UK Recruitment Glossary
Umbrella Company
In recruiter context
Common for inside-IR35 contracts. The umbrella employs you, pays your tax and NI, takes a fee, and you appear as their employee for HMRC purposes. Compliant umbrella companies are fine; non-compliant ones ("loan schemes", offshore arrangements) leave contractors with HMRC tax bills years later. Always check the umbrella is FCSA-accredited or equivalent before signing.
Related terms
Maternity Leave
UK statutory right to up to 52 weeks off around childbirth, with Statutory Maternity Pay for the fir…
Networking
Building professional contacts who can refer you, advise you, or hire you in the future.
Vector Database
A database optimised for storing and searching high-dimensional embedding vectors — Pinecone, Qdrant…
Zero-Hours Contract
An employment contract with no guaranteed minimum hours — you only get paid for the hours you actual…