SHRM Flashcards
Single-rate pay
Provides each incumbent of a job with the same rate of pay, regardless of performance or seniority; also known as flat-rate pay.
Job rotation
Movement between different jobs.
Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)
U.S. act that prohibits discrimination in the workplace on the basis of age.
Staffing
HR function that acts on the organizational human capital needs identified through workforce planning and attempts to provide an adequate supply of qualified individuals to complete the body of work necessary for the organization’s financial success.
Independent contractors
Self-employed individuals hired on a contract basis for specialized services.
Orientation
Process by which new employees become familiar with the organization and with their specific department, coworkers, and job.
Realistic job preview (RJP)
Tool used to provide a job applicant with honest, complete information about a job and the work environment.
Employee engagement
Employees’ emotional commitment to an organization, demonstrated by their willingness to put in discretionary effort to promote the organization’s effective functioning.
Compensation
All financial returns (beyond any tangible benefits payments or services), including salary and allowances.
Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX)
U.S. act that requires that all publicly held companies establish internal controls and procedures for financial reporting to reduce the possibility of corporate fraud.
Workforce planning
Activities needed to ensure that workforce size and competencies meet current and future organizational and individual needs.
Protected class
People who are covered under a particular federal or state antidiscrimination law.
Restructuring
Act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of an organization.
National origin
Refers to the country (including those that no longer exist) of one’s birth or of one’s ancestors’ birth.
Onshoring
Relocation of business processes or production to a lower-cost location inside the same country as the business.
Identity alignment
Extent to which diversity is embraced in management of people, products/services, and branding.
Mission statement
Concise outline of an organization’s strategy, specifying the activities the organization intends to pursue and the course its management has charted for the future.
Globalization
Status of growing interconnectedness and interdependency among countries, people, markets, and organizations worldwide.
Transfer of learning
Effective and continuing on-the-job application of the knowledge and skills gained through a training experience.
Annualized loss expectancy (ALE)
Expected monetary loss for an asset due to a risk over a one-year period; calculated by multiplying single loss expectancy by annualized rate of occurrence.
Faragher v. City of Boca Raton
U.S. court ruling that distinguished between supervisor harassment that results in tangible employment action and supervisor harassment that does not.
Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act
U.S. act that established the first national policy for workplace safety and health and continues to deliver standards that employers must meet to guarantee the health and safety of their employees.
Span of control
Refers to the number of individuals who report to a supervisor.
Software as a service (SaaS)
Software that is owned, delivered, and managed remotely and delivered over the Internet to contracted customers on a pay-for-use basis or as a subscription based on use metrics.
Job analysis
Process of systematically studying a job in order to identify the activities/tasks and responsibilities it includes, the personal qualifications necessary to perform it, and the conditions under which it is performed.
Selection interviews
Interviews designed to probe areas of interest to the interviewer in order to determine how well a job candidate meets the needs of the organization.
Equity
Amount of owners’ or shareholders’ portion of a business.
Quid pro quo harassment
Type of sexual harassment that occurs when an employee is forced to choose between giving in to a superior’s sexual demands and forfeiting an economic benefit such as a pay increase, a promotion, or continued employment.
Balanced scorecard
Performance management tool that depicts an organization’s overall performance, as measured against goals, lagging indicators, and leading indicators.
Labor union
Group of workers who coordinate their activities to achieve common goals in their relationship with an employer or group of employers; also called trade union.
Broadbanding
Combining several salary grades or job classifications with narrow pay ranges into one band with a wider salary spread.
Employee resource group (ERG)
Voluntary group for employees who share a particular diversity dimension (race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.); also known as affinity group or network group.
Benefits
Mandatory or voluntary payments or services provided to employees, typically covering retirement, health care, sick pay/disability, life insurance, and paid time off.
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
U.S act that establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, youth employment, and record-keeping standards affecting full- and part-time workers in the private sector and in federal, state, and local governments.
Leading indicator
Type of metric describing an activity that can change future performance and predict success in the achievement of strategic goals.
