From three people running recruitment ops by hand to one person running the platform.

FINDINGS

01

VACANCIES / Postings and edits handled ad hoc, no single source of truth for status

02

PIPELINE / Applicant stage (pending, interview, hired, rejected) and outcome (active, on hold, talent pool) tracked as one field, not two, so there's no way to hold a candidate without losing their stage

03

RETENTION / Good candidates who weren't right for the current role had nowhere to go: no talent pool, no resurfacing later

04

FOLLOW-UP / Rejected applicants' data and resumes lingered indefinitely with no cleanup

RECOMMENDATION

Split applicant state into two orthogonal fields, pipeline stage and outcome status, so a candidate can go on hold or into the talent pool without losing pipeline history. Give admins one dashboard for vacancies, applications, and a cross-vacancy talent pool, with notes attributed per admin so context survives handoffs. Auto-clean rejected applications after a retention window instead of manual deletion.

CONSIDERED AND REJECTED

Buy an off-the-shelf ATS

Rejected: the two-track stage/status model (pipeline step vs. decision outcome) and the talent-pool promotion flow didn't map onto a generic ATS's rigid stage model without heavy workarounds.

One combined status field for pipeline + outcome

Rejected: collapsing stage and status into one field meant putting a candidate on hold or into the talent pool destroyed their pipeline position. Kept them orthogonal instead.