster a culture of learning and innovation. This will require a change in corporate culture and a significant investment in new technology. Despite a recent upgrade, the learning management system (LMS) still feels outdated, sluggish, and static. The TDL believes that a new LMS with more powerful social learning technologies will be critical for attracting and retaining top talent, capturing the attention of a broader and rapidly changing demographic, and meeting their demands. The workforce is around 40% Millennials, compared with 10% just five years ago. The TDL understands that cross-functional collaboration will be required to sort out the features needed to support the organization's learning management system. What is the best way to organize the right cross-functional team?

Assemble a team including senior functional leaders and younger managers with an interest in diversity and innovation

Over the past 12 months, a global hotel franchise has been experiencing steady, significant growth, and needs to hire more employees at all levels. The leadership team asks the HR department to transition into a strategic business partner role to ensure that the franchise can meet current and future demands. However, some senior managers in the franchise believe that HR should focus only on administration of traditional HR activities such as recruiting, payroll, benefits, and these managers refuse to include HR in business conversations. As a result, many HR staff have adopted a strict policy enforcement role that has only made it more difficult for the HR department to make the transition. An HR manager is tasked with identifying ways to expand the role of the HR function in the organization and aligning it with business strategy. The HR manager is also charged with presenting an HR transformation plan to the executive leadership team. Which approach should the HR manager use to evaluate the success of the HR transformation plan?

Assess the extent of the change in key HR performance metrics over time

Financial, physical, and sometimes intangible properties an organization owns

Assets

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 manufacturing organization is in the decline phase of its life cycle. The organization's largest customer has notified the CEO that it plans to withdraw its business over the next two years. The CEO and his staff must consider options to replace the lost revenue related to this customer account. The company's employees are nervous and uncertain about their future. Two options are quickly identified to replace the expected loss of revenue. Option 1 is to develop a new product that could be manufactured and delivered in one week while the competition delivers product in six weeks. To compete successfully with this approach, the company would also need to design an order entry system so customers could place orders online. This strategy requires engineering to design the product line. It also requires IT staff to design the software and customer portals, marketing and sales to develop sales literature and pricing models, manufacturing to prepare for production, and HR to develop the workforce plan. Option 2 would be to acquire a struggling competitor and quickly turn that company around. The CEO has asked the HR manager to assess possible HR issues for both of these options. The CEO decides on option 1 to develop a new product. In this scenario, the engineering department would be understaffed. Which action should the HR manager recommend as a first step to assist the engineering manager?

Assist the engineering manager by researching engineering outsourcing firms and other short-term sourcing opportunities

- Motivation theory that states that the way a person interprets the causes for past success or failure is related to the present level of motivation - Includes theories of Heider and Weiner

Attribution Theory

Ability to stay true to values and maintain integrity in both personal and professional lives and, from an organizational perspective, approach to forming and maintaining relationships with colleagues and others in the organization

Authenticity

Statement of an organization's financial position at a specific point in time, showing assets, liabilities, and shareholder equity

Balance Sheet

Performance management tool that depicts an organization's overall performance, as measured against goals, lagging indicators, and leading indicators

Balanced Scorecard

An HR manager is contacted via telephone by an employee concerned about the need for the replacement of protective equipment currently being used. The employee indicates that the equipment is damaged upon reporting to the supervisor, the concerns have not been addressed. Compliance with industry safety standards is reported publicly on an ongoing basis. During the conversation, the spouse of the employee can be heard speaking loudly in the background expressing dissatisfaction and posts comments on social media. The HR manager and the public relations department have been notified of the postings. The HR manager contacts the employee to request the posts be removed which further incites the spouse and additional comments are posted. The spouse requests to meet with the leadership of the firm to discuss. What practices could the HR manager implement to protect the reputation of the organization?

Begin the investigation of the safety concern, monitor future postings, and make no further requests to remove the comments

- Category of leadership theories that states that leaders influence group members through certain behaviors - Includes Blake-Mouton theory

Behavioral Theories

Which best describes the impact of having senior leaders directly involved in a diversity council?

Being a catalyst for change that aligns functions and responsibilities and creates greater commitment, efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity Direct involvement of upper management is critical in order for an effective diversity and inclusion strategy to take hold. Leaders are able to leverage internal and external resources across the organization, throughout business units, to customers and the community, resulting in an attractive and competitive organization. There is no single council structure. Some organizations prefer a council with representation from all employee levels and functions; others opt for an executive council consisting entirely of upper management personnel. The relationship with ERGs or other advisory groups may vary as well.

Exchange of anything of value to gain greater influence or preference

Bribery

The CEO of a sales company hires an HR consultant to assess the company's organizational structure, operating model, and culture due to declining sales, increasing expenses, and workforce environment challenges. The CEO asks the consultant to share the results with key stakeholders to gain support for the recommended changes. Because the company has little market competition, the CEO thinks the company's poor results stem from company-based issues and its inability to leverage its robust IT infrastructure. The HR consultant analyzes the company's financial statements and business processes and confidentially interviews every employee in the company to determine why the company is struggling. The consultant also works as an employee in every department in order to get a realistic understanding of how the company operates. The consultant's analysis reveals that the company has no mission statement, no company-wide or departmental goals, and no individual goals to hold employees accountable. Additionally, no formal recruitment, onboarding, or training procedures exist. The consultant thinks the poor results are caused by poorly trained sales representatives. Customer loyalty is strong; however, it is because of the low-cost products not easily found elsewhere. Which action should the HR business consultant take to gain the support of the key stakeholders in order to implement recommended changes?

Build strong relationships with key stakeholders and transparently share the benefits and risks of the changes

Presentation to management that establishes that a specific problem exists and argues for a proposed solution

Business Case

Ability to use information to gain a deeper understanding of an organization and make sound business decisions

Business Intelligence

How should an HR professional make a strong business case for incorporating a diversity and inclusion strategy in an organization?

By linking it directly to the organization's mission, vision, and business objectives Diversity and inclusion can gain commitment at an organization's highest level only if their ability to play a critical role in achieving core business goals can be demonstrated. A diversity and inclusion advocate must delve beyond general truths about the benefits of diversity to create a business case linked specifically to the organization's unique mission, vision, and business objectives.

An organization is sending salespeople into a new territory where bribery is common. How can HR support the code of ethics in this environment?

By reviewing current ethical guidelines and creating specific guidelines on bribery if necessary Since bribery is common, it is best to anticipate it and create guidelines for handling it ethically. A code of ethics is not situational and cannot be arbitrarily suspended. Factoring bribery into compensation does not support the code of ethics. Since the salespeople are there to sell and bribery is a known challenge, HR must help the salespeople prepare to overcome it.

A company with a specialty product that has gained rapid popularity with hospitals has grown quickly from 15 employees to 300 in a one-year period. The organization expects to grow by several hundred employees per year for the foreseeable future. The president's secretary has been handling all human resources matters, and the accounting department has been handling payroll. The supervisors have been making their own human resources decisions regarding recruitment, employee relations, discipline, and rewards, with varying levels of success. The president pays little attention to the day-to-day operations of the business and focuses his attention on marketing and publicity. He decides that it is now necessary to hire an HR director to lead and manage the HR function. The supervisors are resistant to having a formal HR function in the company, believing that it will create unnecessary work and affect their ability to effectively manage the organization. During the interview process, the president indicates that there are a number of areas in need of focused attention, as the organization does not have job descriptions or a formal compensation structure and benefits are the same as when the company started. On the HR director's first day, there is no formal onboarding process. The president suggests that a good starting point for the HR director is to create a plan and catch up on the recruiting requests for the company. He then walks the HR director to her new office, offers to help with any questions, and walks away The HR director wants to determine if the current recruitment efforts are effective. Which action should she take first to best make this determination?

Calculating the cost per hire and average time to fill

A VP of HR has responsibility for multiple manufacturing sites and is responsible for teams of HR managers and generalists that support each location. One evening, an HR generalist tells the VP of HR that when the HR generalist returned from dinner break, the HR office appeared to have been ransacked. The HR generalist reports that after checking camera footage, security personnel reached the conclusion that the site HR manager had done the damage before leaving the facility. The VP knows that the site HR manager has a volatile personality and has been counseled about it previously. What is the first step the VP should take before proceeding to the factory?

Call security to notify them of the VP's pending arrival and request to meet to review the surveillance coverage

The CEO of a sales company hires an HR consultant to assess the company's organizational structure, operating model, and culture due to declining sales, increasing expenses, and workforce environment challenges. The CEO asks the consultant to share the results with key stakeholders to gain support for the recommended changes. Because the company has little market competition, the CEO thinks the company's poor results stem from company-based issues and its inability to leverage its robust IT infrastructure. The HR consultant analyzes the company's financial statements and business processes and confidentially interviews every employee in the company to determine why the company is struggling. The consultant also works as an employee in every department in order to get a realistic understanding of how the company operates. The consultant's analysis reveals that the company has no mission statement, no company-wide or departmental goals, and no individual goals to hold employees accountable. Additionally, no formal recruitment, onboarding, or training procedures exist. The consultant thinks the poor results are caused by poorly trained sales representatives. Customer loyalty is strong; however, it is because of the low-cost products not easily found elsewhere. What is the critical first step the HR business consultant should do to determine the return on investment (ROI) of a new sales training program?

Call several vendors to gather more information regarding training outcomes, price, and schedule

An HR manager receives a memo from a department director for termination of a groundskeeping employee. The company's recreational vehicle resort is at the same location as company headquarters. The terminated employee works and lives at the resort, and has no prior record of performance issues in his 10 year career. The memo states that the director terminated the employee yesterday for gross misconduct. The groundskeeper was working in the heat all morning and then informed the director he was going home for lunch. Later the groundskeeper radioed the director that he was running late in returning from lunch. Subsequent communications led to the director sending a student worker to the employee's trailer to pick him up and return to the office. Upon their return, the groundskeeper smelled of alcohol, and the student worker reported to the director that the intoxicated groundskeeper offered the under-aged student worker a beer, which was refused. The student worker stressed that she did not want to get the groundskeeper in any trouble; however, the groundskeeper insisted that he be allowed to drive the golf cart back to the office after drinking beer, which made the student feel uncomfortable. The HR manager reviews the memo and decides to contact the director. Which approach should the HR manager pursue next?

Call the director and ask for details about what happened

How can the hiring and recruitment process be designed to promote feelings of inclusion in candidates who do their first round of interviews using videoconferencing?

Candidates virtually meet with a wide range of people at the organization One way to promote inclusion in the hiring and recruitment process is to have candidates meet with, or in this case, see, a wide range of people on their first virtual visit to the organization.

Statement of an organization's ability to meet its current and short-term obligations, showing incoming and outgoing cash and cash reserves in operations, investments, and financing

Cash Flow Statement

Legal system based on written codes (laws, rules, or regulations)

Civil Law

What type of law is based on a nation's written law codes?

Civil Law Civil law is applied in a deductive fashion to each legal case, starting with the abstract rule that is stated in the nation's civil law code, and approved by legislative bodies.

Which best describes the ethical and/or compliance problem raised when an employee has his own personal consulting contract with one of the company's current clients?

Conflict of Interest It is a conflict of interest for an employee to have a consulting contract with one of the company's clients or competitors. In this case, the employee may be taking business away from the company or suggesting strategies that may not be in the best interest of the company for the employee's own personal gain or benefit. The other options present potential problems depending on the nature and extent of the employee's knowledge, employment agreements, and other unknown factors.

A manufacturing organization is in the decline phase of its life cycle. The organization's largest customer has notified the CEO that it plans to withdraw its business over the next two years. The CEO and his staff must consider options to replace the lost revenue related to this customer account. The company's employees are nervous and uncertain about their future. Two options are quickly identified to replace the expected loss of revenue. Option 1 is to develop a new product that could be manufactured and delivered in one week while the competition delivers product in six weeks. To compete successfully with this approach, the company would also need to design an order entry system so customers could place orders online. This strategy requires engineering to design the product line. It also requires IT staff to design the software and customer portals, marketing and sales to develop sales literature and pricing models, manufacturing to prepare for production, and HR to develop the workforce plan. Option 2 would be to acquire a struggling competitor and quickly turn that company around. The CEO has asked the HR manager to assess possible HR issues for both of these options. During this time of change and uncertainty for the organization, what should the HR manager do to encourage retention of key employees?

Clearly communicate job expectations and ensure that employees have adequate resources to perform their work

An HR manager is contacted via telephone by an employee concerned about the need for the replacement of protective equipment currently being used. The employee indicates that the equipment is damaged upon reporting to the supervisor, the concerns have not been addressed. Compliance with industry safety standards is reported publicly on an ongoing basis. During the conversation, the spouse of the employee can be heard speaking loudly in the background expressing dissatisfaction and posts comments on social media. The HR manager and the public relations department have been notified of the postings. The HR manager contacts the employee to request the posts be removed which further incites the spouse and additional comments are posted. The spouse requests to meet with the leadership of the firm to discuss. What approach can the HR manager take to address the request for a meeting with the leadership team?

Clearly explain to the employee why a meeting with the spouse will not be necessary to resolve the concern submitted

Leadership approach in which the leader focuses on developing team member's skills, believing that success comes from aligning the organization's goals with employees' personal and professional goals

Coaching leadership Approach

Principles that guide decision making and behavior in an organization

Code of Conduct

Leadership approach in which the leader imposes a vision or solution on the team and demands that the team follow this directive

Coercive Leadership Approach

Power that is created when the leader can punish those who do not follow

Coercive Power

- Legal system in which each case is considered in terms of how it relates to legal decisions that have already been made - Evolves through judicial decisions over time

Common Law

Several employees have contacted the HR department multiple times about the company's lack of environmentally sustainable practices. In particular, employees have suggested that the company use reusable containers and utensils at official company events instead of plastic bottles and cups. Employees have provided alternative solutions, such as a cost estimate of a reusable liquid container with the company logo. Each time, the HR specialists have politely thanked the employees for their input but have not taken any specific action to avoid having to change contracts with the long-term vendor of supplies. At a recent company meeting, plastic cups and plates were used to serve refreshments and snacks. One of the employees who had been contacting the HR department was at the meeting. Upon seeing the plastic materials, the employee became very upset, expressed criticism for the company not taking any action, and left the meeting. The HR manager is put in charge of looking into environmentally friendly practices as well as resolving the conflict with this employee. The HR manager wants to investigate whether the recommendations made by the employees are reasonable actions for the company. Which should the HR manager do?

Compare the long-term financial savings between purchasing reusable items versus disposable items

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 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

An organization is considering restructuring its sales function to align its salespeople against key vertical markets. HR is charged with exploring this initiative. What should HR do first?

Complete an environmental scan Before making such a change, the organization should complete an environmental scan. The environmental scan will help the organization to determine if such a change is necessary and what benefits it could expect to receive from the restructuring.

The director of the HR department is taking personal leave for three weeks and assigns an HR employee to work with a consulting firm to conduct a strategic planning process for the company. The consulting firm conducts interviews with 10% of the employees, but none of the interviews is with line staff. The HR employee feels that the consulting firm's approach did not fully capture the information required to support the strategic planning process, so the HR employee decides to conduct a separate data collection. The HR employee develops a company-wide survey, gains buy-in from key leaders, and presents the survey to the executive team. Once approved by the executive team, the employee administers the survey and achieves a 77% response rate. The company's CEO shares the survey results with the consulting firm so it can implement the next phase of the strategic planning process. Line workers were excluded from the initial interviews, which negatively affected employee morale. Which is the best approach for the HR employee to mend this relationship?

Conduct HR-led focus groups to ask about line workers' concerns and establish next steps

Situation in which a person or organization may benefit from undue influence due to involvement in outside activities, relationships, or investments that conflict with or have an impact on the employment relationship or its outcomes

Conflict of Interest

In his initial meeting with the HR team, a newly hired HR director hears several concerns relating to the organization's talent acquisition process including inconsistent questions, different decision-making criteria, and a lack of diversity across departments. The HR director believes these concerns, as he experienced several questionable actions during his own hiring. The HR team is not confident that the organization is hiring the best people, but each department believes its hiring approach is effective and show no interest in trying a new approach. Which action should the HR director take to encourage department heads to use a new hiring process?

