Exam 11: Human Resource Management: Finding and Keeping the Best Employees

Today's workers have an increased demand for benefits tailored to their individual needs.

The process of training and educating employees to become good managers, and then monitoring the progress of their managerial skills over time, is called management simulation.

Fringe benefit payments account for about 30 percent of payroll costs today.

Marketing manager Sam Woodall has worked for Family Care Pharmaceuticals for 36 years. He fondly remembers the "good old days" when he could fire a worker for just about any reason. He feels that today's laws and regulations limiting his ability to fire workers undermines his authority and forces him to keep employees that don't measure up to his standards. Sam's views suggest he would favor working in a state that implements the policy of employment at will.

A performance appraisal provides an opportunity for employees to make suggestions about how a particular task could be better performed.

Identify and describe three common methods of training and developing employees.

It is challenging for HR managers to deal with a declining economy that results in a short-term preference for part-time and/or temporary employees and a trend to outsource jobs, even though there are skilled employees who are willing to work.

A disadvantage of flextime plans is that they often:

Which of the following statements best describes the current view of the role of human resource management within a firm?

One implication of today's flatter corporate structures is that:

Workers who are paid a __________ receive a fixed compensation weekly, biweekly, or monthly.

As a salesman, Ron's pay is based on a percentage of his total sales. This type of pay arrangement is known as a commission.

Skill-based pay is a method of compensating teams in which base pay is raised when team members learn and apply new skills.

Julie Jahn recently began working in an entry-level management position. She has already shown great promise, so the company has decided to groom her for an upper-level position. Christine Scheid, one of the more senior women managers in the company, has agreed to help Julie by introducing her to the right people, and by providing her with the guidance and advice she needs to be successful within the firm. Christine is acting as Julie's:

The most likely reason a firm would pay its sales representatives a commission rather than a salary is that it wants to:

During her annual review, Rhonda admitted to her supervisor that she is more productive in a quieter environment. The openness of her office setting and the recent increase in staff that came to her for training made it difficult for Rhonda to process as many insurance claims in one day as she had accomplished in the past. The supervisor agreed to move Rhonda's desk to the back of the office, and create a barrier with plants. The supervisor would take a more active role in training new employees, so they would not be coming to Rhonda with questions. In HR, we refer to this action as creating __________________.

Services now exist that allow firms to perform quick background checks of potential employees.

Off-the-job training:

The last step in the performance appraisal process is to discuss the results with the employee.

Ramona is a recent HR hire for a security firm that hires retired law enforcement officers to provide security for retail malls across the nation. Her supervisor was impressed with Ramona's knowledge of current laws with respect to hiring practices, but asked her to quickly get up to speed on compensation and training laws. This is a reasonable request if Ramona plans to stay in the HR field.