140+ terms, from sourcing to retention, explained in plain language with links to the skaills tools that put them into practice.
140 results
When a selection requirement or method, though neutral on its face, disproportionately affects a protected group — for example, by gender, age or disability. It is detected by comparing selection rates across groups, not by examining individual cases.
How ready a person, team or organization is to adopt AI tools effectively and responsibly — infrastructure, skills, governance and culture. It is assessed with specific instruments, not simply assumed from AI tool usage.
skaills' AI-Readiness Assessment measures this maturity at both the individual and organizational level.When an automated system — résumé filter, scoring model — reproduces or amplifies discrimination patterns present in the data it was trained on. It requires periodic audits and human review of the decisions it assists.
Software that centralizes job requisitions, applications and candidate communication in one workflow. It filters résumés by keyword, moves people through process stages, and leaves an auditable trail of every decision.
skaills works as the process ATS: campaigns, candidate pipeline and assessments live in one place.A one-or-more-day evaluation process with multiple candidates and assessors, combining tests, group exercises, simulations and interviews. It is mostly used for leadership roles or graduate programs.
Similar to turnover, but often refers specifically to departures that are not replaced, as part of a natural headcount reduction rather than active layoffs. Usage varies between organizations, so it is worth defining explicitly when reporting it.
Confirming information the candidate provided — identity, education, judicial record where legally applicable — before formalizing an offer. It should be limited to what is job-relevant and comply with local privacy law.
An interview style that asks for concrete examples of past behavior — "tell me about a time when…" — on the premise that past behavior predicts future behavior. It is often structured with the STAR method: situation, task, action, result.
The personality model with the strongest academic research backing, describing people across five dimensions: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and emotional stability (OCEAN). Its results are continuous, not fixed type categories.
Removing details such as name, photo or age from résumés or assessments before the initial review, to reduce unconscious bias. It pairs well with skills tests that evaluate performance rather than identity.
Using operators such as AND, OR and NOT to combine terms and narrow results when searching for candidates on LinkedIn, databases or search engines. It turns thousands of profiles into a manageable list.
Someone who leaves the organization and later returns, sometimes years later, bringing new skills and without the learning curve of an external candidate. Maintaining a good relationship at the time of departure is what makes this return possible.
A state of physical and emotional exhaustion caused by chronic, sustained work stress, recognized by the WHO as an occupational phenomenon. It shows up as cynicism, reduced efficacy and disengagement, and often precedes turnover.
How a person experiences the entire application process, from seeing the posting to hearing back, whether or not they get the job. A poor experience damages the employer brand even when the hire itself goes well.
A semi-fictional representation of the ideal candidate for a role — their motivations, where they look for jobs, and what matters to them when deciding. It helps write sharper job posts and sourcing messages.
The operational view of every active candidate for a specific opening, organized by the process stage each one is in today. Unlike a talent pipeline, it looks at one specific position, not the general future.
skaills' candidates board shows the pipeline by stage, with assessment scores visible on each card.The practice and tools for staying in touch with candidates over time, even when there is no open role for them right now. It turns unsuccessful processes into future opportunities.
The formal sequence of levels and titles within a single function — for example, analyst, senior analyst, team lead — that defines vertical progression. It differs from career pathing, which also considers lateral moves between functions.
Designing and communicating possible growth trajectories within the organization, so an employee sees a future there instead of looking outside for one. It rests on job architecture and skills adjacency.
The set of practices for helping people and teams move through a transformation — technological, structural, cultural — while minimizing resistance and lost productivity. Transparent communication and early involvement are its two most consistent levers.
An instrument that measures how employees perceive the work environment across dimensions like leadership, communication, recognition and working conditions. Run anonymously and periodically, it allows trends to be compared across departments and over time.
An assessment of numerical, verbal and abstract reasoning that measures the capacity to learn and solve new problems, not acquired knowledge. It is one of the most consistent predictors of job performance in personnel-selection research.
The HR discipline dedicated to designing salary, bonuses, benefits and internal equity, so they are externally competitive and internally fair. It is both an administrative function and an attraction and retention tool.
Comparing what an organization pays against the market, using salary survey data, for equivalent roles. It prevents misaligned offers that lose candidates or unnecessarily inflate costs.
An observable combination of knowledge, skill and behavior that predicts performance in a role — for example, "customer orientation" or "analytical thinking". Unlike a personality trait, a competency can be developed and assessed with concrete evidence.
skaills' 140+ evaluation profiles are built around competencies specific to each sector and level.The structured set of competencies an organization expects from a role or level, with defined proficiency levels for each one. It brings consistency to hiring, performance review and development.
