HR Operations Flashcards
“face of the company”, responsible for implementation, motivation, improving policies and procedures, and aligning with vision and values of the company.
Line managers
Values and beliefs shared by members of an organization and the behaviors that arise from same
Organizational culture
Mood of the organization or the ways employees experience or react to the prevailing culture.
Organizational climate
Assessment of attributes a company has or wants to have for competition.
Strategic planning
a type of audit for shared mindset, competence, consequence, governance, work process/capacity to change, and leadership.
Organizational audit
Planning tool used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that face the company.
SWOT Analysis
Theory that five basic forces determine the competitive dynamic in the industry: the threat of new entrants, the threat of substitutes, the bargaining power of suppliers, and industry rivalry.
Porter’s Five Forces
Human resources management system used for timekeeping, payroll, work schedules, recruiting, workforce planning, benefit eligibility and more.
HRIS
processes day-to-day business transations
Transaction processing system
online education software such as diversity and inclusion training
Learning management system
specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-based
SMART goals
ask unit managers to report on volume of business activity they anticipate in the coming years and how many people are needed to carry out that activity.
Unit demand
predicting future employment needs based on expectations of how some employment-related factor may change over time
Trend projections
Can identify the statistical relationship between records and employee needs
Regression analysis
predictions about the future using computer stimulations
Probabilistic model
short-term needs analysis which involves looking at output/productivity the company needs in the immediate future. Uses a backwards breakdown to calculate needed manpower hours.
Workload analysis
determine whether an organization has enough employees to meet the needs of the company
Ratio analysis
forecasting future job needs by combining the input and expertise of many professionals who never meet but come to a consensus over time.
Delphi technique
panel of experts, but they meet and solve the problem, and may be guided by a facilitator.
Nominal group technique
Employee expressing interest in a position before the job is available
job bidding
identifying promising employees who have potential to occupy managerial or executive roles in the organization
succession planning
promoting promising employees who have no interest in managerial or supervisory positions
dual career ladder
identifies employees in four ways: ready for promotion, developed for future promotion, satisfactory in current position, and replace
Replacement charting
helping employees in their role
turnover casting
law requiring organizations with 15+ employees cannot discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.
Title VII/Civil Rights Act of 1964
prevents discrimination against employees with disabilities
ADA
regulates wage of workers who are hourly and designates employees as exempt or non-exempt
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
type of employee that must be paid minimum wage and overtime after 40 hours/week
non-exempt
law that makes employee contributions vested 20% at 3 years and 100% at 7 years
Employee Retirement Income & Security Act (ERISA)
law that allows 12 weeks of unpaid leave in circumstances where employees undergo childbirth, adoption, or need to care for a seriously ill person (themselves, child, parent, spouse). Men entitled as well, but does not apply to in-laws.
Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
employees entitles to insurance and medical privacy under this law
HIPAA
under this law, men and women must be paid equally for equal work. Job content determines and does not have to be exact or identical job content, but employers cannot reduce pay to equalize.
Equal Pay Act of 1963
working conditions free of hazards under this act
OSHA
under this act, it is illegal to discriminate hiring on nationality or citizenship so long as the person is legally allowed to work in the US
Immigration Reform & Control Act
this law protects military reservists who are called to duty, cannot be discriminated against due to veteran status. Does not apply to temp employees.
USERRA
prevents organizations from restricting free trade. First federal law that had an impact on organized labor.
Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890
strengthened Sherman, but specifically exempted labor unions. Allows use of injunctions where there is a threat of property damage.
Clayton Anti-Trust Act of 1914
amended in 1936. Intended to prevent railroad and airline strikes from resulting in significant trade/transportation issues. Requires employees to seek ADR before resorting to a labor strike.
Railway Labor Act of 1926
prevents employers from asking employees not to join a union aka a yellow dog contract.
Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932
signed in 2010 allowing accommodations such as breastfeeding. Ensures access to affordable healthcare as well and penalizes large corporations that don’t provide minimal essential coverage.
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)
large employers with 100+ employees must give 60 day notice prior to mass layoffs/closing.
Worker Adjustment and Restraining Notification Act (WARN) of
guarantees workers the right to organize a union, to bargain collectively, and to engage in collective activities. Defines unfair labor practices, provides for secret ballots in union votes, and established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935
prevent workplace accidents arising from employer drug use. Required for any employer that receives federal funding or has federal contracts totaling at least $100k/year.
