Every staffing and recruitment term, defined.

A 1099 contractor is a US independent contractor who receives a Form 1099-NEC at year end rather than a W-2, reporting…

The 12-week qualifying period is how long an agency worker must work in the same role with a hirer before gaining equal…

180-degree recruiting is a model where the recruiter handles only candidate-facing work: sourcing, screening and…

360-degree recruiting is a model where one consultant owns the full cycle, from winning the client and sourcing…

The 9-box grid is a talent management tool that plots employees on a 3x3 matrix measuring current performance…

The ABC test is a three-part test some US states, such as California under AB5, use to decide whether a worker is an…

ACA compliance means meeting Affordable Care Act rules, which require large US employers to offer affordable health…

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) is a US federal law that prohibits employment discrimination against…

An AI agent is an autonomous software system that makes decisions and takes actions to complete multi-step tasks…

AI bias is when an automated hiring system produces systematically unfair outcomes based on protected characteristics,…

An AI copilot is an assistant built into a recruiter's existing tools, such as an ATS or email, offering suggestions…

AI hallucination is when a language model confidently produces information that sounds plausible but is factually…

AI outreach is the use of AI to write and send personalised recruiting messages at a volume that manual outreach by…

AI screening in recruitment is automated technology that evaluates job applications at scale by analysing CVs,…

An API (Application Programming Interface) is a defined contract that lets two software systems exchange data and…

An API integration connects two software systems so they exchange data automatically, with no manual export, import or…

ATS augmentation means adding capabilities to an existing applicant tracking system through integrations, APIs or…

Accelerated vesting is a plan provision that lets unvested shares or units vest early, triggered by an acquisition or…

Acqui-hiring is when a company buys a startup mainly to bring its engineering team in-house rather than for its product…

An active candidate is a job seeker who is currently looking for work and taking deliberate steps to find it, such as…

Active sourcing is the practice of proactively finding and approaching candidates who are not looking for a job, rather…

Adverse action is any hiring decision that negatively affects a candidate based on a background check, which US law…

Adverse impact (also called disparate impact) occurs when a recruitment or selection practice that appears neutral in…

Affinity bias is the unconscious tendency to favor candidates who resemble the interviewer in background, interests or…

An affinity group is a voluntary, employee-led group built around a shared identity or interest, also called an…

Affirmative action, for US federal contractors, means maintaining written programs under Executive Order 11246 to…

An Affirmative Action Plan is a written program US federal contractors must keep to show how they ensure equal…

An agency fee is the payment a recruitment agency charges a client for placing a candidate, usually a percentage of the…

An agency worker is a person employed by a staffing agency and placed at a client organisation to carry out work under…

The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (AWR) give UK temporary workers equal pay and basic conditions after 12 weeks in…

Agentic AI is artificial intelligence that can plan, decide and act on its own to complete multi-step goals without…

An all-in-one ATS/CRM is a recruitment platform that combines applicant tracking and candidate relationship management…

An alumni network is a community of former employees, kept in touch with by an employer, and used as a source of…

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities in…

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is software that manages the end-to-end recruitment process — collecting…

Applicant to hire ratio is the number of applications a role receives for every hire made, such as 50:1, showing funnel…

Application completion rate is the share of candidates who finish submitting a job application after starting it, a…

Application to interview ratio is the number of applicants screened to produce one interview, the first conversion…

Apply rate is the percentage of people who view a job posting and go on to apply, showing how well the posting and…

The Apprenticeship Levy is a UK charge on employers with a large annual pay bill, paid into a digital account to fund…

An approval workflow is a structured sequence of sign-offs required before a recruiting action, such as a requisition…

An assessment centre is a selection event — typically lasting half a day to two days — where candidates complete…

Assignment length is how long a temporary or contract placement runs, and it directly determines how long a staffing…

At-will employment is the US legal doctrine under which either the employer or employee can end the employment…

Attribution bias is when interviewers read identical behaviour differently depending on who shows it, such as confident…

Attribution models are rules for crediting hires or applications to the channels that produced them, such as job…

Attrition rate is the percentage of employees who leave an organisation over a defined period — voluntarily or…

An audit log is a timestamped, append-only record of every action in a system: who did what, when and from where. It is…

Augmented intelligence is AI that supports human decision-making rather than replacing it, keeping the recruiter in…

A BFOQ, or bona fide occupational qualification, is a narrow US Title VII exception that lets an employer require a…

A background check is a pre-employment screening process that verifies a candidate's identity, employment history,…

Background check integration links an ATS or HRIS to a screening provider so teams can order checks and receive results…

Background check software automates verification of a candidate's identity, employment history, criminal record and…

Ban the Box refers to laws and employer policies that remove the criminal history checkbox from initial job application…

Base salary is the fixed annual or hourly compensation an employee receives, before bonuses, commissions, benefits, or…

A behavioral interview is a structured format asking for real examples from past work, on the premise that past…

The STAR method structures behavioral interview answers in four parts: Situation, Task, Action and Result, the standard…

Bench staffing is a model where a staffing firm keeps a pool of pre-screened, onboarded workers between assignments,…

A benefits package is the non-salary part of a total compensation offer, including health insurance, retirement…

Benefits-in-kind (BIK) are non-cash forms of employee pay on top of salary, such as company cars or private health…

A bias audit is an independent review of an automated employment decision tool to check whether it produces unfair…

A bill rate is the hourly or daily rate that a staffing agency charges a client for a contractor's services. The bill…

A blended rate is a single averaged bill rate that covers a mix of workers at different individual rates — used in…

Blind hiring is a recruitment practice that removes identifying information — such as name, photo, gender, age, and…

Body shopping is a model where a staffing or consulting firm recruits workers and places them with clients as…

Boolean search is a method of building precise candidate queries using logical operators — AND, OR, NOT, quotation…

A boomerang employee is a former employee who leaves a company and later returns to work for it, whether as a rehire or…

Bullhorn integration means connecting the Bullhorn ATS and CRM to external tools through its REST API, marketplace…

Burden cost is the total of mandatory and discretionary employer expenses layered on top of base pay, making total…

Burden rate is the total cost of employing a worker beyond their base pay — including employer payroll taxes, health…

CIPD is the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the UK and Ireland professional body for HR, whose…

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), or furlough, was the UK scheme from March 2020 to September 2021 that…

COBRA is the US federal law requiring employers with 20+ employees to offer departing workers and dependents continued…

A recruitment CRM (Candidate Relationship Management) is software used to build, nurture, and manage relationships with…

Candidate assessment is the structured process of evaluating applicants against defined criteria, measuring skills,…

Candidate data enrichment is the process of updating and completing candidate records with current job titles, contact…

Candidate drop-off is the share of job seekers who start an application but abandon it before submitting, a sign of…

Candidate experience is the sum of all interactions a job seeker has with an employer throughout the hiring process —…

A candidate matching algorithm is a system that ranks or scores candidates against a job by comparing their profile…

Candidate NPS (cNPS) is a survey-based metric that measures how likely candidates are to recommend the organisation's…

Candidate Net Promoter Score (cNPS) measures how likely candidates are to recommend your hiring process, rated 0 to 10,…

Candidate nurturing is the practice of maintaining regular, relevant contact with passive and prior candidates over…

A candidate persona is a semi-fictional profile of the ideal candidate for a role or role family — capturing their…

A candidate pipeline is a structured pool of prospective candidates at different stages of the recruitment process,…

A candidate portal is a self-service digital interface where job seekers track application status, submit documents and…

Candidate relationship management is building long-term relationships with potential hires before they apply, using a…

Candidate retention rate is the share of placed candidates still in role at a set checkpoint, such as 3, 6 or 12…

Candidate scoring rates how well a candidate's profile fits a job's requirements, using fixed rules or machine…

Career site optimisation is improving a careers website to attract qualified candidates, rank higher in search and turn…

A careers site is the section of an employer's website dedicated to talent attraction — showcasing open roles, company…

A Certificate of Sponsorship is the record a licensed UK sponsor assigns to a specific role and worker, needed for a…

Chapter 10 is the UK off-payroll working rule, in force since April 2017, that makes public sector bodies decide the…

Chapter 8 is the UK off-payroll rule, in force since April 2021, that makes medium and large private sector clients…

Check Employment Status for Tax (CEST) is HMRC's online tool that rules a UK worker employed, self-employed or…

A clawback is a contract clause under which a recruitment agency refunds all or part of a placement fee if the placed…

Cliff vesting is a schedule where an employee owns none of a benefit, such as equity or pension contributions, until a…

Co-employment is a legal arrangement where two parties — typically a staffing agency and its client — share employer…

Co-employment risk is the legal exposure when a client is treated as a joint employer of an agency's temp and becomes…

A cognitive ability test is a pre-employment assessment of general mental capacity, such as verbal and numerical…

Cognitive apprenticeship is a coaching model where an expert makes their thinking visible while the learner does real…

Commission is a variable pay component earned when a recruiter or sales person achieves a defined outcome — a permanent…

Compa-ratio (comparative ratio) measures where an employee's salary sits relative to the midpoint of their pay band —…

A comparable worker under the UK Agency Workers Regulations 2010 is a hirer's permanent employee doing similar work,…

Compensation bands (also called pay bands or salary bands) are defined salary ranges for a job level or role — with a…

A competency framework is a structured model of the knowledge, skills and behaviours a role needs, used to hire,…

A competency-based interview (also called a behavioural interview) asks candidates to describe specific past situations…

Competitive intelligence in recruitment is gathering public information on competitors, talent markets and clients to…

Competitive talent mapping is a structured analysis of who holds target roles at competitor or peer organisations,…

The Conduct Regulations are the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, the legal…

Configurable workflows are recruitment automation rules that admins set without code, defining triggers, conditions and…

Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek and read information in ways that support an existing belief, so interviewers…

Conformity bias is the tendency of interviewers to shift their ratings of a candidate toward the group's emerging view…

Connected entities are companies where one controls the other or both share a controller, treated together for rules…

Constructive dismissal is when an employee resigns because their employer fundamentally breached the employment…

A consumer report is a background check on a candidate obtained through a third-party agency, which triggers US Fair…

A consumer reporting agency (CRA) is a company that regularly assembles information on individuals and supplies it to…

A contingency fee is a recruitment payment model where the agency is paid only when a candidate is successfully placed,…

Contingency recruitment is a fee model where a staffing agency only receives payment if a candidate they submitted is…

A contingent workforce is the portion of an organisation's labour supply made up of non-permanent workers — including…

Contract staffing is placing workers on fixed-term or project-based engagements through an agency, with the client…

A contract for services is the UK contract engaging a self-employed contractor to deliver defined work, unlike a…

Contract-to-hire is a staffing arrangement where a worker starts on a temporary contract with the expectation that they…

Conversational AI is software that holds natural language chats by text or voice, used in recruiting to answer…

A conversion fee, also called a temp-to-perm or transfer fee, is what an agency charges when a client hires one of its…

Conversion rate in recruiting is the percentage of candidates who advance from one hiring funnel stage to the next,…

Corp-to-corp (C2C) is a US contracting structure where the client or agency pays a contractor's incorporated company,…

Cost per application (CPA) is total sourcing and advertising spend divided by applications received, showing how…

Cost-plus pricing in staffing is a billing model where the client pays the worker's actual employment cost — pay rate…

Cost-per-hire is the total expenditure required to fill one position, calculated by dividing all recruiting costs by…

A counter-offer is an improved package a current employer makes to keep an employee who plans to leave, and it often…

Creative and marketing staffing is specialist recruitment for roles needing both functional assessment and subjective…

Custom fields are user-defined fields added to candidate, job or contact records in an ATS or CRM to capture data the…

A DBS check is a UK criminal record check from the Disclosure and Barring Service, at four levels, with the level set…

DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) in recruitment refers to the practices and policies that ensure hiring processes…

DEI in recruitment is the set of practices and systems that help hiring attract, assess and advance candidates from…

Salary benchmarking is comparing a role's pay with market rates, so agencies and clients can close expectation gaps…

Skills-based hiring evaluates candidates on what they can do, using skills requirements and assessments, not degrees or…

Temporary staffing is a model where an agency employs workers and places them with clients for a limited time, billing…

Dashboards and custom reports turn CRM data such as submissions, placements and time-to-fill into live views of what is…

Under the GDPR, a data controller is the entity that decides why and how personal data is processed, such as an…

A data controller decides why and how personal data is processed. A data processor handles it on the controller's…

Data encryption converts readable data into ciphertext with a cryptographic key, protecting information at rest and in…

A Data Processing Agreement (DPA) is the contract between a data controller and processor that GDPR Article 28 requires…

A data processor is an entity that handles personal data on a controller's behalf and instructions, such as an ATS or…

Data quality is the accuracy, completeness and currency of records in a recruiting database, which decides how well…

Data residency is the physical or legal jurisdiction where data is stored and processed, which sets the privacy laws…

Data retention and deletion policies set how long personal data is kept and what happens afterwards, as the GDPR…

Data warehouse integration connects ATS, HRIS and payroll systems to a central database such as Snowflake or BigQuery…

Data-driven recruiting is making hiring decisions from measurable evidence rather than instinct, applying analytics to…

Day one readiness means having equipment, system access, a line manager and a plan ready before a new hire starts, so…

A debrief is the structured conversation after an interview that surfaces what worked, what concerned the panel and…

Deduplication is finding and merging duplicate candidate or client records in a recruitment database so each person or…

The deemed employer is the party HMRC makes responsible for deciding IR35 status and running PAYE for an off-payroll…

Deemed employment is the finding that a contractor working through a personal service company is, for UK tax, an…

Digital immigration status is the online record, proved with a share code, that EU Settlement Scheme holders use to…

Direct hire is a recruiting model where a staffing agency sources, screens, and places candidates directly as permanent…

Diverse slate hiring is a policy requiring that the pool of candidates interviewed for any role includes a minimum…

Diversity hiring is the practice of building recruitment and selection processes that attract and fairly assess…

Diversity hiring rate is the percentage of new hires from underrepresented groups in a set period, a lagging measure of…

Draw against commission is an advance on future commission paid each pay period and repaid from placement earnings,…

A drip campaign is a planned sequence of emails, LinkedIn messages or texts sent at set intervals to keep passive…

Drip campaigns are automated message sequences sent to candidates over time, triggered by actions or intervals, to…

Drug testing in employment is the screening of candidates or workers for the presence of controlled substances as a…

The Dutch 30% ruling is a Netherlands tax benefit letting employers pay qualifying skilled foreign hires up to 30% of…

Dynamic bidding is automated, real-time adjustment of cost-per-click or cost-per-apply bids on job ad platforms, based…

E-Verify is a US federal web-based system that allows employers to electronically confirm the employment eligibility of…

The EEO-1 report is an annual US filing to the EEOC where covered employers report workforce headcounts by job…

An ESOP, or Employee Stock Ownership Plan, is a US retirement plan where a company funds a trust that holds its shares…

ETL and ELT are patterns for moving data from systems like an ATS into a warehouse: ETL transforms it before loading,…

Education recruitment is the staffing of schools, universities and education support bodies, shaped by term dates,…

An employee works under a contract of employment with full statutory rights, such as unfair dismissal protection,…

Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) rates from -100 to +100 how likely staff are to recommend their employer, as…

An employee referral programme rewards staff for referring candidates who are hired, with clear rules on who qualifies,…

An employee resource group (ERG) is a voluntary, employee-led group built on a shared identity or experience, offering…

Employee tenure is the length of time an employee has worked continuously for an employer, measured from start date to…

An employee value proposition (EVP) is the full set of rewards, experiences and opportunities an employer offers in…

Employer brand is an organisation's reputation as a place to work, shaped by how current and former employees describe…

Employer branding is the practice of shaping and communicating a company's reputation as a workplace to attract and…

Employer of choice is an informal reputation, not a certification, earned by organisations whose pay, culture and…

An employer of record (EOR) is a third-party organisation that legally employs workers on behalf of a client company,…

In UK law, an employment agency introduces job seekers to a hirer who employs them directly. The agency earns a…

Employment Allowance is a UK tax relief that cuts an eligible employer's employer National Insurance bill by up to…

In UK law, an employment business supplies temporary workers to hirers and stays responsible for paying them and…

Employment status in UK law is the category of employee, worker or self-employed contractor, set by the real working…

An engagement fee is an upfront, non-refundable payment an employer makes at the start of a retained search, committing…

In UK off-payroll working rules, the engager is the end client where a contractor works, responsible for deciding…

Engineering staffing is the sourcing and placement of contract and permanent engineers — mechanical, electrical, civil,…

Enterprise RPO is a full-function recruitment outsourcing model where an organisation transfers its entire permanent…

Equal employment opportunity (EEO) is the principle that all employment decisions — hiring, promotion, compensation,…

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the US federal agency responsible for enforcing federal laws…

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the US federal agency that enforces workplace anti-discrimination…

Equal treatment under the UK Agency Workers Regulations gives agency workers the same basic pay and conditions as…

Equity compensation is non-cash pay giving employees an ownership stake in the company, typically through stock…

Event tracking records user actions on a careers site, such as clicking Apply or finishing a form step, tying candidate…

Executive search, also known as retained search or headhunting, is a specialist recruiting service for senior…

Executive staffing, or executive search, is the recruitment of senior leaders, usually on a retained basis with…

An exempt employee is a US worker classified under the FLSA as ineligible for overtime pay, which requires meeting both…

Expense reimbursement is repayment of business costs a contractor or employee incurs, under agreed terms on eligible…

Explainable AI (XAI) is AI whose outputs come with human-readable reasoning, so recruiters can see why it decided as it…

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is a US federal law that regulates how consumer reporting agencies collect and…

FICA, the Federal Insurance Contributions Act, is the US payroll tax funding Social Security and Medicare, paid in…

FUTA, the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, is a US employer-paid tax on the first $7,000 of each employee's wages, reduced…

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) is the US federal law setting minimum wage, overtime, recordkeeping and child labor…

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a 1993 US law giving eligible employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid,…

In UK IR35 rules, the fee-payer is the party paying the worker's company directly, who must deduct PAYE and National…

Fill rate is the percentage of job orders or shifts an agency fills in a set period, calculated as positions filled…

Finance and accounting staffing is the placement of temporary, contract, and permanent workers in financial roles —…

A finder's fee is a payment to a person or firm that introduces a candidate who is hired, set as a flat sum or a…

A fixed-term contract is an employment agreement with a defined end date — for a project, a season, or a specified…

Form 1095-C is a US form on which Applicable Large Employers tell the IRS if they offered full-time staff health…

Form 1099-MISC is the US tax form for reporting certain miscellaneous payments, such as rents and royalties, but not…

Form 1099-NEC is the US tax form reporting payments of $600 or more to independent contractors for services, due to the…

Form I-9 is the US form employers use to verify each new hire's identity and work authorization, completed by both the…

The four-fifths rule is a US test for adverse impact: a selection procedure is flagged if a group's selection rate…

A freelancer is a self-employed individual who provides services to multiple clients simultaneously on a project or…

Fringe benefits are non-wage compensation employers add on top of salary, from health insurance and pensions to perks,…

Full-cycle recruiting is a model where one recruiter owns the whole hiring process, from the first job brief through…

Full-text search queries the actual content of text fields such as resumes and notes through an index, so recruiters…

Full-time equivalent (FTE) is a unit of measurement that standardises part-time worker hours into a full-time headcount…

A furlough is a temporary, mandatory unpaid or reduced-pay leave imposed by an employer, during which employment…

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is the EU law that governs how organisations collect, store, use, and delete…

GDPR in recruitment is how UK GDPR governs the way agencies and employers collect, store and share candidate data,…

Garden leave is a notice period in which a resigning employee stays on full pay but must not work, contact clients or…

Gender bias in recruitment is the systematic tendency to judge candidates by gender, not qualifications, in job ads, CV…

The gender pay gap is the difference between men's and women's median earnings in an organisation, shown as a share of…

Generative AI is AI that produces new text, images, code or audio from patterns in training data, used in recruiting to…

Ghosting in recruitment is cutting off communication without explanation, whether by a candidate, client or placed…

The gig economy refers to a labour market characterised by short-term, flexible engagements rather than permanent…

Gig work AI is software that matches, prices and manages short-term workers, covering skills matching, dynamic pricing,…

Glassdoor management is claiming, completing and monitoring an employer's Glassdoor profile and responding to reviews…

Google for Jobs is a Google search feature showing job postings directly in results, drawn from job boards and from…

Graded vesting is a schedule where ownership of employer retirement contributions or equity grants builds in steps over…

Gross margin in staffing is the difference between the bill rate charged to a client and the total cost of employing…

Gross profit is the revenue a staffing agency keeps after deducting the direct cost of the placed worker, mainly pay…

Gross profit per placement is the average gross profit earned on a single hiring transaction, used to compare…

Human capital management (HCM) is a suite of HR software covering the full employee lifecycle — from recruiting and…

HIPAA is the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which binds healthcare staffing firms as business…

HR analytics is collecting and interpreting workforce data to guide hiring, retention, and people strategy, from basic…

An HR tech stack is the set of software tools an organisation uses for people operations, from recruiting and…

An HRIS (Human Resources Information System) is software that centralises employee data — covering records, payroll,…

HRIS-payroll integration links an HR information system to a payroll platform so hires, pay changes, terminations, and…

The halo effect is a cognitive shortcut where one strong impression, such as a confident start to an interview, colors…

Headcount is the number of people an organisation employs at a given point in time, counted as individuals whether…

Headcount planning is the process of determining how many employees — and in which roles — an organisation needs to…

Headhunting is directly approaching employed professionals who are not job hunting, with the aim of recruiting them for…

Healthcare staffing is a specialised segment of the staffing industry focused on placing clinical and non-clinical…

In UK staffing, the hirer is the client entity a worker is supplied to, and it carries its own legal duties under the…

A hiring freeze is a client decision to pause recruiting for open roles, often at short notice, which can wipe out much…

A hiring manager is the person who owns a vacancy, usually holding budget authority and the final say on an offer,…

A hiring manager brief is a structured document recording a role's requirements, expectations, team context, pay range,…

Hiring manager satisfaction measures how satisfied hiring managers are with the recruiter's performance across the full…

A hiring panel is an interview format where two or more interviewers assess a candidate together in one session,…

Hit rate is the percentage of submitted candidates who reach shortlist, interview, or placement, a measure of how well…

Holiday pay in the UK is the statutory entitlement to normal pay during annual leave, set by the Working Time…

Hospitality staffing is the placement of temporary and permanent workers in hotels, restaurants, event venues, catering…

A hostile work environment is a US legal concept under Title VII where severe or pervasive harassment over a protected…

Human Capital Management (HCM) is the framework for attracting, developing, and retaining employees as a business…

A Human Resource Information System (HRIS) is a central database that stores employee records and automates hiring,…

Hybrid RPO is a recruitment outsourcing model that blends in-house talent acquisition capacity with external RPO…

Hybrid and remote work are arrangements where employees split time between office and home or work fully off-site,…

IR35 is UK tax legislation that determines whether a contractor working through a personal service company (PSC) should…

The IRS 20-factor test, from Revenue Ruling 87-41, is the US framework for judging whether a worker is an employee or…

ISO 27001 is the international standard for information security management systems, certifying that an organization…

IT staffing is a staffing specialisation focused on placing technology professionals — software engineers, data…

IT and tech staffing is the placement of technology specialists, such as developers and DevOps engineers, as contract…

InMail is LinkedIn's paid direct message that lets recruiters contact people outside their network, widely used to…

Inbound recruiting is a talent acquisition strategy that attracts candidates through content, employer brand, and…

Inbound recruiting attracts candidates to apply; outbound recruiting finds and approaches them directly. Effective…

Inclusive hiring is designing recruitment so qualified candidates from all backgrounds are fairly assessed on actual…

An inclusive job description is a posting that states requirements in language open to qualified candidates of any…

An independent contractor is a self-employed person who provides services to a client under contract, without the…

Independent contractor compliance is the process of verifying that workers engaged as 1099 contractors genuinely meet…

Industrial staffing refers to the placement of temporary and contract workers in light industrial, manufacturing,…

An intake meeting is where a recruiter learns from the hiring manager what a role truly requires before sourcing…

Integration is the technical connection between software systems, such as an ATS, payroll, and CRM, so data flows…

Intelligent matching is an AI-driven way of pairing candidates with jobs that weighs contextual fit, such as career…

Interim management is the deployment of experienced senior executives on a fixed-term engagement — typically 3 to 18…

In UK contracting, an intermediary is any entity between a worker and the end client, such as a personal service…

Internal mobility is filling open roles by moving existing employees through promotions, lateral transfers, or role…

Internal recruitment fills roles from the existing workforce; external recruitment hires outside candidates. The choice…

Interview scheduling is the coordination process of finding a mutually available time between candidates and…

Interview scheduling software automates arranging interview times between recruiters, candidates, and interviewers,…

An interview scorecard is a structured form for rating candidates against set criteria right after an interview, giving…

Interview-to-hire ratio is the number of candidates interviewed to produce one hire. A ratio of 5:1 means five…

Interview-to-offer ratio is the number of interviewed candidates per job offer made, such as 6:1, showing hiring…

An investigative consumer report (ICR) is a US background check under the Fair Credit Reporting Act that triggers extra…

An invoice is the document a staffing firm issues to bill a client for placement fees or contractor hours, and its…

Invoice factoring is selling unpaid client invoices to a finance company at a discount for immediate cash, helping…

Involuntary turnover is when an employer ends the employment relationship through termination, layoff, or elimination…

An irregular hours worker is a UK classification, effective April 2024, for workers with variable hours that changes…

Job advertising is paid promotion of vacancies on job boards and other channels to reach more candidates, the main…

A job aggregator is a platform that collects listings from career sites, job boards, ATS platforms, and agencies into…

Job analysis is the structured process of finding out what a role actually requires, including duties and skills,…

The job application process is the sequence of steps a candidate completes to be considered for a role, from form…

Job architecture is the framework defining an organization's job families, levels, titles, and pay ranges so roles are…

A job board is an online platform where employers post open vacancies and candidates search and apply for roles.…

A job board API is the programmatic link between an ATS and boards like Indeed or LinkedIn, automating job posting,…

A job board aggregator is a platform that pulls postings from company sites, job boards, and agencies into one…

A job description is the internal document that defines a role's responsibilities, required skills, qualifications,…

A job description is an internal HR document defining a role, while a job posting is external advertising copy written…

A job offer is the formal proposal of employment terms made to a candidate, and in agency work it involves the…

Job posting SEO is writing and structuring job postings so they rank in search engines and job boards, lifting…

A job requisition is the formal internal request to hire for a new or backfill position, submitted by a hiring manager…

Job schema markup is JobPosting structured data that tells Google a page is a job listing, making it eligible for the…

Job wrapping is a technology that automatically distributes job postings from an ATS or careers site to multiple job…

JobPosting schema markup is structured data added to a job page so search engines read it as machine-readable metadata…

Joint employment is the US legal doctrine under which a staffing agency and its client can both be treated as a…

Keyword matching is the automated filtering, scoring, or ranking of candidate profiles by the frequency of set terms…

A long-term incentive plan (LTIP) is an executive pay scheme of shares or similar awards that vest over time, which can…

Labour arbitrage is cutting wage costs by moving roles to a lower-cost geography or worker classification, which…

A labour supply chain is the network of agencies and suppliers providing a client's workers, with legal and…

A large language model (LLM) is an AI system trained on massive text data to understand and generate language, used in…

Legal staffing is the placement of temporary, contract, and permanent legal professionals — including paralegals, legal…

Life sciences staffing is specialist recruitment for pharmaceutical, biotech, and clinical research roles, where…

LinkedIn Recruiter is a paid sourcing and talent acquisition platform that gives recruiters access to LinkedIn's full 1…

The Living Wage is an independently calculated hourly rate, separate from the statutory National Living Wage, and UK…

Loaded rate is the full hourly cost of a temporary worker, including employer-side costs on top of base pay, used to…

Logistics and supply chain staffing supplies warehouse, distribution, and transport workers for high-volume,…

Machine learning is the branch of computer science where systems improve through exposure to data, not explicit…

Machine learning in recruitment applies models trained on historical hiring data to automate candidate ranking, resume…

A managed service provider (MSP) is a third party that runs a client's contingent workforce programme, handling…

Managed services staffing hands operational management of a contingent workforce to a managed service provider,…

Market mapping is the systematic process of identifying, categorising, and tracking talent in a function, geography, or…

Markup in staffing is the percentage added to a contractor's pay rate to calculate the bill rate charged to the client.…

A master service agreement (MSA) is one overarching contract setting the commercial terms for every placement or…

A master vendor is a single staffing agency appointed to manage all of a client's contingent hiring, filling most roles…

Maverick spending is off-programme hiring spend, where managers bypass the agreed vendor list and go straight to a…

The UK National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage are statutory hourly pay floors under the National Minimum Wage…

Worker misclassification is treating a legal employee or worker under UK law as self-employed, creating unpaid PAYE,…

A multi-agent system is an AI architecture where several specialised agents coordinate on tasks too complex or slow for…

Multi-posting is sending one job listing to multiple job boards, aggregators, and career sites at once from a single…

Multi-tenant architecture is software design where one application instance serves many customers, called tenants, each…

Mutuality of obligation is one of three UK employment status tests, asking whether the employer must offer work and the…

Natural language processing (NLP) in recruitment refers to AI techniques that enable systems to understand, interpret,…

National Insurance (NI) is the UK system funding state benefits, the NHS, and the state pension, affecting contractor…

National Insurance Contributions (NICs) are UK payments due under the NI system, with the class paid depending on…

The National Minimum Wage (NMW) is the UK's legally required minimum hourly pay, set by age band. Paying below it is a…

Natural language processing (NLP) is the branch of AI that lets computers read, interpret, and generate human language,…

Natural language search lets recruiters query a candidate database in plain sentences instead of Boolean strings, so…

Nearshore staffing is the engagement of workers in geographically and time-zone-adjacent countries — most commonly in…

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a loyalty metric based on how likely clients are to recommend a firm, used by agencies to…

A neutral vendor is an MSP that manages a client's contingent workforce programme without supplying workers directly —…

New hire turnover is the rate at which recently joined employees leave, voluntarily or not, within a set window such as…

A no-code workflow is an automated process, such as candidate follow-ups or interview scheduling, built with visual…

A non-compete agreement is a contractual clause that restricts an employee or contractor from working for competing…

A non-exempt employee is a worker entitled to overtime and minimum wage under the US Fair Labor Standards Act, a status…

A non-solicitation agreement is a contract barring a person from approaching another party's employees or clients for a…

A notice period is the length of time an employee is required to continue working after handing in their resignation —…

OAuth (Open Authorization) is a framework that lets one application access resources in another on a user's behalf…

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) is the US agency that enforces equal employment opportunity…

OSHA is the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which treats staffing agencies as joint employers sharing…

Off-payroll working, known as IR35, is UK tax legislation deciding whether a contractor using a personal service…

Offboarding is the structured process of managing a worker's departure from an organisation — covering access…

Offer acceptance rate is the percentage of job offers extended that are accepted by candidates, calculated as accepted…

An offer letter is a formal written document issued to a selected candidate confirming the terms of employment —…

Offshore staffing is the practice of hiring workers in lower-cost countries — typically India, the Philippines, Eastern…

On-target earnings (OTE) is the total compensation a salesperson or recruiter earns when they hit 100% of their quota —…

Onboarding is the structured process of integrating a new employee into an organisation — covering paperwork…

Onshoring is moving work, such as IT support roles, back from offshore centres to domestic locations, creating…

The Open Job Context Protocol (OJCP) is an open standard for how AI agents search for jobs, read job details and apply…

Optical character recognition (OCR) converts scanned or photographed documents into machine-readable text that ATS…

Orientation is the structured welcome a new hire gets in their first days, covering workstation setup and clear…

Outsourcing is contracting a function or process to an external provider instead of internal employees, from a single…

Overtime is time worked beyond a legal or contractual threshold, typically paid at a premium, such as 1.5 times the…

A P11D is the UK form employers file with HMRC to report benefits in kind provided to workers, with Class 1A National…

A P45 is the UK document proving a worker's tax position on leaving an employer, carrying their tax code and…

A P60 is the UK document showing how much a worker earned and paid in tax over a complete tax year, used for mortgages,…

PILON (payment in lieu of notice) is a payment made instead of working out a notice period, ending employment at once…

A passive candidate is a professional who is currently employed and not actively looking for a new role but may be open…

Active candidates are currently job hunting, while passive candidates are employed and not searching, so each group…

Pay As You Earn (PAYE) is the UK system where employers deduct income tax and National Insurance Contributions from pay…

Pay equity is the principle that employees performing equal work of equal value should receive equal compensation…

A pay rate is the hourly or daily rate a contractor or temporary worker receives from the staffing agency for their…

