glossary

A  •  B  •  C  •  D   •  E  •  F   •  H  •  I  •  K  •  L  •  M  •  P  •  R  •  S  •  T  •  V  •  W

Click on the magnifying glass to see the term used in context.

360º Feedback —  A method of systematically collecting perceptions about people's performance from their employees, coworkers, customers, supervisor, and others . They use this information to identify areas where they may better apply their strengths or improve on areas of relative weakness. 

A

Action Learning — Based on the fact that people learn by doing, action learning is a process by which a group of participants who share common interests and goals examine possible courses of action for problem solving to determine feasible alternative action plans or possible improvements to existing action plans.  

Assessment—  A process by which employees use a variety of tools to identify an appropriate job match and discover developmental needs. 

B

Brain writing — A method to collaborate on a problem or issue when a conflict is anticipated.  This method is an effective way to gather ideas and opinions in a non-threatening manner.  

Brainstorming — A group problem-solving method that allows ideas to flow (or be presented).  Brainstorming allows all ideas to be presented, considered and built on.  Care is taken not to criticize any idea ("anything goes") so that group members feel free to offer unusual and atypical ideas.   

C

Career Development — The process, by which employees assess their existing skills, knowledge, abilities, and interests, explore career opportunities and organizational needs, and create career plans.  

Career Paths —  A system of planned, logical progression of jobs within occupations or professions, detailing necessary knowledge, skills and abilities requirements. The process also can include a system that informs employees of available jobs that can lead to obtaining the desired career.  

Career Plan —  A written roadmap that takes an employee from choosing a career strategy to achieving a career goal.  

Career Planning — A multi-step process that helps employees learn about strengths, weaknesses and interests; determine which career path to take; and develop plans that will allow them to reach their goals.  

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Coaching — Seizing opportunities to help employees learn in their jobs and grow in their careers.  Coaching usually involves observing employees when they are puzzling over problems or wrestling with decisions.  The supervisor-as-coach does not do the task or solve the problem, but helps the employees discover solutions.  

Community of Practice (CoP) — A group of individuals with a common working practice or interest (such as engineering, metrics and analysis, marketing, communications, budgeting and finance, etc.) who share ideas, but who are not organized as a structured formal work team.  CoPs generally cut across traditional organizational (and/or agency) boundaries and enable individuals to acquire knowledge that otherwise may not be readily available.  

Competencies — The knowledge, skills, abilities and other attributes that employees need to apply in order to perform their jobs effectively and to deliver the expected results.  

Corrective action plan — A short-term action plan that is initiated when an employee's performance fails to meet expectations.  Its purpose is to achieve an improvement in performance.  

Critical Talent — An employee in a role/position within the organization identified as a "key position/role" and who possesses knowledge and/or skills that are unique and crucial to the success of the unit/organization.  

Culture of recognition – The integration of employee recognition into an organization's day-to-day work environment to positively reinforce behavior that is consistent with the organization's goals and values.  

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D

Diversity Management — A combination of programs, policies and activities that create and sustain an environment in which employee differences are valued and constructively used. Effective diversity management develops and promotes culturally diverse employees, enabling managers to capitalize on the ideas and skills employees bring to the organization.  

E

Employee Engagement — The extent to which employees are passionate and excited about their work and consistently strive to deliver quality results.  

Employment Value Proposition — The set of attributes that employees and the labor market perceive as the value they gain through joining the organization and committing themselves to contributing to its mission long term. Examples of such attributes include the respect accorded to employees, how well job requirements align with employee interests, and the quality of management.

Equal Employment Opportunity —  Programs and practices designed to ensure fairness in all employment processes and prohibit discrimination based on race, sex, color, religion, national origin, age or disabling condition.  

Executive Coaching — Typically a custom-built, one-on-one developmental experience for mid- to senior-level executives. Coaches help executives expand self-awareness, identify developmental needs, create a workable plan to improve performance, and measure growth against desired goals.  

Exit Interview — A method for capturing feedback from employees who have left the organization.  Will typically include questions regarding the job the employee held, the work environment and the organization.  The information gained is used to identify the reasons that high performers are leaving and to improve the organization's ability to retain valuable employees.  

Explicit Knowledge — Information (manuals, standardized procedures, documents) that can easily be articulated, standardized, shared independently of its human source, or stored in systems or processes.   

F

Fairness (in Performance Appraisals) — Appraising employee performance in a way that accurately reflects the results they achieved relative to the expectations defined in their work plans, and in a manner that is not influenced by factors irrelevant to performance.  

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H

High Potential Employees – Employees who are perceived to be likely future leaders in the organization. Potential is assessed according to employees' ability, engagement, and aspiration.   (Work Environment)    (Knowledge Transfer)

I

Individual Development plan – An action plan for building employees' skills so that they can become more effective in their current jobs, get ready to take on greater responsibilities, or prepare to move into other positions.  

