Keywords to look out for on IT staff augmentation: distributed teams, tech recruiter and software engineering

Throughout our communication (from our blog to guest content elsewhere), you may come across some terms and expressions that are new or too technical. It doesn’t matter whether you’re not tech-savvy or just curious about expanding your vocabulary regarding HCM. 

We’re here to help with our very own business, career, and tech keyword glossary.

Abandonment rate

The percentage of job applicants that don’t complete the interview process, giving up before arriving at the positive or negative outcome.

Absenteeism

Scheduled (courses, leaves, etc.) or unscheduled time off work (sickness), regulated by the Absenteeism Policy. Frequent lack of attendance can lead to termination.

Affirmative action

Proactive policies and projects put in place by employers in order to increase employment opportunities for underprivileged groups. Usually encompasses specific, results-oriented action plans.

Annual Salary

The monetary compensation (income) paid to an employee after one year of full dedication, calculated before tax deductions.

Applicant

Person who has applied for a job position, promotion or project in exchange for monetary compensation.

Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

Software used by recruiters and hiring managers to manage résumés, tests, interviews and any other stages of the employee hiring and vetting process, often attributing points (score) to skill levels and abilities.

Application Programming Interface (API)

Software-building tools and protocols used by software developers to integrate different applications and platforms.

Attrition

Voluntary resignation and retirement of employees who are not replaced, thus decreasing workforce numbers.

Backend Engineer

The person responsible for building, writing codes and designing software applications.

Base Wage Rate

Monthly or hourly salary paid to employee, irrespective of overtime, bonuses and benefits. 

Behavioral Interview / Situational Interview

One-on-one talk between recruiting expert and job applicant regarding past and hypothetical situations. Questions circle around “what if…?” and “then what?” type questions to identify character traits that suggest how successfully the candidate will fill the position.

Bias

Conscious or unconscious judgements and consequent decisions based on first impressions of people or situations.

Blended Workforce

When staff is made up of full-time, part-time and temporary employees, as well as third-party contractors.

Brain Drain

Highly skilled workers migrating abroad for work. 

Brazilian Labor Laws (CLT)

The compilation of Labor Laws in Brazil, which are regulated by the CLT (Consolidações das Leis Trabalhistas, or Labor Laws Consolidation).

Business Analyst

This professional is the “bridge” between IT and business teams, analyzing and evaluating processes and recommending implementations. 

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)

Management of business applications by tech vendors.

Candidate Experience

The overall thoughts and feelings of job seekers and applicants regarding the candidate screening, vetting, interviewing and testing processes. See also: Abandonment Rate, Employee Experience and Employer Branding.

Career

Work, education and other relevant experience to which one dedicates time. May involve one or more occupations at the same time.

Change management

Planning and execution of tasks and processes that facilitate the transitioning of people and organizations from one state to another. 

Certification

Official accreditation granted by a recognized industry body or educational facility to attest a professional’s accumulated knowledge and experience on a particular field or product.

Climate Surveys

Routine evaluation of employee engagement and feelings towards the company, leaders and jobs.

Code of Conduct

Formal document summarizing the employer’s expectations and rules on employee behavior, reflecting company values and goals.

Co-Employment

Agreement between an employer and employee leasing firms or a Professional Employer Organization (PEO), by which both companies contractually share responsibilities and liabilities regarding employees.

Compensation

The sum of monetary (wages, bonuses, etc.) and non-monetary (perks and benefits) given to employees in return for dedicated time and effort, and most frequently performance-based. See also: Salary. 

Confidential Information and Invention Assignment Agreement (CIIAA)

A document signed by the company and its employees, contractor or business partners ensuring the confidentiality and property of that deal or business.

Contingency Recruiting

Staffing efforts aimed at supplementing a company’s workforce according to temporary needs, such as seasonality. Firms providing this service are only paid if a candidate is successfully placed.

Continuous Development and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD)

A methodology and automatization process to continually develop and deliver code changes and implementations in a software.

Corporate Culture

Shared values, responsibilities and beliefs involving everyone at the determined workspace, including employees, business partners and other stakeholders.

Cost-per-hire

The costs related to recruiting new talent, from ads and agency fees to relocation and training expenses.

Cover Letter / Email

A short message that summarizes an applicant’s desire and relevance to fill an open job position. 

