Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA"):

A federal law that prohibits employers from making employment decisions on the basis of age and protects employees aged 40 years and older from employment discrimination on the basis of age.

Americans With Disabilities Act ("ADA"):

A federal law that requires employers with 15 or more workers to provide equal employment opportunities to, and prohibits such employers from discriminating against, “qualified” individuals with disabilities, and requires that covered employers offer reasonable accommodations to such persons. The "ADA" defines disability as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits individuals in the performance of one or more major life activities. A critical factor in determining whether an individual is qualified for a position is whether the individual can perform the essential job functions, with or without reasonable accommodation. Many states have laws governing workplace treatment of people with disabilities, with similar or more expansive definitions of disability, and which cover employers with as few as one or more employees.

Attendance Policy:

The guidelines and expectations for employee attendance at work as defined, written, disseminated, and implemented by an organization. Attendance policies often include absence reporting procedures and requirements, and address how to manage circumstances of chronic absence from work.

At Will Employment:

A type of employment relationship in which there is no contractual agreement and both the employer and employee may end the employment relationship at any time, for any lawful reason or for no reason at all, with or without prior notice, without incurring a penalty.

Baby Boomers:

The name given to the generation of Americans who were born between 1944 and 1964 in the "baby boom" following World War II..

Background Checking or Background Investigation:

Actions by employers to verify or determine a job candidate’s prior history, which may include education, work experience, licensing, criminal records, military service, credit history and personal facts. The specific types of background information appropriate for investigation depends on the responsibilities of the position sought.

Back pay:

A type of damages award in an employment lawsuit that represents the amount of money the employee would have earned between the date of the unlawful act and the date of the court decision or settlement, if the employee had not been improperly fired or subject to other unlawful treatment.

Behavioral Interview:

An evaluative tool used to determine if an individual has the behavioral characteristics that have been selected as necessary for success in a particular job. Behavioral interviews ask the candidate to pinpoint specific instances in which a specific behavior was exhibited in the past. In the best behaviorally-based interviews, the candidate is unaware of the behaviors the interviewer is seeking to verify.

Benefits:

Benefits can be non-cash additions to salary that employers provide to employees to take as part of a total compensation package. Benefits may include health insurance, dental insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, deferred compensation (pension, profit-sharing, 401K), tuition assistance, paid time-off, employee discounts, club memberships, etc. On average, employers spend 41 cents on benefits for every dollar of payroll, representing 20% of the total employee compensation package.

Bereavement Policy:

A benefit whereby employee allow certain categories of employees paid time-off to attend the funeral and attend to other matters surrounding the death of a family member. The number of days permitted and the definition of “family member” vary among employers’ bereavement policies.

Business Casual Dress Code:

A policy that allows employees to project a professional, business-like image, while experiencing the advantages of more casual and relaxed clothing. Business Casual Dress Code policies often state specific permissible and prohibited attire (e.g. no jeans, no shorts, no tube tops, no sneakers, etc.).

Cafeteria Plan:

A type of employment benefits plan in which employees select benefits from a "menu," up to a specified dollar amount, which allows employees to attain only those benefits they need or want to use.

Coaching:

A method used by managers and supervisors to provide positive or constructive feedback to employees, to help them continue excellent performance or identify ways employees may improve performance.

Comparable Worth:

A legal concept under which people who perform dissimilar jobs of similar value to the employer, must be paid the same regardless of the gender of the job incumbents.

Compensation Reviews:

A process by which employers use accurate, up-to-date job descriptions and review pay ranges for all jobs to ensure that the employer maintains a fair and competitive compensation program. Factors employers consider include: Market Competitiveness (information from salary surveys and other sources to determine what other organizations pay for similar jobs) and Internal Equity (internal analysis of the level of job responsibility and pay compared to similar jobs within the organization to verify consistencies and uncover inconsistencies between responsibilities and pay).

Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act ("COBRA"):

A federal law that requires employers to notify and allow continued coverage under a group health plan for a period of 18 months (or longer under certain circumstances) if an employee and/or his/her beneficiaries lose insurance benefits due to a “qualifying event.” Coverage continuation requires the participant to pay 100% of the monthly benefit premium and allows employers to charge an additional 2% administrative fee. “Qualifying events” include loss of insurance coverage because a covered employee: voluntarily resigns from employment, is involuntarily terminated for reasons other than “gross misconduct”, has schedule of work hours reduced below eligibility minimums, retires, becomes eligible for Medicare, becomes legally separated, divorced, or dies.

