Human Resources Exam 2 Prep

A typical unemployment insurance program requires which of the following?

Eligible individuals must submit an application for benefits

Which of these bonus incentive plans uses employee and management committees to gain cost-reduction improvements?

Scanlon plan

Flexible benefit plans

allow employees to choose benefits suited to their needs

Employee wages and salaries, incentives, bonuses, and commissions are part of

direct compensation

Employees covered by the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act are labeled

nonexempt employees

A manager who rates an employee's performance largely on the basis of the employee's behavior in the last month, rather than considering the entire six-month evaluation period, commits a

recency error

Piecework is appropriate when

the job is fairly standardized

Halle and Tierney work for the federal government. How many holidays can they expect to be paid for each year?

10

For the Family and Medical Leave Act to apply to an organization, it must have how many employees during 20 or more calendar workweeks in the current or preceding year?

50

When individual employees are able to choose the benefits best suited to their particular needs, their employer is offering which of the following?

Cafeteria plans

Administrative purposes of performance appraisal include which of the following?

Documenting personnel decisions

Which of the following pieces of legislation greatly improved the communication of employee benefits information?

Employee Retirement Income Security Act

Which of the following statements presents a guideline for meeting legal requirements of performance reviews?

Employee evaluations must be based on clear, written job standards.

VirtualCorp is reviewing its benefits package. Which of the following benefits would VirtualCorp be able to discontinue since it is not a legally required employee benefit?

Employer contributions to minimum life insurance

Globisys uses a bonus plan that is based on overall group productivity in which the determination of a bonus includes both production employees and nonproduction. Which type of gainsharing program is being used?

Improshare

Which rating format uses three specific behavioral descriptions relevant to each trait and then asks supervisors to evaluate whether an employee's behavior is better than, equal to, or worse than the standard for each behavior?

Mixed-standard scale

Developmental purposes of performance appraisal include which of the following?

Recognizing individual performance

Employees on the G13 production line at Globisys are paid a set rate for each unit produced. They are working under which type of incentive plan?

Straight piecework

Which of the following explains the failure of an appraisal program?

They are not useful for the majority of employees in the middle in terms of performance

Performance appraisal methods can be broadly classified as which of the following?

Trait, behavioral, or results

When setting performance measures for incentive systems, we can say that the best measures are those that

are quantitative, simple to understand, and show a clear relationship to improved performance.

Social Security payments of survivors' insurance benefits calculations are

based on the worker's lifetime earnings covered by Social Security.

Employer-sponsored child care programs and elder care programs are similar because

both programs try to maintain or increase productivity by assisting employees with their responsibilities outside the workplace.

A manager who rates an average employee's performance high based on a comparison of that employee to poor performers commits a

contrast error

Which of the following is an external factor that can influence the rates at which employees are paid?

cost of living

If the performance evaluations that salespeople receive are based solely on sales revenue to the exclusion of other important factors, the performance management system suffers from

criterion deficiency

If an appraisal focuses on a narrow set of results criteria to the exclusion of other important but less quantifiable performance dimensions, the performance management system may suffer from

criterion deficiency.

The Social Security insurance program is funded by

employee contributions with matching employer contributions.

Online benefits systems, which can result in significant cost savings in benefits administration, are often referred to as

employee self-service systems.

The philosophy behind the Scanlon plan is that

employees should make suggestions to improve performance and be rewarded for their contributions.

Employees' anticipation that greater work effort will result in a valued reward forms the basis of

expectancy theory

When the organization pays wages that are relatively equal to that of other employers for similar work, it is the basis of

external equity

A method of rating performance in which the rater chooses from statements that appear equally favorable or equally unfavorable is known as the

forced-choice method.

One section of the evaluation form used at SkyGen lists the traits of initiative, independence, cooperation, attention to detail, and punctuality. The rater indicates the degree to which the employee exhibits each trait on a 5-point scale. This illustrates the

graphic rating scale method.

group incentive plans include which of the following?

improshare

According to Sammer, establishing a clear link between performance and payout

is one of the characterisitics of a successful incentive plan

Which of the following is an individual type of incentive plan?

lump sum merit pay

When communicating benefits programs to employees, it is a good idea to use

multiple media techniques.

Holiday pay, sick leave, and vacation pay are examples of

payment for time not worked

One advantage of peer evaluations is that

peers may furnish more accurate and valid information than supervisors

Jamie and Blake are both line workers at CompteOrg. This week, they each worked 40 hours. Jamie produced 83 units this week, and Blake produced 71 units. Jamie received higher pay for the week than Blake did. Jamie and Blake are compensated based on

piecework

Instrumentality of compensation package elements refers to

rewards that are valued and motivate employees

Employees whose compensation is calculated on the basis of weekly, biweekly, or monthly periods are classified as

salaried employees

Raj likes to give small rewards to employees "caught in the act" of doing something good, even if that effort is not directly tied to a performance standard. By doing this, Raj is making use of a

spot bonus

The pay for employees on the GRX line at Globisys is not based on the actual amount of time it takes them to complete a job. Rather, they are paid based on a predetermined amount of time for completing the job. These employees are working under the

standard hour plan.

The strategic relevance of performance appraisals refers to the extent to which

standards relate to the overall objectives of the organization

Which of the following falls into the category of enterprise incentive plans?

stock options

Salespeople at Globisys are compensated based on a percentage of sales. This is known as a

straight commission plan

A sales incentive plan that permits salespeople to be paid for performing various duties not reflected immediately in their sales volume is known as a

straight salary plan

In order to motivate employees, Evan wants to use an appraisal system that allows them to see clearly how their performance ties into the overall performance of the firm. Evan should use

the balanced scorecard approach.

The measure of the average change in prices over time in a fixed "market basket" of goods and services is known as

the consumer price index

Unemployment compensation payments to individuals vary according to

their previous wage rate and length of previous employment.

Which of the following explains why a company would increase the amounts that employees have to pay toward their benefits by increasing premiums or deductibles?

to contain costs

What is a common goal of a strategic compensation policy?

to reward employees past performance

Globisys is launching a new incentive plan for individual pay. To increase its chances for success, the plan should measure

work that is independent of other's contribution