ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We’d like to thank our executive editor, Tim Green, and the talented editorial coordinator, Claire Yee, at McGraw-Hill Education for helping this become a written reality. With the many different iterations of its content when SHRM modified its CP and SCP exams, their patience paid off in “getting it right” for you, the reader/exam taker—making sure the material we wrote, and its presentation style, is effective in guiding you to passing your SHRM exam.

Human resources is most likely part of our DNA makeup; we’ve lived it and breathed it for many decades. To be able to share the knowledge and tactics, we believe that will be helpful for passing the newer CP and SCP exams is our mentorship to budding HR professionals. We’ve tried to design our book to not only help the SHRM certification exam taker but also create a resource that will have a prominent place on the HR bookshelf as a “go-to” reference book. We hope we’ve succeeded with that intention.

A special thanks and much appreciation goes to Beverly N. Dance, MBA, SHRM-SCP, SPHR, PHRca, CCP, CEBS, of Dance Associates, who is what we consider to be an expert in teaching HR professionals to pass the new SHRM exams. Beverly is our contributing author for the situational judgment questions in our book’s practice exam, which pertain to the eight behavioral competencies that make up 50 percent of the exam’s passing grade. Beverly’s consultations and guidance, from her experience facilitating SHRM study groups, has helped us develop our approach in describing the behavioral competencies that SHRM has determined HR professionals need in order to be effective in their jobs.

A final recognition goes out to co-author William Kelly, who once again fulfilled the most important role of technical editor for the content of this book. In addition to Bill’s treasure trove of advice about all things HR and the various certification exams, as well as his experience as a facilitator/teacher for both the SHRM and HRCI exam study groups, he jumped in and took the SHRM-SCP exam to give you, the reader, a firsthand review of the exam process.