Conduct a benchmarking study to compare the organization's hiring outcomes (diversity, etc.) to those of similar organizations

A nonprofit social services organization has experienced rapid employee growth and is expanding services into new markets. Performance and service quality assessments, however, are showing quality regression as the organization expands. The CEO and the executive committee are worried about the decline in performance and service quality levels, and suspect the quality of their new hires and/or lack of incentive among employees are to blame. Leadership decided to hire an experienced HR manager to oversee the current HR team of two, in hopes to reverse the downward trend of performance and quality. The HR manager conducts an internal analysis to diagnose the root causes of the service quality decline. The analysis uncovers several critical problem areas to be addressed, including vague job descriptions, a lack of formal orientation, low base pay, an ineffective performance review program, and the lack of a recognition and awards program. The changes will require additional resources and significant financial investment. A member of the executive committee proposes to terminate all current employees and start over with ones who are better qualified, believing that starting from scratch would be cheaper than fixing the identified problems. Which action should the HR manager take in order to ensure that employees understand what is expected of them and how the new performance management system will work?

Conduct a communication campaign that includes ongoing communications for all employees and training for supervisors to reinforce with their direct reports

An organization is experiencing a high turnover rate in new hires within the first six to nine months. The HR director conducts research and determines that several of the employees have joined a competitor. The HR director decides to employ a third-party firm to conduct a salary survey, and a complete review of the job description and a job analysis for the position. Additionally, the HR director performs an internal employee opinion survey in which employees share that the current benefits package lags that of other companies in the area. The results from the third-party survey confirm that the company does lag the competitor by a large margin in compensation and benefits. While a need to offer additional employee benefits in order to be competitive in the market has been identified, the HR director is concerned that not all employees will value or make use of them. Which first step should the HR director take to determine the most appropriate benefits to include?

Conduct a company-wide survey to identify which benefits employees express interest in, value, or would likely use

To attract talented university students, a public accounting firm offers an internship program to students who have completed 75% of their coursework. If a student is successful during the internship, the firm offers the student a position after graduation and provides opportunities for the student to study for the industry licensure exam. The firm pays for the exam and provides additional compensation once the student successfully completes the exam. For the past several years, the firm has seen an increasing rate of turnover among newly licensed employees. While it is common in the industry for employees to leave public accounting after they are licensed, the firm is losing many of its licensed employees to competitors. The high rate of turnover is negatively affecting the firm's performance. The HR manager has been charged with reducing the number of employees leaving for competitive firms as quickly and efficiently as possible. The accounting firm's leadership team requests information on the reasons employees stay. What should the HR manager do to respond to the leadership team's request?

Conduct a focus group with a random sample of employees to find out the reasons they stay with the organization

A clothing retail company in business for over three years has three locations in a popular beach resort area. There are similar retailers in the same area competing for both the customers and labor pool. Recently the company has had extensive growth due to a new clothing design, however, employees are leaving within 90 days of hire. This turnover is now affecting customer satisfaction and increasing the workload on the remaining staff. Most of the management staff started as sales floor employees and received little to no management training. One of the key criteria used in promoting staff is their success on the sales floor, leading to complaints of internal selection unfairness. Recent exit interviews suggest low morale, poor leadership, and lack of work/life balance as the top three reasons for leaving the company. Knowing that there are plans to launch two new product lines in the near future, the CEO has asked the HR director to find a new vendor to provide new employee orientation. Twenty companies have submitted proposals, and the CEO wants a short list in the next two days. Based on the current turnover and lack of management training, what should the HR director do first as part of a needs analysis?

Conduct a job analysis for all management positions to ensure that job descriptions and specifications are appropriate

A company's rapid growth is resulting in demand to hire new team members. Recognizing the need to ensure that the right talent is brought into the company, a newly hired HR director implements a more structured hiring process to assess applicants' skills, compensation needs, and culture fit. However, many managers do not support the new hiring process, claiming it slows down the hiring cycle. In addition, the managers believe that the initial salary and bonus recommendations resulting from HR's recently updated compensation structures are not reflective of market demand. The managers claim this situation is causing candidates to decline their offers of employment. How should the HR director address the managers' resistance to using a more structured hiring process?

Conduct a management training session to explain the business needs driving the process changes

An HR Director is responsible for evaluating employee benefit requirements for various municipalities in regions across the country. What legal concept does this situation represent?

Conflict of Laws Conflict of laws is created when two or more jurisdictions (in this case, the municipality and any higher level of government in the country or in other countries) each have different legal requirements for the entities operating in their borders. The HR director, probably with legal counsel, must clarify which jurisdiction has control over a particular issue and adjust policies accordingly.

A company with a history of tolerating low-performing employees has recently gained new leadership. The new executive team has brought in an HR director with a mandate to resolve multiple issues. The new HR director is well aware of the history of the company. In addition to the low-performance issue, the HR director has uncovered a poor record of compliance with the ADA, the FMLA, and workers' compensation. This lack of compliance has allowed several employees to take advantage of the system to their own benefit. The HR director has been tasked with correcting these issues with a new performance management system. Additionally, the HR director will need to improve the HR department's understanding and compliance with legal requirements so that the company is less likely to be taken advantage of in the future. Which is the best strategy for the HR director to take when developing new protocols concerning the ADA, the FMLA, and workers' compensation?

Conduct a meeting with the company's legal counsel to ensure that new protocols are fully compliant with the law

A manufacturing organization is in the decline phase of its life cycle. The organization's largest customer has notified the CEO that it plans to withdraw its business over the next two years. The CEO and his staff must consider options to replace the lost revenue related to this customer account. The company's employees are nervous and uncertain about their future. Two options are quickly identified to replace the expected loss of revenue. Option 1 is to develop a new product that could be manufactured and delivered in one week while the competition delivers product in six weeks. To compete successfully with this approach, the company would also need to design an order entry system so customers could place orders online. This strategy requires engineering to design the product line. It also requires IT staff to design the software and customer portals, marketing and sales to develop sales literature and pricing models, manufacturing to prepare for production, and HR to develop the workforce plan. Option 2 would be to acquire a struggling competitor and quickly turn that company around. The CEO has asked the HR manager to assess possible HR issues for both of these options. Six months after deciding to pursue option 1, the CEO also decides to acquire another company. Which is the best first step for the HR manager to take as part of HR's due diligence?

Conduct an HR audit of the new company's HR department for current and potential employment-related issues

A company with a history of tolerating low-performing employees has recently gained new leadership. The new executive team has brought in an HR director with a mandate to resolve multiple issues. The new HR director is well aware of the history of the company. In addition to the low-performance issue, the HR director has uncovered a poor record of compliance with the ADA, the FMLA, and workers' compensation. This lack of compliance has allowed several employees to take advantage of the system to their own benefit. The HR director has been tasked with correcting these issues with a new performance management system. Additionally, the HR director will need to improve the HR department's understanding and compliance with legal requirements so that the company is less likely to be taken advantage of in the future. Because the HR director is new to the company, which is the best way to connect with and collect information from company managers?

Conduct individual meetings with company managers to develop relationships

After the merger of two business entities, the new VP of HR would like the benefits manager to develop a plan to address six different post-merger vacation policies, each with slightly different criteria and provisions. Pressured by one of the business heads to prevent a power struggle among the new leadership, the benefits manager must decide if the organization should try to harmonize the policies from the merged entities or let them continue to coexist. The benefits manager decides to hold focus groups with employees currently covered by the different policies. What should the benefits manager do to ensure that this is a productive tactic?

Conduct mixed but balanced focus groups with a trained facilitator

Which is the best approach to use during a training needs analysis in a workforce with low power distance?

Conduct needs analyses in a participative manner Individuals in low power distance cultures tend to prefer a more participative management style. The other options all indicate organizational cultures that have high power distance.

An organization is experiencing a high turnover rate in new hires within the first six to nine months. The HR director conducts research and determines that several of the employees have joined a competitor. The HR director decides to employ a third-party firm to conduct a salary survey, and a complete review of the job description and a job analysis for the position. Additionally, the HR director performs an internal employee opinion survey in which employees share that the current benefits package lags that of other companies in the area. The results from the third-party survey confirm that the company does lag the competitor by a large margin in compensation and benefits. The HR director and executive team agree that pay and benefit increases are necessary to remain competitive in the market. Which action should the HR director take to determine if the organization is experiencing benefit from the proposed solution?

Conduct stay interviews with employees to periodically review benefit offerings and track retention rates

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

Treatment of personal information that has been disclosed to another person or organization

Confidentiality

Which is a key aspect of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) as evidenced by its inclusion as a component of the SHRM Empathy Index?

Conflict Management The SHRM Empathy Index assesses inclusion in the workplace using different components: belonging, inclusion, openness, conflict management, and non-discriminatory practices.

- Providing guidance to organizational stakeholders - Involves diagnosing problems or identifying opportunities, developing effective solutions, winning support for solutions, and implementing them effectively

Consultation

An HR manager is contacted via telephone by an employee concerned about the need for the replacement of protective equipment currently being used. The employee indicates that the equipment is damaged upon reporting to the supervisor, the concerns have not been addressed. Compliance with industry safety standards is reported publicly on an ongoing basis. During the conversation, the spouse of the employee can be heard speaking loudly in the background expressing dissatisfaction and posts comments on social media. The HR manager and the public relations department have been notified of the postings. The HR manager contacts the employee to request the posts be removed which further incites the spouse and additional comments are posted. The spouse requests to meet with the leadership of the firm to discuss. What action can the HR manager take to demonstrate that the employee's concerns are being taken seriously?

Coordinate an inspection of the equipment and inform the employee that any immediate safety issues will be addressed

A department manager contacts HR to discuss a situation involving a schedule change that was initiated for an employee three months ago. The employee has a medical condition and possibly needs surgery, and he requested the a change to his schedule until a decision can be made by his health-care provider. HR was not involved in the initial request. Other staff members are now becoming upset as this accommodation is causing an issue in the department. With no end date set, the manager is not certain of the status of the medical condition. The manager does not believe that the employee has a plan and therefore wants to reassign or terminate the employee. HR has been contacted for guidance on how to handle this situation. How can HR best manage future requests for modified schedules due to medical needs?

Coordinate an interactive meeting with HR, the manager, and the employee to review the request

Right of a legal body to exert authority over a given geographical territory, subject matter, or persons or institutions

Jurisdiction

Defensive behavior that occurs when an organization recruits a diverse workforce but, consciously or otherwise, promotes assimilation rather than inclusion

Covering

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 they have uncovered?

Create a business case including cost-benefit analyses of both options

To attract talented university students, a public accounting firm offers an internship program to students who have completed 75% of their coursework. If a student is successful during the internship, the firm offers the student a position after graduation and provides opportunities for the student to study for the industry licensure exam. The firm pays for the exam and provides additional compensation once the student successfully completes the exam. For the past several years, the firm has seen an increasing rate of turnover among newly licensed employees. While it is common in the industry for employees to leave public accounting after they are licensed, the firm is losing many of its licensed employees to competitors. The high rate of turnover is negatively affecting the firm's performance. The HR manager has been charged with reducing the number of employees leaving for competitive firms as quickly and efficiently as possible. What should the HR manager do to get buy-in from the accounting firm's leadership team to implement employee retention initiatives?

Create a business case that supports how the retention initiatives will reduce turnover

A company has an outdated applicant tracking system, which upper management has been reluctant to replace. The HR department has had great difficulty managing the large number of applicants with this system. Many hiring-related tasks that the system is incapable of handling have been carried out manually. This has led to administrative errors, delay in application processing, and miscommunication for internal applicants. One day, the HR manager receives a call from an internal applicant who had applied for a position a month ago. This applicant immediately received an email from the HR department about scheduling next steps in the selection process but has not heard back since. During the phone call, the HR manager looks into the tracking system to find that this applicant had been screened out due to not being a good fit with the position, and the initial email had been sent due to an administrative error. The HR manager communicates this to the applicant. The HR manager wants to ensure that employees understand the application process and timeline. Which should the HR manager do?

Create a standardized response email for inquiries that outlines the application timeline from when internal applications are submitted

In his initial meeting with the HR team, a newly hired HR director hears several concerns relating to the organization's talent acquisition process including inconsistent questions, different decision-making criteria, and a lack of diversity across departments. The HR director believes these concerns, as he experienced several questionable actions during his own hiring. The HR team is not confident that the organization is hiring the best people, but each department believes its hiring approach is effective and show no interest in trying a new approach. Which is the best immediate course of action the HR director could take to address organizations talent acquisition issues?

Create a structured interview process that standardizes the questions asked and the criteria for grading

What is the best way to deliver negative feedback to a subordinate?

Create a work environment fostering open and honest communication in which employees feel valued even when negative feedback is necessary Negative feedback is most effective when it occurs within a work context that makes employees feel valued. They see the negative feedback as opportunity to improve and contribute rather than as a personal failure.

A renowned financial institution, a former leader in the financial market, is now facing decelerated growth. Its product portfolio lacks innovation compared to that of competitors. Although the institution was once a favorite place to work, recently HR has been facing issues attracting top talent, and time-to-hire metrics have deteriorated. A technology gap between the leadership and the employees is beginning to widen. The founder, who is very sales-oriented, is not an early adopter when it comes to technology. Since his client relationships all began with face-to-face contact, he is wary that technology removes the personal element. To create a more collaborative culture and social learning environment, the HR talent development lead (TDL) wants to foster a culture of learning and innovation. This will require a change in corporate culture and a significant investment in new technology. Despite a recent upgrade, the learning management system (LMS) still feels outdated, sluggish, and static. The TDL believes that a new LMS with more powerful social learning technologies will be critical for attracting and retaining top talent, capturing the attention of a broader and rapidly changing demographic, and meeting their demands. The workforce is around 40% Millennials, compared with 10% just five years ago. How can the TDL ensure that the LMS is consistently and widely used and supports the cost of investment?

Create an effective communication plan so employees are aware of the benefits the new LMS offers and implement incentives for using the LMS

The CEO of a sales company hires an HR consultant to assess the company's organizational structure, operating model, and culture due to declining sales, increasing expenses, and workforce environment challenges. The CEO asks the consultant to share the results with key stakeholders to gain support for the recommended changes. Because the company has little market competition, the CEO thinks the company's poor results stem from company-based issues and its inability to leverage its robust IT infrastructure. The HR consultant analyzes the company's financial statements and business processes and confidentially interviews every employee in the company to determine why the company is struggling. The consultant also works as an employee in every department in order to get a realistic understanding of how the company operates. The consultant's analysis reveals that the company has no mission statement, no company-wide or departmental goals, and no individual goals to hold employees accountable. Additionally, no formal recruitment, onboarding, or training procedures exist. The consultant thinks the poor results are caused by poorly trained sales representatives. Customer loyalty is strong; however, it is because of the low-cost products not easily found elsewhere. What course of action should the HR business consultant recommend that the CEO take when creating new goals for the company's employees?

Create detailed annual goals that are relevant to the company's mission and that can be aligned with the company's performance management system

Capacity to recognize, interpret, and behaviorally adapt to multicultural situations and contexts

Cultural Intelligence

A global organization implements a clothing policy that sets general guidelines for a neat appearance and safety in the workplace. The policy also allows regional management to issue appropriate expectations for the local operations. Which does this action illustrate?

Cultural Relativism When a firm adopts a cultural relativist perspective, it allows local HR practitioners to interpret general guidelines according to local cultural practices and norms.

Additional workload that is generated for members of an underrepresented group due to their requested participation in DE&I efforts

Cultural Taxation

Basic beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviors, and customs shared and followed by members of a group, which give rise to the group's sense of identity

Culture

While attending a training class on conscious versus unconscious bias, a straight white male employee expresses a microaggression, indicating angrily that the organization promotes those who have shown the most merit and it isn't his fault who is in the promotion pipeline. How should the instructor respond?

Defuse this defensive behavior by indicating that all persons have such biases and there is no stigma for being in an ingroup Acknowledging unconscious bias at the systematic level challenges notions of meritocracy, which undercuts belief in both personal achievement and the success of the system itself. Knowing that this is a natural reaction, it is important to defuse the situation. Also, it is important when working to address unconscious bias that individuals in ingroups do not feel that they alone are exhibiting or benefiting from unconscious bias (that is, do not alienate people for possessing ingroup traits).

Technique that progressively collects information from a group of anonymous respondents

Delphi Technique

Leadership approach in which the leader invites followers to collaborate and commits to acting by consensus

Democratic Leadership Approach

A nonprofit social services organization has experienced rapid employee growth and is expanding services into new markets. Performance and service quality assessments, however, are showing quality regression as the organization expands. The CEO and the executive committee are worried about the decline in performance and service quality levels, and suspect the quality of their new hires and/or lack of incentive among employees are to blame. Leadership decided to hire an experienced HR manager to oversee the current HR team of two, in hopes to reverse the downward trend of performance and quality. The HR manager conducts an internal analysis to diagnose the root causes of the service quality decline. The analysis uncovers several critical problem areas to be addressed, including vague job descriptions, a lack of formal orientation, low base pay, an ineffective performance review program, and the lack of a recognition and awards program. The changes will require additional resources and significant financial investment. A member of the executive committee proposes to terminate all current employees and start over with ones who are better qualified, believing that starting from scratch would be cheaper than fixing the identified problems. How should the HR manager respond to the executive who proposes to terminate current employees and start over by hiring new employees?

