Part of the employee lifecycle — the Recruit stage. This is a strategic framework overview; the detailed how-to lives in the clusters it links to (employer operations, HR metrics, templates, hiring process and more).
This is the framework view. The step-by-step, role-specific detail lives in the hiring-process cluster and the recruitment tools this page links to.
Why it matters
A consistent process is faster, fairer and more predictable — and it produces better, more defensible hiring decisions. An ad-hoc process wastes time, frustrates candidates and lets bias creep in.
Done well, it connects attraction to a strong onboarding handover.
Objectives
- Define the role and success criteria before sourcing.
- Move candidates through a clear, consistent set of stages.
- Decide on evidence, not impressions.
- Make timely offers and hand over cleanly to onboarding.
Common challenges
- Starting to source before the role is defined.
- Inconsistent stages and criteria across hires.
- Slow decisions that lose strong candidates.
- A weak handover from hiring to onboarding.
Key activities
- Plan the hire (owners, stages, timeline, channels).
- Source and screen against the role requirements.
- Interview and evaluate consistently.
- Decide, offer and prepare the onboarding handover.
Best practices
- Define the role and criteria first, then source.
- Use the same stages and scorecards for every candidate in a role.
- Set and track a realistic time to fill.
- Hand over context to onboarding so day one is ready.
Common mistakes
- Sourcing against an undefined role.
- Changing criteria mid-process.
- Optimising only for speed and dropping quality.
- Treating the offer as the finish line, not the handover.
Measure this stage with the time to fill metric, put it into practice with the recruitment planning template, and run it as a system via hiring forecasting.
Free, printable HR resources
Lifecycle work runs on practical resources. These are free and ungated — no signup.