This assignment will help you think about how to use your budget during the HRM simulation. Often individuals without experience in the area of HR suggest that people problems can be solved by raising pay and providing better benefits. This assignment requires you to consider the several areas of HR and how you can and should invest your budget in each area. This assignment is an opportunity to develop a spending roadmap for the simulation before beginning.

Budget Allocation To be successful in the simulation you will need to allocate sufficient resources to achieve them. Some spending is essential to meeting immediate production goals, while other spending will help improve the long-term performance of the company. Some spending may need to be maintained every quarter, while other spending can be done on an annual basis. In this exercise, you will categorize spending, set priorities, and practice allocating your budget.

1. Prioritize spending in each of the following categories by rating them from 1 (high) to 6 (low). Then describe why you assigned the category this priority.

Category*	Priority (1-6)	Explanation*
Benefits
Programs (Emp. Relations)
Special Decisions
Staffing
Training
Wages
*Listed in alphabetical order		*3-4 sentences explaining why your group assigned the rating.

2. Assume an annual budget of $1.5 million. Use your ratings to inform the share of the budget for each category. The total shares of the budget must equal 100. If you believe one category should have a 50% share of the budget, you only have 50% to divide between the remaining categories. Then use the share to calculate the annual and quarterly dollar amounts available for each category.

Category*	Share of Budget*	Annual Amount	Quarterly Amount*
Benefits
Programs (Emp. Relations)
Special Decisions
Staffing
Training
Wages
*Listed in alphabetical order			*Annual Amount 4

3. What adjustments might you need to make to the calculated allocations? Write 4-5 sentences (or more).