HR glossary

570 HR terms with plain-English definitions and practical examples. Browse recruitment, pay, people management and workforce data.

570 terms, A to Z

Absconding
Absconding is an informal employment term, often used in India, for a worker stopping attendance without communication or completing an exit process. It does not by itself establish the legal end of employment.
Relations
Absence Management
Absence management coordinates how an employer records, responds to and supports periods when employees cannot attend work. It includes communication, appropriate support and planning for operational coverage.
Employment
Absenteeism
Absenteeism is absence from scheduled work, commonly measured using unplanned absence hours or days. Employers must define which absences are included and use matching units in the calculation.
Analytics
Access Management
Access management controls who can use systems, information or facilities and what they are allowed to do. It covers granting, changing, reviewing and removing access.
Privacy
Accessibility in Hiring
Accessibility in hiring removes barriers that prevent candidates from finding, applying for or being assessed for work. It includes usable technology, communication and appropriate adjustments to recruitment activities.
Inclusion
Active Candidate
An active candidate is a person currently taking steps to find a job, such as applying, attending interviews or contacting recruiters. They may be employed, unemployed or entering work.
Hiring
Administrative Leave
Administrative leave is an employer-directed temporary absence from normal work for an administrative reason. The term is often used during investigations or other situations requiring separation from duties.
Employment
Adverse Impact
Adverse impact describes a substantially different selection outcome for a protected group under a practice or procedure. It is commonly used in analysing recruitment, promotion and other employment decisions.
Inclusion
Affinity Group
An affinity group brings together people who share an identity, experience or interest. In workplaces it may provide peer support and connection, and can overlap with an employee resource group.
Inclusion
Affirmative Action
Affirmative action refers to specific measures intended to address disadvantage or improve opportunity for designated groups. Its legal meaning, availability and requirements vary by jurisdiction and programme.
Inclusion
Agile HR
Agile HR applies iterative, collaborative ways of working to HR problems. Teams test smaller changes, seek feedback and adjust priorities rather than relying only on large fixed plans.
Strategy
AI in HR
AI in HR refers to the use of artificial intelligence in workforce processes, such as drafting job descriptions, classifying requests or analysing text. Different applications carry different levels of risk.
Technology
Anti Bribery Policy
An anti-bribery policy prohibits improper offers, requests or benefits intended to influence decisions. It provides rules for gifts, hospitality, intermediaries and reporting concerns.
Relations
Anti Corruption Policy
An anti-corruption policy addresses misuse of entrusted power for improper benefit. It can cover bribery, conflicts of interest, fraud and abuse of influence or resources.
Relations
Anti Discrimination Policy
An anti-discrimination policy explains an employer's commitment and procedures for preventing unlawful discrimination. It identifies relevant standards, reporting routes and how concerns will be considered.
Inclusion
Applicant Tracking System
An applicant tracking system, or ATS, manages vacancies, applications and candidate progress through recruitment stages. It helps recruiters organise records, communicate and coordinate selection.
Technology
Appointment Letter
An appointment letter formally records an employer's appointment of a person to a role and relevant employment terms. The terminology and legal effect vary by jurisdiction and document.
Employment
Apprenticeship Hiring
Apprenticeship hiring recruits people into arrangements that combine work with structured learning towards occupational competence. Formal schemes may have specific contracts, qualifications and regulatory requirements.
Hiring
Arbitration
Arbitration is a dispute-resolution process in which an impartial arbitrator considers the parties' positions and makes a decision under an agreed or legally provided framework. Its binding effect depends on the arrangement and law.
Relations
At-Will Employment
At-will employment is a US employment doctrine under which either party can generally end employment without a specified term, subject to legal and contractual exceptions. It is not a universal employment rule.
Employment
Attendance Policy
An attendance policy explains expectations and procedures for reporting to work, recording time and notifying absences or lateness. It should align with applicable rights and working arrangements.
Employment
Attendance Register
An attendance register is a record of workers' attendance or absence over a defined period. It may be maintained electronically or in a form required by applicable rules.
Employment
Attrition
Attrition describes employees leaving an organisation through resignation, retirement or other departures. Some employers use it specifically for departures without replacement; others use it interchangeably with turnover.
Analytics
Audit Trail
An audit trail records relevant actions or changes so they can be traced and reviewed. It may capture who acted, what changed, when it happened and the previous value.
Privacy
AWOL
AWOL means absent without leave. In a workplace context, it describes an absence that has not been authorised or explained according to the applicable attendance process.
Relations
Background Investigation
A background investigation is a structured examination of information relevant to a person's suitability or eligibility for a role. It can be broader than verifying a single qualification or employment date.
Hiring
Background Verification
Background verification checks selected information relevant to an employment decision, such as identity, qualifications or work history. The scope should be proportionate to the role and lawful in the jurisdiction.
Hiring
Balanced Scorecard
A balanced scorecard links strategy to a set of objectives and measures across several perspectives, traditionally financial, customer, internal processes, and learning and growth. It discourages reliance on financial results alone.
Strategy
Bargaining Unit
A bargaining unit is a defined group of workers represented together for collective bargaining under the applicable system. Its membership and scope determine who is covered by the bargaining relationship.
Relations
Belonging
Belonging is the feeling of being accepted and able to participate as a valued member of a group. At work, it is influenced by everyday relationships and access to opportunities.
Inclusion
Benefits Administration
Benefits administration manages enrolment, eligibility, records, contributions and changes for employee benefits. It connects employees, HR, payroll and benefit providers.
Pay
Benefits Package
A benefits package is the set of employment benefits offered alongside direct pay. It may combine mandatory provisions with employer-selected insurance, retirement, leave or support arrangements.
Pay
Bereavement Leave
Bereavement leave is time away from work following a death or related loss covered by law or employer policy. It may support grieving, funeral arrangements or immediate practical responsibilities.
Employment
Bias Free Hiring
Bias-free hiring is an aspiration to minimise unfair influence in recruitment decisions. In practice, employers use structured criteria and checks to reduce bias rather than claiming it can be completely eliminated.
Inclusion
Blended Learning
Blended learning combines different learning methods, commonly online activities with face-to-face or live instruction and workplace practice. Each part should contribute to the same learning outcome.
Learning
Bonuses
Bonuses are additional payments beyond regular base pay. They may be contractual, discretionary or linked to specified individual, team or organisational outcomes.
Pay
Boolean Search
Boolean search combines keywords with operators such as AND, OR and NOT to narrow or broaden search results. Recruiters use it to find profiles matching selected skills or experience.
Hiring
Boomerang Employee
A boomerang employee is someone who returns to work for a previous employer after leaving. The returning role may be the same or different from the earlier position.
Hiring
Broadbanding
Broadbanding combines narrower pay grades into fewer, wider salary bands. It can allow more flexibility in pay and career movement without frequent formal grade changes.
Pay
Burnout
Burnout is an occupational phenomenon associated with chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It involves exhaustion, increased distance or cynicism towards work and reduced professional efficacy.
Experience
Business Process Outsourcing
Business process outsourcing, or BPO, contracts an external organisation to perform a business function or process. Examples include customer support, finance administration and certain HR services.
Strategy
BYOD Policy
A bring-your-own-device policy, or BYOD policy, governs use of personal devices for work. It addresses permitted activities, security, support and separation of personal and business information.
Privacy
Campus Recruitment
Campus recruitment attracts and selects candidates through relationships with educational institutions. It can include events, placements, assessments and offers for entry-level roles.
Hiring
Candidate Assessment
Candidate assessment gathers evidence of a person's suitability for a job through structured methods. These may include interviews, job-related exercises, tests or work samples.
Hiring
Candidate Evaluation
Candidate evaluation is the interpretation and comparison of evidence collected during selection. It determines how well each candidate meets the role criteria and informs the hiring decision.
Hiring
Candidate Experience
Candidate experience is how a person perceives their interactions with an employer during recruitment. It includes the application process, communication, assessments, interviews and the handling of outcomes.
Hiring
Candidate Journey
The candidate journey is the sequence of interactions a person has with an employer while considering and pursuing a role. It begins before an application and may continue into onboarding.
Hiring
Candidate Nurturing
Candidate nurturing maintains relevant communication with potential applicants over time. It helps interested people understand opportunities and decide whether to engage when a suitable role appears.
Hiring
Candidate Relationship Management
Candidate relationship management maintains communication and records about potential applicants over time. It supports recruitment outreach before or between specific applications and is often abbreviated CRM in recruiting.
Technology
Candidate Screening
Candidate screening checks whether applicants meet the basic requirements and practical conditions for a role. It may use applications, brief calls, eligibility questions or initial assessments.
Hiring
Candidate Shortlisting
Candidate shortlisting selects a smaller group of applicants for the next assessment stage using agreed criteria. It follows an initial review of the available evidence.
Hiring
Candidate Slate
A candidate slate is the group of candidates presented for consideration at a particular recruitment stage, usually after initial screening. It supports comparison against the role's requirements.
Hiring
Candidate Sourcing
Candidate sourcing is the work of identifying and contacting people who may be suitable for a role. Sources can include applications, referrals, professional networks, databases and targeted searches.
Hiring
Capacity Planning
Capacity planning determines whether available resources can handle expected work within a given time. Workforce capacity depends on productive hours, skills, equipment and constraints on the process.
Strategy
Career Development
Career development is the process of building experience, capabilities and choices that support a person's working life. It can involve learning, feedback, new assignments and decisions about direction.
Learning
Career Framework
A career framework describes roles, levels and expectations to help people understand development and progression. It connects capability requirements with possible moves across an organisation.
Learning
Career Ladders
Career ladders describe a sequence of roles or levels with increasing responsibility or expertise. Organisations may provide separate ladders for people management and specialist work.
Learning
Career Pathing
Career pathing identifies possible routes through roles or capabilities and the development needed to pursue them. Paths may involve promotion, lateral movement or deeper specialist expertise.
Learning
Case Resolution Time
Case resolution time is the elapsed time from a defined case start to its resolution. It can be measured in calendar or working time and reported as a median, average or distribution.
Analytics
Casual Leave
Casual leave is a leave category used by some employers, including in India, for short personal needs or unforeseen circumstances. Its entitlement and conditions depend on the applicable rules.
Employment
Centre of Excellence
An HR centre of excellence is a specialist group that develops expertise, policies or programmes in a particular field, such as rewards or learning. It supports consistent approaches across the organisation.
Strategy
Change Communication
Change communication explains a proposed or ongoing change, why it is happening and what it means for affected people. It also provides ways to ask questions and hear feedback.
Strategy
Change Management
Change management supports people and operations through a planned organisational change. It includes understanding impacts, involving stakeholders, communicating decisions and helping people adopt new ways of working.
Strategy
Change Readiness
Change readiness is the extent to which people and an organisation are prepared and able to carry out a proposed change. It includes understanding, resources, capability and confidence in the plan.
Strategy
Closed Shop
A closed shop is an arrangement requiring workers to be union members before being hired. It is a distinct form of union-security arrangement and is prohibited or restricted in many legal systems.
Relations
Co Employment
Co-employment describes arrangements in which more than one organisation may share employer-related responsibilities for a worker. Its legal meaning and consequences vary by jurisdiction and arrangement.
Employment
Code of Conduct
A code of conduct sets out expected behaviours and standards for people working with an organisation. It may address conflicts of interest, respectful behaviour, confidentiality and use of resources.
Relations
Code of Ethics
A code of ethics states the principles intended to guide judgement and conduct within an organisation. It often addresses integrity, fairness, responsibility and conflicts of interest.
Relations
Collaboration Tools
Collaboration tools help people communicate, share information and work together. They include messaging, video meetings, shared documents and project-management applications.
Technology
Collective Agreement
A collective agreement records terms agreed between an employer or employer group and worker representatives. It can cover pay, working conditions, procedures and other matters for a defined workforce.
Relations
Collective Bargaining
Collective bargaining is negotiation between an employer or employer group and worker representatives over employment terms and related matters. The process may lead to a collective agreement.
