Final Exam 13 April 2018, questions and answers PDF

Preview

Summary

Download Final Exam 13 April 2018, questions and answers PDF

Description

SENECA COLLEGE OF APPLIED ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY SENECA BUSINESS IBS 810 NXX - Human Resource Management Final Exam Version A

DATE: 12/22/17

TIME ALLOWED: Due January 5, 2018 Midnight

PROFESSOR(S): Sharon Rubin Allowable Examination Aids: (check applicable boxes) ☐ Calculators (non-programmable only)

☐ Math Tables (normal distribution table)

☐ Periodic Tables

☐ Formula Sheets (attached)

☒ Textbooks

☐ Probability Tables

☒ Dictionary

☒ Notes

☐ Other

☐ Exam Booklet

☐ GradeMaster Card

☐ Exam Paper

TOTAL MARKS: 70

VALUE FOR SEMESTER: 30%

Answers to be completed on:

INSTRUCTIONS: Please upload your completed exam to SafeAssign under the Assignment Tab – Final Exam. Section 9.1 of Seneca College Academic Policy: Offences under this policy include but are not limited to cheating, plagiarism, falsification, impersonation, misrepresentation and procurement. Engaging in any form of academic dishonesty to obtain any type of academic advantage or credit is an offence under this policy and will not be tolerated by the College. For descriptions and/or specific examples of these academic offences, see Appendix E. TO BE COMPLETED BY STUDENT SUBJECT SECTION NUMBER (e.g. QNM223 AA): IBS810 NXX STUDENT NAME: Jaynam Shah STUDENT NUMBER: 131058166 STUDENT SIGNATURE: Jaynam shah

APPROVED BY: ________________________________________________________

Sarah Arliss, Chair School of International Business and Management DATE:

December 15, 2017

PART A: SHORT ANSWERS (Q1 & Q3 ANSWERED)

Q1. How can the problem of inconsistency between managers who are rating workers be solved or at least diminished? Make three suggestions and explain how they can be used to resolve the problem.

Answer Q1: Three suggestions for solving or diminishing rater inconsistency between managers are as follows:

(A) Rater Error Training: Firstly, rater error means that the rater may possess a certain bias that can damage the precision of the rating. Hence, in order to improve the precision of the rating, the trainer should be effective and reduce the biasness among the employees. There several some major errors that are made while evaluating the employees. Firstly, distributional errors, which means the managers rate very leniently or very strictly to all the employees which reduces the accuracy of rating. Secondly, the managers may rate employee according to the manager itself, by comparing them to him/herself and favoring employees who seem similar to the manager. Lastly, the biggest error that is made is based on first impression of the employee where manager judges’ employee based on his/her first impression. Thus, all these types of errors should be kept in mind and manager should eliminate making errors while rating and provide rating purely based on their job performance with skills related to that job.

(B) Frame of Reference Training: In this type of training, all the managers who are responsible for rating employee’s performance should be trained the develop and maintain the particular quality of performance across different job dimensions. The managers must also have a reference point in order to match the rater scores and the rate true scores. After a successful rating by managers, the trainers go ahead and provide feedbacks as to which rating they provided should have given a particular level of rating within a dimension.

(C) Rater Variability Training: Another type of training which aims at increasing the accuracy of ratings on measuring the performance appraisals. It actually focuses on increasing the knowledge of managers knowledge of errors made while rating employees i.e. leniency or strictly rating, by providing managers with detailed explanation of errors that they have or they may make. This helps managers to avoid such errors in future and hence increases the precision of rating for employees. To make sure managers understand and implement their knowledge, their ratings should be compared with the standard ratings prepared by trainers itself and then try on finding what error was made and correcting them instantly.

Q3. You are a manager in a mid-size company. Lately there have been an increasing number of accidents in the workplace. Your workforce is composed of 10% male army veterans with the

balance divided between middle aged men and women and millennials. The company recently announced that they would be merging with another company next year and employees know that there will be some changes, but aren’t sure what they are. Aside from the increased accidents you are also seeing mental health issues. What can you suggest to deal with? Answer (Q3) Increased accidents a. What are the employer’s duties with respect to health and safety in the workforce? What are the employee’s? (4 marks) Answer (a):  Employer has several duties with respect to health and safety in workplace environment:



Developing and taking every precaution to ensure the safety of work place in regard to systems, equipment and tools used to perform the particular job.



Provide with adequate training for that job in order to make them familiarize with hazards in the workplace and how to safely use, handle, store and dispose of dangerous materials and assisting in how to manage when there is an emergency.



Provide them with all the protective tools and equipment (including clothing) and ensure the employees know how to use and handle them properly and with safety.



Immediately notify about the critical incidents or accidents at the workplace to Assistant Deputy Minister accountable for Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) of a workplace.



Establish a health and safety committee or health and safety representative for the workplace and co-operating/assisting them with safety of workers and work environment.



Employees/Workers responsibilities with respect to health and safety at workplace:



Work with acceptance of occupational health and safety regulations and policies and follow them regularly while on the job.



Reporting of all the accidents/incidents to the employer or the manager of the company’s workplace.



Co-operating with the manager/supervisor, co-workers and health and safety committee or OH&S regulation committee to prevent from dangerous accidents.



Informing the supervisor/manager about any defective tools or equipment that may be dangerous to all the workers present at the facility.



Protect and care for their own health and safety, co-workers and of other people at or nearby their workplace. (Page 383,384,385)

b. Name two things that the manager can do to decrease workplace accidents. (2 marks)

Answer (b): To decrease workplace accidents, manager can do the following:



Reduce Unsafe Conditions: This is the first and most important factor through which the manager can decrease the workplace accidents. Manager have to ensure that all the employees wear the personal protective equipment all the times while on the job, this is often a very difficult job. Also, more of the attention should be towards accident prevention methods such as Job hazard analysis, Job safety observation etc. that focus merely on changing employee behaviors at workplace.



Reduce Unsafe Acts: Reduction of unsafe acts can be done in several ways such as Selection Testing. In this, the company should perform tests related to muscular coordination, visual skills as a good vision plays important role in preventing of accidents at the workplace. Moreover, providing with proper Training and Education is another method. It should be compulsory for all employees to participate in OH&S training programs where various hazardous signs and symbols can be described to them and later performing a practical evaluation process in order to know if all the workers are applying the acquired knowledge and following safety procedures. (Page 394,395)

c. Explain the impact of increased accidents on workers’ compensation costs. (1 mark) Mental Health issues

Answer (c):  Increased accidents play a very important role on making workers compensation cost most expensive benefit provided by a company. It is a fact that indirect costs are

estimated to be 3-4 times expensive than the direct costs. It means that the more claims for accidents the company has, the more premiums it will pay for workers. For example, the average workplace injury in Ontario costs about more than $59,000 in workers compensation benefits. Thus, increased accidents have a huge impact on company’s expenses/costs for workers compensation benefits. (Page 397)

d. You’ve noticed that stress seems to be quite high as a result of the company announcements. Name three things that you as manager can do to deal with the high stress levels and explain why these are the appropriate things to do for this situation. (3 marks)

Answer (d): Three things that a manager can do to deal with high stress levels are as follows:  Providing with Employee Assistance Program(EAP): This is one of the major step that can be taken by a manager towards diminishing the stress level of employees at workplace. It is said that about 40% of EAP usage is related to stress at work. In this case, the manager should monitor each employee’s performance to identify the symptoms of stress of stress and then communicating the worker about organizational remedies that are available for employee, such as EAP. These is appropriate thing to do in this situation as it is important to reduce and diminish stress of workers at job.

 Fair Treatment and More Control: This is the also another important step or factor that can play a vital role in reducing job stress. Permitting employee to have more control over his/her job as a study conducted proved that providing with more amount of control to employee reduced their stress to almost none. Moreover, treating all workers fairly and equally also prevents the stress to rise in workers mind and body at workplace.

 Encourage Breaks: All the salaried employees are also entitled to take breaks throughout the day. Give them break of 10-15min every 2hours or 3hours and make it compulsory for all the workers to take the breaks allotted. Studies show that a worker is more productive if they work for 2.5hrs and take a 15min break and again go to work. This will be beneficial for the company too, as employees turn out to be more productive.

PART B: LONG ANSWERS CASE STUDY

c. Develop an appropriate compensation strategy and plan for the women and men (if appropriate). How would it operate? What would be the payouts? Be detailed. Consider what terms you would put in to make the plan work smoothly. (10 marks)

Answer (c): Compensation strategy for Marty’s business, following would be the steps and planning for appropriate application of strategy:

1. Establish a new Pay Philosophy: A new pay philosophy would mean first noting down how much compensation in total would be provided to the employees, which is $75,000 as per Marty’s additional budget. This is the actual Total Compensation Plan where there would be various factors considered for employees such as benefits, performance bonuses, different types of job incentives and other perks like free lunch or dinner for all employees. 2. Compare Competitors Pay and Set the new hourly wage and benefits: Marty has 30 people working in the company and has a budget of $75000. An increment of $2/hour to the job type that seemed harder than others, assuming 15 employees out of 30 worked harder (Total Expense increased = $4800). Also, the other remaining employee’s salary will subject to increase by $1/hour in order to make salary competitive from competitors and employees feel motivated (Total expense = $2400). Moreover, All the employees will be subject to benefit from Dental and vision plan where their kids may require doing so. Dental and vision both for all employees would cost Marty approx. $750/month which would come to $9000 a year. In addition, all employee’s will also be provided with health insurance plan, costing approximately $15000 for all employee/year.

Work Cited

Dessler, Gary, et al. Human resources management in Canada. Pearson, 2014. Accessed 19 December 2017.

Brokers, The Knowledge. “Development of rater training programs.” Expertbase, www.expertbase.org/a386-development-of-rater-training-programs-. Accessed 19 December 2017....