01. An HR director believes it is important that managers take more responsibility for performance appraisals. Which responsibility should the HR director assign specifically to the managers?
a) Identify development areas
b) Design appraisal system
c) Track timely receipt of appraisals
d) Train staff to use performance system
02. Which hands-on training method best allows an onboarding manufacturing employee to practice his job in a risk-free setting?
a) Team training
b) Apprenticeship
c) Simulation
d) Role play
03. A valued employee arrives 15 minutes late for work without explanation. Using the company's positive approach to discipline, which action should be taken to course-correct the employee’s tardiness?
a) Counseling
b) Verbal caution
c) Final warning
d) Written reprimand
04. Scenario: A company determines they will close their secondary manufacturing unit to move the operation to the business headquarters. They determined 70 new positions will need to be filled to support this effort. The CEO wants the transition to take place over a three-month period.
A month after the move, many of the relocated staff threaten to quit. HR conducts a survey and discovers three main causes of dissatisfaction: higher cost of living, unaffordable housing, and low-rated schools.
Which is the best course of action for HR to endorse to leadership to prevent departures?
a) Create a program for leadership to provide resources to assist staff.
b) Reveal the long-term growth strategy to promote staff buy-in.
c) Recommend leadership to focus on the biggest obstacle to retention.
d) Advise leadership to offer incentives to retain high-performing staff.
05. An HR manager has been asked to design a training program for the company. Which HR metric should be considered first in designing the program?
a) Average tenure of employees
b) Percentage of employees with a career plan
c) Performance quality of one-year employees
d) Total costs for training
06. Scenario: In the past two years, a company has been acquired by two different organizations. Each acquisition resulted in multiple layoffs; one even included the CEO being terminated. For a while, the morale of the remaining employees was very low because they had worked with some of the laid-off employees for years. To help increase morale the company re-evaluated their total rewards structure to be more beneficial to all employees.
Many employees suffer anxiety because of the increased workload and the fact their long-time friends are gone while they remain.
Which is the most important first step for the HR director to take to mitigate the effects of survivor syndrome being experienced by remaining employees?
a) Offer one-to-one career coaching so employees can manage increased workload.
b) Communicate with employees to acknowledge that management is aware employees are struggling and intends to help.
c) Invite a representative of the employee assistance program (EAP) to a town hall meeting to review EAP benefits for all employees.
d) Encourage department heads to actively increase individual recognition of employee contributions to the business.
07. Which is a significant benefit of recruiting from internal sources?
a) Innovation increases with each infusion of new talent
b) Provides a continuous pool of applicants
c) Minimizes inflated expectations about the job
d) Employees will all be of the existing mindset
08. A small start-up software company realizes that the technology skillsets of newly hired programmers are more advanced than the existing programmers' skillsets.
Recognizing the constant business need for these evolving, state-of-the-art skillsets, which is the best workforce development strategy to implement?
a) Design a rigorous in-house training program to get longer-tenured programmers up to speed with the newer programmers.
b) Perform a job redesign for the existing employees that will not require new, updated skills.
c) Partner with a local community college to offer programmers the opportunity to update their skillsets.
d) Offer new hires shorter-term contracts to allow for a continual hiring of programmers with the most up-to-date skills.
09. Scenario: A company determines they will close their secondary manufacturing unit to move the operation to the business headquarters. They determined 70 new positions will need to be filled to support this effort. The CEO wants the transition to take place over a three-month period.
The CEO asked the HR director to support this new staffing need. Which is the best action for HR to take first to begin supporting this initiative?
a) Survey employees to gauge interest in relocating to company headquarters.
b) Review job descriptions and total rewards structure to align them with staffing goals.
c) Identify employees unwilling to relocate so they can convey historical knowledge to new hires.
d) Identify a recruiting firm to attract talent to fill the new positions.
10. Scenario: In the past two years, a company has been acquired by two different organizations. Each acquisition resulted in multiple layoffs; one even included the CEO being terminated. For a while, the morale of the remaining employees was very low because they had worked with some of the laid-off employees for years. To help increase morale the company re-evaluated their total rewards structure to be more beneficial to all employees.
The VP of research and development asks for HR’s help resolving pay discrepancies, discovered during due diligence, among the senior engineers. The staff has been discussing this frequently and it is now affecting the team.
Which is the best way for HR to reassure the employees?
a) Promise employees that everyone will be compensated fairly and equitably within 90 days.
b) Analyze the competitive market, related compensation philosophies and strategy to implement a new pay program.
c) Tell the company to adopt the higher of the two salary structures then adjust everyone's salary based on experience, education, and work assignments.
d) Make a commitment that a comprehensive review of pertinent issues will be swiftly concluded.