Domain Context & Glossary
The vocabulary you must speak fluently — Workday, ATS, payroll, leaves, privacy. The terms every interviewer assumes you know cold. Skim once; revisit before each round.
HR systems vocabulary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| HRIS | Human Resource Information System — the system of record for worker data. Workday, BambooHR, ADP Workforce Now, SAP SuccessFactors. |
| HCM | Human Capital Management — broader category that includes HRIS plus talent, comp, learning. |
| ATS | Applicant Tracking System — recruiting pipeline software. Ashby, Greenhouse, Lever, Workday Recruiting, iCIMS. |
| HCM suite | End-to-end platform: HRIS + Talent + Comp + Learning + Recruiting. Workday is the canonical example. |
| Payroll provider | Distinct from HRIS, often. ADP, Deel, Remote, Workday Payroll, local providers per country. |
| EOR | Employer of Record — third party that legally employs workers in countries where the parent company doesn't have an entity. Deel, Remote, Velocity Global, Globalization Partners. |
| PEO | Professional Employer Organization — US co-employment model. ADP TotalSource, Insperity. |
| IDP | Identity Provider — Okta, Azure AD, Jumpcloud. Source of truth for SSO and access provisioning. |
| HRBP | HR Business Partner — strategic HR support to a function or leader. Decisions, not transactions. |
| People Ops / HRKX | The team that runs operations — tickets, transactions, system administration. |
| TA / Recruiting | Talent Acquisition — separate org, owns hiring funnel. |
Workday terms — must-know
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Worker | Unified identity object. Employee or Contingent Worker subtype. |
| Employee ID | Public-facing worker identifier. Used in external comms. |
| Worker ID | Internal Workday identifier, often prefixed (e.g. W-12345). |
| Position | A specific slot in the org — has a position ID, lives in a sup org, can be filled by one Worker. |
| Job Profile | Template for a kind of job — title, grade, FLSA, comp range. Many workers can share one profile. |
| Job (Position Assignment) | The instance — worker filling a position with a job profile at an effective date. |
| Supervisory Organization (sup org) | Org chart node. Has a manager, parent sup org, contains positions/workers. |
| Business Process (BP) | Workflow — Hire, Terminate, Job Change, Comp Change. Configurable, with routing, conditions, sub-processes. |
| EIB | Enterprise Interface Builder — bulk integration tool. Inbound (spreadsheet upload to update records) or outbound (scheduled extract). |
| Calculated Field | Derived value defined in Workday metadata; evaluated in reports, integrations, and BP conditions. |
| Condition Rule | Boolean expression that skips, branches, or routes BP steps. |
| Studio | Workday's integration ETL tool — visual transformation pipelines for complex outbound integrations. |
| Core Connector | Pre-built outbound integration templates — Benefits, Compensation, Payroll, etc. |
| RaaS | Reports as a Service — expose a custom report as a web-service endpoint. |
| Prism Analytics | Workday's data-lake extension; ingest external data, blend with Workday, expose for reporting. |
| Extend | Build custom apps inside the Workday tenant. |
| Tenant | A Workday environment instance — Production, Sandbox, Implementation, Sandbox Preview. |
| ISU | Integration System User — service account for programmatic access. |
| Effective Date | When a change is in force in business terms. The defining feature of Workday's data model. |
| Change Date / Entered Date | When the change was recorded in the system. Often != effective date (retro or future-dated). |
| Position Management vs Job Management | Two configurations — Position Management uses explicit position objects; Job Management uses worker-based positions only. Most mature tenants use Position Management. |
Ashby / ATS terms
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Job | An open requisition / role at the company. |
| REQ / Requisition | The internal opening, with budget and approval chain. May map 1:1 to a Job in Ashby. |
| Candidate | A person known to Ashby; may apply to multiple Jobs. |