Demonstrate the projected costs related to building a new workforce vs. training the existing workforce

Several employees have contacted the HR department multiple times about the company's lack of environmentally sustainable practices. In particular, employees have suggested that the company use reusable containers and utensils at official company events instead of plastic bottles and cups. Employees have provided alternative solutions, such as a cost estimate of a reusable liquid container with the company logo. Each time, the HR specialists have politely thanked the employees for their input but have not taken any specific action to avoid having to change contracts with the long-term vendor of supplies. At a recent company meeting, plastic cups and plates were used to serve refreshments and snacks. One of the employees who had been contacting the HR department was at the meeting. Upon seeing the plastic materials, the employee became very upset, expressed criticism for the company not taking any action, and left the meeting. The HR manager is put in charge of looking into environmentally friendly practices as well as resolving the conflict with this employee. Which should the HR manager do to persuade top management to adopt green initiatives?

Demonstrate the relationship between environmentally sustainable practices and company core values

Despite the fact that an employee's team is scheduled to work from 9:00am - 5:00pm each day, the employee consistently stays out late for lunch and makes up the time at the end of the day. A new manager has recently taken over the department and notices this pattern of behavior. During an informal conversation, the manager mentions to the employee that the individual is taking extended lunches. The employee responds with, "What does it matter? I stay and make up the time." The manager is concerned that the behavior was previously allowed and wants to start documenting the tardiness. Additionally, the manager worries that the morale of the team is suffering, as three team members have approached her about the situation since she was hired. How can the HR generalist effectively assess whether to update the policy?

Determine when the last update was and partner with the HR manager to determine necessary updates

A clothing retail company in business for over three years has three locations in a popular beach resort area. There are similar retailers in the same area competing for both the customers and labor pool. Recently the company has had extensive growth due to a new clothing design, however, employees are leaving within 90 days of hire. This turnover is now affecting customer satisfaction and increasing the workload on the remaining staff. Most of the management staff started as sales floor employees and received little to no management training. One of the key criteria used in promoting staff is their success on the sales floor, leading to complaints of internal selection unfairness. Recent exit interviews suggest low morale, poor leadership, and lack of work/life balance as the top three reasons for leaving the company. Knowing that there are plans to launch two new product lines in the near future, the CEO has asked the HR director to find a new vendor to provide new employee orientation. Twenty companies have submitted proposals, and the CEO wants a short list in the next two days. Which steps should the HR director take to develop a short list of possible training vendors?

Determine, with the CEO, key criteria that should be considered, using this information to narrow the search

A new HR manager joins a manufacturing organization that is experiencing an increase in workplace safety incidents. These incidents are resulting in higher insurance costs, increased absences, reduced productivity, and lower-quality products. A review of compliance functions and key performance indicators shows an excessive increase in the last 12 months. This timeline coincides with the retirement of the compliance manager and the transfer of the duties related to managing workplace safety to the HR department. The manager also compares the number of incidents in the organization with industry standards and determines that the organization's incident rates are 50% greater than the industry average. The HR manager recognizes that changes need to be made immediately in the HR department to improve safety and protect employees from future incidents and injuries. The CEO tasks the HR manager with finding solutions to increase safety knowledge and decrease incidents in the organization. Several department managers approach the HR manager and state their concerns over the amount of safety incidents. What should the HR manager do to address their concerns?

Develop a joint management-employee committee that discusses safety concerns

The critical care unit (CCU) at a large, reputable hospital is understaffed for registered nurse positions. Traditionally, there is a series of career hurdles a nurse must overcome to assume a role in the hospital's CCU, but it's essential for the hospital to have these positions filled. The CCU's head nurse, who directs nursing service activities for unit patients, has approached the hospital's HR manager with these staffing concerns and needs. In addition to presenting the HR manager with the current staffing problem, the head nurse recommends a strategy to staff the unit. The strategy described by the head nurse includes creating a pilot program where internal nurses, working in other departments with translatable skill sets, can enroll in an accelerated critical care course. Once those nurses successfully complete the accelerated course, they will be offered positions in the hospital's CCU. The head nurse tells the HR manager that both the organization and nurses would benefit from a program like this because it is an opportunity for career development and fulfills an organizational need. Additionally, this would reduce the burden on current CCU nurses who are overworked and experiencing burnout. While meeting with the HR manager, the head nurse mentions that there is a shortage of health-care professionals globally. Which action should the HR manager take to recruit and retain more competitively after learning this information?

Develop a long-term staffing plan for all health-care positions at the hospital

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 should be the first step HR includes in the project plan to meet hiring needs and contract requirements?

Develop a recruiting strategy to reach as many potential applicants as possible

A nonprofit social services organization has experienced rapid employee growth and is expanding services into new markets. Performance and service quality assessments, however, are showing quality regression as the organization expands. The CEO and the executive committee are worried about the decline in performance and service quality levels, and suspect the quality of their new hires and/or lack of incentive among employees are to blame. Leadership decided to hire an experienced HR manager to oversee the current HR team of two, in hopes to reverse the downward trend of performance and quality. The HR manager conducts an internal analysis to diagnose the root causes of the service quality decline. The analysis uncovers several critical problem areas to be addressed, including vague job descriptions, a lack of formal orientation, low base pay, an ineffective performance review program, and the lack of a recognition and awards program. The changes will require additional resources and significant financial investment. A member of the executive committee proposes to terminate all current employees and start over with ones who are better qualified, believing that starting from scratch would be cheaper than fixing the identified problems. The HR manager has identified several problems that need to be solved, which should they do first?

Develop a talent management strategy to hire and train qualified staff, establish performance expectations, and reward high-performing employees

The HR director of a 6,000-employee hospital is meeting with the hospital's CEO about potentially conducting an employee engagement survey. The hospital has never conducted an engagement survey. The hospital's turnover is low, and it pays competitive wages and benefits. It is nonunion except for about 200 employees in its food service department. There is a sense that a baseline assessment of employee work environment perceptions and the employees' commitment to serving patients is needed. While there is anecdotal evidence that employees are relatively satisfied with the work environment and committed to serving patients, employees have complained through the organizational hotline about lack of management support in some areas. Since other hospitals in the market have experienced union organizing activity, there is concern about possible unionization. While the CEO is interested in the survey, there is fear that it will raise employee expectations that the organization cannot meet, increasing employee dissatisfaction. The HR director is planning a follow-up meeting with the administrator and an external consultant. The goal is to share with the CEO best employer practices in conducting engagement surveys, the positive benefits of using surveys to improve morale, and appropriate engagement strategies and practices to support managers in improving performance and productivity. In developing the business case for the CEO in collaboration with the external consultant, which is the best action for the HR director to take?

Develop and present the business case, with the consultant's collaborative input during the development and presentation processes

An HR team member was recently promoted to a team leader position. He is anxious about making the transition. What should the employee focus on in this new role?

Developing and coaching team members An effective leader accomplishes strategic goals and objectives through the work of the leader's team. The leader and the team benefit most when the leader focuses on coaching and developing team members: The leader benefits from a team that is more productive and competent, and team members improve their job skills. Effective leaders do not rely on personal likeability or power, and they strive to understand and resolve conflict, not avoid it.

What is a key aspect of diversity that spurs innovation and so should not be considered a negative?

Discomfort As Columbia Business School Professor of Leadership and Ethics Katherine Phillips explains, the discomfort caused by diversity in and of itself helps promote innovation.

A mid-sized company has a strict attendance policy stating that any absence of three days or more without contact from the employee is considered job abandonment and the employee is subject to termination. The organization has experienced significant growth over the years, and the increase in the employee population has prompted stricter policies, which some staff view as unnecessarily controlling. One manager's best employee has been absent without contact for four days and calls in. The employee indicates he had some unexpected personal problems involving his teenage child. The employee did not call earlier due to being distraught, occupied with the situation, and also a bit embarrassed. According to the policy, the employee must be terminated, but the manager is reluctant to do so because this is the department's best employee. This is the first violation, and the serious family issues could escalate if the employee is terminated. Senior leadership has recently taken a tough stance on consistently adhering to company policies and practices due to complaints of favoritism. The manager is hesitant to go to HR for fear they will recommend termination. Instead the manager seeks counsel from a member of the senior leadership team who is a relative and who supports the decision to not terminate the employee. When the employee is not terminated, an anonymous complaint is filed via the employee hotline system. It alleges discrimination and favoritism; there is also a comment about too many new policies. The employee is named, and the complainant demands that other employees terminated under the no-call, no-show policy be reinstated. The protocol requires that HR review all discrimination complaints. Which next step should HR take to address the allegations that a member of senior leadership advised against following a company policy?

Discuss the claim directly with the President and provide an overview of the incident, with a recommendation for holding both the manager and the senior leader accountable

An organization is experiencing a high turnover rate in new hires within the first six to nine months. The HR director conducts research and determines that several of the employees have joined a competitor. The HR director decides to employ a third-party firm to conduct a salary survey, and a complete review of the job description and a job analysis for the position. Additionally, the HR director performs an internal employee opinion survey in which employees share that the current benefits package lags that of other companies in the area. The results from the third-party survey confirm that the company does lag the competitor by a large margin in compensation and benefits. Also, managers do not provide candidates an accurate representation of day-to-day activities within positions. Which action should the HR director take to help hiring managers understand the criticality of a realistic job preview?

Discuss with managers the importance of accurate representations in the interview, turnover costs, and their questions

The director of the HR department is taking personal leave for three weeks and assigns an HR employee to work with a consulting firm to conduct a strategic planning process for the company. The consulting firm conducts interviews with 10% of the employees, but none of the interviews is with line staff. The HR employee feels that the consulting firm's approach did not fully capture the information required to support the strategic planning process, so the HR employee decides to conduct a separate data collection. The HR employee develops a company-wide survey, gains buy-in from key leaders, and presents the survey to the executive team. Once approved by the executive team, the employee administers the survey and achieves a 77% response rate. The company's CEO shares the survey results with the consulting firm so it can implement the next phase of the strategic planning process. The representative for the consulting company that was hired to perform the work has found out about the survey initiated by the HR employee. The representative is unhappy about the consulting company's work being disregarded and demands an explanation from the HR employee. How should the HR employee handle this?

Discuss with the consulting firm employees which areas were missed to help them complete the strategic planning process

The similarities and differences between individuals, accounting for all aspects of one's personality and individual identity

Diversity

A clothing retail company in business for over three years has three locations in a popular beach resort area. There are similar retailers in the same area competing for both the customers and labor pool. Recently the company has had extensive growth due to a new clothing design, however, employees are leaving within 90 days of hire. This turnover is now affecting customer satisfaction and increasing the workload on the remaining staff. Most of the management staff started as sales floor employees and received little to no management training. One of the key criteria used in promoting staff is their success on the sales floor, leading to complaints of internal selection unfairness. Recent exit interviews suggest low morale, poor leadership, and lack of work/life balance as the top three reasons for leaving the company. Knowing that there are plans to launch two new product lines in the near future, the CEO has asked the HR director to find a new vendor to provide new employee orientation. Twenty companies have submitted proposals, and the CEO wants a short list in the next two days. An applicant from a local competitor has offered to give the HR director information on the competitor's salary and benefits upon hire. Which action should the HR director take in response to this offer?

Do not hire the candidate, indicating that the company does not participate in unethical behavior

Concept that laws are enforced only through accepted, codified procedures

Due Process

Which best describes the benefit of using an employee resource group (ERG) for an organization looking to expand global market share?

ERGs provide valuable insights into the needs of the organization's diverse markets ERGs can be a valuable information resource for demographic markets and employee engagement and development. They can also serve a critical support role in diversity and inclusion strategic initiatives. While the key leadership role is usually performed by the corporation's diversity council, ERGs can fill the pipeline with prospective candidates for the diversity council.

- Leadership theory that states that leaders are not appointed but emerge from the group, which chooses the leader based on interactions

Emergent Theory

Ability to be sensitive to and understand one's own and others' emotions and impulses

Emotional Intelligence (EI)

Which reward could create job dissatisfaction rather than job satisfaction?

Employee A can go to a training event, but only if Employee B succeeds in getting all of her people certified. This situation is related to Vroom's theory of expectancy. Rather than motivating, linking rewards to things outside a person's sphere of influence can be a source of dissatisfaction and viewed as arbitrary or unfair. Employee A's reward is linked to the success or failure of an activity over which he has no control-the certification of Employee B's team. If Employee B's goal of getting all her team members certified is achievable, then the reward will encourage extra effort. As long as Employee C is not compelled to attend a social event that she does not want to attend, that could appeal to her desire to be part of the group. Employee E's reward will certainly not create dissatisfaction and may motivate if it is aligns to his motivational factors.

- Voluntary group for employees who share a particular diversity dimension (race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.) - Also known as affinity group or network group

Employee Resource Group (ERG)

During a team meeting, one member is dominating the discussion while others are quietly listening. What should the manager leading the meeting do?

Encourage participation from less active team members by asking questions of those team members Managers support and control discussion during their meetings. This may involve asking quieter participants for their reactions or protecting participants from difficult or abusive group members. Asserting that the manager is in charge is a poor way of providing support and control.

A supervisor and an employee have a disagreement via e-mail that escalates into an outright argument. HR has been called in to intervene and learns that neither party has had a face-to-face meeting in over a month. How should HR help resolve this issue?

Encourage regular meetings between the supervisor and the employee to create a feedback loop Encouraging regular meetings strengthens the receiver-communicator link, which depends on an existing feedback loop. While tools, templates, or e-mail guidelines may help those responses, they do not capture the complete communication breakdown and lack of feedback. Limiting the use of specific language does not address the specific communication challenge in this scenario.

A company's rapid growth is resulting in demand to hire new team members. Recognizing the need to ensure that the right talent is brought into the company, a newly hired HR director implements a more structured hiring process to assess applicants' skills, compensation needs, and culture fit. However, many managers do not support the new hiring process, claiming it slows down the hiring cycle. In addition, the managers believe that the initial salary and bonus recommendations resulting from HR's recently updated compensation structures are not reflective of market demand. The managers claim this situation is causing candidates to decline their offers of employment. Which action should the HR director take to best ensure that the company's compensation structures are competitive?

Engage a third-party consulting firm to do a full analysis of job types and associated compensation structures

The HR director of a 6,000-employee hospital is meeting with the hospital's CEO about potentially conducting an employee engagement survey. The hospital has never conducted an engagement survey. The hospital's turnover is low, and it pays competitive wages and benefits. It is nonunion except for about 200 employees in its food service department. There is a sense that a baseline assessment of employee work environment perceptions and the employees' commitment to serving patients is needed. While there is anecdotal evidence that employees are relatively satisfied with the work environment and committed to serving patients, employees have complained through the organizational hotline about lack of management support in some areas. Since other hospitals in the market have experienced union organizing activity, there is concern about possible unionization. While the CEO is interested in the survey, there is fear that it will raise employee expectations that the organization cannot meet, increasing employee dissatisfaction. The HR director is planning a follow-up meeting with the administrator and an external consultant. The goal is to share with the CEO best employer practices in conducting engagement surveys, the positive benefits of using surveys to improve morale, and appropriate engagement strategies and practices to support managers in improving performance and productivity. The CEO moves forward with the engagement survey. What is the first step the HR director should take with the food service workers' union?

Engage the union, with hospital's labor counsel, in an exploratory discussion to discuss the possible participation of bargaining unit employees in the survey

Business management software, usually a suite of integrated applications, that a company can use to collect, store, manage, and interpret data from many business activities

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Amount of owners' or shareholders' portion of a business

Equity

- Theory that states that motivation is based on an employee's sense of fairness - The individual compares their perceived value with that of others in similar roles and makes a calculation based on their inputs and outputs

Equity Theory

What type of diversity is likely to be the most significant between identical twins who have been raised in the same household and who have the same level of education?

Experiential Diversity Experiential diversity is diversity based on lived experience, and this area of the identical twin's lives will have the most room for diversity. While they may also have thought diversity, their similar household, socioeconomic backgrounds, and education makes this less of a differentiator than experiences.

An HR manager derives his authority from his extensive background in HRM. What type of power is he using?

Expert According to John French and Bertram Raven, the manager is using expert power, which influences others' behavior on the strength of the leader's deep knowledge and experience. Legitimate power derives from position in the organization's hierarchy. Referent power comes from the strength of personal relationships with team members. Affiliation is actually a need that can motivate team members-the need to be part of a group.

