A list of terms used within the Mercury software, Recruitment businesses and associated Technologies
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
Active Candidate A candidate who is actively looking for a role.
Activities The key view to focus on is the default view, named My Activities. This will display any activities you have open/incomplete. Examples include phone calls, draft emails, tasks, updates and appointments.
Agile A project management methodology commonly used in software development.
Aggregator A website or computer program that collects information from a variety of internet pages, and presents it all onto a single web page or collection of pages on a single website, allowing the reader to focus on specific types of content.
Agreements A method of creating terms and applying them to Vacancies and/or Placements. They can be generic or client specific. They could be used purely to outline terms of business, or to add a pre-agreed rate or fee on a vacancy, or they can be used to detail the compliance required against a Placement, or a combination of these.
AI Artificial Intelligence - refers to computer systems capable of performing complex tasks by simulating human intelligence processes. AI applies advanced analysis and logic-based techniques, including machine learning and natural language processing, to interpret events, support and automate decisions, and take actions.
Analytics An additional tool that can be purchased and used from within Mercury. It gives access to PowerBI dashboards for both Consultants and Managers to and manage KPI targets, and a whole lot more.
Applicant A candidate that has been sent to a contact with the hope of arranging an interview.
Applicants A list of candidates who have applied to adverts made from Mercury via a Job Board integration. A list of candidates who have applied to adverts posted through Mercury to a multi-Job poster or from a website integration.
ARR Annual Recurring Revenue.
Assign This is used to change the ownership of a record.
ATS Applicant Tracking System - a system that allows recruiters and employers to track Candidates through the whole recruiting and hiring process
AWLI Apply With LinkedIn - a term used for a method of applying for a job vacancy.
AWR Agency Worker Regulations - a framework that protects temporary agency workers. The regulation provides certain rights for temporary workers.
Azure A cloud computing service operated by Microsoft.
B
BD Business Development - identifying and acquiring new clients and building strong relationships with them.
BI Business Intelligence - a term used for tools, processes and infrastructure that a business can use to make more effective decisions.
Board view A way to manage your Candidates shortlisted on a Vacancy in a kanban style visual display.
Boolean Search Advanced keyword search technique that allows users to combine key words such as AND and NOT. For example, you may wish to search for a Candidate that has experience in “recruitment” AND “sales”.
C
CAC Customer Acquisition Cost.
CAGR Compound Annual Growth Rate.
Candidate The person who is applying for a role and who you are looking to place.
Candidate Company The company that the candidate works through if they are a contractor.
Candidate Portal An online portal that allows Candidates to to manage Compliance, Timesheets and Expenses.
Chatbot A computer program that simulates human conversation - written or spoken.
Client The company giving you their business.
Client contact The Hiring manager or person who works for the Client is referred to as the Client contact.
Client Portal An online portal that allows Client contacts/Hiring managers access to manage current Vacancies and progressing Candidates through the recruitment stages.
CMRR Committed Monthly Recurring Revenue.
Compliance Rules and regulations ensuring legal recruitment practices.
Configurable Capable of being configured or customised; permitting rearrangement or adjustment of something, typically within a software application.
Contact Is a Person record in the Mercury CRM.
Contingency Recruitment A type of recruitment whereby if the Recruiter does not place the Candidate who the business hires, then the recruiter does not get paid. Paid only when a Candidate is placed.
Consultant The recruiter and main CRM user who works the roles that Hiring Managers want filling.
Cost A type of Fee that can be used against a record to show that your business has had to make a payment. Most commonly used against a Placement.
Counter Offer Employer offer to retain a resigning employee.
CRM Customer Relationship Management - a technology used to manage interactions with customers and potential customers. A system that helps organisations build customer relationships and streamline processes so they can increase sales, improve customer service and increase profitability. Software that allows businesses to manage their customer database and generate new leads.
CSAT Customer Satisfaction Score - measures how satisfied a customer is with a particular area or activity of your business.
CV A candidate's résumé.
D
Dashboards A visual display of all of your CRM/ATS data - a collection of on-screen tiles displaying views or graphs/charts. You would refer to a dashboard for an overview of Vacancies, Hires, Interviews, Placements, KPIs, etc. They help drive your business, teams or individuals, to focus on key areas. There are a number of standard dashboards in Mercury, and new customised ones can also be built as required.
Data Migration The process of moving data from one system to another.
Data Request A candidate or contact may wish to have a copy of the data that you hold on them; they are able to notify you of this via a Data Request.
Data Removal Request A candidate or contact may wish to have the data that you hold on them removed; they are able to notify you of this via a Data Removal Request.
