Active Sourcing Glossary
Confused with all the recruitment-related terms and buzzwords you encounter on a daily basis? Here’s a glossary with all the recruitment terms and KPI’s that you need to know about.
Active Sourcing
Active sourcing is a proactive approach to identifying, engaging, and attracting candidates who may not be actively seeking new jobs. This method involves outreach strategies like direct messaging, networking, and leveraging recruitment tools to build relationships with potential hires before positions are officially open.
Passive Candidates
Passive candidates are individuals who are not actively searching for jobs but remain open to new opportunities if approached. These candidates are often highly skilled and currently employed, making them valuable targets for proactive recruitment strategies like active sourcing and networking.
Boolean Search
A method of crafting search queries using logical operators (AND, OR, NOT) and symbols to refine and narrow down search results. Boolean search is commonly used in recruitment to find specific candidate profiles by combining keywords, job titles, skills, and exclusions.
Boolean Search Operators
Boolean search operators are tools used in search methodologies to refine results on platforms like LinkedIn, Google, or job boards. By combining keywords with operators such as AND, OR, and NOT, recruiters can create specific search queries to target relevant candidates while filtering out irrelevant results. For example, a search for “Developer AND Java” will return profiles containing both terms.
Talent Pool
A talent pool is a database of pre-screened candidates maintained for current or future hiring needs. Building a talent pool allows recruiters to nurture relationships with potential hires, reduce time-to-hire, and respond quickly to new job openings with qualified candidates.
Job Ads / Job Descriptions
Job ads, often referred to as JDs (Job Descriptions), are documents that outline the responsibilities, qualifications, and requirements of a specific role. Well-crafted job ads not only attract the right candidates but also serve as a reference point during interviews and performance evaluations.
Blue Collar vs. White Collar
Blue Collar Jobs: Typically involve manual labor or skilled trades, such as construction, manufacturing, or transportation.
White Collar Jobs: Generally refer to professional or administrative roles in sectors like finance, technology, or management. Recruitment strategies for these groups vary significantly due to differences in skillsets, industries, and candidate expectations.
Commercial Hiring
Commercial hiring focuses on recruiting candidates for roles in sales, marketing, and other customer-facing positions. These roles are essential for driving revenue and building brand visibility, making sourcing strategies critical for identifying high-performing, goal-oriented individuals.
Tech Hiring
Tech hiring refers to recruiting candidates for technology-driven roles such as software developers, data analysts, and IT specialists. Successful sourcing in tech often requires specialized tools, familiarity with industry trends, and an understanding of technical skillsets to match candidates with job requirements effectively.
Product Hiring
Product hiring involves sourcing candidates for roles in product management, product design, and related functions. These roles require skills in market analysis, user experience (UX), and cross-functional collaboration, making the ability to assess domain expertise and technical understanding critical.
Business Hiring
Business hiring focuses on roles that support organizational operations, including finance, human resources, and administration. Active sourcing for business hiring often involves targeting candidates with strong organizational, analytical, and interpersonal skills.
Executive Search
Executive search is a specialized recruitment process aimed at filling senior-level leadership roles such as CEOs, CFOs, and VPs. This method involves targeted outreach to high-caliber professionals and requires confidentiality, in-depth market knowledge, and strong relationship-building skills to secure top-tier talent.
Outbound Recruiting
Outbound recruiting involves actively reaching out to candidates through direct messages, calls, or emails. This proactive strategy is commonly used in active sourcing to engage potential candidates who may not be actively applying for roles but align with the desired qualifications.
Talent Mapping
Talent mapping is the process of analyzing a market or organization to identify key talent and roles. This strategy provides insights into the talent landscape, helps recruiters plan for future hiring needs, and strengthens succession planning efforts.
Headhunting
Headhunting, also known as executive recruiting, is a targeted approach to identifying and attracting top-tier candidates for specific roles. Often focused on senior or specialized positions, headhunting requires a deep understanding of industry trends and strong networking skills.
