A job analysis technique for analyzing new jobs or analyzing how jobs will look in the future is called a:
future-oriented job analysis.
A written description of the tasks, duties, and responsibilities of the job itself is a:
job description.
Broad worker characteristics that underlie successful performance or behavior on the job are:
competencies.
A job analysis must be:
reliable and valid.
Asking a job incumbent, "Tell me about a time when you did something on the job that was extremely effective and that led to great results," is an example of the:
critical incidents job analytic technique.
Job analysis is well suited to analyzing jobs performed in a consistent, predictable manner.
True
Intrinsic rewards are those that have monetary value.
False
A job's desirable criteria are critical to a new hire's job performance.
False
Politics are rarely a problem when collecting job analysis information; job experts are committed to providing objective, unbiased information about the job.
False
Job families are groupings of jobs that either call for similar worker characteristics or contain parallel work tasks.
True
Describe three types of information that can be useful for providing background information for a job analysis.
A job family description—provides a quick overview of the job family that contains similar jobs and indicates further job analysis needs for examination construction.
Desk audits—ask incumbents to walk you through their most important and most frequent tasks. (This can be particularly useful for analyzing clerical and technical positions.)
Entry examinations currently used for the job.
Worker logs—can provide a feel for the tasks done and identify particularly important job functions; may suggest critical incidents.
Any existing job analyses or job profiles—can be a useful starting point for developing task statements and identifying competencies during the job analysis.
Performance reviews of current and previous occupants of the position - provide information about what job behaviors and outcomes are currently considered important.
Recruitment information such as Internet postings and brochures given to past applicants.
Complying with employment laws does NOT:
hurt the company's reputation and image as an employer.
Which of the following do independent contractors NOT do?
Increase a company's headcount
The goal of affirmative action is to:
provide employment opportunities to groups formerly underrepresented in employment.
The "like me" bias occurs when:
people associate with other people who they perceive to be like themselves.
Confidentiality and nondisclosure agreements help to prevent:
the disclosure of trade secrets.
Because independent contractors often receive higher wages than regular employees, they are not a good choice for firms pursuing a low cost strategy.
False
An employee who files a discrimination charge against her manager can be terminated if their employment is at-will.
False
The primary mission of the OFCCP is to ensure that federal contractors with at least 50 employees and who receive $50,000 or more in grants, goods, and services take affirmative action to promote equal employment opportunity and annually file appropriate affirmative action plans with the agency.
True
Disparate treatment is the intentional application or administration of employment practices, including recruitment, in a discriminatory manner.
True
Trade secret litigation can only take place after an employee is hired by a competitor.
False
What are stock statistics and how are they used?
Stock statistics compare the percentage of men, women, or minorities employed in a job category with their availability in the relevant population of qualified people interested in the position. This is also called a utilization analysis. If the employment rate of men, women, or minorities is less than what would be expected based on their availability, they are said to be underutilized. Performing these analyses separately for women and minorities for each job group in the organization is the starting point for the development of affirmative action plans.
Employers must conduct stock statistics by job group (a group of related jobs) and do them separately for women and minorities. Although it is relatively easy to identify the number of people in each subgroup employed by the firm, it can be difficult to accurately identify each subgroup's availability in the relevant population. The percentage of women or minorities in the recruitment area who have the required skills must be taken into account as well as the percentage of women or minorities among those promotable, transferable, and trainable within the organization - both of which can be difficult to estimate or measure. Economists are often used in conducting utilization analyses, and technical as well as legal assistance is often advised.
Which of the following is NOT a question addressed by a firm's talent philosophy?
How many employees will we need to hire to meet our business objectives?
A firm pursuing a competitive strategy based on a customer intimacy competitive advantage would probably focus its staffing efforts for its customer-oriented positions on:
hiring adaptable team players with good networking skills.
Acquiring a stock of quality talent creates a:
human capital advantage.
If a company's successful recruiting practice can be easily copied by a competitor, the recruiting practice fails to have which requirement of a competitive advantage?
