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People operations glossary

Plain definitions for the terms that turn up in vendor materials, RFP templates and internal debates while you are choosing people software. Each entry says what the term means in a buying context, then where it bites.

Use it alongside the category pages, the software directory and the buyer guides.

89 termsgrouped by first letter, with each term's own definition

Showing 89 of 89 terms

Terms starting with a number

1 term

  • 360-Degree Feedback

    A structured feedback process in which an employee receives performance input from multiple sources (manager, peers, direct reports, and sometimes external stakeholders) rather than from their manager alone.

A

3 terms

  • Action Planning (Engagement)

    The structured process of defining, assigning, and tracking improvement initiatives in direct response to engagement survey results, ensuring that listening to employees translates into observable organizational change.

  • ATS

    An ATS (applicant tracking system) is [recruiting software](/categories/recruiting-software) that stores every job opening and applicant, moves candidates through defined hiring stages, and records who did what and when. It collects applications from career pages and job boards, schedules interviews, captures interviewer feedback, and produces hiring reports such as time-to-fill.

  • Attrition

    Attrition is the gradual reduction of a workforce as employees leave through resignation or retirement and their positions are not filled again. Attrition rate is usually calculated as departures not replaced during a period divided by average headcount, times 100. It differs from turnover, where departing employees are replaced.

B

4 terms

  • Benefits Broker

    A licensed insurance professional or firm that advises employers on benefits plan design, manages carrier relationships, leads renewal negotiations, and supports open enrollment strategy and compliance.

  • Benefits Reconciliation

    The periodic process of comparing an employer's benefits enrollment records against carrier billing invoices to identify and correct discrepancies in coverage and premium charges.

  • Benefits Utilization

    The rate at which employees actively use employer-provided benefits, measured across plan types to assess program effectiveness, inform design decisions, and demonstrate ROI on benefits spend.

  • Blended Learning

    Blended learning combines instructor-led training with self-paced digital content, allowing teams to get the depth of facilitated learning alongside the flexibility of on-demand modules.

C

13 terms

  • Calibration Session

    A structured cross-manager meeting where leaders compare and align employee performance ratings to ensure consistency, reduce bias, and produce a fair distribution before ratings are finalized.

  • Candidate Experience

    The sum of how job seekers perceive and feel about every interaction with a company during the recruiting process, from first touchpoint through offer or rejection.

  • Candidate Screening

    The early-stage evaluation process used to assess whether a candidate meets minimum qualifications before advancing them to interviews, typically via phone screens, assessments, or resume review.

  • Candidate Sourcing

    The proactive activity of identifying and engaging potential candidates before they apply, using channels such as LinkedIn, job boards, talent databases, and employee referrals.

  • Candidate Stage

    A candidate stage is one defined step in a hiring process, such as Applied, Phone screen, Interview, Offer, or Hired. Each application sits in one stage at a time, and every move between stages is timestamped in the applicant tracking system. Those timestamps produce conversion rates and time-in-stage metrics.

  • Carrier Integration

    The automated data connection between a benefits administration platform and insurance carriers that transmits enrollment, coverage changes, and terminations without manual file handling.

  • COBRA Continuation Coverage

    A federal law requiring employers with 20 or more employees to offer temporary continuation of group health coverage to employees and dependents who lose coverage due to qualifying events.

  • Compensation Benchmarking

    The process of comparing an organization's pay rates against external market data to determine whether compensation is competitive, equitable, and aligned with talent strategy.

  • Completion Rate (Learning)

    Completion rate measures the percentage of assigned learners who finish a course or learning activity, and is the most commonly tracked metric in LMS reporting.

  • Compliance Training

    Compliance training covers the mandatory education employees must complete to meet legal, regulatory, or internal policy requirements — with completion records serving as evidence of due diligence.

  • Continuous Feedback

    An approach to performance management in which employees and managers exchange developmental input regularly throughout the year rather than only at scheduled review cycles.

  • Contractor vs Employee Classification

    Worker classification is the determination of whether an individual working for a business is legally an employee or an independent contractor, which governs tax obligations, benefit eligibility, and labor law protect...

  • Course Authoring

    Course authoring is the process of building e-learning content using software tools that produce courses ready for LMS delivery, typically exported in SCORM or xAPI format.

D

4 terms

  • Defined Contribution Benefits

    A benefits funding model in which the employer allocates a fixed dollar amount toward employee benefits, shifting plan selection and cost risk from the employer to the individual employee.

