50+ Recruitment terms you need to know about

Hi Friends, 

Here we are starting with some basics terms of recruitment Industry about them you should aware. Some terms are very simple you will understand through its name only and some you can read. However i have tried to explain all the basic terms if you have any term apart from these in your mind, can comment below. Will try to revert you shortly. 

1. Job seeker - any individual looking at job opportunities, with minimal to significant interest in actually applying and accepting a new role.

     2. Active job seeker - an individual very interested in finding a new job             opportunity. may or may not be currently unemployed but is motivated            to fill out applications and take interviews.

3. Passive job seeker - an individual who is less interested in finding a new job immediately. They may be employed and just looking at job opportunities to ‘get a sense of what is out there.’

4. Candidates - job seekers who have successfully applied for a job and meet the qualifications to proceed to pre-screening.

5. Hiring team - the collection of employees chosen to give feedback on candidates and participate in pre-determined stages of the selection process. Could be a combination of hiring manager, direct managers, recruiters, or other employees. Who makes up the hiring team can vary or depend entirely on the role to be filled. 

6. Recruitment agency - an outside organization that may be enlisted to help source qualified candidates for an important or difficult-to-fill role. 

7. Recruiter - a professional that works inside an organization or externally (through a recruitment agency or as an independent) to source candidates.

8. Candidate sourcing - the process of attracting candidates to a job posting and enticing them applying into the talent pool.

9. Candidate selection - selecting the best candidate to make an offer to. This entire process includes pre-screening, interviewing, deliberation, and other checks or assessments.

10. Hiring funnel - the steps that move a candidate from application to offer. The steps of a hiring funnel depend on the practices of the hiring team Ex: How many interview rounds are involved.

11. Strategic hiring - any approach to hiring that considers business goals, recruitment or industry trends, and/or recruitment analytics when making smart job promotion and hiring decisions.

12. Job posting - or, job ad. An outline of an open job opportunity that is promoted to attract candidates.  Includes information about the company, role, and requirements. It should be engaging but realistic

13. Qualifications - the requirements for a role. Typically includes education, years of experience, certifications, language requirements, skills, etc.

14. Core Skills - the necessary skills a candidate needs to have to do the job successfully. Less formal than qualifications, core skills may include items like teamwork, public speaking, and writing.

15. Cover Letter - a professional letter written by the job seeker to express their interest in a job opportunity and express why they are the best fit. Some organizations require cover letters, but others do not, depending on their selection requirements.

16. Resume - formal document created by the job seeker that is used to present a summary of their career. Resumes should list contact info, education, skills, and employment history. Some job seekers also include volunteerism, references, or portfolio items.

17. Job board - a website or page of a website for job seekers, where employers and recruiters promote job postings.

18. Culture fit - identifying candidates that not only have the skills and qualifications for the role but also share company values and would enjoy working in the team and work environment.

19. Phone interview - typically the first interview conducted with the candidate, which involves a brief round of questions to ensure they qualify for the role. Phone interviews help to determine whether the candidate will be move to the next round of interviews.

20. Panel interview - an in-person or video interview with two or more interviewers. Sometimes several job seekers participate in the same interview, depending on the situation.

21. Introduction questions - used to start the interview and help the candidate feel comfortable. Typically open-ended questions such as, “Tell me more about you” and, “Why do you think you’d be a good fit for this job”?

22. Behavioural questions - give interviewers an opportunity to ask the candidate more about their past work experience and what they’ve learned from it. Ex: “Tell me about a time when you…”

23. Situational questions - questions that help determine how the candidate thinks through and responds to hypothetical scenarios they could face in the role you’re looking to fill. It’s a chance to see how they draw from their experience, as well as, plan out how to react to challenges. Ex: “What is the first thing you would you do when dealing with a frustrated customer’s complaint?”

24. Culture fit questions - interview questions that aim to get insights from the candidate about their personality, ideal work environment, and the work style. See #30 “Culture fit.”

25. Role-specific questions - interview questions that are directly related to the role the candidate wants to fill. For example, if you’re hiring an accountant, you may want to ask about reporting software and gauge their understanding of accounting terminology.

26. Interview scorecard - a customized scoring tool some hiring teams use to measure candidates’ interview responses against key criteria. Usually designed in-house by the hiring team. An interview scorecard can help to reduce bias and standardize the hiring process.

27. Background check - a candidate screening practice often completed for positions of high security or trust (Ex: roles in banking or a school system). Background checks are processed by a government agency or private company. Most commonly check for criminal history, but may also involve commercial and financial records.

28. Personality and behaviour assessments - a candidate screening practice some employers use to gain insights into the candidate's personality or behaviours in the workplace. Usually involves written or online tests that assess for role and culture fit.

