Glossary

AI-powered job descriptions generate inclusive, and market-aligned job content. The technology helps to ensure that descriptions are clear, unbiased, and optimised for talent attraction while supporting diversity and workforce planning.

This streamlines job design, reduces bias, and helps organisations hire the right skills for current and future needs.

Wages and benefits negotiated through a collective bargaining process. Typically documented in a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

The fixed salary or hourly wage an employee receives for performing their core job responsibilities. It does not include bonuses, incentives or benefits.

Comparing internal jobs and salaries to market data or peer organisations. Ensures pay practices remain competitive and fair.

A one-time payment awarded for achieving specific performance goals or exceptional results. Can be tied to individual, team or company-wide performance.

Career mapping is the process of outlining potential career paths and progression opportunities for employees within an organisation. It helps individuals understand how they can advance, develop new skills, and move into different roles, supporting engagement, retention, and alignment between employee aspirations and business needs.

Career pathing is a structured process designed to guide employees through their career progression within an organisation. It offers a defined roadmap that highlights potential career moves, the skills required, and relevant development opportunities. 

At its heart, career pathing helps employees understand the opportunities available to them and how they can progress across different roles. It also aligns workforce planning and talent priorities with individual aspirations, supporting engagement and productivity. 

The process may involve mapping an employee’s potential career direction across vertical, lateral, and cross-functional roles, based on their skills, interests, and career goals. 

This approach also strengthens succession planning and talent development while providing a foundation for learning and development initiatives that meet both current and future business needs.

A policy allowing the employer to reclaim bonuses or equity under specific conditions, such as misconduct or financial restatement.

A legally binding agreement between an employer and a recognised union that outlines pay, benefits and working conditions for unionised employees.

A metric that compares an employee’s current salary to the midpoint of their salary range, expressed as a percentage. Used to evaluate pay positioning and equity.

An organisation’s formal approach to compensation, covering principles such as market competitiveness, pay equity, performance alignment and transparency.

A scheduled period, usually annually, when employee compensation is reviewed and adjusted based on performance, market data and budget.

A standard, across-the-board salary increase provided to all or most employees to keep up with inflation or rising living costs. Unlike merit increases or performance-based adjustments, COLA is not tied to individual performance. It is commonly used as a separate annual review mechanism, especially in unionised environments or organisations seeking to preserve real income levels for the workforce.

From an HR perspective, data transformation is the process of converting raw data, such as job data, from various sources into a consistent, structured, and usable format.

This enables accurate analysis, reporting, and insights to support decision-making in areas like workforce planning, talent management, diversity, and employee engagement.

Earnings earned in one period but paid at a later time, such as deferred bonuses or equity awards. Common in executive or long-term incentive plans.

Non-cash rewards that give employees a financial stake in the company. Includes stock options, restricted stock, and share grants.

The EU Pay Transparency Directive is legislation aimed at ensuring equal pay for equal work by increasing transparency around pay structures. It requires employers to provide salary information, report gender pay gaps, and disclose pay levels, helping to identify and address pay inequalities and support fair, inclusive workplaces.

It affects any company with a certain number of employees based in EU member states, and is due to come into effect in 2026.

Non-cash benefits provided to employees, such as healthcare, company cars, wellness programmes, or tuition assistance.

HR analytics, also known as people analytics, is the use of data and analytical techniques to measure, understand, and improve workforce performance and HR processes. It helps organisations make data-driven decisions on talent management, employee engagement, retention, diversity, and workforce planning to drive better business outcomes.

HR digital transformation is the process of integrating digital technologies into HR functions to improve efficiency, employee experience, and decision-making. It involves automating processes, using data-driven insights, and adopting tools like AI, HR platforms, and analytics to modernise recruitment, onboarding, learning, performance management, and workforce planning.

Performance-based compensation designed to drive specific results or behaviours. Includes bonuses, sales incentives and goal-based rewards.

Inclusive hiring practices are strategies and actions designed to attract, assess, and hire diverse talent while minimising bias and barriers. They include using inclusive job descriptions, diverse interview panels, structured assessments, accessible processes, and fair evaluation criteria to ensure equal opportunities and support diversity, equity, and inclusion goals.

Inclusive recruitment is the practice of designing recruitment processes that attract, engage, and hire diverse talent by removing bias and barriers. It focuses on fair job design, accessible hiring practices, and unbiased assessment to ensure equal opportunities for all candidates, supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion goals.

Ensures employees with similar roles, experience and responsibilities are paid fairly relative to one another within the organisation.

A measure comparing pay levels within an organisation, often highlighting the gap between executives and other employees. Used to assess fairness and transparency.

A job architecture forms the building blocks of an organisation. It provides a framework for defining and aligning jobs based on the type of work performed. In its simplest form, a job architecture provides you with a mechanism to consolidate all your job titles into a consistent format that provides clarity and transparency on career levels and pay.

The grouping of jobs based on similar duties, scope, and complexity. Supports consistency in pay and career paths.

Job descriptions are an important tool in the talent recruitment process. They are documents that outline the key responsibilities, duties, qualifications and requirements for a specific job or position within a company.

They serve as a detailed overview of what the job entails and what is expected from the person filling that role – as well as providing a comprehensive overview of the business.

Job evaluation is a structured process used to assess the relative value or worth of a job within an organisation. It helps determine fair and consistent pay by comparing factors such as responsibilities, skills, effort, and working conditions. This supports internal equity, pay transparency, and effective reward structures.

