HRIR 3021 Exam 1

What is disparate impact?

- A condition in which employment practices are seemingly neutral yet disproportionately exclude a protected group from employment opportunities.

What is affirmative action? What are the key components of an affirmative action plan?

- A program that strives to ensure equal employment opportunity. - A central premise that, absent discrimination, a contractors workforce will generally reflect the gender, racial, and ethnic profile of the labor pools from which the contractor recruits and selects. - An organizations active effort to find opportunities to hire or promote people in a particular group. Intended to encourage employers to recruit qualified individuals with disabilities and to make reasonable accommodations to all those people to become active members of the labor market.

Responsibilities of HR departments

- Administrative services and transactions: Handling administrative task efficiently and with commitment to quality - Business partner services: Developing effective HR systems that help the organization meet its goals for attracting, keeping, and developing people with skills it needs. - Strategic partner: Contributing to the company's strategy through an understanding of its existing and needed human resource and ways HR practices can give the company a competitive advantage

When does Title VII apply?

- Ads - Recruitment and Selection - Pay and Benefits - Promotion - Training - Discharge Organizations that employ 15 or more persons working 20 or more weeks a year and that are involved in interstate commerce, as well as state and local governments, employment agencies, and labor organizations.

What are the functions of human resource departments?

- Analysis and design work - Recruitment and selection - Training and development - Performance management - Compensation and benefits - Employee relations - Personnel policies - Employee data and information systems - Compliance with law - Support for strategy

What are major changes occurring within organizations and the external environment and identify the challenges they pose for human capital management?

- Demographic Shift - aging workforce - diversity - immigration - Employment Relationship - Outsourcing, automation on demand workers - Jobs not critical are sent to third party vendors - 100,000+ workers now are independent contractors - Globalization - Cost control - Cultural issues - Competencies - Offshoring - Technology - Flexibility - Social media - Obsolete jobs - Data analytics - Security HRM professionals need to recruit talent, create and manage a team with autonomy and accountability, use data to make better decisions, align employees with goals, and make better decisions with scientific evidence

What should employers do about sexual harassment?

- Develop sexual harassment policy - Communicate the policy - Train employees to identify inappropriate behavior - Investigate and take action

What is the Lily Ledbetter Pay Act?

- Discrimination in pay - not being paid the same as a coworker, where the difference is due to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability. - Equal pay for equal work - Allows employees to claim discriminatory confirmation within a set time after receiving a discriminatory paycheck

Explain the human resource responsibilities of SUPERVISORS

- Help define jobs - Motivate, with support from pay, benefits, and other rewards - Communicate Policies - Recommend pay increases and promotions - Appraise performance - Forecast HR needs - Provide training - Interview (and select) candidates

What are USERRAs main provisions?

- Leaves of Absence - Return to employment rights - Prompt re-employment on return - Protection from discharge/retaliation - Health insurance continuation - Continued seniority rights

Define Human Resource Management

- Policies, practices and systems that influence employees' behavior, attitudes and performance - Referred to as involving "people practices" - Employees and customers are more satisfied and companies tend to be more productive, innovative and develop more favorable reputation.

What were the basic human rights identified by Immanuel Kant?

- Right of free consent: People have the right to be treated as they consent to be treated. - Right of privacy: right of privacy in private lives - Right of freedom of conscience: right to refuse what goes against morals, religion, and beliefs - Right to freedom of speech: right to say what they want as long as its in good conscious - Right to due process: right to a fair and impartial hearing if they believe their rights are being violated.

What was the humans relations movement and the Hawthorne studies?

- Studies that found giving workers small breaks or changes of environment like changing lights can increase productivity. - The environment had less effect than positive reinforcement/interaction. - Mental attitudes, proper supervision, and informal social relationships experienced in a group were key to productivity and job satisfaction. - Scientific Management was the prevailing management philosophy. It was based on time and motion studies, and how fast and efficient people could work

What are different types of human capital?

- Training - Experience - Judgement - Intelligence - Relationships - Insight

What is the significance of the McDonnel Douglas v. Green case?

- Was considered the first major federal court case dealing with disparate treatment. - Revolved around not being hired because of race - In a prima facie case the plaintiff must provide evidence they were discriminated upon because of one of their traits (race, religion etc.). They will likely win unless the defendant can prove otherwise.

Explain how HRM contributes to an organizations performance.

- analyzing work and designing jobs - determining how many employees with specific knowledge and skills are needed (human resource planning) - attracting potential employees (recruiting) - choosing employees (selection) - teaching employees how to perform their jobs and preparing them for the future (training and development) - evaluating their performance (performance management) - rewarding employees (compensation), and creating a positive work environment (employee relations) An organization performs best when all of these practices are managed well.

What is disparate treatment?

- differing treatment of individuals, where the differences are based on the individuals race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability status.

What is the 4/5ths rule?

