Business management on the PHR, HR in business terms

A training program cost $80,000 and produced measurable first-year benefits of $200,000. What is the program's return on investment (ROI)?

1. 60%
   60% is the net gain divided by the benefit ($120,000 ÷ $200,000) rather than by the cost.
2. 150%
   ROI = (benefit − cost) ÷ cost = ($200,000 − $80,000) ÷ $80,000 = 150%.
3. 40%
   40% is cost divided by benefit ($80,000 ÷ $200,000), which inverts the formula and ignores the net gain.
4. 250%
   250% is benefit divided by cost without subtracting the cost first; that is a benefit-cost ratio, not ROI.

HR is scanning the environment for a hard-to-fill technician role. Which finding is an OPPORTUNITY in a SWOT analysis?

1. A competitor is actively recruiting for the same role
   A competitor recruiting for the same people is an external, unfavorable condition, so it is a threat.
2. The company has high turnover in that role
   High turnover in the role is an internal problem, which makes it a weakness rather than an opportunity.
3. The company runs a strong internal academy
   A strong internal academy is an internal advantage, which places it under strengths.
4. A nearby college launches a program for that role
   A new local college program is an external, favorable development that HR can use to build a pipeline, so it is an opportunity.

Last year a company had 60 openings and made 50 hires. It spent $90,000 on external recruiting costs and $60,000 on internal recruiting costs. What was the cost per hire?

1. $3,000
   Cost per hire adds external and internal recruiting costs and divides by hires: $150,000 ÷ 50 = $3,000.
2. $1,800
   $1,800 uses only the $90,000 of external costs ($90,000 ÷ 50), leaving out internal spending.
3. $2,500
   $2,500 divides the $150,000 by the 60 openings; cost per hire uses hires actually made, not openings.
4. $1,200
   $1,200 uses only the $60,000 of internal costs ($60,000 ÷ 50), leaving out external spending.

A company is preparing to acquire a competitor. Which HR task belongs to due diligence rather than to post-closing integration?

1. Running the combined benefits enrollment
   Running a combined benefits enrollment is a post-closing integration task, not part of evaluating the deal.
2. Mapping job titles to one pay structure
   Mapping titles to one pay structure is integration work done once the companies are joined.
3. Harmonizing the two PTO policies
   Harmonizing PTO policies happens after the deal closes, when the two workforces are combined.
4. Reviewing pending employment lawsuits
   Pending lawsuits are liabilities the buyer must uncover before closing, because they affect the price and the decision to buy.

Before drafting a five-year workforce plan, HR reviews political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors that could affect hiring. Which tool is HR using?

1. A SWOT analysis
   SWOT also looks at internal strengths and weaknesses; it is not organized around these six external factor groups.
2. A PESTLE analysis
   PESTLE scans political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental forces, the six factors HR reviews here.
3. A Delphi forecast
   A Delphi forecast gathers anonymous expert estimates in rounds; it is a forecasting method, not an environmental scan.
4. A gap analysis
   A gap analysis compares current capability with a future need; it does not scan external factor categories.

A company averaged 200 employees last year. During the year, 30 employees left: 24 resigned and 6 were terminated for cause. What was the voluntary turnover rate?

1. 12%
   Voluntary turnover counts only resignations: 24 ÷ 200 = 12%.
2. 15%
   15% counts all 30 separations, mixing involuntary terminations into a voluntary rate.
3. 3%
   3% is the six for-cause terminations divided by average headcount, which is involuntary turnover.
4. 24%
   24% treats the 24 resignations as a share of 100 rather than of the 200 average employees.

After a successful pilot of a new scheduling process, HR updates the attendance policy, retrains supervisors and changes performance goals to reflect it. Which Lewin stage is HR in?

1. Changing
   The changing stage is the move to the new process itself; HR is now making it stick.
2. Refreezing
   Updating policy, training and performance goals locks the new process in place, which is Lewin's refreezing stage.
3. Unfreezing
   Unfreezing is building readiness before the change; the pilot has already succeeded and the change is underway.
4. Diagnosing
   Diagnosing is not one of Lewin's three stages (unfreeze, change, refreeze).

Employees were trained on a new safety-check process and used it well for a month, but they slipped back to old habits after supervisors stopped recognizing its use. Which ADKAR element was weak?

1. Awareness of the need
   Awareness of the need comes first in ADKAR, and the problem here appeared only after successful adoption.
2. Knowledge
   Knowledge was there: employees were trained and used the process well for a month.
3. Reinforcement
   Reinforcement sustains a change once it is in place; when recognition stopped, people slipped back.
4. Ability
   Ability was shown when employees performed the process correctly for a month.

