The HR glossary.

Plain-English definitions of the HRIS, HCM, benefits, and compliance terms that come up in every vendor demo and RFP.

HRIS

Human Resources Information System

The system of record for employee data — profiles, compensation, employment history, documents, and reporting. The foundation everything else (payroll, benefits, performance) plugs into.

HCM

Human Capital Management

A broader category than HRIS that adds talent processes — recruiting, performance, learning, and workforce planning — to core HR data.

HRMS

Human Resource Management System

Often used interchangeably with HRIS, HRMS typically emphasizes operational HR tasks like time, attendance, and payroll alongside the employee record.

EDI Carrier Feed

Electronic Data Interchange

Automated file-based exchange of benefits enrollment data between your HRIS and insurance carriers — replacing manual carrier portal entry.

QLE

Qualifying Life Event

A life change (marriage, birth, job loss) that allows an employee to update benefits elections outside of open enrollment.

Open Enrollment

Annual benefits window

The defined period each year when employees can elect, change, or drop their benefits coverage for the upcoming plan year.

SCIM

System for Cross-domain Identity Management

An open standard for automating user provisioning between identity providers (Okta, Azure AD) and SaaS apps — used to auto-create and disable accounts.

ACA

Affordable Care Act

U.S. healthcare law that requires applicable large employers to offer health coverage and file IRS forms 1094-C and 1095-C each year.

SOC 2

Security & availability audit

An auditing standard that evaluates how a vendor handles customer data across security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy.

PEO

Professional Employer Organization

A co-employment model where a third party handles payroll, benefits, and HR compliance under their own tax IDs — an alternative to running HR in-house.

Pay Equity

Compensation fairness

The practice of analyzing and closing unjustified pay gaps across gender, race, and other dimensions for employees in comparable roles.

FLSA

Fair Labor Standards Act

U.S. federal law setting minimum wage, overtime, and exempt/non-exempt classification rules that drive how time and payroll are tracked.

The HR stack, decoded.

Plain definitions for the acronyms that run your day.