Recruitment Glossary: Terms from Modern Recruitment
Recruitment has its own language.
Some terms are ones we hear every day and no longer stop to think about what they actually mean. Others only become familiar when we take a closer look at recruitment, selection and talent management.
Understanding these terms is useful regardless of whether you work in recruitment, participate in the selection process as a hiring manager or are currently involved in it as a candidate.
That is why we created a recruitment glossary that will serve as a practical guide to terms used in modern recruitment — from how candidates are identified and assessed to the broader context in which companies today plan for and attract talent.
Below, we present a selection of terms used across different stages of the recruitment process. For each term, we provide a short and clear explanation of its meaning and practical application.
Applicants per Hire (ApH) – number of applicants per hire
This metric shows how many candidate applications were needed on average to make one hire. It is calculated by dividing the total number of applications by the number of candidates hired. For example, if 120 candidates applied for a position and three were hired, the ApH is 40.
The number of applications, however, does not by itself indicate how successful the hiring process is. A high number may mean that the employer is highly desirable, so candidates apply even when they do not meet the requirements — sometimes simply because they want to be added to the company’s database. It may also mean that the job ad is not clear enough and attracts a large number of unsuitable applications. On the other hand, a low number may be the result of a well-targeted job ad, but also of overly strict requirements or lower employer attractiveness.
ApH is particularly useful for comparing recruitment channels. If LinkedIn generates 10 applications and one hire, while a local website generates 200 applications and one hire, LinkedIn has proven to be the more efficient channel in that case: it generated more relevant candidates and required less time for selection.
Jaka Lounge advice: If a manager asks you for this metric next time, do not send them just the number — explain the process as well. Managers often come from other professional fields and view recruitment through general metrics, so a number without context can create a misleading picture of your work. Show where the applications come from, how many of them are actually relevant to the position and how much time the selection process requires. Because 200 applications are not necessarily better than 20.
ATS (Applicant Tracking System)
ATS is software that helps companies manage the entire hiring process in one place — from publishing a job ad and receiving applications to interviews, offers and hiring.
Depending on the system, a job ad can be created directly in the ATS, published on the careers page and job portals, and then shared on LinkedIn and other social networks. All incoming applications are automatically linked to the relevant position.
Instead of having CVs, comments and correspondence spread across different emails, spreadsheets and documents, the ATS stores all candidate information and shows which stage of the process they are in. The recruiter can therefore see how many applications have been received, who has passed the initial selection, who has been invited to an interview, how a candidate was assessed and why a particular decision was made.
The ATS also facilitates communication with candidates, collaboration between recruiters and hiring managers, tracking the source of applications and reporting. However, how useful the data is depends on how consistently the system is used and how well the processes within it are set up. When a candidate submits an application, the ATS processes the CV by identifying and extracting information such as work experience, education, skills, certifications and other criteria relevant to the position. Depending on the system, applications can then be filtered and searched according to keywords and the requirements in the job ad. This means that a CV containing photos, graphics, tables, columns or text that is actually part of an image may be more difficult for the system to read, so important information may remain unrecognized. On the other hand, a clearly structured CV with standard section headings and specifically stated experience and skills that match the position requirements increases the likelihood that the ATS will correctly process the application and select it for recruiter review.
Jaka Lounge advice for recruiters: A recruiter cannot, and should not, remember everything. That is why the ATS keeps a record of what happened during the process. Notes in the system should contain professionally relevant observations, not personal impressions and assumptions. It is appropriate to write: “During the test, the candidate used headphones, although the rules stated that they were not allowed” or “The candidate did not provide concrete examples for the following competencies.” It is not appropriate to conclude without evidence: “The candidate cheated,” nor to include comments about appearance, age, pregnancy, family status, health, disability, religion, nationality, political views or other personal characteristics that are not relevant to the job and must not form the basis for a hiring decision.
A simple rule is useful: write the note as if the candidate might read it one day, but also as if you will need to remember the conversation and the reasons for your assessment six months from now.
