SHRM Analysis 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A company calculates its cost-per-hire at $4,200, well above the industry benchmark of $2,800. Which data point should the analyst examine first?
- Average time-to-fill for open positions
- Breakdown of sourcing channel costs vs. internal processing costs (Correct answer)
- Number of job requisitions opened last quarter
- The company's employee referral bonus amount
Correct answer: Breakdown of sourcing channel costs vs. internal processing costs
Decomposing cost-per-hire into sourcing and processing components identifies whether the excess cost comes from expensive channels or inefficient internal workflows.
Question 2: In a needs assessment, what is the purpose of a 'gap analysis'?
- To identify the difference between current and desired performance or capability levels (Correct answer)
- To calculate the financial cost of unfilled positions
- To benchmark compensation against market rates
- To assess the quality of the applicant pool
Correct answer: To identify the difference between current and desired performance or capability levels
A gap analysis identifies the difference between where the organization is now and where it needs to be, guiding intervention design.
Question 3: Which metric directly measures the effectiveness of an onboarding program?
- Time-to-fill for the role
- New hire 90-day retention rate and 6-month performance rating (Correct answer)
- Offer acceptance rate
- Source of hire distribution
Correct answer: New hire 90-day retention rate and 6-month performance rating
New hire retention at 90 days and early performance ratings directly reflect whether onboarding prepared employees to succeed and stay.
Question 4: An HR analyst wants to use a survey to measure organizational climate. Which sampling method ensures all departments are proportionally represented?
- Simple random sampling
- Convenience sampling
- Stratified random sampling (Correct answer)
- Snowball sampling
Correct answer: Stratified random sampling
Stratified random sampling divides the population into subgroups (strata) and samples proportionally from each, ensuring departmental representation.
Question 5: A manufacturing company analyzes safety incident data and finds a 40% increase in near-misses on night shifts. What is the most analytically sound next step?
- Immediately discipline night shift supervisors
- Segment near-miss data by day of week, crew, and task type to identify patterns (Correct answer)
- Survey day shift employees about their perceptions of safety culture
- Report the finding to the board without further analysis
Correct answer: Segment near-miss data by day of week, crew, and task type to identify patterns
Segmenting the data by multiple variables uncovers whether the issue is time-of-day, specific crews, or particular tasks before any intervention is designed.
Question 6: Which of the following is an example of a 'leading indicator' in HR analytics?
- Annual voluntary turnover rate
- Employee engagement score measured quarterly (Correct answer)
- Total cost of separations last fiscal year
- Number of discrimination complaints filed in the prior year
Correct answer: Employee engagement score measured quarterly
Quarterly engagement scores are leading indicators because declining engagement predicts future turnover before it occurs, allowing proactive intervention.
Question 7: When presenting HR analytics findings to a non-technical executive audience, which approach is most effective?
- Include all regression outputs and p-values to demonstrate rigor
- Lead with business impact and use simple visuals, reserving technical detail for an appendix (Correct answer)
- Present data in spreadsheet format for maximum transparency
- Focus on data collection methodology before sharing results
Correct answer: Lead with business impact and use simple visuals, reserving technical detail for an appendix
Executives need business implications first; leading with impact and clean visuals drives decisions, while technical detail can be provided on request.
SHRM Analysis 4
A company calculates its cost-per-hire at $4,200, well above the industry benchmark of $2,800.
Which data point should the analyst examine first?