SHRM-CP Study Guide

For /r/humanresources
 Table of contents:

1. Introduction
1.1. SHRM Body of Competency & Knowledge

2. US Laws and Regulations

3. People
3.1. HR Strategic Planning
3.2. Talent Acquisition
3.3. Employee Engagement and Retention
3.4. Learning and Development
3.5. Total Rewards

4. Organization

5. Workplace

6. Behavioral Competencies
Section 1 – Introduction, and the SHRM Body of Competency & Knowledge

This study guide is my interpretation of the most important and relevant information related to the
SHRM-CP test, it is not meant to be a complete guide that covers all areas of the SHRM-CP, and probably
shouldn’t be your only study source. A lot of this guide is derivative of the book “SHRM-CP/SHRM-SCP
Certification All-in-One Exam Guide” by William H. Truesdell; Dory Willer; William D. Kelly, which I
personally believe to be one of the best guides for the SHRM-CP test. I would definitely recommend
getting that book if you want a more comprehensive guide to work with. They’re not paying me to
endorse them but I attribute much of my success on the SHRM-CP to that book.

I intend for this to be a collaborative document, so if there’s anything important that I missed, please
feel free to add comments or shoot me a pm on Reddit (/u/andypizzle). I’ll try to check on this every
couple of days during the Winter 2019 testing window.

1.1 SHRM Body of Competency and Knowledge

The SHRM BoCK is basically a roadmap for the SHRM credentials. It outlines the HR-related areas that
should be covered, but doesn’t really go into detail on them.
If the SHRM-CP test was a pizza, the BoCK would be like a list of all the toppings you could put on the
pizza. Think of leadership/motivation theories like cheeses; it’ll tell you about all the different types of
cheeses(theories), but won’t tell you the attributes of each cheese, or which cheese works best with
different types of toppings (people/situations). This is probably a horrible analogy but I’ll edit this
document again when I can come up with something better.

The SHRM BoCK is free to download on the official SHRM website.

https://www.shrm.org/certification/about/body-of-competency-and-knowledge/Pages/default.aspx
Section 2 – US Laws and Regulations
These are just the US laws and regulations that I felt were the most important/relevant to the test.
There are a bunch more that are covered in the guide mentioned in the introduction, but the ones listed
here should provide a good foundation.

Laws applying to companies with 1 or more employees:

● The Consumer Credit Protection Act (1968)

o Applies to companies with at least 1 employee
o Limits the amount of wages that can be garnished
▪ Creditors can only garnish up to 25% of your disposable wages (after
deductions)
● Deductions are things such as group health insurance, federal tax
withholding, etc.
▪ Child support: Up to 50% garnishment if you have dependents, 60% if you don’t

▪ Student loans: Up to 15%

▪ Back taxes: Pretty high, employer gives you minimum, the rest go to IRS
o Employers cannot retaliate unless you have more than 1 garnishment.
o Protections decrease once you have 2 or more garnishments

● Davis Bacon Act

o Contractors/subcontractors have to pay prevailing wages to their laborers/mechanics

● Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)

o Protects employees covered by a pension plan from losses in benefits due to job
changes, plant closings, bankruptcies, or mismanagement

● The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

○ Individuals who leave/lose their jobs can obtain health coverage even if they or
someone in their family has a serious illness/injury or is pregnant
○ Provides privacy requirements related to medical records
○ Limits exclusions for preexisting conditions and guarantees renewability of health
coverage to employers and employees

● Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

o Mainly related to how people are paid (Minimum wage, overtime)
o Helps determine whether a job is exempt or nonexempt from overtime pay
o Requires employers to keep a record of employee information
▪ How much they are paid, as well as basic identifying information
o Overtime calculation (1.5x normal pay rate, for all hours worked over 40)
Determining whether a job is exempt or nonexempt under FLSA:

Exempt Status:
● Five main types: Executive, Administrative, Professional, Computer Systems, Outside Sales

Exempt and Nonexempt Employees:

Exempt: Excluded from overtime requirements of the law
Nonexempt: Are not excluded from the overtime requirements of the law and are entitled to overtime.

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Exemptions:

An exempt employee must meet three requirements, referred to as white-collar exemptions:
● Minimum salary

● Paid on a salary basis without improper deductions

● Perform exempt duties

Primary Duty Issue:

A primary duty is the main or most important duty and is an important part of exemption. Thus,
employees who spend more than 50 percent of their time performing a specific duty will generally
satisfy the primary duty requirement.
● The lower the percentage, the greater the legal risk if challenged

Executive Exemption
● Have a primary duty of managing an enterprise, department, or subdivision

● Have the authority of the employer to hire and fire

● Direct the work of at least two full-time employees or their equivalent

● Affect promotion decisions

Administrative Exemption:
● Requires performance of office or non-manual work directly related to the management or
general business operations of the employer or the employer’s customers
● Includes the exercise of discretion and independent judgement related to “matters of
significance.”

Professional Exemptions:
● Learned Professionals
o Requires advanced knowledge in a field of science or learning that is acquired by
prolonged instruction
 o Work is intellectual in nature and requires exercise of discretion and judgement
● Creative Professionals
o Must meet minimum salary requirements
o Perform work that requires invention, imagination, originality, or talent
o Perform in a recognized field of creative or artistic endeavor.

Highly Compensated Exemption:

● Make an annual salary of $100,000 or more that includes at least $455 per week paid on a salary
or fee basis
● Perform one of the duties of an exempt executive, administrative, or professional employee.

Computer Employees
● Must meet the salary minimum with a salary of $455 per week or $27.63 per hour

● Employee’s pay cannot be subject to deductions inconsistent with the salary basis requirement

● Primary duties must fall into one of four categories:

o Application of systems analysis techniques and procedures
o Design, development, documentation, etc of computer systems
o Design, documentation, testing of computer programs related to machine operating
systems.
o A combination of these duties

Outside Sales:
To qualify for the outside sales exemption, an employee must:
● Have a primary duty involving making sales or obtaining orders and contracts

● Be customarily and regularly engaged away from the employer’s place of business

● Outside sales employees are not subject to the minimum salary requirements of other
exemptions

Improper Deductions
Employers who make improper deductions will lose the exemption (And thus have to pay overtime) for
all employees in the same job classification working under the individuals responsible for the improper
deductions during the time period the deductions were made if they did not intend to pay on a salary
basis.
Examples of impermissible deductions:
● Absences resulting from the operational requirements of the employer

● Deductions for illness in less than full-day increments

Examples of permissible deductions:

● Employee performed no work in an entire workweek

● Employee is absent from work because of personal issues excluding sickness or any form of
disability
● Disciplinary suspensions of one or more full days
Safe Harbor:
A “safe harbor” provision prevents an employer from losing an overtime exemption for improper pay
deductions – regardless of the reason for the improper deductions, where:
● The employer has a clearly communicated policy prohibiting improper pay deductions

