Complete fundamentals of the new Recruitment Landscape


If you assist with any aspect of the recruitment process, it is vital that you understand the new recruitment landscape and all the different hiring terminology used in the industry. Some recruitment terminology has been around for years, but as the market is rapidly changing, there are many new recruitment trends, hiring strategies and terminologies emerging.

We have written the Social Recruitment Reference Guide to explain the fundamentals terminology of the new recruitment landscape and provide you with everything you need to know to take your recruitment knowledge to the next level.

This, in turn, can enable you as a recruiter to see new and existing ways to find and attract the top talent candidates in today's competitive job market.

A B C D E F G H I J K M P R S T W ALL
  • A
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    Artificial intelligence is the simulation of various human intelligence processes, such as reasoning, learning and self-correction, by a machine. Once programmed correctly, AI technology can collect and analyze data at a significantly faster and more accurate rate than other methods.

  • Agency Recruitment (Recruitment Consultant)

    A recruitment agency or a recruitment consultant is a third-party vendor that works in partnership with employers to find, and in some cases hire, candidates for specific job openings. The employer can maintain a short or long-term relationship with the third-party vendor.

  • Application Tracking Systems (ATS)

    ATS systems allow employers to collect, organize and store candidate data, such as resumes, applications, pre-hire assessments, interview data and communication between the employer and the candidate. Employers often use the ATS to filter through applications in order to identify candidates with specific skill sets, experience and/or education.

  • Active Candidate

    An active candidate is one that is actively searching for new employment opportunities often through traditional methods, such as recruiters, recruitment agencies, online job boards and social media. These candidates may be currently unemployed, unhappy with their current job positions and/or employer, changing career paths or seeking new career growth opportunities.

  • B
  • Boolean Search

    Boolean searching is built on a method of symbolic logic developed by George Boole (1815-64), who in 1847 introduced mathematical logic, the foundation on which electronic computing is based. A Boolean search allows users to narrow their database and online search results by combining Boolean operators, such as and, or, not and quotations to limit, broaden, or define the search.

  • Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)

    When businesses contract with a third-party vendor to handle specific business processes or functions, such as HR management, recruiting, bookkeeping or call center customer services, this is referred to as Business Process Outsourcing BPO.

  • C
  • Candidate Sourcing

    Sourcing candidates is just one element of the entire hiring process, but it is usually the first step. Candidate sourcing can be done with either reactive methods (sourcing only when there is a job opening) or proactive methods (continuous sourcing, whether the company has a job opening or not).

  • Career Management

    Career management is a planning process that is used to maximize a person’s future job opportunities. Candidates can manage their own career decisions or work with a third-party provider. The planning process includes making conscious decisions about ones’ engagements and activities that further their specific goals of career fulfillment and growth.

  • Corporate Recruitment

    Corporate recruitment is an internal department of one company that is responsible for filling vacancies. They are responsible for writing job descriptions, screening resumes, interviewing candidates, extending job offers, implement onboarding strategies and keeping accurate records in the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) of all candidates and new hires.

  • Corporate Recruiter

    In general, corporate recruiters work for one specific company and are responsible for the entire recruitment process for that company. Typical job duties include sorting through applications, conducting phone interviews and scheduling second interviews.

  • Candidate Experience (CE)

    The candidate experience is how prospective candidates and new hires perceive the hiring process as a whole, including the recruitment process, engagement, interviews, hiring process and onboarding. There are several ways to measure the strength of the candidate experience, including candidate and new hire surveys, online reviews, candidate feedback, and recruitment metrics, like career page conversion rates and application abandonment rates. Delivering a positive candidate experience can help employers build a strong talent pool and improve employee retention rates.

  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

    A Customer Relationship Management system allows businesses to track customer data, such as contact information, points of engagement and purchase history in one convenient platform. This enables businesses to provide their customers with high levels of personalized customer service.

  • Candidate Management

    Candidate management involves building a relationship between the recruiter and the candidate. With smart sourcing, the goal is to help candidates grow in their career by providing them with a clear, honest and accurate look at potential job opportunities. This enables the candidate to make informed career decisions.

  • Content Management Systems (CMS)

    A CMS is a platform that allows companies to create, manage and publish digital content for websites and other marketing purposes. In recruitment, CMS software can help recruiter manage job postings, career website content, press releases, and more.

  • Candidate Engagement

    Candidate engagement refers to the level of engagement between the employer and the candidate during the recruitment process. It is typically measured by how well the employee feels that the employer treated and communicated with them during the recruiting process. Several studies have found a connection between high levels of candidate engagement and improved retention rates.

