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Playbook

Glossary

HR and people-ops terms explained in plain language. 391 entries.

HRIS — Human Resource Information System
A system of record for people data — names, roles, comp, lifecycle events. Examples: Workday, BambooHR, Rippling. The HRIS is the ‘source of truth’ that other tools sync from.
ATS — Applicant Tracking System
Software for managing candidate pipelines through a hiring funnel. Examples: Greenhouse, Ashby, Lever.
HRBP — HR Business Partner
An HR role embedded with a business unit, advising leaders on org design, hiring, performance, and people risk.
OKRs — Objectives and Key Results
A goal-setting framework where Objectives are qualitative and ambitious, and Key Results are quantitative measures of progress.
OKR vs KPI — Different intent
OKRs are aspirational and time-bound; KPIs are continuous performance indicators of a steady-state process. Most teams need both.
Calibration — Cross-team review
A meeting where managers review proposed ratings together to remove rater bias and align on the bar.
9-box — Performance × Potential grid
A talent-review tool plotting performance vs. potential. Useful for succession discussion, dangerous if treated as a label.
30-60-90 plan — New-hire ramp plan
Outcomes for a new hire at 30, 60, and 90 days. Owned by the manager, co-edited with the hire.
PIP — Performance Improvement Plan
A formal plan to close a defined gap within a defined time. Should never be the first time someone hears the feedback.
ENPS — Employee Net Promoter Score
‘Would you recommend this place to work?’ on a 0–10 scale. Useful trend metric, weak point-in-time metric.
Engagement vs satisfaction — Different things
Satisfaction is contentment with the deal; engagement is discretionary effort. You can be satisfied and disengaged.
Span of control — Reports per manager
Typically 5–9 for managers doing real coaching, higher for stable execution teams.
Compensation band — Min / mid / max for a level
The salary range for a level (and location, if tiered). Bands enable consistent offers and reviews.
Vesting — Equity earned over time
Equity grants typically vest over 4 years with a 1-year cliff. After the cliff, monthly vesting is common.
RSUs — Restricted Stock Units
Shares granted but not delivered until vesting milestones are met. Common at later-stage and public companies.
ISOs / NSOs — Stock option types
Two US tax treatments for stock options. Different exercise and tax mechanics; talk to a tax advisor.
Bar raiser — Cross-team interviewer
An interviewer not on the hiring team whose veto can block a hire. Used at Amazon and others to defend the hiring bar.
Continuous performance — Always-on feedback
Replacing annual reviews with regular check-ins and feedback, often with lighter-touch year-end summaries.
Pay transparency — Disclosed pay bands
Practice of publishing salary bands and/or pay ranges on job ads. Required by law in several US states and EU directives.
DEI — Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
Practices that broaden who can succeed in your company. Goal: a workforce that mirrors the talent pool, with equitable processes.
Quiet quitting — Doing the job, no more
A 2022 label for setting hard work boundaries. Less a new behavior, more a new public conversation about effort and pay.
Quiet cracking — Burnout without exit
Persistent disengagement without people leaving — riskier to a company than visible churn.
Onboarding vs orientation — Different scopes
Orientation is the day-one paperwork; onboarding is the 90-day system that makes someone productive.
L&D — Learning & Development
The HR function responsible for skill-building, manager training, and career growth programs.
70-20-10 — Learning ratio
Roughly: 70% from on-the-job, 20% from coaching/feedback, 10% from formal training. A useful budgeting heuristic.
Skills-based hiring — Hire on demonstrated skills
Selecting on assessed skills and work samples rather than degrees and titles. Demands more rigorous assessment design.
Internal mobility — Career moves inside
Moves across teams or roles within the same company. Strong internal mobility is one of the best retention levers.
Employee lifecycle — Attract → alumni
The arc from attraction through hiring, onboarding, development, performance, retention, exit, and alumni.
Total rewards — Beyond cash
Base, bonus, equity, benefits, time-off, learning budget, growth opportunity — everything an employee receives.
Hiring funnel — Stage-by-stage pipeline
Sourced → screened → interviewed → offered → hired. Conversion rates between stages reveal where your process is broken.
Time-to-fill vs time-to-hire — Different clocks
Time-to-fill is from req-open to start-date; time-to-hire is from application to accepted offer. Track both.
Attrition vs turnover — Slightly different
Often used interchangeably. Distinguish regrettable vs non-regrettable, and voluntary vs involuntary, when reporting.
Manager enablement — Tools and training for managers
The systems and content that make managers effective at hiring, feedback, performance, and growth conversations.
Compensation philosophy — How you decide pay
A written stance on market percentile, transparency, location, equity mix, and review cadence.
Pay equity audit — Same role, same pay
A statistical review of pay differences for similar roles, controlling for level and tenure, to find and close unjustifiable gaps.
Severance — Pay on exit
Compensation paid to departing employees, often in exchange for a release. Norms vary widely by country and seniority.
Org design — How teams and reporting are shaped
Choices about teams, layers, spans, and reporting lines — what work gets done by whom.
Succession planning — Who could step up
A regular review of who would cover or replace key roles, and what gaps exist in the bench.
Stay interview — Why are you still here?
A short 1:1 to understand what keeps a strong performer engaged, before they’re considering leaving.
People analytics — Data about people decisions
Using data to inform hiring, performance, retention, and org design. Most teams should start with 10–12 clean metrics, not 100.
HCM — Human Capital Management
A broader category than HRIS — adds talent, performance, learning, and sometimes payroll modules. Examples: Workday HCM, Oracle HCM, SAP SuccessFactors. In practice, the HRIS/HCM line is mostly marketing.
EOR — Employer of Record
A third party that legally employs your worker in a country where you have no entity. Lets you hire globally without incorporating. Examples: Deel, Remote, Oyster.
PEO — Professional Employer Organization
US co-employment model: the PEO is co-employer for tax, benefits, and HR while you direct the work. Examples: Justworks, TriNet, Insperity, Sequoia One.
SOR — System of Record
The one system where a piece of data is authoritative. In HR, the SOR is usually the HRIS — every other tool reads from it.
Payroll tax — Tax on wages
Statutory taxes on wages paid by employer and/or employee — federal/state/local income tax, social contributions (FICA in US, NI in UK), unemployment insurance. Employer-side payroll taxes typically add 7–15% to wage cost.
DPIA — Data Protection Impact Assessment
A required GDPR assessment when processing personal data is high-risk — including most HR analytics and AI use cases. Documents the risk, mitigations, and lawful basis.
Disparate impact — Adverse effect on a protected group
A legal test (US Title VII) where a neutral practice statistically disadvantages a protected class. Increasingly applied to AI hiring tools and audited under NYC Local Law 144.
SOC 2 — Security controls audit
An independent audit (Type I or Type II) of a vendor’s security, availability, and privacy controls. Type II covers an operating period (typically 6–12 months) and is the modern baseline for HR vendors.
SSO / SCIM — Identity standards
SSO (SAML/OIDC) lets employees sign in with one identity. SCIM automates user provisioning and deprovisioning from the HRIS. Together they’re the floor for any HR tool at scale.
ATS funnel metrics — Stage-by-stage conversion
Pass-through rate, time-in-stage, source-to-hire, offer-accept, and diversity at each stage. Together they tell you where the hiring process is breaking.
Total cost of ownership — TCO
License + implementation + integrations + admin headcount + add-ons over the contract term. Usually 1.5–3× the headline license price for non-trivial HR tools.
Blameless post-mortem — Learning over blame
An incident review that assumes engineers acted reasonably given what they knew at the time. Focuses on systemic causes (per Sidney Dekker's New View of human error) rather than individual fault.
Incident commander — Single coordinator role
The person who owns the incident timeline and coordination. Borrowed from FEMA's Incident Command System. Their job is decisions and comms — not debugging.
MTTR — Mean Time To Restore
Median time from incident detection to service restoration. One of the four DORA metrics. Elite teams restore in under an hour.
Swiss Cheese Model — Layered defenses
James Reason's model: incidents happen when holes in multiple defensive layers (monitoring, review, automation, runbooks) momentarily align. Frames why one human action is never the full cause.
DORA metrics — Four delivery keys
Deployment frequency, lead time for changes, change failure rate, and time to restore service. Defined by the DevOps Research and Assessment program (Forsgren, Humble, Kim — Accelerate, 2018). Team-level signals, not individual.