Multi-Touch Campaigns
Multi-touch campaigns are a series of engagement attempts across multiple channels, such as email, social media, and phone calls, to connect with candidates. This approach increases the chances of building meaningful relationships by reaching candidates through their preferred communication channels.
Social Sourcing
Social sourcing is the practice of finding candidates on social platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, or Instagram. By leveraging these networks, recruiters can identify potential talent, assess their online presence, and engage directly with candidates in a more personal and authentic manner.
Social Recruiting
Social recruiting uses paid social media ads, such as Facebook or Instagram ads, to attract candidates. This strategy enables recruiters to target specific demographics or interests, increasing the likelihood of reaching qualified applicants in a cost-effective way.
Professional Networks
Professional networks are platforms like GitHub, Behance, and Dribbble used to source specialized talent. These platforms allow recruiters to evaluate candidates’ portfolios, skills, and contributions to their professional communities, providing deeper insights than traditional resumes.
ATS (Applicant Tracking System)
An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a software tool used to track and manage candidates throughout the hiring process. From resume parsing to interview scheduling, an ATS streamlines recruitment workflows and helps maintain a centralized record of all applicant data.
CRM
A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a recruitment tool designed to build and nurture relationships with both leads/ clients and candidates. Unlike an ATS, which focuses on talents only, a CRM helps you to track both your Sales and Recruitment efforts in one tool.
AI Sourcing Tool
A technology solution that leverages artificial intelligence to automate and optimize the candidate sourcing process. These tools analyze job descriptions, scan large talent databases, and use algorithms to identify and shortlist candidates who match specific criteria.
Example: Hi Remi
Hi Remi is an AI sourcing tool built specifically for recruiters by recruiters. It eliminates the manual frustration of recruitment by sourcing and screening candidates from a database of over 700 million profiles. Hi Remi delivers tailored candidate lists in minutes, helping recruiters focus on the human side of hiring while reducing time-to-fill and improving efficiency.
Multi-Poster
A multi-poster is a recruitment tool that allows job ads to be published across multiple platforms simultaneously. This saves time and ensures consistent messaging across job boards and social media channels.
LinkedIn Recruiter
LinkedIn Recruiter is a premium tool for sourcing and managing candidates on LinkedIn. It offers advanced search filters, InMail credits, and collaboration features, making it ideal for large-scale recruitment efforts.
LinkedIn Recruiter Lite
LinkedIn Recruiter Lite is a scaled-down version of LinkedIn Recruiter designed for individual recruiters or small teams. It includes basic search capabilities and limited InMail credits, making it a cost-effective solution for smaller recruitment needs.
Connection Request
A connection request is a LinkedIn feature that allows users to invite others to join their professional network. When used strategically in recruitment, it can serve as the first step in building a relationship with potential candidates.
InMail
InMail is a LinkedIn messaging feature available with premium accounts. It allows recruiters to directly message candidates they are not connected with, providing a powerful tool for personalized outreach.
E-Mail Sequence
An email sequence is a series of automated or scheduled emails sent to candidates to maintain engagement. Commonly used in recruitment campaigns, email sequences help nurture relationships and keep potential hires informed about opportunities.
Candidate Persona
A candidate persona is a detailed profile that outlines the ideal candidate’s skills, motivations, career goals, and other characteristics. This tool helps recruiters target the right talent by understanding what makes a candidate a good fit for a role and tailoring outreach accordingly.
Customized Outreach
Customized outreach refers to tailored messages that address a candidate’s specific experience, aspirations, or interests. By personalizing communication, recruiters can significantly improve engagement rates and foster stronger connections.
Elevator Pitch
An elevator pitch is a short, compelling message designed to introduce an opportunity and capture a candidate’s interest quickly. Typically lasting 30-60 seconds, it highlights the role’s unique value and sets the stage for deeper conversations.
Success-Based Commission
A specific type of commission model where payment is solely contingent upon successfully meeting predefined hiring goals, such as placing a candidate. The recruiter’s compensation is tied directly to results, ensuring alignment with client objectives.
Success Fee
A fee paid to a recruiter or agency only after a candidate they sourced has been successfully hired. This performance-based model aligns recruiter incentives with the client’s hiring success, making it common in contingency recruitment.
