SHRM Learning System Vocabulary Review 2025

Detailed vocabulary flashcards derived from the SHRM Learning System 2025 regarding Global Workforce Management, Risk Management, Corporate Social Responsibility, and U.S. Employment Law and Regulations.

Assignees

Employees who work outside their home countries.

Global integration (GI)

Globalization strategy that emphasizes consistency of approach, standardization of processes, and a common corporate culture across global operations.

Globalization

Status of growing interconnectedness and interdependency among countries, people, markets, and organizations worldwide.

Identity alignment

Extent to which diversity is embraced in management of people, products/services, and branding.

Local responsiveness (LR)

Globalization strategy that emphasizes adapting to the needs of local markets and allows subsidiaries to develop unique products, structures, and systems.

Multinational enterprises (MNEs)

Organizations that own or control production or service facilities in one or more countries other than the home country.

Near-shoring

Practice of contracting a part of business processes or production to an external company in a country that is relatively close (for example, within the same own region).

Offshoring

Method by which an organization relocates its processes or production to an international location through subsidiaries or third-party affiliates.

Onshoring

Relocation of business processes or production to a lower-cost location inside the same country as the business.

Outsourcing

Process by which an organization contracts with third-party vendors to provide selected services/activities instead of hiring new employees.

Process alignment

Extent to which underlying operations such as IT, finance, or HR integrate across locations.

Redeployment

Process by which an organization moves an employee out of an international assignment; can involve moving back to the home country, moving to a different global location, or moving to a new location or position in the current host country.

Repatriation

Process by which employees returning from international assignments reintegrate into their home country’s culture, conditions, and employment.

Annualized loss expectancy (ALE)

Expected monetary loss for an asset due to a risk over a one-year period; calculated by multiplying single loss expectancy by annualized rate of occurrence.

Conflict of interest

Situation in which a person or organization may benefit from undue influence due to involvement in outside activities, relationships, or investments that conflict with or have an impact on the employment relationship or its outcomes.

Contingency plan

Protocol that an organization implements when an identified risk event occurs.

Duty of care

Principle that organizations should take all steps that are reasonably possible to ensure the health, safety, and well-being of employees and protect them from foreseeable injury.

Hazard

Potential for harm, often associated with a condition or activity that, if left uncontrolled, can result in injury or illness.

Key risk indicators (KRIs)

Metrics that provide an early signal of increasing risk exposures for an enterprise.

Moral hazard

Situation in which one party engages in risky behavior knowing that it is protected against the risk because another party will incur any resulting loss.

Principal-agent problem

Situation in which an agent (for example, an employee) makes decisions for a principal (for example, an employer) potentially on the basis of personal incentives that may not be aligned with the principal’s incentives.

Residual risk

Amount of uncertainty that remains after all risk management efforts have been exhausted.

Risk

Uncertainty that has an effect on an objective, where outcomes may include opportunities, losses, and threats.

Risk appetite

A high-level characterization of the amount of uncertainty (acceptable risk) an organization is willing to pursue or to accept to attain its risk management goals.

Risk control

Action taken to manage a risk.

Risk management

System for identifying, evaluating, and controlling actual and potential risks to an organization.

Risk position

Organization’s desired gain or acceptable loss in value.

Risk scorecard

Tool used to gather individual assessments of various characteristics of risk (for example, frequency of occurrence; degree of impact, loss, or gain for the organization; degree of efficacy of current controls).

Risk tolerance

A characterization of the amount of uncertainty (acceptable risk) an organization is willing to pursue or to accept to attain its risk management goals, defined in a range above and below a target.

Single loss expectancy (SLE)

Expected monetary loss every time a risk occurs; calculated by multiplying asset value by exposure factor.

Whistleblowing

Reporting of an organization’s violations of policies and processes by employees.

Compliance

State of being in accordance with all national, federal, regional, and/or local laws, regulations, and/or other government authority requirements applicable to the places in which an organization operates.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

Varying ways an organization can create value, looking beyond traditional profit measures of revenue and expenses; includes such areas as philanthropy, volunteerism, corporate-sponsored community programs, social change, sustainability, corporate governance, employee rights, and workplace safety.

Ethics

Set of behavioral guidelines that an organization expects all of its directors, managers, and employees to follow to ensure appropriate moral and ethical business standards.

