This has all but eradicated many of the traditional words we’ve used to talk about the workplace — or, at the very least, changed the definitions of the vocabulary we’ve built to understand it. Given some of these words have been in use for nearly 200 years, a little updating is long overdue. Here are some of the terms it’s time for employers to consider retiring to attract the next generation of workers and set their businesses up for success in this new world of work.
From "Employee" To "Contributor"
One of the biggest changes to the employment landscape in recent years has been the growth of agile working arrangements. This has led many to wonder if the term “employee” ought to be changed. Legally there have been many iterations of how employers define workers, from employee to independent contractor and everything in between. And today, employers are again in need of new terms to better encapsulate who employees are and what they do.
A changing definition or term for employee is an idea shared by many, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Over a decade ago, it stated in a report, “whether one thinks about the nontraditional workforce in terms of the changing social contract, a move to just-in-time workers, or a way to make human capital flexible in a competitive global economy, the definition of employee and employer are certainly changing.” That was over 10 years ago, and the word “employee” has been in use — and largely unchanged — since 1822.
In our Workplace 2025 study, when asked if they could choose a new term to replace “employee,” 47% of companies and 57% of workers chose “contributor.” This term was defined in our study as “any human resource contributing to an organization’s business objectives and goals.”
What’s key to point out about this definition is, in fact, what’s not in it: There's no reference to hired, employed, full-time or part-time, or even pay. With an agile workforce composed of a wide range of talent arrangements from permanent, contingent, contractor, freelance, partnerships, consultants, full-time, part-time, one-time and more, the concept of today’s employee isn’t so narrow or clear.
Nixing "Jobs" And "Career Paths" In Favor Of "Career Experiences"
As employees become contributors and start being evaluated more on the outcomes tied to their contributions rather than the fulfillment of any single set of responsibilities, the word “job” may no longer apply. Work is more oriented around projects and objectives, which means career paths are no longer a longitudinal climb — they’re much more nonlinear.
So, what do these career experiences look like today? More and more, they take the shape of roles or projects across different sectors and functions. For example, a worker may start in product development, jump over to customer success and then move into marketing, all through a series of freelance or gig work. This nonlinear approach used to be reserved for entry-level workers figuring out what they wanted to do. But now, job hopping and the desire to conquer a diverse set of challenges and skills is happening at all levels.
Today’s career trajectory isn’t a vertical climb to the top of a department or assuming the next in line in a long hierarchy of titles. It’s a continuous set of experiences across various business challenges and projects that build upon one another and, ultimately, take the form of something close to a career in the end.
Changing "Departments" To "Hubs" And "Company Networks"
As companies begin to form interdisciplinary teams to tackle objectives and projects, the concept of a siloed department could also become extinct. The boundaries between departments as well as job categories and hierarchies (manager, professional, technical) are becoming blurred. Collaboration is the new model for work.
To reach goals and execute on strategies, organizations are likely to begin pulling from hubs and networks of people — both internal and external — rather than compiling teams based on hierarchical structures from within a single department or function.
Replacing "Annual Performance Review" With "Ongoing Performance Feedback"
The changing nature of the world of work, combined with the younger workforce’s expectations around immediacy, have made the score by which companies have traditionally measured performance obsolete.
The workforce is becoming increasingly made up of people who’ve grown up in the digital era. They expect relevant and real-time feedback. To get the most out of these workers, and to align feedback and coaching with the concept of “career experiences” and the new agile ways of working, employers need to ditch the annual performance review — both in practice and from their vocabulary. It should really already be a thing of the past, replaced by real-time, short-term project or goal-based feedback.
Abandoning these terms will likely continue to be debated, and the debate will take time. However, what is not debatable is a workforce composed totally of traditional workers is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Employer-employee relationships are changing, and today’s workers are reimagining job security, career paths and employer commitment to align with their generations’ new expectations. These dynamics are critical for employers to consider, as the workforce of the future will look vastly different than it does today.
