The CHRO Glossary

Absenteeism tracks unscheduled absence (sick days, unplanned leave). Beyond the direct productivity loss, it's a lagging signal of workforce health, stress and morale. Its subtler cousin is presenteeism - being at work while unwell or disengaged, often costlier because it's invisible. Both are outcomes wellbeing programmes aim to reduce.

Attrition measures departures as a percentage of headcount, usually annualised. It's split into voluntary (resignations - the worrying kind) and involuntary (exits initiated by the employer), and often examined as regretted vs non-regretted. High voluntary/regretted attrition is expensive (rehiring, lost knowledge) and a signal about pay, management or engagement - where benefits and wellbeing play a retention role.

Basic salary is the foundational fixed component. It matters disproportionately because PF, gratuity, HRA exemption and bonus are all calculated on it (or basic + DA). A higher basic means higher retirals (good for long-term savings, lower for take-home); a lower basic boosts in-hand but shrinks retirement corpus.

Benefits administration is the operational machinery behind the benefits promise: enrolling employees and dependants, handling additions/deletions (new joiners, marriages, births, exits), supporting claims, communicating cover, and managing renewals. Done manually it's error-prone and thankless; done on a platform it's accurate, self-service and measurable - freeing HR from spreadsheets.

BRSR is SEBI's sustainability-disclosure framework for large listed companies, with a strong social / human-capital dimension: employee wellbeing, health & safety, benefits coverage, diversity, and workforce metrics. It pulls people data out of HR's private domain and into public, board-level reporting - making wellbeing programmes something the CHRO reports on to the market, not just to employees.

Cashless is the mode of claim everyone wants: the hospital and TPA settle the admissible amount directly, and the patient only pays non-covered items (deductions, sub-limit gaps, co-pay). The opposite is reimbursement - pay first, submit documents, wait for money back. Cashless removes the financial shock at the worst possible moment.

Cashless Everywhere is a General Insurance Council initiative (launched January 2024) allowing cashless claims at hospitals outside the insurer's network, subject to conditions (prior intimation for planned treatment, faster intimation for emergencies, and insurer approval). It attacks the biggest pain point in Indian health insurance - paying upfront at a non-network hospital and chasing reimbursement.

CDM programmes give employees with chronic conditions continuous help - monitoring, medication adherence, coaching, diet and specialist access - to keep the condition controlled and prevent expensive complications. Because a small share of chronically-ill employees often drives a large share of claims, CDM is one of the highest-ROI health interventions available.

Co-pay means the insured bears an agreed percentage of each admissible claim (e.g. 10% or 20%). It lowers the premium because the insurer's exposure drops, and it discourages over-utilisation - but it's a real cost to employees at the point of illness. Co-pay may be blanket, or apply only to certain groups (e.g. parents) or certain cities (Zone-based).

The Code on Social Security, 2020 merges the laws behind EPF, ESI, gratuity and maternity benefit, and - significantly - creates a framework to extend social security to gig and platform workers via aggregator contributions and a social-security fund. For CHROs it signals a future where benefits obligations reach beyond traditional employees.

Compa-ratio = actual salary ÷ market/band midpoint. A ratio of 1.0 means paid exactly at midpoint; below 0.9 may flag a retention/flight risk; above 1.1 may flag over-payment or a top performer. It's a core analytics tool for pay equity, budgeting increments and spotting anomalies across a workforce.

A corporate buffer is an additional sum insured that sits at the company level, available to top up an individual/family that has exhausted their SI on a serious claim. HR decides allocation (often with a per-case cap and an approval step). It's a compassion mechanism for catastrophic cases without raising everyone's base SI.

Corporate wellness spans checkups, fitness challenges, mental-health support, nutrition, chronic-condition management and health education. The market has shifted from episodic activities (a yoga day, a step challenge) to outcomes-driven wellbeing - measured by risk reduction, engagement and claims impact. The modern framing is holistic: physical, mental, financial and social wellbeing together.

CTC is the sum of everything the company spends on an employee in a year: fixed pay, variable/bonus, allowances, employer contributions (PF, gratuity provision, insurance premium), and perks. It is not take-home. The gap between CTC and in-hand salary - deductions and retirals - is the single biggest source of new-employee confusion.

A deductible is the “first rupees” the insured absorbs before the policy responds. It differs from co-pay (a share of every claim) - a deductible is a one-time/annual threshold. It's the mechanism behind super top-up plans, which only pay after a base deductible (usually your base GMC) is exhausted, making high cover very cheap.

