20 Human Resources Terms Every HR Hopeful Should Know

It also has the advantage of being clear to anyone in terms of what it means. Too much of the boosterism around happiness and engagement metrics has actually been a backdoor way of measuring individual productivity. There’s nothing wrong with measuring this but it should be talked about openly and better belongs under our sixth term below. The human resource space is full of acronyms and jargon, and Xobipedia is here to help. Our HR glossary is a dictionary of the terminology most commonly used by human resource professionals. Staying on top of the latest HR terms and jargon can be a challenge in your field of expertise.

These skills will help HR professionals develop in their careers and contribute to organizational success. This glossary is not an exhaustive list of the language and terminology used in human https://chat.openai.com/ resources or business more generally. There are comprehensive glossaries which already do this job well, such as SHRM and HR New Zealand’s effort, which we like for its clear format.

Soft HR skills are interpersonal abilities like communication, empathy, conflict resolution, and emotional intelligence. These skills enable HR professionals to navigate the complexities of human behavior, foster a positive work environment, and build strong relationships within the organization. Developing these key HR skills is essential for any HR professional who wants to boost their performance, progress in their career, and be an asset to both the leaders and employees in an organization.

Companies can stay ahead of the game when they think ahead about how they can manage the introduction, implementation and consequences of major organizational changes. Gained prominence as workplaces became more aware of mental health issues. While HR addresses it for productivity and well-being, skeptics may dismiss it as an overused term for stress. This phrase emerged during the pandemic as a response to reevaluating work-life balance and job satisfaction. While HR saw it as a challenge to retention strategies, some outside may interpret it as a collective act of rebellion or impulsivity. According to a recent poll by Gallup, 44% of employees worldwide report feeling stress at work.

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Aptitude tests, sometimes also referred to as psychometric tests, are a great way of assessing an individual’s abilities. Acquihire refers to when a company buys another company primarily for its staff and skills rather than its products or services. Knowledge of HR language ensures compliance with regulations, minimizing legal risks and providing a framework for proactive risk mitigation within your organization. Rasmussen University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and is authorized to operate as a postsecondary educational institution by the Illinois Board of Higher Education. For additional information about Licensing and State Authorization, and State Contact Information for Student Complaints, please see those sections of our catalog. Distributive bargaining is the negotiation between competing parties that involves the distribution of a finite resource.

The culture in an organization is formed by the beliefs, assumptions, and values of the company. It is a letter indicating that the employee has been selected for the job. A non-disclosure agreement or NDA is a written contract between two parties (people or organizations) that prohibits the sharing of confidential information shared between both ends.

Downsizing of an organization’s workforce by suspension or permanent termination of a worker or group of workers by the employer. A quantifiable performance indicator metric that analyzes how is the organization is working to achieve its goals and objectives. Inbound recruitment is a technique used to attract job seekers to apply to your company through engaging content and blog posts. An employee is sent to a foreign country for a long-term work assignment by their employers.

An educational background in psychology or HR Management also enables you to develop the soft skills that improve your communication and coaching abilities. Another communication skill that is becoming more critical for HR teams is storytelling. We’ve long had appraisals, evaluations and we still have 360-degree everything but there is something honest and straightforward about a performance review.

As the work world moved to remote and hybrid working models, companies began adapting to help serve employee work-life balance. HR sees it as a progressive policy, but some outsiders might perceive it as an invitation to slack off. The concept started as a way to boost engagement and motivation in the workplace.

An employee who fits smoothly within the company’s organizational culture, the value systems, leadership structure, and practices of an organization. The total cost of recruiting a new employee for the company, including the cost of recruitment, equipment, travel costs, administrative costs, and benefits. A candidate’s experience with a company, with their experience of the hiring process.

“In a work setting, empathy is the ability to see situations from the perspective of all stakeholders. This includes internal employees, shareholders, the communities in which they operate and even the geopolitical environment,” says leadership development and career coach Diane Gallo. Over 80% of employers believe that positive employee experience drives employee engagement, wellbeing, productivity, and talent attraction and retention. A report by PWC found that 58% of HR leaders surveyed believe that finding, attracting, and retaining talent is their number one challenge. Therefore, finding qualified candidates, selecting the best, and determining if there’s a match between the candidate, the company (culture), and the manager is one of the most important HR tasks.

Without strong active listening skills, navigating potentially sensitive matters relating to DEI&B will be more challenging, and it will be harder to effectively coach employees and fellow HR professionals. HR professionals with strong HR reporting skills are not only able to understand and interpret data, they are Chat PG able to turn it into compelling messages using storytelling and demonstrate business impact. Surveys show that 80% of small US businesses already use HR software or are planning to use it in the near future. Moreover, 54% of companies with over 500 employees are increasing HR technology spending by 24% on average.

