Set the hiring workflow and mandatory checks

This guide is for the recruiting team member who sets up a vacancy. At the end, the vacancy runs on a saved hiring workflow, and you know when its mandatory checks are due and what happens when an applicant reaches that point.

Why this step exists

Every applicant for a vacancy moves through the same stages, in the same order. That keeps the review fair and the history readable. Your administrator decides which company workflow exists, and the recruiting team adjusts that hiring workflow for a Role or a vacancy. Mandatory checks compare a job-related condition, such as a required qualification, with the evidence an applicant gives. By default they must be resolved before an applicant moves past screening. A check that is not resolved pauses the move. It never rejects anyone by itself. For the big picture, read How Aivident Hire works.

Before you start

• You need to be able to operate the vacancy’s Applications board to edit its hiring workflow.
• Adjusting the workflow for a Role is offered to people with the admin or hiring manager access level. Other people can read it.
• Only an administrator can save the company mandatory-check policy.
• A process override needs workflow management permission, and the company policy must allow it.
• You do not need an assessment plan first. You can set the hiring workflow before or after you prepare the assessment plan.

See the vacancy’s workflow

Open the vacancy. Under Assessment plan, the Applicant workflow row lists the stages in order. Each stage is a button that opens its own setup, such as the CV Playbook for a CV stage. A Mandatory checks button sits at the point in the workflow where the checks are due.

Below the row you see the vacancy’s policy, for example “After CV Screening · Version 1 · Company policy”. If the workflow has no CV stage, you also see Checkpoint without CV and the stage chosen for it, or Not selected for applicable checks.

Change the vacancy’s stages

1. On the vacancy page, select Edit workflow. The Applications page opens with the Hiring workflow panel.

2. Read the top of the panel. It names the workflow and version this vacancy runs on, or says No workflow chosen yet. When no workflow is chosen, you can pick one from Choose an available workflow, or keep the proposal.

3. Edit the stages. Type in a stage’s name to rename it. Use the left and right arrows to move it earlier or later. Use the bin icon to remove it. Select the stage’s settings button to configure it.

4. Select Add a step and choose a stage type: Screening, Assessment, Interview, Review, Approval or Notification.

5. Check the outcomes below the stages. Hired, Rejected and Withdrawn are shown as outcomes, not stages you configure.

6. Select Save the workflow. The panel shows Workflow saved and the saved version number. Select Back to the board.

When no workflow has been chosen, the proposal is Lamaran, CV Screening, AI Interview, Interview Tim and Offer. You can remove AI Interview and Interview Tim if you do not use them. Each stage name must be filled in and unique, or the panel refuses to save.

Saving creates a saved version for this vacancy only. It does not change the company workflow or other vacancies. The panel also offers Company workflow and Role workflow links if you need to see where the workflow came from.

When applicants are already in the workflow

Applications already running keep the version they entered on. You cannot remove a stage that still holds applications. The panel shows This stage still holds applications and names them. Select Keep the stage, or move those applications first and try again.

Adjust the company workflow for a Role

The company hiring workflow lives in Settings. Under Hiring configuration, open Hiring workflows. The page is headed One company workflow, tuned per role.

• The company workflow is the starting point for every Role that has not been customized. Edit the company workflow opens the workflow designer. Your administrator owns it.
• A Role can follow the company workflow or keep its own version. The table shows each Role’s workflow source, its effective version and its open vacancies.

1. Find the Role and select Customize for this role. The page copies the company stages into a draft for that Role. The company workflow does not change.

2. Select Open on the Role’s row, change the stages, and select Save draft. A saved draft changes nothing yet. Vacancies keep the version they were given.

3. Back on Hiring workflows, select Activate draft. The Activate this draft? dialog says what new vacancies will get and that running vacancies keep their version. Select Activate.