Commission
A payment structure where recruiters earn a percentage of a candidate’s first-year salary or the value of the placement. The commission is often tied to successfully placing a candidate and can vary based on agreements with the client.
Recruiting Retainer
A payment model where a recruiter or agency receives an upfront or ongoing fee to manage a client’s hiring needs. This is typically used for high-value or specialized roles, ensuring dedicated attention and a partnership-focused approach.
Skill-Based Sourcing
A recruitment strategy that focuses on identifying candidates based on specific skills or competencies required for a role, rather than relying solely on job titles or previous experience. This approach is particularly effective for finding talent in emerging or niche fields.
Behavioral Interview Question
A type of interview question designed to assess a candidate’s past behavior in specific situations as a predictor of future performance. Examples include, “Can you describe a time when you resolved a conflict in a team?” or “How have you handled tight deadlines in the past?”
Skill-Based Sourcing
A recruitment strategy that focuses on identifying candidates based on specific skills or competencies required for a role, rather than relying solely on job titles or previous experience. This approach is particularly effective for finding talent in emerging or niche fields.
Behavioral Interview Question
A type of interview question designed to assess a candidate’s past behavior in specific situations as a predictor of future performance. Examples include, “Can you describe a time when you resolved a conflict in a team?” or “How have you handled tight deadlines in the past?”
Candidate Experience
The overall impression and perception a candidate has of an employer during the recruitment process. This includes communication, transparency, application ease, interview interactions, and onboarding. Positive experiences enhance employer branding and increase the likelihood of offer acceptance.
Zero-Based Hiring
A workforce planning approach that starts from scratch, identifying the exact roles and skills needed based on current and future business needs, without relying on historical hiring data or assumptions.
Case Study
A recruitment assessment where candidates are given a scenario or business challenge to analyze and solve. Case studies test analytical thinking, decision-making, and job-specific skills, often used for senior or specialized roles.
Work Sample Test
An assessment method where candidates complete tasks or projects that closely mirror real work they would perform in the role. This approach evaluates their practical skills and problem-solving abilities in a realistic context.
Workforce Planning
A strategic process used by organizations to forecast and prepare for their future workforce needs. This involves analyzing current workforce capabilities, predicting future demand, and creating a plan to bridge gaps in talent to meet business objectives.
Volume Hiring
The process of recruiting a large number of candidates within a short timeframe, often for roles requiring similar skills or for seasonal and operational needs. Volume hiring strategies often involve automated tools and streamlined workflows to handle high applicant volumes efficiently.
Video Interviewing
A modern recruitment method where interviews are conducted remotely using video conferencing tools. Video interviewing allows companies to assess candidates regardless of location, saving time and reducing travel costs, while providing a more flexible experience for both parties.
Upskilling
The process of training employees to enhance their current skill set or acquire new competencies relevant to their roles or future opportunities. Upskilling helps businesses stay competitive by ensuring their workforce evolves alongside industry demands.
RaaS (Recruitment as a Service)
A flexible recruitment model where companies pay for recruitment services on demand. Unlike RPO, RaaS is often subscription-based or project-based, making it ideal for companies needing short-term or specific hiring support without long-term contracts.
RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing)
A model where a company outsources all or part of its recruitment processes to a third-party provider. RPO providers take responsibility for sourcing, screening, and hiring candidates, often delivering scalable and tailored solutions to meet business needs.
Quota Hiring
A hiring strategy focused on meeting specific recruitment targets, often related to diversity, headcount, or departmental needs. Quota hiring ensures that organizational goals or compliance requirements are met, such as hiring a set number of individuals from underrepresented groups.
Diversity Hire
A recruitment effort where the goal is to hire a candidate from an underrepresented group to improve organizational diversity and inclusion. It aligns with company values and strategic diversity goals.
Diversity Sourcing
Recruitment strategies focused on identifying and attracting candidates from underrepresented groups to foster a more inclusive and equitable workforce. This often involves tailored outreach and sourcing from diverse talent pools.