Power that is created when a leader is recognized as possessing great intelligence, insight, or experience

Expert Power

In his initial meeting with the HR team, a newly hired HR director hears several concerns relating to the organization's talent acquisition process including inconsistent questions, different decision-making criteria, and a lack of diversity across departments. The HR director believes these concerns, as he experienced several questionable actions during his own hiring. The HR team is not confident that the organization is hiring the best people, but each department believes its hiring approach is effective and show no interest in trying a new approach. After confirming that an absence of diversity is an issue in certain departments, which next step should the HR director take?

Explain to interviewers and managers why diversity among employees is good for business

An HR manager works for a large university. One day, an adult student comes in to claim sexual harassment by a married professor. A week later, another student comes in with a similar claim. Both students are currently in classes taught by the professor. University policy prohibits relationships between employees and students who they teach. Punishment for violation of the policy is determined by the dean of the academic division. While talking to the second student, the HR manager discovers that the students have coordinated their stories. The second student admits that both relationships were consensual and no sexual harassment occurred. Once it was discovered the professor was having multiple affairs, both of the students felt betrayed. The professor's spouse contacts the HR manager and requests that no adverse action be taken against the professor because the professor is in the country on a work visa sponsored by the university. How should the HR manager respond?

Explain to the spouse that the HR manager is not at liberty to disclose information

The HR director of a 6,000-employee hospital is meeting with the hospital's CEO about potentially conducting an employee engagement survey. The hospital has never conducted an engagement survey. The hospital's turnover is low, and it pays competitive wages and benefits. It is nonunion except for about 200 employees in its food service department. There is a sense that a baseline assessment of employee work environment perceptions and the employees' commitment to serving patients is needed. While there is anecdotal evidence that employees are relatively satisfied with the work environment and committed to serving patients, employees have complained through the organizational hotline about lack of management support in some areas. Since other hospitals in the market have experienced union organizing activity, there is concern about possible unionization. While the CEO is interested in the survey, there is fear that it will raise employee expectations that the organization cannot meet, increasing employee dissatisfaction. The HR director is planning a follow-up meeting with the administrator and an external consultant. The goal is to share with the CEO best employer practices in conducting engagement surveys, the positive benefits of using surveys to improve morale, and appropriate engagement strategies and practices to support managers in improving performance and productivity. What is the best course of action for the HR director in proactively addressing employee concerns with the engagement survey?

Explore employees' interest in participating in stay interviews to give insight to the organization

A manager has been assigned to lead a team of employees in organizing an upcoming community event. The manager knows that in order to meet event goals, she must make sure that the tasks and expectations are clear and that she provides plenty of direction. What leadership theory is the manager following?

Fiedler's Contingency Theory Situational leadership emphasizes that a leader should change his or her approach based on employees' relationship and task needs. Leaders will have a natural style, but effective leaders should adapt themselves in order to make the team more successful. Fiedler's contingency theory asks "How can the situation be changed to improve the effectiveness of both leader and employees?" The goal is termed "situational favorableness." Three factors determine the favorableness of a leadership situation: leader-member relations, task structure, and position power.

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

Focus Group

- Tool designed to analyze the forces favoring and opposing a particular change - A group identifies and weights factors that could influence an outcome in either a negative or positive manner according to their possible impact and then uses these factors to score different opportunities

Force-Field Analysis

HR meets with team leaders to analyze the pros and cons of a suggested change. As a group, they brainstorm on factors that could influence the outcome of the change in both positive and negative ways. The factors are assigned weights in order to quantify the pros and cons and assist the leaders in their decision making. What type of analysis is the group using in this situation?

Force-Field Analysis Based on this force-field analysis, the group can decide to pursue opportunities with scores showing favorability for change or to avoid changes that face very strong resistance. They might also use analysis results in deciding how to allocate resources to mitigate negative risks and enhance opportunities.

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

Process of constructing a message so that an audience sees communicated facts in a certain way and is persuaded to take a certain action

Framing

Which statement best describes how organizations have evolved in their definition of diversity?

From a defensive, compliance-based view to that of a strategic asset Diversity is not just a matter of adding new categories to a growing list of identity groups: race, religion, gender, culture, ethnic background, age etc. Rather, it is a move from viewing diversity defensively, as a matter of legal or ethical compliance, to viewing it strategically, as a valuable asset to be leveraged.

A recently promoted HR manager is transferred to a remote facility, due to several complaints of inappropriate behavior and favoritism between the plant manager and the former HR manager. The complaints range from allegations of an affair between the two to poor performance and stealing company property. The head office leaders are highly sensitive to creating an ethical culture and have asked that the new HR manager report back on any discovered issues with the plant manager. This makes the HR manager uncomfortable, because she is trying her best to balance developing a relationship with the plant manager with trying to complete the investigation. The new HR manager begins an investigation and learns that the plant manager believes two female employees in the accounting department reported the theft and the affair. When the HR manager speaks with these employees, they share the belief that they are being retaliated against. Although they were rated as above-average performers, they have been given only minimal wage increases. The investigation identified theft of a number of items by the plant manager. The items are not expensive, but their value is not minor. Additionally, it was learned that the plant manager is actively undermining the new HR manager's authority by telling all managers to ignore any HR recommendations. What steps should the HR manager take to address the direction by the plant manager to ignore HR's recommendations?

Further investigate the statements to determine the full context of the situation before taking action

An HR consultant wants to recommend implementing a quality-oriented strategy that will increase revenue for the organization. Which would be the best first step to implementing the strategy?

Gain management commitment to necessary investments and changes Quality initiatives must begin with management commitment, since they involve significant change, investment in equipment and training, and possibly temporary loss of productivity.

Which workplace solution would help address wage and career achievement gaps while also attracting a more diverse workforce?

Gender-neutral paid parental leave Gender-neutral paid parental leave may help attract more diverse sets of workers, promote gender equality, and reduce gender-based wage and career achievement gaps.

Ability to take an international perspective, inclusive of other cultures' views

Global Mindset

Theory that states that motivation can be increased by providing employees with goals against which they can assess their achievement

Goal-Setting Theory

Ratio of gross profit to net sales

Gross Profit Margin

A business partner is leading an employee committee tasked with developing a program of employee appreciation events. Two of the committee members are embroiled in what has become personal antagonism. The two committee members interrupt each other during meetings and are rude in front of the others. How could the business partner have best avoided this situation?

Ground rules for behavior in meetings should have been established at the first meeting The conflict is wasting the time of the other committee members and could have been avoided by setting and enforcing ground rules for meeting behavior early. Perhaps the conflict can be resolved now, but it is late in the process.

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.

A mid-sized company has a strict attendance policy stating that any absence of three days or more without contact from the employee is considered job abandonment and the employee is subject to termination. The organization has experienced significant growth over the years, and the increase in the employee population has prompted stricter policies, which some staff view as unnecessarily controlling. One manager's best employee has been absent without contact for four days and calls in. The employee indicates he had some unexpected personal problems involving his teenage child. The employee did not call earlier due to being distraught, occupied with the situation, and also a bit embarrassed. According to the policy, the employee must be terminated, but the manager is reluctant to do so because this is the department's best employee. This is the first violation, and the serious family issues could escalate if the employee is terminated. Senior leadership has recently taken a tough stance on consistently adhering to company policies and practices due to complaints of favoritism. The manager is hesitant to go to HR for fear they will recommend termination. Instead the manager seeks counsel from a member of the senior leadership team who is a relative and who supports the decision to not terminate the employee. When the employee is not terminated, an anonymous complaint is filed via the employee hotline system. It alleges discrimination and favoritism; there is also a comment about too many new policies. The employee is named, and the complainant demands that other employees terminated under the no-call, no-show policy be reinstated. The protocol requires that HR review all discrimination complaints. Which is the first course of action HR should take?

HR should inform the president of the issue and partner with her on the next steps for corrective action

During the yearly performance and sales review at an organization, an HR manager realizes that the sales goal and bonus structure could potentially incentivize individuals to move closings from one quarter to the next as needed to meet quarterly sales goals. Leadership, mid-level management, and the salespeople have different bonus structures-annually for leadership, quarterly for mid-level managers, and monthly for salespeople. This has created a disconnect between the different groups and created different motivations. The HR manager presents an analysis of the data to the CEO. The CEO determines that, while this bonus structure may have worked in the past, it needs to be changed and the bonus structure of the different groups needs to be aligned. She tasks the HR manager with crafting a new bonus structure and implementing it after she has approved it. What should the HR manager do first to create a bonus structure that is compatible with organizational goals and drives employee performance?

Hire an outside organization to conduct a remuneration survey of competitors and their bonus structure

An employee files a complaint alleging discrimination based on other employees creating an intimidating work environment, primarily by making insensitive and inappropriate comments. The alleged actions have made the employee uncomfortable in the workplace. The HR generalist begins to review the information submitted by the employee and, as part of the review, discovers that this is not the first discrimination allegation the employee has filed. All the other complaints were closed following a determination that the allegations were unfounded. When prompted for further information, the employee eventually lists the names of everyone who is being accused in the complaint. To the surprise of the HR generalist, it is the majority of the company's senior leadership team. Based on the employee's history of complaints and who is being accused this time, the HR generalist determines that an investigation is not warranted and immediately dismisses the employee's concerns. However, several weeks later, the employee presents documented proof of comments made by a number of employees, including some from the senior leadership team. Upon review, the HR generalist determines that this additional information could add merit to the complaint. Which is the most effective first step the HR manager should take to create an environment of inclusiveness?

Hold inclusiveness training for all employees at various points in the year

An HR manager works for a large university. One day, an adult student comes in to claim sexual harassment by a married professor. A week later, another student comes in with a similar claim. Both students are currently in classes taught by the professor. University policy prohibits relationships between employees and students who they teach. Punishment for violation of the policy is determined by the dean of the academic division. While talking to the second student, the HR manager discovers that the students have coordinated their stories. The second student admits that both relationships were consensual and no sexual harassment occurred. Once it was discovered the professor was having multiple affairs, both of the students felt betrayed. Which action should the HR manager take to discourage inappropriate professor-student relationships in the future?

Hold regular faculty and staff training on sexual harassment and university policies

An HR manager works for a large university. One day, an adult student comes in to claim sexual harassment by a married professor. A week later, another student comes in with a similar claim. Both students are currently in classes taught by the professor. University policy prohibits relationships between employees and students who they teach. Punishment for violation of the policy is determined by the dean of the academic division. While talking to the second student, the HR manager discovers that the students have coordinated their stories. The second student admits that both relationships were consensual and no sexual harassment occurred. Once it was discovered the professor was having multiple affairs, both of the students felt betrayed. Which action should the HR manager take to convince the students that claiming sexual harassment is inappropriate?

Host one-on-one discussions with each student explaining sexual harassment and answering their questions

The HR director at a large university has been on the job for six months when the university hires a new president. The new president decides that the staff development and advancement program is nonessential and orders the HR director to eliminate the 15 positions associated with the program within the week. The HR director wants to reassign, rather than terminate, employees who will be displaced. Which action should the HR director take to make job reassignments most effectively?

Identify positions requiring similar knowledge, skills, and abilities as the employees' current positions

At a staffing agency, recruiters are facing a challenge in finding high-quality candidates. Additionally, the recruiters adhere to an unwritten rule that they should not contact candidates who have already worked with other recruiters within the agency. A new recruiter corresponds with a candidate who was previously in communication with a veteran recruiter. The two recruiters get into an argument, and the recruitment manager tries to intervene. The new recruiter claims not knowing about this unwritten rule and challenges the rule's efficacy. The veteran recruiter says that the unwritten rule is explained during the onboarding process. The agency implements a new initiative to increase the quality of candidates. How should the HR manager evaluate the effectiveness of the initiative?

Identify the number of successful placements before and after the initiative

A global company benchmarks against similar companies that have recently faced costly and embarrassing cybersecurity breaches resulting in the loss of customer confidence. In response, the CEO directs the IT department with enhancing data accuracy, security, and privacy. Additionally, Risk management is tasked with implementing improved governance, compliance monitoring, and enforcement parameters. Finally, HR is charged with strengthening procedures around acquisition of staff, policy creation, the code of ethics, and communication. The three departments all agree that employees must possess a work ethic, motivation, and integrity. How can HR best incorporate protective measures for the organization based on the CEO's mandate?

Implement a robust pre-employment screening process that combines background checks, non-disclosure agreement, and employment verification for any position with access to sensitive information

An organization has implemented a recruitment and hiring program to increase the diversity of its workforce, but the retention rate for new hires is low. What step would offer the most help in correcting this problem?

Implementation of employee resource groups Since the issue is with retention, rather than effectiveness in attracting diverse candidates, the best answer here may be employee resource groups, sometimes referred to as affinity groups. They can provide support to new employees during the onboarding period. Support can take the form of networking, mentoring, or advocacy.

- A feeling that one's success is due to luck, not hard work or skill - Can lead individuals to feeling unfit for their current role

Imposter Syndrome

An organization works on empowerment, accountability, courage, and humility as cultural fundamentals in order to instill psychological safety in its employees. What effect can such a culture help prevent?

Imposter syndrome Impostor syndrome is typified by the feeling that success is due to luck, not hard work or skill. This can lead to individuals feeling unfit for their current role, and they may sell themselves short. However, in a culture that enables people to admit mistakes, a person with such feelings may have the courage to express personal misgivings and ask for help.

Extent to which each person in an organization feels welcomed, respected, supported, and valued as a team member

Inclusion

In an employee survey, the question is asked, "Do you believe all employees, even those with special needs, have a career path at the organization?" What is this question designed to measure?

Inclusion This survey question is asking whether employees believe that inclusion in the workplace extends to career development and whether that development path has equity (rather than equality, since persons with special needs may need special accommodations to give them a fair shot at a career path). Diversity can be measured using empirical data such as with racial, gender, and other diversity metrics.

Statement that reports revenues, expenses, and profits for a specified period of time, for example, quarterly or annually

Income Statement

What financial document lists the revenues, expenses, and profits of an organization for a designated period of time?

Income Statement The income statement shows revenues, expenses, and profits for the organization. The balance sheet shows its assets, liabilities, and shareholders' equity.

What form of budgeting uses the prior year's budget as the basis for the next budget?

Incremental Budgeting Incremental, or line-item budgeting, uses the previous year's budget. The prior budget is simply increased by a set percentage. Additional funds are requested based on need and objectives.

A firm has just announced a major reorganization to its employees. Which is most likely to happen first after the initial shock of the news?

Individuals may deny the reality of the change After the initial shock has passed, it is common for individuals to deny that the change will happen or is beneficial. Individuals focus on the past, believing that the past situation was acceptable or better and change was not needed.

A mid-sized company has a strict attendance policy stating that any absence of three days or more without contact from the employee is considered job abandonment and the employee is subject to termination. The organization has experienced significant growth over the years, and the increase in the employee population has prompted stricter policies, which some staff view as unnecessarily controlling. One manager's best employee has been absent without contact for four days and calls in. The employee indicates he had some unexpected personal problems involving his teenage child. The employee did not call earlier due to being distraught, occupied with the situation, and also a bit embarrassed. According to the policy, the employee must be terminated, but the manager is reluctant to do so because this is the department's best employee. This is the first violation, and the serious family issues could escalate if the employee is terminated. Senior leadership has recently taken a tough stance on consistently adhering to company policies and practices due to complaints of favoritism. The manager is hesitant to go to HR for fear they will recommend termination. Instead the manager seeks counsel from a member of the senior leadership team who is a relative and who supports the decision to not terminate the employee. When the employee is not terminated, an anonymous complaint is filed via the employee hotline system. It alleges discrimination and favoritism; there is also a comment about too many new policies. The employee is named, and the complainant demands that other employees terminated under the no-call, no-show policy be reinstated. The protocol requires that HR review all discrimination complaints. Which would be the best way for HR to address the anonymous complaint?

Inform the employee and the manager that a complaint has been lodged and that there will be an internal investigation

What practice can help end rumors that an organization's pay equity initiative is all talk and no action?

Institute pay transparency Pay transparency (such as publishing pay scales) is important in the pursuit of pay equity. It can also help reinforce to employees that the organization is serious about achieving pay equity, undercutting potential notions that the organization may be seeking to benefit from a lack of pay equity by saving on labor costs while falsely claiming they are working toward that goal. A pay audit and its output, the pay equity report, are confidential and are not distributed to the general employee base, so these may not be sufficient to end the rumors.