  • Candidate centric recruitment

    A recruitment process centered on the individual needs of each potential candidate and focused on transparency, tangible outcomes and trust, to reach top talent candidates and entice them to apply.

  • Candidate-driven job market

    Is a job market perspective with more jobs available than active job-seekers.

  • Candidate Relationship Management

    Is an active candidate engagement process in which the recruiter and the candidate develop a relationship of trust by providing them with a clear, honest and accurate look at potential job opportunities, which enable potential candidates to make informed career decisions.

  • Cross-functional recruitment collaboration

    Is a recruitment tactic in which a company will outsource specialist recruitment activities such as candidate market research, or sourcing to speed up the hiring process, and improve the quality of hire and lowers recruitment costs.

  • Candidate Persona

    A candidate persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal candidate. This persona is formed by defining the characteristics, skills, and traits that make up your perfect hire. Creating personas help guide your hiring process and help you identify the talent that is the best fit for your organization.

  • D
  • Dialogue Marketing

    Dialogue marketing is the technique of building a lasting relationship with customers through various communication tools. The idea of these marketing techniques is to create customers who will purchase your products and services over and over again and even become advocates who recommend your services to others

  • Dialogue marketing in recruitment

    In the recruitment model, dialogue marketing is about building long-lasting relationships with prospective applicants. This is done through strategic communication tactics and can help to improve retention rates, enhance the candidate experience and entice new hires to refer high-quality candidates.

  • Design Thinking

    Design thinking is a systematic process of developing and implementing new and innovative solutions that meet the needs of people through the use of efficient technology in order to achieve positive business success.

  • Design thinking in career management

    Design thinking encourages candidates to self-evaluate their own personal needs and motivations, as well as the needs and motivations of those involved in their career, such as their employers, potential employers and coworkers. This level of self-empathy enables the candidates to seek job growth opportunities that are best suited not just for their specific skills, but also for their needs.

  • Design thinking in recruitment

    When using design thinking with the recruitment process, recruiters must start by developing a deep understanding of the candidate’s needs, online behaviors and motivations. Recruiters can then use this data to develop effective recruitment strategies that promote more efficient candidate engagement and a positive candidate experience. Design thinking requires creative problem-solving skills, collaboration and experimentation.

  • Data-driven Recruitment

    Data-driven recruitment is the practice of collecting and analyzing vast amounts of hiring metrics to develop effective recruitment strategies. This data can be used to predict future job performance, to identify top talent candidates and to develop effect candidate engagement techniques. With data-driven recruitment, hiring metrics are being reviewed constantly and adjustments are made to the recruitment strategy as needed.

  • Data-driven recruitment marketing strategy

    This is a type of marketing strategy that is driven by data-based solutions. Recruitment specialists collect and analyze large amounts of hiring data to get a better understanding of the company’s hiring process and its strengths and weaknesses. Hiring specialists then use these valuable hiring metrics to design effective marketing strategies.

  • Design thinking strategy in recruitment

    With a design thinking strategy, the first step is to analyze candidates’ behaviors and motivational factors. This type of strategy takes into account how the candidate thinks, how they behave online, what’s important to them, what makes them apply for a job and other factors, to gear recruitment techniques towards the ideal candidate.

  • Direct Hire

    When an employer offers a job directly to a candidate and the candidate accepts the offer, this is considered a direct hire. While an employment agency, recruiter or sourcing expert may play a role in finding the candidate, the employer makes the final hiring decision and makes the offer directly to the applicant.

  • Digital Recruitment Marketing

    Digital recruitment marketing, also called digital employment marketing, promotes your company and its job openings to qualified applicants across the Internet

  • E
  • Employee Referral

    When a current employee refers a friend, colleague or family member for a position within the company, this is referred to as an employee referral. Some companies offer their employees special incentives for making quality employee referrals.

  • Employer Branding

    With the intense competition to attract top talent, many companies are taking steps to boost their employer branding as a means of attracting more high-qualified candidates to their company. An employer brand highlights the company as an employer rather than a merchant, and it helps to give prospective candidates a view of the company’s value, goals and strengths as an employer.

  • Employer Value Proposition (EVP)

    An Employer Value Proposition (EVP) is an employee-centric approach that highlights the unique attributes and values the employer provides to their employees. Employers use EVPs to positively influence both current employees and prospective employees.

  • Employer Value Proposition (EVP) in recruitment

    Employers develop and incorporate their EVP (Employer Value Proposition) into their recruitment strategies in a way to positively influence potential candidates. The EVP is designed to tell prospective applicants what it is like to work for the employer and what the employer’s values and attributes are. It’s more than just explaining the employee benefits. An EVP portrays the employer’s values and culture. In today’s candidate-driven job market, an EVP can help an employer stand out from their competitors. The EVP also becomes the foundation for the development of the employer brand.

  • Employee Turnover

    A company’s employee turnover rate represents the percentage of employees who leave the company and are replaced by new employees during a set period. Employee turnover can be calculated by the number of voluntary separations, involuntary separations or both.

  • Executive Search

    This recruitment process focuses on hiring for senior-level positions or executive jobs within the company. It requires fine-tuned sourcing and recruitment techniques in order to find highly-qualified candidates.

  • F
  • Full-cycle Recruiting

    Full-cycle recruiting is another name used for 360-recruiting, and it places the responsibility of the entire hiring process on one recruiter or one specific recruitment team. Either an in-house recruiter or a recruitment agency can complete full-cycle recruiting.

  • G
  • GDPR

    GDPR, formally referred to as the General Data Protection Regulation, is a regulatory EU law that is designed to protect the personal data and right to privacy of EU citizens.

  • H
  • Headhunter

    Headhunters are typically third-party providers that provide employment recruitment services. A headhunter is responsible for identifying qualified candidates that match a specific set of criteria, as well as for making the initial contact with prospective candidates.

  • HR Recruiter

    An HR recruiter is a recruiter that works within the Human Resource department of the company. The HR recruiter is responsible for filling open positions for the company.

  • How does a temp agency work?

    Temp agencies match prospective candidates with job openings that fit their specific skill set. Typically, the temp agency handles the entire recruitment process, and the new hire remains an employee of the temp agency. In addition, the temp agency handles the payroll process and all mandatory new hire paperwork. The employer then pays the temp agency a set amount of money per hour for each worker hired. If the employers want to hire the temp worker on a full-time, permanent basis prior to the end of the contract, they must first buy out the contract, which could be a substantial payment.

  • Hybrid-skilled functions

    Hybrid positions that will require professionals to be skilled in more than one area of expertise

  • I
  • In-house Recruiter

    Rather than outsource the recruitment process, some companies hire an in-house recruiter, who is an official employee of the company and is in charge of handling the entire hiring process for the company. Larger companies may hire a “Full-Stack” in-house recruitment team.

  • In-House Sourcer

    An in-house sourcer only handles the search for-and shortlist presentation of candidates, not the entire hiring process.

  • J
  • Job Aggregator

    A job aggregator is a type of search engine the pulls job postings from multiple job boards and career websites and brings them together in one central location. Jobseekers can use this search engine to find relevant jobs based on specific locations and/or keywords.

  • Job Marketing

    Job marketing is the development of hiring practices and marketing strategies aimed at attracting high-quality candidates to apply for an opened job position within the company. Depending on the employer, a separate job marketing plan may need to be developed for multiple positions.

  • K
  • Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

    Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a metric used by companies to assess business performance over a specific time frame. It helps to gauge the performance of key organizational goals, as well as to compare performance against competitors.

  • M
  • Market Research Recruiter

    A market research recruiter is similar to a sales marketer, except that instead of collecting insight, data to drive sales, they drive talent.

  • Millennial Generation / Millenials

    The generation of people born roughly between 1980 – 2000. This generation is also known as Generation Y or the internet generation.

  • P
  • Passive Candidate

    A passive candidate is one that is not actively looking for a new job and typically must be recruited through non-traditional methods, such as sourcing agencies and referrals. Although not actively looking for other work, studies suggest that a majority of passive candidates would change jobs for the right career opportunities.

  • Preferred Supplier Agreement (PSA)

    A PSA serves as a contract between a company and a third-party vendor. While this type of agreement does not always require an exclusive relationship between the two parties, each party does agree to form a close working relationship.

  • R
  • Recruiter

    A recruiter is a person who handles the hiring process for the company. Some of the recruiter’s job duties may include sourcing prospective candidates, filtering through applications, completing reference checks, scheduling interviews and handling salary negotiations.

  • Requisition

    A requisition is the first step in the hiring process. This is the document that the hiring manager submits to the human resource department when requesting a new hire. Once HR approves the requisition, the in-house or third-party recruiter will start the hiring process.

  • Requisitions

    A requisition is an in-house document that hiring managers use to request a new hire. It is usually the first step in the hiring process. The form includes vital information about the position, including job title, work hours per week, list of job duties, salary range and a justification for the position, and it is typically sent to the HR department.

  • Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)

    Recruitment Process Outsourcing, also referred to as RPO, is a business practice where the company decides to outsource, or transfer, some or all of the hiring process to a third-party provider. The RPO provider and the company form a partnership with the primary goals of enhancing the hiring process, reducing the time-to-hire and improving the quality of hire.

  • Recruitment Channels

    Recruiters use various tools, techniques and strategies to find top talent candidates. These various pathways are known as recruitment channels, and they include company career web pages, online job posting, social media platforms (LinkedIn and Facebook), employee referrals and employer review sites. Good recruiters use a variety of recruitment channels to develop a continuous pipeline of top talent candidates.

  • Recruitment Marketing

    Recruitment marketing is the practice of using various marketing techniques, such as employer branding, candidate’s journey and candidate persona, as a strategy for attracting applicants, engaging with prospective candidates and enticing the selected candidate to accept the offer.

  • Recruitment funnel

    A recruitment funnel is a step-by-step funnel method, similar to the sales funnel used by sales teams and marketing professionals. The standard recruiting funnel has applications that start with potential candidates at the top and funnel down to new hires at the bottom.

    Recruitment specialists who use a recruitment funnel think beyond the job board. They use the recruitment funnel’s various touchpoints to evaluate the effectiveness of their recruitment process at each stage of the funnel and to develop customized candidate nurture and candidate engagement strategies to guide the potential candidate down the funnel.

  • Recruitment marketing strategy

    A recruitment marketing strategy is similar to a business marketing plan, except instead of developing an effective strategy to attract and convert customers, the plan is designed to attract, engage and recruit candidates. A recruitment marketing strategy incorporates various marketing technique, including employer branding, EVP development, digital marketing, content marketing, social media marketing and more.

  • Recruitment Metrics

    Employers use recruitment metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of the company’s recruitment strategies. Common recruitment metrics include time-to-fill, quality-of-hire, time-to-hire, attrition rates, source-of-hire, acceptance rate and cost-per-hire.

  • Recruitment Management System (RMS)

    An RMS system is a collection of tools employers and recruiters use to manage the entire recruitment process. An RMS system may include application tracking system functions, customer relationship management tools and/or specific sourcing tools & techniques, with the primary focus to attract and identify top talent candidates that are a good fit for the company.

  • S
  • Screening Interview

    Typically, the first interview in a series of interviews is referred to as the screening interview. This type of interview occurs in-person or over the phone, and its main purpose is to determine if the prospective candidate is in fact qualified for the position. If an applicant passes the screening interview, he or she will likely receive an invitation to an additional interview or interviews.

  • Social Recruitment

    Social recruitment is a hiring strategy that utilizes social media platforms, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, to attract potential candidates. A social recruiter would understand how and when to use various social media platforms to provide the maximum recruitment opportunities. Social recruiting uses many different techniques, such as social media posts, blogs and LinkedIn career pages.

  • Social Recruiter

    A social recruiter specializes in using social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, to identify and engage with prospective candidates. A social recruiter also may be responsible for maintaining the company’s career web page and career-themed blogs.

  • Sourcing

    Sourcing is the process of identifying top talent and entice them to apply for a specific job opening. Sourcing is done through a variety of recruiting techniques, such as job posting, social media posting and career page development.

  • Sourcing in recruitment

    Sourcing is the practice of identifying qualified candidates and enticing them to apply for a specific position. It is often the first step in the overall recruitment process.

  • Sourcing Recruiter

    A sourcing recruiter is responsible for only one element of the recruitment process — sourcing prospective applicants. This type of recruiter is responsible for identifying qualified candidates and in some cases making the initial contact before passing the applicant over to a traditional recruiter.

  • Sourcing Specialist

    A recruiter that specializes in the process of identifying qualified applicants is referred to as a sourcing specialist. These specialized recruiters understand hiring trends, how applicants think and how they behave online, and where to find the most qualified applicants and how to engage. These proactive techniques enable the sourcing specialist to maintain a continuous pipeline of potential candidates.

  • Smart Sourcing

    Smart sourcing is a business practice where the company gathers various types of data and uses the analytical results to make sound business decisions.

  • Smart Sourcing in recruitment

    In recruitment, smart sourcing incorporates the collection of candidate data and examines its analytical data to determine numerous recruitment metrics, such as how the candidate behaves online, where the candidate is most likely to engage and at what point a candidate is ready to submit an application.

  • Sourcing strategy in recruitment

    Sourcing specialists develop in-depth sourcing strategies as a mechanism for identifying and engaging with high-quality candidates. This is a proactive sourcing method with a goal of attracting high-quality candidates.

  • Smart sourcing strategy in recruitment

    A smart sourcing strategy in recruitment takes a proactive approach to developing a continuous pipeline of top talent candidates. This strategy focuses only on one aspect of the hiring process — sourcing. This narrow focus helps to build a solid strategy that is efficient at identifying, attracting and engaging with top talent candidates.

