Free Practice SHRM SHRM-SCP Exam Questions 2025

The president of a global automotive business headquartered in the U.S. is conducting annual global all-employee meetings. The president travels with the executive staff, which includes the chief financial officer (CFO), the chief HR officer (CHRO), and the chief technology officer (CTO), to all the factories around the world to deliver key messages to the employees.

The employees gather in large meeting rooms for the presentations, which focus mainly on successes from the past year and priorities for the new year, followed by a question-and-answer session. The president delivers most of the presentation, the CHRO presents on employee engagement and development initiatives, the CFO presents on the financials, and the others participate in the question-and-answer session.

Within a two-week period, they travel to meetings in China, Malaysia, Ireland, and several large U.S. sites. In addition to the presentations at each site, they take facility tours and have one-on-one meetings with front-line employees of their functional organizations and with key talent while they are on site. It is a rigorous schedule, but it is very important to the president, who is committed to building a strong global team and organization.

Midway through the first week of the global trip, during the all-employee meeting in Ireland, the CHRO notices that the president is using a lot of U.S. college sports analogies in the presentation. What recommendation should the CHRO immediately provide to the president regarding the use of U.S. college sports analogies?

A global organization headquartered in the U.S., known for its fair and equitable culture, has grown organically over time, and the configuration of the South American business has been established country by country. Each country has been viewed as a discrete business entity. A strategic decision has been made to grow the South American business through acquisition, with a goal of increasing the size of the organizational footprint across the region.

To prepare for the acquisition, the organization reviews all the country-specific HR policies, practices, and programs. In the course of the review, HR identifies a significant disparity in the compensation structure for the CEO of the Brazilian business, who is the only female. The portfolio and bottom-line business responsibilities are similar country to country. The education and background of the five CEOs from the region are also very similar. There have been compensation adjustments along the way in acknowledgment of the growth of the business and to align with the markets in Brazil as well as in recognition of the female CEO's performance. However, looking across the South American countries involved, HR clearly sees a disparity. Right now this CEO is part of the team looking at possible organizations to acquire and has high visibility across the region.

HR recognizes that Brazil is one of the global economic focus areas and that this CEO is perceived by the global heads of the business as not only key to the acquisition strategy but to the ongoing success of the entire business.

How should HR implement the organizational changes needed and reduce resistance from South American business heads?

The chief human resources officer (CHRO) at a publicly traded company is well-liked and respected. Direct reports consistently report satisfaction with the CHRO's leadership and voluntary investment in their professional development. A favorite activity among the direct reports is the long-standing monthly coaching sessions with the CHRO at an off-site coffee shop. The CHRO pays for coffee and food during the coaching sessions and also purchases extra food items and coffee to bring back to the HR office. These meetings are conversational only and are linked to career planning and succession management.

A new HR director joined the HR team 45 days ago to train as the CHRO's successor. During their first one-on-one coaching session, the HR director finds it easy to confide in the CHRO and quickly establishes trust. The HR director is impressed by the CHRO's insistence on paying for their coffee and food items. The HR director later discovers that the CHRO expenses the cost of food and drink to HR's cost center while receiving customer incentive rewards from the store that can be used to obtain free coffee. Having just completed the company's code of conduct and ethics training, the HR director believes that this practice represents a conflict of interest.

What should the HR director do to ensure that the company's code of conduct policy is adhered to consistently by all company employees?