CED Human Resources & Organizational Development 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: An executive director wants to reduce voluntary turnover among high-performing staff. Which retention strategy has the strongest evidence base?
- Increasing base salaries across the board
- Implementing structured stay interviews and career pathing (Correct answer)
- Adding more paid time off days
- Offering a one-time retention bonus
Correct answer: Implementing structured stay interviews and career pathing
Stay interviews and individualized career pathing address the specific motivators of high performers, making them more effective than broad compensation changes.
Question 2: A nonprofit's HR director reports that its FMLA administration has resulted in three employee complaints this year. What is the executive director's most appropriate first response?
- Discipline the HR director for poor administration
- Commission an external legal audit of FMLA compliance practices
- Review the current FMLA policy and administration procedures with HR and legal counsel (Correct answer)
- Ignore complaints unless they escalate to formal EEOC charges
Correct answer: Review the current FMLA policy and administration procedures with HR and legal counsel
Reviewing existing policy and procedures with HR and legal counsel is the prudent first step to identify gaps before taking more drastic actions.
Question 3: Which type of organizational structure is most likely to foster cross-functional innovation in a mid-sized nonprofit?
- Strict functional hierarchy
- Matrix structure with project teams (Correct answer)
- Flat anarchy with no reporting lines
- Outsourced management model
Correct answer: Matrix structure with project teams
Matrix structures enable collaboration across departments while maintaining functional accountability, supporting innovation in nonprofits.
Question 4: Under the ADA, an executive director receives a request for a workplace accommodation from an employee with a newly disclosed disability. What is the required first step?
- Approve any accommodation the employee requests
- Begin the interactive process to identify effective accommodations (Correct answer)
- Deny until the employee provides full medical records
- Reassign the employee to a less demanding role
Correct answer: Begin the interactive process to identify effective accommodations
The ADA mandates an 'interactive process'—a good-faith dialogue between employer and employee—to identify reasonable accommodations.
Question 5: A new executive director inherits a culture of low psychological safety. Which leadership behavior has the greatest impact on building it?
- Rewarding employees who never make mistakes
- Publicly acknowledging and normalizing learning from failures (Correct answer)
- Implementing anonymous reporting systems only
- Requiring staff to submit written suggestions only
Correct answer: Publicly acknowledging and normalizing learning from failures
Leaders who openly model learning from mistakes signal that it is safe to take risks and speak up, directly building psychological safety.
Question 6: Which metric is the most direct indicator of the effectiveness of an onboarding program?
- Number of applications received after the program launches
- New hire retention rate at 90 days and 1 year (Correct answer)
- Time-to-fill open positions
- Employee satisfaction with office facilities
Correct answer: New hire retention rate at 90 days and 1 year
Retention rates at 90 days and 1 year directly reflect whether onboarding is setting new hires up for long-term success.
Question 7: When an organization transitions to a remote-first workforce, which HR policy area requires the most immediate revision?
- Dress code policy
- Performance management and accountability frameworks (Correct answer)
- Office supply procurement procedures
- Holiday party planning guidelines
Correct answer: Performance management and accountability frameworks
Performance management frameworks must shift from presence-based to output-based metrics to effectively manage a remote workforce.
CED Human Resources & Organizational Development 2
An executive director wants to reduce voluntary turnover among high-performing staff.
Which retention strategy has the strongest evidence base?