● Employees are reimbursed for any improper deductions

● The company makes a good-faith effort to comply in the future

● E.g: Employee has a full day of pay deducted because he/she was sick. It was later discovered
that he/she worked for 2 hours before taking the rest of the day off. As long as the employer
reimburses the employee in a timely manner, overtime exemption will not be lost
o If any work is performed in a day, no deductions from salary are allowed

FSLA Basic Overtime Provisions:

● Sets rate of overtime pay (1.5 times regular pay (which includes base pay, shift premiums,
production bonuses) after 40 hours worked)
● Requires overtime on time worked, not time compensated (sick pay, jury duty pay, holiday pay,
vacation pay, etc)
● Sets workweek as any fixed, recurring period of 168 hours (7 days * 24 hours)

Compensatory Time
● Overtime usually must be paid in cash

● Public-sector employers may grant compensatory time off.

o Does not apply to nonexempt private sector employees
● Public employees can accumulate “comp time”
o Police/Firefighters: 480 hours
o Public employees: 240 hours

FLSA Child Labor Provisions

Restricts hours and conditions of employment for minors

Under age 14:

● Prohibited from most nonfarm work

● May be employed by parents

● Certain jobs permitted (e.g: actors, newspaper carriers)

Age 14-15:
● During school hours: 3 hours/day

● During school vacation: 8 hours/day

● Hours restricted

Age 16-17:
● Prohibited from hazardous jobs

● No other restrictions

Laws applying to companies with 1 or more employees (Continued):

● Labor Management Relations Act, or Taft Hartley Act (LMRA)

o Helps employers
o Prohibits unfair labor practices by unions and outlaws closed shops, where union
membership is required in order to get and keep a job.

● National Labor Relations Act, Or Wagner Act (NLRA)

○ Helps unions
o Provides employees the right to form unions and negotiate wage and hour issues with
employers
o Grants employees the right to organize, join unions, and engage in collective bargaining
and other “concerted activities”
o Protects against unfair labor practices by employers

● Landrum-Griffin Act
o Helps employees in unions
o Protects the rights of union members from corrupt or discriminatory labor unions, and
applies to all labor organizations
o Taft-Hartley and Landrum Griffin both aim to protect individuals from unions.
▪ Both have people names in them

▪ Both kind of start with L

● Norris-LaGuardia Act
o Prohibits yellow-dog contracts
 ▪ Agreements where employees promise employers that they would not join
unions
o Tip: Chuck Norris and his Yellow Dog. Chuck Norris owns his yellow dog and tells him
what he can’t and can’t do

● Sherman Anti-Trust Act

o Prohibits attempts to restrict competition or fix prices
o Prohibits restraint of trade

● Wagner-Peyser Act
o Assists the unemployed
o Provides job seekers with assistance in their job search, and recruitment services for
employers
Laws applying to companies with 15 or more employees:

● Americans with Disabilities Act

o Employers are required to provide job accommodations for qualified individuals
▪ E.g: An accountant with diabetes requires a specific meal schedule, he is fully
capable of doing his accounting job. The employer should allow him to have a
different meal schedule
o Job accommodations: If there is no request for accommodation, no action is required by
the employer.
o Prohibits employers from inviting job applicants to identify their disability status prior to
receiving a job offer
o An employer is not required to make an accommodation if it would impose an “undue
hardship” on the operation of the employer’s business

● Civil Rights Act (Title VII)

o Relates to employment discrimination and cites six protected classes
▪ Race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation/gender identity

● Tip: Remember that the Civil Rights Act does not protect discrimination
against age or disability
▪ Age discrimination is covered under ADEA (20 or more employees)

▪ Disability discrimination is covered under ADA

▪ As of 06/15/2020, the Civil Rights Act applies to sexual orientation and gender
identity

● Drug Free Workplace Act

o Only applies to federal contractors and all organizations receiving grants from the
federal government

● Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act

o Prohibits employers from using genetic information to make employment decisions
● Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
o Clock will begin running anew each time an illegal act of discrimination is experienced by
an employee
o Statute of limitations for filing an equal pay lawsuit prior to the LLFPA was 180 days
o New statute of limitations for filing a claim under the Fair Pay Act with the EEOC is two
years from the time the discriminatory paycheck was received
o E.g: Jill makes less money than John even though they do the same job and were hired
at the same time. John and Jill are paid every week.
▪ Jill takes home a smaller paycheck every week compared to John because of
wage discrimination. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act makes it so that the 180-
day statute of limitations gets reset whenever Jill takes home a smaller
paycheck than John, instead of during the first event of wage discrimination
(The first check).
▪ Before the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, Jill would not have been able to file an
equal pay lawsuit if she found out about the wage discrimination after already
working 180 days at the company.
Laws applying to companies with 20 or more employees:

● Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)

o Prohibits discrimination for employees 40 years old or older

● COBRA
o Requires employers to offer terminating employees the opportunity to continue their
health plan coverage after they leave the company or no longer qualify for benefits
▪ Cost must be at group rates; employer can add administrative service charge
(max of 2%)
o Update general and qualifying event notices
o Provide notice within 90 days of employee leaving
o Establish reasonable notification procedures and communicate them to all employees
o Provide a notice of unavailability of continuation of coverage within 14 days of the date
you are informed of the qualifying event
o Notify individuals whose coverage ends before the maximum continuous coverage
period allowed

● COBRA (Additional info)

o Provides group medical coverage after a qualifying event
o Type of event determines the length of coverage, generally 18-39 months.
o Employer can charge the actual cost + a 2% administrative fee
o Federal law does not require employers to provide healthcare benefits
o Employers must offer COBRA coverage if it does provide healthcare benefits and
employs more than 20 people.
o Employer does not have to offer COBRA coverage in the event of termination due to
gross misconduct
Laws applying to companies with 50 or more employees:

● Affirmative Action:
o Federal contractors are required to have an AA program
▪ Equal employment opportunity and establish outreach programs for minorities
and women

● Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

o 50 or more employees
o Applies to all public schools and agencies, regardless of size
o Provides leaves lasting up to 12 weeks in a 12-month period
▪ Unpaid, unless employer has its own policy
o To qualify, employees must have been employed for at least 12 months, and have at
least 1250 hours of service during the 12-month period
o Covers childbirth/adoption, care for ill child/spouse/parent, care for employee’s own
serious illness
o Employee is guaranteed return to work on the same job, same pay, under the same
conditions as prior to the leave of absence

● Affordable Care Act

o Employers must provide full-time employees with minimum health insurance coverage
(or face a fine of $2000 per employee)
o Employers with fewer than 25 employees will receive a tax credit if they provide health
insurance to their workers

Laws applying to companies with 100 or more employees:

● Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN)

o 100 or more full time employees at a single facility
o Mass Layoff – at least 500 employees laid off from workforce of 500 or more; or when at
least 33 percent of the workforce are going to be laid off where there is a total of 50 to
499 workers before the layoff
o Requires 60 days advance notice to employees of plant closing or mass layoffs
▪ Any employment loss of 50 or more people, excluding part time workers, is
considered a trigger event to activate the requirements
Section 3 – People

Functional Areas:
1. HR Strategic Planning
2. Talent Acquisition
3. Employee Engagement and Retention
4. Learning and Development (Motivation/Leadership Theories)
5. Total Rewards

3.1 HR Strategic Planning

Key Concepts:
● Approaches to project management (Six Sigma, TQM)

● Organizational mission/vision/values

● Project planning (Critical path, Gantt charts)

● Strategic planning (PESTLE, SWOT)

Systems Theory
Systems theory is widely applied in organizational development interventions and is essential to the
quality movement. A system is composed of interacting parts that work together to achieve an
objective. A system is intended to absorb inputs, process them, and produce outputs.

