HR glossary of terminology

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Human Resources Glossary - H

Health Maintenance Organization (HMO)

A network health insurance plan which provides health services via a network of physicians for a monthly or annual fee.

Health Reimbursement Account (HRA)

This is a tax-advantaged health plan that employers use to reimburse employees for particular approved dental and medical expenses.

Health Savings Account (HSA)

A type of savings account for individuals with high-deductible health plans to save for medical expenses that aren't covered by those plans.

High Potential (HIPO) Employees

These are employees with the potential ability and motivation to rise to a senior level within a company and succeed once they get there.

Holiday Accrual

This refers to the accumulated paid holiday leave of an employee on a monthly basis 

Holiday Pay

This refers to the alternative compensation an employer gives employees during holiday that may be a fully or partially paid time off a bonus or additional hourly pay for work performed on a holiday.

Holiday Request Form

Also called an annual leave form or a holiday form. Employees fill one out when they want to use some of their annual leave.

Hourly Employee

An employee paid a set amount for the actual hours they work.

Hourly to Annual Salary

Calculated based on the product of the hourly salary multiplied by the number of hours worked each week multiplied by 52 weeks each year.

Hourly to Salary

A conversion used to calculate how much an employee’s salary would be based on their hourly pay by adding up the number of hours an employee works in a year and multiplying it by their hourly wage.

Hourly to Yearly

This refers to how much an employee who is paid hourly would earn under an equivalent annual salary.

Hours Worked

This refers to the basis of Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) wages determined by the actual number of hours an employee works. 

HR Business Partner

An experienced HR professional who works directly with a company's senior leadership to direct and create an HR agenda that closely supports organizational targets and goals.

HR Dashboards

This tracks and reports on HR-related metrics shown using graphs charts or lists based on how the business is performing. 

HR KPIs

This term refers to key performance indicators based on human resource metrics which HR teams use to track how successfully they are helping their organization implement its strategy. 

HR Portals

An internal gateway designed to help employees find organizational information including documentation and employee data headcount absences and even birthdays across the company.

HR Processes

These are made up of HR core tasks including scheduling recruitment payroll benefits internal relations training and compliance amongst others.

HR Service Delivery

This refers to the function within a company serving as a support channel for employees who have questions and requests. 

HR Software

A digital solution for organizing and optimizing the daily HR tasks and goals helping HR staff and leaders to better use their time and resources for more productive profitable efforts.

HR Strategy

This refers to a document or a plan the HR or People Team put together to align the objectives of the HR department with the goals of the business in order to formulate a system and concrete set of measures to realize those goals.

HSA Contribution Limits

This refers to the maximum dollar amount an individual is allowed to contribute each year to a health savings account (HSA).

HSA Reimbursement

A concept of using money from a health savings account to repay qualified medical expenses that were made out of pocket usually because the total expense exceeds the amount in the account at that particular time.

Human Capital Management (HCM)

This refers to the methods an organization implements in recruiting managing developing and optimizing employees to improve their value to the company.

Human Resource Audit

An objective evaluation an organization’s HR department undergoes to determine the legality adequacy and effectiveness of their policies processes and systems documentation and performance

Human Resources Information System (HRIS)

A software solution for HR to organize all employee information like name address social security number birthdate employment status. A HRIS also allows HR to easily view data and share it with others.

Human Resources Management System (HRMS)

A digital personal assistant that helps HR manage employee functions including calculating and communicating time-off onboarding paperwork and managing employee performance.

Hybrid Recruiting

This refers to the blend of in-person and online recruitment processes.

Hybrid Workplace Model

A flexible work environment where an employee can spend some days of the week working remotely and the other days in the office.