HR Glossary

A straightforward guide to employment, payroll, and compliance terminology relevant to hiring in South Africa. Whether you’re using an Employer of Record or expanding your team locally, this glossary helps demystify the language behind workforce management.

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13th Month Pay 360 Degree Survey 1099 Employee

A

Absence Management Absence Rate After-tax Deduction

Agent of Record Applicant Tracking System (ATS)Automated Payroll

B

Back Pay Base Pay Biweekly Pay Boomerang Employee Burnout

C

Cloud-based HR Software Common-law Employee Compa Ratio

Compassionate Leave Compensation Package Compensatory Time

D

Decentralised Payroll Deferred Compensation DEI Training

DEIB Digital Nomad Digital Nomad Visa Digital Presenteeism

Disregarded Entity Distributed Workforce

E

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)Employee Turnover Employee Centricity

Employee Engagement Employee Grievance Employee Lifetime Value (ELTV)

Employee Misclassification Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)

Employee Retention Strategy Employee Self Service (ESS)

Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)Employee Value Proposition (EVP)

Employment Contract eNPS Equity Joint Ventures Equity Compensation

Exercising Stock Options Employer of Record (EOR)

F

Flexible Working Arrangements
Floating Holiday Foreign Subsidiary

Fringe Benefits
Full-time Employee

G

Garden Leave
Geographical Discrimination
Global Employment Solution

Global Payroll
Global Contractor
Global Salary Benchmarking

H

HR Management Software
HRIS
Human Capital Management

Hybrid Work

I

Imputed Income
Incentive-based Compensation
Independent Contractor

Induction
International Employment Law
International Tax Compliance

J

Job Description
Joint Venture

K

L

Labour Cost
Labour Laws
Location-agnostic Pay

M

Mission-driven Company

N

Non-compete Agreement
Nondisclosure Agreement (NDA)
Nonlinear Workday

Notice Period

O

Occupational Maternity Pay (OMP)
Offboarding
Offshoring
Overseas Entity

P

Paid Holidays
Paid Time Off
Partially Owned Subsidiary
Payroll

Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) Contractor
Payroll Accounting
Payroll Outsourcing

Payroll Provider
Payroll System
Payslip
Post-tax Deduction

Pre-tax Deductions
Probation Period
Professional Employer Organisation (PEO)

Profit Sharing
Proximity Bias

Q

Qualifying Life Event
Quiet Quitting

R

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)
Reduction in Force
Remote Work

Remote Hiring Solution
Remote Work Policy
Remote-first Company

Restricted Stock Units
Retroactive Pay

S

Salaried Employee
Salary Range
Staff Augmentation
Statutory Employee

Stipend
Stock Grant
Synchronous Communication

T

Talent Acquisition
Talent Mobility
Tax Identification Number

Tax Residency
Telecommuting
Time to Hire
Time-off Request Form

Total Rewards
Total Compensation
Total Compensation Statement

Tuition Reimbursement

U

Unfair Dismissal

V

Variable Pay
Virtual Employee
Virtual Stock Option Plans (VSOP)

Virtual Water Cooler
Volunteer Time Off

W

Wholly Owned Subsidiary
Work From Anywhere (WFA)
Work From Home Stipend

Working From Home

X

Y

Z

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