This article will cover 30 key Human Resources (HR) terms and their meaning. But first…
Why should HR Professionals know these terms?
If you’re just starting out your career in Human Resources, or looking to grow into a higher position and create a thriving career, you’ll need to know key HR terms and nomenclature. This knowledge will help you communicate effectively with employees, superiors, and subordinates. Without it, managing HR processes and programs efficiently becomes much more difficult than it needs to be.
Having this knowledge facilitates clear and efficient communication with employees, colleagues, and other stakeholders. It ensures that HR practices are in line with relevant laws and regulations and aligned with the overall goals and objectives of the organization. Here are terms you should know if you want to build a fantastic HR career.
30 HR TERMS & THEIR MEANING
Attrition
Attrition refers to intentionally reducing workforce size by not replacing employees who leave voluntarily. This downsize can be a result of retirement, voluntary resignation, layoffs, failure to return from a leave of absence, or death. However, the term attrition or employee attrition also describes a situation where an employee leaves the company and is not replaced for a long time (if ever).
Benefits
Benefits are any non-wage compensations offered to employees by the employer in addition to their salary or wage. It includes a range of benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, maternity/paternity leave, tuition reimbursement, and employee discounts.
Compensation
The term compensation in HR denotes the comprehensive set of financial and non-financial rewards that an organization offers to its employees in return for their services. Compensation includes a wide range of benefits, such as base pay, bonuses, commissions, stock options, benefits, pension plans, and more.
Learning Management System (LMS)
An LMS streamlines employee training through a software platform, allowing managers to manage employee training goals, track progress, and analyze performance data. The system is mainly used for onboarding, skill-building, and compliance training. The NotchHR LMS offers a user-friendly and interactive learning experience, granting employees access to free courses, quizzes, and more. Additionally, companies can upload customized training materials for events such as new employee onboarding, retreats, etc.
Diversity & Inclusion
Diversity and inclusion are dynamic HR concepts which embody the policies, practices, and procedures that a company implements to ensure that people of different backgrounds and characteristics are fully represented, respected, and valued. It’s all about celebrating and harnessing the unique qualities of everyone in the workplace, to create a vibrant, diverse, and inclusive community.
Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
An EAP is a confidential counselling and support service offered to employees who are facing personal or work-related issues.
Exit Interview
This is an interview usually held on an employee’s last day of work after resignation. It is a conversation between the company and the departing employee. The purpose of this interview is to exchange information and gather feedback, with the employee giving reasons for leaving and sharing their experience working with the organization. The end goal is to make the transition process smoother and improve the organization.
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
The FLSA is a federal law that establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, recordkeeping, and child labour standards affecting full-time and part-time workers in the private sector and in federal, state, and local governments.
Grievance
Grievance in HR is a term used to describe a formal complaint or concern that an employee raises against their employer regarding any aspect of their employment, such as compensation, working conditions, harassment, discrimination, or any violation of their employment rights. The HR department is responsible for addressing these grievances and finding a resolution that is acceptable to both parties through an investigation, mediation, and resolution process that can be done through negotiation, arbitration, or litigation.
Harassment
This means unwanted behavioural conduct by one employee towards another, that is based on a protected characteristic, such as race, sex/gender, or religion, and creates a hostile work environment.
Health & Maintenance Organisation (HMO)
An HMO is a type of medical insurance group that offers healthcare services for a set yearly fee. It manages healthcare benefits for health insurance plans, self-funded plans, individuals, and other entities. At NotchHR, we offer HMO plan options through partnerships with HMOs. This way, HR professionals can buy and manage HMO plans for employees right on the NotchHR app, thereby eliminating paperwork, stress, and the need to visit third-party websites.
Visit www.notchhr.io to learn more today.
Incentive Plans
Incentive plans are programs that reward employees for meeting specific goals or objectives. These win-win plans are set up to encourage employees to work harder towards set targets.
Job Analysis
A job analysis involves the study of a specific job to determine its duties, responsibilities, and required skills and knowledge.
Knowledge Management
This is a process by which an organization collects, organizes, analyzes, and disseminates information and knowledge in a way that is easily accessible to its employees. Such knowledge includes frequently asked questions (FAQs), technical resources, training documents, etc.