If no company workflow is active, the page says No company workflow is active yet, and a Role cannot be customized until one is. Select Cancel draft to discard a draft. Select Return to company workflow to put a customized Role back on the company workflow. Existing vacancies and their applications keep the version they already have.

Set when mandatory checks are due

The company policy

The Mandatory checks section at the top of Hiring workflows holds the company policy. An administrator chooses one timing:

• Before CV Screening: resolve due checks before CV Screening begins.
• After CV Screening: CV Screening can run, and due checks are resolved before an applicant advances beyond screening.

The administrator can also tick Allow vacancy workflow timing variations and Allow reasoned process exceptions with the required permission, then select Save company policy. A new policy applies to new vacancy assignments. Existing vacancies keep the policy they were given.

The vacancy’s policy

1. On the vacancy page, select Review policy under the workflow row. The Review policy impact dialog opens.

2. If a newer company policy exists, tick Use latest company policy. Change the timing only if your administrator allows timing variations.

3. If the workflow has no CV stage, choose the stage after which checks must be resolved. A missing CV alone does not block an interview invitation, so this stage is where the checks are due instead.

4. Decide whether to tick Also apply to active applications. Closed applications keep their previous version either way.

5. Tick I have reviewed this assignment impact. and select Save assignment.

The checks themselves

Select Mandatory checks in the workflow row to open the vacancy’s Mandatory Checklist. Add each condition under Mandatory Criteria with Add Criterion, or start from Use Template. Tick Required (candidate must meet this criterion) for a condition that must be met. Optional conditions add information but do not block anyone. Select Save Checklist.

A confirmed fixed-check rule from the assessment plan is saved into this same checklist.

Pre-screening Stats show how many applications are pending, have checks met or not met, or were overridden. Process Pending checks all pending applications for this vacancy against the saved checklist. It asks you to confirm first, and it runs only when you select it.

When a check pauses a move

When you move an applicant on the Applications board and a Required check is due and unresolved, the move stops. The Mandatory checks are due dialog explains that movement is paused and lists each check with its result.

Result	What it means
Met	The available evidence supports the condition.
Not met	Adequate evidence contradicts the condition.
Not evidenced	The information is missing from the documents that were read.
Needs review	The evidence conflicts, is uncertain or cannot be compared by a rule.
Processing failed	The document could not be read. This is not a result about the applicant.

1. If you have permission to review evidence, select Review evidence next to a check. Choose the result, describe the evidence you checked or what is still missing, and write a Review reason. Select Save evidence review.

2. Select Retry movement to try the move again with the updated result.

3. To change the rule instead, select Review checks. It opens the vacancy’s checklist.

If your company policy allows process exceptions and you have workflow management permission, the dialog also shows Override reason. Write the reason and select Continue with override. The original results stay as they were. The override is recorded as a human action with your reason. It does not mark a check as met.

You can also review evidence at any time from the applicant’s page, in the Mandatory-check evidence section.

What this step does not do

• Saving a workflow sends no invitation and starts no scoring.
• Entering a stage does not send an interview invitation.
• A check that is not met or not evidenced does not reject anyone. A person decides the next action.
• Saving an evidence review does not move, reject, screen or invite the applicant.
• A company policy or template change does not replace a vacancy’s saved settings by itself.

If something goes wrong

What you see	What to do
Could not confirm the save	Your choices are kept. Select Try saving again.
This stage still holds applications	Select Keep the stage, or move the named applications first.
Policy could not be loaded.	Select Try again in the workflow row.
The assignment was not saved or changed. Close and reload the policy to review again.	Close the dialog, reload the vacancy, and review the policy again.
Select a no-CV checkpoint in the vacancy policy settings.	Select Review policy on the vacancy and choose the stage for the checkpoint.
Evidence or rules changed. Reload and review again.	Select Reload and review the check again.
Only an administrator can change this policy.	Ask your administrator to change the company policy.

Next steps

• Prepare the assessment plan
• Publish the vacancy
• Manage the Candidate pipeline