Resign from a job

Workable helps you build and promote your brand where your next candidates are. Any group of people who gather every day to talk about similar or related topics start using shortcuts to get to the point more quickly. Slowly this transforms from useful shorthand into a verbal wall that excludes newcomers.

Knowledge of these terms can help people get a job and understand employee handbooks of policies that they are required to follow upon employment at a company. The list contains British and American spellings of terms and phrases, as noted by the use of “(UK)” and British spellings such as “labour,” which is spelled “labor” in the United States. For employers, a profound familiarity with HR terms can be instrumental.

Attrition can be defined as a reduction in the workforce when the employees leave the company and are not replaced. Deduction and garnishment involve the process of withholding funds from an employee’s paycheck to fulfill financial obligations or debts. A wage garnishment is a court order directing an employer to collect funds for obligations such as child support, student loans, or tax levies. Payroll deductions are how employers fulfill these court-ordered obligations, ensuring compliance with legal and financial responsibilities. An exit interview is the final meeting between management and an employee leaving the company. Information is gathered to gain insight into work conditions and possible changes or solutions, and the employee has a chance to explain why he or she is leaving.

This process ensures that there are no discrepancies and that the correct amounts are being deducted from employees’ paychecks to cover health insurance premiums. Nepotism is preferential hiring of relatives and friends, even though others might be more qualified for those positions. The favoritism is generally showed by individuals in a position of authority such as CEOs, managers or supervisors. The Hawthorne effect is a phenomenon observed as a result of an experiment conducted by Elton Mayo. In an experiment intended to measure how a work environment impacts worker productivity, Mayo’s researchers noted that workers productivity increased not from changes in environment, but when being watched. Applied to HR, the concept is that employee motivation can be influenced by how aware they are of being observed and judged on their work—a basis for regular evaluation and metrics to meet.

If you’re interested in taking a step further to learn business English, consider registering your work team for corporate English training with Preply Business or take a business English course. Moreover, you’re also expected to successfully navigate the technical language of your specific department or industry. You can foun additiona information about ai customer service and artificial intelligence and NLP. To learn even more about improving the employee experience and increasing your competitive advantage while providing a fast return on investment, download our ebook now. BYOD is used to describe the growing trend of using employee-owned devices within a business.

For this reason, supplementary core vocabulary sheets go a long way in helping teachers provide adequate materials for students needing an intensive study of vocabulary in very targeted areas. This core vocabulary reference sheet provides keywords and phrases used by a business’ human resources department. This list can be used as a starting point for vocabulary study relating to employment and working.

• Too much of the boosterism around happiness and engagement metrics has actually been a backdoor way of measuring individual productivity.
• As people analytics grows in importance, demand for HR reporting skills is increasing too.
• But which skills and competencies are most critical, and what do they entail?
• Communicating with stakeholders, the CEO, managers, and employees, at different levels of authority and influence, requires different language and tone.
• While HR saw it as a challenge to retention strategies, some outside may interpret it as a collective act of rebellion or impulsivity.
• HR values it for promoting mental health, but some may view it as a corporate attempt to meddle in personal habits.

This is an area which has been dominated by flawed language for too long. Sometimes the person you need to hire is looking for a job, sometimes they’re not. When it’s not the case and you’re looking for someone who already works somewhere else the language gets feudal and bloody.

In English linguistics, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum & Instruction – English education & literacy. Transferring someone means moving something or someone to another place, organization, or team. Distributive bargaining is the negotiation between competing parties, which includes the distribution of a limited resource. For example, practices for managing and retaining people can differ tremendously between cultures.

Benefits

How these competencies are defined can vary by employer, but fundamentally they revolve around people skills, managerial skills and achievement skills. Our hope is that this glossary will be a resource for you in multiple aspects of your work. So, whether you’re a seasoned HR professional, a brand-new HR specialist, or just researching the human resources industry and looking for the words you need to know, you’ll find them here. An employer brand acknowledges the fact that companies must now make a more wide-ranging effort to build their reputation. It’s not hype, hiring has become more like marketing and it’s easier than ever for prospective hires to get an advance idea of what it’s like to work for your company. By thinking of your reputation as an employer brand it encourages a more rounded idea of how you’re seen.

This tactic can seem like a passive move to get employees to quit on their own. It can also occasionally be used to help companies retain employees instead of letting them go when jobs get eliminated. Explore the challenges and benefits, and discover some best practices for hiring international talent. Fill out the form to get further information from our team about the Preply language training for companies.

To avoid dropping the right term at the wrong time, you need to understand both what the term means and how people outside of the HR community perceive it. This linguistic evolution is an attempt to explain essential HR processes and practices in a neat, efficient package. But you don’t want to lose your employees by deluging them with a wave of unfamiliar language. As someone seeking to thrive in the corporate world, it’s likely you’ve been bombarded with your fair share of business jargon, abbreviations, and acronyms.