CTO

The Chief Technology Officer is responsible for overseeing and leading all the technologic products in an organization.

Curriculum Vitae (CV)

A detailed record of a professional’s academic and professional career and achievements. See also: Résumé. 

Data Breach

Incident in which sensitive or confidential information is accessed and/or used by unauthorized people, internal or external to the organization.

Data Scientist

Analyses and processes the data of a product, software or business, translating the numbers and recommending changes and implementations. There is a difference between Data Scientist, Data Analyst and Data Engineer.

Database Analyst

Administer all the database process, analyzing, implementing and reviewing its information.

Discrimination

The unfair treatment of some people, either by favoring or undermining others.

Distributed team

Also known as dispersed or virtual, a distributed team is that in which team members are free to work from wherever they are most productive and comfortable, regardless of regional (or even national) boundaries.

DevOps Engineer

The person responsible for all the operations, processes and tools in a software development.

Education

Institutionalized learning via vocational schools, colleges, universities or similar structures. 

E-learning

Technology-based education and training via internet resources.

E-recruiting

Internet-based recruiting and onboarding processes, partially executed by software. 

Employability

Probability and readiness of an applicant to seize and retain employment, based on behavioral, cultural and technical skills and qualifications.

Employee Assessment

Pre-hire tests used to determine aptitude, personality and skills, thus supporting HR in identifying promotion opportunities and fit. 

Employee Benefit Administration

The management and dispensing of non-monetary compensation for carried-out work, such as paid leave, health insurance, scholarships and so on.

Employer Branding

Promoting the company as a great place to work, allowing it to be easily identifiable and set apart from competitors. Differentiators aim at attracting and retaining top performers.

Employer-of-Record Services (EOR)

A third-party company responsible for hiring and employing people for an organization. The EOR has all the legal responsibility towards the employee.

Employer Value Proposition (EVP)

The unique statement that sums up the set of values, offers, associations and initiatives used by the company to appeal to applicants and employees. 

Experience

A professional’s full employment history, including knowledge and skills acquired in both paid and volunteer work. 

Firing

Formal dismissal of employees, either due to redundancy or misconduct. See also: Layoffs and Gross Misconduct.

Follow Up

Interactions and responses between hiring managers, tech recruiters and candidates / employees regarding ongoing hiring processes or day to day work. 

Frontend Engineer

The person who builds, designs and implements the interface of a software, providing a good user experience.

Fullstack Engineer

An engineer who works in all stages of a software development, such as backend and frontend.

Full-time Work

Employee working hours occupying close to 40 hours per week, in accordance to the company’s regular hours.

Functional Abilities

Skill-based analysis or résumé, indirectly linked to specific achievements.

Gamification

The use of game design elements to engage and motivate individuals and teams towards processes, routines and systems.

Gross Misconduct

A severe, often criminal, violation of company policy that warrants immediate dismissal — examples include harassment, fighting, and theft. 

Geographic Differential

Differences in compensation and payment for similar roles in different locations.

Hard Skills

Know-how and ability regarding specific activities or tasks, such as software proficiency.

Hiring Manager

The person responsible for most (if not all) of the hiring process. 

Human Capital

Competencies, knowledge and skills accumulated and adopted towards generating economic value for the company. Human Capital Management (HCM) includes Recruiting, Compensation, Benefits and Training. 

Human Resources (HR)

The department or team responsible for maintaining the relationship between employees, the company healthy and fruitful. Activities include hiring, compensation, education, and more. 

Human Resource Outsourcing (HRO)

The business relation through which an employer transfers responsibility and management of predetermined HR functions and routines to an external service provider.

Independent Contractors (IC – PJ in Brazil)

Normally, an Independent Contractor (known as PJ, or Pessoa Jurídica in Brazilian Portuguese) is a self-employed person who signs contracts with one or more organizations to perform the same tasks a regular employee does. However, the IC has the possibility to work for other companies simultaneously and can schedule its own working hours. The terms and conditions of the job are usually agreed between the two parties.

International Human Resources Management (HRM)

Hiring, training, assessing, and attendance logging, payroll processing, and business intelligence management of employees across two or more countries.

IT Staff Augmentation

Increasing the IT team is a strategy that often involves outsourcing. Basically, one evaluates the existing team and then determines what additional skills are needed to complete a given project. The use of outsourced services with distributed times tends to accelerate and facilitate this process.