Daxtra Additional software that allows the parsing of Candidate CVs and searching for Candidates via Job Boards. Offers CV and job parsing, semantic searching, matching and aggregation technologies.
Deactivate A feature in the Mercury software which will archive a record. The record immediately becomes read-only and comes off all the Active Views. It is not a delete function and any record which has been deactivated immediately has the Deactivate button replaced with an Activate button.
Dynamics 365 CRM software made by Microsoft which powers Mercury.
Dynamics 365 App for Outlook This app checks whether the sender is a contact within the Mercury CRM. If they are, it will automatically track their emails into their record. The app can also be used to manually track Emails and Appointments, to log certain Activities such as Phone Calls, and can be even used to add new contacts into Mercury.
E
Ellipsis More commonly known as the three dots symbol that you click on in a software application, which takes you to more options.
Email Editor This is the name of Mercury's built-in email function.
Email Template Can be created by System Administrators to be used from the Email Editor within Mercury. Merge fields can be pulled from certain primary and related records.
Engagement record Stores all extensions that have been made against one Placement.
Engagement Fee Non-refundable payment to retain an agency.
Entity Is a record type in the CRM - e.g. an Account record, or a Person record.
E-Shots Also known as Spec Sends - the process of sending details to Clients of potentially suitable Candidates.
Exclusive Sole agency for a job placement.
Extensions Can be run against Contract or Temp placements, when a Client and Candidate want the assignment being worked to continue.
F
Fees A fee or a cost can be added against a Placement, a Vacancy or a Client record. This can then be captured for financial reporting.
Financial transaction This is a record in Mercury that is created against one of the three following records: Timesheet, Expense and Fee. These records must be deactivated (this will automatically happen when processing them correctly). Can be used to burn down a Purchase Order or be extracted from Mercury into a Payroll system.
Fixed Term Contract An employment agreement between the employer and the employee that lasts for a specified amount of time. The employee is not a permanent employee and therefore doesn’t have the rights that a permanent employee does.
Front-end The UI - the User Interface.
FTC Fixed-term contract. Employment with a set end date.
FX Spot Rates These are used to convert a Candidate Pay and a Candidate Charge that are being paid in different currencies.
G
GDPR General Data Protection Regulation.
GP Gross Profit.
GUID Globally Unique Identifier - used in the back-end of a software solution to uniquely identify individual entities within a system.
H
Headhunter A person who approaches individuals who meet specific job requirements. A headhunter is different to a recruiter.
Hiring Manager The contact on the Client side who has a vacancy for the role they want filling. The person at the Client site who is in charge of making the decision regarding the hiring of Candidates.
Home Takes you to the Dashboards page in Mercury.
Hot Lists This feature allows you to build as many different lists of key contacts as desired. Client contacts and candidates can be added to the same list, between which you can toggle from within the hot list. Bulk emails can be sent, searches can be run, and hot lists can even be shared to colleagues. Contacts can also be removed from your hot lists when you need to.
I
iFrame An HTML document that is embedded inside another document on a website.
Instant Messaging Text-based communication done via computer or mobile device. Can be with a single person or a group chat.
Info Vacancy leads in Mercury.
Info Shortlists Lists of Candidates who are suitable for a potential Vacancy or Lead that you’re working on, If the Info (Lead) gets converted into a Vacancy, then the shortlisted candidate on the Info Shortlist record will be added to the Candidates area in the Vacancy record.
Integration Software integration is the process of connecting one software application with another, typically through their application programming interfaces (APIs). Once connected, the applications can link respective functionality with each other, and can also share data and provide updates to one another in, or near, real-time.
IR35 An employment rule which ensures that off-payroll and on-payroll workers are taxed fairly. It is specifically a UK Tax rule for Contractors' employee status.
J
Job Board A type of search engine that displays job openings. Recruiters and businesses post their Vacancies onto a job board and Candidates search the boards for jobs that they would like to apply for.
Job Description/Specification A document that details the job role, job location, requirements and expectations.
K
KPI Key Performance Indicator. Recruiter success metric. A quantifiable measure of performance and time for a specific task or set of activities. KPIs provide targets for teams to strive to achieve.
L
Lead Is what can be gained by asking lots of questions to lots of different potential Candidates. An example would be finding out if they have had any other interviews, which would give you a ‘lead’ in finding out what other companies are recruiting for. Leads can give you possible opportunities.
LinkedIn A social media platform dedicated to the global networking of businesses and professionals.
LTV Lifetime Value - a prediction of the net profit attributed to an ongoing relationship between a customer and a product.
M
Machine Learning A type of Artificial Intelligence that allows software applications to become more accurate at predicting outcomes without being explicitly programmed to do so.