A system of frequent, informal feedback between manager and employee, rather than relying solely on the annual review. It course-corrects while it is still easy to do so.
When a candidate's current employer improves their terms to retain them after the person announces their resignation or receives another offer. Accepting it solves the immediate problem, but rarely fixes the underlying reason they were looking to leave.
"Culture fit" assesses how well someone aligns with the existing culture; "culture add" instead asks what new, valuable perspective that person would bring. The second framing prevents "fit" from becoming an excuse to homogenize the team.
An approach to people management that grounds decisions — hiring, compensation, development — in measurable evidence, rather than tradition or intuition alone. It does not replace human judgment; it informs it.
A change to the selection process or the job itself — extra time on a test, an accessible format, adapted equipment — so a person with a disability has a fair opportunity, without altering what the role actually requires.
A behavioral model that places a person across four styles — Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, Conscientiousness — most useful for understanding communication and teamwork style. It is more practical than predictive, and works best paired with aptitude testing.
A set of practices aimed at representing different groups (diversity), giving fair access to opportunity (equity), and making everyone feel valued (inclusion) within the organization. It differs from a quota: it seeks to remove barriers, not impose outcomes.
The set of stages a person moves through within an organization, from recruitment and onboarding through development, retention and offboarding. Each stage shapes the perception of the ones that follow.
A single-question metric — "how likely are you to recommend this organization as a place to work?" — used as a fast, comparable pulse of employee sentiment over time.
A scheme that incentivizes current employees to recommend candidates, often with a bonus if the person is hired and stays for a set period. It tends to produce faster hires with better retention.
What an organization offers in exchange for a person's work, beyond salary: purpose, development, flexibility, community. It is the core promise behind the employer brand.
An organization's reputation as a place to work, as perceived by candidates and current employees. It is built from real experience, not just advertising.
A third party that legally employs a worker on behalf of another company, handling payroll, taxes and local labor compliance. It allows hiring in a country without opening a legal entity there.
A periodic questionnaire measuring how connected and motivated employees feel toward their work and the organization. Unlike a climate survey, it focuses specifically on energy and commitment, not the overall environment.
The principle and legal framework prohibiting employment discrimination based on characteristics such as race, gender, age, religion, marital status or disability. In most legislation, including the Dominican Labour Code, these characteristics are not valid selection criteria.
The European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations classification, maintained by the European Commission. It links occupations to the specific skills they require, across multiple languages.
An opening that stays permanently posted because the role has constant turnover or high demand, such as sales or cashier positions. It feeds a candidate pool that is ready when the real need arises.
Headhunting specialized in senior leadership roles — C-level, VPs, general management — where the cost of a bad hire is especially high. It typically includes thorough reference checks and a strategic-fit assessment.
A structured conversation with a departing employee to understand the real reasons behind their exit. Aggregate patterns across many, rather than a single case, are what reveal systemic problems.
Comparing a candidate's profile against a role's requirements to explicitly and documentedly identify what matches and what is missing. It is the technical basis behind any fit score.
Any arrangement that departs from the traditional fixed office schedule — compressed hours, staggered shifts, a four-day week — to give employees more control over when and where they work.
A model where a single recruiter owns a requisition from opening to onboarding, rather than splitting each stage among specialists. It works well in small teams or highly specialized roles.
When a candidate or an employer cuts off all communication without explanation, at any point in the process. It has become common in high-turnover markets and often signals a process that was too slow or too opaque.
The labor market made up of independent, freelance or project-based work, rather than traditional full-time employment. It changes HR's relationship with the people contributing work without being formal employees.
When a single positive (halo) or negative (horn) impression — a good joke, an awkward handshake — colors the entire subsequent evaluation of a candidate, unrelated to the actual competencies for the role. A structured interview with a rubric is the most effective defense.
Projecting how many people, in which roles and with what budget, an organization will need in a future period. It directly connects business strategy to the hiring plan.
A direct, confidential search for a specific person for a high-impact role, usually without posting the opening. It is used for senior positions or roles too hard to fill through conventional sourcing.
An employee identified for their capacity to take on significantly greater responsibility in the future, not just for strong current performance. High performance and high potential are distinct assessments, even though they are often conflated.
The person who will manage the new employee and makes the final hiring decision, distinct from the recruiter who runs the process. Their clarity about what the role truly needs is decisive for the quality of the hire.
How quickly an organization moves candidates from one stage to the next, distinct from total time-to-hire. Low velocity at a single stage is often the root cause of an overall slow process.
An HR professional assigned to a specific business unit, combining people expertise with deep understanding of that area to advise its leaders. They act as a bridge between business strategy and HR practice.
