Deck 13: Staffing System Management

Question 1

Factors that are driving organizations to consider outsourcing HR activities include cost reduction, the cost of technology acquisition, need for improved service quality, and expertise of vendors.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Lack of staffing policies and procedures may lead to practices that may foster negative applicant reactions and problems with legal compliance.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The fixed point or method of entry into staffing jobs is frequently the recruiting and interviewing function.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Decreasing numbers of staffing jobs are found in staffing firms.

Question 5

Increasing numbers of staffing jobs are found in staffing firms.

Question 6

A study of HR departments in large organizations found that the focus on recruitment and selection activities had decreased significantly over the past several years.

Question 7

The scope of staffing actions and practices is quite small and narrow.

Question 8

HR representatives report that one of the key advantages of outsourcing is access to superior information from specialists.

Question 9

Entry into staffing jobs normally occurs at the generalist rank in both private and public organizations.

Question 10

A growing trend in HRIS is the centralization of these functions within the HR department to prevent managers from accessing the system.

Question 11

In organizations with fewer than 100 employees, research suggests that staffing is most likely to be conducted by the owner, president, or work unit manager.

Question 12

Those employed within the staffing function need to work with training and development staff regularly.

Question 13

Perceived justice is related to concrete outcomes like employee desire to pursue a job, increased intentions to accept a job, and decreased intention to turnover.

Question 14

SaaS vendors provide the hardware, software, and day-to-day management of HRIS.

Question 15

Centralization of the staffing function creates economies scale and consistency in staffing policies and processes across the organization.

Question 16

Although HRIS have increased data availability for human resources functions, they have done little to fundamentally affect the way staffing activities are evaluated.

Question 17

Most organizations with a sufficient number of employees to warrant a dedicated HR department have integrated the function with human resources information systems (HRISs).

Question 18

Surveys suggest that staffing is one of the first areas that organizations will outsource.

Question 19

A professional employer organization (PEO) is like a temporary help agency, but provides a wider range of HR services and has a longer-term relationship with clients.

Question 20

Jobs in staffing are increasingly becoming more customer focused and facilitative in nature.

Question 21

An ASP or SaaS provider offers which of the following services?

A) techniques to prevent managers from accessing HR data
B) hardware and software for running HR systems
C) paper-based forms and data for the organization
D) all of the above

Question 22

The contracting out of work to a vendor or third party administrator is called ____________.

A) outsourcing
B) temping
C) contracting
D) boundary spanning

Question 23

The evaluation of staffing systems should focus on the operation of the staffing process, the results and costs of the process, and the satisfaction of the customers of the staffing system.

Question 24

In recent years, a number of organizations have worked to develop standardized benchmarks for judging the effectiveness of staffing processes across organizations.

Question 25

Which of the following is true regarding jobs in staffing?

A) Entry into staffing jobs normally occurs at the generalist rank.
B) There is usually a fixed point of entry into staffing jobs.
C) Jobs in staffing are becoming increasingly customer focused and facilitative in nature.
D) Few are housed in the HR department.

Question 26

Staffing members must coordinate their activities with __________.

A) benefits staff
B) compensation staff
C) training and development staff
D) all of the above are true

Question 27

Which of the following statements regarding staffing policies and procedures is true?

A) they seldom contribute to organizational efficiency
B) they help to ensure legal compliance
C) they often lead to negative applicant reactions
D) all of the above are true

Question 28

Most of the processes involved in staffing are too subjective or difficult to quantify.

Question 29

Research suggests that organizational decision making is seen as most fair when it is based on _____.

A) social influence
B) clearly communicated decision criteria
C) processes tailored to each unique individual
D) all of the above

Question 30

Which of the following functions are most likely to be outsourced?

A) recruiting creative talent for an advertising agency
B) screening registered nurses for a long-term care facility
C) recruiting and selecting individuals for teams
D) providing employee orientation

Question 31

Benchmark data on staffing policies are typically applicable across nearly every organization and should be used as a primary guide for selecting which practices to implement.

Question 32

It is typically not possible to use techniques like split-samples analysis or longitudinal analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of established processes.

Question 33

Standardized staffing systems are more likely to generate legal challenges by job applicants.

Question 34

Which of the following factors is most likely to be a reason not to outsource HR activities?

A) vendors have little expertise
B) vendors are less flexible to meet changing needs
C) vendors have few resources to offer
D) vendors meet resistance within HR and line management

Question 35

For ______, it is better to keep staffing functions within the organization, rather than outsourcing.

A) small organizations
B) organizations with continual hiring needs
C) firm-specific human capital
D) general human capital

Question 36

Experienced managers who have used staffing system metrics often find that new staffing systems may not represent a significant improvement.

Question 37

Once a staffing process has been mapped out, the next step is to check for deviations from the system.

Question 38

Human resources information systems have been used for which of the following functions?

A) EEO data analysis and reports
B) employee succession planning
C) databases of job titles and responsibilities
D) all of the above

Question 39

As organization size increases, the likelihood that there will be a highly centralized HR department _________.

