Resources · Glossary

EuliAI Recruiting Glossary

Clear explanations of the concepts, methods and terminology used in modern hiring and talent acquisition.

78 terms

Hiring Process

Hiring Criteria

Definition: Hiring criteria are the predefined requirements and characteristics used to evaluate whether a candidate is suitable for a role.
Why it matters: Defining criteria before interviews reduces reliance on intuition and helps interviewers evaluate candidates consistently.
Example: Hiring criteria for a software engineering role might include TypeScript experience, system-design skills, collaboration and technical ownership.

Hiring Kick-off

Also known as: Intake · Intake Meeting · Kickoff · Kick-off · Hiring Intake · Recruiting Intake

Definition: A hiring kick-off is a structured conversation between the recruiter and hiring manager before recruiting for a role begins. It aligns the team on the role, requirements, target candidates, hiring process and responsibilities.
Why it matters: Many hiring problems start with unclear or conflicting expectations. A strong kick-off creates shared understanding before sourcing and interviewing begin.
Example: Before opening a Product Manager role, the recruiter and hiring manager clarify the role's objectives, must-have skills, interview stages and target market.

Hiring Manager

Also known as: HM · Hiring Mgr

Definition: A hiring manager is the person responsible for filling a role within their team or function and typically has significant input into the final hiring decision.
Why it matters: Effective collaboration between hiring managers and recruiters is essential for defining requirements, designing interviews and evaluating candidates consistently.
Example: An Engineering Manager hiring a Backend Engineer works with Talent Acquisition to define the role and participate in candidate assessment.

Hiring Process

Definition: A hiring process is the structured sequence of activities an organization uses to identify, assess and select candidates for an open role.
Why it matters: A clearly defined hiring process creates consistency, improves the candidate experience and helps hiring teams make more evidence-based decisions.
Example: A hiring process might include application review, recruiter screening, hiring manager interview, practical assessment and final interview.

Hiring Profile

Also known as: Role Profile

Definition: A hiring profile is a structured description of what a successful candidate for a role should bring and what they are expected to achieve.
Why it matters: Unlike a job advertisement, which is written for candidates, a hiring profile serves as an internal reference for sourcing, interviewing and candidate evaluation.
Example: A hiring profile for a Sales Manager might define expected outcomes, relevant experience, leadership competencies and essential market knowledge.

Intake Meeting

Also known as: Intake · Hiring Intake · Recruiting Intake

Definition: An intake meeting is an initial meeting between a recruiter and hiring manager to gather the information required to start a recruitment process.
Why it matters: A structured intake helps recruiters understand what the organization actually needs instead of relying only on an existing job description.
Example: The recruiter asks about business context, responsibilities, required experience, team structure, salary range and interview process.

Must-have vs. Nice-to-have

Also known as: Must-have · Nice-to-have · Must have · Nice to have

Definition: Must-have requirements are essential for successful performance in a role, while nice-to-have requirements are beneficial but not necessary.
Why it matters: Separating the two helps prevent unnecessarily restrictive job requirements and keeps hiring teams focused on what the role genuinely requires.
Example: Experience building APIs may be a must-have, while experience in a specific industry could be a nice-to-have.

Interviews & Assessment

Biographical Interview

Definition: A biographical interview is a structured or semi-structured interview that explores a candidate’s professional history, career decisions, responsibilities and development over time.
Why it matters: Biographical interviews help hiring teams understand patterns across a candidate’s career, including changes in responsibility, motivations for career moves and the context in which previous experience was gained.
Example: An interviewer might explore why a candidate joined or left previous organizations, how their responsibilities changed, which career decisions they made and what they learned from significant professional experiences.

Candidate Assessment

Definition: Candidate assessment is the systematic evaluation of a candidate's skills, experience, behaviours or potential against defined role requirements.
Why it matters: Assessment connects hiring decisions to evidence relevant to successful performance in the role.
Example: A candidate may be assessed through structured interviews, work samples and a practical exercise.

Competency-based Interview

Definition: A competency-based interview evaluates candidates against specific skills or behaviours required for successful performance in a role.
Why it matters: It helps interviewers focus on relevant capabilities rather than conducting an unstructured general conversation.
Example: To assess conflict management, an interviewer asks candidates to describe a situation in which they resolved disagreement between stakeholders.

Evidence-based Hiring

Definition: Evidence-based hiring uses relevant, structured information to support hiring decisions rather than relying primarily on intuition or overall impressions.
Why it matters: It encourages hiring teams to connect decisions to defined requirements and observable evidence collected throughout the hiring process.
Example: Instead of saying a candidate “felt senior,” interviewers document which behaviours and examples demonstrated the required level of seniority.

Interview Guide

Also known as: Interview Plan

Definition: An interview guide is a structured plan that helps interviewers conduct a consistent interview. It typically includes questions, competencies, timing and follow-up prompts.
Why it matters: Interview guides help interviewers collect relevant evidence rather than improvising different conversations with every candidate.
Example: A 60-minute interview guide may allocate specific sections to motivation, role expertise, leadership and candidate questions.

Interview Scorecard

Definition: An interview scorecard is a structured evaluation tool used to assess candidates against predefined criteria after or during an interview.
Why it matters: Scorecards make interview feedback more consistent and help hiring teams distinguish evidence from general impressions.
Example: An interviewer rates stakeholder management against defined criteria and records supporting evidence from the interview.

How to Build a Hiring Scorecard

Practical Assessment

Also known as: Work Sample · Work Sample Test · Case Study · Practical Task · Assessment

Definition: A practical assessment asks candidates to demonstrate job-relevant skills through a task, exercise, simulation or work sample.
Why it matters: Practical assessments can provide direct evidence of how a candidate approaches work instead of relying only on how they describe previous experience.
Example: A developer might review a small codebase and discuss potential improvements rather than completing a generic algorithm test.

Recruiter vs. Hiring Manager: Who Should Assess What?

Screening Interview

Definition: A screening interview is an early-stage conversation used to determine whether there is sufficient alignment between a candidate and a role to continue the hiring process.
Why it matters: A focused screening stage can identify fundamental mismatches early while avoiding unnecessary interview rounds.
Example: A recruiter discusses motivation, relevant experience, location expectations and compensation before inviting the candidate to the hiring manager interview.

Screening Questions

Definition: Screening questions are predefined questions used early in the recruitment process to evaluate essential requirements or potential mismatches.
Why it matters: Good screening questions focus recruiter time on relevant information and help candidates understand important role conditions early.
Example: For a role requiring regular customer communication in German, language proficiency may be assessed during screening.

Structured Interview

Definition: A structured interview uses predefined questions and evaluation criteria so candidates for the same role are assessed in a consistent way.
Why it matters: Structure improves comparability between candidates and can reduce the influence of irrelevant impressions and inconsistent interviewing.
Example: Every candidate for a leadership role receives the same core questions about stakeholder management and team leadership.

Recruiter vs. Hiring Manager: Who Should Assess What?

Talent Acquisition

Active Sourcing

Also known as: Sourcing

Definition: Active sourcing is the proactive identification and direct approach of potential candidates rather than waiting for applications.
Why it matters: It enables organizations to reach relevant people who may not currently be searching for a new role.
Example: A recruiter identifies potential candidates through professional networks and contacts selected individuals with a personalised message.

Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

Also known as: ATS · Applicant Tracking System

Definition: An Applicant Tracking System is software used to manage recruitment workflows and candidate information throughout the hiring process.
Why it matters: An ATS provides a central system for applications, candidate stages, communication, interview activity and recruiting data.
Example: Recruiters may use an ATS to publish jobs, review applications, move candidates between stages and record hiring decisions.