Constructive Discharge:

A type of termination of the employment relationship in which the employee quits, but the employer is liable for wrongful termination, because the employee was forced to resign rather than continuing to endure working conditions that are so severe that no reasonable employee would be willing to tolerate them.

Counseling:

Providing day-to-day feedback to employees about areas in which their performance at work can improve and possible consequences of not improving.

Culture:

The values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, attitudes, and behaviors shared by a group of people. Culture is the behavior that results when a group arrives at a set of rules (generally unspoken and unwritten) for working together. An organization’s culture includes the life experiences each employee brings to the organization

Department:

Entities, which organizations form to organize people, reporting relationships, and work, in a way that best supports accomplishment of the organization's goals. Departments usually are organized by functions such as human resources, marketing, administration, and sales, but a department can be organized in any way that makes sense for the organization.

Discipline:

A process for dealing with job-related behavior that does not meet expected and communicated performance standards. Discipline requires timely documentation of such behaviors and may be formal or informal, and may include warnings, denial of salary increases or bonuses, demotion, suspension, termination, or other negative consequences.

Dispute Resolution:

A system in which employers provide employees with a formal means of resolving employer-employee grievances. Your system should ensure fair, prompt, and consistent treatment of all complaints.

Disputed Resolution is one means of expressing management’s commitment to employee relations in the establishment and credible usage of an internal grievance or complaint procedure.

Downsizing:

An employer’s intentional reduction of the number of employees in an organization or part of an organization. Downsizing is also known as lay-offs or reductions in force (RIF), downsizing can be an organizational lifesaver, when used sparingly, and with planning, but when used repeatedly without a thoughtful strategy, can destroy an organization's effectiveness.

Dress Code:

A set of standards that employers develop to help provide their employees with guidance about what is appropriate to wear to work. Work dress codes range from formal to business casual to casual. The formality of the workplace dress code is normally determined by the amount of interaction employees have with customers.

Drug-free Workplace:

A practice where an employer takes steps and initiates policies to ensure that employees are not taking or using alcohol or drugs, selling drugs at work, and are not affected by the after effects of indulging in alcohol or drugs outside of the workplace. A drug-free workplace policy may include post-offer pre-placement screening of potential new hires and mandatory drug and alcohol screening where the employer has reasonable individualized suspicion that a specific employee is under the influence at a specific time based on objective observation and evidence. The policy also may require drug and alcohol screening for employees with Commercial Drivers License (CDL). A goal of a drug-free workplace program may be to encourage employees with a substance abuse problem to seek treatment, recover, and return to work.

Employee Assistance Program ("EAP"):

A workplace benefit that employers provide to assist employees in addressing drug or alcohol abuse, emotional problems, job stress, marital discord, workplace conflict, or other issues, by providing free, limited, off-site and confidential counseling assistance.

Employee Empowerment:

The process of enabling or authorizing an individual to think, behave, act, and control work / decision-making in autonomous ways. Empowerment is a development strategy working towards developing an employees state of feeling of having the fortitude to take control of one's own destiny.

Employee Handbook:

A collection of an employer’s communicated policies, procedures, programs, and methods, summarized for easy use by employees and supervisors. Handbooks should be used to document an employer’s legal compliance, provide useful information to employees and to publicize the benefits of working for a particular employer.

Employee Involvement:

Creating an environment in which employees have an impact on decisions and actions that affect their jobs. Employee involvement is not a goal nor is it a tool, but rather, it is a management and leadership philosophy about how best to enable people to contribute to an organization.

Employee Stock Ownership Plan ("ESOP"):

An employer-provided benefit that allows employees to receive or purchase stock in the company under certain favorable terms.

Employment Eligibility Verification (I-9):

The I-9 form is required by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to document all employees legal eligibility for employment within the United States .  All employees hired after November 6, 1986, must complete Section 1 of this form, within the first 3 days of employment and provide supporting documentation to the employer in order to maintain employment.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC):

A federal agency charged with the responsibility for enforcing anti-discrimination employment discrimination. (Title VII, ADEA, ADA, etc.). The EEOC promulgates federal regulations, compliance guidelines, and receives, investigates and, where appropriate, prosecutes claims of unlawful discrimination, particularly employment discrimination.