Leaves of Absence
Leave of absence (LoA) is a period of time when an employee is allowed to be absent from work for a specific reason, without losing their job or being penalized. This can be due to various reasons such as personal or medical reasons, study, military service, or any other valid reasons. An HR solution like NotchHR can ease manual leave application by providing employees with a self-service portal to apply for leave, automate the leave approval process, get real-time visibility, gain better control of their leave schedules, and improve accuracy and compliance. Upgrade to NotchHR for a more efficient leave management process.
Mediation
Mediation can be described as a process utilized in HR to resolve disputes between two or more parties. A mediator, who is an unbiased third party, helps facilitate communication, understanding, and negotiation between the parties. The goal is to reach an agreement that is satisfactory to all parties. Mediation is often used as a confidential and informal alternative to formal litigation or other more adversarial forms of conflict resolution. The objective of mediation is to promote a peaceful and collaborative resolution to disputes while preserving relationships between the parties involved.
Non-Compete Agreements
A non-compete agreement is a contract between an employer and an employee that restricts the employee from working for a competitor after their employment ends.
Onboarding
Onboarding refers to the process of introducing new employees to the organization and helping them adapt to their new roles and workplace culture.
Payroll Management
Payroll management is an HR term that explains the systematic approach to tracking, managing and disbursing financial compensation to employees. This term is a critical function of human resource management. It involves accurately calculating and recording employees’ salaries, wages, bonuses, net pay, and all the necessary deductions. Payroll management tools like NotchHR exist to solve the manual and mundane problems that come with managing payroll.
Performance Management
Performance management involves setting clear expectations, monitoring and evaluating employees’ performance, providing regular feedback, and creating development plans to improve their skills. It is an ongoing process that helps managers and employees work together towards achieving the organization’s goals. It also ensures that employees are engaged, motivated, and empowered to perform at their best.
Qualifications
Your qualification means the education, experience, skills, and other requirements that an individual must have to be eligible for a particular job.
Recruitment
Recruitment is the process of attracting and hiring individuals for a job or organization. The Recruitment feature on NotchHR helps you manage your entire hiring and onboarding process. The feature gives you everything you need to track, message, and move candidates through each stage of the hiring process, all in one place.
Hire the right talents every time with NotchHR!
Succession Planning:
Succession planning is about identifying and developing potential candidates to fill key leadership roles within an organization. This is important when ensuring a smooth transition of leadership. It also minimizes the issues that gaps in those roles could cause.
Talent Management
Talent management refers to a systematic approach to identifying, attracting, developing, and retaining talented employees. It includes recruitment, performance management, training & development, and succession planning.
Vacation Time
Vacation time is designed to provide employees with a break from work and an opportunity to recharge and relax. It is important for employees to take time off to maintain their mental and physical well-being and to avoid burnout. Employers benefit from offering vacation time by improving employee morale, increasing productivity, and reducing absenteeism.
Workers’ Compensation
Workers’ compensation is a system of insurance that provides benefits to employees who are injured or become ill because of their job.
Exempt vs Non-Exempt employees
Exempt employees are not paid for overtime work; they are paid for getting the job done. They are paid a salary rather than by the hour, and they work in professional, administrative, executive, outside sales, and computer-related fields. On the other hand, non-exempt employees are paid per hour and are eligible for overtime pay if they work more than 40 hours in a workweek.
Yearly Performance Review
A yearly performance review is an evaluation of an employee’s job performance over the course of a year. It is typically conducted by their manager and/or supervisor. It is an evaluation of an employee’s accomplishments, along with a data-based assessment of their strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. The goal is to track employee and company progress and drive growth.
Zero-Tolerance Policy
A zero-tolerance policy is a policy that sets strict consequences for violating workplace rules, such as harassment, discrimination, or drug use. These policies prevent people in positions of authority from exercising discretion or changing punishments subjectively. This ensures that pre-determined punishments are imposed regardless of individual culpability, extenuating circumstances, or history.
Conclusion
Understanding these HR terms is a key step in becoming an effective HR professional. It is important to stay current on industry trends and developments to ensure that you are equipped to handle the challenges of the HR field and make informed decisions that support the success of both the employees and the organization.