Mail Merge Fields Mail merging lets you create a batch of documents that are personalised for each recipient. For example, a letter can be personalised to address each recipient by name. A data source like a list, spreadsheet or database, is associated with the document. Once you have a data source connected to your document, adding merge fields is a way to personalise the document with information from the data source. The merge fields come from the column headings in the data source.
Mailshots A form of direct marketing. Used to contact a large number or group of customers at one time, via email or post.
Margin Profit difference between Client rate and Candidate pay.
Mark-Up Percentage added to Candidate pay when charging the Client.
Master Vendor A single recruitment agency that has full responsibility for the supplying and staffing for a business/client.
Mercury Search An internal search enabling you to run searches across any contact records stored in your Mercury database. You’re able to save searches, shortlist candidates from searches and generate Hotlists.
Mobile app Mercury has its own app. For the best experience download Power Apps or the Dynamic 365 Sales app. This allows you to view, update and manage records directly on your mobile or tablet. You may have to have the correct permissions to access this.
MRR Monthly Recurring Revenue.
MSP Managed Service Provider. An MSP delivers services such as network, application, infrastructure and security via regular ongoing support, but in Recruitment terms, it means overseeing Temp staffing.
Multi-poster Job board multi-posters allow Recruiters to post multiple job adverts to multiple job boards and websites all at once. Examples of multi-poster solutions are Broadbean, Logic Melon and Idibu.
N
1:N (One-to-Many) relationship
Definition: One record in the primary entity that is related to multiple records in the related entity.
Example: A Client can have multiple Contacts.
N:1 (Many-to-One) relationship
Definition: Many records in the primary entity that are related to one record in the related entity.
Example: Multiple Contacts can be associated with a single Client.
N:N (Many-to-Many) relationship
Definition: Many records in one entity that are related to many records in another entity.
Example: A Candidate can be associated with multiple Hotlists, and a Hotlist can have multiple Candidates.
Niche Recruitment Specialising in specific industries or roles.
NPS Net Promoter Score - measures overall customer loyalty towards your brand. A customer loyalty and satisfaction measurement that is taken to determine how happy they are with the service.
NRR Non Recurring Revenue.
O
Office 365 A suite of Microsoft applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams and Outlook.
Offboarding Managing an employee's exit.
Onboarding Integrating a new hire into a company.
On-Premise Onsite or at the location of a building.
Outlook Microsoft Outlook - send and receive emails, calendar management and storing contact names and numbers.
P
Parse To Parse a CV is to analyse the CV in order to bring information from it into your CRM.
Parsing/CV Parsing Taking data out of a CV and parsing into a structured, machine readable format.
Passive Candidate Candidates who are not actively looking for a new role.
Payroll Software A software solution used to pay salaries to employees.
Perm A permanent employee. Placing a Candidate in a full-time role.
Pinned A method of securing certain items, such that they are always visible for quick single-click access.
Pipeline Flow of ready-to-contact Candidates.
Placements The assignments - when a Candidate has been offered a role and has accepted.
Projects A Project is designed to have multiple Vacancies, Shortlists and Placements against it. It can also be used to see an overview of that project’s financials and to burn down purchase orders.
PSL Preferred Supplier List. Some companies have a PSL whereby they will release new Vacancies to agencies who are on their PSL. Vetted recruitment agencies for a company.
Purchase Order A binding document issued to an agency by a Client to authorise and track budget based on the agreed terms.
R
Rates All Vacancies and Placements should have a Standard Rate selected against them. Additional overtime can be added to Placements. A Candidate's current, lowest desired rate and rate they are looking for can be stored against their record.
Rate Types Can be added to a Client Agreement. If the Agreement is linked against the Placement, these rate types will pull through. It is not the rate total, it is the rate type, i.e. Daily, Hourly, Overtime.
Rebate Refund if a Candidate leaves early.
Recent Your personal history of the last 10 items that you have selected in Mercury.
References These can be commonly collected by agencies. This is to verify if a Candidate worked for a business, and to get a summary of that Candidate's work performance. There is a Reference Received related record in Mercury that can be used within a Candidate contact record. This is where the reference scoring and notes can be stored.
Remote Access The ability to access a computer or device from another device at any time and from anywhere.
Retained Recruitment A type of recruitment performed for a company by a recruitment agency on a retained, ongoing basis. Fee paid up-front by the Client, often for Executive roles.
Ribbon The bar at the top of the CRM screen which contains action buttons that you can click on. Also known as the Command Bar.
Right to Work A document issued by the Home Office to indicate that the person is permitted to stay and work in the UK.
