The End-to-End Recruitment Process
The stages of a recruitment campaign, who owns each one, and where campaigns usually go wrong.
11 min
Activities: 0 of 2
Recruitment and selection are two halves
Recruitment is the work of attracting a suitable pool of candidates. Selection is the work of choosing between them. The two depend on each other: a perfect selection method cannot fix a weak pool, and a strong pool is wasted by a poor selection method.
Treating hiring as a defined process, with stages, owners and decision points, is what lets an organisation hire well repeatedly rather than by luck. Each stage has an output that the next stage relies on. When a stage is skipped or rushed, the problem usually appears two or three stages later, where it is more expensive to fix.
The stages and their outputs
- 1
1
Approve the need
Output: an approved vacancy with a budget, grade and employment type.
- 2
2
Define the role
Output: a job description, a person specification and a success profile for year one.
- 3
3
Plan the campaign
Output: channels, assessment methods, panel, timeline and budget agreed with the hiring manager.
- 4
4
Attract and source
Output: a pool of applicants who meet the essential criteria.
- 5
5
Shortlist
Output: scored applications and a recorded shortlist.
- 6
6
Assess
Output: independent scores from work samples, interviews and any tests.
- 7
7
Decide and offer
Output: a recorded decision, checks completed and an accepted offer.
- 8
8
Onboard and review
Output: a started employee and lessons recorded for the next campaign.
Who owns what
Owns the decision. Defines what the role needs, sits on the panel, makes the final choice within the process, and owns onboarding.
Order the stages
Arrange the stages of a campaign from first to last.
- 1Plan the campaign with the hiring manager
- 2Decide, check and offer
- 3Shortlist against the criteria
- 4Assess with structured methods
- 5Define the role and success profile
- 6Approve the need
- 7Attract and source candidates
At shortlisting, two panel members disagree completely about what the role needs. At which earlier stage did the process most likely fail?