Are You Missing Critical Steps in Your Hiring Process?

A tool used by the person responsible for filling a vacancy to ensure all steps of the hiring process are completed. It covers requisition, posting, interviewing, selecting, and onboarding.
Jimmy Law
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A hiring manager checklist is a structured tool that outlines every step required to fill an open position, from identifying the need through extending the job offer. For managers juggling operational responsibilities alongside recruiting, a checklist prevents critical steps from falling through the cracks and ensures consistent, legally compliant hiring.

According to SHRM talent acquisition data, organizations using standardized hiring checklists reduce time-to-fill by 18% and report 27% fewer compliance errors compared to those with informal processes.

Sample Hiring Manager Checklist

PHASE 1: POSITION APPROVAL & PREPARATION

Job Requisition (Week 0)

Job Description Review (Week 0-1)

Compensation & Budget (Week 0-1)

Interview Team Assembly (Week 1)

PHASE 2: RECRUITMENT

Internal Posting (Week 1-2)

External Posting (Week 1-3)

Candidate Sourcing (Ongoing)

PHASE 3: SCREENING & SELECTION

Application Review (Week 2-3)

Phone Screening (Week 2-3)

Interview Preparation (Week 3)

Interviews (Week 3-4)

Skills Assessment (Week 3-4, if applicable)

PHASE 4: REFERENCE CHECKS & SELECTION

Reference Checks (Week 4)

Final Selection (Week 4)

Background & Screening (Week 4-5)

PHASE 5: OFFER

Offer Preparation (Week 5)

Offer Extension (Week 5)

Offer Response (Week 5)

If Offer Declined:

PHASE 6: PRE-START COORDINATION

Pre-Start Preparation (Week 5-6)

Training Setup (Week 5-6)

Final Confirmation (Week 6)

Customizing Your Checklist

High-Volume Hourly Hiring: Streamline for speed:

Management/Specialized Positions: Add depth:

Multi-Location Hiring: Add coordination steps:

Using Your Checklist Effectively

Keep your master template in a shared location where all hiring managers can access it. Customize copies for each open position. Check off items as you complete them to track progress. Note actual completion dates to measure your hiring timeline. Flag items that took longer than expected to identify bottlenecks.

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics hiring data, the median time-to-fill was 24 days as of late 2024. Track your timeline against this benchmark:

Total: 38-59 days from requisition to start date

If you're consistently exceeding these timelines, identify which phase is causing delays and streamline it.

Common Checklist Pitfalls

Starting without approval. You invest time screening and interviewing only to discover the requisition isn't approved or the budget doesn't exist. Always confirm approval before posting.

Skipping phone screens. You schedule in-person interviews with 10 candidates and discover 6 have disqualifying schedule conflicts or salary expectations. A 10-minute phone call would have filtered them out.

Forgetting reference checks. You make an offer, then discover during references that the candidate was terminated for theft. Always check references before extending offers.

Poor communication with candidates. Candidates accept other offers because you took three weeks to schedule their second interview. Keep momentum through regular communication and quick decisions.

Losing track of where you are. Without a checklist, you might forget to do background checks, schedule training, or notify the team. Structure prevents these gaps.

Tools that centralize communication help coordinate the many people involved in hiring. When you can quickly message interview team members, share candidate information, and track where each applicant stands, it keeps hiring moving efficiently. This coordination becomes especially important when hiring for multiple locations with different managers involved at each stage.

Remember that hiring is one of your most important responsibilities. A bad hire costs 30-150% of their annual salary in wasted training, lost productivity, and replacement costs. Taking time to follow a thorough process saves money and builds better teams.

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