Relations
Compensable Factors
Compensable factors are the job characteristics used to assess relative role value in an evaluation method. Examples can include knowledge, responsibility, effort and working conditions.
Pay
Compensation Fitment
Compensation fitment places a proposed or existing salary within an employer's pay structure. It considers the role's level, relevant experience, internal comparisons and applicable pay policies.
Pay
Compensation Management
Compensation management designs and administers pay arrangements, including salary structures, increases and variable rewards. It balances role requirements, market conditions, affordability and fair treatment.
Pay
Compensation Planning
Compensation planning decides how an employer will allocate pay and reward budgets. It may cover salary reviews, promotions, market adjustments, bonuses and expected workforce changes.
Pay
Compensatory Off
Compensatory off is time away from work provided in recognition of additional work or work on a designated rest day under applicable rules. It is often called time off in lieu in other contexts.
Employment
Competency Framework
A competency framework sets out the capabilities and behaviours expected for roles or levels. It provides a common reference for recruitment, development and performance conversations.
Learning
Competency Mapping
Competency mapping identifies the capabilities needed for particular roles and compares them with available evidence of people's capabilities. It supports development, selection and workforce decisions.
Learning
Compliance Management
Compliance management organises how an employer identifies, meets and monitors applicable obligations. It includes ownership, procedures, training, records and responses to failures.
Employment
Compressed Workweek
A compressed workweek places an employee's agreed working hours into fewer days, usually through longer working days. It is different from reducing total weekly hours.
Employment
Conciliation
Conciliation is a process in which an impartial third party helps parties resolve a dispute, sometimes with suggestions for settlement. Its formal role depends on the relevant legal system.
Relations
Conditional Offer
A conditional offer is a job offer that depends on stated requirements being satisfied. Conditions may include lawful checks, required qualifications or work authorisation.
Hiring
Confirmation Process
The confirmation process reviews an employee's position at the end of a probation or initial assessment period. It records the outcome and any changes required by the employment terms.
Employment
Conflict Resolution
Conflict resolution addresses a disagreement or tension and seeks a workable way forward. Approaches can include direct discussion, clarification of responsibilities, mediation or formal procedures.
Relations
Consent Management
Consent management records and administers a person's choices where consent is the appropriate basis for an activity. It includes what was agreed, when and how withdrawal is handled.
Privacy
Contingency Search
Contingency search is recruitment in which an agency is generally paid when a candidate it introduces is successfully hired under the agreement. It differs from an upfront retained-search model.
Hiring
Contingent Workforce
A contingent workforce consists of people engaged to meet temporary, variable or project-based needs outside the employer's regular permanent staffing model. It may include agency workers, contractors and temporary employees.
Employment
Continuous Feedback
Continuous feedback is the practice of sharing useful observations about work throughout the year rather than only at formal reviews. It helps people adjust behaviour while the context is still clear.
Experience
Contract Staffing
Contract staffing supplies people for work under a specified contract or engagement, often through a staffing provider. The term can refer to several arrangements, so responsibilities must be made explicit.
Employment
Contractor Compliance
Contractor compliance checks whether external work arrangements meet applicable legal, contractual and workplace requirements. It can cover status, authorisation, safety, insurance, data access and payment controls.
Employment
Conversational AI in HR
Conversational AI in HR uses language-processing systems to interpret questions and conduct multi-turn conversations about workforce services. It can help users find information or complete supported tasks.
Technology
Corporate Learning
Corporate learning is the organised development of knowledge and skills within an employer. It can serve immediate job needs, professional growth, compliance or longer-term organisational capability.
Learning
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate social responsibility, or CSR, concerns an organisation's responsibilities and activities relating to its wider social and environmental effects. In some jurisdictions, including India, specific CSR duties can apply to qualifying companies.
Strategy
Cost of Living Adjustment
A cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, changes pay or an allowance to reflect specified living-cost differences or changes. It may use an index, policy formula or negotiated arrangement.
Pay
Cost per Hire
Cost per hire is the average recruitment cost for each hire in a defined period. A common formula adds internal and external recruiting costs and divides by the number of hires.
Analytics
Criminal Background Check
A criminal background check seeks information about a person's criminal history where lawful and relevant to the role. Available records, permitted checks and use of results vary by jurisdiction.
Hiring
Critical Roles
Critical roles are positions whose absence or weak performance would materially affect important organisational outcomes. Their significance may come from scarce skills, customer impact, control responsibilities or operational dependency.
Strategy
Cross Skilling
Cross-skilling develops skills used in another function or task area so employees can work across boundaries or provide backup. It can improve flexibility without requiring a permanent role change.
Learning
Crossboarding
Crossboarding is the structured support given to an existing employee moving into a different role, team or location. It adapts onboarding to someone who already knows the organisation.
Experience
CTC
Cost to company, or CTC, is an employer's stated total annual cost of employing someone, commonly used in Indian salary offers. It may include salary, employer contributions, benefits and conditional components.
Pay
Culture Audit
A culture audit examines how stated values compare with employees' experiences and observed practices. It may use interviews, surveys, documents and evidence about decisions or outcomes.
Experience
Culture Building
Culture building is the deliberate work of shaping shared expectations and behaviours within an organisation. It involves leadership actions, systems, communication and consistent responses to everyday situations.
Experience
CV Screening
CV screening is the review of a candidate's written career information against a vacancy's requirements. It is often an early step before interviews or more detailed assessment.
Hiring
Data Privacy
Data privacy concerns the fair and lawful handling of information about identifiable people. It includes what is collected, why it is used, who can access it and how long it is kept.
Privacy
Data Quality
Data quality describes how suitable information is for its intended use. Relevant dimensions include accuracy, completeness, consistency, timeliness and validity.
Analytics
Data Retention Policy
A data retention policy states how long categories of information are kept and how they are deleted or archived. Retention should reflect legal requirements and legitimate operational needs.
Privacy
Deferred Compensation
Deferred compensation is pay or a reward scheduled to be received at a later date rather than when it is earned or awarded. Arrangements can depend on service, performance or other conditions.
Pay
Descriptive Analytics
Descriptive analytics summarises what happened in a dataset. Counts, averages, rates and trend charts make past or current workforce activity easier to understand.
Analytics
Diagnostic Analytics
Diagnostic analytics investigates possible reasons for a recorded outcome. It uses comparisons, segmentation and other analysis to test explanations for changes in workforce measures.
Analytics
Digital HR
Digital HR uses digital tools and data to deliver or redesign workforce services. Examples include online onboarding, employee self-service, electronic records and digital learning.
Technology
Digital Learning
Digital learning uses electronic technology to support learning, such as online courses, virtual classrooms, simulations or mobile resources. It can be self-paced, instructor-led or part of a blended approach.
Learning
Digital Workforce
Digital workforce is an ambiguous term that may describe people working through digital tools or software agents performing tasks. Its intended meaning should be stated in the particular context.
Technology
Digital Workplace
A digital workplace is the combination of systems and practices people use to perform and coordinate work digitally. It can include communication, documents, applications and secure access.
Technology
Disciplinary Action
Disciplinary action is an employer's formal response to alleged or established misconduct under applicable procedures. Possible outcomes depend on the facts, policy, contract and law.
Relations
Disciplinary Hearing
A disciplinary hearing gives an employee an opportunity to respond to allegations and evidence before an employer makes a disciplinary decision. The required process depends on law and workplace arrangements.
Relations
Disparate Impact
Disparate impact is a legal concept, particularly in US employment law, concerning an apparently neutral practice that disproportionately disadvantages a protected group. The applicable legal analysis considers more than intent.
Inclusion
Distributed Workforce
A distributed workforce consists of people working across multiple locations rather than mainly in one shared workplace. It may include offices, remote employees or teams in different time zones.
Employment
Diversity and Inclusion
Diversity and inclusion combines attention to who is represented with the conditions that allow people to participate and contribute fairly. It addresses both workforce composition and everyday practices.
Inclusion
Diversity Hiring
Diversity hiring seeks to improve fair access and representation in recruitment by identifying barriers in outreach and selection. Approaches must operate within applicable equality and employment law.
Inclusion
Domestic Enquiry
A domestic enquiry is an internal disciplinary inquiry, a term commonly used in India, into alleged employee misconduct. It examines evidence and the employee's response under the applicable procedure.
Relations
Downsizing
Downsizing reduces the size of an organisation's workforce or operations. It may result from reduced demand, restructuring or changes in how work is delivered.
Employment
Drug Testing
Drug testing checks for specified substances or indicators of use under a defined process. In employment, whether testing is permitted and how results may be used depend on law and the role.
Safety
E-Verify
E-Verify is a US government electronic system used by participating employers to compare information from Form I-9 with government records to confirm employment eligibility. Participation requirements depend on the applicable rules.
Hiring
Early Attrition
Early attrition describes employees leaving soon after joining, within a period defined by the employer. Common windows differ, so the term needs an explicit duration and departure scope.
Analytics
Earned Leave
Earned leave is leave accumulated through qualifying service or work under applicable law or policy. It is sometimes called privilege leave or annual leave, depending on the context.
Employment
Education Verification
Education verification checks claims about qualifications or attendance with an appropriate source. It can confirm whether a credential required for a role is genuine.
Hiring
Employee Advocacy
Employee advocacy is support or positive communication about an organisation expressed by its employees. It can occur through recommendations, professional networks or participation in employer activities.
Experience
Employee Benefits
Employee benefits are employment-related provisions beyond direct wages or salary. They can include insurance, retirement contributions, leave and other support, depending on law and employer policy.
Pay
Employee Communication
Employee communication is the exchange of information between an employer and its employees. It covers practical updates, expectations, decisions and opportunities for employees to ask questions or provide feedback.
Experience
Employee Consent
Employee consent is an employee's agreement to a specified activity, such as an optional use of personal information. Its legal validity depends on the context and whether the choice is genuinely free.
Privacy
Employee Data Protection
Employee data protection safeguards personal information handled during employment. It combines lawful processing with practical controls for access, accuracy, security, retention and individual rights.
Privacy
Employee Engagement
Employee engagement describes the commitment and involvement people bring to their work and organisation. It is commonly assessed through several survey questions rather than a single universal measure.
Experience
Employee Experience
Employee experience is how a person perceives their interactions with an employer across their working relationship. It includes the work itself, management, systems, relationships and significant events.
Experience
Employee Experience Platform
An employee experience platform brings together digital services, information or feedback intended to support employees' interaction with work. Product scope varies and may include portals, surveys, learning or communications.
Technology
Employee Grievance Procedure
An employee grievance procedure sets out how workers can raise workplace concerns and how the employer will consider them. It commonly includes submission, review, response and appeal stages.
Relations
Employee Handbook
An employee handbook brings together information about workplace policies, procedures and expectations. It helps employees find guidance on topics such as leave, conduct, benefits and reporting concerns.
Employment
Employee Journey Mapping
Employee journey mapping documents the steps, interactions and pain points employees encounter in a particular experience. It helps teams see a process from the employee's perspective.
Experience
Employee Lifecycle
The employee lifecycle describes the stages of an employment relationship, commonly including attraction, recruitment, onboarding, development, retention and departure. It helps organise related responsibilities and experiences.
Experience
Employee Master Data
Employee master data is the core information used to identify and administer an employee across systems. It commonly includes employee ID, employment status, role, location and relevant payroll fields.
Technology
Employee Net Promoter Score
Employee Net Promoter Score, or eNPS, measures willingness to recommend an employer. On a 0–10 scale, responses of 9–10 are promoters, 7–8 passives and 0–6 detractors; eNPS equals promoter percentage minus detractor percentage.
Analytics
Employee Referral
An employee referral is a recommendation or introduction of a potential candidate by an existing employee. It is one sourcing channel within the recruitment process.
Hiring
Employee Relations
Employee relations is the management of relationships between an employer and its employees, individually and collectively. It includes communication, conflict, grievances, discipline and consultation.
