Denise Bennett, the owner and CEO of Extreme Routes, an indoor rock-climbing gym, needed to clear her head. She wanted to do what she did best—climb a really difficult route, at least a 5.11 on the Yosemite Decimal System, preferably with a difficulty suffix of c or d.
“Kitty, will you set up a new route for me? And make it hard.”
“Sure thing, boss. Is 5.12d okay?” Kitty, the route setter and instruction manager, had been at Extreme Routes for seven years and was one of Denise’s closest friends.
“Perfect!”
Knowing a treat would be waiting for her that afternoon, Denise turned back to the spreadsheet in front of her. What was she going to do about these expenses? She had a good staff, and she wanted to keep them, but she wasn’t sure she was spending her budget for salaries and benefits as effectively as possible.
Denise had a basic compensation plan in place. Route setters were paid the most, because without new routes, the gym’s clients wouldn’t keep returning. Climbing instructors had the next highest take-home pay, and front desk staff were paid the least. Everyone who worked for Denise had medical, dental, vision, and life insurance. During the last staff meeting, both Kitty and Misha, the front desk manager, mentioned that many of their employees wanted to move up in the organization. That was fine with Denise, whose strategic plan included opening a new gym within the year.
1. If Denise wants to know how much the jobs in her gym are worth in comparison to one another, she should do a:
A. Job description analysis
B. Job evaluation
C. Wage and salary survey
D. Job specification analysis
2. If Denise institutes a ______, she needs to carefully watch for signs of tension and disagreements among her employees.
A. Group-based pay system
B. individual-based pay system
C. Cafeteria plan
D. job-based pay system
3. The best way for Denise to reduce the amount she pays for benefits every month is to offer her employees:
A. The same benefits with the budget adjusted to take into account inflation
B. A cafeteria plan that gives employees a certain amount of money to buy the benefits they want
C. A reduced benefits package that is less than what most other employers in the area offer
D. Only the benefits that are required by law but also larger salaries