Critical Evaluation Competency

What data-gathering method requires face to face meeting?

• Trend and Ratio Analysis

• Nominal group technique (NGT)

• Delphi technique

• Regression analysis

Management has requested that HR conduct a focus group to better understand the results of a recent compensation survey. Which is the most important factor HR will want to consider when forming the focus groups?

• The focus group facilitator should be well known to participants, preferably one of their managers.

• Members should be a representative sample of the employee population.

• Focus group objectives should be kept general to encourage the group to move in its own direction.

• Participants should include only subject matter experts to ensure that the time is well spent.

HR seeks employee volunteers to compare two possible wellness programs. Their responses will be aggregated and analyzed to make a recommendation to senior management. How would you assess this critical analysis?

• The assessment tools the volunteers use will be unreliable.

• The sample group is too small.

• The program assessment tools cannot be validated.

• The sampling approach is flawed.

An HR professional is analyzing retention rates across all the functions and divisions in a large organization. There is a high standard deviation (SD) for the dataset. What does this indicate?

• A high number of errors were made in the data entry process.

• Retention rates are unusually uniform across the organization.

• The dataset was probably not structured appropriately for analysis.

• There is a considerable spread in the data from high to low rates.

Which best describes the MODE in a set of data?

• Middle point of values

• Range of values

• Average of numbers

• Value appearing most often

Which tool would be best for analyzing and presenting data about the relationship between years of education and amount of income?

• Histogram

• Scatter diagram

• Cause-and-effect diagram

• Control chart

Data-sorting technique in which a group categorizes and subcategorizes data until relationships are clearly drawn.

Small group of invited persons (typically six to twelve) who actively participate in a structured discussion, led by a facilitator, for the purpose of eliciting their input.

Middle value in a range of values.

Data-sorting technique in which group members add related ideas and indicate logical connections, eventually grouping similar ideas.

• Mind mapping

• Mode

• Median

• The interquartile range