A simple recruiting pipeline for small teams

Hiring in a small organisation usually happens in someone's inbox. A job post goes out, CVs arrive as attachments, a few are forwarded to a manager with "thoughts?", interviews are arranged by message, and three weeks later nobody remembers which candidate said what. The good candidate accepts another offer while you are still looking for her CV.

You do not need an enterprise applicant tracking system to fix this. You need a simple pipeline: a few clear stages, one record per candidate, a fair way to compare interviews, and an offer that goes out the same day you decide. This guide walks through each piece.

Start with the opening, not the job ad

Before anything is posted, write down four things about the role:

• What the job is, in plain words a candidate can understand: the work, the team, the place.
• Who decides. Name the hiring manager and, if needed, one other person. More than three decision makers slows everything down.
• The salary band, even if you do not publish it. Agreeing it up front saves an awkward negotiation later, and it should be visible only to the people who need it.
• The stages candidates will go through, and roughly how long each should take.

Writing this takes half an hour and prevents most of the delays that come later.

Keep the stages few and clear

Most small teams need only four stages between "applied" and the final decision:

• Applied: the application arrived and nobody has read it yet.
• Screened: someone read the CV and it is worth a conversation.
• Interview: one or more interviews are scheduled or done.
• Offer: an offer has been sent.

Every candidate ends either Hired or Not selected, with a reason. If your hiring needs a special step, such as a practical test or a work permit, add it as its own stage rather than tracking it in a side note.

The rule that matters most: every candidate is in exactly one stage at any time, and someone owns moving them on. A candidate sitting in "Screened" for two weeks is a candidate you are about to lose.

One record per candidate

All information about a candidate should live in one place: the CV, the stage, notes from the team, the interviews, the scorecards, the offer and a timeline of what happened. When the hiring manager is on leave, someone else can pick it up in five minutes.

This also protects candidates. CVs forwarded around by e-mail end up in personal inboxes and are never deleted. CVs in one record can be kept for exactly as long as you said, and erased when that time is over.

Schedule interviews without the back-and-forth

Interview scheduling is where small teams lose the most days. A few habits help:

• Agree with interviewers which slots they keep free during a hiring round.
• Book interviews directly into interviewers' calendars so nobody double-books them.
• Keep panels small: one to three people for most roles.
• Send the candidate one clear confirmation with the time, the place or link, and who they will meet.

Use scorecards to compare fairly

After an interview, memories fade and blur. One interviewer liked the candidate's energy; another remembers a weak answer. Without structure, the loudest opinion wins.

A scorecard fixes this. Each interviewer answers the same questions for every candidate, for example skills, experience, communication and fit with the team, rated 1 to 5, and gives a recommendation: strong yes, yes, no or strong no. Interviewers write their card before discussing the candidate with each other, so the first opinion does not shape the rest.

Two rules keep scorecards fair:

• Ask only about the work. Never about age, religion, family plans or appearance, and never ask for a photo. Many countries forbid these questions, and they say nothing about how someone will do the job.
• Read the average and the comments together. A 3.8 with "great with customers, needs training on our system" tells you more than the number alone.

Make the offer the same day

When you decide, move fast. A clear offer letter with the salary, the start date and the role, sent the same day, often makes the difference with a candidate who has other options. A private link where the candidate reads the letter, downloads it and accepts by typing their name is quicker than printing, signing and scanning.

When the candidate accepts, the hiring is not finished: the new person needs an employee record, their documents and an onboarding plan for the first weeks. If that information has to be typed again from the candidate's file, mistakes creep in.

Respect candidates' data

Candidates trust you with personal data. Tell them how long you keep it, keep it only that long, and erase it when the time is up. A sensible default is to keep the data of candidates you did not hire for a year, and longer only for those who asked to be considered for future openings. Erasing on a schedule is much easier for software than for a busy manager with a folder of old CVs.

Measure a few things

You do not need a recruiting dashboard. Each quarter, look at:

• Time to hire: days from opening to accepted offer.
• Where good candidates came from: your website, a job board, referrals.
• Where candidates drop out: many declined offers point at salary or speed; many no-shows point at your scheduling.

How to do it in Kluvan

Recruitment comes with the HR app, including the free HR starter plan, so a small team can start without buying anything extra. Kluvan runs online with nothing to install: candidates apply from any browser, and interviewers write scorecards on their phones.

• Create an opening. Give it a job title, branch, type of work and description, name the hiring managers, and add a salary band that only people with the salary right can see. See create a job opening.
• Publish it on your careers page. Your careers page lists your open jobs; applicants send their CV with a consent box that says how long you keep their details. See take applications on your careers page.
• Move candidates through stages. The default stages are Applied, Screened, Interview and Offer, then Hired or Not selected with a reason; rename them or add your own per opening. See move candidates through the stages.
• Schedule interviews. Book one to six interviewers; with Bookings on, the interview goes on each interviewer's calendar and nobody can book them at that time. See schedule an interview.
• Write scorecards. Each interviewer rates the opening's questions from 1 to 5 and gives a recommendation; the candidate's page shows every card and the average. See write a scorecard.
• Send the offer. Draft the letter from a template, send it, and give the candidate the private link; they accept by typing their full name or decline. Today you copy the link and send it yourself, by e-mail or chat. See send an offer letter.
• Hire into HR. Hire creates the person in HR with their file and an onboarding checklist, and keeps the CV and the offer linked. See hire a candidate into HR.
• Erase on time. Candidates you did not hire are erased after the months you set: 12 by default, or 24 for those who asked to be kept for future openings.

Once your new person starts, the next job is training them. Our post on a training matrix that keeps certificates current shows how to make induction a routine, and running a team that speaks four languages covers the rest of the team.

Open your next role as an opening with four stages and a scorecard. You will notice the difference at the first interview debrief.