Candidate Persona

Definition: A candidate persona is a structured representation of the type of candidate a recruiting team expects to target based on role requirements and candidate-market characteristics.
Why it matters: It can help teams choose appropriate sourcing channels and messaging, provided it remains grounded in job-relevant requirements rather than demographic assumptions.
Example: A candidate persona might describe likely professional backgrounds, relevant skills, motivations and preferred sourcing channels.

HRIS

Definition: A Human Resources Information System (HRIS) is software used to manage employee information and HR processes across the employee lifecycle.
Why it matters: While an ATS primarily manages candidates before hiring, an HRIS typically becomes central once someone joins the organization.
Example: After a candidate is hired, employee information may be transferred from the ATS into the organization's HRIS.

Recruiter

Also known as: Recruiting

Definition: A recruiter manages and supports the process of attracting, assessing and hiring candidates for open roles.
Why it matters: Recruiters connect candidates, hiring managers and the organization while helping create an efficient and consistent hiring process.
Example: A recruiter may conduct the hiring kick-off, source candidates, run screening interviews and coordinate the selection process.

Sourcing Strategy

Definition: A sourcing strategy defines how and where an organization will identify and engage potential candidates for a specific hiring need.
Why it matters: Different roles require different candidate markets, channels and approaches. A sourcing strategy turns role requirements into a targeted search plan.
Example: For a specialised engineering role, the strategy might combine direct sourcing, employee referrals and relevant technical communities.

Talent Acquisition

Also known as: TA · Recruiting

Definition: Talent acquisition is the strategic process of identifying, attracting, assessing and hiring talent to meet an organization's current and future workforce needs.
Why it matters: Talent acquisition goes beyond filling individual vacancies by connecting recruiting activity with longer-term business and workforce needs.
Example: A talent acquisition team may combine recruiting, sourcing, employer branding, talent intelligence and workforce planning.

Talent Acquisition Partner

Also known as: TAP · TA Partner · Talent Partner

Definition: A Talent Acquisition Partner is a recruiting professional who combines operational recruiting with strategic advice to hiring managers and business stakeholders.
Why it matters: The partnership model positions recruiting as part of workforce and hiring decision-making rather than only vacancy administration.
Example: A Talent Acquisition Partner may challenge unrealistic requirements, advise on market conditions and help design an appropriate assessment process.

Recruiting Essentials

Applicant

Definition: An applicant is a person who has formally applied for a role.

Assessment Relevance

Definition: Assessment relevance describes how closely an interview question or practical task reflects the capabilities and work required in the role.
Why it matters: It helps teams collect useful evidence without asking candidates to complete exercises that have little connection to the job.

Definition: Bias is a systematic influence on judgment that can affect how candidate information is perceived or evaluated.

Candidate

Definition: A candidate is a person being considered for a role. They may have applied directly or been approached through sourcing.

Candidate Drop-off

Also known as: Candidate Withdrawal

Definition: Candidate drop-off describes candidates leaving the hiring process before it is complete. A drop-off rate needs a defined stage, period and group of candidates; distinguish withdrawals from employer rejections.
Why it matters: It shows where to investigate candidate concerns or process friction, but does not explain the reasons on its own.

Time-to-Hire Is Not a Quality Metric

Candidate Experience

Definition: Candidate experience is how candidates perceive and experience the hiring process and their interactions with an organization.
Why it matters: Candidate feedback can reveal unclear communication, irrelevant assessments or concerns about fairness. Conversations and written feedback can complement survey scores.

Definition: A candidate pipeline is the group of candidates currently progressing through different stages of a hiring process.

Competency

Definition: A competency is a skill, behavior, capability or area of knowledge relevant to successful performance in a role.

How to Build a Hiring Scorecard

Competency Coverage

Definition: Competency coverage describes whether the hiring process assesses the capabilities identified as important for the role, and where evidence for each is collected.
Why it matters: It exposes gaps that extra interviews or faster hiring will not necessarily solve.