-Rule of thumb that provides evidence of potential discrimination if an organizations hiring rate for a minority group is less than four-fifths the hiring rate for the majority group - Compares rates of hiring, not numbers of employees hired.

What happened with the Triangle Factory Fire, and how has that affected the workplace?

A fire in a factory that killed 146 people. Brought out public debate about worker safety and rights. This led to legislation requiring improved factory standards and helped spur the growth of the international ladies garment workers union, which fought for better working conditions for sweatshop workers. Led to the first HR Departments in the US. Led to new reforms to make factories safer and worker friendly. Overall it increased awareness about worker rights and safety.

What is a disability?

A physical ops mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. There is a record of having an impairment or being regarded as having such an impairment.

What is the ADEA?

Age Discrimination in Employment Act - Prohibits discrimination against workers who are over the age of 40. - Outlaws hiring, firing, setting compensation rates, or other employment decisions based on a persons age being over 40 - Does not apply if age is a BFOG - Cannot mandate early retirement

What is ADA, and be able to describe how a determination is made for reasonable accommodations, including (identifying essential job functions, and if an undue hardship exists).

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 - A law that protects individuals with disabilities from being discriminated against in the workplace. - Occurs when an employer treats a qualified individual with a disability who is an employee or applicant unfavorably because he or she has a disability. - Prohibits discrimination based on disability in all employment practices, such as job application procedures, hiring, firing, promotions, compensation, and training. - Does not include obesity, substance abuse, irritability, and poor judgment.

What is human capital?

An organization's employees, described in terms of their training, experience, judgment, intelligence, relationships, and insight - employee characteristics that add economic value to the organization.

What is a BFOQ and when are they legal? Be able to give examples

Bona Fide Occupational Qualification - A necessary qualification for performing a job. - Gender - A female handing out towels in a women's locker room - Age - Mandatory retirement age of 65 for pilots - National origin - Documentary about hispanics, can use hispanic actors - Religion - Priest denied employment in Synagogue

What are the origins of Human Resources? How has HR evolved over the last century? How has the workplace changed and the perception of worker value?

Early "HR" was seen as a place to handle worker/management issues, and helped companies avoid unionization. HR also helped companies comply with labor laws. The modern concern with managing workers comes from the Industrial Revolution. Pre-Industrial Revolution: (Autonomy, self management, flexible hours, work at home in small gaps, household income), Post Industrial Revolution: (No autonomy, no self management, inflexible hours, commute to large, noisy workplace, individual income), Industrial: Hard, unsafe labor, kids in the workplace, steam driven factories, low skilled employees, working class, 80% of society, little power., Led to: Concerns about conditions, workers banded together in unions.

Describe the importance and key components of the Family Medical Leave Act.

Eligible employees of covered employers may receive unpaid, job-protected leave - Twelve workweeks of leave in a 12-month period for: - The birth or adoption of a child - To care for an immediate family members medical condition - To care for the employees medical condition - Medical caregiver provisions for service members

What is the EEOC and what do they do?

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission - An agency of the Department of Justice charged with enforcing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other ani-discrimination laws.

What are allowable exceptions to pay differences under the Equal pay Act?

If the pay differences result from differences in seniority, merit, quantity or quality of production, or any factor other than sex, then the differences are legal. Example - A man has been employed by a company longer and done more quality work than a woman. The man is hired.

Who qualifies for the ADEA (Age Discrimination in Employment Act)

Individuals over the age of 40

Who qualifies under Title VII as a protected class?

Individuals who are discriminated by race, color, religion, sex, or national origin

What are the responsibilities of human resource management related to employment laws and ethics?

Make sure businesses operate within the law and promote the well being of its employees. - Creating policies and code of conduct - Training employees, training managers on appropriate behavior - Watching for and responding to unethical behavior - Being ethical in their own practices - Making sure practices do not encourage unethical bhevior - Following the laws

What are the different types of sexual harassment?

Quid Pro Quo - harassment in which employment outcomes are linked to the harassed individual granting sexual favors to the harasser. Hostile Environment - Intimidating or offensive working conditions that unreasonably affect an individuals work performance or psychological well-being

What are ethical issues in human resource management?

Race Sex Color Disability Age Retaliation National origin

What is the significance of the Griggs v. Duke case?

The courts held that employers cannot discriminate or shut out a certain group unless it is a necessity to their business model (construction can't hire paraplegics).

How does human capital provide a competitive advantage?

The higher a companies human capital, the more knowledge and skills their employees have enabling them to produce more quality services.

What is USERRA? Why is it important?

Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994. - Employers must reemploy workers who left jobs to fulfill military duties for up to five years. - When service members return from active duty, the employer must reemploy them in the job they would have held if they had not left to serve the military, providing them with the same seniority, status, and pay rate they would have earned if their employment had not been interrupted.

What is at-will employment? Can an at-will employer really fire anyone at any time, for any reason?

Unless there is a union or other contract that says otherwise, people can usually be fired at any time for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all - as long as the reason is not considered illegal discrimination.