Deck 2: Planning

Question 1

The marketing director needs to hire a replacement for the marketing coordinator, who is being promoted. The position has changed quite a bit since the last time the job was advertised, and the director is looking to HR to assist in redefining the job requirements so that the recruiting process can begin. Which of the following would not be used in determining the job requirements?

A)Job competencies
B)Job description
C)Job specifications
D)Candidate profile

Answer 1

Candidate profile

Question 2

Which of the following is not a BFOQ?

A)A synagogue hiring a new rabbi requires that the rabbi be Jewish.
B)A lingerie catalog hires only female models.
C)A retail store in a predominantly Asian neighborhood advertises for Asian clerks.
D)A swimming club requires that the men's changing room attendant be male.

Answer 2

A retail store in a predominantly Asian neighborhood advertises for Asian clerks.

Question 3

The court case that identified adverse impact as an unlawful employment practice was which of the following?

A)Griggs v. Duke Power Co
B)Albemarle Paper v. Moody
C)Washington v. Davis
D)Taxman v. School Board of Piscatway

Answer 3

Griggs v. Duke Power Co

Question 4

To determine the numbers and types of jobs necessary to realize business goals, HR must assess the KSAs available within the organization during a staffing needs analysis. What other factor is necessary to complete the assessment?

A)The KSAs needed to achieve future goals
B)The tasks, duties, and responsibilities for the work
C)The KSAs available in the local labor market
D)The organization's core competencies

Question 5

Your New Orleans plant has an opening for a controller, and four candidates have been selected for interviews. Jack, the son of a plant employee, worked as an accountant for two years to put himself through the Wharton Business School and recently earned his MBA. Richard is a CPA with eight years of experience in a public accounting firm. Susan also has a CPA and has worked as an accounting manager in the corporate office of a large corporation in the same industry. Jane does not have a CPA or MBA but has worked as controller of a smaller local competitor for eight years. After interviewing all four candidates, the general manager told you he wants to hire Jack because he shows promise. You know from previous conversation with the GM that he also worked his way through college. Which of the following biases could be influencing the GM's decision?

A)Knowledge of predictor
B)Halo effect
C)Similar-to-me
D)Gut feeling

Question 6

Please refer to the following table for this question. A company advertised for 100 sales representative positions. They received 650 applications and hired the 100 employees as follows:
Group | # Applicants | % of Total Hired
Black | 140 | 23
Asian | 120 | 21
Hispanic | 145 | 19
Caucasian | 230 | 35
Native American | 15 | 2
Total | 650 | 100
Which group has the highest selection rate?

A)Black
B)Asian
C)Caucasian
D)Native American

Question 7

Which of the following violates age discrimination provisions in the Employment Act?

A)A 62-year old cashier is demoted during store restructuring, while several younger, less qualified employees are not demoted
B)A 50-year old female editor who has had some job performance issues is transferred to a different department and is replaced by a younger editor
C)A 22-year old animator is thought to be too young to be considered for the Director role of the animation department
D)A 74-year old project manager is offered early retirement

Question 8

An affirmative action plan must be completed by employers who meet which criteria?

A)All employers with 25 or more employees
B)Federal contractors and subcontractors with contracts of $10,000 or more in a 12-month period
C)Federal contractors with contracts of $2,500 or more in a 12-month period
D)Federal contractors with 50 or more employees and contracts of $50,000 or more each year

Question 9

When a reduction in force occurs, the ADEA allows that protected employees may waive their rights under some circumstances. For the waiver to be valid, the protected employee must be allowed how long to review and consider the agreement?

A)7 days
B)21 days
C)45 days
D)180 days

Question 10

Which of the following is not required by IRCA?

A)That an I-9 form be completed for all new hires within five days of hire
B)That employers comply with IRCA in good faith
C)That I-9 forms be maintained for all employees
D)That copies of documents presented for employment eligibility be maintained

Question 11

Which of the following statements is true about quid pro quo sexual harassment?

A)It can be exacted by any employee on any other employee.
B)It creates a hostile work environment that can ultimately lead to constructive discharge.
C)It creates a situation in which an employee's terms and conditions of employment are affected by acceptance or rejection of sexual advances.
D)It cannot occur during the pre-employment selection process, since it refers to tangible or economic work-related consequences that, by definition, can only be experienced by current employees.

Question 12

Which of the following employers would be required to prepare formal affirmative action plans?

A)Federal contractors who receive federal grants of any amount
B)Federal contractors with $50,000 or more in federal contracts
C)Federal contractors with at least 50 employees who have federal contracts of at least $50,000 per year
D)All federal contractors regardless of the size and scope of the contract

Question 13

In the event of a mass layoff or plant closing, WARN requires employers to notify all of the following individuals or entities except

A)Affected employees or their representatives (such as a collective bargaining unit)
B)The State Dislocated Worker Unit
C)The appropriate local government unit
D)The EEOC, which will conduct an adverse impact analysis before layoffs are implemented

Question 14

A defining Supreme Court case for interpreting the Civil Rights Act of 1991 was

A)Kolstad v. American Dental Association
B)Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger
C)St. Mary's Honor Center v. Hicks
D)United Steelworkers v. Weber

Question 15

Which of the following statements is true about the Delphi technique?