Job Board

Digital or physical listing of up-to-date job opportunities for multiple companies.

Job Description

Formal outline of purpose, duties, responsibilities, scope, and working conditions of a predetermined role. It helps job applicants to better understand whether they have the necessary skills and also assess their interest in the said job position. 

Job Interview

Meeting between job applicants and recruiters, aimed at furthering the understanding of the job offer and the candidate’s relevance to it. May happen online or face-to-face. 

Job seeker

Person in search of new job positions, regardless of an employment situation. 

Layoff

Most frequently, the Last In/First Out (LIFO) method is used to choose which employee contracts should be terminated first.

Master Service Agreement (MSA)

The Master Service Agreement (MSA) is a legal binding agreement between two or more parties towards ongoing and future groundwork responsibilities and transactions.

Mean Time to Recovery

Also known as MTTR, it is the estimated time it takes for a software to recover from a failure. It is calculated from the time it went down to the time it got back and fully operational.

Mentoring

Informal training process by which junior employees learn from more experienced employees. See also: Shadowing.

Nearshore

Nearshoring is a form of bridging the talent gap and keeping payroll expenses under control by moving operations to adjacent or nearby countries. 

Nearshore Outsourcing

Nearshore Outsourcing is a specific IT outsourcing category. It takes place between nearby regions or in neighboring countries. It is important that there are similar languages, time zones and cultures.

Non-disclosure Agreement (NDA)

A confidentiality agreement between employers, employees, contractors and customers, limiting which data and information can/cannot be shared and under what conditions and circumstances. These terms restrict teams from disclosing proprietary information.

Non-traditional Employment

Occupations in which an employee’s gender comprises less than 25% of the workforce; the position is traditionally filled by the other gender.

Offshore Outsourcing

Offshore Outsourcing is valid for some tasks. That is, support, infrastructure maintenance, and software development are migrated to other countries. Normally, so-called developing countries are chosen, such as Brazil. There is an advantage due to the low cost to hire trained professionals.

Offshoring

Lowering payroll expenses by moving operations overseas, to countries or companies with lower labor costs.  

Onboarding

Immersion of new hires in company values, processes, products and services, and any other information and training needed to bring employees up to speed on company status.

Onshore Outsourcing

Onshore Outsourcing is the action in which IT services are outsourced to another company. The difference is that the headquarters must be in the same city, state, or country as the customers. This serves to lessen the impacts of cultural and language differences.

Outplacement

Training, workshops, and consultancy services offered by a downsizing employer to aid former employees to find new work opportunities. 

Outsourcing

Delegating non-core activities to third-party service providers in order to reduce operational costs and increase focus on more essential activities and strategic goals.

Paid Time Off (PTO)

All the time a person is being paid while away from the job (not working). Some examples are personal time off, holidays, maternity leaves and sick days.

Part-time Work

Work that takes up less than regular hours, usually in designated 20 or 30 hour work weeks. 

Payroll Processing

Verification of information regarding worked hours, salaries, wages, commissions, bonuses, leaves and contributions in order to define employee net pay and deductions.

Peer Appraisal

Feedback from same-level coworkers, as opposed to that provided by leaders and managers.

Potential Assessment

It is usually done through an external consultancy. It will identify strengths, points to improve and the professional’s career expectations. That done, the consultancy provides feedback to the professional.

Profile Interview

An interview with more personal questions. In a job interview, it can be about their personal visions towards the job and the company or how they would act in a specific problem.

Product Owner

The person responsible for the product itself and for communicating with all the people involved in a product development. They oversee, manage, evaluate and prioritize all the product strategy.

Professional Employer of Record (PEO)

An organization that helps companies in their employee relations, such as Human Resources, hiring and managing staff.

Project Manager

The person in charge of a project, managing the teams and all its processes to deliver the project.

Project Sponsor

A senior level manager or chief responsible for the success of a project.

Promotion

When an employee is granted a higher position, further responsibilities, and better compensation, in return for work well done.

Quality Engineer

Develops and oversees projects to improve and increase their quality. They also work to mitigate and prevent problems.

Recruiter

A person or business partner vested with the responsibility of scouting, recruiting, and hiring new employees for the company.

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)

Outsourcing the finding and hiring the best-qualified prospect talent for the job position. 

Remote Work

Professional activities executed away from the office, often in a secluded location. 

