Below you will find a glossary of recruiting terms.  If there are some terms missing, please let us know through our Suggestion Box!

Term   Description
360 Survey   An employee survey program where each employee is rated on surveys distributed to his or her co-workers, customers, and managers. Employers may use this feedback to help develop an individual’s skill or they may integrate it into performance management programs.
     
Abandonment Rates   Metric for the number of job applicants that start, but do not finish completing, a job application on a company’s ATS (applicant tracking system).
     
Active Candidate   Someone who is actively looking for a new position and may have registered with a recruitment agency or job boards.
     
Affirmative Action   Policies aimed at increasing the employment opportunities of certain groups (typically minority groups).
     
Affirmative Action Plan (AAP)   A written set of specific, results-oriented procedures to be followed by an organization to ensure non-discrimination in hiring practices.
     
Ageism   Discrimination on the basis of a person’s age. It is against the law to discriminate against anyone in the workplace because of their actual or assumed age.
     
Agency Recruiter   An agency recruiter works for a recruitment agency finding and placing candidates for various companies.
     
Applicant Tracking System (ATS)   Also known as a Candidate Tracking System, it refers to the software an organization uses to automate the recruitment and application process internally.
     
Applicants   Those who apply for jobs via recruitment agencies, job boards, or through an employers HR system.  Usually Active Candidates, but not always.
     
Assessment Center   Programs specifically designed around a particular function (eg sales or customer service) where all candidates perform in role plays and participate in group exercises. Most commonly used for volume hiring campaigns.  A program designed specifically for a particular job or job function to role play and test the abilities of candidates.  Usually used in volume hiring, but not always.
     
Attrition   A gradual voluntary reduction of employees (through resignation and retirement) who are not replaced, which decreases the size of the employer's workforce.
     
Ban the Box   Refers to the box to be checked on a job application asking if an applicant has a criminal record. Depending on legislation, which varies by jurisdiction, employers may need to remove questions regarding criminal history from the initial job application.
     
Base Wage Rate   The monthly salary or hourly wage paid for a job, before bonuses, commissions, and overtime.
     
Behavioral Competency   Predicting how competent a candidate will be at the position they are applying for, based on answers to questions. Employers should determine in advance what behavioral competencies fit the position and create interview questions based on those.
     
Behavioral Risk Management   A plan for implementing programs, policies or services for correcting or eliminating various employee behavioral issues.
     
Behavioral-Based Interview   An interview conducted in a manner to find out how a candidate behaves in a particular situation.  Normally involving a series of questions asking a candidate to discuss past experiences.
     
Benchmark Job   Used to make pay comparisons and job evaluations because pay and other relevant data is easily accessible.
     
Benchmarking   Using specific standards to make comparisons between different organizations or different segments of organizations.
     
Boolean Search   A type of search that allows users to increase the relevancy of results by using AND/OR variables. Allows for multiple search terms to be utilized to narrow, or focus, search results.
     
Broadbanding   A pay structure that exchanges a large number of narrow salary ranges for a smaller number of broader salary ranges. This type of pay structure encourages the development of broad employee skills and growth while reducing the opportunity for promotion.
     
Bumping   Giving long-standing employees whose positions are to be eliminated the option of taking other positions within the company that they are qualified for and that are currently held by employees with less seniority.
     
Buy Back   When an employee resigns but is offered something (usually a higher salary, but sometimes other benefits or perks) to stay with their current employer.
     
Career Pathing   The process where an employee charts a course within a company for their career path, growth and development.
     
Carve-Out   The elimination of coverage of a specific category of benefit services (e.g. vision care, mental health/psychological services, or prescription drugs) with one provider and seeks coverage with another.
     
Case Interview   An interview conducted where candidates are given a scenario to review and then presents their plan and/or actions for the scenario.
     
C-Level or C-Suite   C-level roles are high-level positions, usually senior executive management. May be CEOs, CTOs, CFOs, CSOs, or others.
     
Company Culture    Company culture is the sum of the business and includes the values, work environment, management structures, expectations, and objectives of a company.
     
Competency Modeling   A set of descriptions that identify the skills, knowledge, and behaviors needed to effectively perform in a company and assist in clarifying job and work expectations.
     
Competency-Based Pay   Also known as skill-based or knowledge-based pay, determines compensation by the type, breadth and depth of skills that employees have and use in their positions.
     
Condition of Employment   A company’s policies and rules which employees are expected to abide by in order to remain employed.
     