Pay transparency is the practice of publishing salary ranges in job postings, so candidates and clients align on pay…

Payrolling is where an agency employs a worker the client already found, running payroll, tax, and benefits while the…

Payrolling services let a company use contractors or temporary staff while a third party acts as employer, handling tax…

People analytics is the practice of using workforce data to make evidence-based decisions about hiring, retention,…

Per diem is a fixed daily allowance paid to workers for meals, accommodation, and incidentals while working away from…

A performance bonus is a reward paid for hitting targets, such as a recruiter's billings goal, designed to motivate…

Permanent placement is when a recruiter finds a candidate who joins the client as a direct, full-time employee, with…

A personal service company (PSC) is a limited company through which an individual provides services to clients, and it…

A personality assessment measures stable psychological traits to predict likely behaviour at work, adding a structured…

Pipeline velocity measures how quickly candidates move through each stage of the hiring funnel — from application to…

A placement fee is the payment an agency receives when a candidate it sourced is hired by a client, the main way…

Placement rate is a performance metric, expressed as a percentage, that shows how often a recruitment process converts…

The Posted Workers Directive is EU law requiring workers sent temporarily to another member state to get the host…

A pre-adverse action notice is the written warning a US employer sends a candidate before acting on a negative…

Pre-employment screening is the set of verification and assessment activities conducted after a candidate receives a…

Preboarding is the work between a candidate signing an offer and day one: paperwork, access setup, introductions and…

Predictive analytics uses historical data and statistical models to forecast outcomes. In HR it predicts who will…

Predictive analytics in recruitment uses historical hiring data and machine learning models to forecast future outcomes…

A preferred supplier list (PSL) is a vetted roster of staffing agencies an organisation has approved to supply…

Prevailing wage is the minimum rate paid to workers on US federally funded construction and service projects, set by…

Proactive recruiting is building a pipeline of qualified candidates before roles open, rather than starting from…

A probation period is a defined stretch at the start of employment when performance is assessed and, in many…

A probationary period is a defined initial employment period — typically 3 to 6 months — during which both employer and…

A professional employer organisation (PEO) is a firm that co-employs a client's workers and handles payroll, benefits,…

A professional employer organization (PEO) enters a co-employment relationship with a client company, taking on…

Programmatic job advertising uses algorithms to automatically buy, place, and optimise job ad placements across…

Project RPO is a time-limited recruitment outsourcing engagement where an external provider manages hiring for a…

Project-based staffing is an engagement where a client buys a defined outcome from a team over a fixed period, not a…

A protected class is a group, such as those defined by race, religion, sex or age, that US federal law bars employers…

A psychometric test is a standardised assessment that measures a candidate's cognitive abilities, personality traits,…

Public sector recruitment is sourcing staff for UK public bodies through structured, compliance-heavy procurement,…

Quality of hire measures the value a new employee delivers relative to expectations — typically assessed through…

The REC (Recruitment and Employment Confederation) is the UK trade body for recruitment agencies, and its membership is…

A REST API is an architectural style for web services using HTTP methods like GET and POST, and the usual way…

Ramp-up time is how long a new hire or placed worker takes to reach full productivity, shaped by onboarding quality and…

Rank-ordering algorithms score and sort candidates against a job requisition, so the strongest matches appear first…

A rate card is a pre-negotiated schedule of bill rates for defined job categories, skill levels, and locations used in…

A re-engagement campaign is outreach to dormant candidates in an agency's ATS, such as those silent for 12 months, to…

Reasonable accommodation is an adjustment employers must make so a qualified person with a disability can work, under…

Reasonable care under IR35 is the standard a UK end client or fee-payer must meet in status determinations, or HMRC can…

A rebate policy is the contract clause setting when, and how much of, a permanent placement fee an agency refunds or…

A recruiter finds and presents candidates for open roles, working as an internal recruiter, an agency recruiter or an…

Recruiter productivity measures output, such as revenue per recruiter and quality-adjusted placements, not activity…

A recruitment analytics dashboard is a reporting view of hiring metrics from the ATS, useful only if it explains what…

Recruitment automation is software that runs repetitive, rule-based hiring tasks, such as outreach, scheduling and…

A recruitment chatbot is an AI-powered conversational interface that automates candidate interactions — answering…

Recruitment chatbots are automated conversation tools on career pages or ATS portals that screen applicants, answer…

The recruitment funnel is the sequence of stages from first contact to placement, tracked to show where an agency loses…

Recruitment marketing is the practice of applying marketing strategies to attract, engage, and nurture talent before…

A recruitment marketing platform is software for the stage before candidates apply: attracting them, nurturing interest…

A recruitment platform is a technology system that centralises and automates finding, engaging and hiring candidates,…

Recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) is a model where a client transfers all or part of its permanent recruitment…

Recruitment SEO is optimising job postings and career pages to rank in organic search, drawing candidates without…

Recruitment to recruitment (rec-to-rec) is a specialist agency model that places recruiters and other staff into…

Recruitment, staffing and headhunting are distinct services: permanent hiring, temporary or contract supply, and…

Redeployment rate is how often an agency places a contractor again after an assignment ends, showing how well it…

A reduction in force (RIF) is a formal, planned elimination of positions by an employer, creating termination admin…

A reference check is a verification step where the hiring manager or recruiter contacts a candidate's former employers…

Referral recruiting is hiring candidates recommended by current employees, a channel known for longer retention, faster…

Regrettable attrition is the departure of high performers or people with rare skills or key relationships, exits an…

Requisition aging is how long a job order has stayed open, used to flag stuck vacancies caused by the brief, budget,…

Reskilling is training workers in new skills so they can move into different roles as automation and shifting demand…

Responsible AI in hiring means using automated tools fairly and transparently, with candidate disclosure, under rules…

A restricted stock unit (RSU) is a company's promise to deliver shares to an employee after a vesting period,…

A resume parser is software that extracts structured data from a resume, such as contact details, job titles, tenure…

Resume parsing is the automated extraction of structured data from CVs and resumes — pulling out contact details, work…

A resume or CV is the standard document in which candidates summarise work history, skills and education, in a format…

Retail staffing is the supply of temporary, seasonal, and permanent workers to retailers — covering sales associates,…

Retained search is a fee structure used in executive recruiting where the client pays an upfront retainer — typically…

A retainer fee is an upfront payment a client makes to an agency for a search, committing the client's money and the…

Retaliation is an employer's adverse action against a worker for a protected activity, such as reporting…

A retention bonus is a payment promised to an employee for staying through a set period, often used in restructuring,…

Retention rate is the percentage of employees who remain with an organisation over a defined period — typically one…

A returnship programme is a paid, structured placement that helps experienced professionals back into work after a…