Eli Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints:

● Focused on identifying constraints and eliminating them, thus resulting in continuous
improvement
● Every organization faces constraints

● The greatest constraints come from policies and not from physical entities such as resources or
materials
● TOC uses five steps to concentrate improvement effects on the components most capable of
producing the most positive impact on a system

Six Sigma:
● Data-driven methodology for eliminating defects

● A process must not produce more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities
Example: A hospital system studied variations and made improvements in patient care practices, patient
costs, and hospital utilization. Other areas of focus were billing errors, excess inventory, excess
overtime, and employee turnover.
Total Quality Management (TQM):
TQM is a strategic management system for achieving customer satisfaction that involves all managers
and employees, and uses quantitative methods to continuously improve an organization’s processes.
● Key word is continuous improvement. It highlights the importance of organizational learning.

Mission Statement: Specifies quantifiable activities and the course that management has charted for
the future.
● Involves an actual plan
Vision statement: Provides a guiding image of the future that the organization wishes to reach
Values statement: Beliefs that are important to an organization, that dictate employee behavior

Gantt Chart:
A Gantt chart is a graphical depiction of a project schedule. It’s a type of bar chart that shows the start
and finish dates of several elements of a project that includes resources, milestones, tasks, and
dependencies.
● Mainly used in project management
Pert Chart:
A

PERT chart is a project management tool that provides a graphical representation of a project’s timeline.
It is a visual representation of a series of events that must occur within a project’s timeline.
● It uses circles or rectangles called nodes to represent project events or milestones. These nodes
are linked by vectors or lines that represent various tasks.
● A PERT chart allows managers to evaluate the time and resources necessary to manage a
project.
● The use of a PERT chart is highly subjective, and its success depends on the management’s
experience. These charts can include unreliable data or unreasonable estimations for cost or
time for this reason.
● Considered preferable to Gantt charts, because they identify task dependencies.
PESTEL Analysis:
Method of environmental scanning – Used to gather data typically before conducting a business venture
such as opening another branch. Referred to just PEST most of the time.
● Political – Government policy, political stability, labor laws

● Economic – Economic growth, interest rates

● Social – Beliefs and attitudes of the population (career attitudes, age distribution, etc.)

● Technological – Population’s access to smartphones, access to high speed internet

● Environmental – Pollution targets, availability of ethically sourced materials

● Legal – Consumer rights, product labeling, product safety (Similar to political)

SWOT Analysis:
● Strengths of the organization (internal)

● Weaknesses of the organization (internal)

● Opportunities (external)
o E.g: Emerging need for your products
● Threats (external)
o E.g: Changing regulations

3.2 Talent Acquisition:

Key Concepts:
● Job Analysis and Job Documentation

● Quality metrics

● Interview Biases

Job Description: A series of statements describing the role, responsibility, duties, and scope of a
particular job
● Summarizes the most important features of a job

● Describes the work that details the required tasks, KSA, responsibilities, and reporting structure

● Include the physical requirements of the job for ADA considerations

● Include duties that support exempt status
Job Analysis: Determining the level of responsibility embedded in the job and how it impacts the overall
organization

Job Analysis (The KSA’s)

● Knowledge: The information necessary to perform a task

● Skills: Level of competency or proficiency

● Abilities: Traits or capabilities necessary

Job Analysis Methods:

● Observation: Works best for short-cycle jobs in production

● Interview: Good for professional jobs

● Open-ended questionnaire: Good when a large number of jobs must be analyzed and there are
insufficient resources to do it.
● Highly-structured questionnaire: Defines job with a relatively objective approach, which also
enables analysis to be performed using computer models

Essential Job Functions:

● Fundamental job-related duties necessary to the position

● Essential functions are distinguished from nonessential or marginal functions that are part of the
job but are incidental to the purpose and nature of the job

Job Analysis Outcomes:

● Job description: Written description and job requirements (title and duties)

● Job specification: Written statements of the necessary job qualifications (education and
experience)

Job Evaluation: A systemic determination of the relative worth of jobs within the organization and is
concerned with the value of a job to the organization. The process establishes a relative worth of jobs by
establishing a hierarchy of jobs.
● Follows job analysis, which focuses on job description and specification

● Supports the need for the total rewards system to further the organization’s strategic objectives
and is intertwined with the organization’s concern for pay equity.

Job Competencies:
 ● These represent the knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal characteristics that work together
to produce outstanding performance, they are the critical success factors needed to perform in
a job or functional area.

Job Specifications:
● Qualifications necessary for an incumbent to be able to perform the job

● Include experience, training, education, licenses, and certification required

● Can be a separate section of the job description or a separate document

● Should reflect what is necessary for satisfactory performance, not what the ideal candidate
should have.
Internal Workforce Planning:

Staffing:
● Identifies human capital needs

● provides qualified individuals for jobs in the organization

Workforce Planning:
● Organization analyses its workforce and prepares for future needs.

● Forecasts future conditions and identifies gaps between current and future staff

Staffing Needs Analysis Process:

● Supply Analysis

● Demand Analysis

● Budget Analysis

● Strategic Analysis

Trend and Ratio Analysis:

The use of statistics to determine whether relationships exist between two variables

Trend analysis:
Plots the number of employees for the last six years and projects the trend out for two more years.

Organizational Approach to International Business

● Ethnocentric: Headquarters maintains tight control over international operations

● Polycentric: Each international operation is treated as a distinct national entity

● Regio-centric: Operations are managed regionally

● Geocentric: Organization is viewed as a single international business rather than a collection of

individual headquarters-country and international operations
Reliability: Ability of an instrument to measure with a high degree of consistency

Validity: Degree to which inferences made from tests are correct and accurate

Content validity: Degree to which a test measures knowledge, skills, and abilities that are part of the
job.
● Least sophisticated type of validity to assess.

● Used primarily to evaluate job knowledge and skill

● Not appropriate for evaluating the ability to learn new skills

Construct Validity: Degree to which a selection device measures a theoretical construct or trait. Typical
constructs are intelligence, mechanical comprehension, or personality traits (e.g: anxiety)
● E.g: Using a heart-rate monitor during a flight simulator to gauge anxiety during a flight, when
evaluating potential pilots.

Criterion-related Validity: Correlation of test results to job performance

● Concurrent

● Predictive

Concurrent Validity:
● Test employees on a key attribute 🡪 measure employee’s job performance 🡪 then correlate the
two things

Predictive Validity:
● Measure all applicants on attribute 🡪 Hire and wait for some period 🡪 Measure performance of
newly hired employees.