Governance

System of rules and processes set up by an organization to ensure its compliance with local and international laws, accounting rules, ethical norms, internal codes of conduct, and other standards.

Sustainability

Practice of purchasing and using resources wisely by balancing economic, social, and environmental concerns, with the goal of securing the interests of present and future generations.

Triple bottom line

Economic, social, and environmental impact metrics used to determine an organization’s success.

ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA)

Amendments to U.S. Americans with Disabilities Act covering the definition of individuals regarded as having a disability, mitigating measures, and other rules to guide the analysis of what constitutes a disability.

Adverse impact

Type of discrimination that results when a policy that appears to be neutral has a discriminatory effect; also known as disparate impact.

Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)

U.S. act that prohibits discrimination in the workplace on the basis of age.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

U.S. act that prohibits discrimination against a qualified individual with a disability because of his/her disability.

Bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ)

Factor (such as religion, gender, national origin, etc.) that is reasonably necessary, in the normal operations of an organization, to carry out a particular job function.

Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth

U.S. court ruling that distinguished between supervisor harassment that results in tangible employment action and supervisor harassment that does not.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

First comprehensive U.S. law making it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Civil Rights Act of 1991

U.S. act that expands the possible damage awards available to victims of intentional discrimination to include compensatory and punitive damages; gives plaintiffs in cases of alleged discrimination the right to a jury trial.

Comparable worth

Concept that jobs filled primarily by women that require skills, effort, responsibility, and working conditions comparable to similar jobs filled primarily by men should have the same classifications and salaries.

Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA)

U.S. act that provides individuals and dependents who may lose health-care coverage with opportunity to pay to continue coverage.

Davis-Bacon Act

U.S. act that requires certain contractors and subcontractors to pay laborers and mechanics no less than the locally prevailing wages and fringe benefits for corresponding work on federal contracts.

Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)

U.S. act that defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman and permitted states to not recognize same-sex marriages recognized by other states; ruled unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court.

Disability

Physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one’s major life activities.

Disparate impact

Type of discrimination that results when a policy that appears to be neutral has a discriminatory effect; also known as adverse impact.

Disparate treatment

Type of discrimination that occurs when an applicant or employee is treated differently because of his or her membership in a protected class.

Drug-Free Workplace Act

U.S. law that requires federal contractors with contracts of $\$100,000$ or more as well as recipients of grants from federal government to certify that they are maintaining a drug-free workplace.

Electronic Communications Privacy Act

U.S. act that made it unlawful to intercept messages in transmission, access stored information on electronic communication services, or disclose any of this information.

Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA)

U.S. act that prevents private employers from requiring applicants or employees to take a polygraph test for preemployment screening or during the course of employment, with certain exceptions.

Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)

U.S. act that established uniform minimum standards to ensure that employee benefit and pension plans are set up and maintained in a fair and financially sound manner.

Employees

Individuals who exchange work for wages or salary; in the U.S., workers who are covered by Fair Labor Standards Act regulations as determined by the IRS.

Employment at-will

Principle of employment in the U.S. that employers have the right to hire, fire, demote, and promote whomever they choose for any reason unless there is a law or contract to the contrary and that employees have the right to quit a job at any time.

Employment practices liability insurance (EPLI)

Type of liability insurance covering an organization against claims by employees, former employees, and employment candidates alleging that their legal rights in the employment relationship have been violated.

Equal Employment Opportunity Act

U.S act that amended Title VII and gave the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission authority to “back up” its administrative findings and conduct its own enforcement litigation.

Equal Pay Act (EPA)

U.S. act that prohibits wage discrimination by requiring equal pay for equal or “substantially equal” work performed by men and women.

Essential functions

Primary job duties that a qualified individual must be able to perform, either with or without accommodation.

Exempt employees

Employees who are excluded from U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act minimum wage and overtime pay requirements.

Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)

U.S act that protects privacy of background information and ensures that information supplied is accurate.

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

U.S act that establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, youth employment, and record-keeping standards affecting full- and part-time workers in the private sector and in federal, state, and local governments.

Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act)

U.S act that frees employers who use third parties to conduct workplace investigations from the consent and disclosure requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act in certain cases.

Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

U.S. act that provides employees with up to $12$ weeks of unpaid leave to care for family members or because of a serious health condition of the employee.

Faragher v. City of Boca Raton

U.S. court ruling that distinguished between supervisor harassment that results in tangible employment action and supervisor harassment that does not.

