Hiring Process – Utilizing Hiring Stages

One of the most important things when it comes to hiring is making sure you are organized. You want to stay on track with where you are at in the hiring process with each candidate that you encounter, which can sometimes be overwhelming. This is where your IdealTraits subscription is really going to come in handy. Whether you’ve found your candidates by posting an ad through IdealTraits or through other sources, you can utilize the IdealTraits Hiring Stages to keep your candidates organized. This way you know exactly what step of the hiring process each individual candidate is in. You can even track things like your candidate’s apply date, when they completed the assessment, when you moved them through various hiring stages, and even their hire date. Remember, you can add candidates manually to the Applicant Tracking System if you have identified candidates through outside sources. Once you add the candidate to your account, you can send them the assessment and utilize all of the features of your IdealTraits subscription.

Let’s take a look at the different hiring stages that are in your IdealTraits account. The stages included with your subscription are:

Moving candidates through the different stages is easy, and some of them even have automatic system features to save you time! To move Candidates through the hiring stages, you have two options. One, from within the Candidate Profile, you can locate the Stages dropdown in the top right corner of the profile. You can also use the Stages dropdown from the Candidate List in any hiring stage.

Within the Candidate Profile

When you have entered a candidate profile to review their resume or assessment results and are ready to move them to the next hiring stage, you can do so using the blue dropdown menu at the top right of the profile. This dropdown will show the title of the hiring stage that candidate currently sits in. Just click the dropdown to view the menu and select the stage you would like to advance them to.

When you’re on the ‘Candidates’ tab, you can navigate through stages using the ‘Stages’ menu on the left hand side. To move an applicant, you will see a column on the right side of the page titled Stages. In this column, you will see a dropdown menu with the title of the stage that the candidate currently exists in. To advance them to the next stage, just click this dropdown to view the stages menu and select their next destination.

Let’s say I have a candidate who has completed the assessment, been phone screened, and completed the interview with an amazing outcome. Now, I am ready to extend an offer! I am going to locate the candidate in Candidates – Interview, because that is the last stage I had them in. Next, I’ll use the stages dropdown to move them to the Offer stage.

When I move a candidate to the Offer Stage, the system will give me the option to Generate and Send a customizable offer letter to my candidate.

You can learn more about customizing the offer letter by checking out this article in our Help Center.

When you’re moving a candidate to the Archive stage via either of the methods listed above, the system will prompt you to add a tag to the profile or send a rejection letter.

Tags are an awesome way to leave yourself a note about the candidate in case you’d like to revisit their profile in the future. You can use an existing tag from our list, or even create your own. You can also preview the rejection letter options right from that popup screen. Learn more about utilizing tags and rejection letters when archiving a candidate by checking out this article in our Help Center.

*Tip: Use tags when archiving candidates to identify those that may be better suited for a different role in your company, or have accepted an offer elsewhere.

Moving candidates to the Archive doesn't fully delete their profile, so you can always refer back to archived candidates if you need to.

Once a candidate has accepted the offer and signed the offer letter, they will automatically be sent to the Hired Stage and their direct manager will be emailed a message letting them know the offer has been accepted. If you do not identify a direct manager’s email when generating the Offer Letter, this email will be sent to the address you use to log into IdealTraits.

Even if you do not use the offer letter through the system, but offer the position verbally over the phone or in person, you can use the Stages dropdown to manually move your new employee to the Hired Stage.

Make sure, no matter what, you are moving your new employees to the Hired Stage, even if you do extend the offer verbally. IdealTraits will maintain a record of your employee’s hire date that you can view from their profile and it will also keep track of your company’s average time to hire. Additionally, when you mark an applicant as hired, it signals to the job boards that the candidate was a strong match. This feedback helps improve future applicant recommendations, increasing the likelihood of you receiving more qualified candidates.

Don’t forget! We offer a number of filters that you can access within each hiring stage to organize your candidates even further. To utilize the filters, just look for this filter button at the top of the candidate list within each stage.

We have the options to filter candidates by Active Job Ad Title, Position Name, Personality type, and even by Star Ranking. Check out this article to learn more about Utilizing Candidate Filters

Not only is the use of the Hiring Stages incredibly important in helping you keep track of where your candidates are in the hiring process, but it also makes it easy to utilize some of the built-in features of the platform for ease and convenience.

Want to Customize your Stages? Go to Hiring Settings > Hiring Stages > Add Hiring Stages.

If you have any further questions about this tutorial, please don't hesitate to reach out; we're here to help.