Maintaining consistency between one's values and one's actions

Integrity

An HR manager works for a large university. One day, an adult student comes in to claim sexual harassment by a married professor. A week later, another student comes in with a similar claim. Both students are currently in classes taught by the professor. University policy prohibits relationships between employees and students who they teach. Punishment for violation of the policy is determined by the dean of the academic division. While talking to the second student, the HR manager discovers that the students have coordinated their stories. The second student admits that both relationships were consensual and no sexual harassment occurred. Once it was discovered the professor was having multiple affairs, both of the students felt betrayed. Which action should the HR manager take first based on the information provided by the students?

Interview the professor about the allegations

Which best describes how an organization's focus on diversity is a benefit to its recruitment efforts?

It enhances the employment brand to attract talent Developing an inclusive and diverse workforce enhances the employer's brand and its ability to attract high-potential talent in minority groups. The organization can also more easily respond to demographic changes and local labor markets.

- Visualization of the impact of change on productivity - When change is introduced, there is typically a decrease in productivity and then a gradual return to or, ideally, a surpassing of previous levels of productivity

J Curve

- Leadership theory that focuses on a two-way relationship between leaders and chosen employees - The leader mentors selected team members and gives them access to more information and resources in order to strengthen levels of trust and support

Leader-Member Exchange Theory

Which should be included in manager training for an organization's diversity and inclusion strategic initiative?

Leading diverse teams effectively and fostering an inclusive work environment The key goal of management-directed training is to help executives learn to manage more effectively. Diversity awareness courses aimed at the entire organization (another key training component) will cover better understanding how to work in a diverse organization, focusing on all differences and not particular groups.

Power that is created formally, through a title or position in the hierarchy that is associated with the rights of leadership

Legitimate Power

Organization's debts and other financial obligations

Liabilities

A global company benchmarks against similar companies that have recently faced costly and embarrassing cybersecurity breaches resulting in the loss of customer confidence. In response, the CEO directs the IT department with enhancing data accuracy, security, and privacy. Additionally, Risk management is tasked with implementing improved governance, compliance monitoring, and enforcement parameters. Finally, HR is charged with strengthening procedures around acquisition of staff, policy creation, the code of ethics, and communication. The three departments all agree that employees must possess a work ethic, motivation, and integrity. In order to determine the full scope of enterprise risk that exists, which areas should HR review in an IT audit?

Links between business and information strategy and business continuity

Which action would best support a group brainstorming session?

Listen to what each person has to say before thinking about responses. Messaging or texting can be distracting if it is used too much. This can create noise in the form of the important messages being overlooked.

The HR director of a 6,000-employee hospital is meeting with the hospital's CEO about potentially conducting an employee engagement survey. The hospital has never conducted an engagement survey. The hospital's turnover is low, and it pays competitive wages and benefits. It is nonunion except for about 200 employees in its food service department. There is a sense that a baseline assessment of employee work environment perceptions and the employees' commitment to serving patients is needed. While there is anecdotal evidence that employees are relatively satisfied with the work environment and committed to serving patients, employees have complained through the organizational hotline about lack of management support in some areas. Since other hospitals in the market have experienced union organizing activity, there is concern about possible unionization. While the CEO is interested in the survey, there is fear that it will raise employee expectations that the organization cannot meet, increasing employee dissatisfaction. The HR director is planning a follow-up meeting with the administrator and an external consultant. The goal is to share with the CEO best employer practices in conducting engagement surveys, the positive benefits of using surveys to improve morale, and appropriate engagement strategies and practices to support managers in improving performance and productivity. What risks should the HR director share when recommending an employee engagement survey to the hospital's CEO?

Low senior leadership commitment poses significant risks when there is no credible action plan to address identified employee concerns

- Societies in which relationships have less history - Individuals know each other less well and don't share a common database of experience, so communication must be very explicit

Low-Context Cultures

What skill could most improve an HR function's ability to manage change?

Mastery of complex communication means Managing change requires all of the skills listed, but proficiency in communication is most important because it is key to involving the members of the organization in the change, engaging their support of the change, and initiating conversations that can improve the change initiative and increase employees' understanding of what is required for the success of the initiative.

Average score or value

Mean

Middle value in a range of values

Median

During the yearly performance and sales review at an organization, an HR manager realizes that the sales goal and bonus structure could potentially incentivize individuals to move closings from one quarter to the next as needed to meet quarterly sales goals. Leadership, mid-level management, and the salespeople have different bonus structures-annually for leadership, quarterly for mid-level managers, and monthly for salespeople. This has created a disconnect between the different groups and created different motivations. The HR manager presents an analysis of the data to the CEO. The CEO determines that, while this bonus structure may have worked in the past, it needs to be changed and the bonus structure of the different groups needs to be aligned. She tasks the HR manager with crafting a new bonus structure and implementing it after she has approved it. Which would be the most effective way to communicate the new plan?

Meet first with managers and then with individual teams to discuss the new plan and its benefits

The employee relations (ER) manager has been tasked with hosting a company event so employees can meet coworkers in other parts of the company. How should the ER manager approach this task?

Meet with functional managers throughout the company to gather ideas Meeting with managers in other departments is a win-win tactic. It begins to expand the ER manager's internal network, and it gives these managers input into the event planning. The other options exclude other members of the organization.

Over the past 12 months, a global hotel franchise has been experiencing steady, significant growth, and needs to hire more employees at all levels. The leadership team asks the HR department to transition into a strategic business partner role to ensure that the franchise can meet current and future demands. However, some senior managers in the franchise believe that HR should focus only on administration of traditional HR activities such as recruiting, payroll, benefits, and these managers refuse to include HR in business conversations. As a result, many HR staff have adopted a strict policy enforcement role that has only made it more difficult for the HR department to make the transition. An HR manager is tasked with identifying ways to expand the role of the HR function in the organization and aligning it with business strategy. The HR manager is also charged with presenting an HR transformation plan to the executive leadership team. Which action should the HR manager take to identify opportunities for the HR department to expand its role in the company?

Meet with senior managers to discuss ways the HR department can improve its services

The CEO of a small local company has decided that the organization needs to embrace a model of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Despite a formal strategy not being in place, the organization has been using the principles of CSR in certain circumstances. The CEO wants the HR manager to help lead the corporate change. This change involves mindset, planning, and helping everyone embrace the change. HR is not viewed as a true partner to the organization currently, so this will be a challenge. The CEO is seeking to create a company known for treating people well, operating in a sustainable manner, and giving to worthy causes. This change will be more noticeable in some departments than in others. Because of this, the CEO would like to start with a word-of-mouth campaign prior to a large company-wide announcement. The CEO wants the HR manager to put together a plan within two to four weeks that creates this low-key way to work toward the CSR culture for the organization. HR and the CEO discuss that it will be a long-term process for change to be fully implemented. The CEO understands this but wants a plan no later than one month from the meeting. What action should the HR manager take to influence the CEO about the difficulty in meeting the timeline?

Meet with the CEO to review essential portions of the project and the timeline challenges

A company has an outdated applicant tracking system, which upper management has been reluctant to replace. The HR department has had great difficulty managing the large number of applicants with this system. Many hiring-related tasks that the system is incapable of handling have been carried out manually. This has led to administrative errors, delay in application processing, and miscommunication for internal applicants. One day, the HR manager receives a call from an internal applicant who had applied for a position a month ago. This applicant immediately received an email from the HR department about scheduling next steps in the selection process but has not heard back since. During the phone call, the HR manager looks into the tracking system to find that this applicant had been screened out due to not being a good fit with the position, and the initial email had been sent due to an administrative error. The HR manager communicates this to the applicant. The HR manager discovers that the administrative error was caused by one of the company's HR specialists. What should the HR manager do to motivate the HR specialist to be more attentive when processing hiring-related tasks to prevent similar mistakes in the future?

Meet with the HR specialist to determine the root cause of the administrative error

A VP of HR has responsibility for multiple manufacturing sites and is responsible for teams of HR managers and generalists that support each location. One evening, an HR generalist tells the VP of HR that when the HR generalist returned from dinner break, the HR office appeared to have been ransacked. The HR generalist reports that after checking camera footage, security personnel reached the conclusion that the site HR manager had done the damage before leaving the facility. The VP knows that the site HR manager has a volatile personality and has been counseled about it previously. The following day, other members of the HR team contact the VPof HR with concerns about the incident. Which action should the VP take address the concerns of the HR team?

Meet with the HR team as a group, discussing what happened and listening to concerns they have

Several employees have contacted the HR department multiple times about the company's lack of environmentally sustainable practices. In particular, employees have suggested that the company use reusable containers and utensils at official company events instead of plastic bottles and cups. Employees have provided alternative solutions, such as a cost estimate of a reusable liquid container with the company logo. Each time, the HR specialists have politely thanked the employees for their input but have not taken any specific action to avoid having to change contracts with the long-term vendor of supplies. At a recent company meeting, plastic cups and plates were used to serve refreshments and snacks. One of the employees who had been contacting the HR department was at the meeting. Upon seeing the plastic materials, the employee became very upset, expressed criticism for the company not taking any action, and left the meeting. The HR manager is put in charge of looking into environmentally friendly practices as well as resolving the conflict with this employee. How should the HR manager respond to the employee who left the meeting?

Meet with the employee to acknowledge the employee's frustration and explain that the company is reviewing environmentally friendly options

The largest customer of a small consulting firm demands that the project manager terminate an employee for poor performance or the customer will terminate its contract immediately. The account project manager has documented the employee's performance as meeting expectations, there is no documentation to support a termination, and there is no place to transfer the employee to. The HR manager conducts a comprehensive investigation and learns that the employee and the customer had a verbal disagreement about how the employee had classified specific expenses and how it affects the customer's budget. The confrontation was significant but did not involve any unacceptable language. In addition, the employee's classification was technically correct; however, a reclassification was also acceptable under generally accepted accounting principles. The project manager was unaware of this conflict. The HR manager concludes that the employee did not follow the policy that requires an employee to advise the supervisor of a client issue. Because such a conflict could significantly harm the company's business, the policy states that an employee can be disciplined up to and including termination for this violation. What steps can HR implement to ensure that this type of event does not recur with the company's current employees?

Meet with the entire project manager group to review policies, their job descriptions, and how to handle issues faced in day-to-day supervision

A company with a specialty product that has gained rapid popularity with hospitals has grown quickly from 15 employees to 300 in a one-year period. The organization expects to grow by several hundred employees per year for the foreseeable future. The president's secretary has been handling all human resources matters, and the accounting department has been handling payroll. The supervisors have been making their own human resources decisions regarding recruitment, employee relations, discipline, and rewards, with varying levels of success. The president pays little attention to the day-to-day operations of the business and focuses his attention on marketing and publicity. He decides that it is now necessary to hire an HR director to lead and manage the HR function. The supervisors are resistant to having a formal HR function in the company, believing that it will create unnecessary work and affect their ability to effectively manage the organization. During the interview process, the president indicates that there are a number of areas in need of focused attention, as the organization does not have job descriptions or a formal compensation structure and benefits are the same as when the company started. On the HR director's first day, there is no formal onboarding process. The president suggests that a good starting point for the HR director is to create a plan and catch up on the recruiting requests for the company. He then walks the HR director to her new office, offers to help with any questions, and walks away In order for the HR director to effectively develop relationships, which action should she take first?

Meeting colleagues by proactively walking around to introduce herself and her role within the company

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

Mind Mapping

Value that occurs most frequently in a set of data

Mode

Factors that initiate, direct, and sustain human behavior over time

Motivation

Type of analysis in which a team determines critical characteristics of a successful decision and then uses a matrix to score each alternative and compare results

Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA)

- Motivation theory that states that individuals are motivated by a desire to satisfy certain needs and that understanding these needs allows leaders to offer the right incentives and create the most motivational external environments - Includes self-determination and theories of Maslow, Herzberg, and McClelland

Needs Theory

Process by which two or more parties work together to reach agreement on a matter

Negotiation

- In communication, any factor that can disrupt the sending and receipt of a message - For example, physical factors such as loud environments, cultural factors such as a distinctive accent, or cognitive factors such as the use of unfamiliar jargon

Noise

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

Nominal Group Technique 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.

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

Nominal Group Technique (NGT)

- Components of a message apart from its words - This could include physical gestures and posture and vocal tones, volume, and speed

Nonverbals

Despite the fact that an employee's team is scheduled to work from 9:00am - 5:00pm each day, the employee consistently stays out late for lunch and makes up the time at the end of the day. A new manager has recently taken over the department and notices this pattern of behavior. During an informal conversation, the manager mentions to the employee that the individual is taking extended lunches. The employee responds with, "What does it matter? I stay and make up the time." The manager is concerned that the behavior was previously allowed and wants to start documenting the tardiness. Additionally, the manager worries that the morale of the team is suffering, as three team members have approached her about the situation since she was hired. If the employee agrees to stop returning from lunch late, which action should the HR generalist suggest to the manager?

Note the date and time the employee agrees to the policy and send a recap e-mail to the employee regarding the acknowledgement and expectations

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

A department manager contacts HR to discuss a situation involving a schedule change that was initiated for an employee three months ago. The employee has a medical condition and possibly needs surgery, and he requested the a change to his schedule until a decision can be made by his health-care provider. HR was not involved in the initial request. Other staff members are now becoming upset as this accommodation is causing an issue in the department. With no end date set, the manager is not certain of the status of the medical condition. The manager does not believe that the employee has a plan and therefore wants to reassign or terminate the employee. HR has been contacted for guidance on how to handle this situation. What is the most effective action the HR director should take to resolve the questions arising from the employee's accommodation?

Obtaining more information about the employee's limitations to determine if the current schedule adjustment is appropriate

A project manager says to a sponsor, "Let's get a lot of young people on this team, since we really need to think outside the box on this project." What is a risk once the project is started?

Older team members may not be solicited for their innovative ideas Making assumptions about the qualities of an individual due to their age can harm inclusiveness and productivity. Stereotypes may indicate that individuals of a certain age are more prone to think outside the box, which could reduce the ability of the organization to solve problems by ignoring potential contributors or making them feel not welcome to contribute.

A talent acquisition specialist needs to provide an analysis that explores hiring and turnover trends across demographics, performance levels, and promotion histories. Which is the best tool to obtain this information?

Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) OLAP applications have the ability to produce a time series illustrating trends while also comparing multiple sets of data within one report. The other responses would provide only some of the necessary data, and additional analysis would be required.

A company with a history of tolerating low-performing employees has recently gained new leadership. The new executive team has brought in an HR director with a mandate to resolve multiple issues. The new HR director is well aware of the history of the company. In addition to the low-performance issue, the HR director has uncovered a poor record of compliance with the ADA, the FMLA, and workers' compensation. This lack of compliance has allowed several employees to take advantage of the system to their own benefit. The HR director has been tasked with correcting these issues with a new performance management system. Additionally, the HR director will need to improve the HR department's understanding and compliance with legal requirements so that the company is less likely to be taken advantage of in the future. Which method should the HR director use to educate the HR staff on legal requirements?

Organize training for HR staff related to legal requirements, compliance, and performance management

Leadership approach in which the leader sets a model for high performance standards and challenges followers to meet these expectations

Pacesetting Leadership Approach

A company's rapid growth is resulting in demand to hire new team members. Recognizing the need to ensure that the right talent is brought into the company, a newly hired HR director implements a more structured hiring process to assess applicants' skills, compensation needs, and culture fit. However, many managers do not support the new hiring process, claiming it slows down the hiring cycle. In addition, the managers believe that the initial salary and bonus recommendations resulting from HR's recently updated compensation structures are not reflective of market demand. The managers claim this situation is causing candidates to decline their offers of employment. As the business continues to expand in support of the company's strategic direction, how should the HR director address longer-term hiring needs?

Participate in strategic planning sessions to help align HR talent practices with the future business direction

An organization is experiencing a high turnover rate in new hires within the first six to nine months. The HR director conducts research and determines that several of the employees have joined a competitor. The HR director decides to employ a third-party firm to conduct a salary survey, and a complete review of the job description and a job analysis for the position. Additionally, the HR director performs an internal employee opinion survey in which employees share that the current benefits package lags that of other companies in the area. The results from the third-party survey confirm that the company does lag the competitor by a large margin in compensation and benefits. The departure of the new hires shortly after starting the job is a cause for concern. Which recommendation should the HR director make in order for the organization to see an immediate reduction in the turnover?

