Studying for the PHR Exam-Week 9

I'm very excited to say that my articles on studying for the PHR exam have been noticed by several human resources sites online, and they are wanting to reproduce my content on their own sites. I am happy that this will allow more of those people that, like me, were completely clueless when starting the journey to become a certified human resources professional. Hopefully this will allow me to reach a whole new audience to help them as they work toward their career, employment, or educational goals. I know that I have been contacted more than a dozen times by others looking for more information on taking the exam, and I am more than willing to help anyone that needs help.

This was my second section of human resources study dedicated to Employee and Labor Relations, and, like last week, I surprisingly enjoyed the topics that I had to study. I am happy to say that I completely covered the topic of Employee and Labor Relations from top-to-bottom, and I learned some new human resources topics and refreshed my memory of others that I will encounter in the PHR exam.

A New Resource

HR.com is the outside learning resource for this week. I checked around this site for a while, and the thing that stuck with me the most was the wiki. The human resources wiki allows site users to create and modify the definitions of HR terms. This wiki has the potential to become a very valuable tool for human resources professionals. The site also has job search links, surveys, free human resources management forms, related blog links, and a social networking tool. If you are a human resources professional, then it is definitely worth a look.

Just the Facts, Ma'am

This week I studied Employee and Labor Relations. Employee and Labor Relations makes up about 22% of the total PHR exam weight. In the HRCI practice test, I scored a 50% on this section.

Last week I went over the knowledge requirements for the Employee and Labor Relations section in detail. Please refer back to that if necessary.

My Take on the Material

I finished the book chapter, and it left me with some interesting conclusions. This week, I refreshed my memory of the types of dispute resolution, and I think it is a topic that everyone should be interested in. Many companies are now requiring employees to sign a mandatory alternative dispute resolution (ADR) agreement. This agreement basically states that the involved parties must take employer/employee disputes through an agreed-upon channel in order to resolve the problem. Two of the main methods of ADR include mediation and arbitration.

Mediation involves an impartial third party (mediator) that tries to facilitate a resolution to the problem. Mediation is informal, non-binding, and non-adversarial. A good mediation process will bring both parties to a mutually agreeable conclusion.

Arbitration involves a neutral person (arbitrator) that considers facts and arguments and renders a decision. Although arbitration is less formal than a court trial, the final decisions in an arbitration case will be binding to all involved parties.

Companies should look into forming their own ADR policies. Anything that a company can do legally to cut down on court costs is an avenue that should be explored. These cost-effective ADR methods are attractive to both parties in an employee/employer dispute. Human resources professionals are an important link in the ADR method of problem-solving in the workplace.

I finished all computer-based PHR practice exams (excluding the final section, Risk Management).

Looking Forward

As the time has progressed, I have become more confident in my ability. However, I had a shock the other night. I found some practice flashcards, and I went through a couple dozen of the cards, and I didn't get more than half of them correct! I don't know if it is because the questions were more fact-based than the practice questions (situation-based) that I have been experiencing, but it gave me pause to think that I didn't know the answers. I have been feeling more confident, as I already stated, but this little incident gave me another boost in urgency to make sure that I am studying all of the necessary materials!

Next week is my last "focused" study week. I will be studying Risk Management (7% of total PHR exam, scored 67% on practice exam). After that, I will be taking the second PHR assessment exam to gauge my progress and narrow my study focus for the final PHR exam preparation.

Remember, the links to my other articles in the series can be found here. Please comment if you have a question related to the PHR exam or human resources in general. I'd be glad to help!