Implementation Guide for Workable Recruiting: Premier plan

Overview

Super Admins with a Premier plan can refer to this guide when implementing Workable Recruiting or reviewing account settings. We recommend implementing Workable in 3 main steps.

1. Workflow Setup: Set up recruiting pipelines, compliance, job board connections and more. These account settings govern how the work of recruiting is done through Workable.
2. Customization & Branding: Arrange custom data fields, a careers page, templates and more. These components impact how candidates see your brand and how hiring teams communicate.
3. Start Recruiting: Create jobs and invite account members when you're ready to go live with Workable. The options here are used to roll out Workable and begin using it day-to-day.

This implementation guide does not cover every Workable feature. Your Implementation Manager can provide further guidance and support.

Each of these three main steps can be completed in just a few hours and each option can be activated independently at any time. If you need to start posting jobs immediately, we highly recommend completing the job board initialization steps at a minimum.

Starred features indicate critical components of Workable and their use is highly recommended.

 

Workflow Setup

These options control how the work of recruiting is done in Workable. These are the features to set up first in an account because they will guide the ways in which users can interact with Workable and how certain features and processes will function.

Custom Pipelines

Activate via: Settings > Workflow

Full feature walkthrough: Customizing recruiting pipelines, Reporting pipelines, Pipeline best practices

Pipelines are the workflows that your teams use to recruit. They have stages for the milestones in your recruiting process. All pipelines must "fit" into a single overall reporting pipeline.

To do:

• Consider the needs of different job levels or departments. The hiring process for a manager is unlikely to be the same as for an intern, and the process for a Marketing job may not be the same as for an Engineering job. 
• Download and review pipeline examples for different types of jobs here.
• Finalize your hiring pipeline before you post your job and have candidates apply.

Hiring Plan

Activate via: Settings > Hiring Plan

Full feature walkthrough: Hiring Plan Implementation guide, Using Hiring Plan

Hiring Plan is used to manage requisitions that hold internal details about the hiring you’re doing: salaries, hiring deadlines, reason for hire, and anything custom. It tracks and provides reporting on hiring budgets and schedules.

The requisition form can be set up before inviting users or creating departments. Revisit Hiring Plan settings when adding account members to arrange approval workflows. See more about adding account members further on in this guide.

To do:

• Add fields to be included in the requisition form, these should typically be key details about the job that are filled in before hiring begins.
• Wait to add approval workflows until account members have been invited, then add approval workflows for each top-level department, making sure key stakeholders are involved.

Compliance

Activate via: Settings > Compliance

Full feature walkthroughs: GDPR, EEO/OFCCP, CCPA

Enable compliance options based on your organization's requirements: GDPR, EEO/OFCCP (Equal Employment Opportunity) reporting, and CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act).

To do:

If you recruit within the EU, we suggest enabling GDPR settings to:

• Allow for the permanent deletion of candidate data.
• Allow candidates to delete their own data.
• Add a privacy notice for candidates to review and consent.
• Set data retention timeframes so older candidates are automatically removed.

If you recruit within the US, consider talking to your legal or executive team about EEO/OFCCP and CCPA options. Regulations around these features are not applicable to all companies.

Integrations

Activate via: Settings > Integrations > Apps

Full feature walkthrough: Job board initialization, Email & calendar, Zoom, Slack

Key integrations unlock more functionality in Workable and help to improve job post visibility. It is essential to review these options to ensure your job posts are able to be found easily by prospective candidates.

Additionally, Workable integrates with many other systems, such as HR Information Systems, job boards, assessment, and video interview providers, and background and reference checks. 

To do:

• Perform job board initialization steps for Indeed/Glassdoor and LinkedIn.
• Activate Gmail or Outlook for better calendar visibility and self-scheduling options.
• Review the Integrations settings page in your account to connect additional software and services you use to Workable, like Zoom or Slack.

Privacy

Activate via: Settings > Privacy

Full feature walkthroughs: Talent Pool, Hiding hired candidate details, Managing photos and social media profile links

Privacy settings dictate the broad access that all user types should have for Talent Pool candidates, hired candidates, profile images, and social media links. While specific user levels and permissions are managed under the Account Members settings, the Privacy settings have general data privacy options for the whole account.

