SHRM-CP: Workforce Management

Workforce planning is a technique used to help an organization reach its short- and long-term goals and objectives. The workforce analysis process consists of six steps. What is the first step?

Strategic focus

Replacement planning

"Snapshot" assessment of the availability of qualified backup for key positions.

6 steps of workforce planning

1. strategic focus (What do we need to consider?) 2. supply analysis (Where are we now?) 3. demand analysis (Where do we want to be?) 4. gap analysis (What is lacking?) 5. solution analysis (What can we afford?) 6. evaluating workplace planning and impact (How did we do?).

In which scenario would having a knowledge management program be beneficial to an organization?

A company's workforce has a large percentage of employees nearing retirement age.

Restructuring

Act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of an organization.

Turnover

Act of replacing employees leaving an organization; attrition or loss of employees.

Workforce planning

Activities needed to ensure that workforce size and competencies meet current and future organizational and individual needs.

Thought leadership

Allows organizations to magnify their impact in chosen areas by influencing other organizations in the industry to adopt their stance, and it may increase brand perception with consumers.

The staffing plan turns analysis data and organizational objectives into reality. What type of analysis is most likely to be considered in the development of a global staffing plan?

Analysis to determine gaps between current and future staffing requirements

Turnover rate

Annualized formula that tracks number of separations and total number of workforce employees per month.

What driver of restructuring can cause organizations to focus on up-skilling and re-skilling employees?

Artificial intelligence and robotics

Talent management

Development and integration of HR processes that retain the knowledge, skills, and abilities of employees that will meet current and future organizational needs.

A technology company's competitive strategy requires that it have highly trained employees with unique knowledge and skills. What HR activities should have a primary focus in HR's strategic plan?

Employee retention and succession planning

What do judgmental forecasting, trend and ratio analysis projections, and turnover analysis all assist an HR professional in predicting?

Future staffing needs

HR has been approved to expend financial and staffing resources for the upcoming fiscal year on a staffing plan. Who would likely be chosen to participate in the plan development and implementation?

HR staff member with 17 years' experience who has participated in job analyses for many of the jobs

The HR generalist at a regional bank informs managers when fully qualified candidates apply for jobs. Although there may not be any current openings, HR and position-specific managers will screen candidates and determine next steps. How can HR reliably predict when an opening is likely to occur?

Historical data of movement

A company designs and manufactures sophisticated and unique components for satellites. Its product development process can take a decade. It forecasts steady growth and demand for designers and technicians. What strategy is the company most likely to use to meet its workforce needs?

Investing in developing and retaining knowledgeable and skilled employees

What approach is most characteristic of succession planning?

It focuses on long-term global issues.

What is the first step in developing a knowledge management system?

Inventorying knowledge assets

Which alternative staffing arrangement meets the needs of an organization that is experiencing turnover in professional service positions due to employees desiring to work fewer hours?

Job sharing

Which technology has the primary mission of sharing information in meaningful ways to augment employee performance?

Knowledge management systems

An elder care service organization is challenged with retention of staff. Recently the service director left the organization with little notice. HR wants to prepare for future unplanned vacancies to avoid any disruption in client services. What is the best way for HR to mitigate this risk?

Managers can cross-train a subordinate.

Workforce profile

Part of workforce analysis that identifies the current make-up of employees in terms of their demographics, skills, competencies, performance levels, expected retirement dates, pay grades, and other factors that help explain the workforce's composition.

Staff have been reluctant to share on-the-job experiences with coworkers. HR wants to update all job descriptions to reflect the expectation that this should take place. How can HR assess that this change has been successfully implemented?

Performance evaluations

Knowledge management (KM)

Process of creating, acquiring, sharing, and managing knowledge to augment individual and organizational performance.

Succession planning

Process of implementing a talent management strategy for identifying and fostering the development of high-potential employees or other job candidates who, over time, may move into leadership positions of increased responsibility.

Due diligence

Process of investigating a decision thoroughly before finalizing it to identify all potential factors that could affect the positive and negative impacts of the decision.

Simulations

Representations of real situations; give organizations the opportunity to speculate as to what would happen if certain courses of action were pursued.

A mature organization has relied on stable processes that supported its current success. One of these processes is succession planning. This HR team has followed a strategy of identifying effective higher-level managers and grooming them for leadership positions. If you were a new HR manager assigned to lead this team, what would you advise?

Review the succession planning strategy to ensure alignment with current business conditions.

Which is considered a flexible staffing strategy?

Seasonal contracting

Independent contractors

Self-employed individuals hired on a contract basis for specialized services.

Which statement best describes a productive knowledge management system?

Sharing of organizational learning and reducing knowledge loss

Joint employment

Situation in which an organization shares responsibility and liability for its alternative workers with an alternative staffing supplier; also known as co-employment.

Co-employment

Situation in which an organization shares responsibility and liability for its alternative workers with an alternative staffing supplier; also known as joint employment.

Regression analysis

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

An organization has four generations working side-by-side in the workplace. Which practice could alleviate management concerns that intergenerational tensions and a lack of camaraderie could undermine organizational success?

Succession planning

Employees who are critical to an organization's success are the primary focus of which aspect of a talent management strategy?

Succession planning

Workforce analysis

Systematic approach to anticipate human capital needs and data HR professionals can use to ensure that appropriate knowledge, skills, or abilities will be available when needed to accomplish organizational goals and objectives.

Reduction in force (RIF)

Termination of employment of individual employees or groups of employees for reasons other than performance, for example, economic necessity or restructuring; also known as downsizing.

Downsizing

Termination of employment of individual employees or groups of employees for reasons other than performance, for example, economic necessity or restructuring; also known as reduction in force (RIF).

As the result of a reorganization, an employer is laying off 20% of its sales employees. Which existing practice will help ensure that the company retains the knowledge of the departing employees?

The sales department maintains a customer database.

Which type of social sharing of knowledge can allow an organization to increase its brand perception with the general public?

Thought leadership

Which is a primary goal during supply analysis?

To provide a snapshot of an organization's current pool of talent

Judgmental forecasts

Use of information from past and present to predict future conditions.

When is knowledge management most productive?

When it focuses on sharing organizational learning and reducing knowledge loss

HR has been asked to target and identify how the organization's strategic plans can be realized over a three-year scope. This will necessitate examining current organizational competencies against those needed in the future and reconciling the differences. Which process should HR recommend to assist the organization in making these determinations?

Workforce analysis