In one of the warehouses of a retail company, several international employees complain to HR that the warehouse manager has forbidden them from speaking in their native language in the workplace. The HR manager speaks with the warehouse manager, who says there have been several reports that the international employees only interact with each other and they have difficulty conversing with the local employees due to language barriers. The HR manager also learns that the international employees can speak the primary language used in the company well enough to understand instructions from their supervisors. Fortunately, there have been no incidents of safety issues where language has been a barrier between local and international employees. However, senior management believes there is a lack of rapport between local and international employees and instructs the HR manager to resolve the issue.
The international employees tell the HR manager that the warehouse manager threatened to discipline them for speaking their native language at the workplace. Which action should the HR manager take to best foster a supportive workplace?
Which activity expands an employee ' s job by providing more control responsibility, and discretion?
An HR director is preparing to meet with the company president because one of the top executives has been accused of gross misconduct. Which is the best recommendation the HR director can give the president to ensure a complete and credible investigation process?
A rapidly growing technology start-up company with 200 employees forms a new team to handle recruitment for the company that is independent of the HR team. The recruitment team does not have any specific guidelines for hiring. The HR director wants to establish guidelines to prevent the theft of intellectual property and insists that the recruitment team begin conducting background checks to verify applicants ' criminal histones. The recruitment director feels that background checks create unnecessary delays and that the multiple interviews used to make selection decisions serve the same purpose as a background check.
Despite the HR director’s insistence, the recruitment director continues to hire without conducting background checks. Which is the best action for the HR director to take to ensure that background checks are conducted?
Which is a characteristic of an HRIS program that improves the value of an organization ' s data?
The HR manager at a consulting firm notices a rapid increase in the demand for experienced leaders. The increase is making it difficult to hire managers at the same rate of pay compared to one year ago. The firm presently has three open manager positions and the three top candidates are demanding annual salaries higher than current managers’ salaries. This morning the firm’s CEO sent a companywide email announcing that staffing the job openings is a top priority to meet business demands. The email also indicated the firm is willing to pay a referral bonus. The HR manager knows that staffing the job openings will completely exhaust HR ' s budget, leaving no money to pay referral bonuses or make salary adjustments for incumbents. While reviewing the candidates ' resumes the HR manager receives an email from an incumbent manager stating that the manager discovered the firm is offering higher salaries to applicants with less experience. The email also states the incumbent manager no longer trusts the leadership team and is going to seek other employment opportunities.
Which action should the HR manager take first to respond to the incumbent manager ' s email?
When deciding whether an employee is eligible to work remotely, which factor should be considered first?
The HR VP of a firm is leading an effort to implement a risk management plan and establishes an internal team to assess the risks involved in the event there is a disruption in the supply chain. What should be the team’s first step in confidently evaluating this risk?
An HR director is hired to address the executive team ' s concerns about negative workplace culture and its impact on financial performance. During an initial investigation the HR director discovers that the two division directors often fail to communicate with each other and their employees. Each division maintains separate workplace policies, and the workspaces for the divisions are spread out across multiple floors. For employee management, the director of the client services division is assisted by a small HR team. The director of operations does not work with the HR team and instead uses company funds to seek employee management advice from an executive coach, who has no official coaching training. The HR director suspects facilitating change at the company will be challenging because engagement data indicates many employees distrust the company’s leadership and HR.
The HR director discovers that many employees lost trust in HR after an HR manager read sensitive emails from employees out loud during a company meeting. How should the HR director address this?
A CEO is searching for a solution to the increase in health insurance costs. Which benefit should the chief human resource officer suggest to help reduce the high expenses?
How should an organization most effectively improve employee productivity during a time of rapid growth and organizational change?
A nonprofit health care facility conducts an engagement and culture survey, and the results indicate that employees throughout the organization believe leadership engages in favoritism by providing unequal opportunities for staff. General perceptions of the company ' s culture are poor, and many employees report intentions to leave their jobs. Several additional concerning findings are isolated to the philanthropic department, which is responsible for acquiring donors and securing charitable partnerships. Employees from this department report poor working relationships among staff, including gossiping and bullying among co-workers. Although the leadership team is aware of the poor working relationships in the philanthropic department, they have not asked the department director to address the issues because of the department ' s outstanding performance in recent years. However, after considering the recent survey results the leadership team decides to initiate a project to address the culture issues at the facility overall and within the philanthropy department specifically. The operations VP will oversee the project and ask an HR business partner (HRBP) to lead the project. The VP of operations requests that the HRBP collect additional survey data and conduct focus groups during the first phase of the project.
Although the leadership team initiated the project, a few members express concerns that the project is not a good use of the facility ' s funds. They are skeptical that the project will lead to any tangible benefits for the facility. Which action should the HRBP take to address the leadership team ' s opposition to the project?
