Sourcing & Candidate Attraction Glossary
Sourcing and candidate attraction is the front of the hiring funnel — the work of finding, engaging, and drawing in the people a role needs, especially the ones who are not actively looking. This topic gathers the sourcing and attraction terms that senior talent teams use, from Boolean search to employer branding, each defined on its own page.
The distinction that runs through this vocabulary is active versus passive. Job adverts reach people already searching; sourcing, headhunting, and talent mapping reach the passive majority who are not. For senior and specialist roles — where the best candidates are rarely on the market — attraction is less about posting a vacancy and more about building pipelines, relationships, and an employer brand that makes the right people willing to take a call.
In a GCC and scale-up context, where hard-to-find talent must be reached at volume, these methods are the difference between a full pipeline and an empty one. The terms below give recruiters and hiring leaders a shared, precise vocabulary for how candidates are found and won.
19 terms in this topic · see all 277 in the A–Z glossary →
Terms 19
Boolean Search Boolean search uses logical operators — AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks, and parentheses — to precisely filter candidate databases and search engines for specific skills, titles, or employers. It is a foundational sourcing technique for narrowing a large talent pool to a relevant few. Read Campus Recruitment Campus recruitment is the practice of hiring students and recent graduates directly from universities and colleges, usually in structured annual cycles that combine on-campus drives, tests, and interviews to fill entry-level and trainee roles at scale. It builds an early-career talent pipeline rather than sourcing experienced hires. Read Candidate Experience Candidate experience is the sum of a candidate’s interactions with an employer through the hiring process — from first contact to offer or rejection. Poor experience costs offers and referrals, and the damage is sharpest at senior levels. Read Candidate Persona A candidate persona is a research-based profile of an ideal hire — their motivations, skills, communication channels, and deal-breakers — used to target sourcing and sharpen the messaging that reaches them. It turns a vague brief into a specific picture of who to look for and how to win them. Read Candidate Relationship Management CRM Candidate relationship management (CRM) is the practice — and the software — of building and nurturing relationships with potential candidates over time, before they apply, so that talent is engaged and ready when a role opens. It shifts recruiting from reactive vacancy-filling to a proactive, always-on pipeline. Read Employee Referral An employee referral is a candidate recommended for a role by a current employee, usually through a formal referral programme. Referral hires tend to be faster to close, cheaper to source, and to stay longer, which makes referrals one of the most valued channels of hire. Read Employer Branding Employer branding is how an organisation shapes its reputation as a place to work in order to attract and retain the talent it wants. It is what candidates believe about an employer before any conversation begins. Read Employer Value Proposition EVP An Employer Value Proposition (EVP) is the distinct set of reasons talent chooses and stays with an employer — the deal beyond pay, spanning work, growth, culture, and rewards. A sharp EVP is often decisive when competing for scarce senior talent. Read Headhunting Headhunting is the practice of directly and discreetly approaching specific, often passive, professionals to fill a role rather than waiting for applicants. It is the core method of executive and specialist search. Read Inbound Recruiting Inbound recruiting is a strategy that attracts candidates to an organisation over time by publishing valuable content, building a strong employer brand, and nurturing interest, rather than actively reaching out to source each hire. It is the recruiting equivalent of inbound marketing, drawing talent in instead of chasing it. Read Passive Candidate A passive candidate is a professional who is not actively job-hunting but may move for the right opportunity. The most senior and specialist talent is usually passive, which is why search relies on direct outreach rather than advertising. Read Purple Squirrel A purple squirrel is recruiting slang for the rare, near-perfect candidate who meets every requirement of a difficult role — the exact skills, experience, and fit, all in one person. Finding one is the defining challenge of specialist and leadership search. Read Silver Medallist Candidate A silver medallist candidate is a strong applicant who reached the final stages of a hiring process but was not selected, usually because another candidate was chosen. Because they were nearly hired, they are valuable prospects to re-engage for future roles. Read Sourcing Sourcing is the proactive identification and engagement of potential candidates — through search, networks, and referrals — before they formally apply. It feeds the top of the hiring funnel and is distinct from the later stages of assessment and selection. Read Talent Acquisition TA Talent acquisition (TA) is the strategic, long-term function of identifying, attracting, and hiring the people an organisation needs — encompassing employer branding, workforce planning, sourcing, and pipeline building, not just filling open roles as they arise. Read Talent Intelligence Talent intelligence is the use of data — on supply, compensation, skills, and competitor movement — to inform hiring and workforce decisions, rather than relying on instinct or anecdote. It brings evidence to questions about where talent exists, what it costs, and how it moves. Read Talent Mapping Talent mapping is research that charts where the right talent sits across competitor and adjacent organisations — names, levels, compensation, and movement — before a role is even opened. It turns hiring from reactive to intelligence-led. Read Talent Pipeline A talent pipeline is a pool of pre-identified, pre-engaged candidates maintained for current and future roles, so that hiring starts warm rather than from zero each time a seat opens. It is the difference between reacting to a vacancy and being ready for it. Read Talent Pool A talent pool is a curated group of candidates an organisation has identified and engaged for current or future roles, ready to be drawn on when a suitable position opens. It can include past applicants, sourced prospects, referrals, silver-medallists, and internal talent, all kept warm rather than approached cold each time. ReadFrequently asked questions
What is the difference between sourcing and recruiting?
Sourcing is the front-end work of finding and engaging potential candidates, especially passive ones; recruiting is the fuller process that then screens, interviews, and hires them. Sourcing fills the top of the funnel that recruiting converts.
What is a passive candidate?
A passive candidate is someone not actively looking for a new role but open to the right opportunity. For senior and specialist positions, passive candidates are often the strongest talent, which is why sourcing and headhunting focus on reaching them.
What is Boolean search in recruitment?
Boolean search uses operators such as AND, OR, and NOT to combine keywords precisely when searching CV databases, LinkedIn, or the web. It lets recruiters narrow to candidates with exactly the right skills, titles, and locations.
Why does employer branding matter for sourcing?
A strong employer brand makes passive candidates willing to respond and reduces the effort needed to attract each hire. When people already respect a company as a place to work, sourcing outreach converts far better.