A Glossary of Key Terms in HR & Recruiting Automation

In the rapidly evolving landscape of human resources and recruiting, understanding the terminology of automation is no longer optional—it’s essential for competitive advantage. As HR leaders and talent acquisition professionals navigate innovative solutions designed to streamline operations, enhance candidate experiences, and optimize workflows, a common language becomes paramount. This glossary demystifies key terms, providing clear, authoritative definitions tailored to help you integrate these concepts into your strategic HR and recruiting initiatives.

HR & Recruiting Automation

HR & Recruiting Automation refers to the use of technology to automate repetitive, manual tasks and complex workflows within human resources and talent acquisition processes. This encompasses everything from initial candidate sourcing and screening to onboarding, employee lifecycle management, and offboarding. The goal is to improve efficiency, reduce human error, free up HR professionals for more strategic work, enhance candidate and employee experiences, and provide data-driven insights for better decision-making. Practical applications include automated interview scheduling, intelligent resume parsing, and seamless data synchronization between HR systems.

Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a software application designed to manage the recruitment and hiring process. It acts as a central repository for job applications, resumes, and candidate data, enabling recruiters to track applicants from initial contact to hire. Key functions include job posting distribution, resume parsing, candidate communication management, interview scheduling, and compliance reporting. In an automated HR environment, an ATS often integrates with other tools like HRIS, CRM, and AI-powered screening platforms to create a seamless, end-to-end recruitment workflow, reducing manual data entry and speeding up time-to-hire.

Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) System

A Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) system is a tool used by recruiting teams to proactively build and nurture relationships with potential candidates, particularly those not actively applying for roles. Unlike an ATS, which is reactive to applications, a recruiting CRM focuses on pipeline development, talent pooling, and long-term engagement. It helps manage candidate outreach, track interactions, and segment talent pools based on skills, experience, or interest. When integrated with automation, a CRM can trigger personalized email campaigns, send automated job alerts, and manage events, ensuring a continuous talent pipeline and a positive candidate experience even before a specific role opens.

AI Sourcing

AI Sourcing involves leveraging artificial intelligence algorithms to identify, evaluate, and engage potential candidates for open positions. This goes beyond traditional keyword searches, using machine learning to analyze vast datasets of professional profiles (e.g., LinkedIn, GitHub, public web) to find candidates whose skills, experience, and even cultural fit align with job requirements. AI Sourcing tools can predict candidate suitability, prioritize outreach, and suggest personalized engagement strategies. In practice, it significantly expands the talent pool, reduces manual search time for recruiters, and helps uncover passive candidates who might otherwise be overlooked, enhancing diversity and quality of hire.

AI Interviewing

AI Interviewing refers to the application of artificial intelligence to various stages of the interview process. This can include AI-powered video interviews that analyze candidates’ spoken responses, facial expressions, and body language against predefined competencies, or chatbot interviews that ask structured questions and assess answers. The primary benefits are scalability, consistency, and the reduction of unconscious bias in the initial screening stages. For HR teams, AI interviewing automates preliminary assessments, screens a high volume of candidates efficiently, and provides objective data points that can help identify top talent faster, allowing human interviewers to focus on final-stage candidates.

Workflow Automation

Workflow Automation is the design and implementation of rules-based systems that automatically execute a series of tasks or steps in a business process. In HR, this could involve automating the entire journey of a new hire, from background checks and offer letter generation to IT provisioning and benefits enrollment. By defining triggers, conditions, and actions, organizations can ensure that tasks are completed consistently, accurately, and on time, without manual intervention. This dramatically reduces administrative overhead, minimizes bottlenecks, and improves overall operational efficiency, allowing HR teams to dedicate more time to strategic initiatives and employee development.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) uses software robots (“bots”) to mimic human interactions with digital systems and applications. Unlike traditional workflow automation that often requires APIs, RPA bots can operate at the user interface level, performing repetitive, rule-based tasks such as data entry, form filling, extracting information, and generating reports. In HR, RPA can automate tasks like updating employee records across disparate systems, processing payroll inputs, generating standard reports, or transferring data between an ATS and HRIS. It’s particularly useful for processes involving legacy systems without modern integration capabilities, quickly delivering efficiency gains without major IT overhauls.