SPACE framework — 5 dimensions of dev productivity
Satisfaction, Performance, Activity, Communication, Efficiency. Published by Forsgren, Storey, Maddila, Zimmermann and Houck (ACM Queue, 2021) as an explicit antidote to single-metric productivity sticks.
Developer experience — How it feels to ship here
A measurement frame blending DORA-style throughput data with structured developer surveys. Closer to HR engagement than DORA. Often abbreviated DX.
Lead time — Commit to production
Time from code commit to code running in production. One of the four DORA metrics. Elite teams: under 1 hour.
Async-first — Writing as default
An operating model where written artifacts are the default for any work and synchronous time is reserved for decisions, conflict, and connection. Documented at GitLab and Doist.
Deep work — Focused, undistracted output
Cal Newport's term for cognitively demanding work performed without interruption. The currency of knowledge work; protected by calendar discipline.
Copilot — AI coding assistant
GitHub Copilot is the most widely deployed AI pair-programmer. Used as a generic term for AI coding assistants (Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, Aider, etc.).
Psychological safety — Speak up without fear
Amy Edmondson's term for a team climate where members feel safe to take interpersonal risks — admit mistakes, ask questions, propose ideas. The strongest single predictor of team performance in Google's Project Aristotle.
Hygiene factor — Removes dissatisfaction, doesn't motivate
From Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory: pay, conditions, policies. Their absence demotivates; their presence does not motivate. Distinguished from motivators (growth, recognition, achievement).
SBI feedback — Situation – Behavior – Impact
Center for Creative Leadership's structured feedback model. Name the situation, describe the observable behavior, share the impact. Reduces defensiveness by avoiding interpretation.
GROW model — Goal – Reality – Options – Will
Sir John Whitmore's coaching framework. Used by managers-as-coaches to structure a development conversation in under 30 minutes.
Kirkpatrick — 4 levels of training evaluation
Donald Kirkpatrick's model: Reaction, Learning, Behavior, Results. The standard frame for evaluating L&D ROI.
Manager-as-coach — Develop, don't direct
A management stance that prioritises asking over telling. Strongly correlated with engagement and retention in Gallup and Google Project Oxygen research.
Pre-mortem — Imagine the failure first
Gary Klein's decision technique: before launching, the team imagines the project has failed and works backwards to identify causes. Surfaces risks that post-mortems can't.
RAPID / DACI — Decision-rights frameworks
RAPID (Bain): Recommend, Agree, Perform, Input, Decide. DACI (Atlassian): Driver, Approver, Contributors, Informed. Both name who actually decides versus who just has opinions.
DRI — Directly Responsible Individual
Apple-popularised role: the single person accountable for a deliverable. Distinct from RACI 'Responsible' — DRI is one human, not a group.
Procedural justice — Fair process, not just fair outcome
Organisational-psychology principle: employees accept hard decisions when the process was perceived as fair (voice, consistency, transparency) — even if the outcome went against them.
Natural justice — Right to be heard
Legal principle underpinning workplace investigations: the accused has the right to know the allegations and respond before a decision is made.
Thomas-Kilmann modes — 5 conflict styles
Competing, Collaborating, Compromising, Avoiding, Accommodating. Diagnostic for matching conflict-handling style to situation.
Mediation — Structured third-party facilitation
An informal, voluntary process where a neutral third party helps disputants reach their own resolution. Cheaper and faster than formal grievance escalation.
BIFF — Brief, Informative, Factual, Friendly
Bill Eddy's rule for documenting interactions in conflict-prone or investigation-relevant situations. The discipline that makes documentation defensible later.
Espoused values — Stated but not always lived
Edgar Schein's term for the values an organisation publishes. Distinguished from 'underlying assumptions' — the values actually enacted under pressure.
Underlying assumptions — Culture's bedrock
The deepest layer in Schein's culture model: the taken-for-granted beliefs that govern behavior, often invisible to insiders.
Presenteeism — Present but not productive
Working while ill, distracted, or disengaged. Cilantro Health and HBR studies suggest the cost of presenteeism often exceeds the cost of absenteeism.
Compa-ratio — Pay vs. band midpoint
An employee's salary divided by the midpoint of their band. 1.0 = mid; <0.9 = below market; >1.1 = above. The core metric in compensation reviews.
Pay band — Min/mid/max for a level
The salary range for a role and level, often varying by geography. Bands enable consistent offers, reviews, and pay-equity audits.
Unexplained pay gap — Gap after controls
The pay difference between groups (e.g., gender, race) that remains after controlling for level, tenure, location, and role. The focus of a defensible pay-equity audit.
409A — US private-company valuation
An IRS-required independent valuation of a private US company's common stock, used to set the strike price of stock options. Typically refreshed every 12 months or after a financing event.
ISO — Incentive Stock Option
A US stock-option type with favourable tax treatment if holding-period rules are met. Subject to AMT exposure on exercise. ISOs can only be granted to employees.
NSO — Non-qualified Stock Option
The other US stock-option type. Ordinary income tax on exercise, but more flexible than ISOs (can be granted to contractors, advisors, etc.).
RSU — Restricted Stock Unit
A promise to deliver shares once vesting conditions are met. Taxed as ordinary income at vest. The default equity instrument at later-stage and public companies.
Cliff vesting — Vest in one chunk at month 12
The standard one-year cliff: nothing vests before month 12, then 25% vests at once. Protects the company if a hire (or co-founder) leaves early.
Vesting cliff — See Cliff vesting
Synonym for cliff vesting. The first vesting milestone — typically 12 months — before which the employee earns no equity.
Vesting acceleration — Early vesting on trigger event
Single-trigger: acceleration on acquisition alone. Double-trigger (market standard): acceleration on acquisition AND termination without cause within ~12 months.
Reverse vesting — Founder share buyback right
Founders are issued shares day one, but the company retains the right to repurchase unvested shares at original price if the founder leaves. The legal mechanism behind founder vesting.
Strike price — Option exercise price
The per-share price at which an option holder can buy shares. Set at fair market value (per 409A in the US) on the grant date.
83(b) election — US tax election within 30 days
An IRS election that lets a founder or employee receiving restricted stock pay ordinary income tax on the (usually tiny) value at grant rather than at vest. Must be filed within 30 days of grant. Missing it is one of the most expensive paperwork mistakes a founder can make.
SAFE note — Simple Agreement for Future Equity
Y Combinator-popularised early-stage instrument that converts to equity at the next priced round. Defined by valuation cap, discount, and MFN clauses.
Earnout — Performance-based deal payment
Portion of an M&A purchase price paid over 2–3 years based on post-close performance milestones. Historically a major source of post-close conflict.
Retention bonus — Cash to stay through integration
A bonus, typically 25–100% of base salary, paid at 12 and 24 months post-acquisition to bridge integration risk and retain key talent.
Double-trigger acceleration — Vest on M&A + termination
Equity acceleration that triggers only when an acquisition AND an involuntary termination both occur. Market standard for acquihires and what acquirers prefer.
Acquihire — M&A for the team
An acquisition where the headline value is the team, not the product or revenue. The product is often shut down within 6–12 months; retention packages dominate the deal.
OTE — On-Target Earnings
Total annual compensation when an employee (usually in sales) hits 100% of quota. Combines base salary and target variable pay.
Quota — Sales target
The revenue or bookings number a salesperson is expected to deliver in a period. Plan design assumes 60–70% of reps hit it; if everyone hits, the quota is too low.
High-potential — Hi-Po
Employees identified as having capacity for significantly greater scope or seniority. Identification typically done via 9-box calibration. Communicating Hi-Po status is its own design choice.
Bench depth — Backups for key roles
The number and readiness of internal candidates who could step into key roles. Reviewed in succession-planning sessions.
Leniency bias — Inflated ratings
Manager tendency to rate reports more positively than justified. The single most common rater bias in performance reviews; calibration sessions exist largely to counter it.
Headcount — Approved people slots
The number of approved positions in a team, whether filled or open. Different from FTE (full-time equivalent). The currency of workforce planning.
Fully loaded cost — Wage + everything
Base salary plus benefits, employer taxes, equipment, training, and overhead allocation. Usually 1.25–1.4× base in mature companies, higher for tech roles.
