Employee Satisfaction Score (ESS)
ESS rolls survey items into satisfaction with work, culture, and support. Track it for day-to-day experience and to validate that programs improved how people feel.
HR glossary
HR Glossary for People Leaders
Plain-language definitions for ESS, pulses, eNPS, OKRs, forensic feedback, and more, with links into Pulsewise.
Engagement & listening
Engagement, listening, and sentiment
Stable definitions let you compare quarters without changing the question. When leaders agree what each score means, prioritizing follow-up gets easier.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
NPS scores likelihood to recommend via promoters, passives, and detractors. In HR it often tracks employer brand; pair it with deeper survey constructs, not one question alone.
Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)
eNPS applies NPS-style math to employees recommending the workplace. Executives grasp it quickly, but the headline can hide nuance; add open text and pulses to learn why the score moved.
Pulse Surveys
Pulse surveys are short questionnaires on a fixed cadence, not one annual wave. They surface trends early with stable items, anonymity rules, and visible follow-up.
Employee Engagement
Engagement is motivation and emotional connection to work and the organization. Define it once, then link it to goals, recognition, managers, and psychological safety.
Feedback & performance
Feedback, reviews, and manager rituals
Multi-rater input, ratings, and check-ins all shape how people see performance. Clear terms build trust and separate formal review moments from continuous feedback channels.
360-Degree Feedback
360-degree feedback pulls peers, reports, managers, and sometimes customers on impact and behavior. It needs rater training, psychological safety, and coaching-led use of results.
Forensic Feedback
Forensic feedback parses comments across clarity, fairness, workload, and collaboration. It clarifies what happened, how severe it is, and the next accountable step.
Performance Review
Performance reviews capture results, behaviors, and growth over time, often with ratings. They work best with ongoing feedback, goals, and fair calibration across teams.
1-on-1 Meeting
1-on-1s are regular manager and report talks on priorities, blockers, growth, and feedback. Flexible agendas and notes beat drifting into status-only updates.
Calibration
Calibration aligns ratings across teams to shared standards and fair pay or promotion decisions. Use clear definitions and time to discuss edge cases, not gut feel alone.
Goals & analytics
Goals, KPIs, and people analytics
Strategy talk mixes outcomes with mechanisms like OKRs and dashboards. Shared KPI and goal definitions shorten debates and keep reporting honest across HR and finance.
OKR (Objectives and Key Results)
OKRs pair objectives with measurable key results each quarter. They align tiers without bloating tasks; strong practice adds nested visibility and honest scoring.
KPI (Key Performance Indicator)
A KPI measures progress on an outcome such as time-to-hire, regrettable attrition, or learning uptake. Keep a small stable set with owners; avoid vanity metrics that hide weak culture.
People Analytics
People analytics applies workforce data to hiring, engagement, spans, and progression. Pair clean definitions and privacy guardrails with discipline so insights drive action, not only dashboards.
Culture Analytics
Culture analytics links mood, feedback themes, recognition, and goal alignment to shifting norms. It shows whether stated culture matches how work feels, beyond headline engagement scores.
Compensation & retention
Compensation, fairness, and workforce movement
Pay and retention language sits at legal, finance, and trust. Clear definitions cut rumor and help managers explain decisions without overpromising in reviews, training, and people forums.
Compensation Planning
Compensation planning sets merit, promotions, and equity from performance and market inputs. Balance cost, internal equity, and retention with calibrated evidence, not one-off stories.
Fairness Guardrails
Fairness guardrails cut bias in ratings, promotions, and pay through distribution checks, outlier flags, and evidence for extremes. They inform human judgment; they do not replace it.
Attrition Rate
Attrition rate tracks exits over time, often annualized and split voluntary or not. Pair it with pulses and manager signals; segment by tenure and role to spot drivers like onboarding, path, or pay.
Retention Rate
Retention rate is who stays in your window, the inverse of turnover. Twelve-month hire cohorts test onboarding and fit; pair strong retention with productivity and survey signals.
Recognition
Recognition and appreciation
Recognition reinforces values and customer impact. Visible programs align behavior with goals and reviews, linking appreciation to structured people data.
Recognition
Recognition acknowledges contribution visibly, from notes to formal awards. Make it timely, specific on behavior and impact, and values-aligned so it connects to growth and fair pay talks.
Kudos
Kudos is informal peer or manager praise in chat or feeds for wins large and small. Feeds aggregate appreciation for momentum and reputation; pair public kudos with goals and private coaching.
Put these terms to work in one platform
Pulsewise combines pulse surveys, forensic feedback, kudos, nested goals, and review cycles so people leaders spend less time reconciling tools and more time supporting teams.