A)It looks at one particular factor, over a period of time, to track changes.
B)It requires all individual experts to present their own ideas to each other, without immediate discussion or assessment.
C)It utilizes a neutral facilitator who compiles and condenses input.
D)It is a structured, mathematical approach to forecasting.

Question 16

A properly conducted job analysis will produce all of the following except

A)Job competencies
B)Job postings
C)Job description
D)Job specifications

Question 17

Which of the following is not one of the main elements in a job description?

A)Scope information
B)Physical work conditions and physical demands
C)Compensation rates
D)Minimum requirements

Question 18

Which of the following would be least likely to be considered a job competency?

A)Communication skills
B)Facilitation skills
C)Teamwork skills
D)Interpersonal skills

Question 19

All of the following represent benefits of employee referral programs except

A)Highly cost-effective recruiting
B)Employees who are more likely to succeed
C)Demonstration of good faith efforts to remedy underutilization
D)Increased candidate familiarity with the organization

Question 20

For some time, you've wanted to implement an exit interview process at your organization. You feel strongly that there's a lot of valuable information that can be gleaned from departing employees and want to convince "the upper powers" of this as well. You're ready to put together a proposal, and want to present the best possible arguments for establishing an exit interview program. Which of the following would be the strongest reason that you could include in your proposal to senior HR and line leadership?

A)If managers know that departing employees will have the opportunity to provide feedback as they are leaving the organization, they may be less likely to intentionally behave in ways that are problematic or to treat employees in an unprofessional manner.
B)Since managers will be able to attribute comments made during exit interviews to specific employees, they will be better able to assess the validity of the feedback that departing employees provide.
C)Exit interviews provide an excellent opportunity to learn about how employees truly feel. Although employees may have been hesitant to express these feelings while employed with the organization, this same level of anxiety will not exist during the exit interview process, so departing employees can articulate their feelings more comfortably.
D)Exit interviews provide a unique opportunity to capture useful and relevant feedback from employees about a number of factors, such as the nature of the supervision that the employee experienced and the employee's relationship with his or her supervisor. This is information that might never be obtained in absence of an exit interview process.

Question 21

When you conduct employment interviews, you sometimes notice that candidates appear extremely nervous throughout the entire interview. To try to combat this, you've decided to rethink the way you begin your interviews and do more rapport building. Which of the following would be the best way to build rapport with your candidates?

A)Look at the candidate's resume to see if you have anything in common with the candidate-such as hobbies, interests, former employers, place of residence, or any other shared commonality.
B)Place personal pictures - for instance, of your family members - within easy view of an arriving candidate. This way, the candidate can ask you about something that they know you'd be interested in talking about, thereby helping to "break the ice."
C)Talk about the weather. It's something that you know the two of you are certain to share in common, it's often changing, and it's neutral. If a blizzard, heat wave, or hurricane comes your way, you're certain to have rapport building for at least a week.
D)Choose a prominent current event - one that you're confident the candidate would know about - and refer to it in a somewhat general manner. This way, even if you and the employee are not in full agreement on the topic, the conversation will be superficial enough that no one will be offended, and you've still found something interesting to talk about (certainly more interesting than the weather).

Question 22

In reviewing your organization's most recent affirmative action plan, you notice that there is underutilization of women in a particular work group. Which of the following actions would be most appropriate to take?

A)Try to convince women in other job groups to accept transfers into the job group in which there is underutilization.
B)If both male and female candidates apply for position openings in the underutilized job group, hire the women.
C)Since choosing to hire women instead of men on the basis of their gender essentially constitutes sex discrimination, it is appropriate to keep doing things the same way you are now, and simply hire the best qualified candidate for the position, whether that person is male or female.
D)Reach out to related professional organizations that are likely to have women as members.

Question 23

You've recently been given feedback that the on boarding process is too cumbersome, time-consuming, and overly focused on administrative paperwork. You're focusing on a number of areas where you can streamline and improve this process, including how verification of employees' identity and employment is handled. Which of the following would be an appropriate step to consider?

A)Send new hires a list of acceptable documents that they can bring to establish identity and eligibility to work when you send out their offer letter.
B)Instead of having new hires prepare their I-9s on their first day of employment, ask them to submit all required paperwork before they actually start work
C)Have the newly hired employees complete the entire I-9 form, except for the signature section, to minimize the number of times that the I-9 needs to be passed back and forth between HR and the employee.
D)Allow employees a full week to present their I-9 documents. In that way, the administrative responsibilities associated with on boarding can be spread over a longer period of time.

Question 24

You strongly prefer to conduct directive interviews, because in your experience you end up with better information and can make better hiring recommendations to your client managers. At the beginning of one particular interview, the candidate pulls out a list of questions that she wants to ask you before she decides whether to proceed with the balance of the interview. Which of the following response would be most appropriate?

