Exam 11: Managing Human Resource Systems

Which of the following statements about Internet recruiting is true?

Which of the following questions is deemed acceptable (i.e., "legal") for employers to ask applicants during the selection process?

Cognitive ability tests are also called aptitude tests.

Sharron Grant-Burton was a marketing director for Covenant Care, owner of skilled-nursing and assisted-living facilities. During a discussion of the fairness of the company's bonus structure with other marketing directors, Grant-Burton said she did not receive a bonus because her executive director "did not believe in them." Several days later, Grant-Burton was fired and told she had been terminated for a number of unspecified reasons, including her comments about bonuses. This is an example of a .

Identify two common problems that occur during the performance appraisal process. Recommend one approach for avoiding each of these problems.

Which training method is NOT used to practice, learn, or change job behaviors?

Which of the following statements about employee turnover is true?

"References Etc" will pose as a prospective employer, call a prior employer on an employee's behalf, and find out what the former employer is saying. If the prior employer provides unsubstantiated negative information, then the job applicant .

The only time gender, age, religion, etc. can be used to make employment decisions is when they are considered a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ).

Trends in Hiring Practices Zachary Schneider saw a sign in the window of an Amy's Ice Creams franchise operation. The sign said the company was looking for new employees. When he went in to ask for a job application, he was given a paper bag and told to do "something creative with it." The test was to see whether the job applicant was suited to carrying out the chain's mission: "To make people's day." This type of pre­employment assessment is not unusual. Gourmet grocery chain Central Market uses a four­page application form which includes essay questions such as "Tell us about your favorite food experience." If it seems an applicant is a good match for the company, he or she is asked to make a statement about himself or herself using items found in the grocery store and to participate with other applicants in a roundtable discussion. -Refer to Trends in Hiring Practices. Which recruiting technique did Amy's use?

Explain how job analysis is related to recruiting. Be sure to specify how it helps an organization to meet a basic legal requirement for human resource management.

Identify three things that managers can do to minimize the problems inherent in terminating employees.

List and briefly define the three basic kinds of compensation decisions.

Since interviews are especially good at assessing applicants' interpersonal skills, they work especially well together with cognitive ability tests, where the combination leads to even better selection decisions than using either alone.

Which of the following type of tests accurately predicts job performance in almost all kinds of jobs?

Domino's Pizza At Domino's Pizza, company­wide turnover is 158 percent. That means Domino's must recruit, hire, and train 180,000 people a year just to fill its company's 114,000 jobs. And, with that much turnover, you can't consistently produce a quality product. Making and delivering pizza may seem simple, but up the ante to making and delivering one million pizzas each night, as Domino's does, and all of a sudden it's not quite so easy, especially if you're always working with inexperienced employees. For instance, even a simple job like taking orders has a learning curve when you're taking 45 to 50 orders an hour. In fact, a new order taker usually requires 80 hours to become as reliable as an experienced one. Until they learn their jobs, new workers make lots of mistakes such as getting orders wrong, giving out the wrong change, and showing up at customers' homes with the wrong pizza. Those mistakes are costly in two ways. First, if the order is wrong, late, or missing, customers get angry and may not do business with you again. Indeed, according to the University of Michigan's American consumer satisfaction index, Domino's ranks in the bottom half of fast­food companies. Second, to right those wrongs, Domino's often says the pizza is free-"Our fault, no charge."-and that hurts profits. So much turnover is costly in other ways as well. For one thing, it costs time and money to find and hire new workers. Domino's estimates that it costs $2,500 to replace each hourly worker who leaves and $20,000 to replace a store manager. Then all those new workers must be trained, and that takes time and money. At Domino's, each new worker spends the first 30 days in training, learning to take orders, handle the cash register, make pizza dough, and, ultimately, how to make a pizza in less than a minute. When everything is considered, turnover is costing the company several hundred million dollars a year, or an astonishing 15 percent to 20 percent of revenues. The question, of course, is what to do about it. Robert Chabot, who owns RAM Pizza, a series of Domino's franchise stores, says, "This business is all about who you hire. It's about people: those who want to do it (good work) and those who don't." Consequently, Chabot relies heavily on employee referrals to first identify good job applicants. Chabot assumes that if current employees are satisfied with their jobs, they'll tell their family and friends about their positive work experiences, and those people will in turn want to work for him and RAM pizza (i.e., Domino's). He also pays employees $25 for each person they recommend who gets hired and then stays for 90 days. Domino's is also doing a much better job of screening and selecting potential managers. Anyone who wants to manage a Domino's store has to pass a 30­minute online test of their financial and management skills. If you're not familiar with financial concepts such as "break­even" and "cash flow," and you're not sure how to handle poorly performing employees (hint: yelling and screaming isn't the preferred answer), then you're unlikely to pass the test. -Refer to Domino's. Robert Chabot relies heavily on employee referrals to first identify good job applicants. In other words, Chabot uses .

Aptitude tests are also called .

The International Gay Rodeo Association (IGRA) began in 1976. By the end of the 1980s, gay rodeos were being held in more than a dozen states, and today there are 24 chapters that have raised millions for charity. But even the IGRA is not exempt from concerns about discrimination. To avoid claims of participate in all IGRA events.

Which of the following statements about employee separation is true?

Dysfunctional turnover is the loss of high-performing employees due to unplanned downsizing.