AI Hiring Lexicon

A one-way video interview is a hiring format in which candidates record responses to pre-set questions at a time of their choosing, without an interviewer present. The recordings are then reviewed by employers on their own schedule.

Asynchronous Video Interview

An asynchronous video interview is a pre-recorded hiring format in which candidates and employers engage at different times. Candidates record responses to set questions on their own schedule; employers review them when it suits. There is no live, real-time interaction between the two parties.

Panel Interview

A panel interview is a format in which a candidate is assessed simultaneously by two or more interviewers. Each panel member typically takes responsibility for a distinct set of competencies, allowing a single conversation to gather broader, multi-perspective evidence than a one-to-one interview.

Video Interview Questions

Video interview questions are the pre-set prompts that candidates respond to in a one-way or asynchronous video interview. For employers, question design is the most consequential variable in the process: well-crafted questions produce evaluable, comparable evidence; poorly designed ones produce vague responses that are difficult to score consistently.

Asynchronous vs Synchronous Interview

Asynchronous interviews and synchronous interviews are the two fundamental modes of video interviewing. In an asynchronous interview, the candidate records responses to pre-set questions at a time of their choosing — no interviewer is present. In a synchronous interview, candidate and interviewer meet in real time via video call. Choosing between them depends on the stage of the process, role complexity, and the volume of candidates being assessed.

Assessment Methods

Frameworks and techniques for evaluating candidate suitability.

Structured Interview

A structured interview uses a pre-determined set of questions, asked in the same order to every candidate, with responses scored against a consistent rubric defined before the interview begins. It is the most well-evidenced interview format for predicting subsequent job performance.

Behavioural Interview

A behavioural interview asks candidates to describe specific past experiences as evidence of how they are likely to perform in similar situations in the future. It is grounded in the premise that past behaviour is the most reliable available predictor of future behaviour in comparable situations.

STAR Method

The STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) is a structured framework for answering behavioural interview questions. It guides candidates to give complete, evidence-based responses by working through four defined components, and gives interviewers a consistent basis for evaluating the quality of those responses.

Competency-Based Interview

A competency-based interview assesses candidates against a defined set of skills and behaviours — competencies — that the role requires. Questions are designed to elicit evidence of those competencies from past experience, and responses are scored against a pre-defined rubric aligned to each competency.

Psychometric Assessment

A psychometric assessment is a standardised, scientifically validated test used in hiring to measure a candidate's cognitive ability, personality traits, or specific aptitudes. The defining characteristic of a psychometric tool is that it has been developed and validated using psychological research methods — it produces scores that are reliable, consistent, and predictive of relevant outcomes.

Situational Judgement Test

A situational judgement test (SJT) presents candidates with realistic work scenarios and asks them to choose from a set of possible responses, or to rate which response they would most or least likely take. SJTs assess practical judgement, decision-making under realistic conditions, and role-relevant behaviours without requiring prior work experience in the specific role.

Skills-Based Hiring

Skills-based hiring is an approach that evaluates candidates on their demonstrated skills and competencies — rather than on credentials, educational background, or prior job titles. The focus shifts from where someone studied or previously worked to what they can actually do, assessed through structured evidence rather than proxies.

Structured vs Unstructured Interview

A structured interview follows a predetermined set of questions, asked in the same order to every candidate, with responses evaluated against pre-defined criteria. An unstructured interview is a free-flowing conversation without a fixed question set. The research on which produces better hiring decisions is unambiguous: structured interviews consistently outperform unstructured ones on predictive validity.

Reference Check

A reference check is a pre-hire verification step in which an employer contacts a candidate's previous managers or colleagues to gather information about their past performance, work style, and professional conduct. Done well, it is a structured final-stage assessment. Done poorly, it is a compliance exercise that adds little to the hiring decision.

AI & Technology

How artificial intelligence and technology are reshaping modern hiring.

AI Video Interview

An AI video interview combines video interview technology with artificial intelligence to evaluate candidate responses at scale. Candidates record answers to pre-set questions; AI analyses the content, scores responses against defined criteria, and ranks candidates — enabling hiring teams to review a scored shortlist rather than raw recordings.

Predictive Hiring Analytics

Predictive hiring analytics is the use of data, statistical models, and AI to forecast which candidates are most likely to succeed in a role — and to remain in it. It moves hiring decisions from intuition and impression towards evidence and measurable pattern-matching, using historical performance data to inform future selection.