  • Dependent Verification

    The process of auditing employee-enrolled dependents to confirm they meet the plan's eligibility criteria, removing ineligible dependents to reduce benefits costs and compliance exposure.

  • Direct Deposit

    Direct deposit is the electronic transfer of employee net pay directly to a bank or financial account via the ACH network, eliminating paper checks.

  • Driver Analysis

    A statistical technique applied to engagement survey data that identifies which survey dimensions or questions most strongly predict the overall engagement score or a target outcome such as turnover intent.

E

8 terms

  • Employee Engagement Score

    A composite index derived from multiple survey dimensions (such as commitment, discretionary effort and belonging) that quantifies the overall level of engagement across a workforce or team.

  • Employee Lifecycle Management

    The structured management of all stages of an employee's relationship with the organization, from pre-hire through active employment to separation, with consistent processes, data, and accountability at each stage.

  • Employee Recognition

    The formal and informal practice of acknowledging employees' contributions, behaviors, and results to reinforce desired performance and strengthen their connection to the organization.

  • Employee Records Management

    The systematic creation, maintenance, access control, and retention of employment-related documents and data throughout and after the employment relationship, in compliance with applicable laws.

  • Employee Self-Service (ESS)

    A portal or app that lets employees directly view and update their own HR data, such as pay stubs, benefits, personal details and time-off balances, without routing every request through HR staff.

  • Employee Wellbeing

    The overall state of an employee's physical, mental, financial, and social health as it relates to their experience at work — a multi-dimensional construct that organizations increasingly measure and actively support.

  • eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score)

    A single-question survey metric that measures how likely employees are to recommend their employer as a place to work, scored on a 0–10 scale and calculated as % Promoters minus % Detractors.

  • EOR (Employer of Record)

    An EOR (employer of record) is a company that becomes the legal employer of workers on behalf of a client, usually in a country where the client has no legal entity. The EOR issues the employment contract, runs local payroll, withholds taxes, and provides mandatory benefits, while the client directs the employee's daily work.

F

2 terms

  • FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act)

    The FLSA is the federal law that establishes minimum wage, overtime pay eligibility, recordkeeping requirements, and child labor standards for most U.S. private and public sector employees.

  • FSA (Flexible Spending Account)

    An employer-established benefit account that lets employees set aside pre-tax payroll dollars for qualified medical or dependent care expenses, subject to annual use-it-or-lose-it rules.

G

1 term

  • Gross Pay vs Net Pay

    Gross pay is an employee's total earnings before any deductions. Net pay is what they actually receive after taxes, benefits, and other withholdings are subtracted.

H

5 terms

  • Headcount Planning

    The process of determining how many employees an organization needs, in which roles and locations, over a defined planning horizon — typically aligned to annual budget cycles and strategic goals.

  • HR Compliance

    The practice of ensuring an organization's employment policies, practices, and records meet all applicable federal, state, and local labor laws — covering hiring, pay, classification, safety, leave, and termination.

  • HR Workflow Automation

    The use of software rules and triggers to automatically route, approve, notify, and complete routine HR tasks — eliminating manual handoffs and reducing process delays across the employee lifecycle.

  • HRIS

    An HRIS (human resources information system) is software that stores the official record for every employee, including job, pay, manager, location, and employment dates, and runs the HR workflows built on that record, such as onboarding, time off, and benefits enrollment. Payroll, benefits, and reporting tools read from it.

  • HSA (Health Savings Account)

    A tax-advantaged savings account paired with a high-deductible health plan, allowing employees to set aside pre-tax dollars for qualified medical expenses with funds that roll over year to year.

I

1 term

  • Interview Scorecard

    A structured evaluation form that interviewers complete after each candidate conversation, capturing ratings and evidence against predefined competencies to support objective hiring decisions.

J

2 terms

  • Job Architecture

    A structured framework that organizes all roles in an organization into defined job families, functions, levels, and grades — creating a consistent foundation for compensation, career pathing, and workforce planning.

  • Job Requisition

    A formal internal request to open a new or backfill position, documenting headcount approval, role details, and budget before recruiting begins.

L

2 terms

  • Learning Path

    A learning path is an ordered sequence of courses, videos, readings, and assessments that takes a learner from a starting point to a defined skill or role outcome. It is assigned in an LMS or LXP, often by role or event such as a new hire, and tracks progress and completion for the whole sequence.