| Application | A candidate's interest in a specific Job. The unit most events attach to. |
| Stage | Step in the hiring pipeline — Sourced, Screen, Onsite, Offer, Hired, Rejected. |
| Pipeline | The full configured set of stages for a job. |
| Offer | Compensation package extended to a candidate; lifecycle: Drafted → Approved → Sent → Accepted / Declined. |
| Source | How the candidate entered the pipeline — LinkedIn, referral, inbound. |
| Scorecard | Interviewer's structured assessment after an interview. |
| Hiring Plan | The Jobs / headcount budgeted for a function or period. |
Org concepts
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Cost Center | Finance dimension — where the worker's costs are allocated. Often shared across org changes. |
| FTE | Full-Time Equivalent — 1.0 for full-time, 0.5 for half-time, etc. |
| IC vs M / People Manager | Individual Contributor vs Manager. Some companies have a parallel IC track at every level. |
| Band / Level / Grade | Career-level designation tied to job profile and comp range. P1-P7, M1-M5, etc. |
| Span of Control | Number of direct reports. |
| Skip-level | Two layers up; "your skip-level" is your manager's manager. |
| Dotted line | Informal reporting relationship, in addition to the solid-line manager. |
| Region | Geographical grouping — AMER, EMEA, APAC. |
| Headcount Plan | Finance-approved budget for FTEs by org / function / period. |
Compensation
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Base salary | Fixed annual or monthly pay. |
| Variable / Bonus | Annual cash bonus, often performance-tied; may be Target % of base. |
| Sign-on bonus | One-time at hire; often with clawback if exit before X months. |
| Equity | Stock options, RSUs, or other equity grants. Vesting schedule. |
| RSU | Restricted Stock Unit — shares granted, vest over time. |
| OTE | On-Target Earnings — base + expected variable at 100% achievement. |
| R-comp / Refresh comp | Equity refresh grant, typically annual. |
| Comp band | Salary range for a given level / role / geo. |
| Comp ratio | Worker's salary / band midpoint. 1.0 is "at midpoint." |
| Merit increase | Annual performance-based base raise. |
| Promotion increase | Raise upon promotion, distinct from merit. |
| Geo differential / locality pay | Band adjustment by location. |
| Severance | Payment at termination, often jurisdictional minimum + company policy. |
Worker states & transitions
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Active | Currently employed, not on leave. |
| On Leave | Employed but on leave-of-absence (LOA). |
| Terminated | No longer employed. Has a termination date. |
| Rehired | Previously terminated, hired again. Same Worker ID (in Workday). |
| Hire | BP that creates a new Worker. |
| Onboarding | Period between offer accept and start date, or first 30-90 days. |
| Offboarding | Termination process — checklist, knowledge transfer, access revocation, final pay. |
| Job Change | BP for promotion, lateral, transfer, FTE change. |
| Internal Mobility | Worker moves to a new role / team / country internally. |
| Conversion | Worker type change — contingent ↔ employee. |
| RTO | Return to Office — RTO mandates / hybrid policy. |
Payroll & tax
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Payroll cycle / frequency | Weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, monthly. |
| Cutoff / Lock | Deadline after which payroll inputs are frozen for a cycle. |
| Pay date | When workers are paid for a cycle. |
| Retro / Retroactive | A change effective in a prior period; creates retro pay. |
| Garnishment | Court-ordered deduction (child support, tax levy). |
| I-9 | US employment eligibility verification form. Section 1 by employee day 1; Section 2 within 3 days. |
| W-2 / 1099 | US tax forms — W-2 for employees, 1099 for contractors. |
| W-4 | US employee tax withholding selection. |
| P45 / P60 | UK end-of-employment / annual tax forms. |
| Payroll deductions | Taxes, benefits, retirement, garnishments. |
| Imputed income | Non-cash benefit value that's taxable (e.g. group-term life over threshold). |
| Final pay | Last paycheck on termination — includes PTO payout, prorated bonus, deductions. |