Equal Pay Act:

A federal law that requires employers to pay the same to all employees who do the same work, regardless of gender.

Exempt Employee:

An employee who, because of his/her positional duties and responsibilities and extent of decision making authority, is exempt from the minimum wage and overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and comparable state wage and hour laws. Exempt employees must be paid a fixed sum each payroll period (weekly, bi-weekly, monthly) regardless of number of hours worked.

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA):

A federal law setting standards for minimum wage, hours of work, overtime pay, child labor, and wage / hour recordkeeping requirements. The FLSA covers most private and all public sector employers, including state, local, and federal governments.

Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs):

A benefit program authorized under Section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code, whereby, employees may have a fixed sum withheld from each paycheck on a pre-tax basis, to be used to pay medical expenses, such as deductibles, co-pays, and non-reimbursed medical charges.

Front pay:

A type of damages award in an employment lawsuit that represents the amount of money the employee would have earned following the date of award, if the employee was not improperly fired or subject to other unlawful treatment.

Garnishment:

A legal procedure by which a court order requires an employer to withhold a specific sum from each employee’s paycheck in order to pay a debt or other legal obligation, such as child support.

Generation X:

People born between 1965 and 1976 – 1980, depending on the source. Gen Xers are characterized as independent, enjoy informality, are entrepreneurial, and seek emotional maturity and are the core of many employers’ current workforce.

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA):

A federal law mandating and establishing national standards to protect patients' personal health information, as contained in medical records and medical insurance forms and other documents. HIPAA applies primarily to medical providers (doctors hospitals, therapists) and to insurance carriers offering medical insurance. Employers generally are not subject to HIPAA unless they administer a self-funded medical insurance program, but employers still are obligated to protect the confidentiality of employee medical information pursuant to the ADA. Among other things, HIPAA regulations place civil and criminal liability on the intentional or unintentional release of medical information unless the patient gives prior written approval for the release.

Hostile Working Environment:

A work environment that is so charged with discrimination and/or harassment or similar unwelcome behavior based on attributes protected under federal and state anti-discrimination laws, that it interferes with an employee’s ability to do his/her job.

Human Resource Development (HRD):

The framework for helping employees develop their personal and organizational skills, knowledge, and abilities, it includes such opportunities as employee training, employee career development, performance management, development, coaching, succession planning, key employee identification, and organizational development.

Human Resource Management:

The function within an organization that focuses on recruitment, management, the direction of the people in the organization, in the administering of benefits and compensation programs.

Human Resources Information System (HRIS):

A software or online solution for the data entry, data tracking, and data information needs of the Human Resources function of an organization. Normally packaged as a data base, hundreds of companies sell some form of HRIS and every HRIS has different capabilities, and should be selected to satisfy an organization’s specific needs.

Implied contract:

A type of enforceable contract that is not made explicitly or in writing, but is implied from the circumstances or the parties' conduct.

Independent Contractor:

A business or person, who performs services / produces for a particular outcome, or creates a product for a person or a business under a written or implied agreement, but who is not an employee and is not eligible for employee benefits nor subject to mandatory withholding of taxes from wages.

Individual Retirement Account ("IRA"):

A tax-deferred savings account in which the employee contributes up to a pre-set maximum amount annually.

Interview:

There are screening interviews and hiring or selection interviews. Screening interviews qualify a candidate before he/she meets with a hiring authority for possible selection. Hiring interviews allow employers to assess the fit of a candidate. Candidates also interview employers for job suitability. Most of these interviews take place in an office setting one-on-one or in a small group.

Job Analysis:

The process used to collect information about the duties, responsibilities, necessary skills, outcomes, and work environment of a particular job, frequently used to provide the basis on which a job description is written.

Job Description:

Written statements that describe the duties, responsibilities, most important contributions and outcomes needed from a position, required qualifications of candidates, and the reporting relationship of a particular job.

Job Offer Letter:

A document that confirms the details of an offer of employment, such as title, salary, benefits, description of duty, location, and may include reporting relationship, and proposed start date. Offer letters also should include an employment at will statement.

Learning Organization:

Organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together.

Letter of Resignation:

A written statement from an employee of his/her desire or intention to end the employment relationship.