The central platform that stores and manages employee data: contracts, payroll, absences, role history. It is the source of truth that people analytics rests on.
The economic value contributed by the skills, knowledge and collective experience of an organization's people. It frames people as an investment to be developed, not just a cost to be managed.
A model combining in-office and remote work days, usually with explicit rules about which days and for what purpose people are in the office. Its success depends more on policy clarity than on the exact day split.
Writing job posts without terms that, unintentionally, discourage certain groups from applying — such as gendered jargon, excessive corporate-speak, or inflated requirement lists. It widens the pool of qualified applicants.
The initial phase, typically the first days, within onboarding, focused on orienting people to policies, tools and organizational culture. It is the first slice of a broader onboarding, not a synonym for it.
The practice of filling openings or projects with employees already inside the organization, rather than hiring only from outside. It is typically faster, cheaper and produces better retention than external hiring.
A shared rubric that defines, before interviewing, which competencies are being assessed and what counts as a strong answer for each. It turns subjective impressions into scores that are comparable across candidates and interviewers.
skaills' evaluation results work as a standardized scorecard by competency and profile.The International Standard Classification of Occupations, 2008 revision, published by the International Labour Organization. It groups thousands of occupations into a common hierarchy, enabling roles and labor data to be compared across countries.
skaills' profiles and certificates are cross-referenced with ISCO-08 codes to give standardized occupational context.The system that organizes every role in an organization into families, levels and bands, consistently across departments. It is the technical foundation on which pay equity and career paths are built.
The internal document detailing responsibilities, reporting line, required competencies and conditions for a role. It underpins both the published job ad and later performance evaluation.
The systematic method for determining a role's relative value within the organization, based on factors like responsibility, complexity and impact. It is distinct from performance evaluation: it values the role, not the person occupying it.
How well a person's competencies, personality and preferences match what a specific role demands. It is calculated by weighting several dimensions — not a single number, but a match profile.
skaills' job-fit engine combines assessment results with profile requirements to produce a multi-dimensional match score.The public announcement of an opening — role, requirements and conditions — designed to attract the right people and discourage those who are not a fit. The language it uses directly shapes who applies.
Positions posted by organizations in skaills appear on the public job board.The formal, internal request to open a position, with budget, profile and the approvals needed before it can be posted. It is the administrative starting point of the entire hiring process.
When a person closely follows an employee through their actual workday to understand a role before applying, or as part of onboarding. It gives a more honest picture of the job than any written description.
A quantifiable metric deliberately chosen to reflect whether progress is being made toward a specific goal. In HR, typical examples include time-to-hire, turnover, and offer acceptance rate.
A yes-or-no requirement — legal age, driving license, shift availability — that automatically screens out anyone who does not meet it, regardless of the rest of their profile. It should be limited to genuinely indispensable conditions, not preferences.
The national legislation governing the employment relationship: hiring, working hours, notice, severance and grounds for dismissal. In the Dominican Republic, Law 16-92 governs, and it also establishes that criteria such as marital status or age are not valid reasons to deny employment.
The set of employees identified and in development to fill future leadership roles within the organization. Its absence forces the organization to look outside for leadership every time, at higher risk and cost.
A formal structure pairing employees with internal — or external — mentors to accelerate their development, career guidance and cultural onboarding. It works best with clear goals, not as an open-ended relationship without purpose.
skaills' Communities of Practice include mentor matching within their topic groups.The time, defined by law or contract, that must pass between a resignation or dismissal announcement and the person's actual departure. It gives room for handing off responsibilities and searching for a replacement.
The structured process for managing an employee's departure — knowledge transfer, administrative closure, exit interview — in an orderly and respectful way, whatever the reason for leaving.
The formal document proposing the role, compensation and conditions to a selected candidate, before the final contract is signed. Its clarity reduces misunderstandings and last-minute renegotiations.
The structured process that helps a new person become productive and feel part of the team, from contract signing through the first months. Strong onboarding significantly reduces early-stage turnover.
Structuring how roles, teams and reporting lines are grouped so the organization can execute its strategy efficiently. It changes with size, market and business model — it is never final.
Someone whose skills or experience clearly exceed what the role requires, raising legitimate questions about true motivation and the risk of an early exit. It is worth asking directly why the role interests them, rather than screening them out automatically.
Multiple interviewers assess the same candidate in a single session, contributing different perspectives — technical, cultural, leadership — and reducing single-evaluator bias.
Someone currently employed and not actively job-hunting, who would nonetheless consider a compelling offer. This is often the most contested talent, since reaching them requires a different approach than sourcing active applicants.
