predictive analytics

Definition

Using statistical models and historical data to forecast HR outcomes like turnover, performance, or hiring needs. It's HR pretending to be data science, with varying degrees of actual predictive power and ethical implications.

Example Usage

Their predictive analytics model identified flight risk employees with 75% accuracy, allowing managers to proactively address retention before resignations.

Origin

Borrowed from business intelligence and data science fields, applied to HR in 2010s as 'people analytics' matured

Fun Fact

While predictive analytics sounds sophisticated, most models just identify obvious patterns like 'people who get promoted stay longer'—though they can still provide valuable insights at scale.

Source: People analytics and HR technology

Related Terms

Intermediate

Human Capital

A term that manages to sound both dignified and dehumanizing simultaneously, reducing employees to assets on a balance sheet. It's the corporate way of saying "people are resources" without the self-awareness to realize how that sounds.

👥 Human Resources

Intermediate

mediated

The act of stepping into the middle of a conflict to resolve differences, ideally before lawyers get involved or someone updates their LinkedIn status to "It's complicated." Professional mediators facilitate settlements by getting both sides to actually listen to each other—a skill apparently so rare it requires certification. It's diplomacy with a process, and yes, someone's getting paid for it.

👥 Human Resources

Intermediate

trailing spouse

The partner who relocates for their significant other's job transfer or career opportunity, often sacrificing their own career in the process. Corporate speak for 'your career comes second.'

👥 Human Resources

Intermediate

FTE

Full-Time Equivalent, a unit of measurement that reduces human beings to fractions. You might be 1.0 FTE, 0.5 FTE, or, if you're on three cross-functional committees, approximately 3.7 FTE squeezed into one salaried body.

👥 Human Resources

Advanced

Severance

The parting gift a company gives you when they fire you, calculated to be just generous enough that you'll sign the NDA without too many questions. It's the corporate equivalent of a breakup gift -- here's some money, please don't tell anyone what happened.

👥 Human Resources

Intermediate

negotiation

The delicate art of two or more parties pretending they have more options than they actually do until someone blinks first. In HR contexts, it's the formal dance between employer and employee where both sides know the salary range but spend weeks acting surprised by each other's numbers. Mastery of this skill requires equal parts poker face, patience, and the ability to say 'let me think about it' convincingly.

👥 Human Resources

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