Definition: Cost per hire is the recruiting expenditure included in a defined period divided by the number of hires in that period. Teams should specify which internal and external costs are included.
Why it matters: It helps teams understand recruiting effort and spending, but says little about the quality of a hiring decision by itself.

Time-to-Hire Is Not a Quality Metric

Decision Quality

Definition: Decision quality describes how well a hiring recommendation is supported by relevant evidence against agreed role criteria, with uncertainties made explicit.
Why it matters: It helps a team explain why it recommends someone rather than relying on a shared feeling or the speed of the process.

Definition: Evidence is job-relevant information or observed behavior used to evaluate whether a candidate meets an assessment criterion.

Evidence Quality

Definition: Evidence quality describes how relevant, specific and sufficiently detailed the information collected about a candidate is for assessing the requirements of the role.
Why it matters: It helps interviewers distinguish an observable example from a vague impression or an unsupported rating.

Evidence-based Assessment

Also known as: Evidence Based Assessment

Definition: Evidence-based assessment evaluates candidates using relevant observed evidence rather than primarily relying on intuition or general impressions.

Funnel Conversion Rate

Definition: Funnel conversion rate is the share of candidates in a defined group who move from one hiring stage to the next. Name the stages, period and candidate group used.
Why it matters: It highlights changes and possible bottlenecks, while further investigation explains why candidates progress or leave.

Time-to-Hire Is Not a Quality Metric

Hiring Need

Definition: A hiring need describes why a company wants to fill a role and what the person should achieve. In EuliAI, it is the starting point for a Hiring Kit.

Hiring Team

Definition: The hiring team is the group of people involved in evaluating candidates and making a hiring decision.

Hiring Team Alignment

Definition: Hiring team alignment is the shared understanding of the role, evaluation criteria and assessment responsibilities among the people making a hiring decision.
Why it matters: Agreeing what good looks like before interviews makes contradictory expectations easier to identify and resolve.

Definition: Interview consistency describes whether candidates for the same role receive comparable questions, evaluation criteria and opportunities to demonstrate their capabilities.
Why it matters: It makes evidence easier to compare. Consistency can be reviewed through interview records or measured against an agreed interview plan.

Definition: An interview stage is a defined step within a hiring process where specific information or evidence is collected.

Job Advertisement

Also known as: Job Ad · Job Advert

Definition: A job advertisement is the candidate-facing communication used to describe and promote an open role.

How to Choose a Good Job Title

Job Description

Also known as: JD · Role Description

Definition: A job description describes a role, its responsibilities and requirements. Depending on the organization, it may be an internal role description or an informal name for a public job advertisement.

Knockout Criterion

Also known as: Knockout Criteria · Knock-out Criterion

Definition: A knockout criterion is a genuine non-negotiable requirement or constraint that can exclude a candidate from further consideration.

Offer Acceptance Rate

Definition: Offer acceptance rate is the proportion of formal job offers accepted within a defined group and period. State how withdrawn, pending and declined offers are counted.
Why it matters: It helps teams examine the offer stage, provided the offer count and earlier candidate withdrawals remain visible.

Time-to-Hire Is Not a Quality Metric

Quality of Hire

Definition: Quality of hire is a broad metric or set of metrics intended to evaluate outcomes after someone joins, such as performance, retention or hiring-manager satisfaction. There is no single universal definition; the role, timeframe and outcomes must be specified.
Why it matters: It helps teams examine later outcomes while recognising that onboarding, management and working conditions also influence them.

Time-to-Hire Is Not a Quality Metric

Scorecard

Also known as: Score Card · Evaluation Scorecard

Definition: A scorecard is a structured set of criteria used to evaluate candidates consistently against the requirements of a role.

How to Build a Hiring Scorecard

Screening

Definition: Screening is an early-stage evaluation used to determine whether a candidate meets the fundamental requirements for a role.