Leaders announced a shift from in-store sales to online fulfillment in a memo. Employees see no reason to change, and engagement is falling. Under Kotter's model, which step was skipped?

1. Generating short-term wins
   Short-term wins come later, after urgency, a coalition and a vision exist; nothing has started yet.
2. Anchoring changes in culture
   Anchoring changes in culture is the final step and assumes the change has already been adopted.
3. Consolidating gains
   Consolidating gains builds on early wins that this change has not produced.
4. Creating a sense of urgency
   Employees see no reason to change, so leaders skipped Kotter's first step, creating a sense of urgency.

HR wants to measure how long recruiters take to move candidates from application to accepted offer. Which metric fits?

1. Time to hire
   Time to hire measures how long it takes a candidate to move from application to accepted offer.
2. Cost per hire
   Cost per hire measures recruiting spend per hire, not how long the process takes.
3. Time to fill
   Time to fill usually runs from requisition approval or job posting to accepted offer, so it measures the vacancy, not the candidate's journey.
4. Offer acceptance rate
   Offer acceptance rate is the share of offers accepted; it does not measure elapsed time.

In one operations unit, a single manager supervises 28 employees doing varied, complex work, and the manager has no time to coach them. Which change MOST directly addresses this?

1. Centralize decisions with the senior leadership
   Centralizing decisions moves authority upward but leaves the manager with the same 28 people to coach.
2. Narrow the span by adding a supervisor
   Twenty-eight direct reports doing complex work is too wide a span; adding a supervisor narrows it and frees time to coach.
3. Move the unit into a matrix reporting structure
   A matrix adds a second reporting line, which adds complexity without reducing the coaching load.
4. Widen the span of control to speed up decisions
   Widening the span would give the manager even more reports and less coaching time.

Six months into a new HRIS rollout, employees are frustrated and support for the change is fading. Under Kotter's model, which step would BEST rebuild momentum now?

1. Replace the change vision with a new one
   Replacing the vision midstream adds confusion; the problem is fading support, not a wrong vision.
2. Declare victory and close the project
   Declaring victory too early is a classic Kotter failure that lets old habits return.
3. Generate visible short-term wins
   Visible short-term wins show that the change is paying off and rebuild support when momentum fades.
4. Anchor the changes in the culture
   Anchoring in the culture is the last step and comes after the change has stuck, not while support is slipping.

HR wants to compare workforce productivity between a 20-employee and a 60-employee location of the same restaurant chain. Which metric is MOST appropriate?

1. Revenue per labor hour
   Revenue per labor hour normalizes output by hours worked, so locations of different sizes can be compared fairly.
2. Total payroll cost
   Total payroll cost grows with headcount, so the larger location will always look worse without any measure of output.
3. Average headcount
   Average headcount measures size, not productivity.
4. Voluntary turnover rate
   Voluntary turnover reflects retention, not how much each location produces per unit of labor.

A company outsources its benefits administration to a third-party vendor. Which responsibility stays with the employer after the change?

1. Staffing the vendor's service center
   The vendor staffs its own service center; that is not an employer duty.
2. Answering routine employee benefit calls
   Answering routine benefit calls is typically part of the outsourced service.
3. Legal liability for plan compliance
   The employer remains responsible for the plan's legal compliance, including oversight of the vendor it hired.
4. Daily processing of enrollment changes
   Processing enrollment changes is the routine administration the vendor was hired to take over.

A company buys employment practices liability insurance (EPLI) to cover claims of discrimination and wrongful termination. Which risk-management strategy is this?

1. Risk avoidance
   Avoidance means stopping the risky activity altogether, and the company keeps employing people.
2. Risk mitigation
   Mitigation lowers the likelihood or impact of claims, for example through training; buying insurance shifts the cost instead.
3. Risk acceptance
   Acceptance means absorbing the losses yourself, the opposite of buying coverage.
4. Risk transfer
   Insurance shifts the financial cost of a claim to the insurer, which is risk transfer.

A company redesigns its order-to-cash process from the ground up, removing three approval steps to cut costs and improve quality. Which change initiative is this?

1. Workforce downsizing
   Downsizing cuts headcount; the change here removes approval steps, not jobs.
2. Corporate restructuring
   Corporate restructuring changes the organization's structure or ownership, not one business process.
3. Process reengineering
   Process reengineering redesigns a core business process from scratch, such as stripping approval steps out of order-to-cash.
4. Total quality management
   Total quality management improves processes continuously and incrementally rather than redesigning them from the ground up.