To do:

• Restrict the Talent Pool to admin members only, so that they control these candidates.
• Restrict the visibility of timelines for hired candidates so that new users can't look up feedback about themselves or coworkers.
• Enable or disable social media links and profile photos as you prefer. Workable will only bring in links and photos from publicly available sources, which can also be found through manual searching.

Departments

Activate via: Settings > Departments

Full feature walkthroughs: Managing departments, Organizing features by department

Department settings impact the ways in which you can organize jobs, filter reports, and manage other features. On your careers page, candidates can search your departments for jobs.

To do:

• Add your top-level departments and sub-departments based on your internal structure.
• Scroll to the bottom of the page and set preferences for department visibility.
• Stick to using high-level departments' names rather than specific teams. This will make it easier to organize Workable features and simpler for candidates to find the right type of job on your careers page.

 

Customization & Branding

This section covers options that will impact the various ways in which you'll communicate with candidates: From your career page, to interview questions, to offers and more.

Company Profile

Activate via: Settings > Company Profile

Full feature walkthrough: Managing the Company Profile

The Company Profile page is where you'll upload a logo and write a brief description of your company. The logo will appear in various places like application forms, confirmation emails and certain invitations.

To do:

• Upload a logo and social sharing image.
• Write a brief description of the company.

Custom fields

Activate via: Settings > Workflow

Full feature walkthrough: Custom fields

Custom fields will appear on candidate profiles. They are data fields that candidates can either fill out as part of the application form or hide from candidates and fill out internally by the hiring team.

Below, the contact details are default fields that Workable automatically has. The Salary Info section is comprised of custom fields that were added for this particular account. Fields with sensitive info can have restricted visibility (will appear with next to them)so that only users with the right permissions can see them.

To do:

• Create and manage custom fields in your account.
• Tip: Use custom fields to record salary expectations.

Careers page

Activate via: Settings > Careers Page

Full feature walkthrough: Careers Page site builder, Comparing careers page options

Various options are available for creating a careers page. We recommend building your careers page via the site builder, as it offers the most customizability without requiring significant web development work. API and embedded job widget options are also available. These are the best options for adding jobs directly on your own website but require coding work from your web development team.

To do:

• Invite editors for the Careers Page site builder. These are usually people from your marketing or design teams.
• Create a page that has a Header section, 'About' section, Benefits section, and Jobs section.

Templates

Activate via: Settings > Templates

Full feature walkthrough: Interview kits, Communication, E-signature (simple/offer)

Templates are available for almost all Workable users but must be added by Admin users.

• Interview Questions: These sets of questions can be added to pipeline stages. They guide interviewers and expand the evaluation form. A common interview question template might be called a "Phone Screen Questionnaire" and include items that the screener should discuss with candidates at that stage.
• Communication (Email / Text): Add common message templates like "Thanks for applying" or "Disqualification." Communication templates are also incorporated into Automated Actions. If you want to automate an email, you'll need to add it as a template first.
• E-signature (simple/offer): Create templates for the various documents that you need candidates to sign. See how offer letters work.
• Locations: The locations where interviews will occur are shared and mapped for candidates, who can get directions.

Automated Actions

Activate via: Settings > Automated Actions

Full feature walkthrough: Setting up Automated Actions, Best practices

Send emails to candidates automatically when a specific action is taken. Streamline time-consuming parts of your hiring process with custom automations. 

To do:

• See our best practices for common use cases.
• Always set automations to have a short delay in case one needs to be canceled, or you are sending a rejection email.

Language Kit

Activate via: Settings > Language Kit

Full feature walkthrough: Language Kit overview

If you conduct hiring in multiple languages Language Kit options will translate aspects of the candidate experience. You can store templates and create application forms in different languages, as well as have candidate-facing tools like confirmation emails appear in a chosen language.

To do:

Prepare your translations before enabling Language Kit:

• Review the Settings > Company Profile page to translate the company description.
• Review the Settings > Templates page to translate templates.
• Review the Settings > Workflow page to translate custom fields.

 

Start Recruiting

This section covers the steps you should take when you're ready to have coworkers start using Workable and to have candidates apply.

Create requisitions & jobs

Activate via: Jobs page > Create a new job or Hiring Plan > Create requisition

Full feature walkthrough: Creating a job, Creating and managing requisitions

To get up and running quickly, we recommend creating requisitions and jobs before inviting account members. Requisitions have settings for approval workflows, owners and hiring managers. You'll make use of these features when more people join the account, but for starting out you may find it preferable to first add the jobs that you know you're hiring for in the short term.

To do:

• To advertise right away, create a job. You can add a requisition for the job later.
• Requisitions must always be attached to a job. You can't have a requisition without a job. You'll be prompted to set up the job as you create a requisition. You can always edit reqs and jobs so no need to worry if the details change.
• Each hired candidate must be attached to a unique req. E.g. to make 2 hires for a Customer Success Manager job, you would create 2 requisitions, both attached to that one job.
• Set the requisition status to "Open" at the same time that you publish the job.

Account members & roll-out

Activate via: Settings > Account Members

Full feature walkthrough: Managing account members, Recruiting user permission chart, Rolling out Workable Recruiting

Account members are invited to Workable and assigned to particular jobs or departments that they will help recruit for. While Admin users can always see everything in an account, users with standard access in recruiting can only see candidates for their assigned jobs.

To do:

• Invite Admin users first. They'll have access to everything and can assist with any remaining setup options.
• When adding other users, assign them to the departments and/or locations. This will make it easier to build hiring teams and help ensure users have the right permissions.
• Review our permissions chart and guide for choosing user roles.
• Send a roll-out email to the company or to specific members to ensure coworkers know what Workable is and what they should use it for.

Candidate engagement

Activate via: Candidate profile

Full feature walkthrough: Internal screening, The toolbar actions

Take full advantage of the candidate profile by utilizing the toolbar actions:

• Email candidates (even in bulk)
• Schedule interviews
• Add an internal comment
• Evaluate a candidate
• Disqualify a candidate
• Move candidates to another stage 

To do:

• Move promising candidates to the next stage of your pipeline.
• Mention your colleagues in a comment.
• Give someone an evaluation.

Referrals portal

Activate via: Settings > Referrals

Full feature walkthrough: Referrals portal, Rolling out Referrals

The Referrals portal is used to have coworkers submit referrals. They're credited for submissions in Workable's reports. You also have the option to use the portal to collect internal applications.

To do:

• Invite the whole company or ask them to sign up themselves via auto-join by sharing the portal link (they just need to have an email address at your company to register).
• Set email notifications to Daily. Portal members will be emailed the same day there is a new job. This will help you receive the most referrals.
• Use the Referrals rollout guide to introduce coworkers to the portal and set everyone up for success.

Source candidates

Activate via: Sourcing tools (People Search, AI Recruiter, Resurface candidates)

Full feature walkthrough: People Search, Auto-source passive candidates, Resurface candidates

Sometimes the best candidates for your job don’t apply directly themselves, they’re sourced! Auto-source candidates with AI Recruiter or search for candidates based on keywords or job titles with People Search. 

To do:

• Review your profile search quota and understand how views are consumed. 
• Preview and add passive candidates (under the Find Candidates tab). 

• Resurface existing candidates who are already in your Workable account and relevant to the new jobs you're hiring for. 

Candidate surveys

Activate via: Settings > Candidate Surveys

Full feature walkthrough: Using candidate surveys

Create anonymous, optional surveys for candidates to fill in after they apply. These anonymous surveys can be used to measure diversity or ask other multiple-choice questions that don't need to be included in the application form or be associated with specific candidates.

To do:

• Review Workable's guide on how to measure diversity.
• Create different surveys based on where you recruit.
• While survey results are always anonymous, consider also activating anonymized screening under Settings > Workflow to reduce bias when reviewing resumes.

 

Highlighted content

If you are using our HR features, check our related implementation guides.