Design a talent acquisition process for the role and organization below. The process must be fair, consistent, practical for the hiring volume, and aligned to the policies I provide. Role and hiring need: [ROLE AND HIRING CONTEXT] Company, team, and operating constraints: [COMPANY CONTEXT] Existing policy, legal guidance, and approved practices: [POLICY AND COMPLIANCE RULES] Required capabilities and success outcomes: [JOB CRITERIA]
Current process, tools, timing, and known problems: [CURRENT PROCESS]
Produce a hiring-process playbook with: 1) intake and approved must-have versus preferred criteria; 2) sourcing channels and inclusive outreach boundaries; 3) application screen with consistent knockout criteria; 4) interview stages, owners, duration, and candidate communications; 5) structured scorecard questions tied to each job criterion; 6) debrief and decision rules; 7) references, offer, and close steps; 8) metrics and weekly operating cadence.
For every interview stage, state what evidence it is meant to collect, who assesses it, and what must not be assessed. Keep interview questions job-related. Recommend work samples only when they resemble essential job work, are proportionate, and use a shared rubric. Separate requirements mandated by my policy from optional recommendations. Include reasonable accommodations and escalation points for conflicts of interest, inconsistent feedback, candidate-data handling, and adverse-impact concerns.
Do not provide jurisdiction-specific legal conclusions, invent policy, use protected characteristics in selection, or recommend automated rejection without human oversight and policy approval. Consult qualified HR or employment counsel for legal and local compliance decisions.
Before answering, check that each selection criterion appears in an intake requirement, an assessment method, and a scorecard. Then flag policy, jurisdiction, headcount, compensation, or data-retention inputs that are missing. Ask up to 3 clarifying questions only if required inputs are absent.Fill in
| Placeholder | What to enter | Example |
|---|---|---|
| [ROLE AND HIRING CONTEXT] | Enter the role title, level, location, hiring reason, headcount, and target start timing. | Hire one senior data analyst in Boston or remote Massachusetts, replacing a departing employee; target start within 75 days. |
| [COMPANY CONTEXT] | Enter company size, team structure, hiring capacity, hiring volume, and constraints. | 320-person SaaS company; recruiter supports 12 open roles; hiring manager and two analysts can each interview 3 hours weekly. |
| [POLICY AND COMPLIANCE RULES] | Enter approved hiring policies, jurisdictions, privacy rules, accommodation process, and counsel guidance. | Use approved ATS, retain applicant records per counsel guidance, offer accommodations through People Ops, and do not request salary history. |
| [JOB CRITERIA] | Enter essential outcomes, must-have capabilities, preferred qualifications, and disqualifying requirements. | Must: SQL, experiment analysis, stakeholder communication. Preferred: Looker. Success: improve renewal-risk reporting and influence quarterly planning. |
| [CURRENT PROCESS] | Enter current stages, tools, owners, timelines, candidate feedback, and bottlenecks. | Recruiter screen, manager interview, unstructured panel, references; candidates report slow updates and panel feedback is inconsistent. |
How to use
- Paste only policies and legal guidance that your organization has approved for this hiring context.
- Review the proposed scorecard with the hiring manager before candidates enter the funnel.
- Assign one owner and one service-level target to every candidate communication step.
- Follow up with: “Turn the interview plan into a scorecard with 1-to-4 anchors for SQL, experimentation, and stakeholder communication.”
Variations
Interview scorecard
Use when the process exists but interviewers need consistent evidence standards.
Create a structured interview scorecard for [ROLE], based on [JOB CRITERIA], [INTERVIEW STAGES], [POLICY LIMITS], and [EXISTING QUESTIONS]. Produce 4 to 6 job-related questions, follow-ups, evidence indicators, and 1-to-4 rating anchors for each assigned criterion. Identify questions that assess the same criterion twice or risk eliciting protected information. Do not infer qualifications from background signals. Flag criteria with no reliable assessment method.
Hiring intake
Use before opening a requisition with a manager.
Prepare a hiring-manager intake agenda using [ROLE], [BUSINESS PROBLEM], [TEAM CONTEXT], [BUDGET AND TIMELINE], and [POLICIES]. Produce decision questions, a must-have/preferred criteria table, success outcomes for 30/90/180 days, interview ownership, and approval dependencies. Keep requirements tied to job work, not pedigree. Do not create compensation ranges or legal requirements. Flag contradictions between timeline, capacity, and process.
Candidate updates
Use to create consistent candidate communication at each stage.
Write candidate communications for [ROLE], [STAGE], [TIMELINE], [CANDIDATE STATUS], and [TONE OR POLICY]. Produce one email for next steps, one delay update, and one respectful rejection that does not state unsupported reasons. Include accommodation contact language only if supplied. Do not promise an outcome, disclose internal deliberations, or give individualized legal advice. Check dates and action owners against my input.
Tips
- Freeze must-have criteria before sourcing begins; changing them after finalists appear makes consistency hard to defend.
- Use the same evidence rubric for all candidates at a stage, then collect independent feedback before the debrief discussion.
- A work sample should mirror essential work and have a time limit, rubric, and accommodation path; unpaid projects that create usable company work need extra scrutiny.
- Track stage conversion and time in stage by job and source, then investigate patterns with HR or counsel rather than drawing conclusions from small samples.
FAQ
Can AI decide which applicants to reject?
Do not delegate final selection decisions to a general AI prompt. Use approved systems, human oversight, and your organization’s policies for any screening workflow.
How many interviews should a process have?
Use the fewest stages that collect the needed evidence. Extra interviews often add delay and duplicate assessment rather than decision quality.
Can I use culture fit as a scorecard category?
Use observable, job-related behaviors or operating principles instead. “Culture fit” is too vague to score consistently.