A to Z of Human Resources

25 uncommon but important human resource terms which every employee irrespective of the domain must know and understand because eventually everyone becomes a human resource for organizations!

Acturial Analysis: A calculation carried out by an actuary (a business professional who deals with the financial impact of uncertainty) to assess somebody’s life expectancy or the degree of risk involved in an insurance proposal.

Blue Laws: US regulations governing business activities on Sundays.

Carousel Training: Training which involves moving from job to job or from department to department in an organization.

Decruiting: Policy of replacing permanent employees with temporary ones. An important factor in running a young industry.

Economic Tort: Economic harm done to  one of the parties in an industrial dispute (such as when shops stewards introduce workers to take industrial action and harm the company’s finances.)

Furlough: A period of unpaid leave or absence from work, especially for military personnel, government employees or expatriates.

Garnishment: A procedure by which wages or salary are withheld to pay  off a debt.

Hot-desking: A flexible working practice that enables employees to occupy any vacant workplace  instead of sitting at  a desk they think of as their own. The system is usually adopted on the grounds that conventional offices are only full for a fraction of the time they are open, because of sickness, holidays or teleworking, and hot-desking enables expensive office space to be fully utilized.)

Icarus factor: The tendency of managers or executives to embark on projects which are too ambitious and consequently fail.

Job ceiling: The maximum number of employees employed at a given time.

Kickback: An illegal commission paid to someone, especially  a government official, who helps in a business deal.

Leap-frogging: Pay demands where each section of employee asks for higher pay to do better than another section, which then asks for further increases in turn.

Moonlighting: The practice of doing a second job.

Netiquette: The rules for proper procedure and good manners that are usually observed when communicating on the Internet.

Organogram: A chart showing the hierarchical relationships between the employees in a company.

Permalancer: Someone who is officially a freelance but has worked for the same company for so long that  they are regarded almost as a permanent member of its staff (slang).

Quorum: A minimum number of people who have to be present at a meeting to make it valid.

Red circle rate: The practice of paying staff at a higher rate, even if their jobs have been downgraded.

Scalar principle: The principle that employees should only communicate with their seniors through the established hierarchy.

Three martini lunch: A business lunch at which a lot of alcohol is drunk to relax the client.

Understudy: A person who is learning how to do a job which is currently being done by someone else, so as to be able to take over the job if the present incumbent retires or is ill.

Vicarious liability: The legal responsibility of a person for actions committed by someone else when they are officially under that person’s control, especially the liability of an employer  for acts committed by an employee in the course of their work.

Wildcat strike: A strike organized suddenly by workers without the approval of the main union office.

Yellow dog contract:  (US) An agreement between an employer and employee that the latter will not join a trade union or engage in trade union activities.

Xers: Generation Xers are people born between 1965 and 1976 – 1980, and are independent, enjoy informality, are entrepreneurial, and seek emotional maturity. They want to build a repertoire of skills and experiences they can take with them if they need to, and they want their career path laid out in front of them – or they’ll walk. Gen Xers also seek balance in their lives now – not when they retire. They seek time to raise their children and don’t want to miss a minute – as their parents did. Gen-Xers also want immediate and honest feedback.

Zero-hours contract: A contract of employment where the employee is not guaranteed any work, but must wait on standby until required, and is paid for hours actually worked.

 

Author: Rahul Sharma and Vineet Rejeeve Joseph

Reference : Dictionary of Human Resources and Personnel Management (A&C Black, London)