Source of Hire

Definition: Source of hire identifies the channel credited with bringing a successful hire into the recruiting process, such as a referral, sourcing outreach or a job board.
Why it matters: It informs channel decisions. Attribution rules matter when candidates interact with several channels before joining.

Time-to-Hire Is Not a Quality Metric

Structured Hiring

Definition: Structured hiring assesses candidates against predefined, job-relevant criteria using consistent methods and structured evaluation.

Time-to-Fill

Also known as: Time-to-Fill

Definition: Time to fill measures the time from a defined vacancy starting point, such as approval to recruit, to a defined filled-position endpoint, such as offer acceptance.
Why it matters: It helps plan vacancies and hiring capacity. Specify the clock: it usually starts earlier than the candidate-focused Time to Hire.

Time-to-Hire Is Not a Quality Metric

Time-to-Hire

Also known as: Time-to-Hire

Definition: Time to hire is a recruiting metric describing how long it takes to move a candidate through a defined portion of the hiring process. Its start and end points should always be specified.
Why it matters: It helps teams identify delays and improve process efficiency. It does not measure whether the hiring decision was good.

Time-to-Hire Is Not a Quality Metric

Trainable / Learnable

Also known as: Trainable · Learnable

Definition: A trainable or learnable skill is one a candidate does not necessarily need on day one because it can reasonably be learned after joining.

EuliAI Product Language

Assessment Mapping

Definition: Assessment Mapping assigns assessment criteria to appropriate hiring stages and identifies gaps, unnecessary duplication or weak assessment methods.

Connected Hiring Kit

Also known as: Hiring Kit

Definition: The Connected Hiring Kit is the set of hiring outputs generated from the same approved Hiring Profile and assessment logic.

Explicit Information

Definition: Explicit Information is information directly stated by the user or contained clearly in supplied source material.

Gap Analysis

Definition: Gap Analysis is EuliAI's analysis of important missing, unclear or contradictory information in the hiring requirements.

Guided Kick-off

Also known as: Guided Intake

Definition: Guided Kick-off is the structured EuliAI entry path for users who want help defining a hiring need step by step.

Hiring Kit

Definition: A Hiring Kit is the core workspace and output for a role in EuliAI. It connects the Hiring Profile with materials such as a Job Ad, screening questions, scorecards and interview guides. Designing the hiring process is one part of it. EuliAI does not manage applications or candidate pipelines.

Hiring Kit Workspace

Definition: The Hiring Kit workspace is where you review and edit the information and materials for a role, from the initial draft to the completed components.

Inferred / Suggested Information

Also known as: Inferred Information · Suggested Information

Definition: Inferred or Suggested Information is information EuliAI believes may be implied by the available material but which the user has not confirmed.

Master Hiring Profile

Also known as: Hiring Profile · Role Profile · MHP

Definition: The Master Hiring Profile holds the approved requirements for a role. EuliAI uses it as the foundation for the other components of the Hiring Kit.

Master Scorecard

Definition: The Master Scorecard is the complete set of observable assessment criteria derived from the approved Hiring Profile.

Missing Information

Definition: Missing Information is important hiring information that cannot be determined from the available input.

Process Health

Definition: Process Health describes whether important requirements are covered appropriately across the hiring process, including potential assessment gaps, duplication or weak evidence.

Requirements Analysis

Definition: Requirements Analysis structures the information needed to understand a hiring need, including outcomes, responsibilities, capabilities and constraints.

Stage Scorecard

Definition: A Stage Scorecard is the subset of assessment criteria assigned to a particular interview or assessment stage.

Start with what you already have

Also known as: Upload Existing Material · Existing Hiring Information

Definition: Start with what you already have is the EuliAI entry path for users who already have hiring information such as notes, free text, a job description or an intake transcript.

