SHRM (Strategic) 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A company is experiencing high turnover in its sales division. Which strategic HR approach best addresses root causes rather than symptoms?
- Increase base salaries across the board
- Conduct exit interviews and correlate findings with engagement data to identify systemic issues (Correct answer)
- Hire replacement staff faster to maintain headcount
- Implement a mandatory retention bonus for all sales staff
Correct answer: Conduct exit interviews and correlate findings with engagement data to identify systemic issues
Correlating exit interview data with engagement metrics identifies systemic causes rather than applying generic fixes.
Question 2: When HR participates in M&A due diligence, which factor is most critical to assess for integration success?
- Target company's office square footage
- Cultural alignment and workforce compatibility between the two organizations (Correct answer)
- Number of patents held by the target
- Target company's marketing budget
Correct answer: Cultural alignment and workforce compatibility between the two organizations
Cultural misalignment is a leading cause of M&A failure, making workforce and culture assessment essential during due diligence.
Question 3: An organization wants to build a 5-year strategic workforce plan. What is the FIRST step HR should take?
- Post job openings for anticipated future roles
- Analyze the organization's strategic business goals to determine future talent requirements (Correct answer)
- Survey current employees about career aspirations
- Benchmark competitor compensation packages
Correct answer: Analyze the organization's strategic business goals to determine future talent requirements
Workforce planning must start with understanding business strategy to identify the talent needed to execute it.
Question 4: Which metric best measures the strategic impact of an HR-led leadership development program?
- Participant satisfaction scores from post-training surveys
- Number of training hours completed per leader
- Percentage of leadership positions filled internally after program completion (Correct answer)
- Cost per training hour delivered
Correct answer: Percentage of leadership positions filled internally after program completion
Internal promotion rates directly reflect whether leadership development programs are producing ready-now successors.
Question 5: A CHRO presents the board with a proposal to restructure the HR function. Which argument will be most persuasive to board members?
- The restructure will improve HR team morale and work-life balance
- The new structure will reduce HR headcount by 20%
- The restructure will reduce time-to-fill critical roles by 30%, directly supporting revenue targets (Correct answer)
- HR departments at peer companies have already restructured similarly
Correct answer: The restructure will reduce time-to-fill critical roles by 30%, directly supporting revenue targets
Boards respond to business impact arguments; connecting HR changes to revenue-driving outcomes aligns HR with organizational priorities.
Question 6: Under Porter's Value Chain model, HR activities are classified as:
- Primary activities that directly create customer value
- Support activities that enable primary activities to function effectively (Correct answer)
- Overhead costs that should be minimized
- External activities outside the firm's control
Correct answer: Support activities that enable primary activities to function effectively
Porter classifies HR management as a support activity that enables primary value-creating activities like operations and marketing.
Question 7: Which scenario represents the most effective use of HR analytics in strategic decision-making?
- Tracking headcount monthly to report to finance
- Using predictive models to identify high-flight-risk employees before they resign (Correct answer)
- Calculating average tenure for the annual report
- Counting the number of performance reviews completed on time
Correct answer: Using predictive models to identify high-flight-risk employees before they resign
Predictive analytics enables proactive intervention, shifting HR from reactive to strategic by preventing costly voluntary turnover.
SHRM (Strategic) 2
A company is experiencing high turnover in its sales division.
Which strategic HR approach best addresses root causes rather than symptoms?