Questions and Answers of Employee Benefits

Communicating effectively with employees from a wide variety of backgrounds
4. How would you evaluate the effectiveness of IBM’s web-based mentoring program?
3. Is IBM’s program really a mentoring program?Why or why not?
2. What advantages and disadvantages does IBM’s program have for mentors? For protégés? For mentees?
1. Do you think the advice you can get electronically is just as good as the advice you might get from a mentor in a face-to-face relationship? Explain.
4. Go to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog to learn about blogs. What is a blog? How might a blog be useful for training or development?
3. GeoLearning is an application service provider (ASP). Visit www.geolearning.com.What services and products does this ASP provide?
2. This chapter discussed several trends that will influence the future of training. Based on future social, economic, political, or technological factors, identify one or two additional trends that
1. Interview a manager. Ask him to evaluate his company’s training department in terms of training delivery, service, expertise, and contribution to the business. Ask him to explain the rationale
11. What are the implications of virtual work arrangements for training?
10. What is organization development? Describe the interventions used to create change.
9. Explain what you believe are the advantages and disadvantages of creating a training consortium or partnership with other companies.
8. What misconceptions do managers have about training? How could you change those misconceptions?
7. Discuss the steps necessary to introduce a new training practice from a change model perspective.
6. What is process reengineering? Why is it relevant to training?
5. What is benchmarking? Explain the process you would use to benchmark a company’s safety training programs.
4. How does the use of a learning management system better link training to business strategy and goals?
3. What is rapid instructional design? How does it differ from the traditional training design process discussed in Chapter 1? (See Figure 1.1.)
2. What new skills will trainers need to be successful in the future?
1. Discuss how new technologies are likely to impact training in the future.
6. Follow up, reevaluate, and modify. Be flexible and make changes if they are needed. Share information about mistakes or issues, and work with the employees affected to fix them.
5. Execute and create short-term wins. Success requires management attention and the desire to do it right. Managers and change leaders must model new behavior and become enthusiastic supporters for
4. Choose and announce the action as soon as possible. Employees affected by the change must hear about it as soon as possible. Employees need to know why and how the final action was selected, how
3. Communicate for buy-in. Employees need to know what is occurring. Use briefings, newsletters, Web pages, informational meetings.
2. Identify possible solutions. Ask managers and employees to suggest courses of action to deal with the problem or capitalize on an opportunity. Do not ask for ideas or suggestions if they are not
1. Identify the problem or opportunity and create a sense of urgency. Is the stated problem actually the real problem facing the company? How does the opportunity fit into the company’s business
• Developing and delivering learning that is integrated with the job.
• Facilitating learning and staying in touch with employees, managers, and business units to identify what they need and making suggestions regarding tools, processes, or procedures that could help
• Developing search-and-identify techniques so employees can find information and training when they need it.
• Use of assessments to determine trainees’ learning styles.
• Delivering and packaging training in different formats for beginners and experts.
• Use of multimedia tools, including audio, video, Webcasts, and live action.
• Designing learning space as well as content in technology-driven learning environments.
• Matching training content and methods to the local culture of the work force.
7. Discuss the advantages of embedded learning.
6. Discuss how process reengineering can be used to review and redesign training administration practices(e.g., enrollment in training).
5. Benchmark current training practices.
4. Describe the components of the change model and how they can be used to introduce a new training method.
3. Discuss how rapid instructional design differs from traditional training design.
2. Discuss how these future trends may impact training delivery and administration as well as the strategic role of the training department.
1. Identify the future trends that are likely to influence training departments and trainers.
3. Are certain kinds or types of jobs better for job sharing? Do the characteristics of the job, the manager, or the employees sharing the job have the most important influence on the effectiveness
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of job sharing from the company’s perspective?
1. From a careers perspective, why would two employees decide to job share?
6. Go to www.eldercare.gov, the Eldercare Locator, a public service of the U.S. Administration on Aging. What resources are available on this Web site? What topics do these resources cover?
5. Go to www.aoa.gov, the Web site for the Administration on Aging (AoA). Review the Web site. Is this site useful for employees seeking information about elder care? Explain the type of information
4. Several Web sites provide guidance to working and nonworking parents: www.en-parent.com (for the entrepreneurial parent), www.wahm.com (for work-at-home moms), and www.AtHomeDad.com for
3. Visit the Web site www.careerjournal.com. This Wall Street Journal Web site has articles related to career issues.a. Click on the tab titled Career Strategies. Choose an article to read.b. Write a
2. Go to www.workingmother.com, the Web site for Working Mother magazine. Review any five of the “2008 100 Best Companies” for work-life policies. What common practices do they use to help
1. Interview a relative or friend who is currently employed. The interview shoulda. Identify her current career development stage.b. Identify a special career management challenge she faces.c. Find
10. What are the advantages and potential disadvantages of telecommuting for employees?For companies?
9. Are work-family programs the same as work-life programs? Explain.
8. What advantages and disadvantages might a company gain by rehiring retired employees?
7. How could you help downsized survivors remain motivated and productive? Rank your recommendations in order of importance. Provide a rationale for your ranking.