Confidentiality Agreement   An agreement between an employer and employee in which the employee may not disclose proprietary or confidential information.
     
Contingency Placement   The practice of charging a fee to either the applicant or the employer only after a successful referral of the applicant to the employer for employment.
     
Cost-Per-Hire   The average total cost of an employer to hire an employee. These costs can include job board advertising, recruiting fees, relocation costs, and training costs.
     
Employee Advocacy   An employer branding tactic involving the promotion of a company by its employees.
     
Employee Assessments   Tests used to help employers in pre-hire situations to select candidates best suited for open positions, and may include personality, aptitude and skills assessments.
     
Employee Engagement   A business management concept, generally manifested as an employee engagement or incentivization program, which helps to improve the morale and overall attitude of employees regarding their job and employer.  Happy employees are a tremendous benefit to a company.
     
Employee Retention   Practices and policies designed to create a work environment that reduces employee turnover.
     
Employee Turnover   The rate of employees who have left the company, either voluntarily or through dismissal, over a set time period.
     
Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)   A policy statement enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that states that equal consideration for a job is applicable to all individuals, and that the employer does not discriminate based on race, color, religion, age, marital status, national origin, disability or sex.
     
Equity Theory   The idea that people desire to be treated fairly and thus compare their own contributions to the workplace against those of their coworkers, to determine if they are being treated fairly.
     
Exempt Employee   An employee who meets Fair Labor Standards Act exemptions and is exempt from overtime pay.
     
Exit Interview   A formal interview conducted after an employee resigns but before they actually leave the organization to find out the reasons for leaving and ideally garner information the company can use to make improvements.
     
Gamification   Systems or processes which make employment/work activties more enjoyable by using a game design which invokes employees' competitiveness or desire for reward based upon the effectiveness, efficiency, or results of their work.
     
Glass Ceiling   A term used to describe the unseen barriers (hence the glass ceiling) that keep minorities and women from career advancement, regardless of their qualifications.
     
Group Interview    Designed around volume hiring needs when interviews are conducted in a group rather than individually.
     
Head Hunter   A recruiter who focuses on searching for a qualified candidate for a specific role.  Usually focuses on a specific job type or industry.
     
Human Capital   The collective skills, knowledge and competencies of an organization’s employees that enables it to create economic value.
     
Human Capital Management   Recruiting and retaining qualified candidates, helping new employees fit into an organization, and improving the human capital or a company through recruitment, compensation, benefits, training, and employee engagement activities. 
     
Independent Recruiter    A recruiter who works on their own rather than being employed by an agency.
     
Indirect Compensation   Compensation that is not paid directly to an employee and is calculated in addition to base salary and incentive pay (i.e., insurance, vacation and sick leave, retirement benefits, educational benefits, relocation expenses, and other perks).
     
In-house Recruiter   A recruitment professional that finds and places candidates in the company they currently work for.
     
Insourcing   When a candidate is recruited into a new role in the company from within.
     
Job Analysis    The process of gathering information about a job to identify and describe the duties, tasks, and abilities necessary to perform the job.  In other words, the research necessary to properly write a job description to promote the opening and seek properly qualified candidates.
     
Job Board    A job board is a great place to promote jobs, find and interact with candidates, and do so for a reasonable fee.  Using a niche job board for your specific opening or for your indsutry can pay huge dividends in cost-per-hire and quality of cnadidates.
     
Job Hopper   Someone who doesn’t stay at one job for a long time.
     
Job Shadowing   When an employee (or perhaps even a recruiter) spends time with another employee to learn more about the role.
     
KSA    Knowledge, Skills and Abilities relates to the characteristics required to perform a job correctly.
     
Merit Pay   Performance-related pay for workers who perform their jobs effectively, according to measurable criteria.
     
Mobile Recruiting   Using mobile technologies to find and connect with candidates via mobile devices like phones or tablets.
     
Nepotism   Preferential hiring of relatives, or even friends, even though others might be more qualified for those positions.
     
Niche Recruiter   Refers to a recruiter who works solely within a specific industry, or searches only for a specific job type.
     
Non-Compete   A clause in many employment contracts where the employee agrees not to work for a competing business for a specific period of time.
     
Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)   A contract restricting an employee from disclosing confidential or proprietary information.
     
Non-Exempt Employee   An employee who does not meet any one of the Fair Labor Standards Act exemption tests and is paid on an hourly basis and covered by wage and hour laws regarding hours worked and overtime pay.
     
Offer Letter   The documentation formally presenting an offer of employment to a candidate.
     
