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SPHR Questions - Part 28

Jenny Clarke

Wed, 05 Nov 2025

1. Which of the following exceptions to the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act describes a type of employment where employees are paid based on the volume of their production?

A) Professionally developed test of abilities
B) Bona fide occupational qualification
C) Piece-rate systems
D) Seniority systems



2. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in the payment of wages or benefits, to men and women who perform substantially equal work for the same employer, in the same establishment, and under similar working conditions. The law defined substantial equality of job content on four factors.Which one of the following is not one of the four factors this law defines?

A) Skill
B) Working conditions
C) Education
D) Effort



3. During the organization of a union, it's possible that the union will gain recognition from the management. The management is then obliged to give the NLRB a list of employees who are eligible to vote in the unionization election. What is the name of the list of such employees called?

A) Candidate List
B) Constituent List
C) Union prospectus List
D) Excelsior List



4. There are four negative risk responses an organization can elect to use. Your organization is completing a project where some electrical work is deemed too dangerous to be completed internally. You advise that the project manager hire a licensed electrician to complete the dangerous assignment. What type of risk response have you advised in this scenario?

A) Avoidance
B) Transference
C) Mitigation
D) Acceptance



5. You are a HR Professional for your organization and you're coaching Thomas on human resources practices, particularly the role of the HR Professional in strategic planning. You tell Thomas the importance of vision, mission, and values of an organization. Thomas asks what the difference is between vision and mission. Which one of the following best describes the difference between vision and mission for an organization?

A) A vision is the purpose of a company. A mission is the task the organization aims to accomplish.
B) A vision describes an organization's role, what the organization is, and what the organization wants to become. A mission describes the organization's purpose for being.
C) A vision describes the future of the organization while a mission describes the goals of the organization.
D) A vision describes the organization's role, what the organization is, and what the organization may aspire to be. A mission describes what the organization will definitely become.



1. Right Answer: C
Explanation: Answer option C is correct.A piece rate system describes a job where compensation is according to their production volume.Answer option D is incorrect. Seniority systems or merit systems are designed to not reward or discriminate unlawfully.Answer option A is incorrect. Professionally developed test of abilities determine skills that may have an unintended discriminatory impact upon people on the basis of gender, religion, or national origin.Voluntary exit -Answer option B is incorrect. Bona fide occupational qualifications describe certain job requirements by business necessity.Reference: Professional in Human Resources Certification Study Guide, Sybex, ISBN: 978-0-470-43096-5. Chapter Four: Workforce Planning. Official PHR andSPHR Certification Guide, HR Certification Institute, ISBN: 978-1-586-44149-4, Section III, The US Body of Knowledge.Chapter: Workforce Planning and EmploymentObjective: Federal Employment Legislation

2. Right Answer: C
Explanation: Answer option C is correct.The Equal Pay Act of 1963 defines the substantial equality of job contents based on skills, effort, responsibility, and working conditions.Answer options A, D, and B are incorrect. Skill, effort, and working conditions are defined as part of the Equal Pay Act of 1963.Certification Institute, ISBN: 978-1-586-44149-4, Section III, The US HR Body of Knowledge.Chapter: Core Knowledge Requirements for HR ProfessionalsObjective: Employee Records Management

3. Right Answer: D
Explanation: Answer option D is correct.The list of employees who are eligible to vote in the union election, is called the Excelsior List. It's so called, based on the outcome of the lawsuit ExcelsiorUnderwear, Inc. v. NLRB in 1996.Answer option A is incorrect. The list is called the Excelsior List, not the candidate list.Answer option B is incorrect. The list is called the Excelsior List, not the constituent list.Answer option C is incorrect. The list is called the Excelsior List, not the union prospectus list.Guide, HR Certification Institute, ISBN: 978-1-586-44149-4, Section III, The US HR Body of Knowledge.Chapter: Employee and Labor RelationsObjective: Union Organization

4. Right Answer: B
Explanation: Answer option B is correct.Transference is a risk response that transfers the risk to a third party, usually for a fee. Transference does not eliminate the risk event, but assigns ownership of the risk to someone else.Answer option C is incorrect. Mitigation involves actions to reduce or eliminate the probability and/or impact of the risk event.Answer option A is incorrect. Avoidance involves actions to avoid the risk event, such as changing the project scope to take the risky work out of the project.Answer option D is incorrect. Acceptance, as its name implies, accepts the risk event and the consequences the risk event may bring. Acceptance is usually for smaller risk events.Reference: Professional in Human Resources Certification Guide, Sybex, ISBN: 978-0-470-43096-5. Chapter 5: Human Resource Development. Official PHR andSPHR Certification Guide, HR Certification Institute, ISBN: 978-1-586-44149-4, Section III, The US Body of Knowledge.Chapter: Risk Management -Objective: Risk Management

5. Right Answer: B
Explanation: Answer option B is correct.Of all the choices, B is the best answer. A vision describes what the organization is and what the organization wants to become in the future. A mission describes why the organization exists.Answer option C is incorrect. This is not the best answer for the difference between a vision and a mission.Answer option D is incorrect. This is not the best answer for the difference between a vision and a mission.Answer option A is incorrect. This is not the best answer for the difference between a vision and a mission.HR Certification Institute, ISBN: 978-1-586-44149-4, Section III, The US HR Body of Knowledge.Chapter: Business Management and StrategyObjective: Strategy

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