Free Practice SHRM SHRM-SCP Exam Questions 2025

A mid-sized government contractor is in the decline phase of its organizational life. The founder and CEO is a former military pilot who started the company ten years ago. The company grew quickly from five employees to 400. The primary business contracts have been for the aerospace and submarine industries. During times of conflict, the company's business contracts tripled in size to $1 billion. Now that conflicts have subsided, the government has announced a 30% reduction in the number of airplanes and submarines to be produced. Orders from other customers have also decreased. The company's economic outlook is poor.

The CEO debates several strategic options for survival and decides that cutting costs throughout the company is the best option. Since wages and benefits are the largest budget items, the CEO solicits help from the vice president of HR. The VP is concerned and advises the CEO that simple, across-the-board cuts could severely and adversely impact the company.

Many employees are afraid of losing their jobs. The most talented employees are already leaving the company to go to the competition. The VP suggests strategically assessing each business unit and then deciding to grow, maintain, or shut down each one. The CEO asks the VP to prepare a report on the strategic options of downsizing the company and to determine the impact each option would have on the employee population.

In one of the options, the VP suggests downsizing the employee population to save money. Which method should be used for determining which employees stay and which employees leave?

A new construction company is growing rapidly and hires its first HR director. To date, the construction company's hiring managers have been basing salary offers on candidates' salary demands. Therefore, the company does not have a salary structure in place, and large pay disparities are emerging among employees in the same positions. The new HR director is concerned about the inconsistencies in compensation and worries that the company's current pay practices may be discriminatory. Additionally, the HR director fears the situation will eventually result in both negative relations among current employees as well as future recruiting challenges.

What is the best approach for the HR director to take to communicate concerns about the salary structure to senior leadership?

A newly hired HR director has been assigned to lead a company’s transition to a total rewards environment. The company CEO expresses full support for the HR director but expects results.

The HR director has identified significant challenges to be overcome:

Within HR, there is personal and professional conflict between the benefits manager and the compensation manager. Each believes that the former HR director favored the other in allocating resources.

Senior leaders are dissatisfied with the benefits and the HR department as a whole. They believe that HR used employee survey data to make them and their departments look bad. They doubt that HR can successfully implement any change initiatives.

The company’s hourly workforce has not had a raise in the last three years, although virtually all salaried workers have received at least a 2% annual adjustment with an additional 2% to 3% merit award based on individual performance against goals.

Knowing that the leadership team doesn’t see the value in employee surveys, how should the HR director handle the next employee survey cycle?