RPO Recruitment Process Outsourcing - when a company gives or outsources all or most of its recruitment requirements to an external recruitment agency.
RSC Recruiter System Connect - integration between LinkedIn and the Mercury CRM to facilitate the hiring process.
Runner An individual who is actively working in a Contract role. A person with a Temporary or Contract Placement that is currently live. They would cease to be an active Runner at the end of that Contract/Temporary position.
S
SAAS Software as a Service - a software licensing and delivery model that delivers via the Cloud.
Sandbox environment A system set up that can be used to practice in. All actions such as sending emails, etc, will not send out from a sandbox.
Scrum A project management framework for Agile software development.
Share This does not run any action in Mercury because data is already open to users of the system. It can be used when there is any segregated data.
SharePoint A Microsoft application that is used to store and share things centrally within an organisation - e.g. a business may have a SharePoint location that lists all of their employees, policies & procedures, standard documents, upcoming events, company news and other information.
Shortlist A list of selected Candidates for review. Candidates that you have deemed suitable for a Vacancy. It is a record which shows the audit trail of all the Shortlist actions against a specific Candidate for one specific Vacancy. It is incredibly important when it comes to activity reporting and has helpful Views, such as lists of Candidates currently at Interview or Offer stage, or simply a list of all the Candidates you have currently listed against a Vacancy.
Sitemap The main navigation menu of the Mercury CRM, located in the left-hand panel of any screen in Mercury.
SLA Service Level Agreement - a document between the service provider and the customer that outlines the expected level of service. Client-Recruiter expectations.
Sources A way of adding where a record was sourced. This can be used against a Contact, Shortlist (which pulls through a Placement), Info and Vacancy. It is important for reporting and understanding where budgets should be focused.
Sourcing Identifying potential Candidates.
Spec Sends Also sometimes referred to as E-Shots. A list of all the Candidates that you've spec’d over to your Clients. For this to be recorded, the Email function in Mercury must be used, and the Spec Send button on the Email Editor must be selected.
SSO Single Sign On - a technology that enables users to securely authenticate with multiple applications and websites.
Staged Fees As an example, particularly in Permanent recruitment, a Candidate gets placed by the recruitment agency. The agency gets a fee for finding that Candidate, which is a percentage of the Candidate's salary - this is paid at the end of the recruitment process, once the Candidate starts their Placement. Staged Fees is when the agency gets a fee up front before they have even started working on the Vacancy. The most common Agreement is a third of the total fee up front (the Retainer), another third once the Recruiter has provided a Shortlist of Candidates, and the final third once the Candidate has been placed. The fees in Mercury can be added to the Vacancy, and listed so the Recruiter knows when they are due and if they have been received. You can also build an Agreement that lists all the agreed Fees, that then automatically pull over onto the Vacancy record in Mercury.
Statement of Work A detailed document containing approach, support, costs and timelines.
T
Tags Can be used against Clients, Contacts and Vacancy records to be able to search or build views on those records by vertical, skill sets, job titles, preferred locations, etc.
Talent Acquisition The role and skill of identifying, attracting, selecting and retaining highly qualified individuals.
Talent Pool A database of Candidates that have the potential to meet a company's recruitment needs.
Teams A chat-based workspace from Microsoft that combines instant messaging, video calling, voice calling and file sharing. Works with all other Microsoft Office applications.
Teams Click-to-Dial Functionality that can be set up and used from within Mercury to dial out directly via Teams.
Tech Stack A set of technologies and software solutions that an organisation uses to build a web or mobile application.
Temp A temporary employee.
Temp Recruitment Short-term Placements. Agency handles payroll.
Temp-to-Perm A temporary placement that could lead to a permanent employment contract.
Timeline A list of all communication and activities related to a record will be shown on the Timeline.
Timesheet Processing The processing of a worker's timesheet in order to provide them with remuneration.
U
UI User Interface. The point of human-to-computer interaction and communication on any desktop, laptop or mobile device.
Umbrella Company Employer for Contractors, handling admin.
UX User Experience. A design process who’s objective is to create a system that offers an intuitive and delightful user experience for the customer.
V
Vacancies These are the available job roles to be filled. They can also be Opportunities, where there are speculative vacancies - not leads, but vacancies that are expected but not confirmed.
Views A view is simply an on-screen table display of data rows and columns within any Mercury menu.
W
WGP Weekly Gross Profit.
Worker Types These are used to manage Compliance. Worker Type records can be created and the required compliance can be added to them. The Worker Type record can then be selected on the Placement record. Multiple Worker Types can be added.
Word Templates Can be created and used to pull merge fields from a specific record and related records into a Word template.