| Word | Description |
| Face validity | Making a decision regarding the appropriateness of a test or other assessment instrument based on appearance rather than objective criteria. |
| Facially Neutral Selection Standard/Criteria | A criterion/process is facially neutral if it does not make any reference to a prohibited factor and is equally applicable to everyone regardless of race, gender or ethnicity; i.e., is not discriminatory on its face. See also "uniformly applied." |
| Facilitator | A trainer who assists a group in learning or reaching a specific goal by directing and controlling the group process and allowing the group to work collectively to resolve problems and come up with solutions. |
| Fact finding | The process of utilizing an impartial third party, not employed by the organization, to examine all pertinent facts surrounding a complaint. |
| Fact-finding conference | An informal meeting directed by the EEOC to settle discrimination complaints between an employer and the plaintiff. |
| Factfinding | The process of utilizing an impartial third party, not employed by the organization, to examine all pertinent facts surrounding a complaint. |
| Factor comparison | A job comparison process involving ranking each individual job by certain selected compensable factors to establish appropriate values to be used in determining pay rates. |
| Factor weight | Used in the job evaluation process, it is the process of assigning a weight to compensable factors to determine their relative worth. |
| Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) of 1969 | The FCRA requires employers that use credit reports and that deny employment on the basis of a credit report to so notify the applicant and to provide the name and address of the consumer reporting agency used. |
| Fair Employment Practice laws (FEP) | Federal, state and municipal laws designed to bar discrimination in conditions of employment. |
| Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 | An act that covers public agencies and businesses engaged in interstate commerce or providing goods and services for commerce. The FLSA provides guidelines on employment status, child labor, minimum wage, overtime pay and record-keeping requirements. It determines which employees are exempt from the Act (not covered by it) and which are nonexempt (covered by the Act). It establishes wage and time requirements when minors can work. It sets the minimum wage that must be paid and mandates when overtime must be paid. |
| Fair representation | This term means that a trade union, so long as it continues to be entitled to represent employees in a bargaining unit, may not act in a manner that is arbitrary, discriminatory or in bad faith in the representation of any employees in the unit. |
| Fair share | The sum a nonmember is obligated by a provision in a collective bargaining agreement to give to a union in order to support the union’s collective bargaining activities. |
| Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)of 1993 | The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) allows employees who have met minimum service requirements (12 months employed by the company with 1,250 hours of service in the preceding 12 months) to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year for: (1) a serious health condition; (2) to care for a family member with a serious health condition; (3) the birth of a child; or (4) the placement of a child for adoption or foster care. |
| Family status change | Used to define changes to an individuals existing family standing. Typically found in health care benefit plans covered by section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code. IRC 125, does not allow individuals enrolled in a covered benefit plan to make election changes to their existing benefits coverage outside of the plans annual open enrollment period, unless a qualifying change in family or employment status, defined by the IRS as a "Qualified Family Status Change" has occurred (i.e. marriage, divorce, legal separation, death, birth/adoption, changes in employment status, cessation of dependent status, or a significant change in cost or reduction of benefits.) |
| Family-friendly | A policy or practice designed to help families spend more time together and/or enjoy a better quality of life. |
| Fast-trackers | A term used to describe employees who have exhibited strong potential for promotion and are being primed for higher level professional or technical positions within the organization. |
| Fat organization | An organization with a structure consisting of several layers of management. |
| Feasibility study | A study designed to discover if a business, product, project or process justify the investment of time, money and other resources. |
| Featherbedding | An unfair labor practice occurring when a union requires an employer to pay an employee for services he or she did not perform. |
| Federal labor union | A local union chartered by the AFL-CIO over which no affiliated national or international union has claimed jurisdiction. |
| Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) | Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service |
| Federal Services Impasse Panel (FSIP) | An entity within the FLRA that resolves bargaining impasses, chiefly by ordering the parties to adopt certain contractual provisions relating to the conditions of employment of unit employees. |
| Feedback | Positive or negative information provided to an individual in the form of coaching or counseling regarding his or her performance or behavior. |
| Fetal protection policy | An employer policy meant to protect a pregnant woman’s unborn fetus by excluding pregnant women from engaging in jobs requiring exposure to or the use of hazardous chemicals or materials. |
| Field Advisory Services (FAS) | The FAS Labor and Employee Relations Branch provides technical advisory service to operational civilian personnel offices on clarification of laws, government-wide regulations, case law, and Department of Defense policy on labor and employee relations matters. |
| Field examiner | An individual employed by the NLRB who has the responsibility to conduct certification elections and carry out investigations of unfair labor practice claims. |
| Field interview | An employment interview conducted away from the employer’s actual worksite. |
| Final- offer interest arbitration | A technique for resolving bargaining impasses in which the arbitrator is forced to choose among the final positions of the parties--rather than order adoption of some intermediate position. |