  • Learning Record Store (LRS)

    A Learning Record Store is a data repository that receives, stores, and retrieves xAPI statements from any learning source, enabling analytics across the full range of learning activity.

M

2 terms

  • Manager Effectiveness

    A measure of how well a manager performs the core people leadership functions (goal-setting, feedback, development, inclusion and retention), assessed through employee surveys, performance data, and 360-degree feedb...

  • Microlearning

    Microlearning delivers focused training content in short, task-specific segments, typically under 10 minutes long, designed to fit into the flow of work rather than interrupt it.

O

6 terms

  • Off-Cycle Payroll

    An off-cycle payroll is a payroll run processed outside the regular pay schedule, used to handle terminations, corrections, bonuses, or other payments that cannot wait until the next scheduled run.

  • Offboarding

    The structured process of separating an employee from the organization — covering access revocation, knowledge transfer, final pay, benefits continuation, and the administrative, legal, and relational steps required a...

  • Offer Management

    The end-to-end process of generating, approving, delivering, and tracking compensation offers to final-round candidates, from verbal offer through signed acceptance.

  • OKR (Objectives and Key Results)

    A goal-setting framework pairing a qualitative Objective with measurable Key Results to align individual, team, and company priorities across a defined time period.

  • Onboarding Software

    Software that manages and automates the new hire process from offer acceptance through productivity milestones, covering paperwork completion, system provisioning, task assignment, and new hire orientation delivery.

  • Open Enrollment

    Open enrollment is the yearly window, usually two to four weeks before a new plan year, when employees can enroll in, change, or drop employer benefits such as medical, dental, vision, and FSA or HSA contributions. Outside that window, changes are generally allowed only after a qualifying life event.

P

15 terms

  • Passive Candidate

    A professional who is currently employed and not actively searching for a new job but may be open to the right opportunity when approached by a recruiter.

  • Pay Period

    A pay period is the recurring time interval for which employee work is measured and compensated, determining how often payroll runs and employees are paid.

  • Payroll Compliance

    Payroll compliance is adherence to the full body of federal, state, and local laws governing how employees are paid, how taxes are withheld and remitted, and how payroll records are maintained.

  • Payroll Deductions

    Payroll deductions are amounts withheld from an employee's gross pay each period, including mandatory taxes and voluntary benefit contributions, to arrive at net pay.

  • Payroll Reconciliation

    Payroll reconciliation is the process of verifying that payroll register totals match tax filings, general ledger entries, and benefit invoices to confirm every dollar is accurately accounted for.

  • Payroll Register

    A payroll register is the report produced for each payroll run that lists every employee paid, with hours, gross pay, each tax withheld, each deduction, net pay, and the employer's own taxes. Totals at the bottom show the full cost of the run. Payroll teams review it before approving pay and keep it as a required payroll record.

  • Payroll Run

    A payroll run is the end-to-end process of calculating employee compensation, applying deductions and taxes, and initiating payment for a specific pay period.

  • Payroll Tax Filing

    Payroll tax filing is the employer's job of calculating payroll taxes each pay run, depositing the money with tax agencies on a set schedule, and filing returns that report wages and taxes. At the federal level that means deposits plus Form 941 each quarter, Form 940 each year, and Forms W-2 and W-3 each January.

  • PEO (Professional Employer Organization)

    A PEO (professional employer organization) is a company that co-employs a client's workers and takes on payroll, payroll tax filing, benefits, and parts of HR compliance under a service agreement. The client still hires, manages, and directs the work, while the PEO administers pay and benefits, often giving small employers access to larger group benefit plans.

  • People Analytics

    The practice of collecting, analyzing, and applying workforce data to make evidence-based HR decisions — covering hiring, retention, performance, pay equity, and organizational effectiveness.

  • PEPM (Per Employee Per Month)

    PEPM (per employee per month) is a pricing unit in which a vendor charges a fixed fee for each employee on the system every month. HR, payroll, and benefits software, PEOs, and employer of record services often quote PEPM prices. Monthly cost equals the PEPM rate times headcount, plus any base fee.

  • Performance Cycle

    A performance cycle is the recurring schedule an organization uses to set goals, check progress, write reviews, calibrate ratings, and link results to pay or promotion decisions. Most companies run an annual or semiannual cycle with quarterly check-ins. The cycle calendar sets the deadlines for employees, managers, and HR.

