HRM 598 Final Exam (NEW)

HRM 598 Final Exam (NEW)

1. (TCO A) You are the compensation director for the New York Fruit Pies Company, which has 100 employees and is located in a small city of 50,000 in a rural agricultural part of New York State. You have just joined the company and have identified the need to create a revised compensation system.

You are familiar with the four strategic pay policies that are typically found in pay models. Discuss each of the strategic policies as they would apply to your company. Are there any goals that your compensation system should incorporate? (Points : 30)

2. (TCO B) The VP for HR met with you, the compensation manager, to go over the new strategies for attracting new employees for the offshore oil recovery division. The division works with oil production companies to help prevent oil spills and recover oil where leakages have occurred. The division employs many engineers and scientists with expertise in hydraulics, oil production, chemistry, and so forth. Employee assignments are often for 3 to 6 months in different countries around the world. The VP for HR indicates that you should use a job-based point method.

In creating a job-based point evaluation plan for the organization, identify and discuss four compensable factors that you would incorporate in the job-based point evaluation plan. Please describe a job-based point evaluation plan. In addition, define each factor, justify why you selected it, and provide the weights or scales that you would assign to it. (Points : 30)

3. (TCO B) Legal Research, LLC provides historical research services to law firms and courts on the use of land. When land is contaminated, the company looks at current and previous owners to help courts determine who is responsible for the contamination. You are the HR manager and are engaged in developing a job evaluation plan. The organization has 12 employees in three departments; the largest with nine employees is the historical research with nine PhDs.

You need to develop a job evaluation plan for the organization. Describe the difference between person-based plans and job-based plans. Explain which one you would use. What factors would you consider? What is one advantage and disadvantage of each? (Points : 30)

4. (TCO C) A high-tech start-up company has retained your services to assist them in determining a competitive market pay policy for the company to use as they staff up. In order to help them, what information would you need about the company? Describe four competitive market pay policies, and give an example of when an organization might want to use each policy. (Points : 30)

5. (TCO D) As a compensation consultant, your newest client is a Southwest steel fabrication shop that specializes in producing supermarket shopping carts. The company has one production facility that employs 130 people. You learn that 90 of the jobs are for machine operators. The machine operators bend and weld steel rods and wire. The production lines are well established and product lines have a great deal of consistency. The job appears to you to be a low-level one with prescribed tasks and routines.

Should you recommend a straight ranking approach, a rating system such as a behavioral anchored rating scale (BARS), a management by objectives (MBO) format, or a 360-degree multirater approach? Describe the four types of performance assessment approaches. Recommend one and justify why you have chosen it. (Points : 30)

6. (TCO D) The new HR VP is concerned about the performance appraisal process in the hand-held video game company where you are the compensation manager. You then review the results of the last performance appraisal cycle. It appears that supervisors and managers may be having difficulty in doing the appraisals. You are concerned about validity and reliability of the process.

In preparation for a training program for supervisors and managers, identify at least three common errors in the performance appraisal process and describe them. In addition, describe steps to minimize these errors. (Points : 30)

7. (TCO H) You are a compensation consultant working with a Top 100 bank on the east coast of the United States. The Board of Directors of the bank is in the process of hiring a new CEO. They indicate that they are concerned about public perception. You are invited to a compensation committee meeting to recommend an executive compensation strategy.

Describe the components of an executive compensation plan, and explain how these components can help support the organizational strategy. (Points : 30)

8. (TCO G) As HR Director, you have arranged a management training program for managers and executives on the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) because it is probably the most comprehensive and far-reaching legislation that affects compensation decisions in the organization.

Describe the four key requirements and why they are important in compensation. (Points : 30)

9. (TCO E) The CEO of your company has just had lunch with several CEOs at an industry leadership group. He meets with you and explains what he heard about incentive plans such as gain-sharing and profit-sharing plans. He thinks you should research them and get back to him with a recommendation.

Briefly describe what gain-sharing and profit-sharing plans involve. What conditions should exist prior to implementation to make it easier to implement? What are the advantages and disadvantages of group incentives such as gain-sharing and profit-sharing plans? (Points : 30)