Glossary

Terms used across the Employee Self-Service portal and this guide.

A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · V

A

Term	Definition
Absence Hours	The hours shown on your attendance calendar as absence across the period, alongside your scheduled and booked hours.
Add a New Goal	The option on your review letting you add a goal beyond those released to you. Goals can also be removed where they no longer apply.
Advance Notice	A rule on some leave types requiring longer periods to be requested a set number of days ahead. Submitting inside the notice period returns an error naming both the day count and the notice required.
Approval Delegation	An arrangement that hands your approval responsibilities to a colleague for a set date range — used when you are on leave. Must be enabled to take effect, and expires automatically at the end date. Offboarding checklist tasks also respect active delegations.
Approvals Tab	The tab in the Tasks workspace listing items awaiting your review — identification, education, subject, professional experience and skill submissions from your direct reports.
Attendance	The area reached from the Attendance tile, holding your own attendance calendar and, if you manage people, your team’s attendance, shortages and overtime.
Attendance Shortage	A day where fewer minutes were worked than the working calendar scheduled. Managers see their team’s shortages on the Attendance shortage tab.
Average Score	The mean of your weighted ratings for the year. Calculated when your manager submits your end of year review, so it shows as zero before that.

B

Term	Definition
Beneficiary	A flag on a personal contact record marking that person as a beneficiary, with a date range and an indication of whether they are the primary beneficiary.
Benefits Tab	The tab within Rewards & Benefits showing the individual benefit plans you are enrolled in — such as medical insurance, transport, accommodation and life insurance — their entitlement amounts, and your gratuity value.
Booked Hours	The hours recorded against you for the period, shown on your attendance calendar against your scheduled hours.

C

Term	Definition
Calibration	The process where HR compares end of year ratings across the organisation and adjusts where individuals sit relative to their peers. Your final rating is confirmed through it and published to you by your manager.
Cancellation Window	The limit on how far back leave can be cancelled, measured from the leave's start date rather than the date you submitted it. Requests outside it return Cancellation is not permitted.
Career Aspirations	The section of your review where you record the roles you want to grow into, your time frame, and your mobility preferences. Managers can see it but cannot edit it.
Certificate Status	The state of a certification record: Valid (current), Expiring (approaching expiry), Expired (past expiry, renewal required), or Invalid (marked no longer valid).
Children's Concessions	Tuition fee and transport concessions listed per child on the rewards statement, each shown with the student ID.
Company Directory	The ESS area used to find any colleague's contact details, job title, department and location. Searchable by the colleague's name or by their reporting manager's name.
Competency	An individual assessed area on a review. On a probation review each carries a manager rating, manager comments, and an employee comment field. Competencies also appear as a type of goal on your performance reviews.
Course Status	Where you have got to on a GEMSU course — Not started, In progress, or Completed. Set in GEMSU and carried into ESS by the integration.

D

Term	Definition
Dependency	A prerequisite relationship between checklist tasks. A blocked task shows each dependency with its owner, status and target date, and cannot be completed until all are finished.
Dependent	A child or family member recorded under Personal contacts. Must be approved and flagged as a Full-Time Student before tuition fee and transport requests can be raised for them.
DEWA	Dubai Electricity and Water Authority. Account details are recorded as an identification type and required for certain housing and utility-related HR processes.

E

Term	Definition
Ejari	Dubai tenancy registration. Recorded as an identification type alongside DEWA details.
Emergency Contact	A flag on a personal contact record marking that person as someone to contact in an emergency.
Employee Comment	The field on a probation review where you record your response to your manager's assessment, per competency. An Employee Overall Comment field is also available for a summary.
End of Year Review	The final stage of the performance year. Carries your goal setting and mid year comments forward and closes with your manager's overall rating and submission for calibration.
ESS	Employee Self-Service — the browser-based portal covered by this guide. Uses your GEMS Microsoft 365 login; nothing needs installing.
Expiring Soon	A label that appears on the Identification tab when a document is approaching its expiry date. Also triggers a notification in the bell icon.

F

Term	Definition
Full Profile	The detailed view of your own record, reached from the profile tile on the ESS home page. Holds the Address, Contact Information, Personal contacts, Identification, Payment information, Screenings, Education, Professional experience and Subjects tabs.
Full-Time Student	A flag on a dependent's record required before tuition fee and transport concession requests can be submitted for that child.