Cost of vacancy — What an unfilled role costs
Lost productivity per day an approved role remains open. For revenue-generating roles, calculated as average revenue per employee per day.
Ramp time — Time to full productivity
Days or months from hire date to expected full-output. Tracked by role and used to size headcount plans realistically.
Time to productivity — See Ramp time
Synonym for ramp time. Common in sales (time to first deal) and engineering (time to first meaningful PR).
Layers — Org-chart depth
Number of management levels between IC and CEO. Healthy mature orgs: 4–6 layers; flatter for early-stage. Each added layer slows decisions roughly 30%.
Manager density — % of org that manages
Proportion of employees who are people managers. >15–20% often signals over-layered structure or under-sized teams per manager.
Quality of hire — Did the hire work out
Composite metric blending first-year performance rating, 1-year retention, and manager satisfaction. The hiring metric that actually matters; harder to measure than time-to-fill.
First-year attrition — % gone in 12 months
Share of new hires who leave within their first year. >15% indicates a hiring or onboarding problem, not a market problem.
Regretted attrition — Departures you wish hadn't happened
Voluntary exits of high performers. The denominator for retention investment. Distinguished from non-regretted (low performers, neutral leavers).
Cohort survival — Retention by joiner group
Tracking what % of a hiring cohort (e.g., Q1 2024 hires) remain at 6, 12, 24 months. Surfaces onboarding and cultural-fit issues by period.
People mart — HR data warehouse
A curated, joined data store of people data feeding analytics. Sits downstream of HRIS, ATS, payroll, and performance systems.
At-will employment — US default
Employment relationship that either party can end at any time, for any legal reason. The default in 49 US states; contrasted with notice-period regimes in EU/UK/Asia.
Just cause — Legal grounds to terminate
Required in many jurisdictions outside the US (EU, parts of Latin America, Japan). Termination must be justified with documented performance or conduct grounds.
Procedural fairness — Following the process
Legal and ethical principle: the process used to reach a decision must be fair, transparent, and consistent, regardless of the outcome.
ABC test — Contractor classification
Three-part test (used in California AB5 and other US states): worker must be (A) free from control, (B) doing work outside the hirer's usual business, AND (C) independently established. Failing any prong = employee.
Misclassification — Treating employee as contractor
Most common cross-border HR mistake. Triggers back taxes, social contributions, and benefit-claim exposure. Penalties escalating in EU, US (DOL), and UK (IR35).
IR35 — UK off-payroll working rules
HMRC rules determining whether a contractor is genuinely self-employed or a 'disguised employee'. Engagers carry backdated PAYE and NI liability if they get it wrong.
Intra-company transfer — ICT visa
Work permit category that lets multinationals move employees between offices in different countries. UK, EU Blue Card, US L-1, India ICT all exist with varying rules.
Sponsorship — Employer-backed work permit
The legal commitment an employer makes to support an employee's work visa, including ongoing reporting and (often) repayment of relocation if the employee leaves early.
GDPR — EU data protection regulation
EU General Data Protection Regulation. Governs personal data including all HR data. Requires lawful basis for processing, DPIAs for high-risk uses, and DSAR fulfilment within one month.
DSAR — Data Subject Access Request
An individual's GDPR right to request all personal data an organisation holds about them. Employees increasingly use DSARs in disputes; HR must respond within one month.
Special category data — Sensitive personal data under GDPR
Race, health, religion, sexual orientation, biometric data. Requires stricter lawful basis and explicit consent in most cases. Affects DEI data collection.
SCC — Standard Contractual Clauses
EU-approved contract template for transferring personal data outside the EU/EEA. The most common legal mechanism for cross-border HR data flows post Schrems II.
Protected class — Anti-discrimination categories
Characteristics legally protected from employment discrimination — vary by jurisdiction but typically include race, gender, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, and (increasingly) caste.
Adverse impact — Disparate impact statistical test
Statistical test under US Title VII: a neutral practice that disadvantages a protected class at >80% rate triggers scrutiny. Increasingly applied to AI hiring tools.
Preponderance of evidence — More likely than not
Civil-law evidentiary standard used in workplace investigations (>50% probability). Lower than criminal 'beyond reasonable doubt'. The standard most HR investigations apply.
Chain of custody — Evidence handling discipline
Documented record of who accessed evidence and when. Originally forensic; now standard for investigation files and disciplinary documentation.
Personnel file — Official employee record
The legal record of employment: offer letter, reviews, disciplinary records, role changes, separation. Increasingly subject to employee access rights.
Release agreement — Severance in exchange for release
An agreement where an exiting employee receives severance in exchange for releasing claims against the company. Subject to specific legal disclosures (e.g., US ADEA/OWBPA for older workers).
Separation agreement — Full exit contract
Broader than a release agreement: also covers non-disparagement, confidentiality, equity treatment, references, and agreed public narrative.
WARN Act — US plant-closing notice law
Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act: 60-day notice required for plant closings or mass layoffs at US employers with 100+ employees. Several states have stricter mini-WARN laws.
RIF — Reduction in Force
A layoff driven by business need (not individual performance). Subject to disparate-impact analysis on the selection criteria and, in many jurisdictions, statutory consultation.
Boomerang hire — Returning former employee
An ex-employee rehired into the company. Strong alumni networks make this a meaningful talent source; tracked separately because retention behaviour often differs.
Positive action — Tie-break for underrepresented groups (UK)
Under UK Equality Act 2010: where two candidates are equally qualified, an employer may legally favour one from an underrepresented group. Distinct from US affirmative-action concepts.
ROI of L&D — Return on training spend
Measured through Kirkpatrick Level 4 (results) and Phillips' Level 5 (financial ROI). Requires baseline performance, post-training measurement, and isolation of training's contribution.
Capability model — What skills the org needs
A structured inventory of skills and proficiency levels required across roles. Underpins skill matrices, career ladders, and L&D planning.
Career ladder — Role progression by level
Documented path from junior to senior within a track (IC, manager, etc.) with explicit expectations per level. Anchors compensation, promotion, and growth conversations.
Pre-boarding — Before day one
Period between offer acceptance and start date. Welcome message, equipment shipped, first-week agenda shared. Drops 90-day attrition meaningfully.
Day-1 readiness — All set on day one
The standard: laptop works, accounts provisioned, manager free, first task ready. Sounds basic; fails in 30%+ of companies surveyed.
30-60-90 — First-quarter ramp plan
A new-hire ramp document specifying outcomes at 30, 60, and 90 days. Owned by the manager, co-edited with the hire in the first week.
Joiner-Mover-Leaver — JML lifecycle events
IT and security shorthand for the three identity-lifecycle events that require access provisioning, change, or deprovisioning. SCIM automates most of it.
Access provisioning — Granting system access
The process of granting (and later revoking) employee access to systems. SCIM-driven from the HRIS is the modern baseline; manual provisioning is a security and offboarding risk.
Pulse survey — Short, frequent listening
5–10 question surveys run monthly or quarterly. Trades depth for cadence. Useful for trend-tracking; weak for diagnostic depth.
Lifecycle survey — Triggered by life event
Surveys tied to lifecycle moments (30-day new hire, 1-year anniversary, exit). Higher response rates and more actionable than annual surveys.
Close-the-loop — Respond to survey input
The discipline of communicating back to employees what was heard, what is being done, and what is not. Engagement collapses if you survey without closing the loop.
Culture — How work actually gets done here
Edgar Schein's three-level model: artifacts (visible), espoused values (stated), underlying assumptions (the real operating system). Culture is what people do when leaders aren't watching.
Cost of labor — Total wage expense by geography
Geographic comparison of fully-loaded compensation for similar roles. The input to geo-pay decisions and remote-work strategy.
DEIB — DEI + Belonging
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. Belonging added in the late 2010s to distinguish 'invited to the table' (inclusion) from 'comfortable enough to speak' (belonging).
OKR — Objectives and Key Results
See OKRs. Singular form often used to refer to a single objective.
Employer of Record — EOR (full term)
Third party that legally employs your worker in a country where you have no entity. See EOR for the short form.
Permanent Establishment — Hidden cross-border tax risk
Tax-law concept under which an employee or representative in a country can create a taxable corporate presence for your company there — even without a local entity. Triggers vary by country but commonly include contract-signing authority or a fixed place of business.
