The department that turned firing into a growth opportunity.
A structured model defining the skills, knowledge, and behaviors required for success in various roles. It's HR's attempt to reduce the art of doing a job well into a checklist.
The formal request to hire for an open position, requiring approval from multiple levels of management. The bureaucratic hurdle between 'we need someone' and actually posting a job.
The depth of talent available within an organization to fill key positions when current leaders depart. Think of it as your company's farm team, except everyone already knows where the bathrooms are.
The noble art of arguing passionately in favor of something, usually while armed with statistics, emotional appeals, and an unwavering belief that you're on the right side of history. In corporate and nonprofit settings, it's the formal practice of championing a cause, person, or idea—often involving lobbying, public speaking, and strategic nagging. Think of it as professional persistence with a mission statement.
A corporate death sentence disguised as a helpful document, essentially telling an employee 'we're giving you 90 days to be someone else, or you're fired.'
An organizational policy allowing flexible work arrangements—words on a document that managers interpret however they wish.
The reputation and image a company cultivates as a place to work, usually involving glossy marketing that bears little resemblance to actual employee experience. It's catfishing for recruitment.
Losing your best employees at an alarming rate, usually because of terrible management or culture. It's a brain drain but make it workplace trauma.
The art of making an employee's job so unpleasant they quit voluntarily, avoiding the legal and financial costs of termination. It's constructive dismissal with a euphemistic name and plausible deniability.
The initial introduction of new employees to company policies, culture, and logistics—where the bathrooms are, how to submit timesheets, and why Carol from accounting gets territorial about the microwave. It's everything you need to know to not embarrass yourself on day one.
Immediately disqualifying a candidate without serious consideration, usually based on obvious disqualifying factors or minimum requirements. It's the HR equivalent of swiping left.
A performance management system requiring managers to rank employees against each other and place them into predetermined categories, typically firing the bottom performers. Jack Welch's gift to corporate culture, also known as 'rank and yank.'
A framework defining the skills, knowledge, and behaviors required for success in a role or organization. Usually a 47-page document that nobody reads but HR references during performance reviews.
The process of assigning 'levels' to positions (Junior, Senior, Principal, Distinguished, Supreme Overlord) which have virtually no correlation to actual responsibility or pay.
A contract provision requiring disputes be resolved through arbitration rather than court—basically, the company's get-out-of-lawsuit card.
The percentage of employees leaving an organization over a specific period, whether by resignation, retirement, or termination. The metric that keeps HR professionals awake at night calculating replacement costs.
A mandatory waiting period before former employees can be rehired, theoretically preventing abuse of severance or unemployment benefits. It's the corporate version of 'you can't come back until you think about what you've done.'
The practice of employees doing minimal work while waiting for stock options or restricted stock units to vest before leaving. Coast mode with a countdown timer.
The concentration of high performers within an organization, measuring how many stars versus slackers occupy your office chairs. Netflix famously champions high talent density, believing one brilliant engineer beats three mediocre ones.
When an employer makes working conditions so intolerable that an employee is forced to resign, legally equivalent to being fired. The corporate version of 'I'm not touching you' until someone quits.
The corporate buzzword for giving employees just enough authority to feel important without actually changing power structures or decision-making hierarchies. This feel-good initiative involves delegating responsibility (but rarely resources) while management maintains veto power over everything important. It's what happens when companies want engagement without surrendering actual control—autonomy theater at its finest.
The practice of openly sharing salary ranges, compensation formulas, or actual employee pay—radical honesty that supposedly reduces wage gaps but makes everyone uncomfortable at company parties.
Employees whose skills, knowledge, or roles are essential to business success and difficult to replace. They're the people who get retention bonuses while everyone else gets 'market adjustments' that don't match inflation.
The state of not being present where you're expected to be, meticulously tracked by HR departments with the enthusiasm of bounty hunters. In corporate settings, unplanned absences are treated like minor felonies, while planned ones require filling out forms in triplicate six months in advance. The number one cause of passive-aggressive emails from managers who 'just wanted to check in' about your whereabouts.