Leaves & absences
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| PTO | Paid Time Off — vacation, often a single pooled balance. |
| Sick leave | Separate pool in some jurisdictions; statutory in others. |
| LOA | Leave of Absence — formal extended leave, paid or unpaid. |
| FMLA | US Family and Medical Leave Act — 12 weeks unpaid, job-protected. |
| Parental leave | Maternity / paternity / adoption — wildly varies by country. |
| Statutory minimums | Legal minimum leave per country (e.g. 28 days UK annual leave). |
| Accrual | Rate at which leave balance grows (e.g. 1.5 days/month). |
| Carryover | Unused balance that rolls into next period; sometimes capped. |
| Sabbatical | Long-tenure leave benefit (often unpaid or partial). |
Privacy & compliance
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| PII | Personally Identifiable Information. |
| Sensitive PI | Subset with extra protection — health, race, religion, biometrics, sexual orientation, govt IDs. |
| GDPR | EU General Data Protection Regulation. |
| UK GDPR | Post-Brexit UK version, currently similar to EU GDPR but diverging. |
| DSAR | Data Subject Access Request — individual's right to know what data you hold. |
| RTBF / Right to Erasure | Right to deletion; limited in employment context by retention obligations. |
| SCCs | Standard Contractual Clauses — mechanism for EU → non-EU data transfer. |
| DPA | Data Processing Agreement — contract between controller and processor. |
| BCRs | Binding Corporate Rules — intra-group transfer mechanism. |
| Controller / Processor | Controller decides purpose; Processor processes on behalf. |
| CCPA / CPRA | California Consumer / Privacy Rights Acts — employee data in scope since 2023. |
| BIPA | Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act — strict biometric handling. |
| PDPA | Personal Data Protection Act — Singapore (and similarly named acts elsewhere). |
| APPI | Japan Act on the Protection of Personal Information. |
| DPDP Act | India Digital Personal Data Protection Act (2023). |
APAC nuance worth knowing
- Singapore — MOM (Ministry of Manpower) governs employment; CPF (Central Provident Fund) is statutory contribution. PDPA for privacy.
- Japan — strict labor law; termination is difficult; APPI for privacy. Bonus expectations (summer/winter) are normalized.
- Australia — Fair Work Act governs; superannuation is statutory; Australia Privacy Act has APP framework.
- India — gratuity, EPF, ESIC — statutory contributions; DPDP Act recent; CTC (Cost to Company) is the dominant comp framing.
- Hong Kong / China / Taiwan — each different. Don't conflate.
- Korea — severance is statutory and substantial after 1 year tenure.
In interview: "I know there's significant variation across APAC; I'd partner with country-specific People and Legal on the rules. Globally I default to 'flag and ask,' not 'extrapolate from US/EU.'"
Abbreviations cheat sheet
| Abbr | Expansion |
|---|---|
| ATS | Applicant Tracking System |
| BIPA | Biometric Information Privacy Act (Illinois) |
| BP | Business Process (Workday) |
| CCPA / CPRA | California Consumer Privacy Act / Rights Act |
| DEI | Diversity, Equity, Inclusion |
| DSAR | Data Subject Access Request |
| EIB | Enterprise Interface Builder (Workday) |
| EOR | Employer of Record |
| FLSA | Fair Labor Standards Act (US) |
| FMLA | Family and Medical Leave Act (US) |
| FTE | Full-Time Equivalent |
| GDPR | General Data Protection Regulation |
| HCM | Human Capital Management |
| HRBP | HR Business Partner |
| HRIS | Human Resource Information System |
| HRKX | HR Knowledge Exchange (People Ops) |
| I-9 | US employment eligibility form |
| IC | Individual Contributor |
| ISU | Integration System User (Workday) |
| LOA | Leave of Absence |
| MCP | Model Context Protocol |
| OTE | On-Target Earnings |
| PII | Personally Identifiable Information |
| PTO | Paid Time Off |
| RaaS | Reports as a Service (Workday) |
| REQ | Requisition |
| RSU | Restricted Stock Unit |
| RTO | Return to Office |
| SCC | Standard Contractual Clauses (GDPR transfer) |
| SCIM | System for Cross-domain Identity Management |
| TA | Talent Acquisition |