A Glossary of Webhook & Automation Terms for HR Professionals

In today’s fast-paced recruiting and HR landscape, leveraging automation and integration is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity. Understanding the foundational terms related to webhooks and automation empowers HR and recruiting professionals to optimize workflows, reduce manual errors, and elevate the candidate and employee experience. This glossary provides clear, authoritative definitions, highlighting their practical application within your daily operations to help you save valuable time and achieve strategic outcomes.

Webhook

A webhook is an automated message sent from an application when a specific event occurs. It’s essentially a “reverse API,” where instead of making a request for data, an application sends data to a specified URL in real-time. In HR, webhooks are incredibly powerful for creating event-driven automations. For instance, when a candidate moves to a “Hired” stage in your Applicant Tracking System (ATS), a webhook can instantly notify your onboarding platform to begin the new hire process, or trigger a welcome email to the candidate. This eliminates the need for constant polling or manual data transfers, ensuring critical information is shared immediately across disparate systems and accelerating time-to-hire or employee onboarding.

API (Application Programming Interface)

An API is a set of rules and protocols that allows different software applications to communicate with each other. It defines the methods and data formats that applications can use to request and exchange information. Think of it as a menu in a restaurant: it tells you what you can order and how to order it, but you don’t need to know how the kitchen prepares the food. For HR teams, APIs are crucial for integrating systems like an ATS with a HRIS, payroll, or background check platform. This seamless communication ensures data consistency, reduces duplicate entry, and enables comprehensive talent management workflows without custom coding every integration from scratch.

Payload

In the context of webhooks or APIs, the payload refers to the actual data being transmitted in a request or response. It’s the “body” of the message, containing all the relevant information about the event that occurred. For example, if a webhook is triggered when a candidate applies for a job, the payload might include the candidate’s name, email, resume link, the job title, and application date. Understanding the structure and content of a payload is essential for setting up automations, as you’ll need to know which pieces of information to extract and map to other systems to ensure data accuracy and continuity across your HR tech stack.

Endpoint

An endpoint is a specific URL or address where an API or webhook can be accessed. It’s the destination where data is sent or retrieved. When setting up a webhook, you provide an “endpoint URL” to the sending application, telling it exactly where to deliver the automated messages. For an HR system, an endpoint might be a unique URL that your automation platform (like Make.com) provides to receive candidate data from your ATS. Proper configuration of endpoints is vital for ensuring that data flows correctly between your HR systems, enabling reliable and secure data exchange for tasks like applicant tracking, onboarding, and performance management.

Trigger

A trigger is a specific event or condition that initiates an automation or a series of actions. It’s the “if this happens” part of an “if this, then that” statement. In webhooks, the trigger is the event that causes the webhook to send its payload. Common HR triggers include a new job application submitted, a candidate’s status changing in the ATS, an offer being accepted, or a new employee record being created in the HRIS. Identifying and configuring the right triggers is the first step in building effective automation workflows, allowing HR professionals to automate responses, updates, and data transfers based on key milestones in the talent lifecycle.

Action

An action is a specific task or operation performed in response to a trigger within an automation workflow. It’s the “then do that” part of an “if this, then that” statement. When a webhook trigger fires, it often leads to one or more predefined actions. Examples of HR actions include sending an email, updating a record in a CRM, creating a task in a project management tool, generating a document (like an offer letter), or initiating a background check. By chaining together various actions, HR teams can construct complex, multi-step automations that streamline recruiting, onboarding, and employee management processes, ensuring consistency and reducing manual effort.

HTTP Methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE)

HTTP methods are standardized requests used to interact with web servers and APIs. While webhooks primarily use `POST` requests to send data, understanding other methods is beneficial for deeper integration.

• **GET:** Retrieves data from a specified resource (e.g., fetching a candidate’s profile from an ATS).

• **POST:** Submits new data to a specified resource (e.g., creating a new job application or employee record).

• **PUT:** Updates an existing resource (e.g., modifying a candidate’s status).

• **DELETE:** Removes a specified resource (e.g., deleting a rejected candidate’s data).

For HR professionals working with automation, `POST` is most common for webhooks receiving data, but `GET` is often used when an automation needs to retrieve additional information from a system after a webhook fires.

