HR & payroll glossary.

People Ops

A 2-2-3 work schedule, also called the Panama schedule, is a rotating 24/7 shift pattern of two days on, two days off, three days on, then two days off, two on and three off — averaging 42 hours a week over a fourteen-day cycle of twelve-hour shifts.

Compliance

The contractor versus employee distinction is a legal classification based on how much control a company has over how work is done — not on job title or contract wording — and it determines tax withholding, statutory benefits and employment protections.

Compliance

A disregarded entity is a business that exists separately in law but is ignored as separate from its owner for US federal income tax purposes, so its income, deductions and credits are reported on the owner's own return.

Payroll & Tax

EFTPS is the free electronic system run by the US Treasury that businesses and individuals use to pay federal taxes — including payroll tax deposits, FUTA and corporate estimated tax — directly from a bank account.

Global Hiring

An Employer of Record is a third party that legally employs workers on your behalf in a country where you have no entity, holding the employment contract, payroll, tax withholding and statutory benefits while you direct the day-to-day work.

Payroll & Tax

Federal unemployment tax is the employer-paid US tax imposed under FUTA at 6.0% on the first $7,000 of each employee's annual wages, reduced to an effective 0.6% for employers who pay their state unemployment tax on time.

Payroll & Tax

Form W-2 is the annual US wage and tax statement an employer must give each employee and file with the Social Security Administration, reporting total wages paid and all federal, state and local taxes withheld during the calendar year.

Payroll & Tax

Form W-9 is the IRS form a US person completes to give a business their correct name, taxpayer identification number and tax classification, so the business can report payments made to them and know whether backup withholding applies.

Payroll & Tax

FUTA is the US federal law that requires employers to pay an unemployment tax of 6.0% on the first $7,000 of each employee's annual wages — usually reduced to 0.6% by a credit for state unemployment tax paid — funding the federal share of unemployment benefits.

People Ops

Hours worked are calculated by converting each shift's clock-in and clock-out times to decimal hours, subtracting unpaid breaks, summing the week, and then splitting the total into regular and overtime hours under the rules that apply where the employee works.

People Ops

A KPI is a quantified measure of an outcome a team is accountable for, with a target and a review cadence — good examples are few in number, owned by one team, and tied directly to a business result rather than to activity volume.

People Ops

A Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) is a documented, time-bound plan that sets out specific performance gaps, the measurable standard an employee must reach, and the support and review dates that apply during the improvement period.