An EAP provides confidential, professional support - most visibly mental-health counselling, but often also legal, financial and relationship guidance. Access is typically 24×7 via phone/app/chat, free to the employee, and confidential from the employer. A good EAP is measured on utilisation (are people actually using it?) and access speed, not just its existence in a benefits deck.

ESOPs give employees the option to purchase shares at a pre-set strike/exercise price after a vesting period (often 4 years with a 1-year cliff). If the company's value rises, the gain is the difference between market value and strike price. They're a core retention and wealth-creation tool, especially in startups where cash comp is tighter.

The EVP is the articulated promise of the employment experience - pay, benefits, growth, purpose, culture, flexibility. It's what makes people join, stay and advocate. Benefits and wellbeing are increasingly central to a credible EVP, because they signal how much an employer actually cares beyond the paycheck. A strong EVP shows up in offer-acceptance and attrition numbers.

ESI provides medical care, sickness/maternity benefits and disability cover to employees earning up to a wage threshold, through ESIC hospitals/dispensaries. The employee contributes 0.75% and the employer 3.25% of wages. It's mandatory for covered establishments and applies to eligible lower-wage staff - separate from any private GMC the employer offers.

An endorsement is any change to a live policy between renewals: adding a new joiner or newborn, deleting an exited employee, correcting a name/DOB, or amending terms. Timely endorsements matter - a delay can mean a genuinely covered person is technically not on the policy when a claim arises. Automating endorsements is a core benefits-admin capability.

eNPS asks one question - “how likely are you to recommend working here?” on a 0–10 scale - and scores it as %Promoters (9–10) minus %Detractors (0–6). It's a quick, trackable pulse of engagement and advocacy. Simple to run, but most useful when trended over time and paired with follow-up on the “why.”

In a family floater, one pool of cover (say ₹5 lakh) can be used by any covered member, in any combination, during the year. It's efficient because not everyone falls ill at once - but a single large claim can consume most of the pool, leaving little for others. The alternative is an individual sum insured per member (more cover, higher premium).

Fertility benefits - cover or allowances for IVF/ART, fertility consultations, adoption support and related counselling - are a fast-growing inclusion, particularly among employers competing for younger and dual-income talent. Historically excluded from standard GMC, fertility cover is increasingly added as a rider or a defined benefit, signalling genuine support for employees' family journeys.

Financial wellness extends wellbeing beyond the body and mind to money - the top source of stress for many employees. It spans financial-literacy sessions, retirement/tax planning help, access to advisors, and tools like earned wage access (drawing already-earned salary before payday). Financial stress drives absenteeism and presenteeism, so this connects directly to productivity.

A Flexible Benefit Plan gives employees choice: within a defined budget they pick how much goes to which components - some for tax optimisation (HRA, LTA, meal cards, fuel), some for real benefits (top-up insurance, OPD wallet, wellness). One size never fits a workforce spanning a 24-year-old single joiner and a 45-year-old with two kids and ageing parents; flexi benefits let each person tune their package.

Form 16 is the employer's certificate of tax deducted at source on salary, issued yearly. Part A shows TDS deposited (from TRACES); Part B details salary, exemptions and deductions. Employees use it to file their income-tax return. Issuing correct, timely Form 16s is a hard statutory deadline for payroll.

Full & final settlement is the reconciliation on exit: pending salary, leave encashment, bonus/variable due, gratuity (if 5+ years), reimbursements, minus recoveries (notice-period shortfall, advances, asset dues). Alongside it, the employee should get their Form 16, experience/relieving letter, and PF transfer/withdrawal support. Handled cleanly, it protects goodwill (and alumni advocacy); handled badly, it's a lasting sour note.

The gig / contingent workforce comprises people who work flexibly rather than as permanent employees: freelancers, fixed-term contractors, consultants and app-based platform workers. It gives organisations agility but raises new questions - benefits, social security, engagement and duty of care for people who aren't “on the rolls.” Indian law is now moving to extend some protections to them.

Gratuity, under the Payment of Gratuity Act, 1972, is a one-time payment for continuous service, generally payable after 5 years (waived on death/disablement). Formula: last-drawn (basic + DA) × 15/26 × years of service. Employers accrue for it as a cost (part of CTC) even though it's paid only on exit.

