Practice Exam Flash Cards

Vocabulary flashcards covering HR communication, evaluation models, workplace injury reporting, labor relations, and strategic alignment based on lecture notes.

Communication Process

The exchange of information between a sender and receiver through encoding, message, channel, decoding, and feedback, where noise can interfere at any stage.

Sender

The person or group who initiates the message, which in HR could be HR, a manager, leadership, or an employee.

Encoding

Turning an idea or information into words, tone, symbols, or body language that can be communicated.

Message

The actual information, idea, instruction, or meaning being communicated.

Channel

The method used to send the message, such as email, Slack, meeting, phone call, policy, or training.

Receiver

The person or group who receives and interprets the message.

Decoding

The receiver’s interpretation of the message based on their knowledge, assumptions, emotions, culture, and context.

Feedback

The receiver’s response that confirms whether the message was understood, misunderstood, accepted, questioned, or rejected.

Noise

Anything that interferes with communication, such as unclear wording, emotions, distractions, poor timing, jargon, technology issues, or bias.

Communication Barriers

Factors that prevent accurate understanding, including language differences, perception, filtering, information overload, poor listening, lack of trust, and cultural differences.

Vesting

A worker’s right to receive pension benefits or employer contributions after meeting certain plan requirements, even if they leave the company.

Job Rotation

A leadership development strategy where employees or managers move through different roles or departments to broaden their organizational knowledge, skills, and perspective.

Reliability

The consistency of a measurement tool, meaning it yields comparable results over time or across evaluators.

Kirkpatrick Model

A training evaluation model with four levels: Reaction, Learning, Behaviour, and Results.

Assimilating learning style — Kolb

A learning style that combines reflective observation and abstract conceptualization, where learners prefer logic, theories, models, lectures, and organized information.

Formative Evaluation

Evaluation done during training to monitor progress, identify issues, and improve the training while it is still happening.

Summative Evaluation

Evaluation done after training to assess the overall effectiveness or final outcomes of the training.

Process Evaluation

Evaluation that looks at whether the training was delivered as planned, including content, timing, facilitator, materials, and participation.

Outcome Evaluation

Evaluation that looks at whether the training achieved its intended learning or business outcomes.

Reaction Evaluation

Evaluation that measures how participants felt about the training, such as satisfaction, engagement, and perceived usefulness.

Learning Evaluation

Evaluation that measures whether participants gained knowledge, skills, or changed attitudes.

Behaviour Evaluation

Evaluation that measures whether participants applied what they learned back on the job.

Results Evaluation

Evaluation that measures organizational impact, such as productivity, quality, retention, safety, performance, or cost savings.

Balanced Scorecard

A strategic performance management tool that gives an enterprise-wide view of performance using four perspectives: Financial, Customer, Internal Business Process, and Learning and Growth.

Leading Indicators

Indicators that predict future performance, such as employee training hours predicting future productivity.

Lagging Indicators

Indicators that show results after the fact, such as turnover rate, revenue, profit, or customer complaints.

WSIB Form 6

The Worker’s Report of Injury/Disease, completed by the worker to report a workplace injury or illness.

WSIB Form 7

The Employer’s Report of Injury/Disease, completed by the employer when a workplace injury or illness must be reported.

WSIB Form 8

The Health Professional’s Report, completed by the treating health professional after assessing the worker.

Lost Time Injury

A workplace injury or illness that causes the worker to miss time from work beyond the day of the incident.

No Lost Time Injury

A workplace injury or illness where the worker does not miss work beyond the day of the incident but may still need health care or modified duties.

Modified Duties

Temporary changes to a worker’s tasks, hours, or responsibilities to support safe return to work after an injury or illness.

Functional Abilities Form / FAF

A form used to outline a worker’s physical or functional abilities and restrictions to support return-to-work planning.

Workplace Safety and Insurance Act / WSIA

Ontario legislation that governs workplace injury insurance and the WSIB system.

Internal Utility Analysis

A method used to assess the financial value or return of an HR program or intervention.

Causal Chain Measurement

A measurement approach that links HR activities to intermediate outcomes and final business results.

Training Performance Contract

An agreement that outlines how an employee will apply newly learned skills or behaviours on the job after training to increase the likelihood of transfer.

Transfer of Training

The application of knowledge, skills, or behaviours learned in training to the actual job.

Distributive Justice

Perceived fairness of workplace outcomes, such as pay, benefits, rewards, promotions, workload, or recognition.

Procedural Justice

Perceived fairness of the processes used to make decisions, such as how pay, promotions, or discipline are determined.

Interactional Justice

Perceived fairness in how people are treated during decisions, including respect, dignity, honesty, and quality of explanations.

Grievance

A formal complaint alleging that the collective agreement has been violated, misinterpreted, or incorrectly applied.

Arbitration

A final dispute resolution process where a neutral arbitrator makes a binding decision on an unresolved grievance.

Test-Retest Reliability

Measures whether a test produces similar results when given to the same person at different times.

Inter-Rater Reliability

Measures whether different evaluators or interviewers produce similar ratings using the same criteria.

Construct Validity

The degree to which a tool measures the concept or trait it is intended to measure.

Criterion-Related Validity

The degree to which selection scores are related to job performance or another work outcome.

Content Validity

The degree to which a selection tool reflects the actual tasks, knowledge, or skills required for the job.

Skill-Based Pay

A compensation system that rewards employees for the skills, knowledge, or competencies they acquire, rather than only the job they currently perform.

Intrinsic Motivation

Motivation that comes from the work itself, such as interest, meaning, challenge, autonomy, growth, or achievement.

Extrinsic Motivation

Motivation driven by external rewards, such as pay, bonuses, benefits, recognition, or promotion.

Job Enrichment

Redesigning work to increase responsibility, autonomy, meaning, and opportunities for growth.

Job Enlargement

Expanding the number or variety of tasks in a job at the same level of responsibility to make the role broader.

PESTLE Analysis

A framework for scanning external factors: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental.

Horizontal Alignment

Alignment across HR practices, such as recruitment, training, performance management, and compensation; often similar to internal alignment.

Vertical Alignment

Alignment between HR practices and the organization’s overall strategy, goals, and external demands.

Median

The middle value in a data set which, in pay data, limits the influence of extreme high or low values.

Human Capital ROI

A metric assessed via the formula: $\frac{\text{Revenue} - \text{non-human capital expenses}}{\text{compensation and benefits costs}}$

Wildcat Strike

An unauthorized and usually illegal strike by workers that is not approved by the union and does not follow the legal strike process.

Surface Bargaining

An unfair labour practice involving going through the motions of bargaining without a genuine intention to reach a collective agreement.

Managerial Rights

The employer’s right to manage operations, make business decisions, and direct employees, provided actions do not violate the collective agreement or labour law.