Resignation

The voluntary termination of the work relation, requested by the employee.

Résumé

A short description of past and present work experience, academic achievements, certifications and skill set. See also: Curriculum Vitae.

Security Engineer

The engineer responsible for all the security in network and systems in software development. They are also responsible for testing and preventing security breaches.

Shadowing

Process in which new employees follow more experienced coworkers and learn from close observation and trial.

Social Recruitment

Social HR leverages social media tools to fulfill HR and business goals, including sourcing and recruiting.

Soft Skills

Life-learned attributes and abilities, developed through professional and personal experiences, often considering relationships, team building, and other people and social skills.

Software Development Cycle (SDLC)

The Software Development Cycle, or Life Cycle, is the definition of the steps necessary in a software development. It is often designed as a structure or a framework to be followed by the development team.

Software Documentation

It is a document (usually a written text) that explains how the software works and how to use it. 

Software Engineer

The software engineer is the professional responsible for the development and creation of software and programs. Those who work in this profession are able to create digital platforms, applications, digital games and many other solutions that involve technology. The software engineer is also able to manage projects and businesses for computer companies.

Software Reliability

It measures the probability of a software operation that fulfills its designated tasks. The Software Reliability testing is supposed to be customer-oriented and has to be measured in a specific time and environment.

Sourcing

Requisitioning, background checking, and shortlisting of potential candidates for open job positions.

Statement of Work (SOW)

The Statement of Work (SOW) is a document that describes all the work required for a specific project. It is usually used in Project Management.

Succession Planning

Assessment of future needs for the company and developing an internal supply of talent in order to fulfill human capital needs.

Talent Acquisition

The process of a continuous search for specialists and industry leaders with very specific skill sets, better concerned with long-term strategy than quickly filling open vacancies.

Talent Pool

Database of potential candidates for current or future job openings, composed of professionals that have already manifested interest in working for the company.

Tech Recruiter

Tech Recruiter is the professional who recruits people, in the technology and development sector, based on technical skills. It is important that this professional understands both the human resources area and the IT area. The challenge is great, as every day new technology companies and new programming languages ​​appear.

Technical Interview

A job interview HR professionals lead when recruiting in tech that focuses on gathering information on the technical abilities the candidate has for the job role.

Technical Lead

The person who oversees the technical team in an organization. 

Technical Support

Whether it is a person or a service, Technical Support is provided by a company to its clients in order to help them fix issues and understand how to use a specific software.

Time And Attendance

Electronic or mechanical registration of time dedicated to the company, in order to ensure proper compensation and compliance, as well as avoid time theft.

Training

The facilitation of soft and hard skill development within the organization, in view of better service delivery and succession.

Turnover

The relation between the number of employees lost or gained within a predetermined time frame. 

UX/UI Designer

The person responsible for all the user experience in a software or product. They design and implement the interface of the product.

Virtual HR

Employee self-service platforms and technologies. 

VP / Head of Engineering

The Vice-President of Engineering, or the Head of Engineering, is the executive responsible for leading the technical teams in an organization. They have to be able to understand the whole process and maintain an open communication with the managers involved in the projects to assure the requirements and deadlines are being accomplished.

VP / Head of Product

The person who oversees and leads the teams involved in product development. They can also share with the CEO the responsibility of making sure people understand the product direction, vision and distribution.

W-8BEN-E

A form, also known as Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for U.S. Tax Withholding and Reporting, that should be filled by foreign entities that receive any type of income in the United States or performed by Non-Resident Aliens (NRA). The form should be submitted to the agent, person or organization that provides the income.

You can find more information on the W-8BEN-E on the IRS website.

Work Flexibility

Flexible work arrangements allow employees to arrange professional responsibilities and rituals around personal needs and responsibilities, such as remote work, differentiated work schedules and compressed workweeks.

Work-Life Balance

Improvement of quality of life by balancing personal and professional affairs, aiming at better sense of accomplishment.

Workforce Management (WFM)

Structuring resources and employee base to optimize productivity, pairing activities, teams and timing. See more in the video below.

X-factor

Trait, talent, or attribute that sets a candidate apart from the rest. Also known as Knowledge, Skills and Abilities — KSAs — needed to meet the requirements of a job.

Did any of these jargons catch you by surprise? Is there any term or tech keyword phrase we missed? Let us know in the comments. We’ll be more than happy to work on this together!

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