ESOP — Employee Stock Option Plan
Generic term for an employer's stock-option program. In India specifically, ESOPs are taxed at exercise and at sale under the Companies Act.
Data Subject Access Request — See DSAR
An individual's GDPR right to request all personal data an organisation holds about them. Must be fulfilled within one month.
Alumni network — Ex-employee community
An organised community of former employees. Pays back as a rehire pipeline (boomerangs), referral source, and client/partner channel. McKinsey, Bain, and Deloitte run the canonical examples.
Boomerang — Rehired former employee
An employee who left and returned. Typically ramps 2–3× faster than an external hire, with known performance and culture fit. Worth a deliberate program, not just ad-hoc.
Authority transfer — Handing decision rights down
The deliberate act of moving a decision from a leader to a team or individual — and making that move legible. The opposite of 'delegation' that quietly stays a check-in.
Collective effervescence — Shared-moment energy
Émile Durkheim's term for the heightened emotion groups feel during shared rituals. The mechanism behind why offsites, all-hands, and launches matter beyond their content.
Core values — Stated behavioural anchors
The 3–7 phrases an organisation publishes as how-we-work commitments. Useful only when used in hiring loops, performance reviews, and termination decisions — otherwise wall art.
Operating principles — How decisions get made here
More specific than values: the rules a team uses to resolve trade-offs (e.g., 'disagree and commit', 'written-first', 'customer over comfort'). Amazon's Leadership Principles are the canonical example.
Culture debt — Compounding cultural shortcuts
The accumulated cost of culture decisions deferred or fudged under growth pressure — unclear values, tolerated bad behavior, broken rituals. Like tech debt: cheap to incur, expensive to repay.
Ritual — Repeated meaningful practice
A repeated organisational practice that carries meaning beyond its function — weekly demos, Friday wins, anniversary recognition. The carrier wave of culture between formal moments.
Journey mapping — Stage-by-stage experience map
A visualisation of an employee or candidate's experience across stages, including emotions, friction, and moments-that-matter. Borrowed from CX/UX, applied to EX.
EX — Employee Experience
The sum of what an employee perceives across their time with the company — physical, digital, cultural, and relational touchpoints. Treated with product discipline by mature people teams.
Employee experience — See EX
The full perceived experience across the employee lifecycle. Owned jointly by HR, IT, Facilities, and leadership.
Onboarding — First-90-days system
The 90-day system that takes a new hire from offer-accept to fully productive: pre-boarding, day-1 readiness, 30-60-90 outcomes, manager check-ins, and ramp metrics. Distinct from orientation (the day-one paperwork).
Pre-boarding window — Offer-accept to start-date
The 2–6 weeks between acceptance and start. Most companies waste it; the best use it for paperwork, equipment, welcome content, and reading lists.
Time-to-fill — Req-open to start-date
Days from job requisition opening to the new hire's first day. The cleanest end-to-end hiring-speed metric. Track median, not mean — outliers distort the picture.
Time-to-hire — Application to accepted offer
Days from candidate application to signed offer. Measures the recruiter and hiring-manager loop, not the upstream sourcing pipe.
Offer acceptance rate — Offers accepted ÷ extended
Percentage of offers candidates accept. Below 80% usually means a comp, level, or candidate-experience problem upstream. Slice by source, level, and recruiter.
Quality of hire — Did this hire work out?
A composite measure combining first-year performance ratings, 90-day retention, and hiring-manager satisfaction. The hardest hiring metric to measure honestly — and the most important.
Regretted attrition — Wish-they'd-stayed exits
Voluntary departures the company would have preferred to retain, usually flagged by the manager. The denominator that turns raw turnover into a useful signal.
RPO — Recruitment Process Outsourcing
An external provider running all or part of your hiring function under your brand. Common for high-volume hiring or rapid scaling. Examples: Cielo, Korn Ferry RPO, AMS.
Sourcing — Finding candidates not actively looking
The proactive discipline of building pipeline from passive candidates — LinkedIn, GitHub, conferences, referrals. The leading indicator of pipeline health.
Skills inventory — What skills you have today
A current-state catalogue of skills present in the workforce, mapped to a capability model. Foundation for gap analysis, internal mobility, and workforce planning.
Skills taxonomy — Structured skill vocabulary
A hierarchical vocabulary of skills (domain → skill → proficiency) that gives the org one language for capability, hiring, and learning. Examples: Lightcast, SFIA, custom.
Skills-based organization — Deploy skills, not titles
An operating model where work is staffed by skills rather than fixed roles. Demands a strong skills taxonomy, internal marketplace, and project-based work. Deloitte and Unilever publish the most cited case studies.
Capability gap analysis — Have vs need
The structured comparison of current skills inventory against the capability model required by strategy. Output: build, buy, borrow, or bot decisions per gap.
LMS — Learning Management System
Software that hosts, assigns, and tracks formal training. Examples: Workday Learning, Cornerstone, Docebo, LearnUpon. The classic LMS is being displaced by Learning Experience Platforms (LXP).
LXP — Learning Experience Platform
A learner-centric layer over LMS that emphasises curation, recommendations, and informal content. Examples: Degreed, EdCast, 360Learning.
LIFOW — Learning in the Flow of Work
Josh Bersin's term for embedding learning into the moment of need — inside the tools people already use — rather than pulling them to a separate LMS. The dominant direction in modern L&D.
Microlearning — Short, focused learning units
Learning content delivered in 3–10 minute units optimised for retention and reuse. Pairs naturally with LIFOW and spaced-repetition cadences.
Spaced repetition — Re-expose over time
Learning-science technique where content is re-presented at expanding intervals to drive long-term retention. Underpins Anki, Duolingo, and most serious enterprise L&D.
Leadership pipeline — Ram Charan's six passages
Six leadership transitions from individual contributor through enterprise leader, each requiring different skills, time horizons, and values. Frames why promotion failures are usually transition failures.
First-time manager — Pipeline Passage 1
The IC-to-manager transition — the hardest and most under-supported leadership move. Where the most leadership pipeline investment pays back.
Manager of managers — Pipeline Passage 2
Leading other managers rather than ICs. Requires moving from doing-through-people to architecting-through-managers. Where most growing companies fail to invest.
Level 3 — Kirkpatrick Behavior level
Kirkpatrick's third evaluation level: did learners change their on-the-job behavior after training? The level where most L&D programs quietly fail to measure.
Phillips Level 5 — Financial ROI of training
Jack Phillips' extension of Kirkpatrick adding a fifth level: financial return on training investment, isolated from other influences. Demanding to measure, useful when stakes are high.
Variable pay — Performance-tied cash
Cash compensation contingent on performance — bonuses, commissions, profit-share, gainsharing. Distinguished from base pay (fixed) and equity (deferred ownership).
Equity refresh — Top-up grants over time
Additional equity grants to existing employees, typically annually after the original grant starts vesting. The mechanism that keeps total comp competitive past year 4.
Merit cycle — Annual pay-and-promotion review
The yearly process of allocating base-pay increases, bonuses, and promotions across the workforce. Anchored by performance, market data, budget, and pay-equity controls.
Merit matrix — Rating × position-in-band grid
A guideline grid that maps performance rating and compa-ratio to recommended raise percentage. Drives consistency and budget discipline through the merit cycle.
Comp ratio bands — Band penetration zones
The three zones of a pay band — entry (0.8–0.9), mid (0.9–1.1), top (1.1–1.2) — used to guide raise and promotion decisions during the merit cycle.
ROI — Return on Investment
(Benefit − Cost) ÷ Cost, expressed as a percentage. In HR contexts, usually applied to L&D, hiring tools, and engagement programs — though attribution is famously hard.
Goodhart's Law — Measure becomes target, stops measuring
'When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.' The reason single-number KPIs (utilization, NPS, velocity, ticket counts) degrade once teams are paid on them.
Campbell's Law — Quantitative measures corrupt
Donald Campbell's variant of Goodhart: the more a quantitative social indicator is used for decision-making, the more it will distort and corrupt the process it monitors.
MTM — Moments That Matter
Lifecycle moments with outsized impact on employee perception — offer acceptance, day 1, first promotion, manager change, parental leave, exit. Where EX investment compounds.