A software application that handles all aspects of the learning process. Internship refers to the practical work experience in a company, usually offered to people who are new to a field. This refers to the hiring of people freshly graduated college students or people with no working experience.

In India, it is common to get a promotion every single year, while in the Western world this happens on average every 3-5 years. New technologies, including ChatGPT, Virtual, and Augmented Reality, along with the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT), are shaping HR models worldwide. For example, the Vehicles for Change program uses augmented reality to train new mechanics, virtual tours are given to new hires at Deloitte, and virtual job fairs are growing in popularity. Communicating both formally and informally in different ways (such as verbal and written, both in-person and online) is critical. We make it easy to source, evaluate and hire best-fit candidates – and quickly, too.

Behavioral Based Interview

In essence, the benefits outlined above reaffirm that a nuanced understanding of HR terminology is not merely beneficial; it’s indispensable for thriving in today’s workforce. This term refers to the voluntary and involuntary terminations, deaths and employee retirements that result in a reduction to the employer’s physical workforce. If you work in a human resources department at a large organization, keeping track of attrition trends can be a job in and of itself. The pivotal role that HR terminology plays for both employers and employees, highlights its impact on workforce management, communication, compliance, and overall workplace effectiveness. Behavioral competency is essentially an evaluation of the behavior qualities and character traits of an employee.

These are terms and concepts your employees are seeing in the media and discussing around the office. And when you can talk intelligently about them, you can shape a workplace that fits the diverse needs of today’s workforce. The key to decoding HR jargon is to strike a balance between staying on top of industry trends and ensuring clear, authentic communication in a diverse and ever-changing workforce. Not only are there specialized words and phrases to memorize, but there are also HR acronyms and abbreviations to learn. Exploring an HR terms glossary and other online resources is a great place to begin, but there’s more you can do. This person is in charge of people or departments in a company but is not responsible for the entire company and does not decide about the company’s future.

We understand as an HR professional you’re always looking to expand your skills and knowledge, which is why we’ve compiled an extensive HR glossary. Check out the Preply comparison of the top language learning programs for companies and their teams. Find out which program best suits your company’s language learning needs. Traditional HR skills, such as expertise in HRM, strategic planning and implementation, collaboration, reporting abilities, and understanding of the business landscape, remain crucial. However, to stay relevant and effective, HR practitioners must proactively enhance their skill sets for the future. As an HR professional, you’re expected to work alongside your colleagues in the HR department, with managers and leaders, and also employees in the organization.

You can take an online training course, gain a professional certification, join professional networks, get a mentor or coach, read blogs and industry magazines, and look for on-the-job training opportunities. But of those who work at companies that support wellbeing initiatives, 89% are likely to recommend their organization as a good place to work. As the impact of employee wellbeing becomes clearer, employee wellbeing is growing in importance for organizations. HR professionals have a crucial role to play in ensuring that employees remain happy, healthy, and productive. The competencies of an HR practitioner include the ability to understand key HR metrics, such as employee turnover, absenteeism, engagement and retention.

We’re in the grip of an epidemic of plummeting employee engagement, we’re breathlessly told. In fact it’s always been difficult to hire the right hr language team and keep them motivated. Morale takes in confidence, enthusiasm and discipline and describes group as well as individual dynamics.

This is why the knowledge of English vocabulary for HR is a necessity as English is becoming an integral part of professional activity. When you are able to effectively report on key metrics, you are better able to advise managers and employees, create improved people policies, and make more evidence-based decisions. A substantial part of recruitment and selection is interviewing candidates, so active listening is also indispensable. What’s more, you also need to ensure that the recruitment and selection process is fair and does not discriminate based on age, gender, ethnicity, or anything else. Furthermore, to be proactive as an HR professional, you must stay informed about current and emerging trends across not only HR but also technology and work culture.

Coaching skills are most often developed on the job or in external coaching training, and they are also among the key leadership competencies. However, to enable organizational growth, businesses need HR professionals to excel in leadership, management, and training-related competencies. These duties include handling employee leave, absence, absence files, the in and outflow of employees, payroll, benefits, and more. Therefore, being an administrative expert can be a huge benefit for any ambitious HR professional.

HR values it for enhancing the employee experience, but outsiders may view it as a gimmick. It was coined to describe a subtle form of employee dissatisfaction and highlights the importance of monitoring morale. While it’s a good practice to watch to get HR insight, outside observers might misconstrue this term as a label for laziness.