Relations
Employee Resource Group
An employee resource group, or ERG, is an employee-led group organised around a shared identity, experience or interest, usually with employer support. It may provide connection, advice and input on workplace practices.
Inclusion
Employee Retention
Employee retention is an employer's ability to keep employees over time. It also refers to the practices used to address avoidable departures and support continued employment.
Experience
Employee Self Service
Employee self-service lets employees view or update authorised information and complete routine HR tasks directly through a system. Examples include downloading payslips and requesting leave.
Technology
Employee Support
Employee support is the practical information, assistance or adjustments available to help people manage work-related needs. It may involve managers, HR, specialist services or approved external providers.
Experience
Employee Survey
An employee survey collects structured feedback about work, policies or organisational conditions. It can cover engagement, wellbeing, inclusion, service quality or a specific proposed change.
Experience
Employee Value Proposition
An employee value proposition, or EVP, is the combination of rewards and experiences employees can expect from working for an organisation. It should reflect the employment relationship beyond salary alone.
Experience
Employee Wellbeing
Employee wellbeing concerns people's physical, mental and social experience of work and the conditions that support health. It includes workload, safety, relationships and the ability to recover.
Experience
Employer Brand Advocacy
Employer brand advocacy is communication by employees or other supporters that helps explain an organisation as a place to work. It often uses authentic accounts of workplace experience.
Hiring
Employer Branding
Employer branding is the work of shaping and communicating how an organisation is understood as a place to work. It draws on employment practices, employee experiences and external messaging.
Hiring
Employer of Record
An employer of record, or EOR, is an organisation that legally employs workers on behalf of a client under an agreed service arrangement. It commonly administers contracts, payroll and local employment processes.
Employment
Employer Reputation
Employer reputation is the perception people hold of an organisation as an employer. It develops from direct experiences, word of mouth, public information and how the organisation responds to problems.
Hiring
Employer Value Proposition
An employer value proposition describes what an organisation offers people in return for their contribution at work. It can cover pay, development, work design, relationships and purpose.
Hiring
Employment Application
An employment application is information submitted by a person seeking a job. It may include a form, CV, answers to role-related questions and required declarations.
Hiring
Employment Branding
Employment branding describes how an organisation communicates and develops its identity as a place to work. It is commonly used as another term for employer branding.
Hiring
Employment Laws
Employment laws establish rights and duties in the relationship between employers and workers. They can cover contracts, discrimination, pay, leave, termination and other employment matters.
Employment
Engagement Drivers
Engagement drivers are aspects of work associated with employees' engagement, such as manager support, meaningful work, resources or growth opportunities. Their relevance can differ between teams and contexts.
Experience
Equal Employment Opportunity
Equal employment opportunity means access to employment decisions without unlawful discrimination. It concerns recruitment, pay, development and other work matters, with protected characteristics and duties defined by the applicable law.
Inclusion
Equal Pay Policy
An equal pay policy sets out how an employer seeks to provide lawful and fair pay for comparable work. It should explain evaluation, decision criteria and routes for raising concerns.
Pay
Equity and Inclusion
Equity and inclusion focuses on addressing relevant barriers and enabling fair participation at work. Equity considers differing circumstances rather than assuming identical treatment always produces fair access.
Inclusion
Equity Compensation
Equity compensation gives employees a financial interest linked to company ownership or share value. It can include shares, restricted awards or options with specific conditions.
Pay
ESG in HR
ESG in HR connects workforce practices with environmental, social and governance considerations. Relevant topics can include labour conditions, diversity, safety, ethics and the quality of workforce disclosures.
Strategy
ESOP
ESOP can mean different arrangements by jurisdiction. In Indian employment offers it commonly means an employee stock option plan; in the United States it often means an employee stock ownership plan.
Pay
Establishment Control
Establishment control manages the approved set of positions and associated staffing budget, a term often used in public-sector and structured organisations. It controls creation, filling and changes to posts.
Strategy
Ethical HR
Ethical HR applies honesty, fairness and responsible judgement to workforce decisions and HR practice. It includes managing conflicts, protecting information and challenging inappropriate requests.
Relations
Ethics and Compliance
Ethics and compliance combines meeting legal or regulatory requirements with standards for responsible behaviour. It connects formal rules with judgement about how decisions affect people and stakeholders.
Relations
Executive Search
Executive search is targeted recruitment for senior or highly specialised roles, often involving direct research and outreach. It may be carried out internally or by a specialist firm.
Hiring
Exempt Employee
An exempt employee is excluded from specified wage-and-hour protections under an applicable exemption, commonly discussed under the US Fair Labor Standards Act. Exemption depends on the relevant legal criteria.
Employment
Exit Interview
An exit interview is a conversation with a departing employee about their experience and reasons for leaving. It can provide feedback on management, work conditions and organisational practices.
Experience
Exit Management
Exit management is the overall coordination of an employee's departure, including approvals, communication, handover and administrative closure. It often includes the offboarding process and arrangements for different exit types.
Experience
Exit Survey
An exit survey gathers standardised feedback from departing employees about their reasons for leaving and workplace experience. It can complement a more detailed exit interview.
Experience
Expatriate
An expatriate is a person living or working outside their home country. In HR, the term often refers to an employee on an international assignment.
Employment
Expense Management
Expense management controls how work-related spending is requested, approved, recorded and reimbursed. It includes policy, evidence, budgets and handling exceptions.
Pay
Expense Reimbursement
Expense reimbursement repays an employee for eligible costs incurred for work. Payment usually depends on the employer's policy, supporting evidence and applicable tax rules.
Pay
Experiential Learning
Experiential learning develops understanding through doing, reflecting on the experience and applying what was learned. Work assignments, simulations and supervised practice can provide these opportunities.
Learning
External Labour Market
The external labour market consists of workers and opportunities outside an organisation. Employers use it when recruiting externally or comparing skills availability and pay conditions.
Hiring
First Contact Resolution
First contact resolution measures the proportion of requests resolved during the initial contact without further follow-up under the stated definition. It is commonly used in service operations.
Analytics
First Year Turnover
First-year turnover measures departures among employees within their first year of employment. A useful cohort approach follows a defined group of starters through a full year.
Analytics
Fit to Work
Fit to work describes whether a person can perform specified duties safely, with any necessary restrictions or adjustments. It is a role-specific assessment rather than a judgement of general personal worth.
Safety
Flexible Benefits
Flexible benefits let employees choose among benefit options within an employer's rules or budget. The approach recognises that employees may value different forms of support.
Pay
Flexible Working
Flexible working is an arrangement that changes when, where or how much a person works. Examples include flexible start times, part-time hours, job sharing and remote work.
Employment
Flexitime
Flexitime lets employees vary start and finish times within agreed limits while meeting required hours and availability. Arrangements may include core hours or rules for carrying time balances.
Employment
Four Fifths Rule
The four-fifths rule is a US selection-analysis guideline that compares a group's selection rate with the highest group's rate. A ratio below 80% generally flags potential adverse impact for further examination.
Analytics
Fraud Prevention
Fraud prevention uses controls and awareness to reduce deliberate deception for improper gain. In HR and payroll, it may address fictitious employees, false claims or unauthorised changes.
Relations
Freelancers
Freelancers provide services to clients on a project, assignment or other independent basis. They commonly manage their own business activity and may work for several clients.
Employment
Full and Final Settlement
Full and final settlement is the calculation and payment of amounts due when employment ends, a term commonly used in India. It may include unpaid earnings, eligible leave payments and authorised deductions.
Pay
Future of Work
The future of work is a broad term for expected changes in jobs, skills, employment relationships and working practices. Drivers can include technology, demographics, regulation and business models.
Strategy
Garden Leave
Garden leave is an arrangement in which an employee remains employed during notice but is instructed not to perform some or all normal work. Pay and continuing duties depend on the terms and law.
Employment
GDPR in HR
GDPR in HR concerns applying the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation to workforce information where it applies. It covers candidates, employees and other identifiable people whose data is processed.
Privacy
Gen Z Workforce
Gen Z workforce refers to employees grouped into the demographic cohort known as Generation Z. The label is common in discussions of newer workforce entrants, although cohort boundaries are not universal.
Experience
Gender Pay Gap
The gender pay gap is a measure of differences in pay between gender groups across a defined population. It may use mean or median earnings and can reflect workforce composition as well as pay practices.
Pay
Generational Workforce
Generational workforce is a term used when discussing employees through broad age-cohort groupings. It can frame demographic planning, although individuals within a cohort have widely different experiences and preferences.
Experience
Gig Workforce
A gig workforce performs short assignments, tasks or projects rather than working only through ongoing, traditional employment roles. Work may be arranged through platforms or direct client relationships.
Employment
Global Mobility
Global mobility manages employees moving or working across national borders. It coordinates assignment terms, immigration, tax, employment arrangements and practical relocation support.
Employment
Goal Setting
Goal setting defines the outcomes or standards a person or team aims to achieve. Useful goals make priorities, evidence of success and relevant timescales clear.
Experience
Graduate Hiring
Graduate hiring recruits people into roles designed for recent graduates or candidates with limited professional experience. Programmes may include structured learning, rotations or supervised work.
Hiring
Gratuity
Gratuity is an employment-related payment that may become due on leaving service under applicable law or contract. In India, statutory eligibility and calculation depend on the governing provisions and employment circumstances.
Pay
Green HRM
Green human resource management, or green HRM, uses HR practices to support an organisation's environmental aims. It can involve relevant learning, work design and incentives for responsible resource use.
Strategy
Green-Circling
Green-circling generally identifies pay below the minimum of the applicable range. Employers may use it to flag salaries needing review or adjustment under their compensation policy.
Pay
Grievance Arbitration
Grievance arbitration resolves a grievance through an arbitrator, commonly under a collective agreement after internal stages fail. It often concerns interpretation or application of agreed employment terms.
Relations
Grievance Handling
Grievance handling is the process for receiving, investigating and responding to an employee's workplace complaint. It should provide a fair route to raise concerns and review decisions.
Relations
Gross Misconduct
Gross misconduct is conduct considered sufficiently serious to fundamentally damage the employment relationship under the applicable legal and policy framework. It may justify a more severe response than ordinary misconduct.
Relations
Gross Salary
Gross salary is an employee's earnings before employee deductions such as tax or personal contributions. It normally includes the salary components earned for the pay period, subject to the employer's terminology.
Pay
Hardship Allowance
A hardship allowance is additional compensation for working or living in conditions the employer classifies as particularly difficult. It is often associated with certain international or remote assignments.
Pay
HCM Software
HCM software is a suite of applications supporting human capital management activities. It may combine core HR, payroll, recruitment, learning, performance and workforce analytics.
Technology
Headcount Budgeting
Headcount budgeting estimates and authorises the cost of planned staffing. It normally considers salaries plus relevant employer costs, recruitment, benefits and the timing of employee movements.
Pay
Headcount Planning
Headcount planning determines how many people an organisation expects to employ in particular roles, teams or locations. It connects current staffing, vacancies, expected departures and proposed hires.
Strategy
Headcount Report
A headcount report shows the number of people in a defined workforce at a point in time or over a reporting period. It may break totals down by team, location or employment category.
Analytics
Health and Safety Compliance
Health and safety compliance is meeting the legal duties that apply to workplace risks, controls, training and records. Requirements depend on the work, location and people affected.
Safety
Health Insurance
Health insurance provides coverage for specified medical costs under an insurance contract. Employer-sponsored cover may include employees and eligible dependants, subject to policy terms.
Pay
High Potential Employees
High-potential employees are people assessed as capable of taking on significantly broader or different responsibilities in the future. Potential is an estimate of future capability, distinct from current performance.
Learning
Hiring Freeze
A hiring freeze temporarily restricts recruitment or approval of new employees. It may apply to all vacancies or selected roles, with exceptions defined by the employer.
Hiring
Hiring Plan
A hiring plan sets out the roles an organisation intends to fill, when they are needed and how recruitment will be delivered. It connects priorities, budgets and responsibilities.