Revenue per employee is the gross profit a staffing agency generates per head, used to compare desks and gauge how…

Revenue per placement is the average fee or margin an agency earns on each placement, showing commercial performance…

The right of substitution is a UK contractor's contractual right to send someone else to do the work, a main factor…

The right to be forgotten is a person's right under GDPR Article 17 to have their personal data erased, which agencies…

Right to work is a person's legal permission to take employment in a country, which UK and US employers must verify or…

A right to work check is the document check UK employers must make under the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act…

Rogue spend is contingent workforce spend that bypasses the approved vendor management system, such as using agencies…

Role-based access control (RBAC) is a security model granting system permissions by role, not individually, deciding…

The Rooney Rule is a diversity hiring policy — originating in the NFL — that requires at least one minority candidate…

SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language) is an XML-based standard for exchanging authentication data between an…

SCIM is the open standard for cross-domain identity management that automates creating, updating, and deleting user…

SEO for job postings is optimising listings to appear in Google for Jobs and organic search, using JobPosting schema,…

SMS automation sends text messages to candidates and contractors at defined trigger points, such as an ATS status…

SOC 2 is an AICPA auditing standard that reports how a service organisation protects customer data against criteria…

SOW (Statement of Work) staffing refers to engagements where a supplier is contracted to deliver a defined output or…

SSO (single sign-on) lets users authenticate once through a central identity provider and reach all connected…

The STAR method structures answers to behavioural interview questions by describing the Situation, Task, Action and…

SUTA is the State Unemployment Tax Act contribution US employers pay into state unemployment funds, at a rate set by…

Safe harbor is a US tax provision, notably Section 530 of the Revenue Act of 1978, that can protect a business from…

A salary band is the minimum and maximum pay set for a role or grade, keeping people doing the same work within a…

A salary history ban is a US state or city law that stops employers, and often employment agencies, from asking…

Schedule C is the US tax form where sole proprietors and single-member LLC owners report business profit or loss,…

A scorecard is a structured evaluation form that lists the competencies for a role and a rating scale, so each…

A screening call is the first substantive conversation between a recruiter and a candidate, used to qualify fit,…

A secondment is a temporary transfer of an employee to another role, team or organisation while the original employer…

In the UK, self-employed is a legal and tax status that HMRC tests on the substance of the working relationship, not on…

Self-employment tax is the US tax through which self-employed individuals pay both the employer and employee shares of…

Semantic search interprets the meaning and intent behind a query instead of matching keywords literally, using language…

Semantic sourcing finds candidates whose profiles convey the capability a role needs, whatever exact words or job…

A service level agreement is the contractual statement of what an agency commits to deliver, such as response times,…

A signing bonus is a one-time payment made to a new employee at the start of employment, typically used to attract…

A silver medalist is a candidate who reached the final stages of a hiring process but was not selected — typically…

Single sign-on (SSO) lets users log into multiple applications with one set of credentials, authenticated once through…

A situational interview gives candidates hypothetical job-related scenarios and asks how they would respond, scoring…

A situational judgment test presents realistic workplace scenarios and asks candidates to rate or rank responses,…

The Skilled Worker visa is the UK route that lets licensed sponsors employ eligible non-UK, non-Irish nationals in…

A skills assessment is a structured test or exercise that measures a candidate's ability to perform tasks relevant to a…

Skills extraction is the automated identification of skills in unstructured text, such as resumes and job descriptions,…

A skills gap is the measurable distance between the skills an organisation needs to execute its strategy and the skills…

A skills gap analysis compares the skills a workforce has with those it needs for business goals, showing where to…

A skills ontology is a structured, hierarchical map of skills, their synonyms and related competencies, so a team or…

A skills taxonomy is a hierarchical classification of skills that gives job descriptions, assessments and workforce…

A skills test measures a candidate's ability in one specific competency, such as typing speed or a coding language,…

A skills-based interview is a structured interview where every candidate gets the same behavioural and technical…

A skills-based job description specifies observable, testable capabilities for a role instead of degree requirements…

Social recruiting is the use of social media platforms — LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and GitHub — to…

Socioeconomic diversity is the inclusion of candidates from varied class and income backgrounds, which unpaid…

Software as a service (SaaS) delivers software over the internet on a subscription, with the vendor hosting,…

Source of hire tracks which channel — job board, referral, direct sourcing, careers site, agency, or social media —…

Sourcing is the practice of proactively identifying and engaging potential candidates for current or future roles,…

Sourcing channel effectiveness measures how well a recruitment channel converts into hires relative to the time, money…

Span of control is the number of direct reports a single manager effectively oversees, a key structural choice as a…

Spend under management is the percentage of total contingent labour spend that flows through approved, tracked channels…

Split-desk recruiting divides recruitment between two specialists, one who develops client job orders and one who…

A split fee is an arrangement where two recruiters collaborate on a placement and divide the fee, typically 50/50,…

Spread in staffing is the dollar difference between the bill rate charged to a client and the pay rate received by the…

Staff augmentation supplements a permanent workforce with external contractors or agency temps who work under client…

A staffing agency is a business that recruits, screens, and supplies workers to client organisations on a temporary,…

A staffing model is how an agency delivers talent, such as permanent or contract, retained or contingency, and it…

A staffing ratio is a numerical relationship between two workforce variables, such as workers to supervisors or…

A statement of work (SOW) is a contract defining a project's scope, deliverables, timeline and payment terms, used for…

A Status Determination Statement is the written decision, with reasons, that an end client issues under UK off-payroll…

A stipend is a fixed periodic payment covering specific costs a worker incurs, such as housing, per diem or home…

Stock options give the holder the right to buy company shares at a fixed strike price set at the fair market value on…

In UK contracting, a strike price is the minimum rate a contractor will accept; in equity pay, it is the fixed price at…

A structured interview is an assessment method where every candidate is asked the same set of predetermined questions,…

Subcontracting is when a prime contractor engages other suppliers to fulfil part of a client contract while remaining…

Submission-to-interview ratio is the number of candidates submitted per client interview obtained, a core measure of a…

Submittal-to-hire ratio is the number of candidate submittals needed to produce one hire, capturing the whole funnel…

Submittal-to-interview ratio is the number of candidate submittals needed for one client interview, showing how well a…

A success fee is a payment triggered only by a defined outcome, typically a candidate starting a role, usually a…

Succession planning is the process of identifying and developing internal candidates to fill critical leadership and…

Supervision, direction and control (SDC) is the UK HMRC test of whether a client oversees how, when and where a worker…

Supplier diversity is a procurement programme that recognises and prefers suppliers owned by historically…

A system of record is the authoritative data source for a specific data domain, such as the ATS for candidates, and its…

Talent acquisition is the strategic function that identifies, attracts and hires the people an organisation needs,…