High-context cultures
Societies or groups characterized by complex, usually long-standing networks of relationships; members share a rich history of common experience, so the way they interact and interpret events is often not apparent to outsiders.
Career development
Progression through a series of employment stages characterized by relatively unique issues, themes, and tasks.
Whistleblowing
Reporting of an organization’s violations of policies and processes by employees.
National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius
U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requirement that individuals purchase health insurance was constitutional but requirement that states expand Medicaid was not.
Active listening
Communication technique to increase the engagement between communicators and their audiences. It involves two-way communication and attention to nonverbal signs that indicate interest and reactions to the message and speaker.
Bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ)
Factor (such as religion, gender, national origin, etc.) that is reasonably necessary, in the normal operations of an organization, to carry out a particular job function.
Knowledge management (KM)
Process of creating, acquiring, sharing, and managing knowledge to augment individual and organizational performance.
Pilot programs
Learning/development programs offered initially in a controlled environment with a segment of the target audience.
Compliance
State of being in accordance with all national, federal, regional, and/or local laws, regulations, and/or other government authority requirements applicable to the places in which an organization operates.
Total rewards strategy
Plan or method implemented by an organization that provides monetary, benefits-in-kind, and developmental rewards to employees who achieve specific business goals.
Amendment
Modification of the U.S. Constitution or a U.S. law.
Work-to-rule
Situation in which workers slow processes by performing tasks exactly to specifications or according to job or task descriptions.
Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act
U.S. act that requires some employers to give a minimum of 60 days’ notice if a plant is to close or if mass layoffs will occur.
Turnover
Act of replacing employees leaving an organization; attrition or loss of employees.
Sympathy strike
Action taken in support of another union that is striking the employer.
Lockout
Action of an employer to shut down operations to prevent employees from working.
Staff units
Work groups that assist line units by providing specialized services, such as HR.
Individual development plan (IDP)
Document that guides employees toward their goals for professional development and growth.
Disability
Physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one’s major life activities.
Risk management
System for identifying, evaluating, and controlling actual and potential risks to an organization.
Repatriation
Process by which employees returning from international assignments reintegrate into their home country’s culture, conditions, and employment.
Leader development
Training and professional development programs targeted at assisting management- and executive-level employees in developing the skills, abilities, and flexibility required to deal with a variety of situations.
Risk scorecard
Tool used to gather individual assessments of various characteristics of risk (e.g., frequency of occurrence; degree of impact, loss, or gain for the organization; degree of efficacy of current controls).
Remuneration surveys
Instruments that collect information on prevailing market compensation and benefits practices (including starting wage rates, base pay, pay ranges, statutory and market cash payments, variable compensation, and paid time off).
Green-circle rates
Situations in which an employee’s pay is below the minimum of the range.
Performance-based pay
Situation where an individual’s performance on the job is the basis for the amount and timing of pay increases; also called merit pay or pay for performance.
Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA)
U.S. act that provides individuals and dependents who may lose health-care coverage with opportunity to pay to continue coverage.
Firewalls
Software and/or hardware that filters incoming and outgoing communication according to preset rules.
Recruitment
Process by which an organization seeks out candidates and encourages them to apply for job openings.
Organizational learning
Acquisition and/or transfer of knowledge within an organization through activities or processes that may occur at several organizational levels; ability of an organization to learn from its mistakes and adjust its strategy accordingly.
Time-based step-rate pay
System in which pay is based on longevity in the job and pay increases occur on a pre-determined schedule.
Functional HR
HR structural alternative in which headquarters HR specialists craft policies and HR generalists located within divisions or other locales implement the policies, adapt them as needed, and interact with employees.
Business case
Presentation to management that establishes that a specific problem exists and argues for a proposed solution.
Noise
In communication, any factor that can disrupt the sending and receipt of a message?Çöfor example, physical factors such as loud environments, cultural factors such as a distinctive accent, or cognitive factors such as the use of unfamiliar jargon.
Well-being
Physical, psychological, and social aspects of employee health.
Employment practices liability insurance (EPLI)
Type of liability insurance covering an organization against claims by employees, former employees, and employment candidates alleging that their legal rights in the employment relationship have been violated.