The principle of paying the same for work of equal value, without unjustified differences by gender, age or other protected traits. It is audited by comparing pay between people in equivalent roles, not by comparing broad organizational averages.
Using workforce data — turnover, performance, compensation, climate — to make HR decisions based on evidence rather than intuition. It requires solid data quality and ethical judgment about what gets measured and why.
skaills' unified activity dashboard brings together assessment, test and pipeline data to feed people analytics.A formal document, with specific goals and timelines, that gives an underperforming employee a structured chance to improve before more drastic steps are considered. Used well it is a development tool; used poorly, it is a pre-dismissal formality without a real attempt to help.
An instrument that measures stable behavioral and preference traits — such as the Big Five model or DISC — to anticipate a person's working style, not their ability. It works best as a complement to other assessments, never in isolation.
A small set of questions, sometimes automated, that filters candidates before the first human call. It checks hard requirements — availability, location, licenses — so the team does not spend time on obvious mismatches.
An initial span of employment, defined by law or contract, during which both the organization and the person can confirm whether the role is a good fit, with different termination terms than a permanent contract.
skaills includes probation evaluations to document a new employee's early performance.The practical skill of formulating clear, specific instructions to an AI assistant — to draft a job post, summarize a candidate profile, or prepare interview questions — and getting useful, reviewable output. It is fast becoming an expected competency of the HR professional, not a separate technical specialty.
The umbrella term for standardized, scientifically validated instruments that measure cognitive ability, personality or aptitude. Their value rests on two technical properties: reliability (consistent results) and validity (measuring what it claims to measure).
A metric that measures how well hired people actually perform once in the role — performance, retention, cultural fit — against what was expected during the process. It closes the loop between selection and real outcome.
When an employee stops doing more than strictly required, without formally resigning, usually in response to a lack of recognition or healthy boundaries. It is a disengagement signal that a climate survey typically catches before the actual departure.
The sequence of stages a candidate moves through, from application to hire, and how many advance at each one. Measuring it reveals exactly where valuable talent is being lost.
skaills' recruitment campaign dashboard shows the conversion rate at every stage of the funnel.Applying marketing techniques — content, segmentation, funnels — to attract talent before an open role even exists. It treats future candidates as an audience to nurture, not just recruit when a need becomes urgent.
Delegating part or all of the hiring process to an external provider that acts as an extension of the HR team. It is typically used to absorb volume spikes or access specialized expertise without growing headcount.
Contacting a candidate's former supervisors or colleagues to confirm their actual performance and behavior. It is most useful when the questions are specific and behavioral, not just 'would you recommend them?'
The departure of a high-performing employee the organization would have preferred to keep, as opposed to a departure that actually relieves a problem. Distinguishing it from general turnover is key to prioritizing retention efforts.
The formal communication informing a candidate they were not selected. When timely, specific and respectful, it preserves the relationship for future openings and protects the employer brand.
The set of rules defining who can work remotely, from where, with what equipment, and under what availability expectations. Without it, remote work tends to create inequity between teams.
Training an employee in a different set of skills than they use today, so they can perform a different role — typically because their current one is being automated or discontinued. It leans on skills adjacency to shorten the path.
The percentage of employees who remain with the organization over a given period. It is the mirror of turnover and, alongside it, the most-cited metric for judging workforce health.
Asking the candidate to act out a realistic on-the-job situation — handling a sales objection, calming an upset customer — instead of just describing it. It reveals how they perform under pressure, not just what they say they would do.
skaills' simulators (committee defense, cash crisis, AML triage) are digital role-play interviews for specific roles.The practice of positioning a specific role's expected or proposed salary against the real market range, considering sector, level and location. It helps organizations design competitive offers and helps candidates negotiate with real data.
skaills' salary aspiration estimator places a candidate's expectation within the real market range.The financial compensation law or contract requires upon ending an employment relationship, calculated by tenure and reason for departure. Calculating it correctly requires precise knowledge of the applicable local labour code.
Skills someone already has that are close to what a new role demands, so the retraining leap is short rather than starting from zero. It is the basis for mapping realistic career paths between seemingly unrelated professions.
skaills' Career Path Navigator uses skills adjacency, grounded in ISCO-08, to suggest realistic trajectories.Comparing the competencies a team or individual has today against what they will need, to target training investment where it actually matters. It is the starting point of any serious reskilling or upskilling plan.
A standardized, hierarchical vocabulary of skills — such as ESCO or O*NET — that lets competencies be compared across organizations and systems, instead of every company inventing its own language.
Evaluating candidates by what they can do — demonstrated through tests or work samples — rather than filtering solely on university degree or years of experience. It widens the pool of qualified candidates, especially among those who learned their trade outside the traditional system.