29. Onboarding process - an HR Best Practice for introducing a new hire to the team and work environment. This organized process may begin after an offer is accepted, and may go for several weeks. Onboarding includes but is not limited to; a company tour, meeting new colleagues, getting setup with software, email accounts, passwords, and job training.

30.Recruitment - Recruitment is the process of identifying, screening and hiring the most suitable candidate for a job vacancy.
- The candidate might be hired internally or from external sources
- The process must be performed in timely and cost effective manner

31. Sourcing - Sourcing is the process of finding resumes within the recruitment process. Sourcing refers to the initial part of recruiting (actually finding the candidates through a variety of methods.) Some recruiters perform the sourcing function through to placement; other recruiting professionals specialize in only one aspect of the recruitment cycle. Professional recruiters who specialize only in the initial procurement of names and candidates are called sourcers.

32. Sourcing and Social Recruitment - These are two different terms that are indirectly connected with each other. Social recruiting refers to the use of social media for finding and recruiting candidates. Sourcing refers to networking and searching in different professional streams for finding candidates including the social media and professional conferences.

33. Talent Acquisition - Some positions in the companies require specific types of talent for job completion. The ability to hire specific talent for a specific job is called talent acquisition.

34. Talent Pool or Pipeline - Most of the companies establish pools of profiles as backup storage of talented candidates. These are called talent pools or talent pipelines. If any one of the employees resigns from the post without completing post-resignation tenure, the position can be immediately refilled with the use of talent pools or pipelines.

35. Recruitment Timeline - The process, steps, and time required for completing the recruitment of one candidate is called recruitment timeline.

36. JD - Job Description (sometimes known as JS/Job Specification) - A list of the responsibilities, requirements, qualifications, preferred skills, application process, benefits and other relevant information. Often forms part of a job advert.

37. Head Hunter - A recruiter who focuses on searching for a qualified candidate for a specific role, usually for more senior positions, sometimes approaching those who might not be actively seeking a new role.

38. In-house Recruiter - A recruitment professional that finds and places candidates in the company they currently work for.

      39. Niche Recruiter - Refers to a recruiter who operates solely within a specific field          and/ or sector.

40. C-Level Jobs - C-level jobs refer to highest level senior jobs like CEO and CTO.

41. Entry Level Job - A position that does not require in depth experience, largely aimed at graduates and those entering a specialism for the first time.

42. Internship - Usually an unpaid position for someone to gain work experience. Popular with the Graduate recruitment market.

43. Company Culture - Company culture is the sum of the business and includes the values, routines, work environment, management structures, expectations, and objectives of a company.

44. Direct Hire - Term used when a candidate is not an employee of the staffing company but is directly on the client company payroll.

45. Human Resources - A department responsible for the management of employees. Responsibilities generally include (but are not limited to) recruitment, training and retention.

46. Job Analysis - The process of gathering information about a job to identify and describe the duties, tasks, and abilities necessary to perform the job.

47. Job Board 
A job board is a place to look for or advertise a job online. Recruitment professionals can utilise job boards to get their positions in front of the right candidates.

48. Recruitment Software - Software that helps recruitment professionals find, engage and place candidates with clients.

49. RPO - Recruitment Process Outsourcing - A form of business process outsourcing where an employer transfers all or part of its recruitment processes to an external provider. RPO providers can manage the entire recruiting/hiring process or can manage one or two aspects of the process, essentially serving as an extension of the company’s HR department. This can form part or full transfer of your recruitment operations to a capable recruitment agency. The nominated agency can act on behalf of the company and actively create efficiencies, cost savings and process improvements. An RPO looks at efficiencies and uses agency experience, reputation and capability to source direct candidates and implement talent pooling while reinforcing the company brand and EVP.

50. HRIS (Human Resources Information System) - A technology solution used to manage personnel and includes facilities such as holiday and sickness reporting and monitoring.

51. Boolean or Boolean Search - George Boole, the famous computer pioneer and mathematician created this term. Boolean search or Boolean is a systematic process of logical thinking and finding ways of optimising your search for specific jobs. For example, if you want to search candidates for Project Managers in the field of Construction, you can use different keywords like Construction Project Manager, Construction Engineer, and others to optimise your online search. The tactics of Boolean search differ on the basis of medium you are using to search the candidates.

52. KPI (Key Performance Indicator) - A value to measure performance against a target. An example of this in a recruitment context is ‘time to hire’ where the value is the amount of days to recruit from a job going live to a candidate’s offer or  start date.

53. PES (Pre Employment Screening) - The process of performing background checks of potential employees and validating the applicant’s work and experience. PES can also uncover any criminal history, workers compensation claims or previous employment issues.

54. SLA (Service Level Agreements) - An agreement of commitment between the service provider and client to set out the expected performance level.

55. On-Boarding - This is the process for new employees to gain the essential company knowledge, skills, values and behaviours to become effective as soon as possible.

Happy Sourcing!!