A hiring plan in Sense CRM represents the defined stages and interviews arranged in a specific order that candidates progress through during the recruitment process. Configuring a hiring plan is one of the initial essential steps when you start using Sense CRM. By utilizing these pre-defined stages, you can systematically manage the hiring process. This structured approach enables recruiters to effectively track candidates at various stages and plan subsequent actions accordingly.
Components of a Hiring Plan
Every hiring plan is built upon three key components: Milestones, Stages, and Rounds.
Milestones
Milestones represent the broad phases of your recruitment process and are configured at a global level within Sense CRM. Think of them as significant checkpoints in the overall hiring journey. Based on these milestones, reports within Sense CRM are generated.
You can customize your milestones by navigating to Settings > Job Setup > Hiring Plan > Milestone Configuration. Here, you have the ability to add new milestones, remove existing ones, rename them, and rearrange their order. However, the Screen, Offer, and Hired milestones are fixed and cannot be changed or removed. You can have up to 15 milestones between the Screen and Offer milestones. To add a new milestone, simply click on "Add new milestone".
Stages
Stages define the specific steps involved in hiring candidates and can be configured at both a global level and a job level. They represent a set of interview rounds or activities that a candidate must successfully complete before moving to the next stage. While milestones provide the overarching framework, stages detail the specific actions within those phases.
You can configure multiple rounds within a single stage. All stages and the rounds within them can be named descriptively for easy identification. Importantly, stages can be reordered by simply dragging and dropping them. Similar to milestones, the Screening stage is the initial stage where the Sense CRM AI engine provides candidate matching scores, and the Offer stage is the final stage where a candidate can be marked as hired. Admins cannot change or remove these Screening and Offer stages. You can add any number of stages between these two fixed stages. Recruiters have the flexibility to move candidates between stages regardless of whether all interviews within a stage have been completed.
To add new stages to a specific hiring plan, navigate to Settings > Job Setup > Hiring Plan > Hiring Plan Setup, click on the desired hiring plan, scroll down, and click "Add Stages". In the pop-up window, select a milestone from the drop-down menu, enter a name for the stage, and click "Add Selection". You can edit the name or milestone of a stage by clicking the "Edit" icon or delete it using the "Delete" icon. Remember that reordering milestones will also reorder the stages within their respective jobs.
Rounds
Rounds are the individual tasks or steps added within each stage. Candidates typically need to complete all defined rounds in a stage before they can progress to the subsequent stage.
To add a new round, navigate to Settings > Job Setup > Hiring Plan > Hiring Plan Setup and select the hiring plan you want to modify. Click "+Add Round" to open a pop-up where you can choose the type of round you want to add. You also have the option to "Copy" rounds from an existing job. Once you have selected the round type, click "Add selection" to save it.
Sense CRM offers four main types of rounds:
- Interviews: This round allows administrators to schedule interviews, send calendar invitations to both the hiring team and candidates, and collect feedback upon completion.
- Feedback: This round is useful for internal evaluations or walk-in interviews where scheduling a formal interview might not be necessary. Administrators can send reminders to the hiring team to submit feedback.
- Form: This round enables you to add a form to a specific stage. Additional sections of the form will appear as new steps for candidates to complete. You can configure these forms, including automated emails and user notifications, directly from the Hiring Plan page.
- Assessment: This round allows you to integrate online assessments into your hiring process. Ensure you have enabled integration with your chosen assessment provider before adding this round. You can import questions from existing questionnaires or create new ones.
Once a round is added to a stage, you can configure it further by clicking on "Configure" next to the round name. This will open a pop-up with specific configuration options for that round type. You can also edit the round name or delete the round using the respective icons.