QUESTION 58
Which item should the HR director review when tasked with quickly identifying if the organization is meeting its mission?

QUESTION 59
A small company in the energy industry has a policy that states that employees who work overtime hours will be compensated with leave rather than with cash. Due to the nature of the industry, overtime work is common for employees who work in departments within the company’s core areas of operations. Employees throughout the company have been unhappy with this policy for many years, but have remained willing to work overtime hours when asked. However, managers are becoming increasingly reluctant to approve the leave that employees have earned because it leads to staffing shortages. As a result, more and more employees are refusing to work overtime hours. Senior leaders ask the company’s HR business partner (HRBP) to investigate the problem further and to provide a solution. Senior leaders accept a recommendation from the HRBP to amend the current overtime policy to provide overtime pay to employees in the core areas of operations.
Because they work so little overtime no change is recommended for employees in the administrative areas.
The administrative employees complain that the new policy is unfair. What should the HRBP do?

QUESTION 60
According to the Equal Pay Act of 1963, which working condition requires equal pay?

QUESTION 61
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?

QUESTION 62
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.
After the nominations are submitted to HR, a product manager asks the HR director not to approve a nominee who recently insulted the manager during an argument. Which action should the HR director take?

QUESTION 63
Due to a global health crisis a manufacturing company halts operations for an indefinite time period. The HR manager reviews the company’s crisis response plan but does not find information about paying employees.
Which element was most likely skipped during the crisis planning stage?

QUESTION 64
An HR director wants to show the leadership team how HR promotes the goals and values of the organization.
Which would be the most effective strategy to demonstrate this?

QUESTION 65
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.
Prior to the executive team meeting, the three sales department senior executives confront the CHRO in person. The executives state that working less than the expected full-time hours is justified because the CEO has made them return early from vacation on multiple occasions. How should the CHRO respond?

QUESTION 66
A global manufacturing organization is dealing with a high level of attrition among machine operators as well as difficulty recruiting machine operators at a recently acquired factory. The HR director is attempting to address the issue. During exit interviews, multiple employees mention they are leaving to take higher-paying jobs at other companies in the area. The HR director of the factory in that country believes that the company needs to raise the salaries of the machine operators to address this. The HR director contacts the chief human resource officer (CHRO) to discuss the need for a salary adjustment. The CHRO is located in another country and has never been to the country where the factory is located. The CHRO reviews the most recent salary study for the region and indicates that the salaries the company is paying are competitive with other companies in the region. The CHRO also says that due to recent increases in operating expenses and declines in revenue, it would be financially irresponsible to provide raises.
The HR director feels that the executive team located in another country, does not understand the nuances of the local culture and the way the factory operates. What should the HR director do?

QUESTION 67
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?

QUESTION 68
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?

QUESTION 69
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?

QUESTION 70
What is the first step in recruitment content marketing on social media?

QUESTION 71
A regional government office runs a media broadcasting station that is funded almost entirely by individual and corporate donations. An eight-person team is in charge of planning and coordinating the receipt of gifts including entertaining guests with the CEO and asking philanthropists for large contributions. The manager of the team is results-driven and has consistently led the team to achieve challenging goals for five years. The manager recently moved further away from the office to afford higher quality education. The manager sends an urgent email to the HR director indicating an immediate need to work remotely three days per week. The manager also wants to avoid commuting traffic and come into the office after 11 am. The office has a flexible schedule policy but it has not been reviewed in some time.
The manager is one of the office’s top-performing employees with considerable influence over other employees’ opinions about how the office is managed. What should the HR director do to prevent disruption to station operations while the flexible schedule policy is reviewed?

QUESTION 72
Which is the best approach to improve a benefit program’s impact on employee retention?

QUESTION 73
A start-up company specializing in technology is acquired by a larger international organization located in a foreign country. Following the acquisition, a manager from the international company schedules a virtual social hour so employees on the manager’s team can bond outside of work hours. During the virtual social hour, employees from the start-up experience difficulties understanding the international employees due to language barriers. An employee from the start-up writes an inappropriate comment making fun of how the international employees speak intending to send it to a co-worker but accidentally sends the message to the whole team. The manager reports the employee’s behavior to an HR specialist, who documents the incident. A few weeks later the HR specialist receives an email from the employee who sent the message indicating that the employee’s manager is acting hostile toward the employee, and the employee’s manager mentioned that the international company should never have acquired the start-up.
The HR specialist is concerned the manager’s negative comment about the acquisition will lead to other employees having negative opinions about the acquisition. Which action should the HR specialist take to address this concern?

QUESTION 74
How should an organization most effectively improve employee productivity during a time of rapid growth and organizational change?

QUESTION 75
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?

QUESTION 76
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.
Some members of the leadership team provide the HRBP with a list of employees that they think would be good participants for the focus groups. These leaders are adamant that the HRBP should draw participants from the list. Which action should the HRBP take?

QUESTION 77
A company is looking to launch an employee volunteer program as a creative recruiting tool. Which benefit should the HR director stress when creating a business case for this program?

QUESTION 78
According to Ulrich, what is the primary intent of the business partner model?