A Glossary of Essential Terms: Webhooks, APIs, and Automation for HR & Recruiting

For HR leaders and recruiting professionals, navigating the landscape of modern technology often involves understanding key terms that drive efficiency and connectivity. This glossary cuts through the jargon, providing clear, actionable definitions for webhooks, APIs, and related automation concepts. By understanding these fundamentals, you can better leverage technology to streamline operations, enhance candidate experiences, and empower your team.

API (Application Programming Interface)

An API is a set of rules and protocols that allows different software applications to communicate and interact with each other. In HR and recruiting, APIs are fundamental for integrating various tools like Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS), and background check platforms. For example, an API might enable your ATS to automatically push candidate data to your HRIS upon hire, or to trigger a background check request in a third-party service directly from the candidate profile. APIs standardize how systems request and share data, reducing manual data entry, preventing errors, and creating a seamless workflow across your tech stack. This leads to faster processes and a more unified view of employee and candidate data.

Webhook

A webhook is an automated message sent from an application when a specific event occurs. Unlike an API, where you actively “pull” data, webhooks “push” data to a predefined URL in real-time. For HR and recruiting, webhooks are incredibly powerful for event-driven automation. For instance, when a candidate’s status changes to “Hired” in your ATS, a webhook can instantly trigger a new employee onboarding workflow in your HRIS, send a welcome email, or even notify the hiring manager. This immediate, automated response eliminates delays and ensures that critical follow-up actions are taken without manual intervention, drastically improving response times and operational efficiency.

Automation

Automation in HR and recruiting refers to the use of technology to perform repetitive tasks or workflows with minimal human intervention. This can range from simple tasks like sending automated email reminders to complex, multi-step processes like full candidate onboarding. Leveraging tools like Make.com, HR departments can automate resume parsing, interview scheduling, offer letter generation, and data syncing between disparate systems. The primary benefits include reducing administrative burden, minimizing human error, accelerating recruiting cycles, and allowing HR professionals to focus on strategic initiatives rather than mundane, repetitive work. Automation is key to scaling operations without proportionally increasing headcount.

Integration

Integration is the process of combining different software applications or systems so they can work together seamlessly, sharing data and functionality. In the context of HR and recruiting, effective integration means your ATS talks to your HRIS, your payroll system, your learning management system (LMS), and other platforms without manual data transfer. For example, integrating your time tracking software with your payroll system automates salary calculations. By integrating systems, companies create a “single source of truth” for employee data, reduce data discrepancies, and build end-to-end workflows that enhance efficiency and the overall employee experience. It’s about creating a cohesive ecosystem from your diverse tech stack.

Payload

In the context of webhooks and APIs, a payload refers to the actual data being transmitted between applications. When a webhook sends a message, or an API makes a request, the payload is the body of that message or request, typically formatted in JSON or XML. For HR, a webhook payload might contain details about a new candidate (name, email, resume link) or an updated employee record (salary change, department transfer). Understanding the structure and content of these payloads is crucial for configuring automation tools like Make.com to correctly parse, extract, and utilize the relevant information to trigger subsequent actions. It’s the “what” of the communication.

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 in key-value pairs, making it easy for both humans and machines to understand. For HR and recruiting professionals using automation, understanding JSON is important for interpreting the data received from webhooks or API calls. For example, candidate information such as “first_name”: “Jane”, “last_name”: “Doe”, “email”: “jane.doe@example.com” would be structured in JSON. Its simplicity and widespread adoption make it the standard for modern system integrations, ensuring consistent and reliable data exchange.

REST API (Representational State Transfer API)

A REST API is an architectural style for designing networked applications. It defines a set of constraints for how data is requested and returned, using standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) to perform operations on resources. Most modern web services, including HR and recruiting platforms, expose RESTful APIs. This means you can programmatically interact with them to retrieve candidate lists (GET), create new job postings (POST), update employee profiles (PUT), or remove old records (DELETE). REST APIs are popular due to their simplicity, scalability, and stateless nature, making them highly effective for building robust and reliable integrations across an organization’s tech stack, from ATS to HRIS.