Drug Free Workplace Act of 1988
holds senior executives responsible for the financial practices of the organization. Prohibits employers from retaliating against whistleblowers.
Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002
employees who refuse to participate in or report financial misconduct or suspected misconduct.
Whistleblowers
employers may be required to withhold money from the paychecks of employees with certain kinds of debts. NOT allowed to terminate an employee who has their wages garnished for a single debt. Limits placed on how much can be garnished.
Credit Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) of 1968
extension of the Social Security Act. Provides benefits to employees who have to leave their job for certain reasons. Employees may collect a percentage of their previous income in the form of unemployment for a limited amount of time. Varies state-to-state. Does not include terminated for fault in some states. Employers pay a state unemployment insurance tax.
Federal-State Unemployment Insurance Program of 1935
established as a part of the Social Security Act in 1935. Benefits to employees who retire or become unable to work as well as eligible surviving dependents if the employee passes away. Employees pay tax to support this benefit and employers match these contributions.
Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance Program
requires that insurers provide the same limits for mental health services for employees that they provide for other medical benefits.
Mental Health Parity Act of 1966
protects employees when they are entitles to pension plans, but those plans do not have the funds necessary to provide the promised benefits.
Pension Protection Act of 2006
reduced existing age limits restricting participation in pension plans, providing more protections for survivors of employees entitled to pensions, and restricted conditions that can be placed on survivor plans.
Retirement Equity Act
amendment to the ADEA of 1967, prohibits employees from discriminating against older employees when it comes to benefit plans.
Older Worker Benefit Protection Act of 1990
commute time is not compensable but that employers must compensate for work performed outside of work hours or during lunch breaks.
Portal-to-Portal Act
protects government workers. Established overtime pay, prohibited hiring under 18, prohibited hiring those convicted of a crime, and established workplace safety/sanitation standards. Incorporated into the FLSA covering all employees.
Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act of 1936
first federal legislation to mandate that laborers and mechanics be paid the prevailing wage on public works projects.
Davis-Beacon Act of 1931
identified union activities that constitute “unfair labor practices”. Employees cannot be forced to join a union and forbids union members from requiring members to discriminate against non-union colleagues. Also prohibits unions from charging unreasonably high membership dues.
Labor Management Relations Act/Taft-Harley Act of 1947
illegal to monitor oral or wire-based communications unless the employer has a legitimate business reason to do so or an employee consents to be monitored.
Electronic Privacy of 1986
passed as part of the Electronic Communications Act, protects the storage of electronic communications like emails. Employers are allowed to access communications stored on their own communication services.
Stored Communications Act
intended for hacking but also used by employers to bring charges against employees who access unauthorized information.
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
calculated by dividing the full-time workers in an organization, then multiplying by 100. Gauges how an HR department’s staff number compares to the number of workers in the organization.
HR-to-Employee Ratio
how much it costs to bring a new employee on board.
Cost-per-Hire
cost of each worker including benefits.
Total Compensation Expense per Employee
how much the company spends for each worker to provide mandatory health insurance.
Health Care Cost per Employee
total days workers were absent in a month, divided by the average number of employees who were on the job in that month, multiplied by 100.
Absentee rate
includes employee expenses, operating expenses, etc. to calculate revenue.
Human Capital ROI
the costs associated with HR expenses. Also use HR value added, a related metric.
HR Expense Factor
cost of training workers
Training per employee
how well the organization is doing at retaining employee talent.
turnover rate
assesses and tracks employee attitudes.
number of griveances
comparison of profit versus loss in relation to a particular investment.
Return on Investment (ROI)
total cost of sales and total revenue used to calculate.
Gross Profit Margin
measures earned (gross) income from a company’s new products or services compared to total gross income.
Innovation rate
business conditions that are external.
Economic environment metrics
how often significant business opportunities arise and add real value to the company.
Opportunity conversion rate
qualified and can be counted, collected through measurements, evaluates significant and separable relationships between limited variables, better for macro-level understandings, better for identifying what is happening rather than why.
Quantitative data
based on language and interpretations, collected through observations and interviews, involves analysis of themes and patterns, better for micro-level understandings, better for identifying why something is happening.
Qualitative data
both qualitative and quantitative, more time-consuming, requires additional expertise and multiple analyses, multiple data sources can make conclusions stronger, can provide insight into what is happening and why. May aid in the development of hypotheses and identifying relevant populations.