A talent acquisition suite is an integrated set of hiring tools, such as ATS, CRM, sourcing and analytics, sharing data…

Recruiting fills open roles, while talent acquisition is the broader, longer-horizon function that builds the pipeline,…

Talent analytics is the use of data to understand, predict and improve hiring and workforce decisions, from basic…

Talent architecture is an organisation's framework of job families, levels, competencies and pay bands that defines how…

Talent calibration is the process where a recruiter and hiring manager align on the ideal candidate profile before…

A talent community is an opt-in group of candidates — typically maintained on a careers site or through email — who…

Talent intelligence is the use of external labor market data, such as skills supply and competitor pay, to inform…

A talent intelligence platform is software that analyzes external labor market data, such as job postings and pay, to…

A talent management system (TMS) is software that manages employees after hiring, covering performance reviews,…

Talent mapping is a research process that identifies and profiles qualified candidates in a target market before a role…

A talent network is a company-maintained group of opted-in people interested in working there but not applying, a…

A talent pipeline is a pool of pre-identified, pre-qualified candidates maintained by a recruiter or organisation for…

A talent pool is a database of candidates who have interacted with an organisation — through a previous application, a…

Talent pool refresh rate is the percentage of candidates in a pool who were re-contacted, re-qualified and updated…

Talent rediscovery is a structured search of an agency's existing candidate database to surface past applicants and…

Talent scarcity is the condition where demand for a skill set exceeds the supply of qualified candidates, raising…

A talent shortage is when the supply of qualified workers falls short of employer demand in a role category or…

Talent sourcing is the proactive process of identifying, researching and engaging potential candidates for current or…

Tax withholding is the US system where employers deduct income tax, Social Security and Medicare from paychecks and…

A technical interview is an assessment of a candidate's practical skills in a technical domain, typically coding…

Temp-to-perm is a hiring arrangement where a worker starts on a temporary contract with the possibility of converting…

A temporary employee is a worker engaged for a defined period or project without expectation of ongoing employment, via…

The bench is the pool of employed consultants or contractors between client engagements, whom the agency keeps on…

Time to productivity is how long it takes a new hire to reach full, independent contribution in their role, measured…

Time to start is the elapsed time from job requisition approval to a new hire's first day, including background checks,…

Time to submit is how long a staffing agency or recruiter takes to present qualified candidates to a client after…

Time-to-fill is the number of calendar days between when a job requisition is opened and when a candidate accepts an…

Time-to-hire is the number of days between when a specific candidate first enters the hiring process and when they…

A timesheet is a record of hours worked by an individual, used as the basis for billing clients and paying workers in…

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, and…

Total compensation is the full monetary value of everything an employee receives in exchange for their work — including…

A total compensation statement is a document that itemizes every form of pay an employee receives beyond base salary,…

Total rewards is the full scope of what an employer offers for work: base salary, variable pay, benefits, equity,…

Total talent management (TTM) is a workforce strategy that plans and manages permanent, contingent, and freelance…

Transferable skills are abilities built in one role or industry that apply in another, such as analytical reasoning,…

Trigger-based emails are automated messages sent in response to an event, such as a stage change or contract end date,…

Turnover rate is the percentage of the workforce that leaves an organisation over a given period, calculated as number…

An umbrella company is a UK employment intermediary that employs contractors, runs their pay through PAYE and invoices…

Unconscious bias in recruitment refers to automatic, unintentional judgements that influence hiring decisions — such as…

Underrepresented groups are populations that appear in a workforce, industry or role at lower rates than in the…

Undue hardship is the legal standard under the ADA that lets an employer refuse an accommodation that would impose…

Unemployment insurance eligibility is the set of state rules, within a joint federal-state program, that decide if a…

Upskilling is training existing employees or candidates to develop new, more advanced skills relevant to their current…

Variable pay is any compensation element that fluctuates based on individual, team, or company performance — including…

A vendor management system (VMS) is software that runs contingent workforce programmes by centralising requisitions,…

Vendor neutral is a staffing program model where no agency has preferred or exclusive status and all suppliers compete…

Vendor on premise (VOP) is a staffing model where one agency places a dedicated recruiter or team at the client's…

Vendor on premises (VOP) is a staffing model where an agency embeds a dedicated on-site team at the client's facility…

A verbal offer is an oral communication, by phone or in person, in which an employer conveys the terms of employment…

Vesting is the process by which an employee earns the right to employer-contributed assets, such as stock options or…

Video interviewing is conducting job interviews by video, either live or through pre-recorded candidate responses…

Volume hiring (also called high-volume recruiting) refers to campaigns where an employer or staffing agency needs to…

Voluntary turnover is the rate at which employees leave an organization on their own initiative, as distinct from…

A W-2 employee is a worker classified as an employee under US tax law, where the employer withholds income tax, Social…

The W-4 is the IRS form US employees complete on starting a job to tell their employer how much federal income tax to…

The WARN Act (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) is a US federal law requiring employers with 100 or…

A webhook is an HTTP callback in which one application automatically sends real-time data to another when a specified…

Webhooks are HTTP callbacks that send real-time notifications from one system to another when an event occurs, such as…

A whistleblower is an employee who reports illegal, unethical or unsafe conduct by their employer, either internally,…

Whistleblower protection is the set of legal and procedural safeguards that prevent employers from retaliating against…

A work sample test is a selection assessment that asks candidates to complete a task representative of the actual work…

A work style assessment is a psychometric instrument that measures how a person approaches tasks, collaboration,…

A work-seeker is a person actively seeking employment; in South African labor law the term has a statutory meaning tied…

A worker in UK employment law holds a status between employee and self-employed contractor, with core rights such as…

Worker classification is the determination of whether a person is an employee or independent contractor, setting their…

Worker misclassification occurs when an employer or staffing agency incorrectly designates a worker as an independent…

Worker retention is an organisation's ability to keep its employees over time, which reduces the need to backfill roles…

Workflow automation in recruitment replaces manual, repetitive steps with rules-based logic, such as sending emails or…

Workforce agility is an organization's capacity to adjust its workforce size, composition and skill mix to changing…

Workforce analytics is the use of data to understand, predict and improve how people are hired, developed and retained…

Workforce planning is the process of analysing current headcount, forecasting future talent needs, and developing…

The Working Time Regulations 1998 set UK legal limits on working hours, mandatory rest periods and paid annual leave…

A written offer is a formal letter stating the terms of employment, such as job title, start date and pay, that both…

Wrongful termination, or wrongful dismissal in UK law, is ending an employment contract without following its terms,…

X-Ray search is a sourcing technique that uses Google's site: operator combined with Boolean strings to search the…

A zero-hours contract is an employment arrangement where the employer is not obliged to offer any minimum hours and the…