G

Term	Definition
GEMSU	The GEMS learning platform. Courses assigned to you in GEMSU appear in ESS under Learning and Professional Development, so you can track your learning without leaving the portal.
Goal Setting	The first stage of the performance year, where you set the weighting, comments and status against each goal and record your career aspirations and training needs. Managers comment at this stage but do not rate.
Goal Status	Where a goal currently stands — for example On track or Complete. Set by you against each goal on your review.
Grant-Based Leave	A leave type granted as a fixed entitlement that must be taken as one block — maternity leave, for example. You choose the start date and the system calculates the end date from the full grant.
Gratuity	An end-of-service value shown on the Benefits tab, calculated from your payroll disbursement record.
Growth and Performance Matrix	The grid employees are placed on — GEMS star, high performer, inconsistent, talent risk and the rest. Reached from the manager view, where employees can be dragged between boxes and their talent review completed. Needs HR access.

H

Term	Definition
Hierarchy	The team view showing the people assigned to you as their attendance or overtime manager, rather than your direct reports. Usually a different list from the line view.
HR Feedback	The notes HR records when completing your request. Visible on the completed request in ESS, alongside any document they attached.
HR Request	A formal request submitted to HR through ESS — for example Police Clearance Certificate, Early Exit or Late Entry. Each is assigned a system-generated request number on submission.

I

Term	Definition
IBAN	The international bank account number recorded with your payment information. The system runs a duplicate IBAN check when you submit.
Identification Type	The category of an identification record — passport, Emirates ID, labour card, DEWA, Ejari and others. Determines which fields the form shows and whether an attachment is mandatory.
In Review	The status of a submitted education record while it awaits HR approval.
Intention Questionnaire	A survey distributed to specific employee groups — typically teaching staff — asking whether you intend to leave the organisation. A Yes response is what prompts HR to follow up.

L

Term	Definition
Learning and Professional Development	The ESS home page tile that opens your GEMSU course list, showing courses in progress, not started and completed.
Leave Plan	A group of leave types you are enrolled in. Enrolment comes from your position, so it updates when you change role. You only see the plans your school has made visible in ESS.
Leave Type	The individual kind of leave within a plan — annual, casual, sick, maternity and so on. Determines the rules applied when you submit: reason codes, certificates, notice periods, and whether the entitlement must be taken in one block.
Line	The team view showing your direct reports — the people whose line manager you are.

M

Term	Definition
Manager Comments	The field on a probation review where a manager records their assessment against each competency. An Overall Manager Comments field covers the summary.
Manager View	The area of ESS holding your team's performance reviews, and — with HR access — calibration, the growth and performance matrix and talent view.
Mandatory Course	A GEMSU course you are required to complete. Shown with a Mandatory tag on your course list in ESS.
Meets Expectations	A Stage 2 probation outcome. The review passes to the employee for their feedback and HR is notified at the same time.
Mid Year Review	The mid-point stage of the performance year. Your goals and the comments from goal setting are carried forward, and both you and your manager give a rating.
Mobility Preferences	The locations you would consider working in, selected against your career aspirations. More than one can be chosen.
My Attendance	The tab showing your own attendance calendar, in a week view or a longer multi-week overview.
My Requests	The view listing every HR request you have submitted, with request numbers and current statuses. Reached from the Submit request tile.
My Work	The ESS navigation area holding your Questionnaires.

N

Term	Definition
Notification Bell	The bell icon at the top right of ESS. Alerts you to documents approaching expiry, newly assigned questionnaires, and approval requests. Clicking a notification opens the relevant record.
NPS Questionnaire	A short Net Promoter Score pulse survey capturing how likely you are to recommend GEMS as a place to work. Appears periodically in the Questionnaires list.

O

Term	Definition
Offboarding Survey	The exit survey assigned as part of your offboarding checklist. After submitting it, you must also mark the associated checklist task complete.
Onboarding Checklist	The set of tasks assigned to you automatically when you join. Each task carries a status — Open, In Progress, or Completed — and some are blocked by dependencies.
Org Chart	A live visual of the organisation's reporting structure, drawn from Dynamics 365. Hover for a person's details, click to move to their part of the hierarchy.
Overall Rating	The summary rating your manager gives for the year on your end of year review, recorded with their written summary and any development notes.
Overdue	A flag on a GEMSU course whose start date has passed. Use it to prioritise — an overdue mandatory course should be picked up first.
Overtime	Minutes worked beyond the scheduled hours on a day. Raised to the manager for approval in ESS, then approved by HR and finance before it reaches payroll.