Hiring
HR Analytics
HR analytics uses workforce data and analysis to answer questions about employment practices and outcomes. It moves beyond reporting a number to examining patterns, explanations or possible actions.
Analytics
HR Audit
An HR audit is a structured review of employment records, policies and practices against defined requirements. Its scope may cover compliance, record accuracy, process controls or how consistently policies are applied.
Strategy
HR Automation
HR automation uses software rules or workflows to complete repeatable tasks with less manual intervention. It commonly handles reminders, routing, calculations and transfers between systems.
Technology
HR Benchmarking
HR benchmarking compares an organisation's workforce measures or practices with a relevant reference group. The reference may be similar employers, an industry survey or the organisation's own past performance.
Analytics
HR Budgeting
HR budgeting allocates planned spending to HR activities and workforce-related programmes. The scope may include recruitment, learning, HR systems and the HR team's operating costs.
Pay
HR Business Partnering
HR business partnering is an approach in which HR professionals work closely with business leaders to solve workforce problems. Partners translate operating needs into staffing, capability and employee relations decisions.
Strategy
HR Case Management
HR case management records and coordinates the handling of employee requests or issues that require follow-up. It tracks ownership, actions, documents and outcomes within appropriate access controls.
Technology
HR Chatbots
HR chatbots are software interfaces that respond to employee or candidate questions through text or voice. They may use fixed decision trees, search approved content or generate responses with AI.
Technology
HR Dashboards
An HR dashboard brings selected workforce measures together in one view so users can monitor trends, exceptions and progress. It can combine charts, tables and links to supporting detail.
Analytics
HR Data Governance
HR data governance defines ownership, standards and controls for workforce information. It establishes how data is created, corrected, shared, retained and used in decisions.
Privacy
HR Digitisation
HR digitisation converts information or activities from analogue formats into digital ones. Scanning personnel records and replacing paper leave forms with electronic forms are common examples.
Technology
HR Effectiveness
HR effectiveness assesses whether HR activities achieve the outcomes they are intended to support. It focuses on results rather than simply the amount of activity performed.
Analytics
HR Efficiency
HR efficiency concerns the resources, time or cost used to deliver HR services. It examines whether the same required service can be provided with less waste or avoidable effort.
Analytics
HR Experience
HR experience is how employees and managers perceive their interactions with HR services and professionals. It includes clarity, ease of access, respectful treatment and whether the issue is resolved.
Experience
HR Financial Planning
HR financial planning estimates the money needed for workforce and HR activities and connects it with organisational plans. It includes assumptions about staffing, pay, services, development and change.
Pay
HR Forecasting
HR forecasting estimates future workforce or HR-service needs using available information and assumptions. It may cover hiring, departures, payroll costs or expected volumes of employee requests.
Analytics
HR Governance
HR governance defines who can make people decisions, which policies apply and how those decisions are reviewed. It establishes authority and oversight for activities such as hiring, pay changes and dismissals.
Strategy
HR Helpdesk
An HR helpdesk is a service point for employees and managers to obtain answers or support on HR matters. It may operate through a portal, email, telephone or in-person service.
Technology
HR Innovation
HR innovation is the introduction and testing of a new way to solve a workforce or employee-service problem. The change may concern a process, policy, technology or working arrangement.
Strategy
HR Knowledge Base
An HR knowledge base is a managed collection of answers and guidance about HR policies and processes. It supports consistent self-service and adviser responses.
Technology
HR Metrics
HR metrics are numerical measures used to describe workforce activity and outcomes. Examples include headcount, turnover, absence rates, hiring costs and completion of required training.
Analytics
HR Mobile App
An HR mobile app provides access to HR information or tasks through a mobile device. It may support leave requests, payslips, attendance or employee communication.
Technology
HR Operating Model
An HR operating model describes how the HR function organises its roles, processes, systems and decision-making to deliver services. It explains who does what and how work moves between teams.
Strategy
HR Outsourcing
HR outsourcing assigns selected HR activities to an external provider. The scope can range from payroll administration to advice or service delivery, while the employer retains relevant legal responsibilities.
Strategy
HR Policies
HR policies state an employer's rules or approach to recurring people matters, such as recruitment, leave, conduct and flexible work. They help make expectations and decision processes consistent.
Employment
HR Portal
An HR portal is an online entry point to HR information and services. It may link employees to policies, personal records, requests and support channels.
Technology
HR Productivity
HR productivity relates HR output to the resources used to produce it. Measures might compare completed transactions or resolved requests with working time, provided quality and scope are clear.
Analytics
HR Reporting
HR reporting presents workforce information in a structured form for operational, management or statutory purposes. Reports may cover staffing, pay, absence, recruitment and other defined topics.
Analytics
HR Risk Assessment
An HR risk assessment examines workforce-related situations that could harm people or the organisation. It may cover capability gaps, employment practices, key-person dependency, misconduct or data handling.
Strategy
HR Scorecard
An HR scorecard is a structured set of measures used to assess HR's contribution, services or progress against objectives. It links selected indicators with targets and responsibilities.
Analytics
HR Service Catalogue
An HR service catalogue lists the services HR provides, who can use them and how to request support. It may include required information, ownership and expected response arrangements.
Strategy
HR Service Delivery
HR service delivery is how employees and managers obtain HR information, transactions and advice. It includes channels, ownership, response standards and the coordination of routine and complex work.
Strategy
HR Shared Services
HR shared services centralises repeatable HR activities for multiple teams, locations or business units. It usually provides consistent processes for transactions and common employee queries.
Strategy
HR Tech Stack
An HR tech stack is the collection of applications and integrations an organisation uses for HR work. It describes how systems support the employee lifecycle and exchange information.
Technology
HR Technology
HR technology is software and related digital infrastructure used to manage workforce information and employment processes. It includes payroll systems, recruitment tools, learning platforms and employee portals.
Technology
HR Ticketing
HR ticketing records service requests as individual items with identifiers, owners and statuses. It helps teams organise workloads and follow requests through to resolution.
Technology
HR Transformation
HR transformation is a substantial change to how the HR function operates or delivers services. It can involve processes, roles, technology, skills and decision-making responsibilities.
Strategy
HR Value Creation
HR value creation describes how workforce practices contribute to outcomes that matter to employees and the organisation. Contributions may involve capability, reliable services, risk reduction or better working conditions.
Strategy
HRIS
A human resources information system, or HRIS, stores and manages core employee information and related HR processes. It commonly holds personal records, roles, employment details and leave data.
Technology
Human Capital Index
Human capital index can refer to a composite workforce measure or to a named external index. Its meaning depends on the indicators, population and calculation used by the publisher.
Analytics
Human Capital Management
Human capital management, or HCM, is an approach to managing the skills, knowledge and capabilities people contribute to an organisation. The same term also describes suites of HR software.
Strategy
Human Capital Reporting
Human capital reporting discloses information about an organisation's workforce and related practices or outcomes. It can cover staffing, development, diversity, safety and costs for internal or external audiences.
Analytics
Human Capital ROI
Human capital ROI is a family of measures relating financial returns to workforce costs. A common formula subtracts non-workforce operating costs from revenue, then divides the remainder by workforce costs.
Analytics
Human Capital Strategy
A human capital strategy sets priorities for building and using workforce capabilities to support organisational goals. It connects skills, leadership, development, deployment and related investment decisions.
Strategy
Human Centric HR
Human-centric HR designs policies and services around people's actual needs and experiences while meeting organisational requirements. It uses employee input to make processes understandable, accessible and workable.
Experience
Human Resource Management
Human resource management, or HRM, is the work of organising employment relationships and supporting an organisation's workforce. It includes recruitment, pay, learning, performance management and employee relations.
Strategy
Hybrid Work Model
A hybrid work model combines work at an employer's workplace with work elsewhere. Arrangements may use fixed office days, team agreements or schedules based on the tasks being performed.
Employment
Immigration Compliance
Immigration compliance means meeting the rules governing a person's permission to enter, stay and work in a country. Employers may have verification, sponsorship and reporting duties.
Employment
Incentives
Incentives are rewards intended to encourage particular actions or outcomes. They may be financial or non-financial and can apply to individuals or groups.
Pay
Inclusive Hiring
Inclusive hiring designs recruitment so qualified people from different backgrounds can access opportunities and be assessed fairly. It considers language, outreach, criteria, interview structure and accessibility.
Inclusion
Inclusive Leadership
Inclusive leadership involves behaviours that help different people participate, contribute and access opportunities fairly. It includes listening, examining assumptions and addressing barriers or exclusion.
Inclusion
Independent Contractors
Independent contractors are people or businesses engaged to provide services while operating independently rather than as employees. The legal tests for independence differ between jurisdictions and purposes.
Employment
Industrial Relations
Industrial relations concerns relationships between employers, workers and their representatives, especially collective matters. It includes bargaining, consultation, disputes and institutions that regulate those relationships.
Relations
Industrial Tribunal
An industrial tribunal is a specialist body established to decide specified industrial or employment disputes under applicable law. Its powers, membership and procedures depend on the jurisdiction.
Relations
Information Security Policy
An information security policy sets requirements for protecting information and systems from unauthorised access, loss or misuse. It covers responsibilities and controls relevant to the organisation.
Privacy
Inpatriate
An inpatriate is an employee transferred from an overseas operation into the organisation's home-country or headquarters operation. The term is used in international assignment planning.
Employment
Instructional Design
Instructional design is the deliberate planning of learning objectives, activities and assessment to help people gain a capability. It connects what learners need to do with how they will practise and receive feedback.
Learning
Internal Communication
Internal communication is the flow of information within an organisation, including between teams, leaders and employees. It helps people coordinate work and understand decisions or priorities.
Experience
Internal Complaints Committee
Internal Complaints Committee, often now called the Internal Committee, refers to the workplace body that handles complaints under India's law on sexual harassment of women at work where required.
Relations
Internal Job Posting (IJP)
An internal job posting, or IJP, advertises a vacancy to existing employees. It supports visibility of opportunities and provides a process for expressing interest or applying.
Hiring
Internal Labour Market
An internal labour market consists of opportunities and movement within an organisation. It includes promotions, transfers, internal recruitment and the rules governing access to roles.
Strategy
Internal Mobility
Internal mobility is the movement of employees between roles, teams, locations or assignments within an organisation. It includes promotions, lateral moves and temporary opportunities.
Learning
Internal Talent Marketplace
An internal talent marketplace lets existing employees discover and apply for roles, projects, mentoring or learning opportunities within their organisation. It supports movement and skills development across teams.
Technology
Internship Hiring
Internship hiring selects people for time-limited work experiences intended to combine practical contribution with learning. Employment status, pay and legal requirements depend on the arrangement and location.
Hiring
Intranet
An intranet is an organisation's internal website or network for sharing information and resources with authorised users. It may host policies, news, directories and links to services.
Technology
Involuntary Attrition
Involuntary attrition refers to departures initiated by the employer, such as dismissal or redundancy. Organisations should define how other exit types are classified before reporting the measure.
Analytics
IR35
IR35 refers to UK rules addressing tax treatment when a person provides services through an intermediary but would be an employee for tax purposes if engaged directly. Off-payroll working responsibilities depend on the engagement.
Employment
Job Abandonment
Job abandonment is a term used when an employer concludes that an employee has stopped attending and intends not to return without following the exit process. The required evidence and procedure vary.
Relations
Job Analysis
Job analysis systematically examines the tasks, responsibilities, conditions and capabilities required for a job. Its findings support job descriptions, selection criteria, training and evaluation.
Strategy
Job Architecture
Job architecture is the framework that organises jobs into families, levels and related structures. It connects role definitions with career paths, pay arrangements and workforce reporting.
Strategy
Job Bands
Job bands group roles by a broadly comparable level of responsibility, complexity or contribution. They can support career structures and pay frameworks across different functions.
Pay
Job Bid
A job bid is an employee's formal expression of interest in an available internal role or assignment under an established process. Some workplaces use bidding rules in a collective agreement.