Partner with managers to review the job description and conduct interview and onboarding training

The CEO of a small local company has decided that the organization needs to embrace a model of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Despite a formal strategy not being in place, the organization has been using the principles of CSR in certain circumstances. The CEO wants the HR manager to help lead the corporate change. This change involves mindset, planning, and helping everyone embrace the change. HR is not viewed as a true partner to the organization currently, so this will be a challenge. The CEO is seeking to create a company known for treating people well, operating in a sustainable manner, and giving to worthy causes. This change will be more noticeable in some departments than in others. Because of this, the CEO would like to start with a word-of-mouth campaign prior to a large company-wide announcement. The CEO wants the HR manager to put together a plan within two to four weeks that creates this low-key way to work toward the CSR culture for the organization. HR and the CEO discuss that it will be a long-term process for change to be fully implemented. The CEO understands this but wants a plan no later than one month from the meeting. What action should the HR manager take first to begin creating a culture that embraces CSR?

Partner with the heads of each department of the organization to review their current practices around CSR

Despite the fact that an employee's team is scheduled to work from 9:00am - 5:00pm each day, the employee consistently stays out late for lunch and makes up the time at the end of the day. A new manager has recently taken over the department and notices this pattern of behavior. During an informal conversation, the manager mentions to the employee that the individual is taking extended lunches. The employee responds with, "What does it matter? I stay and make up the time." The manager is concerned that the behavior was previously allowed and wants to start documenting the tardiness. Additionally, the manager worries that the morale of the team is suffering, as three team members have approached her about the situation since she was hired. How should the HR generalist advise the manager if she insists on documenting the employee behavior?

Partner with the manager and her supervisor to gain effective buy-in that expectations must be reset before documentation can commence

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. What should the HR director do to ensure that the organization's job descriptions are accurate?

Perform a job analysis to identify the activities, tasks, and responsibilities of each position in the organization

After the merger of two business entities, the new VP of HR would like the benefits manager to develop a plan to address six different post-merger vacation policies, each with slightly different criteria and provisions. Pressured by one of the business heads to prevent a power struggle among the new leadership, the benefits manager must decide if the organization should try to harmonize the policies from the merged entities or let them continue to coexist. Which critical first step should the benefits managers take to begin the harmonization process?

Perform a risk assessment of the two options: Harmonize or Co-exist

A company has an outdated applicant tracking system, which upper management has been reluctant to replace. The HR department has had great difficulty managing the large number of applicants with this system. Many hiring-related tasks that the system is incapable of handling have been carried out manually. This has led to administrative errors, delay in application processing, and miscommunication for internal applicants. One day, the HR manager receives a call from an internal applicant who had applied for a position a month ago. This applicant immediately received an email from the HR department about scheduling next steps in the selection process but has not heard back since. During the phone call, the HR manager looks into the tracking system to find that this applicant had been screened out due to not being a good fit with the position, and the initial email had been sent due to an administrative error. The HR manager communicates this to the applicant. What should the HR manager do to convince management to replace the applicant tracking system?

Present to management a comparison of the capabilities of the company's current applicant tracking system to alternatives

Which is the best way for an HR professional to persuade a function to embrace changes in work processes that are part of an organizational effectiveness intervention?

Presenting the changes as necessary to maintaining competitiveness Change is difficult. If organizational effectiveness and development initiatives are presented as a way to increase the competitiveness of the company or advance strategic goals, HR may gain better workforce support for the initiatives.

The management team has stated that new projects cannot be funded now. The HR department wants to implement an employee engagement survey. HR presents how the organization benefits from a survey. Interested, the management team tells HR that if HR can find a portion of the funding in its budget, management will find the rest. What negotiation style is this?

Principled During principled negotiation, the negotiators seek a win-win situation, a solution that benefits both sides. In this case, HR gets its survey, the management team controls its costs, and the organization receives the benefits of the survey. "Soft" negotiators value the relationship more than the root situation, and "hard" negotiators are committed to winning regardless of what is at stake. Brinksmanship is a coercive tactic aimed at forcing the other side to accept an offer.

Process in which negotiators aim for mutual gain, emphasizing the need to focus on the problem instead of personal differences and on mutually beneficial outcomes

Principled Negotiation

What are three key reasons why diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives require full-fledged, organization-wide efforts?

Priority, complexity, resistance D&I initiatives are resource-intensive because of priority, complexity, and resistance. To be a strategic priority, D&I must be aligned with core business goals; otherwise, it will always have a lower priority than more immediate concerns. Because of the complexity of the D&I problem, initiatives require a strategic, organization-wide solution. Achieving D&I initiatives requires major organization-wide change that can be problematic and challenging.

An individual's right to freedom from intrusion (by viewing, monitoring, reading, etc.) into matters, actions, or information that is personal

Privacy

Power that is created by the force of the leader's personality

Referent Power

A recently promoted HR manager is transferred to a remote facility, due to several complaints of inappropriate behavior and favoritism between the plant manager and the former HR manager. The complaints range from allegations of an affair between the two to poor performance and stealing company property. The head office leaders are highly sensitive to creating an ethical culture and have asked that the new HR manager report back on any discovered issues with the plant manager. This makes the HR manager uncomfortable, because she is trying her best to balance developing a relationship with the plant manager with trying to complete the investigation. The new HR manager begins an investigation and learns that the plant manager believes two female employees in the accounting department reported the theft and the affair. When the HR manager speaks with these employees, they share the belief that they are being retaliated against. Although they were rated as above-average performers, they have been given only minimal wage increases. The investigation identified theft of a number of items by the plant manager. The items are not expensive, but their value is not minor. Additionally, it was learned that the plant manager is actively undermining the new HR manager's authority by telling all managers to ignore any HR recommendations. How should the HR manager handle the evidence of theft by the plant manager?

Provide a summary of the investigation including the evidence collected back at headquarters

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. The HR manager views these job candidates as an opportunity to create a more diverse workforce. How should the HR manager leverage that opportunity?

Provide the candidates with information about professional development resources offered by the hospital for meeting licensing requirements

The CEO of a small local company has decided that the organization needs to embrace a model of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Despite a formal strategy not being in place, the organization has been using the principles of CSR in certain circumstances. The CEO wants the HR manager to help lead the corporate change. This change involves mindset, planning, and helping everyone embrace the change. HR is not viewed as a true partner to the organization currently, so this will be a challenge. The CEO is seeking to create a company known for treating people well, operating in a sustainable manner, and giving to worthy causes. This change will be more noticeable in some departments than in others. Because of this, the CEO would like to start with a word-of-mouth campaign prior to a large company-wide announcement. The CEO wants the HR manager to put together a plan within two to four weeks that creates this low-key way to work toward the CSR culture for the organization. HR and the CEO discuss that it will be a long-term process for change to be fully implemented. The CEO understands this but wants a plan no later than one month from the meeting. What action should the HR manager take to encourage employees to embrace this cultural change?

Provide values-based change management workshops that actively involve employees

Subjective evaluation of actions, feelings, or behaviors

Qualitative Data

A nonprofit social services organization has experienced rapid employee growth and is expanding services into new markets. Performance and service quality assessments, however, are showing quality regression as the organization expands. The CEO and the executive committee are worried about the decline in performance and service quality levels, and suspect the quality of their new hires and/or lack of incentive among employees are to blame. Leadership decided to hire an experienced HR manager to oversee the current HR team of two, in hopes to reverse the downward trend of performance and quality. The HR manager conducts an internal analysis to diagnose the root causes of the service quality decline. The analysis uncovers several critical problem areas to be addressed, including vague job descriptions, a lack of formal orientation, low base pay, an ineffective performance review program, and the lack of a recognition and awards program. The changes will require additional resources and significant financial investment. A member of the executive committee proposes to terminate all current employees and start over with ones who are better qualified, believing that starting from scratch would be cheaper than fixing the identified problems. The HR manager needs to define key metrics to show the return on investment for the proposed HR solutions. Which of the following would be the most critical indicator?

Quality of Service

Objective measurements that can be verified and used in statistical analysis

Quantitative Data

Which is diversity's greatest value to an organization?

Range of perspectives and modes of thinking What makes diversity valuable to an organization is, first and foremost, the expanding range of perspectives and modes of thinking that it provides, with potential rewards of greater innovation, creativity, and problem-solving capabilities.

- Comparing the sizes of two variables to produce an index or percentage - Commonly used to analyze financial statements

Ratio Analysis

At a staffing agency, recruiters are facing a challenge in finding high-quality candidates. Additionally, the recruiters adhere to an unwritten rule that they should not contact candidates who have already worked with other recruiters within the agency. A new recruiter corresponds with a candidate who was previously in communication with a veteran recruiter. The two recruiters get into an argument, and the recruitment manager tries to intervene. The new recruiter claims not knowing about this unwritten rule and challenges the rule's efficacy. The veteran recruiter says that the unwritten rule is explained during the onboarding process. The recruitment manager approaches the HR manager for help with attracting high-quality candidates. What guidance should the HR manager provide?

Recommend evaluating the effectiveness of the agency's recruitment processes and tools

The critical care unit (CCU) at a large, reputable hospital is understaffed for registered nurse positions. Traditionally, there is a series of career hurdles a nurse must overcome to assume a role in the hospital's CCU, but it's essential for the hospital to have these positions filled. The CCU's head nurse, who directs nursing service activities for unit patients, has approached the hospital's HR manager with these staffing concerns and needs. In addition to presenting the HR manager with the current staffing problem, the head nurse recommends a strategy to staff the unit. The strategy described by the head nurse includes creating a pilot program where internal nurses, working in other departments with translatable skill sets, can enroll in an accelerated critical care course. Once those nurses successfully complete the accelerated course, they will be offered positions in the hospital's CCU. The head nurse tells the HR manager that both the organization and nurses would benefit from a program like this because it is an opportunity for career development and fulfills an organizational need. Additionally, this would reduce the burden on current CCU nurses who are overworked and experiencing burnout. The head nurse wants to motivate employees who are feeling overworked. What should the HR manager do?

Recommend that the head nurse provide recognition to nurses for their hard work and achievements

A stock brokerage firm incents in-house brokers with trips if they generate more than $500,000 worth of sales in a particular fund that the firm currently owns 20% in. Management asks HR to comment on the program. What should HR recommend?

Recommend that this unethical practice stop and discuss alternative incentive plans The rewards create a conflict of interest and may encourage questionable business decisions. It is the role and duty of HR to support and model ethical behavior, in this case by presenting its assessment of the ethical issue to management. The organization's action in this case may not be illegal, but it is unethical. Customers who bought into this fund would most likely question who was receiving the primary benefit from the transaction if the details of the incentives were made known. Lowering the amount does not address the ethical and policy issues.

Over the past 12 months, a global hotel franchise has been experiencing steady, significant growth, and needs to hire more employees at all levels. The leadership team asks the HR department to transition into a strategic business partner role to ensure that the franchise can meet current and future demands. However, some senior managers in the franchise believe that HR should focus only on administration of traditional HR activities such as recruiting, payroll, benefits, and these managers refuse to include HR in business conversations. As a result, many HR staff have adopted a strict policy enforcement role that has only made it more difficult for the HR department to make the transition. An HR manager is tasked with identifying ways to expand the role of the HR function in the organization and aligning it with business strategy. The HR manager is also charged with presenting an HR transformation plan to the executive leadership team. Which action should the HR manager take to align the HR department's function with the organization's strategy?

Recommend to executive leadership that they invite HR staff to strategic planning meetings

A global company benchmarks against similar companies that have recently faced costly and embarrassing cybersecurity breaches resulting in the loss of customer confidence. In response, the CEO directs the IT department with enhancing data accuracy, security, and privacy. Additionally, Risk management is tasked with implementing improved governance, compliance monitoring, and enforcement parameters. Finally, HR is charged with strengthening procedures around acquisition of staff, policy creation, the code of ethics, and communication. The three departments all agree that employees must possess a work ethic, motivation, and integrity. Where should the HR manager look to find potential employees with skills in cybersecurity?

Recruit former military Internet workers who are attracted by a higher level of pay and flexibility

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 stakeholders are the most critical for HR to include in the initial project planning process?

Recruiting manager, talent development manager, and employee relations manager

An organization is measuring its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) by asking how well surveys were conducted, what levels of participation were seen, and what changes should be made to future DE&I metrics. What is a key area of measurement that is missing?

Results Measures Gardenswartz and Rowe see measurement as addressing process and results. The question lists a number of process measures but no results measures. An example would be whether the initiative helped reduce turnover.

To attract talented university students, a public accounting firm offers an internship program to students who have completed 75% of their coursework. If a student is successful during the internship, the firm offers the student a position after graduation and provides opportunities for the student to study for the industry licensure exam. The firm pays for the exam and provides additional compensation once the student successfully completes the exam. For the past several years, the firm has seen an increasing rate of turnover among newly licensed employees. While it is common in the industry for employees to leave public accounting after they are licensed, the firm is losing many of its licensed employees to competitors. The high rate of turnover is negatively affecting the firm's performance. The HR manager has been charged with reducing the number of employees leaving for competitive firms as quickly and efficiently as possible. Which action should the HR manager take to identify the reasons employees are leaving for the competition?

Review exit interview feedback from employees who left to work for competitors

A new HR manager joins a manufacturing organization that is experiencing an increase in workplace safety incidents. These incidents are resulting in higher insurance costs, increased absences, reduced productivity, and lower-quality products. A review of compliance functions and key performance indicators shows an excessive increase in the last 12 months. This timeline coincides with the retirement of the compliance manager and the transfer of the duties related to managing workplace safety to the HR department. The manager also compares the number of incidents in the organization with industry standards and determines that the organization's incident rates are 50% greater than the industry average. The HR manager recognizes that changes need to be made immediately in the HR department to improve safety and protect employees from future incidents and injuries. The CEO tasks the HR manager with finding solutions to increase safety knowledge and decrease incidents in the organization. Which approach should the HR manager take to identify the reasons for the excessive number of safety incidents?

Review incident reports for the last 12 months to determine in there are patterns

A new HR manager joins a manufacturing organization that is experiencing an increase in workplace safety incidents. These incidents are resulting in higher insurance costs, increased absences, reduced productivity, and lower-quality products. A review of compliance functions and key performance indicators shows an excessive increase in the last 12 months. This timeline coincides with the retirement of the compliance manager and the transfer of the duties related to managing workplace safety to the HR department. The manager also compares the number of incidents in the organization with industry standards and determines that the organization's incident rates are 50% greater than the industry average. The HR manager recognizes that changes need to be made immediately in the HR department to improve safety and protect employees from future incidents and injuries. The CEO tasks the HR manager with finding solutions to increase safety knowledge and decrease incidents in the organization. What should the HR manager do to increase his own knowledge of safety practices and outcomes in the organization?

Review incident reports from the past five years to identify themes and common problems

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

Scatter Diagram Scatter diagrams are used to show relationships between two variables-in this case, education level and performance rating.

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. The HR manager is concerned that patterns in the requisition data may be related to adverse hiring practices. What action should the HR manager take to understand if that is the case?

Review the interviewers' ratings for patterns related to how candidates from certain groups are being evaluated

A recently promoted HR manager is transferred to a remote facility, due to several complaints of inappropriate behavior and favoritism between the plant manager and the former HR manager. The complaints range from allegations of an affair between the two to poor performance and stealing company property. The head office leaders are highly sensitive to creating an ethical culture and have asked that the new HR manager report back on any discovered issues with the plant manager. This makes the HR manager uncomfortable, because she is trying her best to balance developing a relationship with the plant manager with trying to complete the investigation. The new HR manager begins an investigation and learns that the plant manager believes two female employees in the accounting department reported the theft and the affair. When the HR manager speaks with these employees, they share the belief that they are being retaliated against. Although they were rated as above-average performers, they have been given only minimal wage increases. The investigation identified theft of a number of items by the plant manager. The items are not expensive, but their value is not minor. Additionally, it was learned that the plant manager is actively undermining the new HR manager's authority by telling all managers to ignore any HR recommendations. The HR manager studies the performance reviews and wage increases for all employees and finds inconsistencies that support the accounting employees' claims of retaliation. Given the HR manager's knowledge of the plant manager's behavior, what is the appropriate next step for the HR manager to take?

Review the process for setting wage increases for the accounting department with the company's controller

Power that is created when the leader can offer followers something they value in exchange for their commitment

Reward Power

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

Root-Cause 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

Scenario/What-If Analysis

Concept that stipulates that no individual is beyond the reach of the law and that authority is exercised only in accordance with written and publicly disclosed laws

Rule of Law

- Type of analysis in which a group identifies strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results - A framework that combines fact finding with an organization's goals and desires, presenting an analysis of the organization's actual state and how it will measure achievement

SOAR Analysis

An HR manager conducts a market salary survey to make sure that team members are being adequately compensated and do not seek other employment. Which level of needs in Maslow's hierarchy is she attempting to address?

Safety and Security The safety and security level includes personal, emotional, and financial security along with health and well being.

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 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.