Jaka Lounge advice for candidates: Create your CV so that it is clear both to the person reading it and to the system processing it. Use a simple and easy-to-read format, clear section headings and text that can be properly selected and copied. Avoid presenting important information only through images, charts, icons, text boxes, complex tables or multiple columns. Also pay attention to the terms in the job ad that genuinely describe your experience — if you have a required skill, state it clearly using the terminology used in the job ad. Before submitting your CV, you can perform a simple test: try copying its entire text into a plain text editor. If the content becomes mixed up, information is missing or it is difficult to read, there is a risk that the ATS will not process it correctly.
Boolean Search
Boolean Search is a search method that uses logical symbols such as AND, OR and NOT, as well as quotation marks and parentheses, to precisely combine and limit search criteria. In recruitment, it is used to find candidates in CV databases, on LinkedIn, search engines and other sourcing tools.
Each symbol has its own role: AND narrows the search and requires results to contain all listed terms, OR broadens the search by including any of the listed terms, while NOT excludes unwanted results. Quotation marks are used to search for an exact phrase, while parentheses are used to combine multiple conditions into a more complex query.
In recruitment, Boolean Search is particularly useful when a position has multiple possible titles or when candidates describe the same knowledge and experience differently. For example, a recruiter can search for (“Software Engineer” OR “Software Developer”) AND Python to include candidates with different job titles but relevant technology experience. By adding NOT Manager, they can exclude some unwanted results.
It is important to keep in mind that Boolean Search does not find the “best candidate” on its own. It finds profiles that match the logic defined by the recruiter. If the query is too broad, we will get many irrelevant results; if it is too restrictive, we may exclude strong candidates who describe their experience using different terms. That is why the Boolean string is often adjusted based on the search results.
Jaka Lounge advice: Do not treat Boolean Search as a competition to create the longest possible search string. A good Boolean search starts with the question who exactly do we want to find? and then uses different titles, synonyms and criteria to reach that profile. Especially when searching for rare profiles, it is better to create several smart variations than one huge and overly restrictive query. Boolean Search should be a tool for thinking and testing the market, not just a series of operators copied from one search into another.
Candidate Experience
Candidate Experience represents the overall experience and perception of a candidate throughout all interactions with a company during the hiring process — from the first contact with a job ad or the company, through application, communication and interviews, to the decision and completion of the process.
Every step the candidate goes through influences Candidate Experience: how easy the application is, whether the information about the position is clear, how long the process takes, whether the candidate knows what is expected of them, how quickly they receive feedback and how the company communicates with them. That is why a good experience does not mean only polite communication during an interview, but consistent and professional treatment throughout the entire process.
Candidate Experience is also important when a candidate does not get the job. The way the company communicates the decision, provides feedback and closes the process affects how the candidate perceives the company and whether they will consider it again as an employer in the future. Candidate experience can also influence employer brand and the candidate’s willingness to recommend the company to others.
It is important to distinguish Candidate Experience from Employer Branding. Candidate Experience is what the candidate experiences through a specific process and interactions with the company, while Employer Brand represents the broader picture and perception of the company as an employer. A good candidate experience can contribute to building a positive employer brand, but it cannot compensate for a mismatch between what the company communicates and what it actually provides.
Jaka Lounge advice: Candidate Experience should be viewed as part of the recruitment process itself, not as something to be fixed when there is time left. The simplest test is for a company to go through its own recruitment process as a candidate: open the job ad, complete the application, check how clear the next steps are and measure how long it takes to receive a response at each stage. If a candidate has to send three emails to find out the status of the process or does not know for weeks whether they are still being considered, the problem is not their impatience — the process is not well designed. Good Candidate Experience does not mean promising a candidate a job; it means providing a clear, professional and fair process regardless of the final decision.
Cybervetting
Cybervetting is the process of searching the internet, social media and other publicly available online sources to collect additional information about a candidate that may be considered during recruitment and selection. The literature also uses the terms social media screening or online screening.
In practice, cybervetting can include reviewing professional and social profiles, public posts, comments, photographs or other information available without special access to the candidate’s account. Employers most commonly use it to supplement information from the CV and interview, verify certain claims or attempt to assess professional behavior and potential risks.
The problem is that an online footprint is not necessarily a reliable indicator of how a person will perform at work. Research indicates that assessments of candidates based on social media can be subjective, without standardized criteria, and their connection to actual job performance has not been clearly confirmed. In addition, the review should be connected to a specific purpose and position, and the data collected should be limited to what is necessary for that purpose. Otherwise, cybervetting can raise questions of privacy, discrimination and personal data protection.
Jaka Lounge advice: If cybervetting is used in recruitment, the criteria should be defined in advance and linked to the job. Information that is not relevant to the role should not influence the candidate’s assessment. Particular caution is needed with social media data that may reveal personal circumstances or characteristics that are not related to the candidate’s professional qualifications. The goal is not to find out as much as possible about a candidate, but to assess what is genuinely relevant to the job. Keep in mind that private online behavior should not automatically be considered an indicator of behavior at work — a person may have a completely different lifestyle, interests and way of behaving outside the workplace while still professionally meeting the expectations of their role.
Employee Value Proposition (EVP)
EVP represents the set of values that a company offers employees in exchange for their work, knowledge and contribution. It includes financial and non-financial elements of employment, such as salary, benefits, development opportunities, ways of working, culture, flexibility, leadership and career development.
EVP answers a simple question: “Why would someone want to work for this company?” That is why it plays an important role in recruitment — it helps a company clearly communicate what a candidate can expect, but also attract people for whom that way of working is genuinely suitable. EVP, however, is not only about what a company wants to communicate. Its value depends on whether the promise matches the actual employee experience.
EVP and employer brand are not the same. EVP represents what a company offers as an employer and what it stands for, while employer brand represents how the company is perceived as an employer by employees, candidates and the labor market. EVP is therefore one of the important elements on which an employer brand is built.
Jaka Lounge advice: Do not reduce EVP to a list of benefits or a few attractive sentences on a careers page. A good EVP should correspond to the actual employee experience. If a company promises flexibility, development and a good culture, but employees do not recognize these things in their everyday work, the problem is not only in communication — it is the mismatch between what the company promises and what it actually provides.
Interview Scorecard
Interview Scorecard is a predefined framework for assessing candidates during an interview. It contains criteria that are important for a specific position, as well as space for recording evidence and assessing candidates against those criteria. The goal is for all candidates to be assessed based on the same, position-relevant criteria, rather than solely on the general impression after the conversation.
The Scorecard is most often defined before the interview, based on the requirements, responsibilities and key competencies needed for a specific position, which have previously been defined in the job description. The areas that need to be assessed during the interview are then identified from these competencies, such as professional knowledge, specific skills, behaviors or other competencies important for success in the role. Based on this, it is then determined what will be assessed, which questions will be asked and which answers or behaviors represent evidence that the candidate meets a particular criterion. For example, for a Sales Manager position, the criteria may include leadership, negotiation skills, sales team management and strategic thinking. Each interviewer then records the candidate’s assessment and the specific evidence supporting it.
An important advantage of the Interview Scorecard is that it allows feedback from different interviewers to be compared. Instead of one interviewer writing “excellent candidate” and another “I didn’t like them,” both should assess the same criteria and support their assessment with specific information gathered during the interview. This way, the final decision relies more on evidence and less on personal impressions.
Jaka Lounge advice: The Scorecard does not make much sense if it is filled out only at the end of the process, once everyone already knows what the other team members think about the candidate. Each interviewer should record their own assessment based on what they personally heard and saw during the conversation before reading the conclusions of others. More importantly, every assessment should be linked to specific evidence. “Seems like a good fit” is not a criterion. “The candidate provided two concrete examples of how they resolved a conflict within a team and explained their approach” is. However, although Interview Scorecard is a simple and useful format for structured candidate assessment, unfortunately it is rarely used in practice, especially because recruitment processes have become increasingly fast and there is less time for the consistent application of this approach.
Internal Mobility
Internal Mobility refers to an employee moving to another position, team, function or level within the same organization. It includes promotions, lateral moves, changes of function, rotations and other forms of internal employee movement.
Internal mobility is not the same as a promotion. An employee may move to a higher-level position, but they may also move to a position at the same level in another team or function, or temporarily take on another project in order to develop new knowledge and experience.
For a company, Internal Mobility represents a way to use existing talent to meet new organizational needs, while for employees it allows them to develop their careers without changing employers. It is therefore often linked to employee development, talent retention and future workforce planning.
Jaka Lounge advice: If a company opens a new position, it should not automatically assume that the answer has to be found on the external market. Before publishing a job ad, it is worth checking whether someone from the existing team already has the necessary knowledge or the potential to develop it. For an employee, on the other hand, internal mobility can be an opportunity to change career direction without leaving the company, but only if such opportunities are genuinely available and communicated transparently.
Job Hopping
Job Hopping refers to frequent changes of employers, that is, a series of relatively short periods of employment at different companies. There is no single time limit after which someone’s career can be classified as job hopping, as this depends on the industry, type of job and context of the changes.
In recruitment, this term is most commonly used when a recruiter or hiring manager notices several consecutive employer changes within a relatively short period. Frequent changes can be caused by different reasons — for example, promotions, higher salaries, a change in career direction, project work, restructuring or termination — so the changes themselves do not explain the candidate’s motivation.
For this reason, Job Hopping cannot automatically be interpreted as a sign of unreliability or lack of commitment. For candidate assessment, it is more important to understand why the candidate changed employers, what they achieved during those periods and whether their career path makes sense in relation to the position they are applying for.
Jaka Lounge advice: If you see several short engagements on a CV, do not immediately label someone a “job hopper” and end the assessment. Ask what is behind those changes. On the other hand, if you are a candidate with frequent job changes, do not assume that the recruiter will not notice the pattern — prepare a short and concrete explanation for each significant change. Context is often more important than the number of changes.
Skills-Based Hiring
Skills-Based Hiring is an approach to recruitment in which candidates are assessed primarily based on the skills, knowledge and abilities relevant to a specific position, and less on formal qualifications, previous job titles or the number of years of experience. The focus is on what a candidate can actually do and how well their abilities match the requirements of the job.
In the traditional approach, a degree, previous position or a certain number of years of experience often serve as a substitute for assessing a candidate’s actual abilities. Skills-Based Hiring attempts to replace these indirect indicators with a more concrete assessment — through work assignments, work samples, practical tests, situational questions or other methods through which a candidate can demonstrate what they know and can do.
This approach can expand the candidate pool because it allows people whose abilities were not acquired through a traditional career path to be considered. At the same time, it does not mean that experience or a degree are no longer important — rather, they should not automatically be more important than evidence that a candidate can successfully perform the job.
Jaka Lounge advice: Do not simply remove the requirement “5+ years of experience” from the job ad and declare the process skills-based. If we want to hire based on abilities, we also have to change the way we assess them. The real question is not only “Has the candidate done this before?” but also “How can we reliably determine whether they can actually do this?”
Passive Candidate
Passive Candidate is a person who is not actively looking for a new job or systematically applying for open positions, but may be interested in considering a suitable opportunity. Unlike an Active Candidate, a passive candidate usually does not come to the company on their own — the recruiter finds and contacts them directly.
Passive candidates are most commonly found through sourcing, that is, through direct searches of candidate databases, LinkedIn, professional networks, referrals and other sources. This means that a candidate can be completely satisfied with their current job and still be open to a conversation if a new opportunity offers something that matters to them — such as more interesting work, a higher level of responsibility, development or different working conditions.