A job family is a group of related jobs within an organisation that share similar skill sets, nature of work and career paths. The essential nature of the activities and the basic skills used will be similar for all roles within a job family, although the level of responsibility, the skills required to do the work and the scope of the role may be different.  

The job titles for each role within a job family should be chosen to reflect these differences in scope and responsibility, whilst still utilising a common job titling language to make it clear which job family a job sits within.

Job levelling is the process of defining and categorising jobs within an organisation based on factors like responsibilities, skills, experience, and impact. It creates a clear structure of job levels or grades, supporting fair pay, career progression, talent management, and consistency across roles and departments.

A job position hierarchy is the structured ranking of roles within an organisation based on levels of responsibility, authority, and seniority. It defines reporting lines, career progression paths, and organisational structure, helping clarify roles, support workforce planning, and ensure consistency in job levels and compensation.

A job profile is a summary of a role within an organisation, outlining key responsibilities, required skills, qualifications, and competencies. A job profile provides a broad, generic overview of a role for organisational planning and reward strategies, while a job description offers a more tailored outline of a role for hiring, performance management, and day-to-day guidance for employees.

A pay level that enables an employee to meet basic living needs in a specific location, such as housing, food, and transportation.

Compensation designed to reward sustained performance over multiple years. Often includes equity awards such as stock options or RSUs.

The process of using external compensation data to determine competitive pay levels for specific roles in the labour market.

A permanent salary increase awarded based on individual performance. Typically delivered during the annual compensation review process.

A salary change made outside the regular review cycle. May be used to address retention risks, internal equity, or role changes.

Additional pay required for hours worked beyond the standard workweek, typically for non-exempt employees. Often paid at 1.5 times the regular rate.

A broader salary grouping that contains one or more salary ranges. Pay bands are typically aligned to job levels and used to manage compensation consistently.

Occurs when the pay difference between employees in similar roles is minimal or reversed, such as when new hires earn as much or more than experienced staff.

Pay equity is the practice of ensuring fair and equal pay for employees performing comparable work, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or other protected characteristics. It involves analysing and addressing wage gaps, promoting transparency, and aligning compensation with skills, experience, and job responsibilities to support fairness and compliance with regulations.

A systematic review of employee compensation data to identify and address pay differences that cannot be explained by legitimate business factors such as role, experience, or performance. The analysis evaluates compensation by gender, race, ethnicity, and other protected characteristics to ensure fairness, legal compliance, and alignment with organisational equity goals. Pay equity analysis is typically conducted using statistical methods and supports transparent, bias-free compensation practices.

A compensation model in which employee pay is directly linked to their performance outcomes. Encourages high achievement and accountability.

Pay transparency refers to the practice of openly sharing salary information within an organisation or to the public. This may include posting salary ranges in job adverts to disclosing the pay scales of current employees.

It’s also about explaining why compensation decisions are made, and ensuring that pay policies are equitable and consistent.

Company shares granted to employees that vest over time, subject to conditions such as continued employment or performance goals.

A structured range that defines the minimum, midpoint, and maximum pay for a specific job or level. It helps guide hiring, pay progression and internal equity.

A skills-based organisation prioritises the skills and capabilities employees bring to the table over traditional qualifications or years of experience. 

Skills-based practices help companies to bridge talent gaps, hire more effectively, encourage continuous learning, and respond more quickly to external challenges.

A compensation system where pay is determined by the employee’s acquired skills, knowledge, or certifications.

A skills framework is a structured model that defines the skills, competencies, and proficiency levels required for roles across an organisation. It helps standardise skill expectations, support talent development, guide career progression, and align workforce capabilities with business objectives, enabling more effective hiring, training, and performance management.

A skill gap analysis is the process of identifying the difference between the skills employees currently have and the skills needed to meet business goals. It helps organisations pinpoint skill shortages, inform training and development plans, and support workforce planning and future talent strategies.

Skills inference is the process of automatically identifying the skills required for a role by analysing its responsibilities, tasks, and accountabilities. Instead of relying solely on job titles or manual input, it uses advanced techniques — such as natural language processing and machine learning — to extract relevant technical, behavioural, and core skills from job content.

Skills mapping is the process of identifying, visualising, and analysing the skills within a workforce. It helps organisations understand current capabilities, spot skill gaps, and align talent with business needs. 

This supports workforce planning, career development, and targeted learning strategies to build future-ready teams.

A skills taxonomy is an organised classification of skills, grouped into categories and subcategories based on relationships or similarities. It provides a common language for identifying, assessing, and managing skills across the workforce, supporting skills mapping, talent development, workforce planning, and aligning skills with business needs.

A discretionary, one-time payment awarded outside the standard compensation cycle. It is typically used to recognise exceptional performance, urgent contributions, or critical project milestones. Spot bonuses can also serve as a short-term retention mechanism for employees working on high-value or time-sensitive initiatives.

The complete value of everything an employee receives in exchange for their work. Includes base pay, bonuses, equity, benefits and perks.

Compensation that is not fixed and is based on performance, outcomes or results. Examples include bonuses, incentives and commissions.

Workforce planning is a strategic process that ensures an organisation has the right people, with the right skills, in the right roles, at the right time. It involves analysing current and future workforce needs, identifying skill gaps, and developing plans to support business goals and long-term talent requirements.