Errors in Performance Appraisal:

Halo effect: When an employee is extremely competent in one area and therefore is rated high in all
categories

Horn effect: When one weakness results in an overall low rating

Recency: Occurs when an appraiser gives more weight to recent occurrences and discounts the
employee’s earlier performance
Primacy: Occurs when an appraiser gives more weight to the employee’s earlier performance and
discounts recent occurrences

Strictness: When appraisers believe that standards are too low and they inflate the standards in an
effort to make the standards more meaningful in their eyes
3.3 Employee Engagement & Retention
Cost Leadership Strategy is used to increase efficiencies and reduce production costs below the industry
average or their closest competitor. To have the lowest priced good(s).
● E.g: Walmart as opposed to Target. Walmart is the cost leader.

● Most appropriate in a stable business environment. Low-cost firms’ emphasis on efficiency

makes it difficult to change quickly if needed.

Unit Labor Cost: Average cost of workers divided by their average levels of output
● Used to measure the average cost of labor per unit of output.

Fill Rate: The decision rule for which proportion of openings in a particular job will be covered by
internal promotions versus new hires

Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions:

Power Distance: The extent to which inequality and power are tolerated.
● E.g: China has high power distance

● Low power distance indicates that a culture encourages organizational structures that are flat,
decentralized decision-making responsibility, and places emphasis on power distribution

Individualism vs Collectivism: The degree to which societies are integrated into groups

Uncertainty Avoidance Index: The extent to which uncertainty and ambiguity are tolerated.
 ● High uncertainty avoidance index indicates a low tolerance for uncertainty, ambiguity, and risk-
taking.

Masculinity vs Femininity: Considers the preference of society for achievement, attitude towards
sexuality equality, behavior, etc.

Long-term vs Short-term: The extent to how a society views its time horizon.
● Long-term focuses on the future and involves delaying short-term success or gratification in
order to achieve long-term success. Emphasis on persistence, perseverance, and long-term
growth
● Short-term focuses on the near future, involves delivering short-term success or gratification
and places a stronger emphasis on the present than the future.

Indulgence vs Restraint: The extent and tendency for a society to fulfill its desires.

Balanced Scorecard:
The balanced scorecard is a management system. It is a way of looking at an organization that focuses
on big-picture strategic goals.
● Consists of: Financial, Learning and growth, Customers, and Internal Business Processes

● Aligns business function measures with organizational strategies

Learning and Growth:

Looks at overall corporate culture. Is it easy for employees to collaborate and share knowledge? Does
everyone have access to training opportunities?

Internal Business Processes:

About how smoothly the business is running. About reducing waste, speeding things up, doing more
with less. Are you providing what your customers with what they actually want? What should you be
best at?

Customer:
Focuses on the people who buy the products. Are you winning new business? How are you viewed in
your industry compared to competitors?

Financial:
The majority focus of the balanced scorecard. How do you look to shareholders? Is the business making
money? How is the financial health of the company?
Step 1: Plan the process
● Confirm the scope of the project and establish a project timeline

● Outline a project communication approach

● Determine organizational participation

● Confirm expected project deliverables

Step 2: Design the scorecard

● Focus on specific measures that support business strategy

● Identify critical success factors for implementation

● Develop an action plan to support implementation

● Collect and prepare data

Step 3: Employ and refine measures

● Employ scorecard

● Monitor performance gaps

● Refine measures of scorecard

 ● Identify implementation issues
Attrition: Refers to the phenomenon of employees leaving the company. It is the normal life cycle of
employment. Employees are not leaving because they have a problem with the company, it is a matter

of life unfolding. Attrition is higher in companies located in transient cities and in organizations that hire
older employees as a matter of practice.

Turnover: Applies to employees who leave the company due to termination, taking a better job, or
because they felt there was no room for growth. A high turnover rate typically means working
conditions are not optimal, pay is below market average, or staffers are not well trained.

Layoffs: Can be a temporary cessation of employment usually initiated because the company is having
financial problems.

Termination: A permanent end to employment that can happen for any reason, usually through poor
performance or policy violations.

Organizational Commitment: The bond employees experience with their organization. Broadly
speaking, employees who are committed to their organization generally feel a connection with their
organization, feel that they fit in, and feel they understand the goals of the organization.
● This is a significant contributor to organizational performance.
3.4 Learning and Development
This can get pretty detailed so I’m just going to cover the basic motivation/leadership theories and a few
other things

Principles of Motivation:
● All human behavior is caused. People have a reason for acting.

● All behavior is directed towards achieving a goal. Behavior is not random

● Each person is unique. No two people have exactly the same characteristics

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:

1. Physiological – Physical needs like food/water
2. Security – Shelter, feel free from threats
3. Social – The need to belong, social groups
4. Esteem – Training, recognition, high status
5. Self-Actualization – Opportunity for growth, problem solving, creativity

Herzberg’s two-factor Theory:

Unacceptable conditions in regards to hygiene factors will lead to job dissatisfaction. Posits that
employee satisfaction is achieved mainly through changes in job content.
● Consists of extrinsic hygiene factors, and intrinsic motivation factors

● Acceptable hygiene conditions will lead only to a state of satisfaction; they do not motivate, they
only satisfy.
● However, hygiene factor levels must be acceptable in order for the motivation factors to
become operative.
● Extrinsic Hygiene Factors: Pay, working conditions, coworkers

● Intrinsic Motivation Factors: Personal growth, achievement, recognition

McClelland’s Theory:
Based on studies showing that some people have an intense need to achieve while others do not. His
work identifies the characteristics of people with high needs of achievement.
High achievers:
● Set moderately difficult but potentially achievable goals

● Prefer to work on a problem rather than leave the outcome to chance

● Seem to be more concerned with personal achievement than with the rewards of success

● Seek situations in which they get concrete feedback on how well they are doing with regards to
their work
McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y
Represents two types of management styles.
● Theory X managers believe that people inherently dislike work and will try to avoid it.
o Authoritative style of management
● Theory Y managers believe that employees dislike rigid controls and inherently want to
accomplish something.
o Participative style of management

Vroom’s Expectancy Theory

● Basically, people will be motivated to exert effort towards a goal if they believe that there is a
favorable outcome
o Expectancy – A person’s belief that a chance exists that a certain effort will lead to a
particular level of performance, which, in turn, will lead to certain outcomes
▪ E.g: If I make more calls, I’ll increase my sales numbers, and be rewarded with a
new company vehicle
o Instrumentality – A person’s belief that a specific action leads to a specific outcome
▪ E.g: If I increase my sales numbers by 10%, i’ll be rewarded with a new company
vehicle
o Valence – The strength of an individual’s desire for a particular outcome.
▪ E.g: I REALLY want a new company vehicle

● Tension exists when similar inputs do not equal similar outcomes. Employees may adjust their
behavior or quit their jobs.
● Tip: Vroom → Cars go vroom → Company vehicle example

Leadership Theories:

● Leadership requires alignment to the organization’s vision and mission

o Leaders influence others toward the achievement of goals, act as change agents, serve
by example, and develop other leaders
o Produces useful change
o By itself never keeps an operation on time and on budget year after year
o Establishes direction
o Aligns people
o Motivates and inspires
 ● Management
o Can create orderly results that keep something working efficiently
o By itself never creates significant, useful change
o Planning, budgeting, organizing, staffing, controlling and problem solving
o Is about coping with day-to-day operations.
o Brings order and consistency to the organization
o Establishes systems and structures that get results

Obstacles to Leadership Development:

● Slowly developing crises (as opposed to explosive crises that seem to call forth leadership
talents)
● Suppressive effects of large and complex organizations

● Prestige of specialist professional training

● Educational system rewards that value individual performance over teamwork

● Negative publicity often associated with high visibility

Trait Theories of Leadership
● Early approaches focused on the qualities of leaders and held that leaders were born not made

● The “Great Person” theory of leadership

● Five personal traits of effective leaders

o Intelligence
o Dominance
o Self-confidence
o High levels of energy and activity
o Task-relevant knowledge

Behavioral Dimensions of Leadership:

The concept that how a person behaves determines that person’s leadership effectiveness

Consideration (Employee-centered)
● Behavior aimed at meeting the social and emotional needs of groups and individuals

● Helping group members and explaining decisions

Initiating Structure (Job-centered)

● Behavior aimed at careful supervision of work methods and performance levels
 ● Clarifying roles and setting goals

Blake Mouton’s Theory (Behavioral)

● Tip: Mouton sounds like mutton, which only fancy people eat. Fancy people hang out at country
clubs (Blake Mouton Theory = Theory with the country club)

Authoritarian Managers: High Production, Low People

● Task-oriented, very strong on schedules

● Tend not to foster collaboration

Team Leaders: High Production, High People

● Lead by positive example, fosters a team
environment
● Encourages individual and team development

Country Club Managers: Low Production, High People

● Use rewards to encourage team members

● Tend to avoid punitive actions

Impoverished Managers: Low Production, Low People

● “Delegate and disappear” management style

● Detach themselves, often creating power struggles

Situational Leadership:
Emphasizes that leadership style should vary according to the situation or the employees involved.
Situational leadership has 2 components:

Task Behavior: Refers to the extent to which leaders are likely to organize and define the roles and
activities of members of the group

Relationship Behavior: Refers to the extent to which leaders are likely to maintain personal
relationships with members of the group

Hersey – Blanchard’s Theory (Situational)

The Hersey-Blanchard theory is distinctive because it does not depict an ideal mode of behavior that is
appropriate for all situations. It suggests that leadership style should be matched to the maturity of the
employees.
● Tip: Hersey sounds like Hershey’s. The Hersey-Blanchard model looks kind of like a Hershey’s
kiss

Directive: Degree of one-way communication

Supportive: Degree of two-way communication

As the employee’s maturity increases, leadership should become more relationship-motivated than
task-motivated. Leadership consists of four tasks based on the employee’s maturity:

1. Directing employees what to do (for employees who need the most guidance)

2. Coaching/Selling ideas to employees

3. Supporting employees

4. Delegating to employees (for employees who need the least guidance)

Fiedler’s Contingency Theory (Situational)
States that group performance is dependent upon the interaction between leadership style and
situational favorableness. Success is determined by three factors:

● Leadership-member relations: The degree of trust that followers have in their leaders.

● Task structure: The extent to which tasks are defined

● Position power: The degree of power and influence a leader has over subordinates
Leaders should change the factors rather than changing their style.
Other Leadership Styles:

Transactional leadership offers the promise of reward or threat of discipline, depending upon followers’
performance of measurable tasks.
● Looks for deviation from rules

● Intervenes when standards are not met

● Abdicates responsibility and avoids making decisions

Transformational leadership inspires and simulates followers to join together in a mutually satisfying
achievement of genuine consequence.
● Provides vision and sense of mission

● Communicates high expectations

● Promotes intelligence and problem solving

● Gives personal attention and coaches

Performance Management:
● The process of maintaining or improving employee job performance through the use of
performance assessment tools, coaching, and counseling as well as providing continuous
feedback
● The performance review process is the opportunity for the employee and the manager to
discuss development goals and jointly create a plan for achieving those goals.

Performance Management Standards:

In setting and communicating performance standards, the HR professional needs to consider:
● Behaviors – What does the organization want employees to do

● Results - What does the organization want the employees to produce?

Skinner’s Behavioral Reinforcement Theory:

Individual Performance Appraisals

1. Observe employees performing the job

2. Identify and record strengths and areas for improvement
3. Rate employee on progress towards previously stated objectives
4. Provide reinforcing and corrective feedback on employee performance
5. Set goals on performance improvement

Special Methods:

Management by Objectives (MBO): Employees help set their objectives defining what they intend to
achieve. Objectives are based on the overall organizational goals

Behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS): Designed to combat the problems of category ratings by
describing examples of desirable and undesirable behavior. Examples are then measured against a scale
of performance levels. Works best when many employees are performing the same task. Requires
extensive time and energy to develop and maintain.

Legal Performance Appraisals:

Performance appraisal methods must be:
● Valid and free from discrimination

● Based on formal evaluation criteria

● Based on personal knowledge and interaction with employees

● Designed to prevent one manager from influence an employee’s career

● Based on equitable treatment of all employees

Appraisal Feedback Guidelines:
● Describe the behavior, don’t judge it.

● Assume an attitude of helpfulness

● Empathize and listen actively

● Give specific examples

Documentation Guidelines
● Document as situations happen

● Keep notes on all employees, not just a few

● Use objective criteria

● Support job-related observations with facts, but avoid conclusions

● Focus on deficiencies, not causes

● Remember that others will read your document.

Employee Development Programs

Job Rotation – The movement between different jobs

Job Enlargement – Occurs when the employee is doing different tasks within the same job. Adding more
tasks gives employees a variety of responsibilities that require the same level of skill
Job Enrichment – Increases the depth of a job by adding responsibilities such as planning, organizing,
controlling, and evaluation.

Dual-Ladder Programs
Identify meaningful career paths for people who are not interested in traditional management roles.
Technical experts may or may not be well-suited for future management and executive leadership roles.
The employee can earn as much as they would in a management position.

Succession and Replacement Planning

Succession planning is a talent management strategy to help identify and foster the development of
high-potential employees. This activity identifies employees who may be considered ready for future
higher-level positions as they become available.
● Fast-track programs speed up the development of potential leaders

Succession:
 ● Long term; 12-36 months

● Focuses on leadership talent for the future

● Develops leaders capable of filling multiple assignments

Replacement:
● Short-term; 0-12 months

● Focuses on immediate needs

● Develops back-up staff for key positions.