A) increases
B) decreases
C) stays about the same
D) none of the above

Question 40

Standardization will probably decrease applicants' perceptions of procedural fairness of a staffing system.

Question 41

In a ________ analysis, the target employee population is split in half, and the new HR program is initiated with only one of these halves.

A) longitudinal
B) split-sample
C) LISREL
D) factor

Question 42

The formula for the staffing cost ratio is total staffing cost ratio = total staffing costs/total number recruited.

Question 43

Which of the following statements is not an important step in staffing process evaluations?

A) Mapping out the intended process.
B) Identifying deviations from the intended process.
C) The norm is for organizations to conduct validation studies.
D) Correction actions should be planned to eliminate deviations.

Question 44

Number of positions filled and job performance are examples of __________ staffing metrics.

A) cost
B) timeliness
C) outcomes
D) reactions

Question 45

It is highly desirable to periodically conduct audits or reviews of an organization's degree of compliance with laws and regulations pertaining to staffing.

Question 46

Comparative staffing process data can be obtained from the _________.

A) Society for Human Resource Management
B) HR Data Sources Corporation
C) Department of Labor
D) None of the above

Question 47

Staffing metrics are increasingly used because _____.

A) they demonstrate substantial returns in their own right
B) they are readily communicated across the organization
C) they are mandated by the Full Data Reporting in Employment Act
D) they are seen as a method to move staffing into the accounting function

Question 48

The Civil Rights Act and Affirmative Action Programs Regulations require that private employers with more than 100 employees (50 for federal contractors) are required to file an annual report with the EEOC.

Question 49

Advertising expenses and cost per applicant are examples of __________ staffing metrics.

A) cost
B) timeliness
C) outcomes
D) reactions

Question 50

Records may be used to audit staffing practices and conduct staffing research.

Question 51

The EEOC requires that all employers submit hard copy, paper documents of all their EEO-1 reports.

Question 52

Records are not necessary for legal compliance.

Question 53

Employers are usually more interested in mediation with the EEOC for discrimination disputes than are employees.

Question 54

Two of the key customers of the staffing system are managers and job applicants.

Question 55

The four common types of staffing metrics evaluate _____.

A) performance, process, quantity, and quality
B) rectification, justification, elaboration, and relation
C) cost, timeliness, outcomes, and reactions
D) speed, diligence, dedication, and perseverance

Question 56

Which of the following best fits the description of a staffing flowchart?

A) it shows the distance from staffing to strategic operational concerns
B) it depicts the actual flow of staffing activities from vacancy to hire
C) it provides evidence of how staffing measures increase performance directly
D) it is a physical model of staffing using flows to show movement

Question 57

In a ________ analysis, data from a long period of time is collected both before and after a staffing policy or procedure is implemented.

A) longitudinal
B) split-sample
C) LISREL
D) factor

Question 58

One of the key customers of the staffing system is _________.

A) the CEO
B) job applicants
C) society
D) the industry in which the company operates

Question 59

Increasingly, organizations are emphasizing __________ as a key indicator of staffing effectiveness because vacancies can mean loss of revenue.

A) yield ratios
B) employee satisfaction surveys
C) staffing-to-employee ratios
D) time to fill

Question 60

There are few tools to facilitate the electronic processing of employee satisfaction surveys, so paper and pencil measures are usually preferable.

Question 61

Records should be created for which of the following purposes?

A) legal compliance
B) use in staffing decisions
C) justification of staffing decisions
D) all of the above are correct

Question 62

Recent court decisions suggest that _______ is essential for most organizations.

A) affirmative action
B) employee termination insurance
C) training in employment discrimination
D) none of the above

Question 63

Which of the following must report to the EEOC annually?

A) all employers
B) private employers with over 100 employees (50 for federal contractors)
C) private employers with over 1000 employees (500 for federal contractors)
D) only organizations with federal contracts

Question 64

An ideal arbitrator is a neutral individual and the arbitrator's findings should be finalized as a written award letter.

Question 65

In ______________ a neutral person investigates a complaint and develops findings that may be the basis for resolving an employee complaint.

A) mediation
B) arbitration
C) fact finding
D) peer review

Question 66

What is the primary difference between mediation and arbitration?

A) Arbitration is generally more time consuming than mediation
B) Arbitrators only consult with both sides, whereas mediators issue a binding decision
C) Mediation typically involves at least four parties
D) Mediators only consult with both sides, whereas arbitrators issue a binding decision

Question 67

In ______________ a neutral person conducts formal hearing and issues a decision that is binding on the parties.

A) mediation
B) arbitration
C) fact finding
D) peer review

Question 68

What proportion of disputes that begin the EEOC mediation process are eventually resolved through mediation?

A) fewer than 10%
B) more than 10%, but fewer than half
C) more than half
D) the EEOC has no mediation procedure

Question 69

Organizations that wish to protect themselves from discrimination claims can require employees to sign an enforceable waiver that requires them to use the organization's internal ADR rather than the courts.