Interview Transcription

Interview transcription is the conversion of spoken interview responses into written text. In modern hiring platforms, this is typically performed automatically using AI speech-to-text technology. Transcripts serve multiple functions: they enable text-based AI analysis of interview responses, provide a reviewable record of what was said, and form the evidential foundation for audit trails required under the EU AI Act.

AI Candidate Ranking

AI candidate ranking is the use of artificial intelligence to score and order candidates based on their assessed alignment with the requirements of a role. Rather than presenting a hiring team with a raw pile of applications or unscored video responses, an AI ranking system outputs a prioritised list — enabling faster, more consistent shortlisting and directing reviewer attention toward the most aligned candidates first.

Process & Metrics

The workflows, stages, and measures that define a hiring process.

Interview Scorecard

An interview scorecard is a structured evaluation tool that defines the criteria for assessing candidates before the interview begins and provides a consistent scoring framework for responses. It enables multiple interviewers to evaluate candidates against the same standards, reduces the influence of subjective impression, and creates a documented basis for hiring decisions.

Candidate Screening

Candidate screening is the process of reviewing job applications to identify which candidates meet the criteria for a role and should progress to further assessment. It is the first substantive filter in most hiring processes — the step that turns an applicant pool into a manageable shortlist.

Time to Hire

Time to hire is a recruitment metric measuring the number of days between a candidate entering the hiring pipeline — typically from application submission — and the candidate accepting a job offer. It is one of the most widely tracked efficiency metrics in talent acquisition.

Quality of Hire

Quality of hire is a recruitment metric that measures how well a new hire performs and contributes after joining an organisation. Unlike efficiency metrics such as time to hire or cost per hire, quality of hire is an outcome metric — it tells you whether your hiring process is producing the right people, not just whether it is running quickly or cheaply.

Recruitment Funnel

The recruitment funnel describes the stages a candidate moves through from initial awareness of a role to offer acceptance, modelled as a funnel because candidate numbers reduce at each stage. Understanding conversion rates between stages allows hiring teams to identify where good candidates are being lost and where process improvements will have the greatest impact.

Cost Per Hire

Cost per hire is a recruitment metric that measures the total investment required to fill a role, divided by the number of hires made. It encompasses both internal costs — recruiter time, hiring manager time, onboarding — and external costs — job board fees, agency fees, assessment tool subscriptions, and advertising spend. Alongside time to hire and quality of hire, it forms the core triangle of recruitment performance measurement.

Hiring Manager Interview

The hiring manager interview is the stage of a recruitment process at which the manager who will directly oversee the new hire assesses the candidate. It typically follows an initial screen and is often the most decisive stage in the process. The quality of hiring manager interviews — their structure, consistency, and use of defined criteria — is one of the strongest predictors of overall hiring quality in an organisation.

Employer Branding

Employer branding is the process of shaping and communicating an organisation's reputation as a place to work. In recruitment, it encompasses everything that influences how candidates perceive the employer before, during, and after the hiring process. A strong employer brand attracts better-matched candidates, improves offer acceptance rates, and reduces cost per hire — a poor one does the opposite, regardless of the quality of the role or the compensation on offer.

Compliance & Ethics

Legal requirements, ethical standards, and fair-practice obligations.

EU AI Act — Recruitment

The EU AI Act is the world's first comprehensive legal framework for artificial intelligence. For recruitment and hiring, it introduces binding requirements for any AI system used in employment decisions — covering transparency, human oversight, audit trails, and candidate rights. Following a provisional agreement in May 2026 under the Digital AI Omnibus, the high-risk employment provisions are now expected to be enforceable from December 2027.

GDPR in Recruitment

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) governs how organisations collect, process, store, and delete personal data — including the personal data of job candidates. Recruitment generates significant volumes of candidate data, and GDPR imposes specific obligations on how that data is handled from the moment a candidate submits an application.

Right to Explanation (AI Hiring)

The right to explanation in AI hiring refers to a candidate's legal entitlement to understand how an AI system assessed them and how that assessment influenced a hiring decision. This right is grounded in both the GDPR's provisions on automated decision-making and the EU AI Act's transparency requirements for high-risk AI in employment contexts.

Adverse Impact in Hiring