3.5 Total Rewards:
Consists of everything that total compensation covers and much more
● Base pay, bonuses, equity, medical, dental, vision, and other benefits

Types of Compensation:
Total Compensation = Direct compensation (Pay systems) + Indirect compensation (Benefit and
recognition programs

Objectives of a Total Rewards System

● Aligned with mission and strategy

● Compatible with corporate culture

● Appropriate for the workforce

● Externally equitable

● Internally equitable

● Effective in recruiting and retaining employees

Types of Compensation Systems:

● Entitlement-orientated: Believes that employees are entitled to benefits such as healthcare as a
condition of employment. There is less emphasis on employee contributions, initiative, and
responsibility and more emphasis on the profitability of the organization as a whole.
● Contribution-oriented: Sees the employees as contributors. Compensation programs are more
performance-driven. Emphasis on performance-based pay, incentives, and shared responsibility
for benefits.

Workforce Vs. Rewards Program

Rewards program must fit the workforce
● Packages for nonunion employees often focus more on salary combined with direct and indirect
incentives based on employee effort
● Packages for union employees focus more on salary and benefits as outlined by the union
contract
● Conducting surveys is one way to keep in touch with employee needs and preferences

External Equity: Compares an organization to other organizations that share its industry, occupation,
and location. Defines a company’s relevant labor market. Organization’s may decide to lag, match, or
lead the market.
Internal Equity: The perception that jobs within an organization are appropriately compensated. It
means that unique jobs are appropriately compensated by the organization as performance or job
differences result in corresponding differences in pay rates. As such, having internal equity helps the
employer:
● Meet employee’s needs for a fair wage and adequate benefits

● Recognize employee’s contributions to the organization

● Reward equal work with equal pay

● Not discriminate against protected classes

Section 4 – Organization
Quite a big chapter, but I feel like the crux of it revolves around organizational structures and
development

Different Types of Organizational Structures

Organizational structures define the hierarchy in an organization, and determine the way information
flows within it.

Functional: Traditional structure, includes divisions based upon specialty. Forms the well-known
hierarchy of senior management, marketing, finance, human resources, and operations.
● Centralized Structure

● Specialist staff, standardization, greater economies of scale.

● Lacks variety and job enrichment, greater bureaucracy

● Each specialist group answers to top management. Since each team works in silos, management
is expected to guide all departments into one unit.

Divisional: This structure groups individuals based on the products or projects they are undertaking. At
the top is the CEO, and after them is a hybrid of functional grouping: public relations, legal, finance,
global research, business development, and human resources
● Decentralized Structure

● Senior management time freed up, motivation through greater decision powers

● Lack of specialization, extra processing

● This style blends the expertise of many different skill sets.

Matrix: Combination of the functional and divisional structures. Companies are divided into
departments of specialization, and then within those units, they are separated further
Organizational Development:
This is the process used to enhance the effectiveness of an organization and the well-being of its
members through planned interventions
● OD initiatives occur on both a large and small scale

● Goals are to improve:

o Productivity (effectiveness and efficiency)
o Employee satisfaction with the quality of their work life
o The organization’s ability to revitalize and develop itself over time.
o Organizational processes and outputs

Organizational Development “Change Management” Initiatives

● Focus on changing the entire system

● Link to the organization’s strategic plan

● Use applied behavioral science

● Help organizations solve their own problems

● Important: The whole system must change, not just a few components of the system

OD Interventions:
OD interventions are appropriate when an organization:
● Experiences a merger or acquisition that introduces a culture that is not compatible.

● Experiences low trust, high turnover, or high stress

● Lacks the ability to manage conflict.

OD Intervention process:
● Diagnose the environment

● Develop an action plan

● Evaluate the results

● HR Roles: Change agent, evaluator

Sensitivity Training is a form of training with the goal of making people more aware of their own goals
as well as their prejudices, and more sensitive to others and to the dynamics of group interaction.
● Has been criticized for the emotional stress it creates for some participants.
Quality management requires employees to rethink what they do and become more involved in
workplace decisions.

Organizational citizenship is discretionary behavior that is not part of an employee’s formal job
requirements, but that promotes the effective functioning of the organization.
The Delphi Method:
The Delphi Method is a qualitative forecasting method. It is a structured way of getting a group to
examine an issue. Example below:
1. Group of 4 people tasked with forecasting next quarter sales, each asked to come up with own
reasoning in a report
2. Moderator collects the 4 reports, removes the names and gives them back to the group to
discuss.
3. Now the group has 4 “anonymous” viewpoints they can consider. This eliminates any personal
bias they might have towards other members, and focuses on the reports themselves.
4. Steps 1-3 are repeated until the group can come to a consensus.
Section 5 – Workplace
One of the “softer” sections in my opinion. Relates more to mindsets and ways of thinking. No real
definitions to study, it really just emphasizes the importance of diversity, inclusion and ethics. A good
understanding of labor laws will help this section click better.

Outsourcing: The transfer of some work to organizations outside the employer’s payroll. The vendor
may be across the street or across the country.
● Off-shoring: The transfer of some work to sources outside the United States.

● On-shoring (home-shoring): The relocation of business processes or production to a lower-cost

location inside the same country as the business.
● Near-shoring: Contracting part of the business processes or production to an external company
located in a country that is relatively close. For the United States, that could mean Mexico or
Canada.

Organizational Approach to International Business

● Ethnocentric: Headquarters maintains tight control over international operations

● Polycentric: Each international operation is treated as a distinct national entity

● Regio-centric: Operations are managed regionally

● Geocentric: Organization is viewed as a single international business rather than a collection of

individual headquarters-country and international operations

Unfair Labor Practice (ULP):

● The NLRA, or Wagner Act, prohibits employers from engaging in ULPs

● The LMRA, or Taft-Hartley Act, prohibits unions from engaging in ULPs

Collective Bargaining patterns:

● Pattern/Parallel bargaining: Union negotiates agreements similar to those existing in the
industry or region. Referred to as whipsawing
● Coalition/Multiple employer bargaining: Multiple employers, negotiating with one union

● Coordinated Bargaining: One employer, negotiating with multiple unions

Weingarten Rights: A union employee has the right to have another employee present during certain
investigatory interviews
● The person attending must be affiliated with the union that represents the employee, not an
attorney or relative.
Types of Contract Negotiations:

● Positional negotiation
o People are locked in positions
o Parties lose sight of underlying problems
o Emphasis on winning

● Principled negotiation
o Separates people from problem
o Focus on interests, not positions
o Invent options for mutual gain
o Insist on objective criteria

Collective Bargaining Subjects:

● Mandatory Subjects: Subjects that directly impact – wages, hours or working conditions. These
are subjects over which the parties must bargain if a proposal is made by either party. This does
not mean that the parties have to reach agreement on such proposals, but rather that they have
to engage in the process of bargaining in good faith over the subject.
o Overtime
o Seniority
o Vacation/holidays

● Illegal subjects (unlawful by statute): Subjects that cannot be legally bargained over by either
party. They are subjects that would violate the law and cannot be entered legally into a
collective bargaining agreement even if both parties agree to do so.
o Closed shops (a place of work where membership in a union is a condition for being
hired and for continued employment)
o Discriminatory hiring