A large retail company opens a distribution center directly across the street from a small competing firm ' s distribution center and posts a sign advertising open entry-level positions. The plant manager of the small firm notices that the sign indicates the advertised salary is higher than what the firm pays its entry-level employees. The plant manager is concerned employees will leave the firm to seek work at the competing company. The plant manager notifies the HR manager of the pay differences and requests immediate pay matching for all entry-level employees. The HR manager sets up a meeting with the plant manager, compensation manager, and HR business partner to discuss the issue. They decide to increase base pay to match the competitor ' s base pay but only for a subset of entry-level roles identified as critical. They also decide to put the pay increase into effect immediately, and the HR manager agrees to monitor the situation over the next three months.
How should the HR manager communicate the new pay increase to current entry-level employees?
A manager accepts a position relocation to a foreign country. Which service should the company provide upon arrival to help the employee in the new environment?
The HR manager at a consulting firm notices a rapid increase in the demand for experienced leaders. The increase is making it difficult to hire managers at the same rate of pay compared to one year ago. The firm presently has three open manager positions and the three top candidates are demanding annual salaries higher than current managers’ salaries. This morning the firm’s CEO sent a companywide email announcing that staffing the job openings is a top priority to meet business demands. The email also indicated the firm is willing to pay a referral bonus. The HR manager knows that staffing the job openings will completely exhaust HR ' s budget, leaving no money to pay referral bonuses or make salary adjustments for incumbents. While reviewing the candidates ' resumes the HR manager receives an email from an incumbent manager stating that the manager discovered the firm is offering higher salaries to applicants with less experience. The email also states the incumbent manager no longer trusts the leadership team and is going to seek other employment opportunities.
Which action should the HR manager take to communicate the hiring challenges HR is experiencing?
Which step should an HR professional take first when an employee submits a verbal or written allegation that a supervisor is creating a hostile work environment?
The marketing department at a large financial services company chooses five high-performing staff members every year to receive a performance award, which includes a monetary reward and recognition at an end-of-year meeting. Employees are chosen by managers in the marketing department. Each manager nominates two direct reports, and then all managers meet as a group to discuss nominees until a consensus is reached. The names of the winners are given to HR for final approval. The marketing department is preparing to begin this year ' s nomination process. There have been repeat winners in each of the last three years. A marketing employee files a complaint with the HR director about favoritism in the award process. Additionally, the employee points out that newer employees rarely win the award, which lowers their morale. New employees tend not to win because they spend a couple of years training and shadowing experienced employees before receiving tasks to perform independently.
How should the HR director minimize the perception of favoritism in the selection process?
A new HR director is hired into the HR department of one at a midsize, engineering company. The HR director immediately notices that, unlike all other major departments, HR is never invited to any important meetings, or involved in strategic discussions. The president of the company sees the sole use of an HR department as meeting legal requirements and the core duties of the HR director are to onboard new employees, help them complete their paperwork and address employee complaints. The HR director sees several areas where HR can add value to the company such as improving employee engagement, automating various HR systems, and introducing a performance review process. The HR director recognizes that the company needs one to two additional HR employees to truly be able to implement these important initiatives. When the HR director asks the president about the possibility of hiring two new HR employees, the president laughs and replies that one HR employee is costing the company more than enough.
A recently hired female engineer submits an HR complaint saying that she is not given the most visible opportunities despite her being one of the most experienced engineers at the company. After confirming that this is happening what should the HR director do in response?
Which recruitment metric is determined by examining communication effectiveness, ability to motivate others, leadership ability, cultural fit, and an individual ' s performance for two or three years?
The executive leadership team at a global IT company with over 300,000 employees in 140 countries decides they want more information about the state of the talent at the organization. They are concerned that they do not have enough insight about the talent pool across the organization. This has prevented HR from identifying and planning for retention risks and has caused delays in filling critical positions. Additionally, leaders across the organization lack an effective way to identify the best staff for their teams and must rely on recommendations from others. The VP of HR is asked to identify a talent management software solution and oversee its companywide implementation.
A talent management software package has been selected. Which action should the VP of HR take to create an effective implementation project team?
At a regional power company, managers are in charge of assigning training and development opportunities to their employees. These opportunities are sponsored by the company, and employees are entitled to their regular pay while attending training and development sessions. Recently, there has been a growing number of complaints that managers were engaging in favoritism by only assigning these training and development opportunities to their favorite employees. Favoritism violates company policy, which states that all employees must be given equal opportunities. The HR director aims to address this issue.
Some managers claim that they assign training and development opportunities to their high-performing employees as they believe it is an incentive to stay at the company. How should the HR director determine whether this has been effective as an objective?