A)Explain to the candidate that you use a directive approach to interviewing and that it helps you make better hiring recommendations. As such, you'll be happy to answer her questions at the end of the interview.
B)Explain to the candidate that you will be happy to answer her questions at the end of the interview, once she has had an opportunity to answer the questions that you will be asking her.
C)Since there is nothing to be gained by getting into a confrontation with a candidate, you decide to answer her questions. Besides, in light of her approach, you've already decided to eliminate her from consideration for the position.
D)Since there is nothing to be gained by getting into a confrontation with a candidate, you decide to answer her questions. Besides, in light of her approach, you think she might have just the kind of spunk and tenacity that this organization needs.

Question 25

When conducting panel interviews, it is generally advisable to do all of the following except

A)Let the candidate know ahead of time that he or she will be participating in a panel interview. Eliminating the element of surprise helps prevent additional unnecessary anxiety.
B)Plan in advance who will ask which questions and in which order. Arrange for "hand offs" from one interviewer to another.
C)Consider the seating arrangements. If possible, interview in a room that has a round table. If you must interview in a room with an oval or rectangular table, position the chairs in a way that creates the feeling of a round table.
D)Place all of the interviewers on one side of the table and the candidate on the other, so that it is easier for the candidate to make eye contact with each of the interviewers.

Question 26

Which of the following statements about the Civil Rights Act of 1991 is untrue?

A)It expanded upon employees' rights.
B)It expanded upon employees' remedies.
C)It capped damages at $500,000 per employee.
D)It allowed for jury trials for discrimination cases.

Question 27

All of the following statements about the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) are true except

A)ADEA prohibits discrimination based on age, for individuals age 18 and above (so as to ensure that individuals are not discriminated against based on being too young, as well as based on being too old).
B)ADEA covers private employers with 20 or more employees, state and local governments (including school districts), employment agencies, and labor organizations.
C)ADEA does not establish an upper cap, or an age at which it once again becomes legal to discriminate against individuals based on age.
D)ADEA is subject to certain exceptions and places certain requirements on employers, particularly with respect to benefits plans, overages, and early retirement incentives.

Question 28

In which case did the Supreme Court rule that, in the absence of under-representation, as demonstrated and documented through an affirmative action plan, organizations cannot take race into account when making decisions relative to who will be laid off and who will be retained (and that doing so would constitute a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964)?

A)Taxman v. Board of Education of Piscataway
B)Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson
C)St. Mary's Honor Center v. Hicks
D)Harris v. Forklift Systems

Question 29

General Dynamics Land Systems v. Cline (2004), a case that addressed age discrimination, established/clarified that

A)The ADEA prohibits favoring the old over the young.
B)The ADEA prohibits favoring the old over the young, and it also prohibits favoring the young over the old.
C)Younger employees (even if they are over the age of 40) cannot allege age discrimination because of programs that favor older employees.
D)Younger employees (even if they are over the age of 40) can allege age discrimination because of programs that favor older employees.

Question 30

Workers are protected against age discrimination after age _______.

A)30
B)40
C)50
D)60

Question 31

Which of the following federal agencies is responsible for looking into charges of discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

A)The Taft-Hartley Agency
B)The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
C)Congress
D)The ADA Board

Question 32

Which style of interview is also known as a tag-team interview?

A)Team
B)Informational
C)Realistic Job Preview
D)Panel

Question 33

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) comes under the jurisdiction of which of the following departments?

A)Labor
B)Executive
C)Education
D)Justice

Question 34

Does the ADEA provide more or less protection than the Civil Rights Act?

A)More
B)Less

Question 35

Which court case identified adverse impact as being an unlawful employment practice?

A)Taxman v. Board of Education of Piscataway
B)Griggs v. Duke Power Co.
C)Faragher v. City of Boca Raton
D)Harris v. Forklift Systems

Question 36

What must be included with severance packages upon termination?

A)Written documentation of any agreements that have been set
B)State unemployment documentation
C)COBRA requirements
D)All of the above

Question 37

Mark has decided to come forward to accuse his boss, Samantha, of quid pro quo harassment. You are the HR manager and so, you are responsible for investigating the case. Samantha happens to be your friend. Who would be the best person to investigate the case?

A)Samantha's boss
B)Your boss
C)A third-party investigator
D)Tasha's attorney

Question 38

The Fair Labor Standards Act allows an employee to recover up to how many years of back pay?

A)10
B)5
C)1
D)2

Question 39

What act, passed by Congress in 1978, declared that it was illegal to discriminate against women based upon childbirth or any related medical condition?

A)Civil Rights Act of 1978
B)Equal Employment Opportunity Act
C)Pregnancy Discrimination Act
D)None of the above

Question 40

What is the requirement of the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (also known as VEVRAA)?

A)State employment agencies must give preference to Vietnam vets for positions that last 3 days or longer.
B)State employment agencies must hire 2 Vietnam vets for every 1 non-vet.
C)State employment agencies must give preference to Vietnam vets for non-entry-level positions.
D)All employers must give preference to Vietnam vets for any positions.

Question 41

True or False:
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was replaced by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and applies to all businesses that have more than 50 employees.

A)True
B)False