● Permissive subjects (voluntary): Subjects not directly related to the work. The list can be
infinitely long. The parties may agree to bargain over these but are not required to by law and
can refuse to discuss them without fear of an unfair labor practice charge. It would also be a
violation to strike over a permissive subject.
o Benefits for retired union members
o Settlement for ULPs
o Neutrality agreements

Formal Grievance Procedure:

 1. Immediate supervisor
2. Intermediate supervisor
3. Higher-level management
4. Third party

Section 6 - Behavioral Competencies

Based on my understanding, behavioral competencies relate specifically to the Situational Judgement

questions of the SHRM-CP test, which make up about 50% of the exam. There really isn’t any new
information covered. Behavioral Competencies focus more on mindsets instead of technical
information. A lot of this section can be condensed down to “SHRM-Think”. Basically, pick the
answer/business decision that best supports the organization's strategy/vision, also any answer that
paints HR as a strategic component in an organization. SHRM's own vision is for HR to become more of a
strategic part of a business as opposed to an administrative part, so pick the answers that support that
vision.

Definitely approach this section last, after you have a good understanding of the technical competencies
(People, Organization, Workplace). Technical competencies are kind of like cooking ingredients. Simply
knowing the technical competencies is like knowing the characteristics of each ingredient, without
knowing their limitations, or what they work well with. Behavioral competencies represent the cooking
experience gained from actually using these ingredients. Instead of memorizing hundreds of recipes
(how to respond to each specific scenario), try to understand which flavors work well together (More
specifically, the flavors that SHRM thinks works well together, which is whatever best supports the
organization’s strategy). I hope that makes sense.

The correct response to most of the situational judgement questions will depend heavily on the context,
so a good understanding of SHRM-think will be your biggest asset.
Behavioral competencies are broken up into three clusters:

● Leadership Cluster
1. Leadership and Navigation
2. Ethical Practice

● Interpersonal Cluster
3. Relationship Management
4. Communication
5. Global and Cultural Effectiveness

● Business Cluster
6. Business Acumen
7. Consultation
8. Critical Evaluation

Overview:

These are things that HR people are expected to be able to say and do given any set of circumstances
they may face. Proper responses depend on experience, careful thought, and knowledge. It isn’t enough
to memorize facts.

What is important is how those facts can be blended with the situation to produce a proper response or
employee treatment. That is called situational awareness. HR professionals must be capable of working
with problems within their context. It isn’t enough to say, “You can’t use that written employment test.”

There needs to be an analysis of why the test was wanted by the hiring manager in the first place.
Situationally, there may be some valid alternative approaches to the real problem of identifying the
talent needed. Behavioral competencies are a critical part of an HR professional’s life.
Leadership Cluster

Behavioral Competency 1 – Leadership and Navigation:

“Leadership and Navigation is defined as the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics
(KSAOs) needed to navigate the organization and accomplish HR goals, to create a compelling vision and
mission for HR that aligns with the strategic direction and culture of the organization, to lead and
promote organizational change, to manage the implementation and execution of HR initiatives, and to
promote the role of HR as a key business partner.”

“Leadership and Navigation” Contains 4 sub-competencies:

● Navigating the organization: Working within the parameters of the organization’s hierarchy,
processes, systems, and policies

● Vision: Defining and supporting a coherent vision and long-term goals for HR that support the
strategic direction of the organization

● Managing HR initiatives: Executing the implementation and management of HR projects or

initiatives that support HR and organizational objectives

● Influence: Inspiring colleagues to understand and pursue the strategic vision and goals of HR
and the organization

Key Concepts:

● Leadership theories (e.g., situational leadership, transformational leadership, participative

leadership, inclusive leadership)

● People management techniques (e.g., directing, coaching, supporting, delegating)

● Motivation theories (e.g., goal-setting theory, expectancy theory, attribution theory, self-
determination theory)

● Influence and persuasion techniques (e.g., personal appeal, forming coalitions, leading by
examples, rational persuasion)

● Trust- and relationship-building techniques (e.g., emotional and social intelligence)

Summary:
Expertise in Leadership and Navigation enables HR professionals to keep their organizations focused on
its strategies and goals to lead the workforce talent by creating collaboration and fostering a vision with
influence, emotional intelligence, and motivation.
Behavioral Competency 2 – Ethical Practice
“Ethical Practice is defined as the ability to integrate core values, integrity, and accountability
throughout all organizational and business practices.”

“Ethical Practice” Contains 3 sub-competencies:

● Personal integrity: Demonstrating high levels of integrity in personal relationships and

behaviors

● Professional integrity: Demonstrating high levels of integrity in professional relationships and

behaviors

● Ethical agent: Cultivating the organization’s ethical environment and ensuring that policies and
practices reflect ethical values

Key Concepts:

• Ethical business principles and practices (e.g., transparency, confidentiality, conflicts of interest)

• Anonymity, confidentiality, and privacy principles and policies

• Codes of conduct

Summary:
This behavioral competency explores the ethical requirements for HR professionals. Ethics plays a part in
each segment of HR duties and responsibilities. If HR managers don’t demonstrate personal and
organizational integrity, employees are likely to also demonstrate absence of integrity. Transparency,
honesty, and confidentiality are key components of an effective ethics program. For some people, ethics
is simply doing the right thing in each circumstance. For others, ethics represents compliance with
professional standards of conduct.

Every day, an HR professional is likely to encounter one or more ethics dilemmas. How you react to
those problems will determine what your organizational culture really is, not what you claim it is.
Decision-making is integral to ethics requirements. It starts with the most senior executive and then
applies to each subordinate manager, supervisor, and employee.
Interpersonal Cluster

Behavioral Competency 3 – Relationship Management

“Relationship Management is defined as the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics
(KSAOs) needed to create and maintain a network of professional contacts within and outside of the
organization, to build and maintain relationships, to work as an effective member of a team, and to
manage conflict while supporting the organization”

“Relationship Management” Contains 5 sub-competencies:

● Networking Effectively: building a network of professional contacts both within and outside of
the organization

● Relationship building: Effectively building and maintaining relationships both within and outside
of the organization

● Teamwork: Participating as an effective team member that builds, promotes, and leads effective
teams

● Conflict management: Managing and resolving conflicts by identifying areas of common interest
among the parties in conflict

● Negotiation: Reaching mutually acceptable agreements with negotiating parties within and
outside of the organization

Key Concepts:

● Types of conflict (e.g., relationship, task, inter- and intra-organizational)

● Conflict-resolution styles (e.g., avoidance, competition, cooperation, conciliation)

● Conflict-resolution techniques (e.g., accommodate, avoid, collaborate)

● Negotiation, tactics, strategies, and styles (e.g., perspective taking, principled bargainer, auction,
interest-based bargaining)
Summary:
Establishing and maintaining relationships is critical to the HR mission and purpose in an organization.
Supporting stakeholders in reaching the strategic goals of the organization can make those
achievements less painful and more rewarding.
Behavioral Competency 4 – Communication
“Communication is defined as the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) needed
to effectively craft and deliver concise and informative communications, to listen to and address the
concerns of others, and to transfer and translate information from one level or unit of the organization
to another.”