Gross salary = fixed pay + allowances (before deductions), i.e. CTC minus employer-side retirals. Net salary (take-home) = gross minus employee deductions: employee PF, professional tax, TDS (income tax), and any recoveries. Understanding this chain - CTC → gross → net - is basic financial literacy every employee needs.

GMC is the single group policy an employer buys to cover its whole workforce for in-patient hospitalisation, instead of each employee buying their own. It's the backbone of the benefits programme - the thing people mean when they say “my company insurance.” Because it's a group contract, cover is granted without individual medical underwriting: everyone is in from day one, pre-existing conditions and all.

The employer negotiates the terms - sum insured, who's covered (employee only, or spouse + kids + parents), room-rent rules, maternity, and any special conditions - with an insurer, usually through a broker.

GPA covers the financial consequences of accidents: accidental death, permanent total/partial disability, and often temporary total disability (weekly payout while the person can't work). It sits alongside GMC - GMC pays hospital bills, GPA pays a lump sum for the accident's income/life impact. Cover is 24×7 worldwide by default (not only on duty), which is what employees value.

GTL pays a fixed sum to the nominee on the death of a covered employee, from any cause (natural or accidental), while they're on the rolls. It's “term” because it's protection only - no maturity/savings value. It complements GPA (which is accident-only) by covering illness-related death too.

A Health Risk Assessment combines self-reported lifestyle data and biometric/lab results to score an individual's risk across areas like cardiovascular, metabolic and mental health. Aggregated, it gives HR a de-identified picture of workforce risk - the basis for targeting wellness resources where they'll matter most. (Note the acronym clash with House Rent Allowance.)

HRA is a common allowance with a tax benefit under section 10(13A): the exempt portion is the least of (a) actual HRA received, (b) rent paid minus 10% of basic, and (c) 50% of basic (metro) or 40% (non-metro). Non-metro caps the benefit lower. Note the acronym clash: in HR conversations HRA can also mean Health Risk Assessment - context decides.

An HRIS/HRMS is the system of record for people data - profiles, payroll, leave, attendance, performance, documents - and the workflows around them. It's the backbone HR operates on; benefits, insurance and wellbeing platforms typically integrate with it so employee data and enrolment stay in sync. (HRMS usually implies broader functionality than a pure HRIS.)

ICR = total claims incurred ÷ premium collected, for your specific group. It's the single most important figure at renewal: an ICR above 100% means the insurer paid out more than they took in, and your premium will rise (or terms tighten). Burning cost is a closely related pricing metric. Managing ICR - through wellness, OPD that catches issues early, and smart design - is core CHRO cost control.

IPD is treatment where the patient is formally admitted (surgery, serious illness, childbirth). This is what standard GMC is built to cover - room, procedures, ICU, surgeon fees. It's lower-frequency but high-severity, which is exactly why it's insured. The complement to IPD is OPD, the everyday care outside admission.

The four Labour Codes - the Code on Wages (2019), the Industrial Relations Code, the Code on Social Security, and the OSH Code (all 2020) - subsume dozens of older laws. Headline impacts for CHROs: a uniform definition of “wages” (basic+DA ≥ 50% of pay, lifting PF/gratuity), extension of social security to gig/platform workers, and streamlined (often digital) compliance.

The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 mandates 26 weeks of paid maternity leave for the first two children (12 weeks thereafter), plus provisions for adoption/commissioning mothers, work-from-home where feasible, and a crèche facility for establishments with 50+ employees. It protects income and job during and after pregnancy - distinct from insurance maternity cover (which pays medical costs).

Maternity cover pays for pre/post-natal care, normal and caesarean delivery, and typically newborn cover from day one. It usually carries a sub-limit (separate caps for normal vs C-section) and, in retail, a long waiting period - mostly waived in group policies. It's one of the most-used and most-appreciated benefits, and a key gender-inclusion signal.

Mental health benefits have moved from “nice to have” to expected, especially for younger workforces. They range from EAP counselling to app-based support, manager sensitisation, and - importantly - insurance cover for mental illness, which Indian regulation now requires health policies to include. The frontier is reducing stigma so people actually use what's offered.

NPS is a long-term, market-linked retirement product regulated by PFRDA. Its corporate appeal is a distinct tax deduction: employer contributions of up to 10% of basic + DA are deductible for the employee under section 80CCD(2) - over and above the ₹1.5 L 80C limit, and available under both tax regimes. That makes it a valuable, under-used CTC-structuring tool.

