The HR manager's glossary: 60 key terms to guide your HR roadmap for 2026–2027

The HR Director’s Glossary: 60 key terms to guide your HR roadmap for 2026–2027

Pay transparency, the integration of AI into recruitment and HR data governance have been profoundly transforming the HR function since 2026. These developments are no longer simply topics to monitor: they are becoming regulatory obligations or market standards that every HR department must incorporate into its roadmap, right down to the management of HRIS projects, which must incorporate them. For HR directors, HR managers and HRIS managers, it is becoming essential to master a vocabulary that is evolving faster than traditional training cycles.

Drawing on its experience of supporting HR departments on a daily basis with their digital transformation projects, Arago has compiled this glossary to provide HR teams with a reliable guide to the concepts that will truly shape future decisions.

Keep this to hand all year round!

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What is in this glossary

AI & HR: understanding what agent-based AI, generative AI in HR, ISO 42001 certification and the AI Act as it applies to recruitment entail, in order to distinguish between high-risk uses and automation with no regulatory implications.
Recruitment & talent acquisition: ATS, predictive recruitment, AI matching, time-to-hire… The vocabulary of a recruitment process that is increasingly technology-driven and measurable.
Remuneration, payroll & pay transparency: the European directive on pay transparency, pay equity and the migration of payroll systems to the cloud.
Skills management, training & mobility: from GEPP to reskilling, via the skills matrix and succession planning – the tools that replace a focus on qualifications with a focus on demonstrated skills.
HRIS & digital transformation: core HR, self-service, interoperability, SAP SuccessFactors… The technical foundations underpinning all the above applications.
Compliance, security & data governance: GDPR, ISO 27001, SOC 2, sovereign hosting… What a digital HR project must safeguard right from the design stage.
HRIS methodology & project management: specifications, data migration, cutover, hypercare… The essential terminology for managing an HRIS roll-out without having to learn it as you go along.

In summary:

60 HR concepts categorised into 7 themes, selected for their real impact on decisions in 2026–2027.

Download the glossary for free