Millennials:

Individuals born between 1980 and 2000 who, unlike the Gen-Xers and the Boomers, are characterized as having developed work characteristics and tendencies from doting parents, structured lives, and contact with diverse people.

Minimum Wage:

The minimum hourly rate that employers are required by law to pay their employees. Federal minimum wage currently is $7.25. A state’s minimum wage may be higher or less; employers are advised to pay the higher rate.

Mission Statement:

A precise description of what an organization does, including the business of the organization and why the organization exists currently.

Mitigation:

Actions by an employee that will reduce the amount of damages resulting from an unlawful employment practice, i.e., obtaining new employment after a wrongful termination.

MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheets):

Generally prepared by manufacturers to describe the ingredients of products with hazardous chemicals, proper safe-handling procedures, and potential health risks of improper use. Employers provide employees with MSDS to satisfy their obligations under the OSHA Hazard Communication Standard, 29 CFR 1910.1200, which requires employers who use hazardous chemicals in the workplace to have a written hazard communication program in order to ensure that they properly inform employees of the hazards associated with the chemicals present, and requires employers to maintain and distribute MSDS and to conduct safety training.

National Origin Discrimination:

Discrimination on the basis of an employee's, or his/her ancestor’s country of origin or ethnicity.

Networking:

Building a web of interpersonal relationships for mutually beneficial purposes such as business referrals, customer acquisition, complementary product offerings, and sharing information. Establishing, maintaining and utilizing contacts made for purposes beyond the reason for the initial contact.

New Employee Orientation:

The process for welcoming new employees into an organization, generally includes providing information about safety, the work environment, the new job description, benefits and eligibility, organizational culture and history, and anything else relevant to working in the new organization.

Noncompetition Agreement:

A contract (or part of a contract) in which an employee promises not to work for a competing employer (or to set up a competing business), or not to solicit the employer’s customers for a competitive purpose, both during, and for a period of time after, the employment with the employer ends.

Non-exempt Employee:

An employee, who because of the type of duties performed, the usual level of decision making authority, and the method of compensation, is subject to all FLSA and state wage and hour provisions, including those pertaining to minimum wage and overtime.

Occupational Disease:

An illness contracted by workplace conditions, such as "black lung disease" contracted by miners.

Occupational Outlook Handbook:

A nationally recognized source of career and job information, designed to provide valuable assistance to individuals making decisions about their future work lives.

Occupational Safety & Health Administration ("OSHA"):

The federal agency charged with creating and enforcing workplace health and safety standards.

Open Door Policy:

A policy that literally means that each manager's door is open to every employee. The purpose of an open door policy is to encourage open communication, feedback, and discussion about any matter of importance to any employee.

Orientation Period:

The initial 30 to 90 days of employment during which the employee learns his/her job and about the organization.In this time period employer also has the chance to access the new employee’s likelihood of succeeding in the job. This is not an introductory or probationary period because employment remains at-will both during and following the orientation period.

Outsourcing:

A practice of paying an outside party to perform one or more of an organization’s internal processes or functions. Frequently outsourced functions include: payroll, 401(k) administration, employee assistance programs, retirement planning, customer service/call centers, and product maintenance and repair.

Overtime:

A higher rate of pay (usually 1.5 times the regular base hourly rate) an employer is obligated to pay non-exempt employees who work more than forty (40) hours per week. Overtime also could be set at a higher rate and an employer’s obligation to pay overtime could arise based on a different number of hours in a day or week due to state law, policy or contractual obligations.

Paid Time Off:

Benefits by which an employee receives compensation while not working, such as vacation, sick leave, personal time, bereavement leave, jury duty leave, etc.

Performance Appraisals:

A tool managers use to provide feedback to employees by comparing actual performance with expected standards and setting goals for the next evaluation period. Written performance appraisals also are a means by which managers can document successes and shortcomings in an employee’s job performance.

Profit Sharing:

A variable pay plan, whereby an employer takes a certain percentage of its annual profits and divides the resulting pool of money among all eligible employees, using a preset formula for distribution. Employers often use profit sharing plans as a deferred compensation benefit, allowing employees to receive the payment following retirement or other departure from employment, so that their money grows tax-free and employees are not taxed on the money until they actually receive it.

Progressive Discipline:

A process for dealing with job-related behavior that does not meet expected and communicated performance standards, characterized by increasingly severe penalties.