Mixed-method research
any range, i.e. 22.67 years old.
Continuous data
only whole values (i.e. can’t own 3.4 cars).
Discrete data
categorical data used to label subjects in a study. Type of discrete data.
Nominal data
places data objects into an order according to the quality. Type of discrete data.
Ordinal data
has an order and all of the objects are an equal interval apart. Type of continuous data (time and dates, temperature).
Interval data
may be used to respond to current, real-time issues employees are facing.
Tactical/prescriptive analytics
collection and analysis of data to inform long-term decisions or planning future initiatives.
strategic analytics/predictive analytics
comparisons between an organization and a similar organization.
External benchmarking
comparisons to other periods in a company’s history.
Internal benchmarking
forward-looking assessments involving analytics to make predictions about an organization’s future needs and prepare.
Needs assessment
statistical method to measure the average amount of change in a dependent variable associated with a unit change in one or more independent variables; considered an associate model as it incorporates the factors (variables) that might influence the quantity being forecasted.
Regression analysis
a forecasting technique that employs a series of past data points to make a forecast.
Time series analysis
the process of arranging terms or values based on different variables into “natural” groups.
Cluster analysis
the process of weighing all outcomes of a decision to determine the best course of action.
Decision analysis
statistical analysis used to describe variability among observed, correlated variables in terms of a potentially lower number of factors, or unobserved variables.
Factor analysis
method of analyzing the difference in a particular variable between multiple populations.
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
time period: one year, or until final disposition if lawsuit is filed. Laws: ADEA, ADA, Civil Rights Act Title VII.
Job applications
time period: three years or until final disposition if a lawsuit is filed. Laws: ADEA, Equal Pay Act, FLSA.
Payroll records
time period: five years. Laws: OSHA.
Records of occupational injuries/illnesses
time period: immediate disposal. Laws: Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act.
Consumer Credit Reports
Department of Defense recommends a particular protocol for the disposal of digital records called DoD 5220.22-M, which involves erasing hard drive content and overwriting with Is, Os and random characters.
Data Disposal
notify affected employees no later than 60 days after breach.
HIPAA Breach Notification Rule
must be stored separately from personnel files.
Medical records
report work-related injuries and illnesses. Must be completed within a week, aka “log”.
Form 300
summary of injuries/illnesses for the work year.
Form 300A
provides more information about incidents of illness/injury.
Form 301
White collar exemptions
$100k+ are exempt. Common with doctors, lawyers, etc.
Minimum wage
$7.25/hour. If state minimum wage is higher, employee must be paid the higher amount.
Rules for tips
employees who earn at least $30/month in tips do not have to be paid the minimum wage. $2.13/hour for tipped jobs and must demonstrate tips add up to the minimum wage.
Exemptions
under the age of 20, students, and some workers whose earning capacity is impaired by physical/mental disability.
Overtime
regular rate at 1.5x. Not required to pay overtime for Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, etc., unless actual overtime is worked those days.
Child labor
non-agricultural jobs cutoff is 18. May work any job for any number of hours after 18.
o Ages 16 & 17 – may perform non-hazardous jobs for unlimited hours.
o Ages 14 & 15 – may perform non-hazardous jobs outside of school hours for a limited number of hours.
o Under 14 – barred from non-farm work with some exceptions.
Farm jobs
May work any job for any number of hours after 16.
o Ages 14 & 15 – non-hazardous farm jobs for unlimited hours, outside of school hours.
o Ages 12 & 13 – may work with parents’ written consent.
o Minors of any age are allowed to work on their parents’ farm.
What is not covered by the FLSA?
vacation/sick pay, breaks, holidays, premium pay for weekends or holidays, pay raises, procedure for discharging employees such as final wage pay.
Job design that works best with highly specialized jobs
Mechanist
Job design that tracks worker feedback
Motivational
Job design that focuses on employee’s comfort (equipment, work/life balance, etc.)
Biological
Job design concerned with attention span, memory, and neurology
Perceptual-motor
Spirit of collaboration and teamwork
Relational
The task and purpose of the job
job description
Skills, knowledge and abilities for the job
job specification
each employee has one clear supervisor and staff are grouped by area of specialization.
Functional
reporting relationships set up as a grid or matrix, rather than the traditional hierarchy.
Matrix
staff clustered in tightly knit groups or teams, connected through communication and collaboration.
Network organization (clusters)