Hiring
Job Description
A job description explains a role's purpose, main responsibilities, reporting relationships and working context. It helps candidates, employees and managers understand what the role is expected to deliver.
Hiring
Job Enlargement
Job enlargement adds more tasks of a similar level to an existing job. It broadens the range of work without necessarily increasing decision-making authority or responsibility.
Learning
Job Enrichment
Job enrichment changes a job to provide greater responsibility, autonomy or opportunities to use judgement. It aims to make the work more meaningful rather than simply adding similar tasks.
Learning
Job Evaluation
Job evaluation assesses the relative demands or value of jobs within an organisation to support a consistent pay structure. It evaluates roles rather than the performance of their current holders.
Pay
Job Families
Job families group roles that perform related types of work or require similar professional capabilities. Examples include finance, engineering, sales and human resources.
Strategy
Job Leveling
Job leveling assigns roles to levels based on factors such as complexity, responsibility, scope and autonomy. It supports consistent career and pay structures across functions.
Strategy
Job Posting
A job posting is a public or internal announcement of an available role. It should explain the work, relevant requirements, application process and important employment conditions.
Hiring
Job Requisition
A job requisition is an internal request to fill or create a position. It records the business need, role details, budget and approvals required before recruitment starts.
Hiring
Job Rotation
Job rotation moves employees through different tasks or roles for planned periods. It can build understanding, develop capability, provide cover or vary repetitive work.
Learning
Job Sharing
Job sharing divides one role's responsibilities and working time between two or more people. It requires clear coordination so the role is covered without unnecessary duplication or gaps.
Employment
Job Specification
A job specification states the knowledge, skills, qualifications or other requirements needed to perform a job. It describes the person-related criteria used alongside the job description.
Hiring
Job Worth
Job worth is the relative value or demands of a role within a job-evaluation framework. It considers the work and responsibilities rather than the personal value of the employee.
Pay
Joining Formalities
Joining formalities are the administrative steps required when someone starts employment. They can include confirming terms, verifying necessary documents and setting up payroll, benefits and system access.
Experience
Knowledge Transfer
Knowledge transfer passes useful expertise, context or practical know-how from one person or group to another. It can use documentation, demonstrations, shadowing or collaborative work.
Learning
KPIs
Key performance indicators, or KPIs, are selected measures used to monitor performance against important objectives. They are a subset of metrics chosen because they inform a decision or priority.
Analytics
Labour Court
A labour court is a judicial or specialist body dealing with employment or industrial matters under the relevant legal system. Its jurisdiction and available remedies depend on the governing legislation.
Relations
Labour Dispute
A labour dispute is a disagreement concerning employment-related matters between relevant parties, such as workers and an employer. Legal definitions may specify the issues and parties covered.
Relations
Labour Laws
Labour laws regulate work and employment relationships, including matters such as wages, working conditions, industrial relations and social protection. Their scope and terminology vary by country.
Employment
Labour Market
The labour market is the environment in which employers seek workers and people seek work. It is shaped by available skills, demand, location, pay and employment conditions.
Hiring
Labour Relations
Labour relations concerns relationships between employers, workers and worker representatives, especially collective employment matters. It often overlaps with industrial relations.
Relations
Late Coming
Late coming means arriving or starting work after the scheduled or agreed time. Employers may record it under attendance procedures, taking account of flexible arrangements and the circumstances.
Employment
Layoff
Layoff has different meanings across jurisdictions. In everyday US usage it often means employer-initiated job loss for business reasons; in some other legal contexts it can mean a temporary inability to provide work.
Employment
Leadership Assessment
Leadership assessment evaluates evidence about a person's leadership capabilities, behaviours or suitability for a role. Methods can include structured interviews, simulations, work evidence and multi-source feedback.
Learning
Leadership Competencies
Leadership competencies describe the behaviours and capabilities expected of leaders in an organisation. They turn broad expectations such as good judgement or communication into assessable requirements.
Learning
Leadership Development
Leadership development builds the skills and judgement needed to guide people and organisations. It can include coaching, feedback, learning, mentoring and assignments with increasing responsibility.
Learning
Leadership Pipeline
A leadership pipeline is the flow of people developing towards progressively broader leadership responsibilities. It links identification, experience, development and succession across different management levels.
Learning
Leadership Readiness
Leadership readiness is an assessment of whether a person can take on a specified leadership role now or after further preparation. Readiness is relative to the demands of that particular role.
Learning
Learning and Development
Learning and development, or L&D, is the work of building capabilities that help people perform and progress. It includes formal training, coaching, practice, feedback and learning through work.
Learning
Learning Effectiveness
Learning effectiveness describes how well a learning activity achieves its intended outcomes. Evidence may include knowledge gained, skills demonstrated, behaviour applied or improvements in relevant work results.
Learning
Learning Experience Platform
A learning experience platform, or LXP, helps users discover and access learning content through recommendations, search or shared collections. Its emphasis is often learner discovery rather than course administration.
Technology
Learning Management System
A learning management system, or LMS, administers learning activities and records participation or results. Common functions include enrolment, course delivery, reminders, assessments and completion reporting.
Technology
Learning ROI
Learning ROI compares the estimated financial benefit attributable to a learning intervention with its total cost. It is commonly expressed as net benefit divided by cost, multiplied by 100.
Analytics
Leave Accrual
Leave accrual is the process by which an employee builds up leave entitlement over time. The rate and conditions come from applicable law, contract or policy.
Employment
Leave Encashment
Leave encashment is payment for eligible unused leave under applicable law or employment policy. It may occur during employment or when the employment relationship ends.
Pay
Leave Management
Leave management administers employee requests and entitlements for time away from work. It includes balances, approvals, records, coverage arrangements and applicable policy or legal requirements.
Employment
Life Insurance
Life insurance pays a specified benefit following an insured person's death, subject to the policy's terms. Employers may provide group life coverage as part of benefits.
Pay
Lockout
A lockout is an employer-initiated exclusion of workers from work in connection with an employment dispute, subject to the applicable legal definition. It is different from a worker-initiated strike.
Relations
Long Term Incentives
Long-term incentives are rewards linked to service or performance over several years rather than a short pay period. They may use cash, shares, options or other arrangements.
Pay
Machine Learning in HR
Machine learning in HR uses algorithms that identify patterns from data rather than relying only on explicitly written rules. Applications include forecasting, document classification and recommendation systems.
Technology
Managed Service Provider
A managed service provider, or MSP, operates an agreed service on behalf of a client. In contingent staffing, it may coordinate suppliers, assignments, reporting and related processes.
Strategy
Manager Self Service
Manager self-service gives managers system access to authorised team information and routine actions, such as approving leave or initiating a staffing request. Permissions depend on their responsibilities.
Technology
Manpower Planning
Manpower planning is a traditional term for estimating and arranging the staffing needed to perform work. Employers increasingly use workforce planning to describe the same broad activity.
Strategy
Manpower Requisition
A manpower requisition is an internal request for staffing, a traditional term often used interchangeably with job requisition or headcount request. It records the need and required approvals.
Hiring
Market Pricing
Market pricing sets or reviews pay using external compensation data for comparable jobs. It considers job scope, location, industry and the type of compensation being compared.
Pay
Master Data Management
Master data management keeps important shared records consistent across systems. In HR, it may govern employee identifiers, organisational units, job codes and other core reference information.
Technology
Maternity Leave
Maternity leave is time away from work associated with pregnancy, childbirth and recovery, subject to applicable eligibility and legal provisions. Pay, duration and employment protections vary by jurisdiction.
Employment
Mediation
Mediation is a process in which an impartial person helps parties discuss a dispute and explore a mutually acceptable resolution. The mediator generally facilitates agreement rather than imposing a decision.
Relations
Medical Examination
A medical examination assesses health through an appropriately qualified professional. Employment-related examinations should have a lawful, role-relevant purpose and protect confidential information.
Safety
Mental Health at Work
Mental health at work concerns how working conditions affect psychological wellbeing and how employers support people experiencing mental health difficulties. It includes prevention, adjustments and access to appropriate support.
Experience
Merit Increase
A merit increase is a rise in base pay linked to assessed performance under an employer's pay policy. It is different from a one-off bonus or a general salary-range adjustment.
Pay
Microlearning
Microlearning presents a narrowly focused learning activity in a short format. It may be used for a specific task, reminder or small component of a broader development programme.
Learning
Millennial Workforce
Millennial workforce refers to employees grouped into the demographic cohort often called millennials or Generation Y. The label is used in workforce commentary, with birth-year boundaries that differ between sources.
Experience
Minimum Wage
Minimum wage is the legally required minimum pay for covered work under the applicable rules. Rates and calculation methods may vary by jurisdiction, occupation, worker category or other factors.
Pay
Misconduct
Misconduct is behaviour that breaches applicable workplace rules or legitimate standards of conduct. Its classification and consequences depend on the facts, policy and law.
Relations
Mission Critical Roles
Mission-critical roles directly support an organisation's ability to carry out its core purpose or essential operations. Failure to cover them could stop a key service or create serious operational consequences.
Strategy
Multigenerational Workforce
A multigenerational workforce includes people from several age groups working together. It creates opportunities for varied experience and knowledge-sharing while requiring fair access to work and development.
Experience
Net Salary
Net salary is the amount remaining from gross earnings after employee deductions and relevant payroll adjustments. It is often called take-home or in-hand pay.
Pay
Neurodiversity
Neurodiversity recognises variation in how people think, learn, process information and interact. In workplaces, the term often informs inclusion of people with conditions such as autism, ADHD or dyslexia.
Inclusion
Nine Box Grid
A nine-box grid groups employees using two three-level dimensions, commonly current performance and future potential. It is used to structure talent discussions and development decisions.
Learning
Non-Exempt Employee
A non-exempt employee is covered by the relevant wage-and-hour protections, commonly including overtime requirements under the US Fair Labor Standards Act. Coverage depends on the applicable law and circumstances.
Employment
Notice Period
A notice period is the interval between giving notice to end employment and the effective end date. Its duration and treatment depend on applicable law and employment terms.
Employment
Occupational Health
Occupational health focuses on the relationship between work and health. It includes preventing work-related illness and advising on fitness, adjustments or support for people with health needs.
Safety
Offboarding
Offboarding manages the end of an employee's relationship with an organisation. It coordinates handover, records, final pay, equipment return and changes to access or responsibilities.
Experience
Offer Acceptance Rate
Offer acceptance rate is the proportion of job offers accepted during a defined period or cohort. It is calculated as accepted offers divided by offers included in the measure, multiplied by 100.
Analytics
Offer Management
Offer management coordinates the preparation, approval, communication and tracking of employment offers. It includes pay, terms, conditions, candidate responses and changes before acceptance.
Hiring
Offer Rescission
Offer rescission is the withdrawal of a job offer before employment begins or before the offer takes effect, depending on the circumstances. Its legal consequences depend on the offer, acceptance and applicable law.
Hiring
OKRs
Objectives and key results, or OKRs, connect a qualitative goal with measurable evidence of progress. The objective states the intended direction; key results describe outcomes that would indicate success.
Strategy
Onboarding
Onboarding helps a new employee understand the organisation, build working relationships and become effective in their role. It extends beyond first-day administration into supported learning and early performance expectations.
Experience
Open Shop
An open shop is a workplace where union membership is not a condition of employment. The term describes membership arrangements rather than whether a union exists at the workplace.
Relations
Org Charts
Organisation charts visually show roles, teams and reporting relationships. They help people understand formal structure and identify relevant managers or contacts.
Strategy
Organisation Design
Organisation design determines how work, roles, responsibilities and coordination should be arranged to deliver an organisation's goals. It considers more than reporting lines alone.
Strategy
Organisation Structure
Organisation structure is the formal arrangement of roles, reporting relationships and organisational units. It defines how responsibilities and authority are distributed.
Strategy
Organisational Culture
Organisational culture is the pattern of shared assumptions, norms and behaviours that shapes how work gets done. It is reflected in everyday decisions as well as formal statements.