Promotion:

The advancement of an employee from one position to another position, which has a higher salary range maximum and/or a higher reporting position and greater responsibility.

Recruiter:

An individual, who is responsible for finding and qualifying new employees for an organization, and may be an employee or an outside contractor. Outside or third party recruiters charge fees for their services in the form of either an up front payment or a company-paid percentage of the hired person's first year’s pay.

Recruiting / Recruitment:

To find and take on or hire a new employee.

Sarbanes-Oxley:

A federal law that regulates publicly traded companies and requires them to implement policies and procedures regarding corporate governance, ethics, and legal compliance, includes numerous reporting and disclosure requirements, including executive compensation.

Severance Pay:

Money that an employer provides for an employee who is leaving employment often under circumstances such as layoffs, job elimination, or a mutual agreement to part ways. Employers should offer severance benefits only in exchange for the employee signing a waiver of all rights to sue the employer. Severance pay often is calculated as a fixed payment (e.g. one week base pay) for each year of employment, and may include extended benefits and outplacement assistance as part of a total severance package.

Sexual Harassment:

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or promises of benefits in exchange for sexual favors, denial of benefits for refusing sexual favors, and other verbal, physical or electronic conduct of a sexual nature, that occurs during the course of employment.

"Quid pro quo" harassment is unwelcome sexual advances by an employer or supervisor that becomes a condition of the employee's employment or represents a threat to the employee's continued employment. A "hostile work environment" harassment claim can arise when the presence of demeaning or sexual photographs, jokes, threats, or overall atmosphere is so pervasive as to create an intimidating and offensive work environment.

Social Security:

A federal program of retirement or disability payments created by taxing employees' income.

Stock Options:

A type of deferred compensation program in which employees have the opportunity to purchase stock in the company for which they work, often at a pre-determined price.

Succession Planning:

A process whereby an organization ensures that employees are recruited and developed to fill each key role within the organization as it is vacated by the present incumbent.

Telecommuting:

A flexible work arrangement that enables an individual to work distantly from the employer all or part of the time, often from the individual’s home.

The Family and Medical Leave Act:

A federal law that requires covered employers to provide eligible employees, who have completed at least twelve (12) months of employment and meet certain minimum hours and service requirements, up to twelve (12) weeks of unpaid family or medical leave within each 12-month period. Family leave includes absences due to the birth or adoption of a child or to care for an immediate family member (parent, child, spouse) with a serious health condition; medical leave is an absence due to an employee’s own serious health condition. The FMLA applies to private employers with 50 or more employees, and to all public employers. Some states, like New Jersey, have separate family and/or medical leave statutes.

Title VII:

Part of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibits discrimination in employment on the basis of color, national origin, race, religion, and sex.

Tuition Assistance:

An employee benefit by which the employer pays all or part of an employee's cost to attend college or university classes.

360 Degree Feedback:

A method and a tool that provides each employee the opportunity to receive performance feedback from his/her supervisor and four to eight peers, reporting staff members, co-workers and customers.

Unemployment Compensation:

A government-run program, funded through employment taxes, which provides individuals with a minimal amount of income, if the employee loses his/her job involuntarily. While rules and formulas vary by state, individuals generally must be able to prove that they are actively seeking new employment, in order to remain eligible for benefits.

Variable Pay:

A compensation system used generally to recognize and reward employee contribution toward company productivity, profitability, team work, safety, quality, or some other metric deemed important. Variable pay changes depending upon the circumstances.

Whistleblower:

An individual, often an employee, who “blows the whistle” on an organization by reporting an employer's illegal or unethical actions or practices to public authorities, the news media, or a supervisor. Whistleblowers are entitled to a number of protections under state and federal law, including non-retaliation by the employer.

Work Coaching:

A method used by managers and supervisors to provide positive or constructive feedback to employees to help them continue excellent performance or identify ways to improve performance.

Workers' Compensation:

A statutorily mandated program that pays for medical treatment and provides partial salary continuation to employees who suffer an injury or illness that arises out of or is related to his/her employment. Every state requires that employers purchase workers' compensation insurance.

Zero-base Budgeting:

A process that does not use the previous year's budget or expenses in setting a new budget, because the organization’s circumstances and finances may have changed, and requires that every expense be justified.