Social networks
Online clustering of individuals in groups with common or shared interests.
Risk
Uncertainty that has an effect on an objective, where outcomes may include opportunities, losses, and threats.
Accounts payable
Money an organization owes its vendors and suppliers.
Ethics
Set of behavioral guidelines that an organization expects all of its directors, managers, and employees to follow to ensure appropriate moral and ethical business standards.
Veto
Action of rejecting a bill or statute.
Moral hazard
Situation in which one party engages in risky behavior knowing that it is protected against the risk because another party will incur any resulting loss.
Confidentiality
Treatment of personal information that has been disclosed to another person or organization.
Risk position
Organization’s desired gain or acceptable loss in value.
Regulation
Rules or orders issued by an administrative agency of government that usually have the force of law.
Global integration (GI)
Globalization strategy that emphasizes consistency of approach, standardization of processes, and a common corporate culture across global operations.
Codetermination
Form of corporate governance that requires a typical management board and a supervisory board and that allows management and employees to participate in strategic decision making.
Workforce analysis
Systematic approach to anticipate human capital needs and data HR professionals can use to ensure that appropriate knowledge, skills, or abilities will be available when needed to accomplish organizational goals and objectives.
Strategic fit
State in which an organization’s strategy is consistent with its external opportunities and circumstances and its internal structure, resources, and capabilities.
Duty of care
Principle that organizations should take all steps that are reasonably possible to ensure the health, safety, and well-being of employees and protect them from foreseeable injury.
Artificial intelligence (AI)
Ability of a computer to imitate human thought and behavior.
ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA)
Amendments to U.S. Americans with Disabilities Act covering the definition of individuals regarded as having a disability, mitigating measures, and other rules to guide the analysis of what constitutes a disability.
Employee life cycle (ELC)
Activities associated with an employee’s tenure in an organization.
Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
U.S act that provides employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for family members or because of a serious health condition of the employee.
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
U.S. act that creates a rolling time frame for filing wage discrimination claims and expands plaintiff field beyond employee who was discriminated against.
Risk control
Action taken to manage a risk.
Strategic planning
Process of setting goals and designing a path toward a competitive position.
Succession planning
Process of implementing a talent management strategy for identifying and fostering the development of high-potential employees or other job candidates who, over time, may move into leadership positions of increased responsibility.
Multinational enterprises (MNEs)
Organizations that own or control production or service facilities in one or more countries other than the home country.
Apprenticeship
Related to technical skills training; often a partnership between employers and unions.
Turnover rate
Annualized formula that tracks number of separations and total number of workforce employees per month.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Varying ways an organization can create value, looking beyond traditional profit measures of revenue and expenses; includes such areas as philanthropy, volunteerism, corporate-sponsored community programs, social change, sustainability, corporate governance, employee rights, and workplace safety.
Rule of law
Concept that stipulates that no individual is beyond the reach of the law and that authority is exercised only in accordance with written and publicly disclosed laws.
Works councils
Groups that represent employees, generally on a local or organizational level, for the primary purpose of receiving from employers and conveying to employees information about the workforce and the health of the enterprise.
Sustainability
Practice of purchasing and using resources wisely by balancing economic, social, and environmental concerns, with the goal of securing the interests of present and future generations.
Risk appetite
Amount of uncertainty an organization is willing to pursue or to accept to attain its risk management goals.
Mind mapping
Data-sorting technique in which group members add related ideas and indicate logical connections, eventually grouping similar ideas.
Job enlargement
Process of broadening a job’s scope by adding different tasks to the job.
Point-factor system
Job evaluation method that looks at compensable factors (such as skills and working conditions) that reflect how much a job adds value to the organization; points are assigned to each factor and then added to come up with an overall point value for the job.
National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)
U.S. act that protected and encouraged the growth of the union movement; established workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively with employers.
Performance appraisal
Process of measuring and evaluating an employee’s adherence to performance standards and providing feedback to the employee.
Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corporation
1971 U.S. case that stated that an employer may not, in the absence of business necessity, refuse to hire women with preschool-aged children while hiring men with such children.