Inimitable
A company's talent focus often becomes more internal during the __________ stage of their life cycle.
maturity
A talent philosophy is a system of beliefs about how employees should be treated.
True
Companies pursuing a differentiation strategy often try to develop a competitive advantage based on operational excellence.
False
An external talent focus requires hiring people with the potential to perform well in the organization's training and development programs and eventually assume leadership positions in the organization.
False
Companies that use the same recruiting techniques are likely to experience similar results.
False
Give two examples of how different staffing strategies support different business strategies.
Staffing strategy supports business strategy by acquiring and retaining the types and numbers of people needed to execute the business strategy and maintain a competitive advantage. Different strategies require different types of employees. A cost leadership strategy requires require trainable and flexible employees able to focus on shorter-term production objectives, avoid waste, and who are concerned about production costs to develop a competitive advantage based on operational excellence. A differentiation strategy based on a competitive advantage of innovation requires employees who fit the firm's innovative culture. A company pursuing a specialization strategy using a competitive advantage of customer intimacy would need to hire adaptable, active learners with good networking and customer relations skills and emotional resilience under pressure would complement a customer intimacy competitive advantage
Targeting staffing efforts to hire people who will be willing and able to implement a new strategy may help it to take hold and ultimately influence a new strategy's effectiveness.
Strategic staffing means:
staffing an organization in future oriented and goal directed ways that support the organization's business strategy and enhance organizational effectiveness.
Deployment involves:
assigning talent to appropriate jobs and roles in the organization.
If a staffing specialist analyzes the organization's business forecast and the economic forecast for the firm's industry to determine the firm's likely future demand for certain types of talent, which of the following is being done?
Planning
Which of the following is NOT a component of strategic staffing?
Training
Negotiating a job offer with a candidate is part of:
acquiring.
Although staffing practices can influence turnover rates, staffing practices have not been found to influence a firm's stock market performance.
False
Attracting sufficient numbers of appropriately qualified applicants is an example of a staffing outcome goal.
False
Firms should select only those candidates who already possess the skills that can be quickly and cheaply trained by the firm.
False
Forecasting the skills the organization will need in the future is an example of employer branding.
False
The final hiring decision is usually made by a staffing specialist.
False
What are the seven components of strategic staffing, and what makes each one strategic?
Planning: strategically evaluating the company's current lines of business, new businesses it will be getting into, businesses it will be leaving, and the gaps between the current skills in the organization and the skills it will need to execute its business strategy. Determining what the organization really needs to be successful is the first step to hiring the right people.
Sourcing: locating qualified individuals and labor markets from which to recruit. Identifying high quality potential applicants helps to target recruitment efforts and increase the number of high quality applicants and hires.
Recruiting: all organizational practices and decisions that affect either the number or types of individuals willing to apply for and accept job offers. Identifying the features of the job and organization that are most likely to appeal to different recruits, tailoring the recruitment message to best entice different candidates to apply and accept job offers, and proactively persuading high potential people to apply and accept job offers increases the number of high quality applicants and hires. Meeting applicants' needs for information and respect, and attending to their reactions enhances the organization's image as an employer and helps increase the number of future high quality applicants.
Selecting: assessing job candidates and deciding who to hire. Evaluating job candidates on factors important to job and organizational performance helps companies identify the job candidates who will best enhance organizational effectiveness.
Acquiring: putting together job offers that appeal to chosen candidates, and persuading job offer recipients to accept those job offers. Recruiting and selecting the right people is futile if they ultimately choose not to join the company. Negotiating effectively and socializing new hires into the organization smoothes their transition, and builds and maintains their enthusiasm and commitment.
Deploying: assigning people to appropriate jobs and roles in the organization to best utilize their talents. Having good people on board but in the wrong jobs compromises organizational performance and can increase turnover. Strategic staffing puts the right people in the right jobs at the right time, and builds employees' commitment and capability to contribute to the firm over time.
Retaining: hiring the right people isn't enough if they soon leave. Retention increases current performance and increases the pool of talent available for leadership positions. Retaining good performers also means that the organization spends less time and fewer resources staffing vacancies.