Experience
Organisational Development
Organisational development is a planned approach to improving how an organisation functions through changes to people, relationships, processes and structures. It usually combines diagnosis, participation and evaluation.
Strategy
Outplacement
Outplacement is employer-supported assistance for people leaving an organisation to find new work or plan their next step. It can include career advice, CV support and interview preparation.
Employment
Overtime Eligibility
Overtime eligibility determines whether a worker is entitled to additional pay or another legally permitted treatment for work beyond defined limits. It depends on the applicable law and employment circumstances.
Pay
Overtime Management
Overtime management controls work beyond applicable normal hours, including authorisation, records, payment and workload review. What counts as overtime and how it is compensated depend on the governing rules.
Pay
Paid Time Off
Paid time off, or PTO, is paid absence from work under an employer's arrangements. In some workplaces it combines several leave categories into one balance, while others use it as a general term.
Employment
Parental Leave
Parental leave is time away from work connected with caring for a child, under applicable law or employment policy. It may be distinct from maternity, paternity or adoption-related leave.
Employment
Part Time Work
Part-time work involves fewer hours than the employer's comparable full-time arrangement. The exact definition and associated rights depend on local law and employment terms.
Employment
Passive Candidate
A passive candidate is someone who is not actively applying for a new job but may consider a suitable opportunity. The label describes current job-search behaviour, not ability or commitment.
Hiring
Paternity Leave
Paternity leave is leave associated with the birth or arrival of a child, commonly available to an eligible father or partner under law or employer policy. Coverage differs across jurisdictions.
Employment
Pay Bands
Pay bands are salary ranges used to group roles or levels within a pay structure. Each band usually sets boundaries for base pay and may contain rules for progression.
Pay
Pay Equity
Pay equity concerns whether compensation is fair for comparable work without unjustified or unlawful differences. Reviews may examine job demands, experience, performance and other legitimate pay factors.
Pay
Pay Grade
A pay grade groups jobs assessed at a similar level within a compensation structure. It is commonly associated with a salary range and rules for positioning or progression.
Pay
Pay Structure
A pay structure organises compensation into a defined arrangement of grades, bands or ranges. It provides a framework for setting and reviewing pay across roles.
Pay
Pay Transparency
Pay transparency is the extent to which information about pay ranges, criteria and decisions is shared. It can range from explaining salary bands to disclosures required by law.
Pay
Payroll Audit
A payroll audit reviews payroll records, calculations and controls for accuracy and compliance with defined requirements. It may examine employee changes, deductions, approvals and reconciliation to payments.
Pay
Payroll Compliance
Payroll compliance means meeting the legal requirements associated with calculating, paying and reporting employment earnings. It can include deductions, contributions, payslips, records and filing obligations.
Pay
Payroll Management
Payroll management oversees the systems, responsibilities and controls used to pay employees accurately and on time. It includes planning, compliance, data quality and resolving exceptions.
Pay
Payroll Processing
Payroll processing calculates and records employee earnings, deductions and net pay for a pay period. It usually includes input checks, calculations, approval, payment and payslip production.
Pay
Payslip
A payslip is a record explaining earnings, deductions and net pay for a pay period. It helps employees understand how the amount payable was calculated.
Pay
People Analytics
People analytics is the use of data to understand how people experience work and how workforce decisions affect outcomes. It often covers employees, managers, candidates and team relationships.
Analytics
People KPIs
People KPIs are selected measures used to monitor workforce priorities and their outcomes. The term often overlaps with HR KPIs and may cover engagement, capability, retention or leadership.
Analytics
People Management
People management is the day-to-day work of directing, supporting and developing employees. It includes setting expectations, allocating work, giving feedback and handling problems within a team.
Strategy
People Operations
People operations is the team and set of processes that support employees through hiring, onboarding, everyday work, development and departure. It often combines HR administration with improvements to the employee experience.
Strategy
People Scorecard
A people scorecard summarises selected outcomes relating to the workforce, such as capability, experience, retention and inclusion. Organisations define its content according to their priorities.
Analytics
People Strategy
A people strategy sets the workforce priorities needed to deliver a business plan. It connects decisions about skills, staffing, leadership, culture and rewards to specific business needs.
Strategy
Per Diem
Per diem is a daily allowance for specified expenses, commonly meals and incidental costs during business travel. Rates and eligible items depend on policy and applicable tax rules.
Pay
Performance Appraisal
A performance appraisal is a formal review of an employee's work over a defined period. It usually considers outcomes, behaviours, development needs and agreed expectations.
Experience
Performance Bonus
A performance bonus is an additional payment linked to specified results or assessed performance. It may depend on individual, team or company measures under a defined plan.
Pay
Performance Calibration
Performance calibration compares proposed employee ratings across managers or teams to improve consistency. Participants examine whether similar standards and evidence have been applied.
Experience
Performance Improvement Plan
A performance improvement plan, or PIP, sets out specific performance concerns, required improvements, support and review arrangements. It provides a structured opportunity to address identified gaps.
Relations
Performance Management
Performance management is the ongoing process of agreeing expectations, supporting delivery, reviewing progress and addressing gaps. It connects individual and team work with organisational priorities.
Experience
Permanent Staffing
Permanent staffing refers to recruiting people into ongoing roles without a predetermined end date. The employment relationship still remains subject to its terms and applicable termination rules.
Employment
Personnel Management
Personnel management is a traditional term for administering employment and managing workforce matters such as records, pay, recruitment and employee relations. Its scope often overlaps with modern HR management.
Strategy
Personnel Records
Personnel records are documents and information maintained about a person's employment. They may include contracts, role changes, training and relevant employment correspondence.
Privacy
POSH Compliance
POSH compliance commonly refers to an employer's obligations under India's law addressing sexual harassment of women at the workplace. It includes prevention, awareness and the applicable complaint-handling arrangements.
Relations
Position Management
Position management tracks approved organisational positions separately from the people who occupy them. A position can remain in the structure when vacant or temporarily filled.
Strategy
Preboarding
Preboarding covers the period between accepting a job offer and starting work. It prepares the new employee and employer through communication, necessary paperwork and practical arrangements.
Experience
Predictive Analytics
Predictive analytics uses historical data and statistical or machine-learning models to estimate future outcomes. In HR, it may support forecasts of hiring demand, absence or workforce availability.
Analytics
Prescriptive Analytics
Prescriptive analytics compares possible actions and recommends choices under stated objectives and constraints. It may combine predictions with optimisation rules, costs and operational requirements.
Analytics
Presenteeism
Presenteeism commonly means working while ill or otherwise not well enough to work effectively. It can reduce recovery and increase mistakes, even when the person is physically or digitally present.
Experience
Privacy Impact Assessment
A privacy impact assessment examines how a proposed activity could affect people's information rights and what controls are needed. Under GDPR, a data protection impact assessment has specific legal requirements in relevant cases.
Privacy
Probation Period
A probation period is an initial employment period used to assess suitability and provide support under stated terms. It may affect review or notice arrangements, subject to applicable law.
Employment
Professional Employer Organisation
A professional employer organisation, or PEO, provides employer-related services under a shared-responsibility arrangement, commonly described as co-employment in the United States. Services may include payroll, benefits and HR administration.
Employment
Progressive Counseling
Progressive counseling is a structured sequence of discussions and support intended to address workplace concerns before or alongside more formal action. Employers use the term differently in their policies.
Relations
Progressive Discipline
Progressive discipline uses increasingly serious responses when misconduct continues or standards are not met, usually with opportunities to correct the problem. The steps depend on policy and applicable law.
Relations
Provident Fund
A provident fund is a retirement savings arrangement funded through contributions under applicable scheme rules. In Indian payroll, the term often refers to the Employees' Provident Fund, or EPF.
Pay
Psychological Safety
Psychological safety is a shared belief that people can raise questions, concerns or mistakes without being humiliated or punished for speaking up. It supports learning and honest discussion within a team.
Experience
Pulse Survey
A pulse survey is a short survey repeated periodically or used to check a focused issue. It gives timely feedback without asking the full range of questions in a larger employee survey.
Experience
Punch In
Punch in means recording the start of a work period through a time clock or attendance system. It may use a card, terminal, app or another approved method.
Employment
Punch Out
Punch out means recording the end of a work period through an attendance system. Together with other records, it helps establish hours for review and payroll.
Employment
Purpose Driven Work
Purpose-driven work connects a person's tasks with an outcome they consider meaningful. It can relate to customers, colleagues, professional standards or a wider social contribution.
Experience
Quality of Hire
Quality of hire evaluates how well new hires meet defined expectations after joining. Employers may combine evidence such as job performance, retention or time to competence, using an explicitly defined method.
Analytics
Reasonable Accommodation
Reasonable accommodation is a change that enables a person to access or perform work under applicable equality or disability law. Related terms, such as reasonable adjustment, are used in some jurisdictions.
Inclusion
Recognition Programs
Recognition programs are organised ways to acknowledge employee contributions or behaviours. They may include peer nominations, manager awards or service recognition with defined criteria.
Experience
Records of Processing Activities
Records of processing activities document how an organisation handles personal data. Under GDPR, the required record can include purposes, data categories, recipients, retention and relevant security information.
Privacy
Recruiter Productivity
Recruiter productivity relates recruitment output to the time or resources used. Measures may include completed hires, qualified submissions or progress on assigned vacancies, with clear scope and quality criteria.
Analytics
Recruitment
Recruitment is the process of attracting, assessing and selecting candidates for a job. It normally starts with an agreed requirement and ends with an accepted offer or another defined hiring outcome.
Hiring
Recruitment Funnel
A recruitment funnel shows how candidates move through successive hiring stages. It tracks the number entering each stage and the proportion progressing to the next.
Hiring
Recruitment Lifecycle
The recruitment lifecycle is the sequence of stages through which a hiring requirement moves, from identifying the vacancy to selecting and securing a candidate. Some employers include onboarding in their definition.
Hiring
Recruitment Marketing
Recruitment marketing uses communication and campaigns to attract potential candidates and encourage relevant applications. It can include career pages, employee stories, job content and targeted outreach.
Hiring
Recruitment Process Outsourcing
Recruitment process outsourcing, or RPO, transfers responsibility for some or all recruitment delivery to an external provider. The provider may manage people, processes and technology for the agreed scope.
Hiring
Recruitment Strategy
A recruitment strategy explains how an organisation will attract and select the people it needs. It identifies priority roles, sourcing channels, responsibilities, assessment methods and measures of success.
Hiring
Red-Circling
Red-circling usually means protecting or identifying an employee's pay when it sits above the maximum of the assigned range. Treatment depends on the employer's policy and applicable rights.
Pay
Redundancy
Redundancy refers to a situation where an employer no longer needs certain work or roles in their existing form, with a specific legal meaning in some jurisdictions. It concerns the role or business need rather than individual misconduct.
Employment
Reference Check
A reference check seeks relevant information from people able to comment on a candidate's work history or performance. It helps verify evidence gathered during recruitment.
Hiring
Referral Program
A referral program formalises how employees recommend candidates and any reward conditions for successful referrals. It specifies eligibility, submission rules and the hiring process.
Hiring
Relocation Assistance
Relocation assistance is practical or financial support offered when a person moves for work. It may include moving expenses, temporary accommodation or help with settling into a new location.
Pay
Relocation Policy
A relocation policy states the support and conditions offered when employees move for work. It may cover travel, temporary housing, moving costs and eligibility for assistance.
Employment
Remote Employee Management
Remote employee management coordinates and supports people working away from a shared workplace. It involves clear outcomes, communication agreements, access to resources and fair performance discussions.
Experience
Remote Work
Remote work is work performed away from an employer's usual workplace, often from home or another agreed location. It relies on suitable communication, equipment and ways to coordinate responsibilities.
Employment
Replacement Chart
A replacement chart records possible people who could cover or fill particular roles if the current holder becomes unavailable. It often focuses on immediate continuity and readiness.
