SPHR Performance Management 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: An organization shifts from annual performance reviews to continuous performance conversations. The PRIMARY benefit of this change is:
- Reducing HR administrative costs
- Providing timely feedback that enables faster performance correction (Correct answer)
- Eliminating the need for performance documentation
- Reducing the number of performance-related terminations
Correct answer: Providing timely feedback that enables faster performance correction
Continuous feedback allows employees to make real-time adjustments, addressing performance issues before they compound over a full year.
Question 2: Which legal principle is most directly violated when a performance appraisal system produces disparate impact on a protected class?
- The WARN Act
- Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Correct answer)
- The FMLA
- The FLSA
Correct answer: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Title VII prohibits employment practices, including performance evaluations, that produce adverse outcomes for members of protected classes without business justification.
Question 3: When calibrating performance ratings across departments, the PRIMARY goal is to:
- Ensure all employees receive the same rating
- Reduce the total payroll cost of merit increases
- Promote consistency and fairness in how ratings are applied across the organization (Correct answer)
- Force managers to terminate the lowest-rated employees
Correct answer: Promote consistency and fairness in how ratings are applied across the organization
Calibration sessions align managers on performance standards to ensure ratings reflect consistent criteria rather than individual manager leniency or harshness.
Question 4: Which performance management model is characterized by separating 'performance development' from 'performance evaluation' to reduce bias in compensation decisions?
- Balanced Scorecard approach
- Split-process performance management (Correct answer)
- Management by objectives
- Critical incident technique
Correct answer: Split-process performance management
Split-process models decouple developmental conversations from evaluative ones, allowing employees to be more open during coaching without fear of pay consequences.
Question 5: A senior HR manager discovers that leniency bias is widespread across the organization's performance ratings. The BEST corrective action is to:
- Implement forced ranking to redistribute ratings
- Provide calibration training for managers and implement peer review of ratings (Correct answer)
- Remove the rating scale and use narrative-only evaluations
- Increase the frequency of performance reviews to annual plus semi-annual
Correct answer: Provide calibration training for managers and implement peer review of ratings
Calibration training and peer review of ratings address the root cause of leniency bias by creating accountability and shared standards among raters.
Question 6: The balanced scorecard performance framework aligns employee goals along which four primary perspectives?
- Sales, Marketing, Operations, Finance
- Financial, Customer, Internal Processes, Learning and Growth (Correct answer)
- Strategy, Talent, Culture, Technology
- Input, Output, Outcome, Impact
Correct answer: Financial, Customer, Internal Processes, Learning and Growth
Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard links performance to Financial, Customer, Internal Business Processes, and Learning and Growth perspectives.
Question 7: When designing a performance appraisal system, which of the following MOST ensures its legal defensibility?
- Using subjective trait-based ratings
- Ensuring evaluations are based on job-related criteria derived from a job analysis (Correct answer)
- Requiring all managers to rate on the same curve
- Limiting documentation to prevent discovery in litigation
Correct answer: Ensuring evaluations are based on job-related criteria derived from a job analysis
Courts require that performance standards be based on validated, job-related criteria from a job analysis to withstand legal scrutiny.
SPHR Performance Management 2
An organization shifts from annual performance reviews to continuous performance conversations.
The PRIMARY benefit of this change is: