Understanding recruitment terminology: Are you struggling to understand all of the jargon you are reading in job adverts or hearing in meetings?
At Carousel, we like to keep things simple, easy and transparent. With so many terms used in the recruitment sector, we’ve created a go-to guide to understanding some of the recruitment vocabulary that is creeping in to everyday chat.
Acqui-hiring – Purchasing a company in order to acquire its employees
Active / Passive Candidates – An active candidate is actively looking for work, whereas a passive candidate is employed but may be open to considering a new role
Affinity Bias: An unconscious bias that occurs when someone is more naturally inclined towards someone they feel they have something in common with (i.e. they went to the same university or worked for the same company)
Asynchronous interview: A video interview where candidates pre-record their responses to interview questions using video software.
ATS – Applicant Tracking System – software used to manage the recruitment process
BAU – Business as usual
Blind Hiring – Recruitment technique that removes all personal information from candidate’s applications to eliminate bias and promote diversity
Blue-collar – The term relating to manual or skilled work or workers, usually in industry
Boolean Search – A technique that uses keywords combined with specific operators (i.e. “And”, “Or”, “Not”)
Boomerang Employee – Someone who returns to a company that they left
Buy-back – When an employee is offered more money than their previous salary to stay after they’ve resigned (similar to counter-offered, but the offer is from their current company)
DOE – “Depends on experience” – this usually refers to the salary bracket for the role and implies that the final salary offered will be dependent on the candidate’s experience
COB – Close of business (the end of the day)
CV Parsing – The process of software or algorithms automatically analysing, extracting, capturing and/or converting a CV or application into a structured format for easy storage and searching purposes
CX – Candidate Experience – the overall experience candidates have through the recruitment process
Culture Fit vs Culture Add – Culture Fit is someone who fits the existing team/company culture, whereas Culture Add is about bringing someone in who aligns with company values but also brings something new/different to the table
DBS Check – Disclosure and Barring Service Check. This is a background / criminal record check by employers in the UK to ensure individuals are not barred from working with vulnerable groups. There are different types of checks depending on the requirements of the role
DEI – Diversity, Equality and Inclusion
Discovery Calls – Initial first call with a potential candidate to ascertain if they could be suitable for the role/company
Employee Value Proposition (EVP) – The combined salary, rewards and benefits that an employer offers to attract and retain employees
Gig Economy – Workers who primarily work on a freelance, project-based or short-term contract basis; they don’t earn a regular wage
Ghosting – When an individual stops responding without explanation
GTM / Go-to-market recruitment – Roles directly involved in bringing products/services to market usually sales, marketing and customer success roles, predominantly in startups
Intake Meeting – Initial strategy meeting in which the HR/Hiring Manager and the recruiter discuss the goals that should be met during the recruitment process
Internal Mobility – The movement of employees internally to different roles or departments
Job Requisition – Usually a form or request from the hiring manager to HR department to request for a role to be filled/increase headcount
KSA – acronym for knowledge, skills and abilities
Knockout Questions – Screening questions designed to quickly disqualify candidates who don’t meet the essential criteria
Lateral Hire – Someone who is in the same job at the same level in another company, therefore they’re stepping sideways and not stepping up into a higher level role; the belief is that they won’t need much training as they’re already doing the role elsewhere
Nepotism – Favouritism towards relatives, associates or friends in the hiring process
Non-Compete Agreement (NCA) – A non-compete agreement is a contract between an employee and their employer where the employee agrees not to compete with the business if they leave the organisation (i.e. not to move to a competitor, engage with clients or start a rival business)
Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) is a confidentiality agreement; it is a contract that stops an employee from sharing confidential information about their employer/organisation (they can be one-way or mutual)
Onboarding – The process of integrating a new employee into the organisation
OTE – On-Target Earnings – The total amount an employee could earn a year, including base salary and performance-based bonus/commission, if they meet their targets
PDP – Personal Development Plan. This is as plan that helps to track an employee’s development and progress within the company on a long term basis
Pre-employment Checks / Screening – The process of verifying the qualifications, references, experience and suitability of a candidate, usually after a verbal job offer is made
PSL – Preferred Supplier List. A list of pre-approved agencies/suppliers that hiring managers/HR can use
Purple Squirrel – The unicorn of candidates – a very rare calibre of candidate that ticks all the boxes
Ramp Time – The time it takes for a new hire to become fully productive in their role
Recruitment Funnel – The recruitment process of narrowing down the candidate pool through various stages until 1 (or more) is hired.
Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) – The outsourcing of the entire recruitment process to a third-party provider, usually with very small profit margins due to high volumes of recruitment
STAR Questioning – An interview technique that allows candidates to explain in detail the Situation, Task, Action and Result
Succession Planning – The strategic process of identifying and developing internal employees in order to fill key / leadership positions as they become available
Talent pool / Pipeline – A pool/pipeline of candidates who are suitable/qualified for future vacancies
Top-tier Talent – Individuals possessing exceptional skills, experience and abilities that will be highly valued by a client
Unicorn – A rapid growth startup with a valuation exceeding US$1billion
White-collar – The term relating to office work or workers
X-ray Search / Hiring – Boolean style recruitment techniques
Zebra – A startup focused on building a sustainable and profitable business – different to a Unicorn which is usually in pursuit of rapid growth (and valued at over US$1b)
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