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)

JSON is a lightweight, human-readable data interchange format widely used for transmitting data between web applications and servers, especially with APIs and webhooks. It organizes data into key-value pairs and arrays, making it easy for both humans to read and machines to parse. Most modern HR and recruiting platforms that offer APIs or webhooks will send and receive data in JSON format. For instance, a webhook payload containing candidate information will likely be structured as a JSON object, with keys like “firstName,” “lastName,” “email,” and values corresponding to the candidate’s details. Familiarity with JSON helps HR professionals or their automation partners understand and manipulate the data flowing through their systems.

Workflow Automation

Workflow automation refers to the design, execution, and automation of business processes through software. It involves defining a series of steps (tasks, rules, and conditions) that are automatically performed when certain triggers occur, eliminating manual intervention. In HR, workflow automation can transform repetitive, time-consuming tasks like candidate screening, interview scheduling, offer generation, background checks, and onboarding. By automating these workflows, organizations can reduce human error, improve efficiency, ensure compliance, and free up HR staff to focus on more strategic initiatives such as talent development and employee engagement. Tools like Make.com are specifically designed to build these complex, interconnected workflows.

Integration

Integration, in the context of business systems, refers to the process of connecting different software applications so they can share data and functionality seamlessly. For HR and recruiting, integration is critical for creating a unified view of talent data and streamlining operations. This might involve integrating your ATS with your HRIS, payroll system, learning management system (LMS), or even communication tools. Effective integration, often powered by APIs and webhooks, prevents data silos, reduces manual data entry, and ensures that information flows accurately across all stages of the employee lifecycle, from candidate acquisition to retirement, improving overall operational efficiency and decision-making.

ATS (Applicant Tracking System)

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a software application designed to help recruiters and employers manage the entire recruiting and hiring process. It handles everything from job posting and resume parsing to candidate screening, communication, and offer management. Modern ATS platforms often have robust API and webhook capabilities, making them central to HR automation strategies. For example, a webhook from an ATS can trigger an automated rejection email, update a candidate’s status in a CRM, or initiate an e-signature process for an offer letter, significantly enhancing the efficiency and consistency of the hiring funnel while improving the candidate experience.

CRM (Candidate Relationship Management)

While CRM traditionally refers to Customer Relationship Management, in the HR context, it often refers to Candidate Relationship Management – a system used to manage interactions and relationships with potential and past candidates. This helps build talent pools, nurture leads, and re-engage passive candidates for future roles. Integrating a CRM with an ATS via webhooks and APIs allows for a holistic view of candidate interactions. For instance, a webhook could transfer a passive candidate from your CRM to your ATS when they apply for a specific role, or update their CRM profile with notes from an interview conducted through the ATS, ensuring no valuable candidate data is lost.

Low-Code/No-Code Platforms

Low-code/no-code platforms are development environments that allow users to create applications and automate workflows with minimal or no traditional programming. Low-code platforms use visual interfaces with pre-built modules and some code, while no-code platforms rely entirely on drag-and-drop interfaces. These platforms, like Make.com, empower HR professionals and operations managers to build sophisticated automations and integrations using webhooks and APIs without needing to hire specialized developers. This democratization of automation tools means HR teams can quickly respond to changing needs, build custom solutions, and significantly reduce reliance on IT, accelerating digital transformation within the organization.

Data Parsing

Data parsing is the process of extracting specific information from a larger block of text or data (like a webhook payload) and converting it into a structured, usable format. When an HR system receives a webhook, the payload might contain a lot of data, and only certain fields are relevant for the next step in an automation. Parsing involves “reading” this data and pulling out just the necessary pieces – for example, a candidate’s email address from a resume, or an application date from a system log. Effective data parsing ensures that only relevant and correctly formatted data is passed between systems, preventing errors and ensuring the smooth operation of automated HR workflows.

Event-Driven Architecture

Event-driven architecture (EDA) is a software design paradigm where systems react to “events” that occur, rather than following a rigid, predefined sequence of steps. Webhooks are a perfect example of how EDA works: an event (like a new job application) triggers a webhook, which then initiates a series of reactions across different systems. In HR, adopting an EDA approach means that every action or status change in one system (e.g., ATS, HRIS, payroll) can automatically trigger subsequent actions in other connected systems. This creates a highly responsive, flexible, and scalable environment where HR processes flow dynamically, adapting to real-time changes without constant manual oversight.

If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: Reducing Candidate Ghosting with Automated Scheduling: ROI