Involuntary Separation — Intentional termination of an employee by the organization due to unsatisfactory performance or personal misconduct.

K

Key Position — A position that is unique in the organization and has significant influence on performance outcomes.

Knowledge Capture — A method for capturing important information and making it readily available within a community of practice.

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L

Leadership — The process by which an individual determines direction, influences a group and directs it toward a specific goal or organizational mission.  

Leader Development — Building leadership skills at all levels of the organization while assuring that there are people being developed today who will be prepared to step into leadership roles to meet the challenges of tomorrow. 

Learning History — A method of obtaining tacit knowledge through reflective interviews with employees who have knowledge that needs to be retained in the organization to ensure that knowledge is shared.  

Locator of Expertise — A directory of experts in the organization. (Also known as the "Corporate Yellow Pages.")

M

Mentee — One who receives coaching, teaching and guidance from a mentor.

Mentor — An exemplary performer who coaches, teaches, guides and serves as a positive role model for an employee - the mentee.

Mentoring — A professional relationship in which an employee with greater experience, expertise, and knowledge coaches, teaches and guides another employee so that he/she can develop professionally or learn new skills.

Mentoring Program Manager — Employee assigned to structure, implement and evaluate a formal mentoring program.

Metrics — An indicator of a how effectively a program or process is performing. A metric is an objective measure and a value (or range of values) on that measure, representing the performance level required.

P

Performance appraisal — A confidential document that records the employee's performance expectations, a summary of the employee's actual performance results relative to those expectations, an overall rating of the employee's performance, and the supervisor's and employee's signatures.

Performance Culture — A performance culture, rather than evolving over time in a spontaneous manner, is consciously planned and developed through deliberate actions to maximize productivity. Barriers to to meeting or exceeding performance expectations are either eliminated or minimized.

Performance Documentation — A letter, memo, completed form or note on which the supervisor indicates the extent to which the employee is currently meeting expectations and provides evidence to support that conclusion.

Performance Management — A management process for ensuring employees are focusing their work efforts in ways that contribute to achieving the organization's mission.  It consists of three phases: (a) setting performance expectations for the employee, (b) maintaining a dialogue between supervisor and employee to keep performance on track, and (c) measuring the employee's actual performance relative to performance expectations.

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R

Recognition — A display of appreciation given in return for a desired service, behavior, or goal attainment.

Retention — The percentage of employees an organization is able to keep. It is the (positive) flip side of "turnover."

Rewards — Something (usually tangible, often monetary) given in return for a desired service, behavior or goal attainment.

S

Special Interest Programs & Networks — Career-based awareness systems that provide support resources for managers and employees.

Succession Planning — A systematic process to identify key and hard-to-recruit positions, identify the critical competencies that employees in those positions possess, and prepare for their replacement to ensure the continued ability of an organization to meet its strategic goals and supporting objectives.

T

Tacit Knowledge — Personal "know-how" that is difficult to articulate and interpret because it is derived from individual experience and beliefs.

Talent Pool — The combination of potential and current employees whose past performance, aptitude, abilities, knowledge, skills and desire for successful contribution aligns with an organization's mission and workforce planning goals. These potential and current employees - from team members to managerial — may be recruited and developed to maximize an organization's performance, retention, knowledge management and succession planning achievements.

Total rewards — The total monetary and non-monetary returns provided to employees in exchange for their time, talents, efforts and results. An organization may provide individualized total rewards statements that show employees the total monetary value of their base pay, variable pay and fringe benefits.

Total rewards statement– an annual accounting of the total monetary value of an employee's base pay, variable pay and fringe benefits.

Turnover — The attrition of employees through voluntary and involuntary separations from the organization.

Turnover Cost — The direct and indirect cost to replace an employee who left the organization; usually averages 1½ times the cost of the former employee's salary, and includes separation, replacement, advertising, and lowered staff morale costs associated with the vacancy.

V

Virtual Library —   A collection of career exploration resources including reference materials, helping tools, training sites and special interest program information.

Voluntary Separation — A form of turnover in which employees decide to leave the organization.  Examples of voluntary separation include pursuit of other career opportunities, returning to school, spouse relocation, or dissatisfaction with working conditions to name a few.

W

Work Environment — The processes, systems, structures, tools or conditions in the workplace that impact (favorably or unfavorably) on performance.

Work plan — A document that describes the work to be completed by an employee within the performance cycle, the performance results expected, and how the performance will be measured.

Workforce Planning — The strategic alignment of an organization's human capital with its business direction.  The on-going process of analyzing the current workforce, determining future workforce needs, identifying the gap between the present and the future, and implementing strategies to enable an organization to accomplish its mission, goals, and objectives.