Deck 5: Forecasting and Planning

Question 1

If the proportion of high-potential applicants increases,the total number of applicants needed to generate the right number of the right quality of new hires decreases.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

If new competitors enter an industry,customers will have greater product choices,which will tend to dilute the demand for any one company's products or services.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Which of the following is the first step in the typical workforce planning process?

A)identifying the firm's business strategy
B)articulating the firm's strategic staffing decisions
C)developing and implementing action plans
D)conducting a workforce analysis

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Forecasting is not an exact science,and it is rare for a forecast to be exactly right.Given this uncertainty,it is usually best to use the previous period's data and add/reduce some percentage value based on managerial intuition.

Question 5

Bottom-up judgmental forecasting uses the input of lower-level managers to estimate the firm's total staffing requirements.

Question 6

Early retirement programs are a common way of dealing with temporary employee surpluses.

Question 7

The employer health insurance mandate in the 2010 Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act,requires employers with at least 50 full-time employees to provide government-approved,affordable health insurance to at least 95 percent of their employees and dependents beginning in 2014.

Question 8

A ratio analysis assumes that the ratio between the number of employees needed and certain business metrics is highly variable.

Question 9

The most comprehensive source of free data on conditions in the U.S.labor market is the U.S.Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Question 10

A transition matrix can be used to model the flow internally of human resources.

Question 11

Typically,when interest rates rise,

A)businesses are willing to borrow more money.
B)consumers are willing to borrow more.
C)businesses are less likely to expand.
D)businesses make bigger capital investments.

Question 12

If 4 out of 5 job offers are typically accepted,a company will have to make 120 offers so as to hire 80 employees.

Question 13

The internal labor market is critical in predicting future promotions,turnover rates and demographics of the employee base.

Question 14

A retail store forecasts a greater need for salespeople during Thanksgiving.This is an example of a seasonal forecast.

Question 15

Scatter plots show graphically how two different variables are related.

Question 16

Business process outsourcing is the relocation of an entire business function,such as production,manufacturing,or customer service,to an independent service provider in the same or a different country.

Question 17

Talent inventories are detailed records or databases that summarize each employee's skills,competencies,education,training,previous performance reviews,and future promotions.

Question 18

A transition analysis can account for multiple moves.

Question 19

Anna is the manager of human resources at Alcatec Inc.She is comparing the number of employees required over the next six months versus the capabilities of her existing workforce adjusted for attrition.She is trying to identify any gaps between the two.Which step of the workforce planning process is discussed here?

A)monitor and revise the forecasts and action plans
B)articulate the firm's strategic staffing decisions
C)develop and implement action plans
D)conduct a workforce analysis

Question 20

Forecasting labor demand in small- and medium-size organizations is significantly easier compared to large organizations because there is a stronger correlation between employee count and productivity.

Question 21

________ involves looking at past employment patterns and using those patterns to predict a firm's future labor needs.

A)Trend analysis
B)Judgmental forecasting
C)ROI analysis
D)Transition analysis

Question 22

After the gaps between the firm's labor supply and labor demand are identified,a firm should:

A)develop and implement action plans.
B)conduct a workforce analysis.
C)identify its business strategy.
D)articulate its talent philosophy and strategic staffing decisions.

Question 23

Which of the following is a way in which many organizations try to reduce their need for skills that will be in short supply for a number of years?

A)exiting certain lines of business
B)redesigning jobs
C)focusing on other areas where there is adequate labor supply
D)focus on unskilled labor

Question 24

________ is a quantitative technique that can be used to analyze a firm's internal labor markets and forecast its internal labor supply.

A)Trend analysis
B)Judgmental forecasting
C)ROI analysis
D)Transition analysis

Question 25

ROM Corporation had kept all its hiring plans on hold during the last four quarters because the economy was in a state of recession.ROM manufactures data cards,memory chips,and LCD monitors.The company is analyzing market trends in order to reassess its hiring strategy for the coming year.Which of the following,if true,would best support the argument for restarting hiring?

A)The previous recessionary had only lasted a year.
B)Though there was a decline in profits compared to the previous year,the company recently reported the best numbers in its industry.
C)Computer manufacturers have aggressively started hiring more staff.
D)One of ROM's fiercest rivals has started laying off its employees.

Question 26

Which of the following visually shows each of the possible successors for a job and summarizes their strengths,present performance,promotion readiness,and development needs?

A)scatter diagrams
B)perceptual maps
C)talent inventories
D)replacement charts

Question 27

Why is it usually best to supplement the ratio,scatter plot,and trend forecasting methods with managerial judgment?

A)because judgment forecasting is the most accurate method
B)because historical trends and relationships can change
C)because top-down approaches need analytical validation
D)because firms need to keep their fingers on the pulse of their labor markets

Question 28

New salespeople at a retail store generate an average of $50,000 in profit their first year.In addition,the reduced workload on the rest of the sales staff improves their efficiency and ability to provide high-quality customer service by 10 percent.This is worth an additional $20,000 to the company.The cost of hiring and training a new salesperson is expected to be $3,000 and $8,000 respectively.The salary for this position is $35,000.What is the return on investment of hiring an additional salesperson?