Strategy
Requisition Management
Requisition management controls requests to recruit, from creation and approval through changes, tracking and closure. It connects workforce needs with budget and hiring activity.
Hiring
Resignation Letter
A resignation letter is an employee's written notice that they intend to end employment. It normally states the intention clearly and provides a proposed or required final working date.
Employment
Reskilling
Reskilling prepares a person to perform a different type of work by developing a new set of capabilities. It is often used when jobs change, disappear or move into new areas.
Learning
Responsible Hiring
Responsible hiring uses fair, transparent and lawful practices to recruit people. It considers accurate job information, relevant selection, privacy and the treatment of candidates and workers throughout the process.
Hiring
Resume Parsing
Resume parsing extracts information from a CV or resume into structured fields, such as employment history, education and skills. It helps recruitment systems organise and search applicant records.
Technology
Retained Search
Retained search is an arrangement in which a recruitment firm is paid an agreed retainer to conduct a search, often in stages. It is commonly used for senior or specialised appointments.
Hiring
Retaliation
Retaliation is adverse treatment because a person engaged in an activity protected by applicable law or policy, such as raising certain concerns or participating in an investigation.
Relations
Retention Bonus
A retention bonus is a payment intended to encourage an employee to remain for a specified period or through a particular event. Eligibility and payment conditions should be documented.
Pay
Retention Rate
Retention rate measures how much of a starting employee group remains at the end of a period. A common formula divides retained members of that group by its starting size.
Analytics
Retention Strategy
A retention strategy identifies why employees may leave and selects actions to address avoidable departures. It connects evidence about work conditions, careers, pay and management with defined priorities.
Experience
Retirement Benefits
Retirement benefits are arrangements intended to provide income or savings after working life. They can include pensions, provident funds and employer-supported retirement savings plans.
Pay
Returnship Program
A returnship program supports people re-entering work after a career break through a structured placement, learning and supervision. Some programmes may lead to ongoing employment.
Hiring
Rewards and Recognition
Rewards and recognition covers how an organisation acknowledges contributions and provides associated benefits. Rewards often have material value, while recognition can be a specific expression of appreciation.
Experience
Right to Access
The right to access allows a person to obtain information about personal data held or processed about them under applicable privacy law. It may include copies and details about the processing.
Privacy
Right to Erasure
The right to erasure allows a person to request deletion of personal data in certain circumstances under applicable privacy law. It is not an unlimited right to remove every record.
Privacy
Right-to-Work Law
Right-to-work law is a US term for laws restricting union-security arrangements that require covered workers to pay union dues or fees as a condition of employment. It does not mean a guaranteed right to a job.
Relations
Rightsizing
Rightsizing means changing an organisation's resources or structure to match its operating needs. In workforce discussions it can include hiring, reducing roles or reallocating capability.
Strategy
Risk Management
Risk management identifies uncertainties that could affect objectives and decides how to respond. It considers likelihood, consequences, controls and who is responsible for monitoring the risk.
Strategy
Role Architecture
Role architecture describes how roles relate to one another through levels, responsibilities and reporting or career structures. Employers may use it interchangeably with job architecture.
Strategy
Role Based Access Control
Role-based access control, or RBAC, grants system permissions according to assigned job or system roles. It helps limit access to information and actions needed for a responsibility.
Privacy
Role Clarity
Role clarity is a shared understanding of a person's responsibilities, priorities, decision-making authority and expected outcomes. It helps employees know what they own and when to involve others.
Experience
Role Design
Role design determines how tasks, responsibilities, authority and relationships are combined into a position. It considers what work needs to be done and how one person can perform it effectively.
Strategy
Roster Management
Roster management maintains the allocation of people to shifts or duties, including updates, swaps and absence cover. It keeps the working schedule accurate after initial planning.
Employment
Sabbatical Leave
Sabbatical leave is an extended period away from normal duties, often agreed for study, development, personal projects or rest. It may be paid or unpaid according to the arrangement.
Employment
Salary Benchmarking
Salary benchmarking compares pay for a role with relevant external market information. Reliable comparisons consider job scope, level, location, industry and the date and quality of the data.
Pay
Salary Compression
Salary compression occurs when pay differences between employees or levels become small despite meaningful differences in experience, responsibility or tenure. It can arise when market pay for new hires rises faster than existing salaries.
Pay
Salary Increment
A salary increment is an increase in an employee's salary, expressed as an amount or percentage. It may result from a pay review, promotion, market adjustment or another reason.
Pay
Salary Review
A salary review is an assessment of whether an employee's pay should change. It may consider performance, role changes, market information, internal equity and the employer's budget.
Pay
Scenario Planning
Scenario planning explores several plausible future conditions and their implications. In HR, it helps prepare workforce responses when demand, technology or other important factors are uncertain.
Strategy
Scrum in HR
Scrum in HR applies the Scrum framework to suitable HR work, using a prioritised backlog, short cycles and regular inspection of progress. It is most useful for work that benefits from iterative delivery.
Strategy
Second Chance Hiring
Second-chance hiring provides fair consideration to people who face barriers because of a criminal record or past involvement with the justice system. It considers role relevance and applicable legal restrictions.
Hiring
Secondment
A secondment is a temporary assignment to another role, team or organisation with an expectation of a defined end or review. Employment and supervision arrangements should be documented.
Employment
Selection Rate
Selection rate is the proportion of people selected from a defined group at a particular decision stage. It is calculated as the number selected divided by the number considered.
Analytics
Self Service Portal
A self-service portal lets users obtain information or complete authorised tasks directly. In HR, it often supports employees and managers with routine requests and record updates.
Technology
Sensitive Personal Data
Sensitive personal data is information given additional protection because of its nature or potential effect on people. Legal categories vary; health information and certain identity-related data are common examples.
Privacy
Sentiment Analysis
Sentiment analysis classifies the tone or expressed attitude in text, often as positive, negative or neutral. In HR it may be applied to survey comments or service feedback.
Analytics
Service Level Agreement
A service level agreement, or SLA, defines agreed service responsibilities and performance expectations between parties. It may specify response times, completion targets, availability and escalation arrangements.
Strategy
Service Record
A service record documents an employee's employment history with an organisation, such as appointment, role changes, service periods and other relevant events. It supports administration and verification.
Privacy
Severance Pay
Severance pay is compensation provided when employment ends under qualifying circumstances, law, contract or agreement. Its availability and calculation vary by jurisdiction and exit type.
Pay
Sexual Harassment
Sexual harassment is unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that falls within the applicable legal or workplace definition. It can involve behaviour, comments, messages or requests in work-related contexts.
Relations
Shift Allowance
A shift allowance is additional pay associated with working specified shifts or hours under law, contract or employer policy. It may recognise night work, inconvenience or particular operating arrangements.
Pay
Shift Scheduling
Shift scheduling assigns employees to defined working periods so required work is covered. It considers demand, availability, skills, rest and other working-time constraints.
Employment
Show Cause Notice
A show cause notice asks a person to explain specified alleged conduct or circumstances before an employer considers further action. It should clearly state the concern and allow an appropriate response.
Relations
Sick Leave
Sick leave is time away from work because of illness, injury or another qualifying health-related reason. Eligibility, pay and evidence requirements depend on applicable law and employment terms.
Employment
Signing Bonus
A signing bonus is a payment offered to encourage a candidate to accept and start a job. It is usually separate from recurring base salary.
Pay
Skill Gap Analysis
Skill gap analysis compares the capabilities required for work with the capabilities currently available. It identifies specific shortfalls that may be addressed through learning, hiring or changes to work design.
Learning
Skills Inventory
A skills inventory is a structured record of the skills available in a workforce. It may include proficiency, experience, qualifications and when the evidence was last checked.
Learning
Skills Ontology
A skills ontology models relationships between skills and other concepts, such as tasks, occupations or qualifications. Unlike a simple list, it can express how skills depend on or relate to one another.
Technology
Skills Taxonomy
A skills taxonomy is a defined list of skills arranged into categories and, often, levels. It creates consistent language for describing jobs, learning and workforce capability.
Learning
Social Learning
Social learning is learning that occurs through observing, discussing and working with other people. In organisations it can include peer support, communities of practice and shared problem-solving.
Learning
Source of Hire
Source of hire identifies the recruitment channel credited with producing a successful hire. Examples include referrals, careers pages, job boards and direct sourcing.
Analytics
Spot Awards
Spot awards are immediate or near-immediate rewards for a specific contribution, rather than payments made through a regular review cycle. They can be monetary or non-monetary.
Pay
Staff Augmentation
Staff augmentation adds external workers to an existing team to provide extra capacity or specific skills. The client typically coordinates their work alongside its own employees.
Employment
Staffing Plan
A staffing plan sets out the people and capabilities needed to perform work over a defined period. It includes current resources, expected changes and actions to cover gaps.
Strategy
Statement of Work
A statement of work, or SOW, defines the deliverables, scope, timing and responsibilities for a contracted service or project. It helps distinguish expected outcomes from an open-ended supply of labour.
Employment
Statutory Compliance
Statutory compliance means meeting obligations imposed by law. In employment, these may concern pay, working conditions, records, contributions, safety and the treatment of workers.
Employment
Stay Interview
A stay interview is a structured conversation with a current employee about what helps them remain and what might make them leave. It identifies practical opportunities to improve their experience.
Experience
Stock Options
Stock options give the holder a right to buy specified shares at an agreed exercise price, subject to the plan's conditions and time limits. They do not necessarily confer immediate share ownership.
Pay
Strategic HR
Strategic HR is the practice of shaping employment policies and workforce decisions around an organisation's longer-term goals. It connects day-to-day HR work with choices about growth, costs and capability.
Strategy
Strategic Workforce Planning
Strategic workforce planning examines longer-term workforce requirements in relation to business direction and possible future conditions. It focuses on capabilities and structural gaps that take time to address.
Strategy
Strike
A strike is collective action in which workers stop work to pursue an employment-related objective or dispute. Legal definitions, protections and procedures vary by jurisdiction.
Relations
Succession Chart
A succession chart summarises potential successors for roles and their assessed readiness or development needs. It is one way to present part of a broader succession plan.
Strategy
Succession Planning
Succession planning identifies how important roles could be filled when current holders leave or move. It assesses potential successors and the experience or development they still need.
Strategy
Suspension
Suspension temporarily removes an employee from some or all normal duties. It may be used during an investigation or as a disciplinary outcome, with different conditions and legal consequences.
Relations
Sustainability in HR
Sustainability in HR considers whether workforce practices support the organisation and its people over the longer term. It can include safe work, continued employability, fair treatment and responsible resource use.
Strategy
Take Home Salary
Take-home salary is the pay an employee receives after deductions from earnings. It generally corresponds to net or in-hand salary, although bank transfers can also include separate reimbursements or adjustments.
Pay
Talent Acquisition
Talent acquisition is the coordinated work of finding and securing people with the capabilities an organisation needs. It can include longer-term sourcing, employer communication and candidate relationships alongside filling vacancies.
Hiring
Talent Calibration
Talent calibration is a discussion in which managers compare and adjust assessments of employees' potential, readiness or development needs. It aims to apply common criteria across teams.
Learning
Talent Community
A talent community is a group of people who choose to stay connected with an employer or recruiting organisation around opportunities or professional interests. It supports ongoing communication beyond individual applications.
Hiring
Talent Management
Talent management coordinates how an organisation attracts, develops, deploys and retains the capabilities it needs. It connects activities such as recruitment, career development, performance discussions and succession.
Strategy
Talent Management System
A talent management system supports processes such as performance reviews, learning, succession and career development. It may operate separately or as part of a wider HR platform.
Technology
Talent Marketplace
A talent marketplace connects people with work or development opportunities based on skills, interests and requirements. The term can describe an external platform or an organisation's internal system.
Technology
Talent Philosophy
A talent philosophy states an organisation's beliefs about how people develop, perform and progress. It influences decisions about potential, accountability, rewards and access to career opportunities.
