Create and Manage Hiring Workflows

What is a hiring workflow?

A hiring workflow is a series of stages that reflect the stages of a recruiting process - from the time a candidate submits the application to the time they are either hired or dispositioned. 

As your candidates move through your hiring process, you can use this series of stages as a labeling system to keep track of who's where.

Do workflow stage updates happen automatically? Or do I have to update them manually?

Some stage updates can be performed automatically - like when you send an email using a pre-built email template or initiate an offer letter from a template. Others can be set using the Hiring Workflow Automation Setting. Otherwise, you and the hiring team can perform these actions manually from the candidate profile. 

How to...

1. To begin the setup process, head to Recruiting Setup under Setup in your Tools menu.

2. Click Hiring Workflows.

3. Click Workflow Stage Library in the upper right-hand corner.

• The Workflow Stage Library function will allow you to define all potential workflow stages available for selection when you're creating multiple hiring processes (workflows). For example, you may run background checks for certain positions or departments, but not all. That means for one workflow you will include stages like "Background Check Initiated" and "Background Check Failed," but not for the others. (Think of this like getting paint colors for painting - you will want to make sure you have all of the colors ready before you start. You may not use them all for each painting you create, but eventually you'll need all of them if you're painting different things).
• it is recommended you set up all of your stages in the Workflow Stage Library function if you're creating multiple workflows. 
• If you want to dive right in and just create a single workflow, skip to step 8. 

Your workflow stages will be categorized into Macro stages. These are system categories:

• New Applicants
• Screening
• Interviewing
• Offer
• Hired
• Dispositioned - Declined by Employer
• Dispositioned - Withdraw per Candidate

Within each macro stage, you can place your "micro" stages. These indicate the specifics of your hiring process.

For example, in my New Applicants category, my micro stages might be

• New Applicant
• Application Complete

In my Screening category, my micro stages might be 

• Phone Screen Scheduled
• Passed Screen

In this example I would have a "Failed Screen" stage listed in Dispositioned- Declined by Employer category

4. Click Add Stage under one of your macro categories

5. Give the stage a name ( Description is optional)

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 under each of your categories until you have all possible workflow stages articulated in the appropriate categories

• Important: You need at least one micro stage per macro category to save a workflow and proceed. 
• If you accidentally added a stage, you can remove a stage by clicking on the red X icon on the right-hand side of the stage. 
• You can reorder stages by clicking on the bars icon on the right-hand side of the stage and dragging it
• When creating micro stages, it is important to order them correctly. The progression of your hiring workflow may not achieve the desired results if micro stages are out of order. 

7. When are done, click Save & Close at the bottom of the page

8. Now that you have added some stages to Manage Stages, you can use these to auto-populate an actual hiring workflow.

Click ADD NEW WORKFLOW on the Hiring Workflow Setup page. 

9. First, give your workflow a unique name. 

10. You can add stages the same way you did in steps 4 and 5 to your new workflow. The difference is that now you can automatically pull in the stages you already created to customize this workflow. Add in your stages to this workflow.

• Note that you can also make a carbon copy of the workflow should you wish to create a new flow with minor modifications. You can do this by clicking Make a Copy in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

11. When you're done, click Save & Close.

Congratulations! You've just created a new hiring workflow. You can repeat this process to create as many unique workflows as you need.

Edit an Existing Workflow

To edit an existing workflow, simply click on the workflow you would like to edit and select Workflow Setup.

• You can delete a micro stage by clicking on the red X icon on the right-hand side of the stage (shown below).
• You can reorder a micro stage by clicking and dragging the bars icon on the right-hand side of the stage (shown below).

Delete a Hiring Workflow

To delete a workflow, click on the workflow in question. Scroll to the bottom of the Edit page. You will find a delete button in the lower left-hand corner.

• Please note: This will permanently erase the workflow. Make sure you really want to delete it! You may have to reassign a new workflow if this was tied to live requisitions.