A network hospital has a pre-agreed arrangement with the insurer/TPA to bill them directly - enabling cashless treatment. Go to a non-network hospital and you'll typically pay and claim reimbursement later. Network breadth and quality in the employee's city is a practical make-or-break factor.

A notice period is the contractual runway on separation - commonly 30, 60 or 90 days in India - giving time for handover and backfill. An employer may allow a buyout (the employee or new employer pays for un-served notice) or a waiver. Notice terms materially affect how fast talent can move and how transitions are managed.

An OHC is a workplace clinic - staffed by doctors and/or nurses - handling emergencies, first aid, routine consultations, pre-employment and periodic medical exams, and occupational-hazard monitoring. Mandatory for many factories and larger establishments under safety law, it's the front line of employee health at industrial and large corporate sites.

Onboarding covers everything that turns a signed offer into a productive, engaged employee: documentation, provisioning, benefits enrolment, orientation, and early manager check-ins. Benefits are a key onboarding moment - a new joiner who is smoothly enrolled in insurance and can use OPD from week one feels cared for; one who can't feels the opposite.

OPD covers the everyday, high-frequency healthcare that happens without hospital admission: GP and specialist consultations, medicines, lab tests, physiotherapy, dental and vision. Traditional GMC covers IPD (hospitalisation) but not OPD - yet OPD is where 80–90% of an employee's actual health interactions happen. OPD benefits (cashless or reimbursed, with an annual wallet) are now one of the most valued, most-used parts of a modern benefits stack.

The OSH Code consolidates factory, safety and welfare laws into one framework covering safety standards, working hours, welfare facilities, and - relevant to health teams - provisions around occupational health, free annual health examinations for certain workers, and workplace medical facilities. It formalises the employer's duty of care for physical working conditions.

People analytics applies data science to HR: spotting attrition risk before it happens, linking engagement to performance, quantifying wellbeing's impact on productivity, and turning gut-feel decisions into evidence-based ones. As benefits, health and HRIS data get richer, analytics is how the CHRO speaks the CFO's language - with numbers, not narratives.

Perquisites are benefits beyond salary - company car, accommodation, ESOP gains, interest-free loans, club memberships. Tax law assigns a perquisite value to many of these, which is added to taxable income. Not all perks are taxable (some are exempt or concessional), so structuring them well is part of smart compensation design.

PHM applies public-health thinking to a workforce: measure the whole group's health, segment it by risk, target interventions, and track outcomes at population scale. It reframes employee health from reactive claims-paying to proactive risk-reduction - which is also what bends the long-run insurance cost curve.

Portability lets an insured move to another insurer's policy (retail) while retaining credit for waiting periods already served, so pre-existing-disease clauses don't reset to zero. For employees, the practical worry is losing continuity of cover when leaving a job - group cover ends with employment. A retail port or continuation option protects them.

POSH (the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013) obliges employers to prevent, prohibit and redress workplace sexual harassment. Every workplace with 10+ employees must constitute an Internal Committee (IC), conduct regular awareness training, display the policy, and file an annual report. Non-compliance carries penalties and reputational risk.

A PED is any condition diagnosed or under treatment before cover starts - diabetes, hypertension, thyroid, asthma, etc. Retail policies apply a waiting period before covering PEDs; group GMC typically covers them from day one. Accurate, no-underwriting inclusion of PEDs is a defining strength of employer cover.

Presenteeism is the hidden productivity drain: employees who show up but, because of ill health, pain, burnout or distraction, deliver far below capacity. Research suggests it often costs more than absenteeism precisely because it's unmeasured and unmanaged. It's a core argument for investing in physical and mental wellbeing - you're recovering lost effective capacity, not just reducing sick days.

A preventive health checkup is a scheduled panel of tests (blood work, vitals, sometimes imaging and doctor review) offered to employees, usually annually. Its purpose is early detection - catching pre-diabetes, hypertension or lipid issues while they're cheap and reversible. Done well, it's the front door to a wellness programme and a direct lever on future ICR.

Professional tax is levied by individual states on salaried and professional income. The employer deducts it from salary and deposits it. It's modest - the constitutional cap is ₹2,500 per year - and rates/slabs vary by state. States without PT (e.g. some in the north) have no such deduction.