An oil and gas company that operates globally signs an agreement to shift the operations part of the business to another organization. As a result, the company must lay off several employees. Some of the employees that must be laid off are working at headquarters while others are currently assigned to another country to support operations in the field. An HR director is tasked with developing a plan for communicating and executing the layoffs.
Several employees are working on a critical assignment in another country, and senior leadership orders that they be notified immediately that they will be laid off. However, the site manager feels this will prevent the work from being completed and refuses to tell them. What should the HR director do?
At an organization positioned for substantial growth, the HR leader is evaluating whether to outsource several HR functions. Which question should the HR leader first consider in the evaluation process?
A recent company survey shows that 70% of employees report not having mastered the skills needed to do their jobs. Which approach to learning and development should the HR director implement to best help employees master the missing skills?
A multinational manufacturing firm recently experienced a series of product line defects and supply chain shortages. At the request of the chief operating officer (COO), the firm hires a new VP of operations who worked for the COO at another company for many years. The VP is well known for achieving results quickly and efficiently. During a conference call with the COO and all operations managers, the new VP begins making angry remarks toward the managers because the VP believes they are not responding quickly to questions about the recent problems. When the managers speak the VP responds by criticizing them and speaking with a loud aggressive tone of voice. The COO advises the VP to focus on identifying the root cause of the problem rather than criticizing the managers. In response, the VP accuses the COO of being too lenient on the managers during a period of crisis that requires quick and deliberate action. After the meeting, the managers send a formal letter to the firm ' s regional HR director describing the VP ' s behavior and requesting an immediate response.
The firm ' s employee handbook includes a section on cultural values that denounces public criticism of others and endorses acceptance of diversity at all levels of the organization. What should the regional HR director do to uphold the firm ' s cultural values?
A newly hired chief human resource officer (CHRO) discovers a flaw in the time-keeping policy that allows senior executives to receive full salaries and benefits without working the expected full-time hours. The CHRO reviews corporate data and identifies three senior executives in the sales department who regularly worked half the expected full-time hours for the past two years. The CHRO also discovers that the sales department has the lowest levels of employee engagement and morale across the corporation. However, the CHRO knows these three senior executives have been with the corporation for over a decade and have established strong alliances with the CEO. The CHRO presents the issue to the CEO and learns the CEO was unaware of the flaw in the policy. The CHRO and CEO agree to discuss the issue during the next executive team meeting.
During the executive team meeting, the sales department senior executives make allegations about the CHRO’s professional qualifications that the CHRO knows are false. Which action should the CHRO take?
What design structure allows an organization to capitalize on existing expertise across different departments as opposed to seeking external skilled resources?
The marketing department at a large financial services company chooses five high-performing staff members every year to receive a performance award, which includes a monetary reward and recognition at an end-of-year meeting. Employees are chosen by managers in the marketing department. Each manager nominates two direct reports, and then all managers meet as a group to discuss nominees until a consensus is reached. The names of the winners are given to HR for final approval. The marketing department is preparing to begin this year ' s nomination process. There have been repeat winners in each of the last three years. A marketing employee files a complaint with the HR director about favoritism in the award process. Additionally, the employee points out that newer employees rarely win the award, which lowers their morale. New employees tend not to win because they spend a couple of years training and shadowing experienced employees before receiving tasks to perform independently.
The employee who submitted the complaint asks the HR director to provide more opportunities for new employees to be recognized. Which action should the HR manager take?
An HR department at a midsize company hosts regular manager meetings to provide updates regarding company structure practices, and policies. During the recent meeting, the HR director notified all managers of the company ' s new code of conduct policy and plans for an upcoming training about the policy. The policy explicitly states that managers must not form personal relationships with their direct reports. The HR director explains that the policy was created because concerns about fairness related to promotions and rumors about favoritism were beginning to cause conflict within some departments. Some of the managers express that training is not necessary, but they all agree to attend it. A few days after the training, the HR director receives a complaint from an HR employee who claims to have seen a manager and one of the manager’s direct reports at a restaurant. The HR director was already concerned about this manager ' s judgment because the manager approved a promotion for the same direct report even though the direct report has documented performance-related issues. The HR director discusses the issue with the manager. In response, the manager criticizes the new policy and insists the relationship did not impact the direct report ' s promotion recommendation. The manager also states that the training was unclear and that other managers have the same opinion.
Which action should the HR director take first to address the claim that other managers believe the training on the code of conduct policy was unclear?
During a workforce audit, an HR mobility leader discovers several expatriates who are not part of the organization ' s global mobility program. Which is the first step the HR leader should take in response to this discovery?
In a leadership team meeting, the HR director of a car manufacturing company suggests the company should collaborate with its competitors to provide financial support for research on renewable energy sources. Which business strategy for sustainability is best illustrated by this suggestion?