Workforce planning — Right people, right roles, right time
The structured process of forecasting headcount, skills, and cost needs against business strategy. Strategic workforce planning takes a 3-year view; operational does 12 months.
Headcount plan — Approved hiring slots by quarter
The board-approved roster of roles, levels, locations, and start dates. The handshake between Finance, leadership, and Talent Acquisition.
Backfill — Replacing a departed role
A hire that replaces an existing role rather than adding capacity. Distinct from growth hires in budget approval, urgency, and pipeline strategy.
Req — Requisition — approved role to hire
Shorthand for a job requisition: the approved record in the ATS or HRIS that authorises a recruiter to start hiring.
Job architecture — Roles, levels, families, tracks
The underlying structure that organises every role in the company into families (e.g., Engineering, Product), tracks (IC vs Manager), and levels. The skeleton beneath comp bands and career ladders.
Career framework — Levels × expectations matrix
A documented matrix of competencies and expectations per level, per track. Anchors promotion, performance, and hiring decisions in one shared language.
Dual track — IC and manager paths of equal weight
A career framework where senior IC roles (Staff, Principal, Distinguished) are compensated and respected on par with management roles. Standard in modern tech orgs.
Levelling — Assigning an employee a level
The act of placing a new hire or internal employee at the right rung of the career framework. The decision that drives offer, expectations, and future trajectory.
Title inflation — Promoting by title without rigor
Awarding senior titles without matching scope or compensation. Cheap short-term retention move; expensive long-term levelling debt.
Down-levelling — Hiring below candidate's previous title
Extending an offer at a lower level than the candidate held elsewhere. Sometimes appropriate (different bar); often a sign of weak job architecture or interview signal.
Promotion packet — Evidence bundle for advancement
The written case for promoting an employee — scope, impact, behaviors against the next level. Reviewed in calibration. Forces rigor and reduces favoritism.
Calibration committee — Cross-team rating review
The standing group of managers and HR partners who review proposed ratings and promotions together. Removes individual-manager bias and enforces the bar.
Talent review — Periodic talent + succession discussion
A leadership ritual (often quarterly or annually) where leaders discuss top talent, risk-of-loss, succession, and development plans. Distinct from performance review.
High-potential — Hi-po — identified for future scope
An employee identified as likely to grow into significantly larger scope. Useful as an investment signal; dangerous if treated as a permanent label.
Bench strength — Depth of ready-now successors
The number and quality of internal candidates ready to fill key roles. Measured through succession planning and talent reviews.
Workforce analytics — Numbers behind people decisions
Descriptive analytics about the workforce — composition, movement, cost, attrition. The first maturity stage before predictive people analytics.
Predictive people analytics — Models that forecast people outcomes
Statistical and ML models predicting attrition risk, hiring success, performance, or engagement. Powerful, but governance-heavy under GDPR and AI-act regimes.
Sample of one — Single-data-point fallacy
Drawing conclusions from one person's experience. The most common analytical failure in HR conversations. The cure: ask for the denominator.
Cohort analysis — Compare groups over time
Tracking a defined group (e.g., 2024 Q1 new hires) through subsequent quarters. The most useful frame for retention, onboarding, and program evaluation.
Two-pizza team — Team size that fits two pizzas
Amazon's heuristic for small, autonomous teams (typically 6–10 people). Optimises for ownership and decision speed over coordination.
Single-threaded leader — One leader, one mission
Amazon's model where each initiative has a leader whose sole job is that initiative. Counters the dilution of part-time owners across many projects.
Working backwards — Start from the press release
Amazon's product practice of writing the launch press release and FAQ before any code or design. Forces clarity on customer value before investment.
Disagree and commit — Voice dissent, then back the decision
An operating norm: once a decision is made, even dissenters commit fully to making it succeed. Standard at Amazon, Intel, and many high-execution cultures.
RACI — Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed
Decision-rights framework that maps four roles to each task or decision. Useful for cross-functional clarity; criticised for letting 'Responsible' become a committee.
Holacracy — Role-based self-management
Brian Robertson's structured self-management system with explicit roles, circles, and governance meetings. Tested most publicly at Zappos. Demanding to implement well.
Matrix organization — Two-boss reporting structure
Org design where employees report to both a functional manager and a project/business-unit leader. Powers cross-functional execution; creates allegiance and prioritisation friction.
Functional organization — Grouped by discipline
Org design where teams are grouped by function (Engineering, Sales, Marketing). Strong craft excellence; weak end-to-end ownership.
Product-aligned teams — Grouped by customer outcome
Org design where teams are organised around customer-facing products or outcomes, with all functions embedded. Standard in modern product organisations.
Burnout — Chronic workplace stress syndrome
WHO-classified occupational phenomenon (not a medical diagnosis) characterised by exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced efficacy. Caused by chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.
Compassion fatigue — Secondary trauma exhaustion
Emotional exhaustion in roles requiring repeated empathy with others' suffering — HR investigators, customer support, healthcare. Distinct from burnout, requires distinct interventions.
Recovery time — Between high-stress events
The minimum break required for cognitive and emotional reset. Underprovided in roles with chained high-stakes interactions (sales, support, ER, HR investigations).
Sabbatical — Extended paid leave for tenure
An extended paid leave (typically 4–8 weeks) granted at tenure milestones (often 5 or 7 years). Recovery, learning, and retention lever for senior staff.
FMLA — US Family and Medical Leave Act
US federal law granting eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year for specified family and medical reasons. Employers ≥50 employees in a 75-mile radius are covered.
ADA — US Americans with Disabilities Act
US federal law (1990) prohibiting discrimination based on disability and requiring reasonable accommodations. Applies to employers with ≥15 employees.
Title VII — US anti-discrimination employment law
Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the foundational US federal law prohibiting employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
EEOC — US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
The US federal agency that enforces Title VII, ADA, ADEA, and related anti-discrimination statutes. Manages charge filings and investigations.
ADEA — US Age Discrimination in Employment Act
US federal law protecting workers aged 40+ from age-based employment discrimination. Applies to employers with ≥20 employees.
I-9 — US work-authorization verification form
The US federal form (USCIS Form I-9) every employer must complete to verify employment eligibility for every new hire within three business days of start.
E-Verify — US electronic employment-eligibility check
DHS-operated online system that compares I-9 data against federal records to confirm work authorisation. Mandatory for federal contractors and in several US states.
WARN Act — US 60-day layoff notice law
US federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requiring 60-day advance written notice of mass layoffs and plant closures for employers ≥100 employees.
TUPE — UK business-transfer employee protection
UK Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) regulations protecting employees' terms and conditions when a business or service transfers to a new employer.
Right to disconnect — Legal right to ignore after-hours contact
Statutory right (France 2017, Australia 2024, others) for employees to refuse to monitor or respond to work communications outside contracted hours without penalty.
Works council — EU employee-representation body
A formal employee-representation body required in many EU jurisdictions (notably Germany's Betriebsrat) with consultation and co-determination rights on workforce decisions.
Co-determination — Employees on the board (DE)
German Mitbestimmung: legal requirement for employee representation on supervisory boards of large companies. Shapes a fundamentally different stakeholder model from US shareholder-primacy.
Collective bargaining — Union-negotiated terms
The process by which unions negotiate wages, hours, and conditions on behalf of a defined group of workers. Coverage varies from <10% (US private sector) to >80% (Nordic countries).
GDPR Article 22 — Right to human review of automated decisions
EU GDPR provision granting individuals the right not to be subject to decisions based solely on automated processing — directly relevant to AI hiring and performance tools.
EU AI Act — EU's risk-tiered AI regulation
2024 EU regulation classifying AI systems by risk. HR-related AI (hiring, evaluation, monitoring) is generally 'high-risk', triggering conformity assessments, transparency, and human oversight obligations.
NYC Local Law 144 — AEDT bias-audit requirement
New York City law requiring annual independent bias audits of Automated Employment Decision Tools (AEDTs) used in hiring or promotion decisions for NYC roles. Effective July 2023.
Illinois AI Video Interview Act — Consent + transparency for AI interviewing
Illinois statute requiring employers to notify and obtain consent before using AI to evaluate video interviews, and to explain how the AI works.
AI hiring assessment — Algorithmic candidate evaluation
Use of ML models to evaluate resumes, video interviews, games, or work samples. Governed by NYC Local Law 144, EU AI Act, and emerging state laws. Validity and fairness audits required.