That is why a Passive Candidate is not the same as a candidate who definitely wants to change jobs. Their level of openness can vary greatly — from someone who would seriously consider a specific offer to someone who is simply willing to hear what the company has to offer.
Jaka Lounge advice: With passive candidates, the first contact is not the moment to “sell the position” at any cost. If a person was not looking for a new job, the recruiter needs to explain why this particular opportunity is relevant to them. Good outreach does not begin only with a description of the position, but with the reason why we chose to approach that particular candidate.
Purple Squirrel
Purple Squirrel is a recruitment term for a candidate who is expected to meet almost all, often highly specific requirements of a position — relevant experience, skills, industry knowledge, seniority, education, location and other criteria. The problem is that such a combination of requirements can be so rare that there are almost no candidates on the market who meet them all.
The term is therefore most commonly used for an unrealistically narrow profile, rather than simply for a candidate who is “excellent.” For example, a company may look for a person who has experience with a very specific technology, knows a particular industry, has already managed a team, speaks several languages, is willing to work from a specific location and fits within a limited budget. Each of these requirements may make sense individually, but their combination can drastically reduce the number of potential candidates.
In practice, Purple Squirrel is often associated with the expression Unicorn Candidate. The terms are used for a very similar concept of an ideal, extremely rare candidate, although “Purple Squirrel” is more often used when the problem is that a specific position has overly precise requirements.
Jaka Lounge advice: When a search takes a long time without enough relevant candidates, first reassess the criteria instead of simply expanding sourcing. Separate must-have from nice-to-have requirements and check which of them actually determine success in the position. A candidate who meets 100% of the criteria is not necessarily a better choice than a candidate who meets the key requirements, has relevant transferable skills and can develop what they lack. Searching for a Purple Squirrel is often not a recruitment problem, but a problem with how the position itself has been defined.
Quality of Hire (QoH)
Quality of Hire is a metric that assesses how successful a new hire is after the candidate starts working. Unlike metrics such as Time to Hire or Cost per Hire, which measure the speed and cost of the process, Quality of Hire attempts to measure the actual outcome of hiring — how well the new employee fits the role, performs the job and remains with the organization.
There is no universal formula for calculating this metric. Companies most often assess it by combining several indicators, such as employee performance, retention within the company, time needed to reach the expected level of productivity and hiring manager feedback. Which indicators are used depends on the company, the position and the purpose of the measurement.
These data can show whether a particular sourcing channel, selection method or candidate assessment criteria actually lead to more successful hires.
It is also important to understand that Quality of Hire cannot be attributed solely to recruitment. A new employee’s performance is influenced by onboarding, management quality, clarity of responsibilities, organizational context and other factors after hiring. This is why the metric should be viewed as an indicator of the outcome of the entire hiring process, not only the recruiter’s work.
Jaka Lounge advice: Do not measure recruiter success only by how quickly they filled a position or how many candidates they brought to interviews. The real question is what happened after the hire. If a new employee leaves the company quickly or does not achieve the expected performance, it is necessary to go back a step and examine where the process failed — in defining the position, sourcing, candidate assessment, expectations or perhaps after the hire itself. Quality of Hire is most valuable when it is not used to “grade” recruiters, but to learn what actually works in the hiring process.
Recruiting Funnel
Recruiting Funnel is a model that shows how candidates move through different stages of the hiring process — from initial contact or application to final selection, offer and employment. The number of candidates naturally decreases throughout the process because some of them do not continue to the next stage.
Typical stages may include:
Recruitment
Application
Pre-selection based on CV
Pre-screening
Interview
Assessment
Testing
Second interview
Offer
Employment
The specific structure of the funnel depends on the company, type of position and how the recruitment process is organized, so some stages may be combined, omitted or added. It is important that each stage has clearly defined criteria for progression and an expected outcome so that it is possible to track how many candidates move from one stage to another and where the greatest reduction in their number occurs.