Soon after a new HR manager begins working at a manufacturing plant, an employee stops by the HR manager's office inviting the HR manager to participate in the plant's monthly lottery. The HR manager is uncomfortable participating because it might violate the company's anti-gambling policy and politely declines. Later, the HR manager reviews the corporate policy on gambling and finds that it is not clear. The HR manager consults with the corporate HR director, who tells the HR manager that local laws about gambling are ambiguous and a new policy prohibiting gambling at the plant should be adopted. The HR manager informs the plant manager of the new policy, who advises the HR manager that it is a long-standing tradition that boosts employee morale that should be allowed to continue until the end of the year given the ambiguous local laws. How should the HR manager respond to the plant manager's suggestion?

Schedule a meeting with the corporate HR director and the plant manager to discuss the issue

The director of the HR department is taking personal leave for three weeks and assigns an HR employee to work with a consulting firm to conduct a strategic planning process for the company. The consulting firm conducts interviews with 10% of the employees, but none of the interviews is with line staff. The HR employee feels that the consulting firm's approach did not fully capture the information required to support the strategic planning process, so the HR employee decides to conduct a separate data collection. The HR employee develops a company-wide survey, gains buy-in from key leaders, and presents the survey to the executive team. Once approved by the executive team, the employee administers the survey and achieves a 77% response rate. The company's CEO shares the survey results with the consulting firm so it can implement the next phase of the strategic planning process. The HR employee has noticed that the HR director has started treating the HR employee differently since returning from leave. Communication between the HR director and the HR employee is less frequent and disengaged. What should the HR employee do?

Schedule a meeting with the director to discuss the situation

The HR director at a large university has been on the job for six months when the university hires a new president. The new president decides that the staff development and advancement program is nonessential and orders the HR director to eliminate the 15 positions associated with the program within the week. Which action should the HR director take to influence the president to reconsider eliminating these positions?

Schedule a meeting with the president to discuss the importance of investing in employee development and advancement

The HR director at a large university has been on the job for six months when the university hires a new president. The new president decides that the staff development and advancement program is nonessential and orders the HR director to eliminate the 15 positions associated with the program within the week. Which action should the HR director take to reduce the negative effects the reduction in force will have on morale?

Schedule one-on-one meetings with department employees to address their questions and concerns

A company with a specialty product that has gained rapid popularity with hospitals has grown quickly from 15 employees to 300 in a one-year period. The organization expects to grow by several hundred employees per year for the foreseeable future. The president's secretary has been handling all human resources matters, and the accounting department has been handling payroll. The supervisors have been making their own human resources decisions regarding recruitment, employee relations, discipline, and rewards, with varying levels of success. The president pays little attention to the day-to-day operations of the business and focuses his attention on marketing and publicity. He decides that it is now necessary to hire an HR director to lead and manage the HR function. The supervisors are resistant to having a formal HR function in the company, believing that it will create unnecessary work and affect their ability to effectively manage the organization. During the interview process, the president indicates that there are a number of areas in need of focused attention, as the organization does not have job descriptions or a formal compensation structure and benefits are the same as when the company started. On the HR director's first day, there is no formal onboarding process. The president suggests that a good starting point for the HR director is to create a plan and catch up on the recruiting requests for the company. He then walks the HR director to her new office, offers to help with any questions, and walks away Building integrity with the management team is going to be vital in implementing HR policies and procedures. Which action should the HR director take to build credibility with the managers?

Scheduling one-on-one meetings with each department head to understand his/her business priorities obstacles

At a staffing agency, recruiters are facing a challenge in finding high-quality candidates. Additionally, the recruiters adhere to an unwritten rule that they should not contact candidates who have already worked with other recruiters within the agency. A new recruiter corresponds with a candidate who was previously in communication with a veteran recruiter. The two recruiters get into an argument, and the recruitment manager tries to intervene. The new recruiter claims not knowing about this unwritten rule and challenges the rule's efficacy. The veteran recruiter says that the unwritten rule is explained during the onboarding process. The HR manager wants to evaluate the benefits of the unwritten rule about contacting candidates. Which step is most effective for the HR manager to take to obtain feedback?

Send an anonymous survey to all recruiters in the company to obtain feedback on the benefits of the unwritten rule

An HR manager works at a manufacturing company that is hiring new assembly-line employees. The HR manager helped to design and implement the selection system that is used to make these hires. The system includes a physical abilities test, a structured interview, and a personality assessment. The company has evidence demonstrating that each part of the system is a valid predictor of performance. Passing the physical abilities test is the first hurdle in the hiring process. Any applicant who passes this hurdle is interviewed by a plant manager, who then rates the applicant on several competencies. Applicants are not given any information about the competencies or questions prior to the interview. Interview scores and personality assessment scores are combined to rank the applicants. Many plant managers have complained to HR that the test does not assess the level of physical abilities required on the job, and recent hires have not performed well as a result. The HR manager's supervisor meets with the HR manager to discuss these concerns. A plant manager is accused of behaving in a culturally insensitive manner toward an applicant during an interview. This is the first time the plant manager has been accused of this behavior, and the HR manager's supervisor asks the HR manager for advice. What should the HR manager recommend?

Send the plant manager to a diversity training session

- Leadership theory in which the leaders' goal is to serve the needs of their employees - Emphasizes the sharing of power

Servant Leadership

Document that defines the output customers can expect

Service-Level Agreement

An HR manager is contacted via telephone by an employee concerned about the need for the replacement of protective equipment currently being used. The employee indicates that the equipment is damaged upon reporting to the supervisor, the concerns have not been addressed. Compliance with industry safety standards is reported publicly on an ongoing basis. During the conversation, the spouse of the employee can be heard speaking loudly in the background expressing dissatisfaction and posts comments on social media. The HR manager and the public relations department have been notified of the postings. The HR manager contacts the employee to request the posts be removed which further incites the spouse and additional comments are posted. The spouse requests to meet with the leadership of the firm to discuss. What is the best route for the HR manager to take to decrease the current level of anxiety for the employee and the spouse?

Set the employee's expectation as to what the immediate next steps will be and provide a preliminary idea of the timing of the process

An employee files a complaint alleging discrimination based on other employees creating an intimidating work environment, primarily by making insensitive and inappropriate comments. The alleged actions have made the employee uncomfortable in the workplace. The HR generalist begins to review the information submitted by the employee and, as part of the review, discovers that this is not the first discrimination allegation the employee has filed. All the other complaints were closed following a determination that the allegations were unfounded. When prompted for further information, the employee eventually lists the names of everyone who is being accused in the complaint. To the surprise of the HR generalist, it is the majority of the company's senior leadership team. Based on the employee's history of complaints and who is being accused this time, the HR generalist determines that an investigation is not warranted and immediately dismisses the employee's concerns. However, several weeks later, the employee presents documented proof of comments made by a number of employees, including some from the senior leadership team. Upon review, the HR generalist determines that this additional information could add merit to the complaint. What is the best course of action the HR generalist could take at this point?

Set up a formal meeting with the employee to gather additional details, assess whether an investigation is needed, and propose a plan to the HR manager

Which communications medium has a high risk of becoming a source of noise because many communications may seem urgent even when they are not important?

Short messaging Messaging or texting can be distracting if it is used too much. This can create noise in the form of the important messages being overlooked.

A renowned financial institution, a former leader in the financial market, is now facing decelerated growth. Its product portfolio lacks innovation compared to that of competitors. Although the institution was once a favorite place to work, recently HR has been facing issues attracting top talent, and time-to-hire metrics have deteriorated. A technology gap between the leadership and the employees is beginning to widen. The founder, who is very sales-oriented, is not an early adopter when it comes to technology. Since his client relationships all began with face-to-face contact, he is wary that technology removes the personal element. To create a more collaborative culture and social learning environment, the HR talent development lead (TDL) wants to foster a culture of learning and innovation. This will require a change in corporate culture and a significant investment in new technology. Despite a recent upgrade, the learning management system (LMS) still feels outdated, sluggish, and static. The TDL believes that a new LMS with more powerful social learning technologies will be critical for attracting and retaining top talent, capturing the attention of a broader and rapidly changing demographic, and meeting their demands. The workforce is around 40% Millennials, compared with 10% just five years ago. The TDL knows that championing creativity and innovation in a risk-averse industry is a challenge because this behavior is usually not promoted or rewarded. How should the talent development lead position the proposed LMS to gain leadership commitment for investing in this new technology?

Show how the LMS can effectively use technology, trends, and innovations to support the organizational strategy

- Category of leadership theories that states that leaders can flex their behaviors to meet the needs of unique situations, employing both task or directive behaviors and relationship or supportive behaviors - Includes Hersey-Blanchard situational leadership, Fiedler's contingency theory, and path-goal theory

Situational Theories

Which employee action is most effective in developing a global mindset?

Spending time living abroad Of the choices, the candidates most likely to have a global mindset are the employees who have actually spent time living outside their own countries. This provides daily interactions that embody cultural differences. The other actions will also help develop a global mindset, but they do not provide the firsthand, intensive experience in living in another culture.

Concept that proposes that any organization operates within a complex environment in which it affects and is affected by a variety of forces or stakeholders who all share in the value of the organization and its activities

Stakeholder Concept

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

Standard Deviation

At a staffing agency, recruiters are facing a challenge in finding high-quality candidates. Additionally, the recruiters adhere to an unwritten rule that they should not contact candidates who have already worked with other recruiters within the agency. A new recruiter corresponds with a candidate who was previously in communication with a veteran recruiter. The two recruiters get into an argument, and the recruitment manager tries to intervene. The new recruiter claims not knowing about this unwritten rule and challenges the rule's efficacy. The veteran recruiter says that the unwritten rule is explained during the onboarding process. The recruitment manager asks the HR manager to discipline the new recruiter. How should the HR manager respond?

Suggest adding the unwritten rule to the policy to avoid this situation in the future

Two team members continually disagree about project decisions impacting work duties and tasks. The team leader meets with the employee relations (ER) director to seek advice on the best course of action to resolve this situation. Which is the best conflict management approach for the ER director to recommend?

Suggest that the team leader meet with both employees and mediate a mutually acceptable solution It is important to reach a lasting resolution to this conflict since it may damage team productivity. The ER director will recommend collaboration, a conflict resolution technique that encourages both sides to share their objectives and find a solution that satisfies both sides' objectives.

Which is a good practice for implementing a code of conduct?

Talk with members of the organization to better understand ethical challenges and compliance requirements Because a code of conduct must address the risks and compliance requirements specific to an organization, it is a good practice to include discussions with a broad representation of the organization's members before drafting a code. While the organization's values are considered in drafting the code, they are not the basis of the code. While the code must be reviewed regularly, constantly revising it can lead to employees' not knowing the ethical mandates.

A company with a specialty product that has gained rapid popularity with hospitals has grown quickly from 15 employees to 300 in a one-year period. The organization expects to grow by several hundred employees per year for the foreseeable future. The president's secretary has been handling all human resources matters, and the accounting department has been handling payroll. The supervisors have been making their own human resources decisions regarding recruitment, employee relations, discipline, and rewards, with varying levels of success. The president pays little attention to the day-to-day operations of the business and focuses his attention on marketing and publicity. He decides that it is now necessary to hire an HR director to lead and manage the HR function. The supervisors are resistant to having a formal HR function in the company, believing that it will create unnecessary work and affect their ability to effectively manage the organization. During the interview process, the president indicates that there are a number of areas in need of focused attention, as the organization does not have job descriptions or a formal compensation structure and benefits are the same as when the company started. On the HR director's first day, there is no formal onboarding process. The president suggests that a good starting point for the HR director is to create a plan and catch up on the recruiting requests for the company. He then walks the HR director to her new office, offers to help with any questions, and walks away The HR director understands the need to develop and implement an effective strategic plan. What should be her first step in developing the plan?

Talking to senior leaders, long-time managers, and other key stakeholders to get an overall understanding of the company

Travel, training, and transfers are three of four tools, often referred to as the 4 Ts, used to develop a global mindset and influence managerial practices. What is the fourth tool, and what is its purpose?

Teams - Working on global teams and international projects helps executives develop cross-cultural management skills The 4 Ts are travel, teams, training, and transfers. They can be valuable strategies for creating a global mindset and enhancing the multicultural awareness of leaders and senior managers. In regard to teams, managers can be trained to form all their teams with an eye toward diversity and inclusion (gender, generational, cultural, etc.), not just for its own sake but for the advantages in problem solving and innovation created by more diverse teams.

The HR director at a large university has been on the job for six months when the university hires a new president. The new president decides that the staff development and advancement program is nonessential and orders the HR director to eliminate the 15 positions associated with the program within the week. How should the HR director communicate the reduction in force to affected employees?

Tell each impacted employee individually and explain his or her options

A company has an outdated applicant tracking system, which upper management has been reluctant to replace. The HR department has had great difficulty managing the large number of applicants with this system. Many hiring-related tasks that the system is incapable of handling have been carried out manually. This has led to administrative errors, delay in application processing, and miscommunication for internal applicants. One day, the HR manager receives a call from an internal applicant who had applied for a position a month ago. This applicant immediately received an email from the HR department about scheduling next steps in the selection process but has not heard back since. During the phone call, the HR manager looks into the tracking system to find that this applicant had been screened out due to not being a good fit with the position, and the initial email had been sent due to an administrative error. The HR manager communicates this to the applicant. The applicant becomes furious about being misinformed and starts swearing at the HR manager over the phone. How should the HR manager respond?

Tell the applicant that HR understands why the applicant is upset about the error

An HR manager works at a manufacturing company that is hiring new assembly-line employees. The HR manager helped to design and implement the selection system that is used to make these hires. The system includes a physical abilities test, a structured interview, and a personality assessment. The company has evidence demonstrating that each part of the system is a valid predictor of performance. Passing the physical abilities test is the first hurdle in the hiring process. Any applicant who passes this hurdle is interviewed by a plant manager, who then rates the applicant on several competencies. Applicants are not given any information about the competencies or questions prior to the interview. Interview scores and personality assessment scores are combined to rank the applicants. Many plant managers have complained to HR that the test does not assess the level of physical abilities required on the job, and recent hires have not performed well as a result. The HR manager's supervisor meets with the HR manager to discuss these concerns. A plant manager admits to not following the structured interview protocol when interviewing recent applicants, and the HR manager's supervisor asks the HR manager to talk to the plant manager about the issue. What should the HR manager do?

Tell the plant manager that inconsistent use of the protocol is unfair to applicants

An HR manager works at a manufacturing company that is hiring new assembly-line employees. The HR manager helped to design and implement the selection system that is used to make these hires. The system includes a physical abilities test, a structured interview, and a personality assessment. The company has evidence demonstrating that each part of the system is a valid predictor of performance. Passing the physical abilities test is the first hurdle in the hiring process. Any applicant who passes this hurdle is interviewed by a plant manager, who then rates the applicant on several competencies. Applicants are not given any information about the competencies or questions prior to the interview. Interview scores and personality assessment scores are combined to rank the applicants. Many plant managers have complained to HR that the test does not assess the level of physical abilities required on the job, and recent hires have not performed well as a result. The HR manager's supervisor meets with the HR manager to discuss these concerns. The HR manager's supervisor mentions that a relative is planning on applying for an assembly-line position at the company. The supervisor is concerned that the relative will not perform well in the interview and asks the HR manager for help. What should the HR manager do?

Tell the supervisor that all applicants must be treated the same

The largest customer of a small consulting firm demands that the project manager terminate an employee for poor performance or the customer will terminate its contract immediately. The account project manager has documented the employee's performance as meeting expectations, there is no documentation to support a termination, and there is no place to transfer the employee to. The HR manager conducts a comprehensive investigation and learns that the employee and the customer had a verbal disagreement about how the employee had classified specific expenses and how it affects the customer's budget. The confrontation was significant but did not involve any unacceptable language. In addition, the employee's classification was technically correct; however, a reclassification was also acceptable under generally accepted accounting principles. The project manager was unaware of this conflict. The HR manager concludes that the employee did not follow the policy that requires an employee to advise the supervisor of a client issue. Because such a conflict could significantly harm the company's business, the policy states that an employee can be disciplined up to and including termination for this violation. The HR manager and the project manager prepare to meet with the employee. They consider their options. Which is the most effective option that will honor the company's policy, yet maintain the relationship with the company's customer?