Offshoring   This refers to the process of hiring employees from another country where labor is much cheaper.
     
On Target Earnings (OTE)   Mostly seen in sales positions, it is the estimated amount an employee will receive assuming they meet all their targets and therefore qualify for all their commissions.
     
On-Boarding   The process of bringing an employee into a position with the goal of providing all necessary tools to be productive as soon as possible.  Includes training, assigning equipment and space, and benefits enrollment.
     
One Way Interviews   An interview method where candidates record video responses to a series of questions for employers to review at their convenience.
     
Open Job Interview   interview where candidates interested in applying for a position can attend interviews conducted at a range of times that work for them.
     
Outplacement   A post-termination service typically offered by larger companies to help those who may have been made redundant locate a new job based on their skills.
     
Panel Interview   Where one candidate is interviewed by a number of people – for example a member of the HR team, a line manager, and perhaps a senior manager.
     
Passive Candidate   This is someone who is usually happy in their current role. They are not actively looking for a new opportunity, but they may be open to the right opportunity should it come along. Passive candidates represent a huge, largely untapped pool of qualified workers.  In order to find them, an employer will have to work with a partner who is able to reach them consistently, such as AgPloyment.com.
     
Peer Appraisal   A performance assessment given by an employee’s colleagues who have observed the employee’s job performance.
     
Performance Improvement (or Action) Plan   A plan to improve an employee’s performance in which the performance problem is identified and measured and a plan is implemented to modify and improve over a set period of time.
     
Phone Screening or Pre-Screening Interview   Step prior to an in-person interview in which the employer contacts a candidate and performs a brief interview to further determine the suitability of a candidate.
     
Placement Agency   An employment agency which refers applicants to employers. A fee is charged either to the employer or the applicant after a successful referral.
     
Poaching   Refers to ‘stealing’ an employee from a competing company.
     
Purple Squirrel   A term used by recruiters to describe a candidate with precisely the right education, experience, and qualifications that perfectly fits a job’s requirements. The idea is that the perfect candidate is as rare as a real-life purple squirrel.
     
Recruitment Process Outsourcing   A form of business process outsourcing (BPO) where an employer transfers all or part of its recruitment processes to an external service provider.  Typically involves an organization taking on responsibility for all or most parts of an organization’s recruiting process for direct hire employees.
     
Recruitment Timeline   A schedule outlining the key recruitment steps and time scales to complete each phase of the process.
     
Redundancy   When a person is let go because their position is no longer required within the business.
     
Referral Bonus   One of the many strategies employed by employers to reduce their recruitment costs. Current employees are offered a sum of money for referring a candidate, who then accepts a position and successfully passes their probation.
     
Relay Interview   Similar to a panel interview in that a candidate is interviewed by several people, except that the interviews are done one at a time, and the candidate may move to the next interview upon satisfactory completion of the prior itnerview.  Some candidates will not be asked to progress to the next interview if they do not pass the first interview.  A very good way to move candidates through and ensure that only the most qualified continue through to the end.
     
Retained Search   Service provided by an executive search firm to locate a candidate for a specific position at a client's company. Fee is payable whether or not a hire is made. 
     
Returnship   This is a term for an internship specifically designed for professionals looking to return after a period of time out of the workforce.
     
Screening Matrix   A screening matrix helps determine who will proceed through to the next stage of the recruitment process.
     
Social Recruiting   The process of acquiring candidates and sourcing talent through social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.
     
Sourcing    Sourcing is the use of one or more strategies to attract or identify candidates to fill job vacancies.
     
Staffing Manager   HR professional responsible for every aspect of a company’s hiring needs, often an in-house role.
     
Stay Interview   An interview conducted with an employee who currently works at an organization to determine what motivates them and why they enjoy working there.
     
Talent Acquisition    The process of acquiring qualified candidates (talent) for your company.
     
Talent Brand   The way your company appears to job seekers, and may influence the desire of a candidate to work there, or determine whether or not they even apply for your open positions.
     
Talent Pool/Candidate Pool   A database of job seeker profiles used by recruiters to match job openings to candidates.
     
Total Remuneration   An employee’s complete annual pay package, including all forms of money, benefits, services, and other perks.
     
Transferrable Skills   Refer to a candidate’s skills that are able to be utilized in a variety of industries or across a number of different jobs, or divisions.
     
Unstructured Interview   An interview where the interviewer does not follow a formal list of behavioral-, or competency-based questions.
     
Video Interview   A job interview that takes place through a video technology platform instead of in-person.