6. Why should managers be trained as part of establishing supportive work-life policies?
5. Why do employees plateau? How could you help a plateaued employee? Discuss the characteristics of a plateaued employee who might resist your help.
4. What is a dual-career path? What are the characteristics of an effective dual-career path?
3. How are career paths useful for employees? How can they contribute to company effectiveness?
2. Why are content and process important in the design of employee orientation programs?What content should an effective orientation program include? What process should be used?
1. Describe the stages of organizational socialization. What are the employees’ needs at each stage?
• Electronic delivery of job openings, self-directed career management guides, and values and interest inventories.
• Job banks where job leads are posted and where out-of-town newspapers, phones, and books regarding different occupations and geographic areas are available.
• Job campaign services such as résumé-writing assistance and interview training.
• Assessment of skills and interests.
• Psychological, financial, and career counseling.
• Advance warning and an explanation for the layoff.
• A job-sharing agreement should be written that clearly spells out performance expectations, work schedules for each employee, and any other management concerns.
• Performance evaluations of job sharers need to include both an individual and a team appraisal.
• Meeting schedules, work assignments, and vacation schedules need to be carefully coordinated.Job sharers should plan overlap times during which to meet and communicate.
• The manager must actively communicate with the job sharers and accept the fact that they might not be immediately available for consultation.
• The job sharers must be good employees who have excellent communications skills and are cooperative and flexible.
• The job sharers need to have similar work values and motivations. Otherwise, interpersonal conflicts will interfere with the completion of assignments.
• The employee interested in job sharing must find another employee performing the same job who wants reduced work hours.
• The impact of job sharing on clients and customers must be determined. If satisfying client and customer needs is compromised (if customers want one consistent contact person, for example), job
7. Explain why retirees may be valuable as part-time employees.
6. Select and design outplacement strategies that minimize the negative effects on displaced employees and “survivors.”
5. Develop policies to help employees deal with work-life conflicts.
4. Develop policies to help employees and the company avoid technical obsolescence.
3. Provide advice on how to help a plateaued employee.
2. Discuss why a career path is necessary for all employees and why dual-career paths are important for professional and managerial employees.
1. Design an effective socialization program for employees.
6. Complete the self-assessment exercise in Table 11.4. What changes would you make in the exercise to improve it?
5. Go to online.onetcenter.org. Click on Skills Search. Complete the skills search, and click Go. What occupations match your skills? How might Skills Search be useful for career management?
4. The World Wide Web is increasingly being used by companies to list job openings and by individuals to find jobs. Using the Web sites listed here (or sites you find yourself by surfing the Web),
3. Go to www.ncsu.edu/careerkey, the Web site for Career Key, an assessment tool that can be used for self-assessment and career management. Roll the cursor over Your Personality, and click on
2. Go to www.monster.com. Roll over to Career Tools. Review Career Snapshot, Career Benchmark, and Career Mapping. How are each of these tools helpful for career management?
1. Go to www.thomsonreuters.com, the part of the Web site for the Thomson Corporation that provides career assistance for current Thomson employees and job seekers. Click on Career. What does Thomson
9. If you were asked to develop a career management system, what would it look like?How might you evaluate whether it was effective? What information would you use to develop the system?
8. How has the Web influenced career management for employees? For companies?
7. What are the manager’s roles in a career management system? Which role do you think is most difficult for the typical manager? Which is easiest? List the reasons why managers might resist
6. What is a psychological contract? How does the psychological contract influence career management?
5. How does the protean career concept differ from the traditional career concept on the following dimensions: pattern, development sources, goal, and responsibility for management?
4. What are the three components of career motivation? Which is most important? Which is least important? Why?
3. Why should companies be interested in helping employees plan their careers? What benefits can companies gain? What are the risks?
2. Discuss the implications that the career development model presented in this chapter may have for training and development activities.
1. What stage of career development are you in? What career concerns are most important to you? Are these concerns consistent with any one of the development models presented in the chapter?
10. Information about career plans and talent evaluation is accessible to all managers.
9. System creates a large, diverse talent pool.
8. Career management is linked to other human resource practices such as performance management, training, and recruiting systems.
7. Senior management supports the career system.

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