Employer hiring workflow

A Role is the campaign.
A round controls the flow.

This guide explains what every important hiring action does—from creating a draft to opening candidate capacity, reviewing consented profiles, starting another round, and closing the final record.

Follow the lifecycle See the screens Create employer account

The whole system in one view

1

Open Role

The completed hiring campaign becomes eligible for matching.
2

Open candidate round

The employer commits a maximum number of real review places.
3

Send RoleInvites

Each invitation holds one place for 48 hours.
4

Candidate decides

Acceptance and consent reveal a profile; decline or expiry releases the place.
5

Review and record progress

The initial employer review is due within 3 working days.
6

Open another round or close

Resolve current obligations, then request more capacity or finish the Role.

Start with the language

Five terms make the workflow easy to understand.

Hiring Role: One hiring campaign for one defined role. It owns its setup, matching, candidates, rounds, decisions, and history.
Candidate round: A controlled invitation cycle with a review capacity selected by the employer.
Review place: One unit of round capacity. It is held by a live invitation and becomes submitted when the candidate accepts.
RoleInvite: A private, time-limited opportunity sent to a matched candidate. The response window is 48 hours.
Submission: A candidate who confirmed interest and gave job-specific permission to share their profile with this employer.

Capacity is a ceiling, not a candidate quota.

If you open 10 review places and only three candidates currently pass the real matching and delivery checks, RoleInvite sends three invitations. The remaining places stay available; the system does not lower must-have requirements simply to fill the round.

The full lifecycle

What happens after each employer action.

The CTA names below are the same ones used inside the employer workspace.

01

Create and complete the draft
CTA · Create a role

A private draft is created. Add the role summary, responsibilities, employment type, salary, location, work model, joining timing, hiring contact, interview process, and at least one confirmed structured skill.

Result: Candidates cannot see the draft and no RoleInvites are sent.
02

Open the Role
CTA · Open Role when ready

RoleInvite validates the complete setup, employer access, active-Role allowance, structured skills, and any duplicate warning. A successful Role changes from Draft to Open and matching begins.

Result: Opening the Role does not itself guarantee an invitation. An open candidate round is still required before a review place can be reserved.
03

Open review capacity
CTA · Open candidate round

Choose how many people the team can genuinely review from the available capacity choices (5, 10, 15, 20, 25, subject to the employer plan). RoleInvite fills the round from ranked candidates who still pass a fresh eligibility check.

Result: Each delivered RoleInvite immediately holds one place. Submitted candidates and unanswered invitations both count toward the round.
04

Let the candidate decide privately
CTA · Review RoleInvite

The candidate sees the company, role terms, match reasons, unknowns, and privacy notice. A first reminder is scheduled after 24 hours, a final reminder after 36 hours, and the invitation closes after 48 hours.

Result: The employer cannot see the invited candidate’s identity or profile before acceptance and job-specific sharing consent.
05

Review the consented submission
CTA · Review candidate

Acceptance converts the held place into a submitted place, notifies the employer, and starts a 3-working-day initial review deadline. Opening the candidate automatically records Viewed by Employer; the employer then records the next real status.

Result: Status choices move through review, additional information, shortlist, interview, offer, and a final outcome. The candidate is notified when the employer changes status.
06

Continue or finish the campaign
CTA · Open next round / Close Role

When the current obligations are resolved, the next round can unlock. If hiring is complete, Close Role records Filled, Partially Filled, Not Filled, or Cancelled with a reason.

Result: Closing is permanent: unanswered RoleInvites are cancelled, capacity holds are released, and the Role becomes a read-only Hiring history record.

Worked example

Hiring one Senior QA Engineer, step by step.

This example shows why selected capacity and delivered invitations can be different numbers.

1
Northstar creates the Role

The team completes a Senior QA Automation Engineer draft and selects Open Role when ready. The Role passes validation and matching begins.
2
Round 1 opens with capacity 10

The team is willing to review up to 10 interested candidates. Only three candidates currently pass the matching, preference, invitation-limit, and fresh delivery checks, so the dashboard shows 3 / 10—not 10 / 10.
3
Three private RoleInvites go out

The employer sees three places awaiting a response, but no candidate identities. Each candidate has 48 hours to decide.
4
The responses change capacity

Maya accepts: her place becomes Submitted and the employer can review her. Ravi declines: his place is released and the next eligible candidate can be considered. Sam does not respond: his place is released at expiry.
5
The employer records real progress

Northstar opens Maya’s consented profile, moves her from Viewed by Employer to Under Review, then Shortlisted. The initial review decision is recorded within 3 working days.
6
Round 2 becomes available

There are no unanswered RoleInvites, no incomplete initial reviews, no overdue decisions, and only one active candidate remains. If the plan includes another round, Northstar confirms the Role is still open and chooses new capacity.
7
The campaign receives an outcome

After interview and offer, Maya is marked Hired. Northstar closes the Role with the Filled outcome and a reason. The complete Role, rounds, and candidate decisions remain in Hiring history.