AI & Modern Hiring

AI Bias

Definition: AI bias refers to systematic patterns in an AI system's outputs that can create or reinforce unfair or inappropriate differences between people or groups.
Why it matters: Recruiting decisions affect people's opportunities, making bias identification, human oversight and appropriate AI governance particularly important.
Example: Historical hiring data may contain patterns that should not automatically be treated as indicators of future candidate suitability.

AI in Recruiting

Definition: AI in recruiting refers to the use of artificial intelligence to support activities such as requirements analysis, sourcing, content creation, candidate communication or hiring-process design.
Why it matters: AI can reduce repetitive work and help structure information, but its use requires appropriate human oversight, data protection and attention to potential bias.
Example: An AI system might turn notes from a hiring kick-off into a structured hiring profile for a recruiter to review.

AI-assisted Hiring

Definition: AI-assisted hiring describes hiring processes in which artificial intelligence supports human users without replacing human responsibility for hiring decisions.
Why it matters: The distinction makes clear that AI can help structure, analyse or generate information while accountable people remain responsible for consequential decisions.
Example: AI proposes interview criteria based on role requirements, and the recruiter and hiring manager review and approve them before use.

Explainable AI

Definition: Explainable AI refers to approaches that make it easier for people to understand how or why an AI system produced a particular output or recommendation.
Why it matters: In hiring-related contexts, users should be able to review AI-supported outputs and understand the information behind them rather than relying blindly on automated suggestions.
Example: Instead of only suggesting that stakeholder management should be assessed, an AI hiring tool shows which role requirements led to that suggestion.

Human-in-the-loop

Definition: Human-in-the-loop describes a system in which human review, judgement or approval remains part of an AI-supported process.
Why it matters: In hiring, human oversight is particularly important when AI-generated information could influence decisions about candidates or recruitment processes.
Example: EuliAI may suggest a hiring profile, while the recruiter reviews and edits it before it becomes the basis for candidate assessment.

Interview Bias

Definition: Interview bias occurs when factors unrelated or insufficiently related to job performance influence how an interviewer evaluates a candidate.
Why it matters: Unstructured interviews can leave more room for first impressions, similarity preferences and other irrelevant influences to affect decisions.
Example: An interviewer rates a candidate more positively because they share similar interests, despite those interests having no relevance to the role.

Put it into practice

Turn your hiring need into a Hiring Kit.

Create a Hiring Kit

EuliAI Recruiting Glossary

Hiring Process

Hiring Criteria

Hiring Kick-off

Hiring Manager

Hiring Process

Hiring Profile

Intake Meeting

Must-have vs. Nice-to-have

Interviews & Assessment

Biographical Interview

Candidate Assessment

Competency-based Interview

Evidence-based Hiring

Interview Guide

Interview Scorecard

Practical Assessment

Screening Interview

Screening Questions

Structured Interview

Talent Acquisition

Active Sourcing

Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

Candidate Persona

HRIS

Recruiter

Sourcing Strategy

Talent Acquisition

Talent Acquisition Partner

Recruiting Essentials

Applicant

Assessment Relevance

Bias

Candidate

Candidate Drop-off

Candidate Experience

Candidate Pipeline

Competency

Competency Coverage

Cost per Hire

Decision Quality

Evidence

Evidence Quality

Evidence-based Assessment

Funnel Conversion Rate

Hiring Need

Hiring Team

Hiring Team Alignment

Interview Consistency

Interview Stage

Job Advertisement

Job Description

Knockout Criterion

Offer Acceptance Rate

Quality of Hire

Scorecard

Screening

Source of Hire

Structured Hiring

Time-to-Fill

Time-to-Hire

Trainable / Learnable

EuliAI Product Language

Assessment Mapping

Connected Hiring Kit

Explicit Information

Gap Analysis

Guided Kick-off

Hiring Kit

Hiring Kit Workspace

Inferred / Suggested Information

Master Hiring Profile

Master Scorecard

Missing Information

Process Health

Requirements Analysis

Stage Scorecard

Start with what you already have

AI & Modern Hiring

AI Bias