Using LinkedIn, Instagram or other platforms to post openings, show organizational culture and attract passive candidates. It works best when it complements, rather than replaces, a structured selection process.
The proactive search for people who match a role, rather than waiting for them to apply. It combines internal databases, professional networks and referrals.
A conversation with a current, valued employee about what keeps them and what might make them leave. Unlike an exit interview, it happens early enough to act on.
A format where every candidate for the same role gets the same questions, in the same order, scored against a shared rubric. It is the interview method with the strongest evidence of predictive validity, because it reduces variability across interviewers.
skaills' interview simulator trains candidates and recruiters on the structured format before the real interview.Identifying and preparing, ahead of time, the people who could fill key roles if the current holder leaves, retires or is promoted. It reduces the operational risk of depending on a single person in a critical role.
An internal platform where employees explore openings, temporary projects or mentorships within the same organization, matched to their skills and interests. It favors internal mobility over external hiring.
A continuous flow of pre-qualified candidates for roles likely to open, built before the urgency exists. It shortens time-to-hire once the vacancy actually appears.
The base of assessed or interested people — past candidates, referrals, program alumni — available for future openings without starting sourcing from zero. It is an asset that grows with every process, including ones that do not end in a hire.
skaills' public talent pool connects assessed profiles with organizations looking to fill similar roles.A test designed to verify mastery of role-specific technical skills — accounting, programming, machine operation — beyond what a résumé claims.
An arrangement where someone starts on a temporary contract, usually through an agency, with the possibility of moving to permanent employment if performance and fit are strong. It reduces the risk of an uncertain permanent hire.
The length of time a person has worked in a role or organization. It is used both to calculate benefits and notice, and to segment retention analysis by seniority.
The end of the employment relationship triggered by a serious employee misconduct or breach, with different legal and severance implications than a dismissal without cause. It requires careful documentation to hold up legally.
The number of days between a requisition opening and an offer being accepted, measured from the organization's perspective. It differs from time-to-hire in that it starts earlier — from the role opening, not the first application.
The number of days from when a candidate applies to when they accept an offer. It is one of the most-cited recruitment metrics because it directly affects candidate experience and process cost.
skaills' recruitment campaign reports calculate time-to-hire by stage and by position.How long a new employee takes to reach the expected performance level in their role. Well-designed onboarding measurably shortens it.
The complete sum of what an employee receives in exchange for their work: salary, bonuses, benefits, professional development and flexibility — not just base pay. It frames the real value proposition to a candidate or employee more accurately.
A systematic diagnosis of what training a team actually needs, based on identified competency gaps, before designing or buying any program. It avoids investing in generic training that does not solve the real problem.
The percentage of employees who leave the organization in a period, whether voluntarily or involuntarily. A high rate is not always a bad sign — it depends on sector, level, and whether the departures are of low or high performers.
Automatic, non-deliberate judgments a person makes about another based on traits like accent, appearance or name. Structured, standardized assessment methods exist, in large part, to reduce its influence on the decision.
A demographic group present in an organization's workforce at a lower rate than in the broader labor market or population. Identifying it is the first step, not the final goal, of a serious DEI strategy.
Deepening the skills an employee already uses in their current role, so they perform at a higher level within the same function. Unlike reskilling, it does not change direction — it just raises the bar.
An open, available position within an organization, approved and ready to be filled. It is the visible starting point of the entire recruitment funnel.
How closely a person's principles and priorities align with the organization's stated values, assessed through situational questions rather than a simple claim of sharing them.
The timeline under which an employee irrevocably earns rights to shares, options or pension contributions, usually progressively. It incentivizes tenure without legally requiring it.
An interview conducted over video, live or pre-recorded, which widens geographic reach and speeds up early stages. It should follow the same structured rigor as an in-person interview so it does not lose predictive validity.
The distinction between people who leave by their own choice (voluntary) and those let go by the organization (involuntary). Analyzing them separately reveals very different stories hidden inside one overall turnover figure.
Asking the candidate to perform a task representative of the actual job — write code, draft an email, solve a case — rather than just discussing their experience. It is one of the strongest predictors of future performance.
A broader strategic exercise than headcount planning: anticipating what skills the organization will need, how to build them internally or acquire them externally, and on what timeline. It factors in automation, expected retirements and market shifts.
skaills' Organizational Transformation Plan translates workforce planning into an actionable roadmap.A performance review that gathers feedback from multiple sources — manager, peers, direct reports and sometimes clients — rather than relying solely on the direct supervisor's opinion. It offers a fuller picture of how a person actually behaves across different contexts.
skaills includes 360-degree reviews as part of its performance review module.