Comp planning and management OLS 47600 study guide
Research investigating high-performance workplaces found that performance-based pay _____ when combined with other high-performance practices.
-Improves attitudes and behaviors
Pay for temporary workers is based upon
-the internal structure of their home employer.
How many weeks of leave does Family Medical Leave Act (1993) mandate for all workers at companies that employ 50 or more people?
12 weeks
In the strategic approach to pay, internal alignment is the _____ issue to be decided
2nd
The ability triangle includes______.
Selection
Routine work is also termed _____.
transactional work
The ADEA _____.
was amended in 1990 to include the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act
Nina is a high-performing individual who works best alone. Which of the following companies is the most appropriate for her?
A company that uses a hierarchical pay structure to pay its employees based on performance
The _____ often comes into play if organizations target reductions among higher paid employees because higher paid employees also tend to be older employees.
ADEA
Denial of jobs, promotions, or training opportunities to qualified women or minorities are examples of____.
Access discrimination
When a job involves very routine, mechanistic tasks, the most appropriate appraisal format is:
BARS
All of the following are categories of rater training EXCEPT _____ training
Behavior modeling
The _____ publishes extensive information on various occupations in different geographic areas. It is a major source of publicly available compensation data
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Employees in a multiskilling system earn pay increase
By acquiring new knowledge
_____ allows employees who have resigned or have been laid off through no fault of their own to continue receiving health coverage under their employer's plan at a cost borne by the employee
COBRA (1984)
The job evaluation method that most resembles a bookcase with many shelves is:
Classification
_____ are more likely to conduct job evaluations of senior management jobs.
Compensation Managers
_____ translate each core competency into action
Competency sets
Mich Inc., a hardware store, has a rating system in place that rates employees on their friendliness, usefulness, and product knowledge. Based on the ratings an employee receives, he or she gets an incentive. The compensation strategy followed by Mich is most closely described as a:
Customer-focused strategy
In which of the following types of cases is the focus on the discriminatory consequences rather than the intent to discriminate?
Disparate impact
____, a software package, allows workers to make health-care choices, allocate savings to 401(k)s or other savings vehicles, and access vacation schedules.
Employee self-service
Which of the following is NOT a factor in defining equal work according to the Equal Pay Act?
Equal experience
Exchange value is always higher than use value.
False
Halo error is the error that occurs when an employee is downgraded across all performance dimensions exclusively because of poor performance in one dimension.
False
Most organizations find it more practical and cost-effective to develop their own quantitative job analysis questionnaires than modifying existing questionnaires.
False
The degree to which pay influences individual and aggregate motivation among employees is called the sorting effect
False
Which of the following types of workers are generally NOT covered by workers' compensation?
Farm workers
Contingent workers receive _____ benefits than regular workers; contingent workers' benefits cost _____ for employers than it does for regular workers.
Fewer;Less
The first issue in setting up a benefits package is:
Finding out who should be protected or benefited.
The trend in recent variable-pay design is to combine the best of _____ and _____ plans.
Gain-sharing; Profit-sharing
An employee who changes jobs four or more times during his or her career will likely receive a pension approximately _____ as that of an employee whose working career is spent with one employer, assuming that both employees have the same starting salary and receive annual increases equal to inflation rate.
Half the size
Which of the following statements about anchoring/framing is true?
If states that initial data strongly affect decisions/beliefs
Which of the following is true regarding the Employment Cost Index (ECI)?
It allows comparison of changes in its average costs to an all-industry average.
Which of the following is NOT a provision of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938?
It requires that employers provide 15 weeks of medical leave to employees.
The pay-level policy that is most likely to reduce pay dissatisfaction is a (n) _____
Lead policy
The most common form of outcomes-based appraisal is:
MBO
A survey conducted in January 2013 found that the median pay effective January 1, 2013, for a clerk was $22,000 and that the forecast rate of wage increases in the market for 2013 was 5 percent and another 5 percent for 2014. An employer choosing to follow a lead strategy of 4 percent above the market for the plan year will need to _____.
Multiply the salary by 105 percent and then by 109 percent
One of the more readily accessible sources for generic job descriptions is the _____
O*NET
The _____ specifies the number of breaks that must be provided in an eight-hour workday.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration legislation
Leadership, customer orientation, and functional expertise are examples of which group of competencies?
Organization specific
Which of the following types of rankings would be least preferred by managers of more than 10-15 employees?
Paired-comparison ranking
Available evidence indicates managers believe the most important factor for pay increases is _____.
Performance
The _____ method of job evaluation is the most commonly used method in the United States and Europe.
Point
The _____ method of job evaluation uses compensable factors.
Point
When pay is based on individual performance, turnover tends to be highest among _____.
Poor performers
If Philadelphia has a CPI of 165 and Houston has a CPI of 145, and if both cities started with bases of 100, it means that _____.