Productivity-based pay
Pay based on the quantity of work and outputs that can be accurately measured.
Training
Process by which employees are provided with the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) specific to a task or job.
Cloud computing
Style of computing in which scalable IT-enabled capabilities are delivered as a service using Internet technologies.
J curve
Visualization of the impact of change on productivity. When change is introduced, there is typically a decrease in productivity and then a gradual return to, or, ideally, a surpassing of previous levels of productivity.
Retention
Ability of an organization to keep its employees.
Occupational injury
Injury that results from a work-related accident or exposure involving a single incident in the work environment.
Blended learning
Planned approach to learning that includes a combination of instructor-led training, self-directed study, and/or on-the-job training.
Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures
Procedural document designed to assist employers in complying with federal regulations prohibiting discrimination.
Principal-agent problem
Situation in which an agent (e.g., an employee) makes decisions for a principal (e.g., an employer) potentially on the basis of personal incentives that may not be aligned with the principal’s incentives.
Value
The benefit created when an organization meets its strategic goals; measure of usefulness, worth, or importance.
Value chain
The process by which an organization creates the product or service it offers to the customer.
Conflict of interest
Situation in which a person or organization may benefit from undue influence due to involvement in outside activities, relationships, or investments that conflict with or have an impact on the employment relationship or its outcomes.
Vicarious liability
Legal doctrine under which a party can be held liable for the wrongful actions of another party.
Lagging indicator
Type of metric describing an activity or change in performance that has already occurred.
Equal Pay Act (EPA)
U.S. act that prohibits wage discrimination by requiring equal pay for equal or “substantially equal” work performed by men and women.
Sexual orientation
Sexual, romantic, or emotional/spiritual attraction that one feels for persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or both sexes and more than one gender.
Systems thinking
Process for understanding how seemingly independent units within a larger entity interact with and influence one another.
Force-field analysis
Group decision-making tool designed to analyze the forces favoring and opposing a particular change. A factor is weighted, and the factors on each side are summed and compared.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
First comprehensive U.S. law making it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
Hacking
Act of deliberately accessing computer data without permission.
NLRB v. Weingarten
Landmark 1975 U.S. labor relations case that dealt with the right of a unionized employee to have another person present during certain investigatory interviews.
Stay interviews
Structured conversations with employees for the purpose of determining which aspects of a job encourage employee retention or may be improved to do so.
Triple bottom line
Economic, social, and environmental impact metrics used to determine an organization’s success.
Webinar
Form of webconferencing where a presenter facilitates communication of material or information to an audience in real time.
Performance bonus
One-time payment made to an employee; also called a lump-sum increase (LSI).
Reliability
Extent to which a measurement instrument provides consistent results.
Cosourcing
Arrangement in which an enterprise and a vendor share different tasks within a larger complex, often strategic responsibility.
Code of conduct
Principles that guide decision making and behavior in an organization.
Onboarding
Process of assimilating new employees into an organization through orientation programs and their experiences in their first months of employment.
Pregnancy Discrimination Act
U.S. act that prohibits discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.
Reverse innovation
Innovations created for or by emerging-economy markets and then imported to developed-economy markets.
Distance learning
Process of delivering educational or instructional programs to locations away from a classroom or site.
Information system (IS)
Way to collect, organize, store, analyze, and share data.
On-the-job training (OJT)
Training provided to employees at the work site utilizing demonstration and performance of job tasks.
Disparate impact
Type of discrimination that results when a policy that appears to be neutral has a discriminatory effect; also known as adverse impact.
Center of excellence (COE)
An organizational structure that leverages staff expertise in certain areas to improve the entire organization’s strategic performance.
Compensation philosophy
Short but broad statement documenting an organization’s guiding principles and core values about employee compensation.
Near-shoring
Practice of contracting a part of business processes or production to an external company in a country that is relatively close (e.g., within the same own region).
Common law
Legal system in which each case is considered in terms of how it relates to legal decisions that have already been made; evolves through judicial decisions over time.
