The president of a large company is planning to retire soon. The president has been with the company for 40 years, the longest tenure of any employee in the company, and has been president for the last 10 years. In addition to replacing its top leader, the company is also in the midst of conducting strategic planning for the next three years. The HR director has been placed in charge of overseeing the selection and transition process for the new president and has organized a search committee consisting of external board members. The search committee has identified three internal candidates for the position and must move forward with the process of selecting one to be president.
What should the HR director do in order to decrease the likelihood of candidates not selected for the job becoming upset and leaving the company?

A nonprofit health care facility conducts an engagement and culture survey, and the results indicate that employees throughout the organization believe leadership engages in favoritism by providing unequal opportunities for staff. General perceptions of the company's culture are poor, and many employees report intentions to leave their jobs. Several additional concerning findings are isolated to the philanthropic department, which is responsible for acquiring donors and securing charitable partnerships. Employees from this department report poor working relationships among staff, including gossiping and bullying among co-workers. Although the leadership team is aware of the poor working relationships in the philanthropic department, they have not asked the department director to address the issues because of the department's outstanding performance in recent years. However, after considering the recent survey results the leadership team decides to initiate a project to address the culture issues at the facility overall and within the philanthropy department specifically. The operations VP will oversee the project and ask an HR business partner (HRBP) to lead the project. The VP of operations requests that the HRBP collect additional survey data and conduct focus groups during the first phase of the project.
Although the leadership team initiated the project, a few members express concerns that the project is not a good use of the facility's funds. They are skeptical that the project will lead to any tangible benefits for the facility. Which action should the HRBP take to address the leadership team's opposition to the project?

An HR director is hired to address the executive team's concerns about negative workplace culture and its impact on financial performance. During an initial investigation the HR director discovers that the two division directors often fail to communicate with each other and their employees. Each division maintains separate workplace policies, and the workspaces for the divisions are spread out across multiple floors. For employee management, the director of the client services division is assisted by a small HR team. The director of operations does not work with the HR team and instead uses company funds to seek employee management advice from an executive coach, who has no official coaching training. The HR director suspects facilitating change at the company will be challenging because engagement data indicates many employees distrust the company's leadership and HR.
Which action should the HR director take to improve the flow of information throughout the company?

In one of the warehouses of a retail company, several international employees complain to HR that the warehouse manager has forbidden them from speaking in their native language in the workplace. The HR manager speaks with the warehouse manager, who says there have been several reports that the international employees only interact with each other and they have difficulty conversing with the local employees due to language barriers. The HR manager also learns that the international employees can speak the primary language used in the company well enough to understand instructions from their supervisors. Fortunately, there have been no incidents of safety issues where language has been a barrier between local and international employees. However, senior management believes there is a lack of rapport between local and international employees and instructs the HR manager to resolve the issue.
Which action should the HR manager take to address the international employees' complaints about the warehouse manager?

A global manufacturing organization is dealing with a high level of attrition among machine operators as well as difficulty recruiting machine operators at a recently acquired factory. The HR director is attempting to address the issue. During exit interviews, multiple employees mention they are leaving to take higher-paying jobs at other companies in the area. The HR director of the factory in that country believes that the company needs to raise the salaries of the machine operators to address this. The HR director contacts the chief human resource officer (CHRO) to discuss the need for a salary adjustment. The CHRO is located in another country and has never been to the country where the factory is located. The CHRO reviews the most recent salary study for the region and indicates that the salaries the company is paying are competitive with other companies in the region. The CHRO also says that due to recent increases in operating expenses and declines in revenue, it would be financially irresponsible to provide raises.
If the HR director does secure a salary raise for the machine operators, how should the HR director assess whether it is effective in dealing with the machine operator recruitment and retention problem?