Glossary
A plain-language reference for the terms that come up most often when working with Speraspect. Organized by category below, starting with IT staffing and hiring terms, with more sections added as new topics come up.
SperaspectGlossary
IT Staffing Glossary
Terms related to hiring, engagement models, and the recruitment process.
- Staff Augmentation
- A model where you bring on individual developers or specialists who work as an extension of your existing team, under your day-to-day direction, while payroll and administration stay with the staffing provider. Useful when you need specific skills added to a team you already manage.
- Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)
- Outsourcing your entire recruiting function, or a significant part of it, to an external provider who manages sourcing, screening, and hiring on an ongoing basis. Different from filling a single role, RPO is built for continuous or high-volume hiring.
- Contract-to-Hire
- An engagement where a candidate joins on a contract basis first, with the option to convert to a permanent, direct hire after a defined period. Gives both sides a chance to confirm fit before committing to a permanent role.
- Offshore Development Center (ODC)
- A dedicated team, set up and operated in another country, that functions as a direct extension of your engineering organization rather than a shared outsourcing vendor. Typically used for long-term, multi-year technical capacity needs.
- Dedicated Development Team
- A team of developers who work exclusively on your project, usually project-managed by the staffing provider, as opposed to individual contractors who might be added one at a time. Common for larger, ongoing product builds.
- Time-to-Hire
- The number of days between when a role is opened and when a candidate accepts an offer. A common benchmark used to compare how quickly a staffing partner or internal process fills a position.
- Bench Strength
- The depth and readiness of a staffing provider’s existing candidate pool for a given skill. A provider with strong bench strength in a technology can typically present qualified profiles faster, since candidates do not need to be sourced from scratch.
- Employer of Record (EOR)
- A third-party organization that becomes the legal employer of a worker on paper, handling payroll, tax, and compliance, while the worker’s actual day-to-day work is directed by the client company. Often used for hiring across borders without setting up a local entity.
- Statement of Work (SOW)
- A formal document that defines the scope, deliverables, timeline, and terms of a specific engagement or project, often used alongside or instead of a broader master services agreement.
- Full-Time Equivalent (FTE)
- A unit that expresses a workload in terms of one full-time position, used to describe headcount even when the actual work is split across contractors, part-time staff, or multiple partial roles.
- Notice Period
- The amount of time a candidate is contractually required to give their current employer before leaving. In India, notice periods for experienced technology professionals commonly run from 30 to 90 days, which directly affects how quickly a candidate can join a new role.
- Executive Search
- A specialized recruitment service focused on senior leadership and executive-level roles, typically involving direct, proactive outreach to candidates rather than relying on job postings alone. Sometimes called headhunting.
- Candidate Pipeline
- The set of candidates currently in progress for a role or set of roles, spanning every stage from initial sourcing through final interview. A healthy pipeline means there is always a next candidate ready if one drops out.
- Technical Screening
- The process of evaluating a candidate’s actual technical ability, often through coding assessments, live technical interviews, or take-home exercises, before presenting them to a hiring company. Distinct from a basic resume or phone screen.
- Onboarding
- The process of getting a new hire set up and productive, covering paperwork, equipment, system access, and initial training. Well-structured onboarding is one of the strongest predictors of whether a new hire stays past the first few months.
- Attrition Rate
- The percentage of employees or contractors who leave a company or role over a given period, whether voluntarily or not. A useful figure to ask a staffing partner about, since it reflects how well their placements tend to stick.
- Payroll Outsourcing
- Handing off the administrative work of paying employees or contractors, including tax withholding, compliance, and statutory benefits, to a third party, rather than managing it in-house.
- Talent Pool
- The broader group of candidates a staffing provider has relationships with or visibility into for a given skill or role type, whether or not those candidates are actively job searching at any given moment.