Resume parser — Structured extraction from resumes
Software that converts resume text into structured fields (work history, skills, education). The first machine-mediated step in most modern ATSs — and a known source of bias and signal loss.
Talent CRM — Long-term candidate relationship system
A database of past candidates, silver medalists, and warm leads, nurtured over months/years. Examples: Gem, Beamery. The leading indicator that a TA team thinks long-term.
Silver medalist — Strong runner-up candidate
A candidate who reached late-stage interviews but lost out on a specific role. The most valuable warm pool for any recruiter — pre-qualified, brand-aware, and reachable.
Reference check — Pre-offer background conversation
Structured conversations with former managers and peers to validate hiring decisions. Useful when done with behavioral questions; theatre when done as a checkbox.
Backchannel — Off-list reference conversation
An informal reference conversation outside the candidate's submitted list, usually through the hiring manager's network. Powerful signal; ethically and legally sensitive.
Counter-offer — Retention bid after resignation
A revised offer made to retain an employee who has resigned. Industry data suggests 50%+ of counter-offer-accepters leave within 12 months anyway — usually a delaying tactic, not a fix.
Gardening leave — Paid notice period away from work
A notice-period arrangement where a departing employee remains paid but is excluded from work and systems. Common in finance and senior tech roles to protect IP and customer relationships.
Non-compete — Post-employment competition restriction
Contractual restriction on a former employee working for competitors for a defined period. Increasingly unenforceable (California always, FTC 2024 rule, varied state crackdowns).
Non-solicit — Restriction on recruiting from former employer
Contractual restriction on a former employee recruiting their old colleagues or customers. Far more enforceable than non-competes, even where the latter is restricted.
Offer letter — Binding employment terms summary
The written document detailing role, comp, start date, contingencies, and at-will status (in US). Legally binding once accepted; treat every clause as enforceable.
Equity grant agreement — Legal document for stock/options
The binding contract governing vesting, exercise, post-termination, acceleration, and tax treatment of an equity grant. Lives in the cap-table system, not the HRIS.
Cap table — Capitalisation table — who owns what
The record of every share, option, and convertible instrument issued by a private company. Managed in tools like Carta, Pulley, or Shareworks.
Dilution — Ownership % shrinking from new issuance
The reduction in existing shareholders' ownership percentage when new shares are issued (financing rounds, option-pool expansion). Direction-correct framing for equity conversations with employees.
Single-trigger acceleration — Vesting on acquisition
Equity-acceleration clause where vesting accelerates on a defined event (typically acquisition), regardless of whether the employee is retained. Rare for non-founders.
Double-trigger acceleration — Acquisition + termination
More common acceleration: vesting accelerates only if both an acquisition occurs and the employee is terminated within a defined window. Standard for executive and senior-IC grants.
83(b) election — Tax-time election on restricted stock
US IRS election to pay ordinary-income tax on restricted stock at grant (at low FMV) rather than at vest. Must be filed within 30 days of grant. Powerful for founders and early employees if the stock appreciates.
Strike price — Option exercise price
The price an option-holder must pay per share to exercise their option. Set at or above the 409A FMV at grant date for US-tax compliance.
Exercise window — Time to exercise after leaving
The period after employment ends during which vested options must be exercised. The historical 90-day window is being replaced by 10-year windows at progressive companies.
Total comp — Base + bonus + equity + benefits
The full annual value of compensation including base salary, target bonus, equity value (typically annualised over 4 years), and benefits. The honest number for offer comparisons.
OTE — On-Target Earnings
Sales-comp shorthand for base + target variable at 100% quota attainment. The number sales candidates compare across offers — but says nothing about quota attainment rates.
Quota attainment — % of quota actually hit
Percentage of sales quota a rep achieves in a period. Healthy sales orgs target 60–70% of reps at-or-above quota. <50% suggests broken quotas, ramp, or hiring.
Clawback — Recovery of previously paid comp
Contractual right to recover bonuses, commissions, or equity if misconduct, restatement, or specified conditions are met. Standard in regulated industries; growing elsewhere.
Signing bonus — One-time payment to join
Cash incentive paid on joining, usually with a clawback if the employee leaves within 12 months. Used to close gaps in base, equity, or to compensate for forfeited equity at the prior employer.
Benefits broker — Intermediary for health/insurance benefits
Third party that negotiates and administers health, dental, life, and disability benefits between employer and carriers. Compensated by carrier commissions; conflicts of interest worth scrutiny.
Open enrollment — Annual benefits-selection window
The yearly period (typically 2–4 weeks) when employees can elect or change benefits without a qualifying life event. Heavy on communications and HRIS load.
Qualifying life event — Mid-year benefits-change trigger
A defined life event (marriage, birth, job loss of spouse) that allows mid-year benefits changes outside open enrollment. Tax-regulated under Section 125 in the US.
401(k) — US workplace retirement plan
US tax-advantaged retirement-savings plan funded through payroll deductions, often with employer match. The dominant US private-sector retirement vehicle since the decline of pensions.
Vesting schedule (retirement) — Earning employer match over time
Schedule under which employer contributions to 401(k) become the employee's property — typically cliff (3 years) or graded (2–6 years). Distinct from equity vesting.
Engagement survey — Annual workforce-wide listening
The deep, annual survey of workforce engagement, manager effectiveness, and culture. Typically 30–60 questions. Action-planning quality matters more than the score.
Manager effectiveness score — Subordinate-reported manager quality
Composite score derived from team-survey items about a manager's clarity, support, feedback, and development. Used in promotion, calibration, and intervention decisions.
360 review — Multi-source feedback
Feedback collected from manager, peers, direct reports, and self. Best used for development; controversial when tied to comp. Susceptible to popularity-vs-effectiveness bias.
Self-review — Employee-written performance assessment
The employee's own narrative of their performance in a period. Useful input for calibration; weakest evaluative signal in isolation.
Forced ranking — Stack-rank with mandated distribution
Performance system requiring a fixed distribution of ratings (e.g., 20/70/10). Pioneered at GE under Welch; largely abandoned in modern tech orgs as anti-collaboration.
Hiring committee — Cross-functional offer decision
A committee — usually distinct from the interview panel — that reviews interview feedback and makes the hire/no-hire decision. Standard at Google; reduces individual-manager bias.
Interview rubric — Pre-defined evaluation criteria
A documented set of competencies, signals, and rating definitions used by every interviewer for a role. The single biggest interview-quality and bias-control lever.
Structured interview — Same questions, same rubric
Interview design where every candidate is asked the same predetermined questions, scored against the same rubric. Roughly doubles predictive validity vs unstructured interviews.
Work sample — Job-realistic task during hiring
A timed, scoped task that mirrors actual job work (coding exercise, writing assignment, case analysis). One of the highest-validity selection methods, alongside structured interviews.
Take-home assignment — Multi-day work sample
A scoped problem completed away from the interview, typically over 2–8 hours of effort. Better signal than live coding for senior roles; selection bias against caregivers if scope creeps.
Candidate experience — How candidates perceive your hiring
The end-to-end perception of your hiring process by candidates, hired and not. Measured via post-process surveys; correlated with future application rates and offer acceptance.
Candidate NPS — NPS of the hiring experience
Net Promoter Score asked of candidates after a hiring outcome — would they recommend interviewing here? The cleanest single CX metric.
Rejection feedback — Telling candidates why they didn't get it
The practice of giving rejected candidates specific feedback about their interview performance. Rare, brand-positive, legal-risk-managed by sticking to job-related observations.
Internal marketplace — Platform for internal mobility
Software (e.g., Gloat, Fuel50, Eightfold) that matches internal employees to open roles, gigs, mentors, and projects based on skills. The operational backbone of skills-based organisations.
Gig — Short-term internal project
A short-term, scoped piece of work staffed through the internal marketplace. Lets employees build skills outside their primary role without a permanent move.
Tour of duty — Time-bounded role commitment
Reid Hoffman's framing (The Alliance) of employment as a series of defined missions with explicit terms and exit. Reframes retention conversations as alignment conversations.
Skip-level — 1:1 with grand-boss
A direct conversation between an employee and their manager's manager — without the direct manager present. Reveals coaching-and-context gaps invisible to the immediate manager.