“Communication” Contains 3 sub-competencies:

● Delivering messages: Developing and delivering to a variety of audiences’ communications that

are clear, persuasive, and appropriate to the topic and situation

● Exchanging organizational information: Effectively translating and communicating messages

among organizational levels of units

● Listening: Understanding information provided by others

Key Concepts:

● Elements of communication (e.g., source, sender, receiver, message feedback)

● General communication techniques (e.g., planning communications, active listening)

● Communication techniques for specialized situations (e.g., giving feedback, facilitating focus
groups, facilitating staff meetings)

● Communications media (e.g., phone, email, face-to-face, report, presentation, social media)

Summary:
This behavioral competency highlights the importance of and ability to effectively exchange and
communicate information, both oral and written, with stakeholders. When HR information is
communicated with clarity and effectiveness, the intended receivers better understand the value and
purpose of what is being communicated, be it policies, practices, decisions, or changes. This in turn can
have a positive effect with the audiences HR serves, both internal such as employee satisfaction and
external such as candidate attraction.
Behavioral Competency 5 – Global and Cultural Effectiveness
Global and Cultural Effectiveness is defined “as the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics
(KSAOs) needed to value and consider the perspectives and backgrounds of all parties, to interact with
others in a global context, and to promote a diverse and inclusive workplace.”

“In the context of today’s increasingly global workforce, HR professionals must be able to effectively and
respectfully interact with colleagues, customers, and clients of varying backgrounds and cultures.”

“Global and Cultural Effectiveness” Contains 3 sub-competencies:

● Operating in a diverse workplace: Demonstrating openness and tolerance when working with
people from different cultural traditions

● Operating in a global environment: Effectively managing globally influenced workplace

requirements to achieve organizational goals

● Advocating for a diverse and inclusive workplace: Designing, implementing, and promoting
organizational policies and practices to ensure diversity and inclusion in the workplace

Key Concepts:

● Cultural intelligence

● Cultural norms, values, and dimensions (e.g., Hall, Hofstede, Schein, Trompenaars models)

● Techniques for bridging individual differences and perceptions (e.g., barrier removal,
assimilation)

● Best practices of managing globally diverse workforces

● Interactions and conflicts of professional and cultural values

Summary:
It is important to consider the impact of global and cultural needs to organizations operating in other
countries. Differences in the speed of work and the way in which respect is shown and expected all play
a part in how we help our groups develop the common culture we want to have moving into the future.
Each culture has positive contributions to make, and through discussions, those contributions can be
discovered and highlighted.
Business Cluster

Behavioral Competency 6 – Business Acumen

Business Acumen is defined “as the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) needed
to understand the organization’s operations, functions, and external environment, and to apply business
tools and analyses that inform HR initiatives and operations consistent with the overall strategic
direction of the organization.”

“Business Acumen” Contains 3 sub-competencies:

● Business and competitive awareness: Understanding the organization’s operations, functions,

products and services, and the competitive, economic, social, and political environments in
which the organization operates

● Business analysis: Applying business metrics, principles, and technologies to inform and address
business needs

● Strategic alignment: Aligning HR strategy, communications, initiatives, and operations with the
organization’s strategic direction

Key Concepts:

● Business terms and concepts (e.g., return on investment [ROI])

● Analyzing and interpreting business documents (e.g., balance sheets, budgets, cash flow
statements, profit and loss statements)

● Elements of a business case

● Business intelligence techniques and tools (e.g., online analytical processing, advanced analytics,
business intelligence portals)

● Financial analysis and methods for assessing business health

Summary:
Assessing financial impacts of business proposals related to employee management is an important HR
contribution to executive discussions and proposal considerations. All HR programs should be assessed
periodically using business management tools, including profit and loss sheets and balance sheets. HR
professionals cannot have credibility with other executives unless they have this ability to analyze
programs using business considerations, business and competitive awareness, and an alignment of
strategies in HR with corporate strategies.
Behavioral Competency 7 – Consultation
Consultation is defined “as the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) needed to
work with organizational stakeholders in evaluating business challenges and identifying opportunities
for the design, implementation, and evaluation of change initiatives and to build ongoing support for HR
solutions that meet the changing needs of customers and the business.”

“Consultation” Contains 5 sub-competencies:

● Evaluating business challenges: Working with business partners and leaders to identify business
challenges and opportunities for HR solutions

● Designing HR solutions: Working with business partners and leaders to design HR solutions and
initiatives that meet the business needs

● Implementing and supporting HR solutions: Working with business partners and leaders to
implement and support HR solutions and initiatives

● Managing change: Leading and supporting the maintenance of or changes in strategy,

organization, and/or operations

● Interacting with customers: Providing high-quality customer service and contributing to a strong
customer service culture

Key Concepts:

• Organizational change management theories, models and processes (e.g., leadership buy-in, building
a case for change, engaging employees, communicating change, removing barriers)

• Consulting processes and models (e.g., discovery, analysis and solution, recommendation,
implementation), including the contributions of consulting to organizational systems and processes

• Effective consulting techniques (e.g., understanding organizational culture, understanding areas and
limits of one’s own expertise, setting reasonable expectations, avoiding overpromising)
• Key components of successful client interactions (e.g., listening, empathy, communication, follow-up)

Summary:
Collaborative interactions can be rewarding and satisfying when the impact is measured and found to
contribute to company goals. Providing advice and counsel to your clients is one of the biggest roles and
most important for HR professionals.
Behavioral Competency 8 – Critical Evaluation
HR professionals are now able to access vast amounts of data to help them in their decision-making. This
area of behavioral competency looks at the extent to which that information is gathered, assessed, and
used in the decision-making process.

“Critical Evaluation” Contains 4 sub-competencies:

● Data advocate: Understanding and promoting the importance and utility of data

● Data gathering: Understanding how to determine data utility and identifying and gathering data
to assist and inform with organizational decisions

● Data analysis: Analyzing data to evaluate HR initiatives and business challenges

● Evidence-based decision-making: Using the results of data analysis to inform and decide the
best course of action

Key Concepts:

● Survey and assessment tools (e.g., development, administration, validation of surveys and
assessments)

● Sources of data (e.g., surveys, interviews, focus groups)

● Basic concepts in statistics (e.g., descriptive statistics, correlation) and measurement (e.g.,
reliability, validity)

● Using data to support a business case (e.g., interpretation, visualization, graphical

representation)

Summary:
All HR professionals will find it necessary to incorporate critical evaluation into their jobs. Looking past
the obvious to what is actually driving people to do what they do is essential. Gathering data, assessing
that data, and using the information to make quality decisions is something all HR professionals should
be able to do. There is no more “shooting from the hip.” Conscious exploration of alternatives and
impact now drive the modern HR function.
Anyone working at the professional level in human resource management is expected to be able to
access and interpret information the organization’s leaders need to make accurate decisions about the
workforce.