Can't Understand Your HR? Let's Translate the HR Speak

**Tim Elliott** (0:02)
Welcome to the Morning Drive at Mira Business FM. This morning, decoding or even maybe translating HR speak, human resources speak, what they say and what they mean. So when we look at the modern enterprise, communication is one of the foundations of efficiency, if not the ultimate foundation of efficiency. But if you walk into a boardroom or look at an internal memo from human resources, very often you drown in completely different language, cliches and inexplicable phrases and acronyms.
And it seems like the more you can throw into conversation, the better at times. So I want to get to grips with what this means and what the jargon means and why we do it and who we think we are and all that stuff. And the man for the job is David Mackenzie from Mackenzie Jones.

**David Mackenzie** (0:55)
I thought you were going to say tackle the bear or something like that.

**Tim Elliott** (0:58)
I did think about throwing in something there, but I thought, no, we'll leave that. I have a list as long as I was going to say my arm.

**David Mackenzie** (1:06)
Good morning, sorry.

**Tim Elliott** (1:07)
Nice to see you.

**David Mackenzie** (1:08)
And yourself.

**Tim Elliott** (1:09)
So, look, HR jargon is like, it's almost like an industry. It dresses up everyday workplace realities. Corporate speak makes things sound more strategic, more diplomatic, or painless. But all those glossy phrases, we need to find out what's behind them. Things like this. Let me throw a few at you. These come from like an alternative reality, I think. Right sizing, career growth opportunities, your favorite, circling back. I know that gets you.
So I want to look at what HR is actually saying to you. So the big wheel from Mackenzie Jones is here.
And this is what you do. I mean, you're the ideal person, literally, because in human resources and recruitment terms, you do the HR bit, don't you?

**David Mackenzie** (1:56)
Yeah, but also we use acronyms. I mean, I've used a few here, like PRC and CLTV, Client Visit. That's Client Visit.

**Tim Elliott** (2:03)
Client Visit?

**David Mackenzie** (2:04)
CLTV, Client Visit. PRC, Potential Recruitment Consultant.

**Tim Elliott** (2:09)
Yeah, I know. I remember that one. I remember thinking, that probably doesn't need an acronym.

**David Mackenzie** (2:13)
No.

**Tim Elliott** (2:14)
There you are.
I mean, the thing is with this, a cliché is a cliché for a reason. And very often, you can explain a much longer phrase by using a cliché. And I get that, and I understand that. But why is it that the corporate world is so dependent on euphemisms and these kind of phrases that you have to translate before you respond?

**David Mackenzie** (2:37)
I think it's steeped in it. If I look at from, I'm trying to look at this from a reason why this has grown so much.
And there's a number of reasons. Like one of the things is if you're in an environment like HR, it speeds up communication because you will know what you're talking about. If you're talking about an L&D comp plan, if you're looking at HR harmonization, everyone in HR knows what that means. If you're looking at HR harmonization, it's just pull everything together.

**Tim Elliott** (3:06)
Yeah. I mean, I look at these things. My first reaction is why did you not say just pull it?

**David Mackenzie** (3:11)
Because I think in HR, you're part of an HR community. So what it also does gives you a sense of belonging, a cohesion, a club and an understanding. So you can almost speed through sentences without having to explain them because people understand them.

**Tim Elliott** (3:28)
Okay, no, I mean, and I get that, and that's fine because we all do that in one way or another. We're all in our kind of boxes or our clubs. But the thing about this is that I suppose riles people and that little bit more is that HR is about people and relating to people. And when you add that other layer, it kind of gets under your skin a little bit more than your standard business jargon and business phrases. I don't know if you run something up the flagpole and see who salutes and all those things, or you park your tanks on the lawn.

**David Mackenzie** (3:58)
What? I've never heard that one.

**Tim Elliott** (4:00)
That's one. I used to work with a guy a few years ago. He used to use lots of those phrases. And over about two or three years that we worked together on a program, I put together a list of all the things that you say. So I'd write them down as he was saying them.