These eight questions use invented businesses, so you can practise the skills from the human resources cluster. Try each one before opening the answer.
Questions
Q1. A fictional florist promotes her best assistant to shop manager. Is this internal or external recruitment? Give one reason.
Answer
Internal recruitment, because the vacancy is filled from current staff. One reason: the owner already knows the assistant’s work. See recruitment, training and performance concepts.
Q2. Put these in the correct order: selection, recruitment, appraisal, training.
Answer
Recruitment, selection, training, appraisal. Candidates are attracted first, one is chosen, the person learns the job, and the work is reviewed.
Q3. A new cashier learns the till by working beside an experienced cashier. Name the training type and say why it suits a small shop.
Answer
On-the-job training. It suits a small shop because the cashier learns with real sales and the owner does not have to close the shop or pay for a course.
Q4. Kak Dina earns a basic salary of RM1 500 and 4% commission on sales. She sells RM25 000 in each month. Calculate her total pay.
Answer
Commission: 4% × RM25 000 = RM1 000. Total pay: RM1 500 + RM1 000 = RM2 500. The method is in comparing financial and non-financial motivation.
Q5. A warehouse worker has no sales to make. Explain why commission does not suit him and suggest one better method.
Answer
Commission links pay to sales, and the worker does not control sales. A better method is a team bonus for packing accuracy or recognition for zero errors, because these link to what he controls.
Q6. A fictional school canteen stall has 150 customers at break time and one seller serves 25 of them, while the stall has four sellers. How many more sellers are needed?
Answer
Sellers needed: 150 ÷ 25 = 6. It has 4, so it needs 2 more. Part-time staff suit the short break period. See planning staffing for a fictional case.
Q7. In Q6 each extra seller earns RM50 a day for 20 school days. Calculate the extra wage bill for two sellers.
Answer
One seller: 20 × RM50 = RM1 000. Two sellers: 2 × RM1 000 = RM2 000 each month. The owner should compare this with the extra sales from serving the queue, and remember that sales are not profit.
Q8. Rewrite this conclusion so it is careful: “Training will definitely double the shop’s sales.”
Answer
“Training may help the shop’s sales if it teaches skills the staff lack, although sales also depend on competitors and customer demand.” The word “definitely” and the figure “double” are removed because the case proves neither. See business theory versus promises.
If you got these wrong
Match each miss to a lesson and redo its worked example.
- Q1 to Q3: recruitment, training and performance concepts.
- Q4 and Q5: financial and non-financial motivation.
- Q6 and Q7: planning staffing for a fictional case.
- Q8: business theory versus promises.
Record each miss in the mistake log. If you want a teacher to go through your answers, see online one-to-one Business tuition.