Indirect manager — Manager-of-managers in scope
The second-level manager above an employee. Owns culture, calibration, and bar-raising across multiple teams. Often the highest-leverage role in a growing org.
Org chart — Reporting-line diagram
Visualisation of formal reporting relationships across the organisation. The map of authority — not necessarily the map of influence.
Shadow org chart — Real influence vs reporting lines
The informal map of who actually influences decisions, regardless of formal reporting. Mapped through ONA (organisational network analysis) or qualitative interviews.
ONA — Organisational Network Analysis
The structured analysis of relationships and communication patterns within an organisation. Identifies brokers, bottlenecks, and silent influencers invisible to the org chart.
Engagement driver — Statistical lever of engagement
A survey item (e.g., manager support, growth, clarity) that statistically explains variance in overall engagement. Drivers vary by company and segment; assume nothing.
Heatmap — Color-coded comparison view
A visualisation comparing groups (teams, locations, tenure cohorts) across multiple metrics, color-coded by relative performance. The default lens for survey result review.
Benchmark — External or internal comparison point
A reference point against which a metric is judged — industry, prior period, peer cohort. Useful for calibration; dangerous when used as a target without context.
Total Rewards — Holistic comp + benefits + experience
The framing of compensation as the full bundle: pay, benefits, equity, time-off, learning, recognition, growth, and culture. The modern alternative to siloed comp + benefits conversations.
Recognition program — Structured peer-and-manager appreciation
Programs (Bonusly, Workhuman, Achievers) that systematise recognition with points, badges, or thanks. Effective when integrated into managerial habit; theatre when bolted on.
Tenure award — Milestone recognition for years of service
Recognition at service milestones (5, 10, 15 years). Increasingly devalued in low-tenure industries; still meaningful at long-tenure companies and unionised workplaces.
Employer brand — Reputation as a place to work
The perception held by current, former, and prospective employees about what it's like to work at your company. Built by EX reality, communicated through Glassdoor, content, and word-of-mouth.
EVP — Employee Value Proposition
The articulated promise of what an employee gets in exchange for joining and committing — comp, growth, mission, culture, autonomy. The DNA of employer brand and hiring positioning.
Glassdoor — Crowdsourced employer-review site
The dominant US employer-review platform. Imperfect signal, real reputational consequence. Respond, don't suppress; address themes, not individual reviews.
Exit interview — Departure-time conversation
Structured conversation with a departing employee about their reasons for leaving. Higher signal when run by a neutral party (not the direct manager) and aggregated for themes.
Exit survey — Departure-time questionnaire
Asynchronous alternative to the exit interview. Lower depth, higher response rate. Best used in combination with selective interviews.
Boomerang interview — Conversation with returning ex-employee
An interview format that explicitly leverages prior knowledge of culture and reduces re-onboarding scope. Lighter touch than external hiring; sharper on what's changed.
83(b) election — US tax election on early-vested equity
A 30-day IRS election to recognise income at grant rather than vest. Common for founders and early hires receiving restricted stock; mis-handling creates large surprise tax bills.
Affinity bias — Preference for people like us
The unconscious tendency to favour candidates or colleagues who share our background, school, or style. One of the most measurable hiring biases; controlled with structured interviews and diverse panels.
Attrition — People leaving the company
The rate at which employees exit, voluntary or involuntary. Always segment: regrettable vs non-regrettable, by tenure, level, and manager. A flat company number hides everything.
Change management — Discipline of moving people through change
Frameworks (Kotter, ADKAR, Bridges, Lewin) and practices for landing organisational change. Treats adoption as work, not an announcement.
Comp band — Salary range for a level
The min, mid, and max pay range for a level (and location if tiered). Same idea as compensation band; the working shorthand inside comp teams.
Discretionary effort — Effort beyond the minimum
The extra energy, ideas, and care people choose to bring above what's required to keep the job. Engagement's behavioural signal.
Executive sponsorship — Named senior owner of a change
A specific executive who publicly owns an initiative — funds it, removes blockers, and is willing to be measured on its outcome. Without it, change programs stall.
Grievance procedure — Formal complaint process
A documented path for raising and resolving employee complaints. Required in many jurisdictions; foundational to ER hygiene and unionised environments.
Inter-rater reliability — Agreement between independent raters
A statistical measure of how consistently different interviewers or reviewers score the same input. Low IRR means your rubric is noise; the fix is calibration, not more interviews.
Lead time for changes — Commit-to-production duration
A DORA metric: how long from code commit to running in production. Strong proxy for engineering health and operational risk.
P50 — Median (50th percentile)
The midpoint of a distribution — half above, half below. Standard reference point for comp benchmarks and operational metrics. P75/P90 capture the tail.
PPP — Purchasing Power Parity
A way to compare wages across countries by what they actually buy locally, rather than raw FX. Essential for fair global comp design.
Performance management — How performance is set, reviewed, rewarded
The full system: goals, check-ins, feedback, ratings, calibration, comp links, and PIPs. Most teams treat it as paperwork; the leverage is in the conversations.
Psychological contract — Unwritten mutual expectations
The implicit deal between employer and employee — effort, loyalty, growth, treatment — beyond what's in the offer letter. Breaches drive disengagement faster than pay cuts.
Statistical significance — Result unlikely to be chance
The probability (typically p<0.05) that an observed difference is not random noise. Necessary but not sufficient — practical significance matters too.
Survival curve — Probability of remaining over time
From survival analysis: the share of a cohort still employed at each tenure month. The cleanest way to compare retention across hires, managers, or locations.
Tenure inertia — Loyalty mistaken for performance
The bias toward keeping or promoting long-tenured employees regardless of current contribution. Erodes bars over time; one cause of mediocre middle layers.
Whistleblower channel — Confidential reporting line
A protected channel (hotline, third-party platform) for reporting misconduct. Required under EU Whistleblower Directive and SOX; a real one is anonymous, independent, and acted on.
A/B testing — Controlled experiment between two variants
Randomly assigning users (or employees) to A or B to measure causal impact. Standard in product; underused in people programs where it would settle real debates.
ADKAR — Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement
Prosci's individual-change model. Useful checklist for whether a change has actually landed person-by-person, not just been announced.
AEDT — NYC Automated Employment Decision Tool law
NYC Local Law 144: employers using automated hiring tools must complete an independent bias audit and notify candidates. First-of-its-kind US AI-hiring regulation.
AI agent — Autonomous AI that takes actions
An LLM-driven system that plans, calls tools, and executes multi-step tasks with limited human oversight. Different governance posture than a chatbot — closer to a junior employee.
Algorithmic discrimination — Bias produced by automated decisions
Adverse impact on a protected group caused by an AI or scoring system, even when no protected attribute is an input. Regulated under EU AI Act, NYC AEDT, and emerging US state laws.
Blameless postmortem — Incident review focused on system, not person
An SRE practice: review failures to learn, not punish. Documents what happened, why the system allowed it, and what changes. Imported wholesale into people-ops incident reviews.
Broker — Person connecting otherwise disconnected groups
From organisational network analysis: someone whose ties span structural holes between subgroups. Brokers move information and risk; losing one quietly degrades the org.
Centrality — How connected a node is in a network
ONA measure of influence — degree, betweenness, eigenvector. High-centrality employees aren't always senior; losing them is disproportionately costly.
Centre of excellence — Specialist team serving the business
A small expert team (comp, L&D, analytics) that builds capability and frameworks the line uses. Counterpart to embedded HRBPs in the Ulrich model.
Climate quitting — Leaving over ESG/values misalignment
Employees — especially younger ones — leaving employers whose climate or social-responsibility posture they reject. A 2023–2024 attrition signal in EMEA.
Data warehouse — Central analytics store
A queryable store (Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift) consolidating data from operational systems for analysis. The foundation any serious people-analytics function needs.
Difference-in-differences — Quasi-experimental causal method
Compares the change in outcome for a treated group vs an untreated group over the same period. Cleanest people-analytics method when randomisation isn't possible.
Engagement — Discretionary effort and commitment
How much employees willingly invest beyond the basics. Distinct from satisfaction; measured via surveys but lived through manager behaviour and clarity.
ESG — Environmental, Social, Governance
The reporting and investing framework covering climate, workforce, and governance practices. The 'S' is where people-ops shows up — DEI, safety, pay equity, human rights.