  • Performance Improvement Plan (PIP)

    A formal, documented HR process that sets specific performance expectations, a defined improvement timeline, and consequences for an employee whose work has fallen below acceptable standards.

  • Psychological Safety

    The shared belief within a team that it is safe to take interpersonal risks, such as speaking up, sharing concerns, admitting mistakes or disagreeing, without fear of punishment or humiliation.

  • Pulse Survey

    A pulse survey is a short employee survey, usually 5 to 15 questions, sent on a regular schedule such as monthly or quarterly to track a few measures of sentiment over time. It is shorter and more frequent than an annual engagement survey, so teams can see changes quickly and check whether their actions worked.

Q

2 terms

  • Qualifying Life Event

    An IRS-recognized change in circumstances, such as marriage, birth or loss of other coverage, that entitles employees to enroll in, change, or drop benefits outside of the annual open enrollment period.

  • Quality of Hire

    A composite recruiting metric that assesses how well a new employee performs and integrates after hire, used to evaluate the effectiveness of the sourcing, selection, and hiring process.

R

1 term

  • Rating Scale

    A standardized scoring system used in performance reviews to evaluate employee contributions, ranging from numerical scores to descriptive labels such as Exceeds Expectations or Needs Improvement.

S

7 terms

  • SCORM

    SCORM is a set of technical standards that allow e-learning content to communicate with an LMS — tracking completion, scores, and learner progress in a consistent format.

  • Skills Gap Analysis

    A skills gap analysis identifies the difference between the skills your workforce currently has and the skills the organization needs to execute its strategy, informing hiring, training, and development priorities.

  • Skills Matrix

    A grid-based tool that maps employee skills and proficiency levels against the competencies required for their current role or future positions, used to identify gaps and inform development planning.

  • SMART Goals

    A goal-setting framework requiring objectives to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound — used to bring rigor and clarity to individual and team performance targets.

  • Social Learning

    Social learning is the acquisition of knowledge and skills through observation, interaction, and collaboration with peers — formalized in L&D as structured peer-to-peer learning experiences within or alongside an LMS.

  • Stay Interview

    A structured, proactive conversation between a manager and a current employee designed to understand what keeps the employee engaged and what might cause them to leave — used as a retention tool before flight risk bec...

  • Succession Planning

    The process of identifying and developing internal employees who have the potential to fill critical leadership or essential individual contributor roles if those positions become vacant.

T

5 terms

  • Talent Pipeline

    A curated pool of pre-qualified candidates who have been identified and engaged in advance of specific open roles, enabling faster hiring when requisitions open.

  • Time-to-Fill

    A recruiting metric that measures the number of calendar days between when a job requisition is opened and when a candidate accepts an offer for that role.

  • Total Rewards

    The complete package of financial and non-financial compensation an employer provides, encompassing base pay, variable pay, benefits, perquisites, recognition, and career development opportunities.

  • Turnover Intent

    A survey-measured construct that captures how strongly an employee is considering leaving their current employer — used as a leading indicator of actual voluntary attrition.

  • Turnover Rate

    Turnover rate is the percentage of employees who leave an organization during a period. The standard formula is separations during the period divided by average headcount for the period, multiplied by 100. It counts both voluntary exits (resignations) and involuntary exits (layoffs and dismissals), and is usually reported monthly and annually.

V

2 terms

  • Virtual Instructor-Led Training (vILT)

    Virtual instructor-led training delivers live, facilitated learning sessions through a video conferencing platform, combining the interaction of classroom training with the accessibility of remote delivery.

  • Voluntary Benefits

    Supplemental benefit programs — such as supplemental life, critical illness, hospital indemnity, and legal plans — that employees elect and typically fund themselves through payroll deductions.

W

2 terms

  • Wage Garnishment

    Wage garnishment is a legally mandated deduction from an employee's paycheck, directed by a court order or government agency, to satisfy a debt such as child support, student loans, or unpaid taxes.

  • Workforce Planning

    A strategic HR process that forecasts future talent needs and identifies gaps between an organization's current workforce capabilities and what it will require to execute its long-term strategy.

X

1 term

  • xAPI (Experience API)

    xAPI is a learning data standard that tracks any learning activity, inside or outside an LMS, as simple statements and stores them in a Learning Record Store.