Human Resources professionals perform a plethora of tasks, including recruiting, managing employee relations, and creating company policies. In small companies, HR Generalists perform all relevant tasks, whereas in larger companies HR professionals could specialize in certain areas, e.g. sourcing and hiring, compensation and benefits, HR operations. Retention strategy refers to the processes and policies used to ensure employees stay. In order to retain employees and reduce turnover, managers must help employees meet their goals without losing sight of the organization’s goals.

Benchmarking is a process of measuring the performance of an organization or team through a variety of metrics—for example, customer satisfaction rate, sales and retention—for future comparison. Benchmarking can be used to compare internal performance and the external performance of competitors to measure if improvement has occurred. HR sees it as a strategic challenge, but some outsiders may interpret it as a deficiency in hiring or training processes. The idea of cultural fit emphasizes the importance of a cohesive workplace environment. While HR prioritizes it for building strong teams, outsiders may worry it’s a basis for conformity and exclusion. As the HR industry rapidly evolves in line with technology, staying on top of future trends and ensuring you develop the core skills needed in a more digital landscape will be essential to your success.

Employee turnover refers to the number of employees that leave the company and are replaced by new employees. Employee satisfaction refers to how satisfied the employees are with their job. It is a measure of the level of satisfaction and content that the employees feel with their job.

Perks leans a little towards the ‘give them a pinball machine’ way of thinking about motivation. Benefits can be pinball machines and craft beer in the office but it takes in more important aspects of the workplace as well as important stuff from 401k plans to a company car. We’ve been arguing for a while now that language matters in recruitment (and HR in general). To a casual observer it’s pretty obvious that we should have reached “peak jargon” by now. Sadly jargon is not a resource that taps out quickly and there’s no reason to think we’re at the top of the bell curve on this.

According to McKinsey, workplace stress adversely affects productivity, drives up voluntary turnover, and costs US employers nearly $200 billion every year in healthcare costs. Meanwhile, 95% of HR managers believe that burnout is sabotaging their workforce, and 77% of workers claim they have experienced burnout at their current job. Therefore, a strong command of technology is essential for Human Resources professionals.

It means that the employees own the laptops and other electronics that the company provides them. A floor manager is a person who is responsible for all actions and operations of a specific floor or floor in a large store or office. Working together internally by actively aligning HR activities benefits both the organization and HR.

And as for poaching (which used to mean shooting the landowner’s livestock without permission) it implies that employees are their employers’ deer to be shot. We like “sourcing” which is simple, descriptive and doesn’t imply that one set are owned by another. Based on the Human Resources definition, the HR department takes care of the organization’s most valuable asset; its employees. A nuanced understanding of HR terminology facilitates clear and precise communication between employers and employees, fostering transparency and reducing the likelihood of misunderstandings. This piece of ad content was created by Rasmussen University to support its educational programs. Rasmussen University may not prepare students for all positions featured within this content.

One field of expertise with its own vocabulary is the division of human resources (HR). There are hundreds of HR words and HR terminology that professionals in this sector use to communicate effectively with their colleagues and successfully perform their work duties. HR professionals need a range of HR specific and soft skills in addition to business acumen and digital literacy.

A system in which employees are acknowledged and appreciated for their performance, internal and external work. It means getting the employees familiarized with the company policies, their co-workers, and their role in the company in detail. Organizational development refers to the process of building different strategies, policies that help the organization in growing and achieving its goals. This refers to the process of hiring passive candidates to fill a specialized or executive position. A headhunter refers to an individual or a company that provides recruitment services to employers and sources the perfect candidates. A nuanced understanding of HR terminology is not just beneficial; it’s indispensable.

This phrase came about with the rise of remote work and the need to address biases in performance evaluations. But outsiders may see it as a problem with remote work arrangements in general. While HR may use it for strategic transitions, outsiders might view it as underhanded and lacking transparency.

HR professionals who are skilled in active listening are able to attentively listen to others without prejudice or judgment and create a safe space for others to share. Israelis, Russians, and the Dutch are very direct, whereas Japanese and Southeast Asian countries are much more indirect. Using the wrong communication style may result in your message not being perceived as important – or risk offending people from more indirect cultures. These differences will impact how you try to hire, retain, and promote people, and navigate employee relations. That’s why developing recruiting skills like relationship building, negotiation, and collaboration is vital for HR professionals. But it’s not just what you advise your stakeholders; it’s how you advise them.

A Professional Employer Organization, or PEO, is a comprehensive human resources outsourcing firm. These organizations provide a range of services, including payroll processing, benefits administration, and compliance management. Partnering with a PEO allows businesses to streamline their HR functions, focusing on their core operations while experts handle administrative tasks. The core HR activities include HR planning, recruitment and selection, performance management, learning and development, career planning, personal wellbeing, and more. Essential HR skills include role-specific and soft skills, as well as business acumen and digital and data literacy.