Four-day week — 32-hour week with same pay
Compressed-schedule pilots (UK 4 Day Week trials, Iceland) measuring productivity, wellbeing, and retention. Strong results in knowledge work; mixed in shift work.
Fractional CPO — Part-time Chief People Officer
A senior people leader serving multiple companies part-time. Common at 30–150 headcount where full-time CPO isn't justified but founder-led HR is failing.
Fractional executive — Part-time C-level
An experienced executive (CFO, CPO, CTO) embedded part-time across one or more companies. Different from advisor — they hold accountability and operate.
Green skills — Capabilities for the climate transition
Technical and managerial skills needed for low-carbon work — renewable energy, sustainable supply chains, climate risk. The fastest-growing skills category in LinkedIn data.
High-risk AI system — EU AI Act classification
Under the EU AI Act, systems used in hiring, performance, or termination decisions are classified high-risk and subject to conformity, transparency, and human-oversight requirements.
Interim executive — Temporary C-level cover
A senior leader brought in for a defined period — typically 3–9 months — to bridge a transition, run a turnaround, or stabilise after a departure.
Intrinsic motivation — Drive from the work itself
Motivation driven by autonomy, mastery, and purpose (Deci/Ryan, Pink) rather than external rewards. Stronger and more durable than incentives for complex knowledge work.
Just transition — Fair workforce shift to a green economy
The principle that workers and communities affected by decarbonisation get reskilling, income support, and voice in the transition. Increasingly a board-level workforce planning topic.
Logistic regression — Statistical model for binary outcomes
Predicts probability of a yes/no outcome (attrited, hired, promoted) from a set of inputs. The workhorse model in people analytics; outperformed by tree models but easier to explain.
Nine-box — Performance × potential grid
Same as 9-box: a 3×3 grid plotting current performance against assessed potential. Useful for succession discussion when the language is calibrated; toxic when treated as a label.
Organizational design — How work, teams, and authority are structured
Decisions about structure, roles, reporting, decision rights, and incentives. Galbraith's Star Model and Mintzberg's configurations are the standard frames.
Organizational network analysis — Mapping who actually works with whom
Analysis of communication and collaboration patterns to surface real influence, brokers, bottlenecks, and silos that the org chart hides. Drives M&A, restructure, and retention decisions.
Shared services — Centralised HR operations
A consolidated team handling transactional HR (onboarding admin, queries, benefits enrolment) for the whole company. The 'service' layer of the Ulrich model.
Statistical power — Probability of detecting a real effect
The chance a study will find an effect that genuinely exists. Underpowered analyses (small samples, rare outcomes) produce false negatives — common in small-company people analytics.
Survival analysis — Time-to-event statistical methods
Techniques (Kaplan-Meier, Cox regression) for analysing time until an event — attrition, promotion, first manager change. The right toolkit for retention analytics.
Transition — Internal psychological adjustment to change
From Bridges' model: the inner process (ending → neutral zone → new beginning) people go through during external change. Distinct from — and slower than — the change itself.
Workforce ecosystem — Mix of employees, contractors, partners
MIT/Deloitte concept: the modern workforce includes full-time employees, contractors, gig workers, agencies, and AI agents. Demands new governance, planning, and tooling models.
Pay equity — Equal pay for equal work
The principle and statistical test that pay for similar roles is free of unexplained gaps by gender, race, or other protected class — controlling for level, tenure, and location.
Work of equal value — EU pay-equity scope
EU Pay Transparency Directive concept: roles requiring comparable skill, effort, responsibility, and working conditions must be paid equally — even if job titles differ.
Joint pay assessment — Mandatory employer-worker pay review
Required under the EU Pay Transparency Directive when an unexplained gender pay gap above 5% persists. Employers must analyse causes and remediate jointly with worker reps.
Employee Resource Group — Voluntary identity-based community
Employee-led groups (ERGs / BRGs) organised around shared identity or experience. Function as community, talent pipeline, and consultation channel when resourced properly.
Executive sponsor — Senior leader backing a program
A named senior leader who funds, defends, and unblocks an initiative (often an ERG or transformation). Sponsorship is structural support — not mentorship.
Offer-accept rate — Offers accepted ÷ offers extended
Share of offers candidates accept. Below ~85% in competitive roles usually signals comp, brand, or process problems.
Conversion rate — Funnel step yield
The percentage of users moving from one funnel stage to the next — e.g. careers-site visitors who start an application.
Source of hire — Channel a hire came from
The recruiting channel (referral, inbound, agency, event, sourced) credited with a hire. Drives recruitment marketing budget allocation.
CEO approval rating — Glassdoor sentiment metric
The share of reviewers who approve of the CEO. Highly visible to candidates; trend matters more than absolute level.
TRIR — Total Recordable Incident Rate
OSHA safety metric: recordable injuries × 200,000 ÷ hours worked. The headline workplace-safety number for manufacturing and frontline ops.
Near-miss reporting — Logging incidents that almost happened
Capturing unsafe conditions or close-call events before they cause harm. High near-miss reporting rates are a leading indicator of safety culture, not a problem.
Turnover — Rate of employees leaving
Departures ÷ average headcount over a period. Segment by voluntary/involuntary and regrettable/non-regrettable to make it actionable.
Predictive scheduling — Advance-notice shift laws
Laws (Oregon, NYC, Seattle, San Francisco) requiring employers to publish schedules 7–14 days ahead and pay penalties for late changes. Common in retail and food service.
Shift fatigue — Cumulative tiredness from shift patterns
Performance and safety decline caused by long, rotating, or night shifts. Managed through schedule design, rest rules, and fatigue-risk management systems.
Deployer — EU AI Act role for the user of an AI system
The organisation that puts an AI system into use under its authority. Most HR teams using vendor AI are 'deployers' and carry obligations: human oversight, logging, worker notice, impact assessment.
Four-fifths rule — US adverse-impact threshold
EEOC rule of thumb: a selection rate for any group below 80% of the highest-rate group is evidence of adverse impact. Central to NYC AEDT and most US hiring-tool audits.
Model card — Documentation of an AI model
A structured disclosure of an AI model's intended use, training data, performance across subgroups, limitations, and ethical considerations. Standard ask in AI vendor due diligence.
DPA — Data Processing Agreement
Contract under GDPR Article 28 between controller and processor defining purpose, scope, security, sub-processors, and data-subject rights handling. Required before sharing personal data with a vendor.
TCO — Total Cost of Ownership
All-in cost over a multi-year horizon: licence, implementation, integration, internal admin, training, change costs. The number to compare in HRIS selection — not list price.
PEPM — Per Employee Per Month
Standard HR-tech pricing unit. Useful for comparing vendors, but TCO includes far more than PEPM.
iPaaS — Integration Platform as a Service
Cloud middleware (Workato, Boomi, Mulesoft, Tray) for connecting SaaS systems. The default integration layer for a modern people-ops stack.
System of record — Authoritative source for a data domain
The single system designated as the truth for a data domain (e.g. HRIS for employee, ATS for candidate). Other systems sync from it; nothing overwrites it.
Event-driven architecture — Systems communicating via events
Integration pattern where systems publish events (hire, termination, promotion) and others subscribe. Replaces brittle point-to-point syncs in mature people-ops stacks.
Semantic layer — Business definitions over raw data
A modelling layer (dbt, LookML, Cube) that defines metrics and entities consistently so 'headcount' or 'attrition' means the same thing in every dashboard.
Pseudonymisation — Replacing identifiers with tokens
GDPR-recognised technique of separating direct identifiers from data via reversible tokens. Reduces risk in people analytics while keeping data usable.
Maslach Burnout Inventory — Validated burnout instrument
The most-used research instrument for burnout, measuring emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, and reduced personal accomplishment. Use validated instruments — not bespoke pulse questions — for burnout claims.
EAP — Employee Assistance Program
Short-term counselling and referral benefit for personal or work issues. Utilisation under ~5% usually means access, stigma, or quality problems — not lack of need.
PHQ-9 — Patient Health Questionnaire-9
Validated 9-item screener for depression severity. Used by quality EAPs and mental-health vendors; ask vendors which validated instruments they use.
GAD-7 — Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7
Validated 7-item screener for anxiety severity. Paired with PHQ-9 as a standard mental-health intake; presence in vendor protocols is a quality signal.