Strategy
Talent Pipeline
A talent pipeline is a group of potential candidates being developed or engaged for anticipated roles. It usually implies an ongoing process of maintaining relationships and assessing readiness or interest.
Hiring
Talent Pool
A talent pool is a collection of people who may be considered for current or future opportunities. It can include external applicants, former employees or internal staff with relevant capabilities.
Hiring
Talent Review
A talent review is a structured discussion of employees' performance, potential, development needs and possible future moves. Managers compare evidence and consider organisational capability requirements.
Strategy
Talent Strategy
A talent strategy sets priorities for obtaining and developing the capabilities needed by the business. It guides choices about recruitment, internal development, mobility and retention.
Strategy
Temporary Staffing
Temporary staffing fills a short-term workforce need for a limited period. Workers may be hired directly on temporary terms or supplied through an agency.
Employment
Termination Letter
A termination letter formally communicates that an employment relationship is ending and records relevant details. It may include the effective date, reason, notice and next steps, depending on the circumstances and law.
Employment
Text Analytics
Text analytics extracts patterns or structured information from written material. It can identify topics, recurring phrases, categories or relationships in comments, documents and other text sources.
Analytics
Time and Attendance
Time and attendance covers the recording and administration of when employees work or are absent. It supports scheduling, payroll inputs and compliance with applicable working-time requirements.
Employment
Time Card
A time card records an employee's working times for a pay period, either on paper or electronically. It can include start and finish times, breaks and adjustments.
Employment
Time to Fill
Time to fill measures the elapsed time needed to fill a vacancy, commonly from requisition approval to offer acceptance. Some employers use a different start or endpoint.
Analytics
Time to Hire
Time to hire measures how long a candidate takes to move through recruitment, commonly from application or first contact to accepting an offer. The start event must be defined.
Analytics
Time Tracking
Time tracking records how much time is spent working or on specific tasks, projects or clients. It may support billing, planning, payroll or understanding workload.
Employment
Total Rewards
Total rewards is the overall combination of financial and non-financial returns associated with work. It can include pay, benefits, recognition, development and aspects of the working experience.
Pay
Trade Union
A trade union is an organisation formed to represent workers' interests in employment matters. Depending on local law and recognition arrangements, it may bargain collectively and support members in disputes.
Relations
Training Needs Analysis
Training needs analysis identifies where learning could improve capability and what learners need to achieve. It examines requirements at organisational, team or individual level before selecting an intervention.
Learning
Travel Policy
A travel policy explains the conditions and procedures for work-related travel. It may cover approval, booking, cost limits, safety, accommodation and reimbursement.
Employment
Trust and Safety
Trust and safety is the work of preventing and responding to harmful behaviour or misuse in a service or community, especially on digital platforms. It can include moderation, investigations and protective processes.
Safety
Turnover Rate
Turnover rate measures employee departures relative to the workforce during a specified period. A common formula divides departures by average headcount and multiplies the result by 100.
Analytics
Unconscious Bias
Unconscious bias refers to automatic assumptions or associations that can affect perception and judgement without deliberate intent. In employment, it may influence whose evidence is noticed or how behaviour is interpreted.
Inclusion
Union Contract
A union contract is an agreement negotiated between an employer and worker representatives covering employment terms or procedures for the relevant group. It is often called a collective bargaining agreement.
Relations
Unpaid Leave
Unpaid leave is an authorised absence for which the employee does not receive normal pay. It may arise under law, contract or an agreement with the employer.
Employment
Upskilling
Upskilling develops additional or more advanced skills that help a person perform their existing work or a closely related role. It responds to changing tools, methods or responsibilities.
Learning
Variable Pay
Variable pay is compensation that changes according to defined conditions rather than remaining a fixed salary amount. It may depend on individual, team or business performance.
Pay
Vendor Management System
A vendor management system, or VMS, manages procurement and administration of external workforce or supplier services. It may track requests, assignments, rates, timesheets and invoices.
Technology
Veteran Hiring
Veteran hiring recruits people with previous military service and helps translate their experience into civilian roles. It may involve outreach, skills assessment and support for transition.
Hiring
Virtual Onboarding
Virtual onboarding introduces and supports new employees primarily through remote communication and digital tools. It covers practical setup, role learning and relationships without relying on an office-based induction.
Experience
Visa Sponsorship
Visa sponsorship is an employer's formal support for a person's immigration application or employment permission under a country's rules. It can involve eligibility checks, documentation and continuing obligations.
Employment
Voice of Employee
Voice of employee refers to the ways employees express views, concerns and suggestions and influence matters affecting their work. Channels can include conversations, surveys, representatives and formal processes.
Experience
Voluntary Attrition
Voluntary attrition refers to departures initiated by employees, usually through resignation. How retirement, mutually agreed exits or other categories are treated should be defined in the reporting method.
Analytics
Wage and Hour Law
Wage and hour law regulates matters such as minimum pay, overtime, working time and related records. The phrase is especially common in US employment practice.
Employment
Whistleblower Policy
A whistleblower policy explains how people can report suspected wrongdoing and how the organisation will respond. It should address reporting routes, confidentiality, investigation and protection against retaliation.
Relations
Whistleblower Retaliation
Whistleblower retaliation is detrimental treatment connected with a person's protected reporting of suspected wrongdoing. It can include dismissal, threats, demotion or other disadvantage under the relevant legal framework.
Relations
Work Life Balance
Work-life balance is the extent to which a person's work demands can coexist with their responsibilities, interests and recovery outside work. A suitable balance differs between people and circumstances.
Experience
Work Permit
A work permit is an authorisation to perform work in a jurisdiction under specified conditions. Conditions may concern the employer, role, location, duration or type of activity.
Employment
Work Stoppage
A work stoppage is an interruption of work, often associated with a strike, lockout or other collective dispute. The term describes the interruption without necessarily identifying its legal cause.
Relations
Worker Classification
Worker classification determines the legal or administrative category of a person performing work, such as employee or independent contractor. The applicable test depends on jurisdiction and the particular legal purpose.
Employment
Workers’ Compensation
Workers' compensation is a system providing specified benefits for qualifying work-related injury or illness. The term is common in the United States, where systems and coverage vary by jurisdiction.
Safety
Workforce Agility
Workforce agility is the ability to adjust skills, assignments or staffing when business needs change. It depends on transferable capability, decision-making speed and workable arrangements for moving people.
Strategy
Workforce Analytics
Workforce analytics examines the composition, availability, cost and output of a workforce. It supports decisions about staffing levels, deployment, scheduling and the capabilities needed to deliver work.
Analytics
Workforce Classification
Workforce classification is the assignment of workers or roles to defined categories for employment, payroll or planning purposes. Categories may include employees, contractors, temporary staff or job groups.
Employment
Workforce Cost Analysis
Workforce cost analysis examines the costs associated with employing or engaging people. It may include salary, benefits, employer contributions, contractors, recruitment, training and other defined costs.
Analytics
Workforce Cost Optimisation
Workforce cost optimisation adjusts staffing, work design and spending to achieve required outcomes with suitable resources. It considers value and service needs rather than simply reducing employee numbers.
Strategy
Workforce Demand Analysis
Workforce demand analysis estimates the people, skills and working time needed to deliver expected work. It connects business activity with staffing requirements under explicit assumptions.
Analytics
Workforce Diversity
Workforce diversity describes differences among people in an organisation, including backgrounds, identities, experiences and perspectives. What is measured should depend on a clear and lawful purpose.
Inclusion
Workforce Forecasting
Workforce forecasting estimates future staffing supply or demand using assumptions and data. Forecasts may consider sales, service volumes, turnover, retirements and expected changes in productivity.
Analytics
Workforce Intelligence
Workforce intelligence is a broad term for combining workforce data and contextual analysis to support decisions. It may include internal records, skills information and relevant labour-market evidence.
Analytics
Workforce KPIs
Workforce KPIs are key measures of staffing capacity, deployment, cost or results. They help assess whether the workforce can deliver the organisation's operating requirements.
Analytics
Workforce Modelling
Workforce modelling represents how staffing, skills, costs or employee movements behave under selected assumptions. A model can be a spreadsheet, simulation or more specialised planning application.
Analytics
Workforce Optimisation
Workforce optimisation is the adjustment of staffing, skills, schedules and processes to meet operating needs with available resources. It aims to improve how work is covered and delivered.
Strategy
Workforce Performance
Workforce performance describes how effectively people and teams deliver the work expected of them. It can include output, quality, service, safety and progress against relevant goals.
Analytics
Workforce Planning
Workforce planning compares the people and skills an organisation has with those it expects to need. It identifies gaps and actions such as hiring, development, redeployment or changing how work is done.
Strategy
Workforce Productivity
Workforce productivity measures output relative to labour input over a defined period. Depending on the work, output may be units, completed services or revenue, while input may be hours or workers.
Analytics
Workforce Redeployment
Workforce redeployment moves existing employees to different work to meet changing organisational needs. It may be temporary or permanent and can involve training or revised terms.
Employment
Workforce Resilience
Workforce resilience is the capacity of a workforce and its supporting systems to continue functioning and recover during disruption. It includes backup capability, sustainable workloads and practical support.
Strategy
Workforce Right Sizing
Workforce right sizing adjusts staffing numbers, skills or deployment to fit expected work. It can involve growth, reductions, redeployment or redesign rather than only job cuts.
Strategy
Workforce Scheduling
Workforce scheduling matches people, skills and working time to expected tasks or service demand. It may include shifts, appointments, project assignments or flexible work patterns.
Employment
Workforce Segmentation
Workforce segmentation groups workers by characteristics relevant to a business question, such as role, skills, location or employment arrangement. It helps identify differing needs within an overall workforce.
Analytics
Workforce Supply Analysis
Workforce supply analysis examines the people and capabilities likely to be available to an organisation. It can include current staff, expected movements, development and external recruitment possibilities.
Analytics
Workforce Sustainability
Workforce sustainability is the ability to maintain needed capability and healthy working conditions over time. It considers staffing, skills, knowledge continuity and the effects of work on people.
Strategy
Workforce Wellbeing Strategy
A workforce wellbeing strategy identifies work-related health and wellbeing priorities and the actions needed to address them. It connects evidence about conditions with responsibilities and measures of progress.
Experience
Workplace Bullying
Workplace bullying is repeated or otherwise serious unreasonable behaviour that humiliates, intimidates or undermines someone at work, with definitions varying by policy and jurisdiction. It can involve colleagues or managers.
Relations
Workplace Ethics
Workplace ethics concerns the principles and judgement used to decide what is appropriate at work. It includes honesty, fair treatment, responsible use of information and managing conflicts of interest.
Relations
Workplace Harassment Policy
A workplace harassment policy explains prohibited conduct, reporting routes and how concerns will be handled. It should cover relevant working contexts and align with applicable legal requirements.
Relations
Workplace Investigation
A workplace investigation gathers and assesses facts about a reported concern or alleged misconduct. It may involve interviews, records and other relevant evidence before conclusions are reached.
Relations
Workplace Safety
Workplace safety is the prevention and control of hazards that could harm people during work. It includes safe systems, suitable equipment, training and ways to report and respond to risks.
Safety
Works Committee
A works committee is a joint employer-worker body used to discuss workplace matters and promote cooperation. In India, the term also refers to a body provided for under industrial-relations legislation.
Relations
Works Council
A works council is a worker-representation body with information, consultation or other rights under a country's arrangements. It is particularly associated with certain European employment systems.
Relations

About this glossary

SmallHRTools explains HR terminology for employees, managers and HR teams. Each entry gives a definition, an illustrative workplace example and a distinction or limitation that helps you use the term correctly.

Legal terms are labelled with their jurisdiction where relevant. These definitions explain concepts; current entitlements and obligations depend on the applicable law, employment terms and circumstances. Follow the official guidance linked from relevant entries before making a compliance decision.

Related terms help you compare concepts, and selected entries link to our calculators and longer guides. To report an error or suggest a clarification, contact SmallHRTools.