EPF is India's statutory retirement corpus: the employee contributes 12% of basic (+DA), and the employer contributes 12% too - of which a portion goes to the EPS (pension) and the rest to EPF. It earns an annually declared, tax-advantaged interest rate. Managed by the EPFO, it's mandatory for establishments with 20+ employees.

Reimbursement is the fallback when cashless isn't available (non-network hospital, certain OPD claims, post-hospitalisation). The employee funds the treatment, then submits bills, prescriptions and reports; the TPA verifies and pays the admissible amount. It's slower and cash-flow-heavy for the employee, and document rejections are a common frustration.

Risk stratification segments employees - typically low / moderate / high risk - based on health data, so interventions are proportionate: light-touch nudges for the healthy majority, intensive coaching and clinical support for the high-risk few. It's the operational core of population health, and what makes a wellbeing budget efficient instead of scattered.

Room rent capping restricts the per-day room tariff covered (e.g. 1% of SI/day, or a fixed cap, or “single private room”). Its hidden sting: many hospital charges (surgeon fees, nursing, procedures) are linked to the room category. Choose a room above your cap and the insurer may proportionately deduct across the entire bill, not just the room difference.

A skills-based organisation shifts from rigid job descriptions to a fluid model where work is matched to skills - enabling internal mobility, faster reskilling, and talent marketplaces where employees flow to projects. Driven by rapid skill obsolescence (accelerated by AI), it changes how HR hires, develops, pays and redeploys people. Still emerging in practice, but rising fast on the CHRO agenda.

A sub-limit restricts how much the insurer pays for a particular item - even if your total sum insured is higher. Common ones: cataract surgery (e.g. capped at ₹40,000/eye), maternity (normal vs C-section caps), specific procedures, ambulance, or ICU charges. Sub-limits are how insurers control cost - and a frequent source of “but I thought I had ₹5 lakh cover” surprises.

Sum insured is the cap on claims for a person (or, in a floater, a family) in one policy year. Once it's exhausted, further bills are out of pocket until renewal - unless a top-up, corporate buffer or restoration/recharge kicks in. Choosing the SI is the central design trade-off: higher SI = more protection but higher premium.

Teleconsultation connects an employee (or family member) to a doctor without travelling to a clinic - ideal for minor illness, follow-ups, second opinions and odd hours. It's a cornerstone of OPD benefits because it removes friction: no travel, short wait, available 24×7. High teleconsult usage is a sign a benefit is actually reaching people.

A TPA is the operational engine of a health policy: issuing e-cards, running the network-hospital helpdesk, approving cashless requests, and processing reimbursement claims. Employees rarely deal with the insurer directly - they deal with the TPA. TPA service quality (turnaround time, denials, helpline) hugely shapes how employees feel about their insurance, regardless of the policy on paper.

A top-up gives extra cover above a threshold on a single claim; a super top-up works on the aggregate of claims in the year - so it's more useful. Both are cheap because they only pay above the deductible. Employers increasingly offer a voluntary super top-up that employees buy for themselves and family at group rates.

Total rewards reframes “compensation” as everything of value an employer offers: cash (base, variable), benefits (insurance, OPD, retirals), wellbeing, learning, career, flexibility and culture. The point is that talent decisions aren't made on salary alone - a strong benefits and wellbeing package is a competitive lever, and a Total Rewards Statement makes the often-invisible value visible to employees.

Variable pay is compensation contingent on outcomes - an annual performance bonus, a sales incentive, or a company-wide payout tied to targets. It aligns reward with results and lets employers flex cost with business performance. The payout ratio (actual vs target) and clarity of the plan drive how motivating - or demoralising - it is.

Voluntary benefits extend the programme without raising employer cost: employees buy extras - a super top-up, parental insurance, enhanced OPD, wellness memberships - at negotiated group pricing far cheaper than retail. They widen choice and inclusion, letting employees who need more get more, funded by them.

A waiting period delays cover for specific items: pre-existing diseases (often 2–4 years in retail), specified ailments (1–2 years), and maternity. Crucially, group policies usually waive most waiting periods - one of the biggest advantages of corporate cover over an individual policy.

A wellness program is the concrete activity: a diabetes-reversal cohort, a mental-health awareness month, a step challenge, a smoking-cessation drive. The best ones target a defined population and a measurable outcome, rather than being generic and optional. Participation and sustained behaviour change - not sign-ups - are the metrics that matter.