| Financial core membership | Ultimate requirement of a union security clause. Employees may be required to pay dues and initiation fees to a union but cannot be compelled to actually join the union and be subject to the union’s constitution, bylaws, rules, and trial procedures. The member may be charged a fee based on the union’s cost of representation of the member, such as a prorated share of the cost of contract negotiations, cost of grievance and arbitration representation. |
| Financial statement | A report containing financial information derived from an organizational accounting record. |
| Fitness for duty | A document provided by a medical practitioner following a post-offer medical examination containing information used by the employer to determine a candidate’s ability to perform the functions of a job. Also used to refer to documents or notes from medical providers releasing individuals under their care to resume full or modified duties following a leave of absence due to illness or injury. |
| Fixed year | A term used to describe an invariable year such as a calendar or fiscal year. |
| Flat organization | An organization characterized by having only a few layers of management from top to bottom |
| Flexible benefit plan | A benefit program regulated under IRC 125 that offers employees a choice between permissible taxable benefits (including cash) and nontaxable benefits such as life and health insurance, vacations, retirement plans and child/dependent care. Although a common core of benefits may be required, the employee may determine how his or her remaining benefits dollars are allocated for each type of benefit from the total amount offered by the employer. |
| Flexible scheduling | An alternative work arrangement providing employees with greater flexibility in meeting their own personal needs by allowing them to work nontraditional schedules (i.e., compressed workweek, summer hours or flextime). |
| Flexible staffing | The practice of utilizing temporary employees, independent contractors or part-time employees to fill vacancies instead of hiring a traditional full-time permanent employee workforce. |
| Flextime | Variable work hours requiring employees to work a standard number of core hours within a specified period of time, allowing employees greater flexibility in their starting and ending times. |
| Focus group | A small group of individuals who are interviewed through structured facilitator-led discussions in order to solicit opinions, thoughts and ideas about a particular subject or topic area. |
| Forced distribution | An appraisal rating method intended to prevent rater errors by requiring the rater to force ratings into a bell-shaped curve. |
| Forced ranking | A performance appraisal system where raters are asked to identify a certain percentage of employees who are top performers ready for advancement and those employees falling into the bottom percentage who must improve or leave the organization. |
| Forced-choice | In test construction, used to define multiple-choice tests or questionnaires requiring the testee to choose an answer from a collection of possible answers. Also refers to a performance appraisal strategy where the appraisal is divided into several sections, and the rater is then provided with a few performance descriptors for each section and asked to select the most and least characteristic statement. |
| Forecasting | A business analysis conducted in order to assess what future trends are likely to happen, especially in connection with a particular situation, function, practice or process that is likely to affect the organization’s business operations. |
| Formal discussion | A discussion between an agency representative(s) and a bargaining unit employee(s) concerning any grievance or any personnel policy or practice or other condition of employment which affects bargaining unit employees. |
| Fractional bargaining | Bargaining that takes place at a department or unit level which may lead to an unwritten consensus to ignore certain provisions of a collective bargaining agreement. |
| Free rider | Refers to an employee who is eligible for union membership but chooses not to join the union. |
| Free Speech | As set forth in the NLRA, “The expressing of any views, argument, or opinion, or the dissemination thereof, whether in written, printed, graphic, or visual form, shall not constitute or be evidence of an ULP under any of the provisions of this Act, if such expression contains no threat of reprisal or force or promise of benefit.” |
| Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) of 1966 | A federal law providing guidelines for access and disclosure of government documents and materials to the general public. |
| Frictional unemployment | Refers to unemployment that is always present in the economy, resulting from temporary transitions made by workers and employers or from workers and employers having inconsistent or incomplete information. |
| Fringe benefit | Employment benefits granted to employees in addition to their current base salary or wages (i.e., cash, merchandise, services, health insurance, pension plans, holidays, paid vacations, etc.). |
| Fringe Benefits | Compensation for employment other than wages or salary, including, for example, annual and sick leave, medical insurance, life insurance, retirement benefits, profit sharing, bonus plans, etc. |
| Front Pay | Compensation for estimated future economic loss; generally calculated based on the difference between the discrimination victim's current pay (or for a rejected applicant, the pay he/she should have received) and the pay associated with his/her rightful place. Front pay runs from the time of the settlement (e.g., Conciliation Agreement), hearing, or admini-strative or court order to a certain time in the future set by the settlement, hearing or administrative or court order (usually when the victim attains his/her rightful place) set by the settlement, hearing or court order. See also "Rightful Place." |
| Front-loaded | A term used to describe a labor contract that provides for higher wage increases during the early part of a multiyear agreement. |
| Full crew rule | A regulation that sets forth the minimum number of workers that are required to perform a given operation. |
| Full employment | A term that basically means “zero unemployment” or an employment level which any individual who is willing to work is able to find gainful employment. |
| Full-time equivalent (FTE) | A value assigned to signify the number of full-time employees that could have been employed if the reported number of hours worked by part-time employees had been worked by full-time employees instead. |
| Fully insured plan | A benefit plan where the employer contracts with another organization to assume financial responsibility for the enrollees’ medical claims and for all incurred administrative costs. |
| Functional team | A group of employees who are responsible for a particular function within the organization. |