Tracking the funnel allows a company to see how many candidates enter each stage and what the conversion rate is between them. A decrease in the number of candidates is not a problem in itself — it is important to understand whether it corresponds to the expected process for the specific position. For example, if out of 100 applications, 20 candidates are relevant for pre-screening, five pass the final assessment and one accepts the offer, the funnel shows how candidates are filtered through the process. Only when these ratios are compared with expectations and previous results can it be assessed whether there is a problem or whether the process is simply appropriate for that position.
Jaka Lounge advice: Do not evaluate a recruiting funnel only by how much the number of candidates decreases. A funnel for one specific position can be completely different from a funnel for mass hiring, and there is no “ideal” number of candidates at every stage. What matters is understanding what happens between stages: how many candidates are genuinely relevant, how many withdraw, how many are eliminated and how many ultimately meet the needs of the position. A good funnel is not the one with the largest number of candidates, but the one that leads a sufficient number of relevant candidates to a quality hire.
Screening Matrix
Screening Matrix is a structured tool used to assess and compare candidates according to predefined criteria relevant to a specific position. It is most commonly organized as a table in which the criteria for each candidate include relevant experience, key skills, education, certifications or other position requirements.
The criteria are defined before the candidate review begins and can be divided into must-have and nice-to-have requirements. Depending on the approach, criteria can be marked as met or not met, assessed on a scale or given different weights. This ensures that all candidates are assessed according to the same framework, rather than changing the criteria depending on the specific CV.
Screening Matrix is particularly useful when there is a larger number of candidates or when several people are involved in the process. It allows us to clearly see which candidates meet the basic requirements, where there are differences between them and based on which criteria someone moved to the next stage of the process. It can also serve as documentation explaining why a particular decision was made.
It is important that the criteria are job-related, meaning directly connected to the requirements of the job. If the matrix contains too many criteria or criteria that are not connected to the actual needs of the position, it can create only the appearance of objectivity instead of improving the assessment process.
Jaka Lounge advice: The Screening Matrix should be created before you start reviewing candidates, not after you have already formed an opinion about them. Before the screening begins, agree on what is truly necessary for success in the position, what is an advantage and what is not relevant at all. If you start changing the criteria after finding an interesting candidate in order to make them “fit,” the matrix no longer serves its purpose. Good screening is not about finding a candidate who perfectly matches every row in the table, but about consistently assessing what is truly important for the job.
Talent Intelligence
Talent Intelligence represents the collection, connection and analysis of data about the talent market in order for a company to make informed decisions about hiring and workforce planning. It includes data such as the availability and concentration of specific skills, salaries, competitor activity, talent movement and labor market trends.
Unlike simply searching for candidates, Talent Intelligence is used to first understand what is realistically available in the market. For example, before opening a position, a company can analyze how many relevant candidates exist in a particular location, where these people are, which companies employ similar profiles and what the market salaries are for the required level of experience. Based on this data, it can adjust the location, budget, requirements or sourcing strategy.
Talent Intelligence differs from Talent Mapping and People Analytics. Talent Mapping is most often focused on identifying specific people and companies in a particular market, while Talent Intelligence uses a broader set of data to support strategic decisions. People Analytics primarily focuses on data about existing employees and the internal workforce, while Talent Intelligence largely includes the external market as well.
Jaka Lounge advice: Before we start looking for candidates, we should know what actually exists in the market. If a company wants to hire a highly specific profile and the analysis shows that such candidates are few, that almost all of them are located at a few competing companies or that the planned budget is below the market level, the problem is not that the recruiter “did not search well enough.” Searching can begin only once we understand the market. Talent Intelligence should help us find out such things before we spend time on the search, not only when the recruitment process has already stalled. This is, as they say, work in advance, but in practice very few companies actually carry out this step. If you are a recruiter, it can be useful to occasionally conduct this type of research in order to make your search for rare profiles easier.
Talent Pipeline
Talent Pipeline represents an organized group of potential candidates who have been identified as relevant for specific positions or groups of positions and with whom the company maintains a relationship so that they can be considered when there is a need.