Prices have risen faster in Philadelphia since the base year than in Houston
Among pay-mix alternatives, the percentage of base pay is highest in _____.
Security or commitment policy
Surveys show the most popular type of variable pay plans are _____.
Special recognition plans
If you had repair work done on your car, the shop most likely used the _____ plan to pay the mechanic.
Standard hour
_____ looks at how an organization does its work: activities pursued to accomplish specific objectives for specific customers.
Supply chain analysis
The process of multiplying survey data by some factor judged to reflect the difference between a survey benchmark job and a company job is called ____
Survey leveling
Which of the following regarding child labor is NOT true?
The ILO finds that child labor is increasing on a global basis. (Are true: The highest rates of child labor are in sub-Saharan Africa. Persons under 16 cannot be employed in jobs involving interstate commerce except for nonhazardous work for a parent or guardian. Persons under 18 cannot work in hazardous jobs such as logging and meat packing.)
The best appraisal format for employee development is:
The MBO format
The job analysis method that uses information input, mental processes, work output, job context, other job characteristics, relationships with other persons, and general dimensions is _____.
The PAQ
Susan works in a sterile laboratory that requires her to scrub and put on protective clothing. Which of the following acts determines whether she should be paid for this time?
The portal-to-portal Act
Which of the following is an advantage of skill-based pay plans?
They aid in deploying workers in a way that better matches the work flow
Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of aligned pay structures?
They are designed to increase the turnover rate.
Which of the following is a feature of defined contribution plans?
They are faster to vest than defined contribution plans
Which of the following programs introduced by Congress includes restrictions on executive pay that are designed to discourage executives from taking "unnecessary and excessive risks"?
Troubled Asset Relief Program
The most common bases for determining internal structures are:
Work content and its value
Based on the opinions of 10,000 U.S. workers, Hudson found that when given their choice of unconventional benefits, most employees would select _____.
a more flexible work schedule
Components identified as vital to the success of both Scanlon and Rucker plans are:
a productivity norm and effective worker committees.
Deming's major argument regarding performance appraisals is that:
the work situation is the major determinant of performance.
HoldDesk Inc. has an annual labor cost of $3,000,000. It has a turnover rate of 10 percent and a planned average increase of 5 percent. The turnover effect is _____.
$15,000
A compa-ratio is the average actual pay divided by the midpoint of the pay grade.
True
Advocates of competencies say that by focusing on optimum performance, rather than average performance, competencies can help employees maintain their marketability.
True
All of the following are categories of rater training EXCEPT _____ training
True
Employers who have frequent layoffs pay higher tax rates than those with few layoffs.
True
Evidence suggests that skill-based pay may not increase productivity.
True
High performance ratings are nearly always statistically related to high merit increases.
True
Scaled competency indicators are similar to degrees of compensable factors.
True
Teachers will feel pay structures are fair even when they are relatively low in the internal structure if they work in a high-paying school district.
True
labor unions support small pay differentials.
True
the three factors usually used to determine the relevant labor markets are the occupation, geography, and competitors.
True
The _____ recognizes the fact that when people leave an organization, they typically are replaced by employees who earn a lower wage.
Turnover effect
The _____ Act extends the prevailing-wage concept to manufacturers or suppliers of goods for government contracts.
Walsh-Healey Public Contracts
Multiply the salary by 105 percent and then by 109 percent
Lead/Leg
When employees are paid more than the maximum of their pay grade, these rates are called _____ rates.
Red circle
_____ is defined by the Department of Labor as the experience, training, education, and ability as measured by the performance requirements of a particular job.
SKill
A horn error occurs when an employee is:
downgraded across all performance dimensions because of poor performance on one dimension.
The decisions to implement pay for performance, flat rate pay, and profit sharing are examples of _____ policy decisions.
employee contributions
When a company moves from an individual incentive plan to a group incentive plan, the company is most likely to experience _____.
higher turnover among high performers
The second step of developing a total compensation strategy is to:
map the strategy
Trying to measure an ROI for any compensation strategy implies that
people are "human capital," similar to other factors of production
The Davis-Bacon Act _____
requires that mechanics and laborers on public construction projects be paid the prevailing wage in an area
If red circle rates become common throughout an organization, then the design of the ranges and the evaluation of the jobs should be reexamined.
True
In a totally decentralized pay system, employees are likely to be treated unequally and unfairly.
True
Pension and health benefits are a very large component of total compensation for many large companies such as American Airlines and GM.
True
Research shows that the weights assigned to compensable factors can affect the resulting pay structure.
True
Supervisors tend to weigh negative attributes more heavily than positive attributes
True
The content and value of work are the most common bases for determining internal structures
True
The main appeal of competencies is the direct link to the organization's strategy.
True
Validity refers to the degree to which an evaluation assesses the relative worth of jobs to an organization.
True