General Duty Clause

Statement in U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Act that requires employers subject to the act to provide employees with a safe and healthy work environment.

Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA)

U.S act that prohibits discrimination against individuals on the basis of their genetic information in both employment and health insurance.

Griggs v. Duke Power

U.S. case that set the standard for determining whether discrimination based on disparate impact exists.

Hostile environment harassment

Occurs when sexual or other discriminatory conduct is so severe and pervasive that it interferes with an individual’s performance; creates an intimidating, threatening, or humiliating work environment; or perpetuates a situation that affects the employee’s psychological well-being.

Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA)

U.S. act that prohibits discrimination against job applicants on the basis of national origin or citizenship and establishes penalties for hiring undocumented workers.

Independent contractors

Self-employed individuals hired on a contract basis for specialized services.

Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA)

U.S. act that imposed regulations on internal union affairs and the relationship between union officials and union members.

Labor-Management Relations Act (LMRA)

U.S. act that imposed several restrictions and requirements on unions.

Lechmere, Inc. v. NLRB

$1992$ case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that an employer cannot be compelled to allow nonemployee organizers onto the business property.

Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company

$2007$ case in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that claims of sex discrimination in pay under Title VII were not timely because discrimination charges were not filed with the EEOC within the required $180$-day time frame.

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

U.S. act that creates a rolling time frame for filing wage discrimination claims and expands plaintiff field beyond employee who was discriminated against.

McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green

Case that established criteria for disparate treatment.

McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act

U.S. act that requires contractors and subcontractors on certain contracts to pay service employees in various classes no less than the wage rates and fringe benefits found in the locality or the rates found in the previous contractor’s collective bargaining agreement.

NLRB v. Weingarten

Landmark $1975$ U.S. labor relations case that dealt with the right of a unionized employee to have another person present during certain investigatory interviews.

National Defense Authorization Acts (NDAA)

U.S. acts that expanded FMLA leave for employees with family members who are covered members of the military.

National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius

U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requirement that individuals purchase health insurance was constitutional but requirement that states expand Medicaid was not.

National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)

U.S. act that protected and encouraged the growth of the union movement; established workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively with employers.

National origin

Refers to the country (including those that no longer exist) of one’s birth or of one’s ancestors’ birth.

Nonexempt employees

Employees covered under U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act regulations, including minimum wage and overtime pay requirements.

Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act

U.S. act that established the first national policy for workplace safety and health and continues to deliver standards that employers must meet to guarantee the health and safety of their employees.

Occupational illness

Medical condition or disorder, other than one resulting from an occupational injury, caused by exposure to environmental factors associated with employment.

Occupational injury

Injury that results from a work-related accident or exposure involving a single incident in the work environment.

Older Workers Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA)

U.S. act that amended the Age Discrimination in Employment Act to include all employee benefits; also provided standards that an employee’s waiver of the right to sue for age discrimination must meet in order to be upheld by a court.

Overtime pay

Required for nonexempt workers under U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act at $1.5$ times the regular rate of pay for hours over $40$ in a workweek.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)

$2010$ U.S. law that requires virtually all citizens and legal residents to have minimum health coverage and requires employers with more than $50$ full-time employees to provide health coverage that meets minimum benefit specifications or pay a penalty.

Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corporation

$1971$ U.S. case that stated that an employer may not, in the absence of business necessity, refuse to hire women with preschool-aged children while hiring men with such children.

Portal-to-Portal Act

U.S. act that defines what is included as hours worked and is therefore compensable and a factor in calculating overtime.

Pregnancy Discrimination Act

U.S. act that prohibits discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.

Protected class

People who are covered under a particular federal or state antidiscrimination law.

Prudent person rule

States that a fiduciary of a plan covered by the U.S. Employee Retirement Income Security Act has legal and financial obligations not to take more risks when investing employee benefit program funds than a reasonably knowledgeable, prudent investor would under similar circumstances.

Quid pro quo harassment

Type of sexual harassment that occurs when an employee is forced to choose between giving in to a superior’s sexual demands and forfeiting an economic benefit such as a pay increase, a promotion, or continued employment.

Reasonable accommodation

Modifying a job application process, a work environment, or the circumstances under which a job is performed to enable a qualified individual with a disability to be considered for the job and perform its essential functions.