Reading Hiring Roles

What the dashboard numbers mean.

Every card reports one Role only. Candidate work from different Roles is never mixed.

Current: Open and paused Roles that still need attention. Paused Roles continue to consume active-Role capacity.
Drafts: Private, unfinished Roles. They are not active and cannot send RoleInvites.
Needs review: Submitted, Viewed by Employer, and Under Review candidates. Overdue items are highlighted.
In process: Candidates currently Shortlisted, at Interview Stage, or with an Offer Made.
Current round: The latest candidate round number. “2 total” means two rounds have been created for that Role.
3 / 10 capacity: Three review places are currently held or submitted out of a selected maximum of 10. It does not mean seven candidates failed.
Submitted: Candidates who accepted and shared their profile. Their places remain part of that round’s committed capacity.
Awaiting a response: Live anonymous RoleInvites still inside the 48-hour candidate decision window.

How one review place behaves

A place is either available, held, submitted, or released.

Available

No invitation or submission is using this place yet.

Held

A RoleInvite was delivered. The place is reserved while the candidate decides.

Submitted

The candidate accepted and shared. The place remains counted for this round even after the later hiring outcome.

Released

The candidate declined, the invitation expired, or it was cancelled before submission. RoleInvite can consider the next eligible match.

Opening the next round

Round 2 unlocks only when current work is controlled.

The workspace checks these rules again when the employer tries to open another round.

The Role is Open and has not expired.
The employer plan still has another candidate round available.
No RoleInvite holds from the current round are awaiting a response.
No Submitted, Viewed, Under Review, or Additional Information Requested reviews remain incomplete.
No employer review decision is overdue.
No more than two candidates remain Shortlisted, in Interview, or at Offer stage.
The employer is not restricted by unresolved review-SLA obligations.
The employer explicitly confirms that the Role remains open before submitting the new capacity.

CTA reference

What each important button actually does.

Employer workspace actions and their behavior
CTA	When you see it	What happens
Create a role	From Hiring Roles or the workspace header	Starts a new private draft.
Complete role setup	On a draft	Opens the authoring workspace so missing role details can be completed.
Open Role when ready	After role readiness checks	Validates the Role, changes it to Open, and requests matching. It does not bypass round capacity.
Open candidate round	On an Open Role without a round	Asks for the maximum number of interested candidates the team can review and enables invitation delivery.
Open candidate pipeline	On a Role with candidate submissions	Shows only candidates who accepted and shared their profile for that Role.
Review candidate	Beside a consented submission	Opens the submitted profile and automatically records Viewed by Employer when appropriate.
Manage rounds and capacity	Inside the Role workspace	Shows held, submitted, and available places plus eligibility for another round.
Open next round	When every next-round rule passes	Closes the previous open round and creates the next capacity commitment.
Pause Role	On an Open Role	Stops new matching and RoleInvites. Existing invitation and candidate work remains attached and manageable.
Resume and validate	On a Paused Role	Runs readiness validation again, reopens the same Role, and requests fresh matching.
Close Role	On an Open or Paused Role	Records a final campaign outcome and reason, cancels unanswered RoleInvites, and moves the Role to read-only history.
Copy to new draft	Inside a Role workspace	Creates a separate draft based on the Role; it does not reopen or alter the original campaign.

The simple rule

Open the Role to match.
Open a round to invite.

Review only candidates who deliberately shared their profile, keep every status current, and close the Role with a recorded outcome.

Create employer account

A Role is the campaign. A round controls the flow.

Five terms make the workflow easy to understand.

Capacity is a ceiling, not a candidate quota.

What happens after each employer action.

Create and complete the draft

Open the Role

Open review capacity

Let the candidate decide privately

Review the consented submission

Continue or finish the campaign

Hiring one Senior QA Engineer, step by step.

Northstar creates the Role

Round 1 opens with capacity 10

Three private RoleInvites go out

The responses change capacity

The employer records real progress

Round 2 becomes available

The campaign receives an outcome