Hiring How to post a role, take applications, move candidates through stages, and hand a hire to onboarding.

Hiring runs on two records: the job you post, and the applications it receives.

The Job

A job carries a title, department, location, employment type, description, requirements and benefits, a salary range with its currency, an expiry date, the platforms it has been posted to, and a running applicant count.

Publishing a salary range is a decision worth making deliberately. It is required by law in a growing number of jurisdictions, it reduces wasted conversations on both sides, and candidates increasingly filter it out when it is absent.

Set an expiry. A role advertised months after it was filled is the most visible sign of a careless process, and candidates notice.

Applications

An application records the candidate's name, email, phone, LinkedIn, cover letter and CV, plus a rating, notes, who reviewed it, a stage history, an interview date, and a rejection reason where it applies.

The stage history is the useful part. It shows how a candidate moved rather than only where they ended, which is what lets you see where good candidates are being lost.

CVs are stored encrypted.

Candidate Data Is Sensitive

Applications hold personal information about people who do not work for you and never may. Two things follow:

• Restrict who can see them. Hiring managers for their own role, not the whole company.
• Know your retention rule. Most jurisdictions limit how long you may keep unsuccessful applications. Decide the period and hold to it — indefinite retention is the default only because nobody chose otherwise.

The Flow

1. Write the job with a real description and an honest range.
2. Publish, and record where.
3. Review applications, rating and noting as you go rather than at the end.
4. Move candidates through stages, so the history reflects reality.
5. Record interview dates.
6. Make an offer, or reject with a reason.
7. On acceptance, onboard. See Onboarding Someone.

Rejecting Well

Record the reason. It costs a moment and it gives you two things: a defensible record if a decision is ever questioned, and a pattern you can read later when you ask why a pipeline keeps failing at the same stage.

Reply to everyone. It is the cheapest reputational thing an organisation can do and the most commonly skipped.

Handing Over To Onboarding

An accepted offer becomes an employee record — a different object, deliberately. The application is a record of the hiring process; the employee record is the person's employment. Create the employee record with the agreed start date and compensation, then follow the onboarding sequence.

Common Questions

Where do applications come from? The careers site, and wherever else you have posted. The applicant count tracks volume per job.

Can two people review the same candidate? The record captures who reviewed it. Notes and ratings are shared, so agree what a rating means before you use it, or the numbers mean different things to different people.

Do we have to publish salary? Increasingly yes, depending on jurisdiction. Check the rule for the hub you are hiring into.

Can we reuse a job posting? Duplicate it and set fresh dates rather than reopening an old one, so the application history stays with the round it belongs to.