Map your recruitment process
Follow a vacancy from client brief to confirmed start, identify delays between stages and give each handover an owner and a completion check.
Pick one recently filled vacancy. Ask the recruiter to walk it through with the people who approved the brief, sent the shortlist and confirmed the start. Dates from the vacancy record, email thread and calendar often reveal a wait that none of those people remembers.
Download the blank vacancy-to-placement process map (.txt).
Trace one vacancy from brief to placement
This example follows Merebridge Recruitment, a fictional agency filling a maintenance planner role. Each row names the evidence the next person needs before taking over.
| Stage | Owner | What completes the stage |
|---|---|---|
| Take the brief | Account manager | Client confirms duties, location, pay range and essential criteria in writing |
| Open the vacancy | Recruiter | Vacancy ID exists and the agreed advert is live on the selected boards |
| Screen applications | Recruiter | Applications have been assessed against the same role criteria and duplicates checked |
| Send the shortlist | Account manager | Client receives the agreed candidate details and acknowledges receipt |
| Arrange interviews | Coordinator | Candidate and panel confirm the same time and any agreed adjustments |
| Record the offer | Account manager | Written terms reach the preferred candidate and the response is recorded |
| Confirm placement | Recruiter | Candidate and client confirm the start and any agreed checks are complete |
| Close the vacancy | Coordinator | Job boards are closed, remaining candidates updated and records assigned a review date |
For each handover, write down where the next person actually learns that work is ready. It might be an alert, an email or a meeting. If the answer is “someone usually tells me”, give the queue an owner and agree when that person checks it.
Count the waiting time
The shortlist went out on Monday at 10am. The client acknowledged it at 2pm that day and offered interview slots at 10am on Thursday. Measured in elapsed hours, those are two separate waits of four and 68 hours. A single measure of “three days to interview” would conceal which handover needs work.
For the next four comparable vacancies, the account manager agrees a feedback slot with the client when taking the brief. Record when the shortlist was ready, when it was sent and when a decision came back. Compare like roles and use the same elapsed-time or working-hours definition throughout. A small sample can guide the next trial without establishing a reliable agency-wide benchmark.
Choose what to automate
An automatic acknowledgement can release a coordinator from sending the same receipt many times a day. A withdrawal needs different handling. The coordinator may need to cancel an interview, tell the client and stop a scheduled reminder. Give that exception its own test before turning on automation.
When software is the constraint, take these awkward cases to the applicant tracking system demo. If a client asks you to evidence your process in a bid, the tender response worksheet will help you tie each claim to an example you can supply.
Sources and further reading
- Choosing who to interview, Acas — checked 2026-11-09