Processing candidates and applicants

This article will explain how to process applicants and manage candidates in RecMan.

About applicant management in general

RecMan's applicant management works differently from other hiring systems you might have used before. That's because it's built to handle many different types of recruiting — from companies that get thousands of applications for one job post to executive search firms that work on specialized positions without ever posting a job online. The system needs to work whether you have a simple hiring process or a complicated one with multiple interviews, reference checks, and other steps that can take weeks or months to complete.

You can use the solution to manage all kinds of candidates, no matter how you found them. This includes people who applied to your job postings, candidates already in your database, and people you found through other sources and added directly, even if they never applied for anything. This means all your recruiting work, whether people are coming to you or you're going out to find them, can be managed in one place.

To make all this work smoothly, RecMan splits things into two parts that work together: one part manages your incoming applicants, and the other part processes all candidates, such as applicants, manually sourced candidates, and AI-suggested candidates. This setup lets you create a full hiring workflow with or without job postings, which is especially useful for executive recruiters and anyone who likes to build relationships with potential candidates before they have specific openings to fill.

Getting started with the Applicants tab

The idea of the Applicants tab in the project is to conduct initial screening of applicants so that only those relevant to the position are brought into the recruitment pipeline (Board or List).

Here, you also have an overview of which applicants have been declined. A rejection letter may be sent via email when declining a candidate.

Navigating the pipeline

You can organize applicants in the Board by dragging and dropping them into various customizable pipeline steps, like interviews and background checks.

In both the Board and List tabs, you have a variety of options, for instance:

• Schedule interviews: Integrate your calendar to set up interviews seamlessly.
• Access candidate details: Preview candidate information in a drawer, where you can make notes and view attachments without leaving the board.
• Send emails and SMS: Communicate with one or several candidates efficiently.
• Present candidates: Show one or more applicants to your customer for their feedback.
• Make professional presentations: Share a polished digital presentation of candidates with customers for their review.
• Export to Excel: The system will generate an .xlsx file with basic information such as candidate name and title, contact details, pipeline step and status, etc.
• Send assessment tests: RecMan offers a variety of assessment test integrations that can be automated for a particular pipeline step or manually sent to a specific applicant.
• Decline irrelevant applicants: If you determine a candidate isn’t a fit, click the Decline button. This moves them to the declined category, making your workflow smoother.
• Adjust status: If you remove candidates from the pipeline, their status will revert to Pending.

Practical tips for applicant management

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to applicant management, so let’s explore some practical steps:

1. Screening

It can be advantageous to clean up continuously as applicants tick in, maybe every other day. The first step is to clean up the pending applicants, as you can be sure that some may not be processed further in the pipeline.

Go to Applicants, then filter by the relevant Job posting and other relevant criteria. In the applicant's drawer, you will be able to simply view the individual CVs, applications and attachments to perform your initial screening.

If you see that the person is irrelevant, click the Decline button. This applicant will now appear under the Declined category in the Applicants tab, or if he was already accepted to the board, he will receive a red Declined tag.

Remember that you can move to the pipeline or decline several applicants by ticking them off. In the project settings, you can add a template for the rejection email.

Some prefer to wait until the end of the process before they reject the applicant, but with regard to the applicant, there is nothing wrong with rejecting applicants continuously. And it is also possible to reject them now with a delayed email.

2. Adding relevant applicants to the pipeline

We now wish to work on the accepted ones, and the way to do this is to bring them into a pipeline (Board or List view).

The system will now put all these on the first step of the pipeline.

3. Working with candidates in the pipeline

Managing candidates in the pipeline is where your recruitment process truly takes shape. With irrelevant candidates out of sight, you’ll have a clearer view of your prospects. After conducting interviews and reference checks, and once you select a candidate, simply click on the Hire button.

4. Hiring and cleanup process

Once candidates are marked as Hired in your pipeline, it’s time to wrap up the recruitment.

You can easily reject candidates who were in the pipeline but not hired. Once declined, these candidates will remain in the system, with their pipeline tags removed.

After this process, all candidates will either be marked as Declined or Hired. All applicants will have received an answer, and you can now focus on reaching out to those who got the job to continue the onboarding process. The tags you used previously can be valuable later, allowing you to revisit your candidates.

Alternative ways of adding candidates to a pipeline

From the candidate base:

You can easily add an existing candidate to a pipeline. Just select the candidate, then click the Add to pipeline button located above their names in the candidate base. Remember, the same candidate can be part of multiple pipelines.

From the candidate card:

You can also add candidates directly from their candidate card. From here, you can see which pipelines a candidate is currently in, as well as information about the co-worker managing that pipeline and the project it’s associated with. You can seamlessly move the candidate to a different step or remove them from the pipeline whenever necessary.

Manually adding a candidate

To manually add a candidate, simply click the Plus button in the top left corner and select Candidate. You only need to fill in the first and last name, but you can also connect them to a project and job posting at the same time, ensuring they appear in the pipeline. If you wish, you can add their email and password, allowing you to send them this information right away.

Conclusion

By managing your applicants with RecMan, you can enjoy a clearer, more organized recruiting experience. Remember, it’s all about creating a process that fits your style and needs.