Hiring process design and ATS setup
Interview frameworks, scorecards, ATS configuration, and automation — a hiring engine your team can run without us.
Hiring process design is the audit and rebuild of how your company hires: which interview stages exist and why, what interviewers are actually assessing, how your ATS is configured, and what gets automated. The output is a documented, consistent process your team runs on its own — not a dependency on whoever happened to set it up.
What does a broken hiring process look like?
It rarely announces itself. The symptoms are familiar: every interviewer asks whatever they feel like and the debrief becomes a vote on vibes; candidates wait ten days between stages and take another offer; the ATS has four pipelines nobody trusts; two hiring managers reject the same profile for opposite reasons; and the founder is still the final filter on every hire at sixty people.
None of that is a sourcing problem, and adding more candidates makes it worse. A leaky funnel loses better candidates faster when you pour more in.
What the engagement covers
- Process audit. Where candidates drop out, where time is lost, and where decisions are made on inconsistent evidence.
- Interview architecture. The right number of stages for your stage of company, with a clear purpose for each and no duplicated assessment.
- Scorecards. Defined competencies per role so interviewers assess the same things and debriefs compare like with like.
- ATS setup or migration. Pipelines, stages, templates, permissions, and reporting configured properly — most often in Ashby.
- Automation. Scheduling, reminders, rejections, and reporting handled by the system rather than by someone remembering.
- Documentation and coaching. Written guides and calibration so the process survives staff turnover.
Who is this for — and who is it not for?
A good fit
- Teams that already have recruiters but hire inconsistently
- Companies scaling past the point where the founder can interview everyone
- Teams implementing or migrating an ATS
- Post-raise companies about to hire fast, wanting the rails in place first
Not a good fit
- Teams whose real problem is an empty pipeline — start with sourcing
- Companies wanting a process document with no intention of changing behaviour
- Very early teams making their first two or three hires
What does hiring process design cost?
It is scoped as a project rather than a monthly retainer, priced on the number of roles and interview loops in scope and whether an ATS migration is involved. You get a firm number in the written scope after the discovery call.
Frequently asked questions
What is hiring process design?
Hiring process design is auditing and rebuilding how a company hires: the interview stages, the scorecards interviewers use, the applicant tracking system configuration, and the automation around it. The goal is a process your team can run consistently without the founder in every loop.
How long does a process redesign take?
A focused audit and rebuild is usually a matter of weeks rather than months, depending on how many roles and interview loops are in scope and how much ATS migration is involved. It is often run alongside live hiring rather than as a separate project.
Which ATS do you work with?
We most often build in Ashby, and we work in whatever you already use. If you are choosing an ATS for the first time, or migrating off one that no longer fits, that decision and the migration are part of the engagement.
Can you fix our process without doing our hiring?
Yes — that is exactly what this service is. It is a standalone engagement for teams who already have recruiters but whose process is inconsistent. If you need the roles filled too, that is embedded recruitment.
Do you train our interviewers?
Hiring-manager coaching is built into the work: interviewers get guides, calibration, and feedback on how they are assessing. It is part of how we deliver the process, not a separate training product.
Related
Last updated 27 July 2026
Hiring more people will not fix a broken process.
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