P

Term	Definition
Payment Information	The tab holding the bank account your salary is paid into — bank name, account name, account number and IBAN. Only one account can be active at a time, and changes go through an approval workflow.
PDP Goal	A personal development plan goal. Released to support your development and not weighted into your overall score, so it carries no rating or weighting.
Pending	The status of a submitted identification record while it awaits HR review. The record cannot be edited while pending.
Performance Concerns	A Stage 2 probation outcome that routes the review directly to HR only. The employee is not informed of the outcome at that stage.
Performance Review	A review released to you by HR for a stage of the performance year. Found under Skills & Performance, it arrives with your goals already on it.
Personal Contacts	The profile tab holding family members, emergency contacts, dependents and beneficiaries, across the Basic Details, Dependent Details, Address, Contact Information and Identification sub-tabs.
Phoenix	The external student system that validates a dependent's student ID and school when a transport request is submitted. Validation must pass before the request can proceed.
PIP Goal	A performance improvement plan goal. Like PDP goals, released to support you and excluded from the weighted scoring.
Primary Residence	The toggle marking one address as your main address. Your profile must always have one, and a primary address cannot be deleted until another is made primary.
Primary Subject	The flag marking one declared teaching subject as your main one.
Professional Experience	The profile tab recording previous employment and referee details. Submissions go through the approval workflow.
Publish to Employees	The manager action releasing calibrated ratings to their team, taken after the conversations about any changes have happened.

Q

Term	Definition
Questionnaire Status	The state of an assigned questionnaire: Not Started, In Progress (a draft has been saved), or Completed. Submitted questionnaires leave your active list but stay in your history.

R

Term	Definition
Ready for Review	The status of a review you have submitted while it sits with your manager.
Reason Code	The reason selected against a leave request — illness against sick leave, for example. Which codes are available depends on the leave type.
Recommended Course	A GEMSU course suggested to you but not compulsory. Shown with a Recommended tag on your course list in ESS.
Request Time Off	The ESS form used to submit a leave request — leave plan, leave type, reason code and dates.
Rewards & Benefits	The ESS section holding your rewards statement and Benefits tab.
Rewards Statement	A read-only personalised view of your total compensation — total reward, annual pay, benefits breakdown, variable pay, children's concessions, visa disbursements and bonuses. Maintained by HR and Finance.

S

Term	Definition
Save as Draft	The option that preserves your progress through a questionnaire so you can return later. Sets the status to In Progress; resume with Continue.
Scheduled Hours	The hours your working calendar sets for the period, shown on your attendance calendar against your booked and absence hours.
Screenings	The profile tab showing compliance and pre-employment checks assigned to you. Most records are read-only; only items HR has enabled for employee action can be updated.
Sick Leave Certificate	The medical certificate required on a sick leave request. Needed for any request while you are within probation, and beyond a set number of days once you are confirmed.
Skills & Performance	The ESS tile giving access to your skills, certificates, performance goals and reviews and — for managers — the team probation and performance review queues.
Stage 1 Review	The first probation review. Completed by your manager, then passed to you for feedback.
Stage 2 Review	The final probation review. Displays Stage 1 ratings and comments alongside Stage 2 fields, and carries the review outcome.
Subjects	The profile tab where you declare the subjects you are qualified in or available to teach. Submissions go through the approval workflow.
Submit for Calibration	The manager action closing an end of year review. It calculates the total and average scores and sends the review to HR for calibration.
Submit Request	The ESS tile used to raise HR requests and, via My requests →, to track them.
System Generated Request	A leave request the system raised on your behalf after a calendar change. Flagged as system generated and approved automatically, so it never reaches your manager.

T

Term	Definition
Talent Review	The record held against an employee capturing comments, risk and impact of loss, matrix position, identified successor and readiness. Completed from the growth and performance matrix using the three dots against an employee.
Talent View	The manager view screen comparing employees' talent reviews side by side, up to four at a time. Needs HR access.
Tasks	The ESS workspace holding your assigned checklist items (Tasks tab) and anything awaiting your approval (Approvals tab).
Team Attendance	The manager tab showing your team’s attendance calendars, with a toggle between the line and hierarchy views.
Team Performance Reviews	The manager queue listing your direct reports' performance reviews, with their status and due date. Overdue reviews are flagged.
Team Probation Review Requests	The manager queue under Skills & performance ▸ Performance Management listing probation reviews awaiting your assessment.
Time Off Request	A submitted leave request. Listed with its status — In review, approved, cancelled or completed — under your time off requests.
Total Approved Minutes	The running total of overtime minutes you have approved, updating as you approve each entry.
Total Reward	The combined value of your salary, benefits and variable pay, shown at the top of the rewards statement.
Total Score	The sum of your weighted ratings for the year. Calculated when your manager submits your end of year review.
Training Needs	The section of your review recording the training and development you need. Managers can comment on it but cannot clear an item you have marked as completed.
Transport Request	A request for school transport for an approved dependent. Runs as an integration with Phoenix, which validates the student ID and school before the request proceeds.
Tuition Fee Concession	A request for a tuition fee concession for a dependent child at a GEMS school. Only available where the dependent is approved and flagged as a full-time student, and only once per dependent.

V

Term	Definition
Variable Pay	Bonuses and other non-fixed components shown on the rewards statement.
Visa Disbursements	Visa-related allowances listed on the rewards statement.