Onboarding Automation

Onboarding Automation systematizes and streamlines the process of integrating new hires into an organization. This typically involves automating tasks such as sending welcome emails, distributing offer letters, initiating background checks, managing digital paperwork (e.g., I-9 forms, tax documents), setting up IT accounts and equipment, assigning training modules, and scheduling introductory meetings. By automating these steps, companies ensure a consistent, efficient, and engaging experience for new employees, reducing administrative burdens on HR and hiring managers. It improves compliance, accelerates productivity, and significantly impacts new hire retention rates by making the first impression positive and organized.

Employee Experience (EX) Automation

Employee Experience (EX) Automation focuses on using technology to enhance and streamline interactions throughout an employee’s journey within an organization, beyond just recruitment and onboarding. This includes automating processes related to performance management, learning and development requests, internal communications, HR inquiries (e.g., benefits, PTO), internal transfers, and offboarding. The goal is to create a more efficient, personalized, and supportive environment for employees, reducing friction and administrative delays. By automating routine EX tasks, HR can provide faster responses, more consistent support, and empower employees with self-service options, ultimately boosting engagement, satisfaction, and retention.

Human Resources Information System (HRIS)

A Human Resources Information System (HRIS) is a comprehensive software solution that integrates various HR functions into a single system. It typically manages employee data, payroll, benefits administration, time and attendance, performance management, and sometimes recruiting and training. The HRIS serves as the central “system of record” for all employee-related information. In the context of automation, an HRIS often acts as the hub, integrating with other specialized HR technologies like ATS, learning management systems, or performance review platforms. This integration ensures data consistency, eliminates duplicate entry, and enables automated workflows across the entire employee lifecycle, providing a holistic view of human capital.

Recruitment Marketing Automation

Recruitment Marketing Automation utilizes marketing principles and automation tools to attract, engage, and nurture passive and active candidates, much like traditional marketing attracts customers. It involves automating activities such as personalized email campaigns, social media posting, job alerts, career site content updates, and event invitations. The aim is to build a strong employer brand, expand talent pools, and convert interested prospects into applicants. By segmenting candidates and delivering targeted content automatically, recruitment marketing automation ensures a consistent and compelling candidate experience, reducing time-to-fill and improving the quality of applications by reaching the right talent at the right time.

Low-Code/No-Code (LCNC) Automation

Low-Code/No-Code (LCNC) Automation platforms enable users to create and implement automation solutions with little to no traditional coding. Low-code platforms use visual interfaces with pre-built modules and drag-and-drop functionality, requiring minimal coding expertise. No-code platforms take this a step further, allowing business users without any coding background to build applications and automate workflows using intuitive graphical interfaces. In HR, LCNC tools empower non-technical professionals to rapidly design and deploy custom solutions for tasks like automated form processing, simple data integrations, or custom reporting, accelerating digital transformation and reducing reliance on IT departments for every automation need.

Webhook

A Webhook is an automated message sent from one application to another when a specific event occurs. It’s often described as a “user-defined HTTP callback” or a “reverse API” because, instead of constantly checking for new data (polling), an application “hooks” into another and receives real-time notifications when something changes. For HR and recruiting automation, webhooks are crucial for instant data synchronization and triggering workflows. For example, a webhook could instantly notify an HRIS when a candidate status changes in an ATS, or trigger an onboarding sequence in an automation platform immediately after a contract is signed in an e-signature tool, enabling truly real-time, event-driven processes.

API (Application Programming Interface)

An API, or Application Programming Interface, is a set of defined rules and protocols that allow different software applications to communicate and interact with each other. It acts as an intermediary, enabling data exchange and functionality sharing between systems without needing to understand each other’s underlying code. In HR automation, APIs are fundamental for integrating various tools like ATS, HRIS, payroll systems, and background check providers. For instance, an ATS might use an API to push candidate data to an HRIS upon hire, or a benefits platform might use an API to retrieve employee information. APIs are the backbone of connected HR tech stacks, facilitating seamless data flow and enabling complex automated workflows.

Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)

An Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) is a suite of cloud services that connects disparate applications, data, and processes across an enterprise, regardless of where they reside (on-premise or in the cloud). iPaaS solutions provide pre-built connectors, data mapping tools, workflow orchestration capabilities, and monitoring features, making it easier to build and manage complex integrations. For HR and recruiting, an iPaaS is invaluable for creating a “single source of truth” by linking all HR systems—ATS, HRIS, payroll, CRM, learning platforms—ensuring data consistency and enabling end-to-end automation across the entire employee lifecycle. It simplifies the technical challenges of integration, allowing HR teams to focus on process design rather than underlying code.

If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: Webhook vs. Mailhook: Architecting Intelligent HR & Recruiting Automation on Make.com