    It takes data-driven and digital marketing solutions and incorporates them into a recruitment strategy that engages with prospective candidates at every stage of the sourcing journey. By considering how the target candidate thinks, reacts, behaves and engages, a smart sourcing strategy is effective at reaching both passive and active candidates.

  • Smart Sourcing Service

    Full-scale sourcing service for hard-to-fill roles when your ideal, qualified candidates have not applied

  • T
  • Third-party Recruitment

    Third-party recruitment takes place when an employer outsources some or all their recruitment functions to a third-party agency.

  • Temp Agency

    Temp agencies work to fill either temporary or seasonal positions for an employer. The temp agency handles the entire recruitment process. In some cases, the employee technically remains an employee of the temp agency, at least during the temporary or probationary period.

  • Talent Acquisition

    Talent Acquisition is the process of sourcing and acquiring new talent for the company. Unlike recruitment, which focuses primarily on filling current openings within the company, talent acquisition involves long-term planning and continuous sourcing of candidates.

  • Talent Management

    Talent management involves the entire process of recruiting, hiring, promoting and retaining company employees. This is not a one-time process but a long-term strategy that focuses on continuous candidate sourcing and comprehensive employee development planning

  • W
  • What does an in-house recruiter do?

    The exact duties of an in-house recruiter may vary from company to company, but this type of recruiter can be responsible for everything from sourcing prospective candidates to sorting through applications to scheduling interviews and even making the final job offer. Companies can choose to handle the entire recruitment process in-house, or they can outsource certain aspects of the hiring process, such as sourcing.

  • What is the difference between a recruiter and a sourcing specialist?

    One of the major differences between a recruiter and a sourcing specialist is that recruiters tend to use reactive hiring techniques, meaning that they wait for a position opens to begin the hiring process, and sourcing specialists use proactive recruiting techniques to maintain and continuous network of prospective candidates.

  • What does a market research recruiter do?

    A market research recruiter is similar to a sales marketer, except that instead of driving sales, they drive talent. By researching current market and recruiting trends for a specific industry, analyzing candidate data, and understanding candidate insight, market research recruiters are better able to develop effective recruitment strategies that help to attract top talent that meets a specific set of criteria.

  • What does an HR recruiter do?

    An HR recruiter will handle a wide range of responsibilities, including sourcing talent, scanning applications, engaging with potential applicants and performing initial interviews. HR recruiters also may be responsible for creating job postings and job descriptions, as well as other related duties.

  • What are the types of third-party recruitment agencies?

    There are several different types of third-party recruitment agencies that employers can work with, including temp agencies, headhunters, recruitment services and niche agencies.

    • Temp Agencies; Temp agencies typically find employees to fill a temporary or seasonal position for the employer.
    • Headhunters: Headhunters source and engage with candidates as means of filling a specific position.
    • Recruitment Service Agencies; These agencies work to match employer and talent through the recruitment process.
    • Niche Agencies; These agencies specialize in one or two specific recruitment functions, such as sourcing, of the recruitment process.

  • What is the difference between a temp agency and a smart sourcing agency?

    Unlike temp agencies, smart sourcing agencies offer niche services that specialize in attracting skilled professionals, mostly passive candidates, for a specific project and/or permanent positions for a company

    •Temp agencies heavily rely on candidates who are actively searching for employment and who seek out their services. Smart sourcing agencies, however, use data-driven strategies to identify, attract and engage with high-quality candidates.
    •Temp agencies work on a reactive basis by filling positions as they become available. Smart sourcing agencies, on the hand, use proactive strategies by continuously building solid sourcing strategies that generate a high-quality talent pool for the employer.

  • What is the difference between EVP and Employer Brand Proposition?

    In basic terms, an EVP explains why employees love to work for the employer, as well as what the employer promises to provide for the employees. The EVP then becomes the foundation for building an Employer Brand Proposition, which basically describes the employer’s identity. The employer brand ultimately becomes how current employees, as well as potential employees, view the company as an employer.

  • What is the difference between a recruitment funnel and normal recruitment process?

    For some employers, the normal recruitment process consists of little more than posting job openings on the various job boards and praying to find the right candidates. While this “post and pray” approach may achieve results, the employee has no control of the quality of those results. Using the recruitment funnel, on the other hand, to develop recruitment marketing strategies enables employers to tailor the results to meet their needs. Understanding vital metrics, such as how to identify your target candidates, when to begin engagement and how to negotiate a job offer, can help develop hiring strategies that are more effective at reaching candidates that are a right “fit” for your business.