Customize and Manage Your Hiring Workflow with Stages

Hiring stages allow you to build a recruiting workflow that matches your organization's hiring process. You can customize the stages for each opening, assign stage owners, and create Interview, Review, or Plain stages to guide candidates through the hiring process.

Edit the Hiring Stages for an Opening

To modify the hiring workflow for an existing opening:

Select Openings from the left navigation menu.
Open the job you want to edit.
Select the Job Settings tab.
Scroll to the Hiring Stages section.

The first stage in the list is where new applicants are placed when they apply. By default, this stage is Screening, but you can rename or replace it to fit your workflow.

Edit Existing Stages

For each stage, you can:

Rename the stage.
Change the stage owner.
Edit stage settings.
Reorder stages by dragging and dropping them.

Select the pencil icon beside a stage to edit its settings.

Add a New Stage

To create a new hiring stage:

Click + Add a New Stage.
Choose the type of stage you want to create:
- Interview
- Review
- Offer Stage
- Plain

Interview Stages

Interview stages are designed for scheduled interviews and include additional interview-specific settings.

When creating an Interview stage, you can configure:

Coordinator – The user responsible for candidates in this stage.
Interview Title – The name shown to interviewers in emails and within Trakstar Hire.
Interview Medium – Examples include:
- Direct Call
- Dial-in
- Skype
- Google Hangouts
- Face-to-Face
- Other
Interview Duration – Select a preset duration or enter a custom length.

For Zoom Meeting and Google Meet interview types, you can configure a static meeting link by selecting Set Venue. The link is automatically included in interview invitations.

Review Stages

Review stages allow designated reviewers to evaluate candidates.

When configuring a Review stage, you can specify:

Coordinator
Reviewers
An optional note providing context
Whether review requests are sent automatically or manually when a candidate enters the stage

Offer Stages

Offer stages allow you to select an offer template for you to send to the candidate. You'll need to select a coordinator for this specific stage.

This is usually the last hiring stage.

Plain Stages

Plain stages are general workflow stages that do not include interview or review functionality.

When creating or editing a Plain stage, you can:

Rename the stage.
Assign a stage owner.

Stage owners can be existing users or newly invited users.

Convert Between Stage Types

Existing stages can be converted between Plain, Interview, and Review stages.

To change a stage type:

Select the pencil icon beside the stage.
Choose the new stage type.

Keep in mind:

Converting an Interview or Review stage to a Plain stage removes the interview or review configuration.
Once removed, those settings cannot be recovered.
Converting a Plain stage into an Interview or Review stage requires you to configure the new settings.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can more than one person be assigned to a stage?

No. Each hiring stage is designed to have a single owner who is responsible for candidates while they are in that stage.

If multiple recruiters perform the same function, consider creating separate stages for each owner (for example, Phone Screen – Sarah and Phone Screen – John).

Do I need to recreate my hiring stages for every new opening?

No. When creating a new opening, use Copy Details From to copy hiring stages and other configuration settings from an existing opening.

Can I delete a hiring stage?

Yes. A stage can only be deleted after all candidates within that stage have been moved into a decision state, such as Hired or Rejected.

Are candidates notified when they move to a new stage?

No. Moving a candidate between stages does not automatically notify them.

If you'd like to inform the candidate, you can send a message when changing their stage.