CSP Quality Assurance & Compliance 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A staffing agency places workers in a state that has a 'joint employer' law assigning co-employer liability. Which of the following best protects the agency?
- Require the client to indemnify all employment claims
- Conduct thorough worker classification audits and maintain clear contractual allocations of employer responsibilities (Correct answer)
- Transfer all HR functions to the client
- Only work with clients incorporated in other states
Correct answer: Conduct thorough worker classification audits and maintain clear contractual allocations of employer responsibilities
Proper classification audits and detailed contractual delineation of responsibilities help the agency manage joint employer liability exposure.
Question 2: Which federal agency enforces the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) as it applies to temporary workers at client worksites?
- Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division
- OSHA, with both the host employer and staffing firm potentially liable (Correct answer)
- EEOC
- Department of Homeland Security
Correct answer: OSHA, with both the host employer and staffing firm potentially liable
OSHA enforces workplace safety standards and has clarified that both the host employer and staffing firm share safety obligations for temporary workers.
Question 3: A staffing firm wants to implement a drug testing policy for all placed workers. Which consideration is MOST legally significant?
- Whether the client prefers drug testing
- Compliance with state laws that vary significantly regarding permissible drug testing and substances tested (Correct answer)
- Cost of the testing program
- The type of industry the workers will be placed in
Correct answer: Compliance with state laws that vary significantly regarding permissible drug testing and substances tested
State laws vary widely on mandatory pre-employment and random drug testing, and some states now prohibit testing for cannabis, requiring state-specific policy design.
Question 4: In the context of staffing quality, what is a 'fill rate'?
- The percentage of candidate applications that are processed
- The ratio of job orders successfully filled to total job orders received within a defined period (Correct answer)
- The number of workers placed per recruiter per month
- The billing accuracy rate on client invoices
Correct answer: The ratio of job orders successfully filled to total job orders received within a defined period
Fill rate measures how effectively a staffing firm fulfills client job orders, making it a key performance indicator for operational quality.
Question 5: When a staffing agency's client is subject to a Department of Labor audit, the agency receives a subpoena for payroll records of workers placed at that client. What should the agency do?
- Refuse to produce records without a court order
- Consult legal counsel and cooperate with the subpoena while protecting privileged materials (Correct answer)
- Notify the client and allow the client to handle the subpoena
- Produce only records from the current year
Correct answer: Consult legal counsel and cooperate with the subpoena while protecting privileged materials
A legal subpoena must be responded to appropriately; the agency should work with legal counsel to produce required records while protecting any privileged communications.
Question 6: Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), when must a staffing firm offer health coverage to a temporary employee?
- Immediately upon assignment
- After the employee works an average of 30+ hours per week for 90 days during a measurement period (Correct answer)
- Only if the client employer requests it
- Only to full-time direct hires, not temporary workers
Correct answer: After the employee works an average of 30+ hours per week for 90 days during a measurement period
The ACA requires applicable large employers to offer minimum essential coverage to full-time employees (30+ hours/week) after satisfying the applicable waiting period and measurement period rules.
Question 7: A staffing firm's quality management process includes periodic client satisfaction surveys. Which outcome from the survey data should trigger immediate corrective action?
- A client rates communication speed as 'good' rather than 'excellent'
- Multiple clients report that placed workers lack the specific technical skills stated on their resumes (Correct answer)
- A single client notes that invoices could be delivered faster
- Clients in one industry rate satisfaction slightly lower than another industry
Correct answer: Multiple clients report that placed workers lack the specific technical skills stated on their resumes
Misrepresentation of skills creates immediate legal, ethical, and business risk and requires immediate review of candidate verification processes.
CSP Quality Assurance & Compliance 3
A staffing agency places workers in a state that has a 'joint employer' law assigning co-employer liability.
Which of the following best protects the agency?