Authentication

Authentication is the process of verifying the identity of a user or system attempting to access a secured resource. When configuring API integrations or webhooks in HR, proper authentication is critical for data security and compliance. Common authentication methods include API keys, OAuth 2.0, and basic authentication. For instance, when your automation platform connects to your ATS, it must authenticate itself to prove it has the necessary permissions to read or write data. Implementing strong authentication protocols ensures that only authorized systems and individuals can access sensitive candidate and employee information, protecting privacy and maintaining data integrity across your HR tech ecosystem.

Token

In the context of APIs and authentication, a token is a piece of data that represents the authorization granted to an application or user. Rather than repeatedly sending a username and password with every request, an application can obtain an access token after initial authentication and then use this token for subsequent authorized requests until it expires. For HR automation, using tokens simplifies the process of making numerous API calls by eliminating repetitive login steps. This not only enhances security by limiting the exposure of credentials but also improves efficiency by streamlining how integrated systems maintain an authorized connection, enabling continuous, secure data exchange between HR platforms.

Endpoint

An endpoint is a specific URL where an API or webhook can be accessed. It represents a specific function or resource within an application. For example, an HRIS API might have an endpoint like `/api/v1/employees` to access employee data, or `/api/v1/job_postings` to manage job listings. When you configure an automation, you tell it which endpoint to send data to or request data from. Identifying the correct endpoint is crucial for directing your API requests or webhook notifications to the precise location within an application where the desired action or data exchange should occur, ensuring your integrations target the right functionality every time.

Schema (Data Schema)

A data schema defines the structure, organization, and constraints of data within a system or database. It specifies what types of data are allowed, how they are related, and often includes validation rules. For HR professionals working with integrations, understanding data schemas is vital for ensuring data consistency and integrity when transferring information between systems. For instance, a candidate schema might define fields like “first_name” (text), “date_of_birth” (date format), and “status” (from a predefined list like “applied”, “interviewed”, “hired”). Adhering to schemas prevents errors during data transfer and ensures that all systems interpret and process information in a uniform and reliable manner.

Low-Code/No-Code Platform

Low-code/no-code platforms are development environments that allow users to create applications and automate workflows with minimal or no traditional programming. They typically use visual interfaces with drag-and-drop components, pre-built connectors, and intuitive logic builders. For HR and recruiting, platforms like Make.com empower non-technical professionals to build sophisticated automations such as automated candidate screening, personalized onboarding sequences, or custom reporting dashboards without relying on IT resources. These platforms dramatically reduce development time and costs, democratize access to automation technology, and enable HR teams to rapidly adapt their processes to changing needs, driving innovation directly from the business side.

Workflow Automation

Workflow automation is the design and implementation of rules to automatically execute a series of tasks or processes. In HR, this means mapping out a sequence of steps—like candidate application, initial screening, interview scheduling, offer generation, and onboarding—and then using software to perform these steps automatically. For example, once a candidate completes an application, workflow automation can automatically send a confirmation email, create a new record in the ATS, and initiate an assessment. This reduces manual hand-offs, ensures consistency, minimizes delays, and allows HR teams to manage higher volumes of work more efficiently, ultimately enhancing both the candidate and employee experience.

Data Mapping

Data mapping is the process of creating a relationship between distinct data models. When integrating two systems, data mapping specifies how fields from one system correspond to fields in another. For instance, if your ATS uses “Applicant Name” and your HRIS uses “Employee Full Name,” data mapping defines that these fields refer to the same information. Proper data mapping is crucial for accurate data transfer and preventing errors or data loss during integration. It ensures that when a candidate is hired and moved from the ATS to the HRIS, all relevant information lands in the correct corresponding fields, maintaining data integrity and consistency across all your HR systems.

ETL (Extract, Transform, Load)

ETL is a three-step process used to integrate data from various sources into a single data repository, such as a data warehouse. **Extract** involves retrieving data from its source (e.g., an ATS database). **Transform** means cleaning, standardizing, and reformatting the data to fit the target system’s schema (e.g., combining first and last names, converting date formats). **Load** is the final step where the transformed data is written into the destination system (e.g., an HR analytics platform). For HR, ETL processes are essential for consolidating diverse HR data for reporting, analytics, and strategic decision-making, providing a unified view of workforce information that would otherwise be fragmented across multiple operational systems.

If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: Streamlining HR Operations with Webhooks: The Ultimate Guide