Absolute Free SHRM-CP Exam Practice for Comprehensive Preparation 

The HR department in a musical instrument company is struggling to support the company's rapid growth. The company, which started as the home business of a casual musician, logged $17 million in sales last year. The HR department has hired additional team members over the years but hasn't changed its structure since start-up. All HR team members currently function as generalists, doing whatever it takes to support the company.

The organization now consists of multiple store franchises. Each store has a sales department, a service and repair department, and a department offering music lessons. This initial product and service offering was followed by instrument rentals and later the acquisition of a publishing company that specializes in learning guides for new musicians and music teachers. The company's newest effort, the production of their own brand of mandolin, is recognized by most of the senior leaders as a high-risk effort but with the potential for a profitable high-margin instrument being added to their product line.

With the rapid growth and expansion, the CEO is becoming increasingly concerned about quality and has made it clear that the entire corporation is to prioritize quality and efficiency while maintaining focus on the strategic plan.

What is the best course of action the HR leader should take to determine how to structure the HR department to support the needs of the growing business?

An HR manager is the liaison for the sales department at an organization with roughly 600 employees. Recently the organization had a slight downturn in revenue and profit. To save money, over the past year, the sales department's senior management has laid off several administrative assistants and assigned their work tasks, such as photocopying and processing sales orders, to the sales staff. Additionally, the department has modified its compensation system by reducing base pay but increasing sales commissions. The HR manager believes that the additional work duties and new compensation system have put substantial stress on employees. It's been observed that employees seem dissatisfied with their jobs and are leaving the organization or thinking of leaving. One recently departed employee told the HR manager that he had looked for a new job because the increased workload caused him to make fewer sales, thereby significantly reducing his salary.

The HR manager brings their concerns to the vice president (VP) of sales. The manager tells the VP that he is worried about the effects of these changes on the department, such as high turnover and the loss of institutional knowledge. The VP disagrees with the manager; he believes that turnover is good for the department because poorly performing employees are leaving. The VP notes that one employee comes in late, leaves early, and takes a long lunch break every day. The VP believes that the recent changes to compensation save the company money by not employing administrative assistants and motivate sales employees to work harder by focusing on sales commissions. The VP tells the HR manager to ignore employees' complaints and focus on hiring new employees who are willing to take on the additional tasks and work harder.

Which approach is most effective for the HR manager to use to resolve his disagreement with the vice president of sales?

A financial analyst at an investment banking firm notices that one of the firm's newest investment bankers has made an inappropriate investment recommendation to a customer. The financial analyst decides to report the issue to the branch manager. Upon entering the branch manager's office, the analyst sees the branch manager removing several pills from an unlabeled plastic jar. The analyst tells the branch manager that the investment banker has a poor work ethic. After leaving the manager's office, the analyst submits a complaint to the firm's compliance authority stating that the branch manager has a drug abuse problem and the investment banker is committing fraud. The compliance authority notifies the firm's HR manager about the issues.

What should the HR manager do to prevent future conflict between the financial analyst, the investment banker, and the branch manager?

The leadership of a medium-sized technology company has determined that the most viable option to expand their product line is to merge with an existing, larger company. HR is part of the team conducting due diligence for the merger. One item that concerns HR is the different approaches the companies have to work/life balance. The employees of the old company feel that they are treated unfairly because pay, benefits, and working conditions are different within work groups. HR believes that the new company should have a blend of the cultures and the benefits of the two companies.

HR is responsible for communicating the decision to the current employees and developing a timetable for the integration. Employees are excited to join the larger company, based on rumors of better pay and benefits with the new organization.

The new company is ready to reduce redundancy in key leadership positions and develops a work group to identify positions for elimination. After identifying duplicate positions, managers must recommend individual employees for termination.

The merger of the two companies is underway, and HR has been asked to develop organizational effectiveness measures to improve performance and productivity. HR has undertaken the OED process.

One group has declined in performance, productivity, and profits. The leadership team has asked HR to review the situation and provide a recommendation. The manager of this group has a reputation of having an abrasive management style.

Leadership has tasked HR with outlining an effective change management plan. What is the first thing HR should do to help manage the change in the organization?

What is a valuable insight that can be gained from studying the sender-receiver communication model (the basic communication model)?