Unlike a traditional candidate database, a Talent Pipeline is active and focused on future hiring. It can include candidates who have already gone through a certain level of assessment, candidates the recruiter has already spoken with, former candidates who were not selected for a previous position, as well as passive candidates who are not currently ready to make a move but could be relevant in the future.
A Talent Pipeline does not have to be tied to one specific open position. A company can, for example, continuously build a pipeline of senior software developers, sales managers or other profiles it knows it will need. When a position opens, the recruiter does not start the search from scratch, but already has a group of people who match a certain profile and with whom there has been previous communication.
It is important to distinguish Talent Pipeline from Talent Pool. Talent Pool is a broader group of potentially relevant talent, while Talent Pipeline represents a narrower and more actively managed group of candidates connected to a specific future hiring need. In practice, however, these two terms are often used interchangeably, so their exact meaning can depend on the company and its recruitment process.
Jaka Lounge advice: Talent Pipeline has no value simply because it contains a large number of names. If we do not know who the people in the pipeline are, which positions they could be relevant for, when we last communicated with them and whether they are still interested, we actually have a database rather than a functional pipeline. A good pipeline needs to be regularly updated and maintained — especially when it comes to passive candidates. The goal is not for a company to have as many contacts as possible, but to already have a group of relevant people with whom a relationship has been built when an important position opens. This takes time, which recruiters have less and less of these days, so in practice it often happens that this becomes a passive database that is activated when a new selection begins. Only in organizations that actively hire and have dedicated recruiters for specific areas does such a pipeline function properly. In most other companies, where recruiters recruit for a broader range of positions, there is not enough time to maintain contact with passive and potential candidates.
Time to Hire / Time to Fill – time required to fill a position
Time to Hire and Time to Fill are metrics used to track the time required to fill a position, that is, for a candidate to go through the recruitment process until accepting an offer. In practice, the terms are often used interchangeably, and they answer different questions:
Time to Fill: “How long does it take us to address the business need for a new employee?” That is, how much time has passed from the moment the position was opened until the candidate accepted the offer.
Time to Hire: “Once we find/attract a relevant candidate, how quickly can we move them through the selection process and hire them?” That is, how much time has passed from the moment the candidate entered the selection process until they accepted the offer.
Regardless of the term, the key is for the company to clearly define when measurement begins and when it ends and to apply the same methodology consistently. The duration of the process is influenced by candidate availability in the market, position complexity, sourcing, screening, the number of selection stages, interviewer availability, decision-making speed and the time required to agree on the offer.
These metrics can show where the process is unnecessarily slowing down and help the company plan future hiring needs more realistically. If a particular profile takes an average of 60 days to fill, the recruitment process should start early enough rather than only when the need becomes urgent. This is particularly important in recruitment outsourcing, where billing to the client may be directly linked to successfully filling certain positions. In such a model, every day until a position is filled can have a direct business and financial impact, which is why Time to Fill is closely monitored.
Jaka Lounge advice: Do not treat hiring time as a number that must be reduced at all costs. Faster is not necessarily better if the assessment of candidates is shortened, important stages are skipped or a decision is made without enough information. It is much more useful to analyze where time is being lost and why — whether the problem lies in the market, the requirements of the position or the process itself — and then look for ways to eliminate unnecessary waiting without compromising the quality of the hire.
A glossary we will keep expanding
This is only the beginning. Recruitment is constantly changing — new tools, ways of working, engagement models and approaches to selection are emerging, along with new terms.
That is why we will gradually expand this glossary and add terms that become relevant in modern recruitment practice.
Our goal is to gather, in one place, terms that can be useful to everyone involved in the hiring process — whether you are a recruiter, hiring manager, candidate or someone who makes decisions about people in an organization.
If you would like us to add any other terms, write to us at info@jakalounge.com. We are always open to hearing new terms and exchanging impressions.
