SHRM Workplace Flashcards
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.
Adverse impact
Type of discrimination that results when a policy that appears to be neutral has a discriminatory effect; also known as disparate impact
Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)
U.S. act that prohibits discrimination in the workplace on the basis of age.
Amendment
Modification of the U.S. Constitution or a U.S.
law.
Americans with Disabilities
Act (ADA)
U.S. act that prohibits discrimination against a
qualified individual with a disability because of
his/her disability.
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.
Assignees
Employees who work outside their home
countries.
Bill
A proposal presented to a legislative body for
possible enactment as a statute
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.
Burlington Industries, Inc.
v. Ellerth
U.S. court ruling that distinguished between
supervisor harassment that results in tangible
employment action and supervisor harassment
that does not.
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.
Civil Rights Act of 1991
U.S. act that expands the possible damage
awards available to victims of intentional
discrimination to include compensatory and
punitive damages; gives plaintiffs in cases of
alleged discrimination the right to a jury trial.
Comparable worth
Concept that jobs filled primarily by women that
require skills, effort, responsibility, and working
conditions comparable to similar jobs filled
primarily by men should have the same
classifications and salaries.
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.
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.
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
Contingency plan
Protocol that an organization implements when
an identified risk event occurs.
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
Covering
Defensive behavior that occurs when an
organization recruits a diverse workforce but,
consciously or otherwise, promotes assimilation
rather than inclusion.
Disability
Physical or mental impairment that substantially
limits one’s major life activities.
Disparate impact
Type of discrimination that results when a policy
that appears to be neutral has a discriminatory
effect; also known as adverse impact.
Disparate treatment
Type of discrimination that occurs when an
applicant or employee is treated differently
because of his or her membership in a
protected class.
Diversity
Differences in people’s characteristics (such as
socioeconomic status, beliefs, personality,
thought processes, work style, race, age,
ethnicity, gender, religion, education, job
function, etc.).
Diversity council
Task force created to define a diversity and
inclusion initiative and guide the development
and implementation process.
Drug-Free Workplace Act
U.S. law that requires federal contractors with
contracts of $100,000 or more as well as
recipients of grants from federal government to
certify that they are maintaining a drug-free
workplace.
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.
Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA)
U.S. act that prevents private employers from
requiring applicants or employees to take a
polygraph test for preemployment screening or
during the course of employment, with certain
exemptions.
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.
Employee Retirement
Income Security Act
(ERISA)
U.S. act that established uniform minimum
standards to ensure that employee benefit and
pension plans are set up and maintained in a
fair and financially sound manner.
Employees
Individuals who exchange work for wages or
salary; in the U.S., workers who are covered by
Fair Labor Standards Act regulations as
determined by the IRS.
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.
Equal Employment
Opportunity Act
U.S act that amended Title VII and gave the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
authority to “back up” its administrative findings
and conduct its own enforcement litigation.
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.
Essential functions
Primary job duties that a qualified individual
must be able to perform, either with or without
reasonable accommodation.
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.
Exempt employees
Employees who are excluded from U.S. Fair
Labor Standards Act minimum wage and
overtime pay requirements.
Fair and Accurate Credit
Transactions Act (FACT
Act)
U.S act that frees employers who use third
parties to conduct workplace investigations from
the consent and disclosure requirements of the
Fair Credit Reporting Act in certain cases.
Fair Credit Reporting Act
FCRA
U.S act that protects privacy of background
information and ensures that information
supplied is accurate.
Fair Labor Standards Act
FLSA
U.S act that establishes minimum wage,
overtime pay, youth employment, and recordkeeping standards affecting full- and part-time
workers in the private sector and in federal,
state, and local governments.
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.
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.
Gender identity
Refers to one’s internal, personal sense of
being a man or a woman (or boy or girl), which
may or may not be the same as one’s sexual
assignment at birth.
General Duty Clause
Statement in U.S. Occupational Safety and
Health Act that requires employers subject to
OSHA to provide employees with a safe and
healthy work environment.
Genetic Information
Nondiscrimination Act
(GINA)
U.S act that prohibits discrimination against
individuals on the basis of their genetic
information in both employment and health
insurance.
Global integration (GI)
Globalization strategy that emphasizes
consistency of approach, standardization of
processes, and a common corporate culture
across global operations.
Globalization
Status of growing interconnectedness and
interdependency among countries, people,
markets, and organizations worldwide.