Terminate the employee for violation of the company policy

An HR manager receives a memo from a department director for termination of a groundskeeping employee. The company's recreational vehicle resort is at the same location as company headquarters. The terminated employee works and lives at the resort, and has no prior record of performance issues in his 10 year career. . The memo states that the director terminated the employee yesterday for gross misconduct. The groundskeeper was working in the heat all morning and then informed the director he was going home for lunch. Later the groundskeeper radioed the director that he was running late in returning from lunch. Subsequent communications led to the director sending a student worker to the employee's trailer to pick him up and return to the office. Upon their return, the groundskeeper smelled of alcohol, and the student worker reported to the director that the intoxicated groundskeeper offered the under-aged student worker a beer, which was refused. The student worker stressed that she did not want to get the groundskeeper in any trouble; however, the groundskeeper insisted that he be allowed to drive the golf cart back to the office after drinking beer, which made the student feel uncomfortable. The HR manager reviews the documentation and is concerned about the director's actions. Had the director contacted HR first before terminating the groundskeeper's employment, which recommended action would the HR manager have suggested?

Thank the student worker for raising her concern and drive the groundskeeper for a drug/alcohol test to be taken immediately

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

The largest customer of a small consulting firm demands that the project manager terminate an employee for poor performance or the customer will terminate its contract immediately. The account project manager has documented the employee's performance as meeting expectations, there is no documentation to support a termination, and there is no place to transfer the employee to. The HR manager conducts a comprehensive investigation and learns that the employee and the customer had a verbal disagreement about how the employee had classified specific expenses and how it affects the customer's budget. The confrontation was significant but did not involve any unacceptable language. In addition, the employee's classification was technically correct; however, a reclassification was also acceptable under generally accepted accounting principles. The project manager was unaware of this conflict. The HR manager concludes that the employee did not follow the policy that requires an employee to advise the supervisor of a client issue. Because such a conflict could significantly harm the company's business, the policy states that an employee can be disciplined up to and including termination for this violation. What steps should the company take with the customer to improve communication and ensure that all employees are aligned with how information should be communicated going forward?

The HR manager and the project manager should meet with the customer to define what effective communication should be, and they then should share the new communication plan during an all-employee meeting

A global company benchmarks against similar companies that have recently faced costly and embarrassing cybersecurity breaches resulting in the loss of customer confidence. In response, the CEO directs the IT department with enhancing data accuracy, security, and privacy. Additionally, Risk management is tasked with implementing improved governance, compliance monitoring, and enforcement parameters. Finally, HR is charged with strengthening procedures around acquisition of staff, policy creation, the code of ethics, and communication. The three departments all agree that employees must possess a work ethic, motivation, and integrity. Which technology policies should the HR manager recommend that the company implement?

The company can review all charges and information on a company-provided device

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

A mid-sized company has a strict attendance policy stating that any absence of three days or more without contact from the employee is considered job abandonment and the employee is subject to termination. The organization has experienced significant growth over the years, and the increase in the employee population has prompted stricter policies, which some staff view as unnecessarily controlling. One manager's best employee has been absent without contact for four days and calls in. The employee indicates he had some unexpected personal problems involving his teenage child. The employee did not call earlier due to being distraught, occupied with the situation, and also a bit embarrassed. According to the policy, the employee must be terminated, but the manager is reluctant to do so because this is the department's best employee. This is the first violation, and the serious family issues could escalate if the employee is terminated. Senior leadership has recently taken a tough stance on consistently adhering to company policies and practices due to complaints of favoritism. The manager is hesitant to go to HR for fear they will recommend termination. Instead the manager seeks counsel from a member of the senior leadership team who is a relative and who supports the decision to not terminate the employee. When the employee is not terminated, an anonymous complaint is filed via the employee hotline system. It alleges discrimination and favoritism; there is also a comment about too many new policies. The employee is named, and the complainant demands that other employees terminated under the no-call, no-show policy be reinstated. The protocol requires that HR review all discrimination complaints. Which is the appropriate outcome for the attendance policy violation?

The employee should be terminated per the company policy, to reinforce a consistent focus on policies that have been adopted and put in place

Which of the following is considered a criterion for effective employee resource groups (ERGs) as established by DiversityInc.?

The group has a formal charter DiversityInc. recommends formal charters for ERGs. The other options refer to criteria for effective diversity councils, not ERGs.

The largest customer of a small consulting firm demands that the project manager terminate an employee for poor performance or the customer will terminate its contract immediately. The account project manager has documented the employee's performance as meeting expectations, there is no documentation to support a termination, and there is no place to transfer the employee to. The HR manager conducts a comprehensive investigation and learns that the employee and the customer had a verbal disagreement about how the employee had classified specific expenses and how it affects the customer's budget. The confrontation was significant but did not involve any unacceptable language. In addition, the employee's classification was technically correct; however, a reclassification was also acceptable under generally accepted accounting principles. The project manager was unaware of this conflict. The HR manager concludes that the employee did not follow the policy that requires an employee to advise the supervisor of a client issue. Because such a conflict could significantly harm the company's business, the policy states that an employee can be disciplined up to and including termination for this violation. What can management do to improve the communication between the project manager and the project manager's employees so that this type of event does not recur?

The manager's supervisor should meet with the project manager for coaching on the responsibilities of day-to-day supervision and communication with employees and the customer

- Motivation theories dealing with the amount of control in the workplace - Motivation is seen as either absolutely irrelevant or absolutely critical

Theory X/Theory Y

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 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.

A business providing cloud computing services intends to distribute its server centers in different time zones around the world to protect against risks of local outages and to save energy by moving the bulk of processing to centers operating at night. Which best describes the impact to the organization's human capital planning? Answers

There will be an increased need for diversity training Home-country managers who work with staff at host-country sites will need to be more aware of cultural diversity.

Which is the primary goal of an organization's diversity and inclusion efforts?

To develop diverse perspectives The business case for diversity and inclusion efforts is premised on the value of diverse perspectives in an organization.

An HR business partner is conducting a focus group to examine possible causes for recent low engagement survey scores. What is the business partner's primary role in this meeting?

To encourage full discussion and participation The business partner is a facilitator in the meeting, and the facilitator's role is to encourage an active and open discussion, asking follow-up questions and ensuring participation by all focus group participants.

How is Porter's "Five Forces" framework used in developing strategies?

To understand competitive factors that influence the strategy Porter's "Five Forces" framework helps strategists understand the competitive forces at work in their industries so that they can assess the strengths and weaknesses of their own competitive position.

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. How should the HR manager evaluate the effectiveness of the program?

Track the quarterly accident reports to see if they have decreased since the training began

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 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

A company with a history of tolerating low-performing employees has recently gained new leadership. The new executive team has brought in an HR director with a mandate to resolve multiple issues. The new HR director is well aware of the history of the company. In addition to the low-performance issue, the HR director has uncovered a poor record of compliance with the ADA, the FMLA, and workers' compensation. This lack of compliance has allowed several employees to take advantage of the system to their own benefit. The HR director has been tasked with correcting these issues with a new performance management system. Additionally, the HR director will need to improve the HR department's understanding and compliance with legal requirements so that the company is less likely to be taken advantage of in the future. The HR director has been tasked by the executive team to address the low performance of employees. Which is the best way for the HR director to handle this situation?

Train employees and supervisors on the new performance management process and expectations

Leadership theory that states that leaders posses certain innate characteristics that followers do not possess (and probably cannot acquire), such as physical characteristics and personality traits

Trait Theory

- Leadership theory that emphasizes a leader's preference for order and structure - Focuses on control and short-term planning

Transactional Leadership

- Leadership theory that emphasizes a leader's ability to inspire employees to embrace change - Leaders encourage and motivate employees to innovate and seek out changes that can add value and growth to the organization

Transformational Leadership

Extent to which an organization's agreements, dealings, information, practices, and transactions are open to disclosure and review by relevant persons

Transparency

With the recent addition of a traditional Japanese tea garden, a well-funded art museum wants to invest in educating staff who have little understanding of Japanese tea rituals. Which activity should HR recommend to develop cultural awareness and appreciation for the tea garden experience?

Travel to Tokyo to experience tea culture and tour tea gardens

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

Trend Analysis

An HR manager observes that team members are refusing to collaborate with a particular individual. Upon further inquiry, she learns that others think the individual is inconsistent and unpredictable, effecting her dependability. What has this individual failed to establish with other team members?

Trust Trust is essential to building relationships and influencing others. One necessary ingredient for developing trust is behaving consistently-following through on commitments and being truthful.

A global corporation is engaging in negotiation with a partner organization in a country outside of headquarters. How should the HR manager prepare for negotiation discussions to create win-win outcomes?

Understand the values and negotiation styles of the other country Understanding the values and negotiation styles of the other country creates ease, trust, and respect. Seeking quick compromise, adhering to a defined perspective, and conflict avoidance are actions that do not support a win-win outcome.

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

Unweighted Mean

The CEO of a small local company has decided that the organization needs to embrace a model of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Despite a formal strategy not being in place, the organization has been using the principles of CSR in certain circumstances. The CEO wants the HR manager to help lead the corporate change. This change involves mindset, planning, and helping everyone embrace the change. HR is not viewed as a true partner to the organization currently, so this will be a challenge. The CEO is seeking to create a company known for treating people well, operating in a sustainable manner, and giving to worthy causes. This change will be more noticeable in some departments than in others. Because of this, the CEO would like to start with a word-of-mouth campaign prior to a large company-wide announcement. The CEO wants the HR manager to put together a plan within two to four weeks that creates this low-key way to work toward the CSR culture for the organization. HR and the CEO discuss that it will be a long-term process for change to be fully implemented. The CEO understands this but wants a plan no later than one month from the meeting. What action should the HR manager recommend to measure the acceptance of the new culture after it's announced and implemented?

Use both process and outcomes evaluations to determine the effectiveness of the program

An operations manager wants to hire additional full-time employees. The HR business partner knows that the need for additional resources will probably be temporary, based on historical data. What would be the best way to persuade the operations manager that using temporary workers would be a better strategy?

Use data. Show the manager the resource trend charts for the past several years The HR business partner should use historical data , because a rational approach to persuasion is the most useful tactic. Without data, appealing to the manager's empathy with workers might help. Escalating the issue is not showing leadership and may damage the relationship. Avoiding the issue also does not show leadership.

How can HR best partner with managers to implement a newly developed performance management tool?

Use input from the managers to create a best practices guide and meet with them individually to offer support or answer questions HR professionals should function as consultants to managers, which would involve getting their input and offering to support them and/or answer questions as needed. It would not involve having their bosses make threats, micromanaging, or overstepping boundaries; particularly not in a way that would suggest that HR would do a better job of evaluating their employees than they would.

HR is tasked with developing a plan to communicate major organizational changes to employees. Which is the most effective way to communicate the changes?

Use multiple channels of communication so the changes are shared in a variety of platforms Change-related information should be communicated to employees through multiple channels and from multiple sources. In impactful communication, information is communicated in multiple frameworks so the message is better understood and received by a varied audience.

What is the best description of an information system portal?

User's point of access to system data and applications An information system portal is the point of entry for a user into an information system. The system does not need to be web-hosted. It may provide access to the system's search engine, but it is not a search engine. It may be customized to users.

Which approach is most effective for promoting diversity and inclusion globally?

Using a wide range of measures of success beyond demographics Diversity and inclusion includes differences in perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences in addition to differences in demographic characteristics.

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

Validity

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

- The benefit created when an organization meets its strategic goals - Measure of usefulness, worth, or importance

Value

The process by which an organization creates the product or service it offers to the customer

Value Chain

Which best describes the mode in a set of data?

Value appearing most often The mode is the most frequently occurring value, the median is the middle number in the range, and the mean (weighted or unweighted) is the average score.

How are the concepts of value and the value chain related to strategy?

Value chain analysis identifies areas critical to strategic success All organizations, including nonprofits, have the goal of creating value in some form. Value may be measured by financial metrics but could also be measured by environmental or social metrics. The value chain describes the way different parts of an organization (and possibly the extended organization, including suppliers and customers) create value. Effective strategies align the organization's parts behind goals through value chain analysis. This is a thorough understanding of the role each part of the organization plays in creating value and its relationship to and requirements of the other parts.

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

Variance Analysis

Soon after a new HR manager begins working at a manufacturing plant, an employee stops by the HR manager's office inviting the HR manager to participate in the plant's monthly lottery. The HR manager is uncomfortable participating because it might violate the company's anti-gambling policy and politely declines. Later, the HR manager reviews the corporate policy on gambling and finds that it is not clear. The HR manager consults with the corporate HR director, who tells the HR manager that local laws about gambling are ambiguous and a new policy prohibiting gambling at the plant should be adopted. The HR manager informs the plant manager of the new policy, who advises the HR manager that it is a long-standing tradition that boosts employee morale that should be allowed to continue until the end of the year given the ambiguous local laws. How should the HR manager best develop and maintain mutual trust and respect with the employees who are upset with the HR manager about the new policy?

Walk around the plant to talk to employees and get to know them better personally and not in a formal setting

A new HR professional wants to understand how to gain credibility in his organization. Which activity would help the most?

Watching how people react to other team members in team discussions A person's social status in an organization may be observed in how others listen and respond to what he or she says. Seeing the types of people who earn respect in the organization, the new HR professional can work to imitate their actions. Ideally, the formal aspects of the organization, such as values statements, would be good indicators, but the formal and informal aspects of organizations are not always aligned. Informal discussions are a good idea, but a formal interview with HR managers may not provide perspective from all parts of the function. The informal aspects of an organization, such as the characteristics that make someone respected and trusted, may vary from one organization to the next.

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

Weighted Mean

Under which circumstances should ignoring conflict be used as a conflict management strategy?

When the issue will resolve itself without damaging the team processes and relationships Ignoring conflicts can be a reasonable conflict resolution tactic when the stakes are small (there will be little damage done) or the conflict is likely to resolve itself in the near future. For example, an HR manager may know that a difficult team member will be transferring to another location soon.

An HR professional has just joined an organization and she wants to better understand its informal characteristics. What should she pay attention to?

Who people interact with and the nature of their interactions The informal aspects of an organization are learned best by observing how people behave, communicate, and interact. The other choices all refer to the formal characteristics of an organization, aspects that have been articulated or documented in some way for all of the organization's members.

The director of the HR department is taking personal leave for three weeks and assigns an HR employee to work with a consulting firm to conduct a strategic planning process for the company. The consulting firm conducts interviews with 10% of the employees, but none of the interviews is with line staff. The HR employee feels that the consulting firm's approach did not fully capture the information required to support the strategic planning process, so the HR employee decides to conduct a separate data collection. The HR employee develops a company-wide survey, gains buy-in from key leaders, and presents the survey to the executive team. Once approved by the executive team, the employee administers the survey and achieves a 77% response rate. The company's CEO shares the survey results with the consulting firm so it can implement the next phase of the strategic planning process. The employee wants to be recognized for doing a good job solving the data collection issue, but did not communicate the survey to the HR director in a reasonable time frame. How should the HR employee approach this situation?

Work with the HR director to leverage the successful data collection as a win for the entire HR department

After the merger of two business entities, the new VP of HR would like the benefits manager to develop a plan to address six different post-merger vacation policies, each with slightly different criteria and provisions. Pressured by one of the business heads to prevent a power struggle among the new leadership, the benefits manager must decide if the organization should try to harmonize the policies from the merged entities or let them continue to coexist. A member of the HR team informs the benefits manager that one of the business heads is pressuring the HR team to support leaving the vacation policies of one of the merged entities intact. What should the benefits manager do about the business head's pressure to leave its current policies intact?

Work with the business head to understand the reason for the request

A VP of HR has responsibility for multiple manufacturing sites and is responsible for teams of HR managers and generalists that support each location. One evening, an HR generalist tells the VP of HR that when the HR generalist returned from dinner break, the HR office appeared to have been ransacked. The HR generalist reports that after checking camera footage, security personnel reached the conclusion that the site HR manager had done the damage before leaving the facility. The VP knows that the site HR manager has a volatile personality and has been counseled about it previously. What steps should the VP of HR take to address the condition of the HR office?

Work with the second shift HR generalist to clean up the damage and destruction of the HR office

Soon after a new HR manager begins working at a manufacturing plant, an employee stops by the HR manager's office inviting the HR manager to participate in the plant's monthly lottery. The HR manager is uncomfortable participating because it might violate the company's anti-gambling policy and politely declines. Later, the HR manager reviews the corporate policy on gambling and finds that it is not clear. The HR manager consults with the corporate HR director, who tells the HR manager that local laws about gambling are ambiguous and a new policy prohibiting gambling at the plant should be adopted. The HR manager informs the plant manager of the new policy, who advises the HR manager that it is a long-standing tradition that boosts employee morale that should be allowed to continue until the end of the year given the ambiguous local laws. How should the HR manager best encourage compliance with the new policy?

Write an article in the company newsletter outlining the reasons why the policy is beneficial