A)152%
B)163%
C)200%
D)143%

Question 29

Which of the following would be most useful for a firm needing to quickly reassign employees to an important new project?

A)job analysis
B)transition analysis
C)a talent inventory
D)trend analysis

Question 30

A Japanese company that makes electronic watches exports 90 percent of its products to the United States.Which of the following will happen if the dollar strengthens against the Japanese Yen?

A)The company's watches will become less expensive in the US.
B)The purchasing power of US consumers will decline.
C)The company will have to reduce its number of employees.
D)The company will export lesser number of watches to the US.

Question 31

If a company employs two office assistants for every nine architects (a staffing ratio of 2:9)and it plans to expand and hire eighteen new architects,how many new office assistants will it need to hire?

A)2
B)4
C)6
D)8

Question 32

Which of the following events suggests that a home improvement store such as Home Depot or Lowe's will need fewer workers in the next 1-3 years?

A)increased housing purchases
B)a decrease in consumer disposable income
C)an increase in consumer spending
D)falling interest rates

Question 33

If managers are asked to estimate their optimal headcount for the following year for staffing planning purposes,which of the following has been used?

A)ratio analysis
B)trend analysis
C)scatter plots
D)judgmental forecasting

Question 34

Which of the following is more likely to warrant changes in an organization's compensation policy and induce it to offer above-market wages?

A)decreasing unemployment rates
B)decrease in the number of employees quitting jobs
C)reduction in the number of companies in its industry
D)restructuring of jobs to make them more process oriented

Question 35

Which of the following is a way in which companies usually deal with temporary employee surpluses?

A)offering early retirement options
B)stopping filling of vacated positions
C)announcing massive layoffs
D)removing contingent workers

Question 36

Which of the following forecasting methods relies on the experience and insights of people in the organization to predict a firm's future employment needs?

A)trend analysis
B)ROI analysis
C)judgmental forecasting
D)transition analysis

Question 37

Identify the primary limitation of all forecasting techniques.

A)They are qualitative in nature.
B)They tend to give biased estimates.
C)They rely on managerial intuition and judgment.
D)They rely on historical patterns and activity levels.

Question 38

Which of the following is true of transition analysis?

A)It can account for multiple moves.
B)It assumes that all employees in a job have an equal probability of movement.
C)It is a qualitative technique.
D)It does not rely on historical patterns and activity levels.

Question 39

Which of the following are detailed records or databases that summarize each employee's skills,competencies,education,training,languages spoken,and chances of being promoted?

A)performance reviews
B)transition databases
C)talent inventories
D)replacement charts

Question 40

Which of the following,if true,would require a company to make adjustments to its historical employee-productivity ratios?

A)The company is able to recruit more easily because of higher unemployment in the market.
B)The company's cost of borrowing is going down.
C)The company is expecting higher volumes of work in the next two years.
D)The company is adopting a more efficient manufacturing system.

Question 41

What are talent inventories and replacement charts,and how are they used in forecasting labor supply?

Question 42

A firm's internal and external staffing costs were $50,000,and 5 people were hired,each with a starting base salary of $40,000.What would be the firm's staffing efficiency?

A)12.5%
B)25%
C)16.7%
D)125%

Question 43

Discuss the different ways in which a firm can deal with temporary employee surpluses.

Question 44

Hiring yield refers to:

A)the proportion of hires coming through a particular recruiter.
B)the return on investment from one additional hire.
C)the percent of applicants ultimately hired.
D)the proportion of applicants moving from one stage of the hiring process to the next.

Question 45

Describe the five steps in the workforce planning process.

Question 46

How can competitor forecasts influence a firm's forecast of its own future business activity?

Question 47

Which term refers to the proportion of applicants moving from one stage of the hiring process to the next?

A)staffing yields
B)hiring yields
C)attrition
D)retention

Question 48

________ forecasting uses historical data on the average number of hires typically made per recruiter or the average number of recruits processed per recruiter over a given period of time,say,a week,month,or year.

A)Staffing efficiency-drive
B)Hiring-yield driven
C)Staffing-yield driven
D)Workload-driven

Question 49

Compare and contrast workload-driven forecasting and staffing efficiency-driven forecasting.

Question 50

Which of the following observations is true?

A)Continuous recruiting involves recruiting an entirely new applicant pool every time the organization has one or more positions to fill.
B)Batch recruiting is particularly useful for positions that turn over relatively quickly.
C)Jobs recruited using batch recruiting typically take a longer time to fill than jobs recruited using continuous recruiting.
D)Continuous recruiting does not work well for jobs that take a long time to fill,or for jobs that cost the organization a lot of money while they are vacant.