Overview

There are two doors into your organization and they are independent. Plenty of organizations open both.

This article is for administrators deciding how applicants first reach them.

1. What are the two doors?

A general application form, and applying at the opportunity level.

• A general application form, published wherever people find you.
• A browsable list of opportunities, where someone picks the thing they want and applies or registers for it.

They are independent. Opening one does not close the other.

2. When should I use a general application form?

When you want to talk to people before pointing them at a role.

One form, published wherever people find you. Everyone who submits it arrives in one place for you to review, before they have picked anything specific.

3. When should I let people apply at the opportunity level?

When the roles are self-explanatory and you would rather people self-select.

You publish what you need, and someone picks the thing they want and applies or registers for it directly.

4. What is a recruitment workflow?

The set of rules deciding what someone has to do before they count as approved for a given opportunity.

Every opportunity can carry its own. That is what lets one opportunity ask for a background check while another asks for nothing.

A recruitment workflow can be:

• One form shared across every opportunity, so people fill it in once.
• A different form per opportunity, when the questions genuinely differ.
• No form at all. People request the opportunity and you approve, decline or reject the request.

5. Which should I start with?

One shared form.

Most organizations that end up with a form per opportunity wish they had started with one shared form. Split it later, once you know which opportunity genuinely needs different questions. Merging two forms after the fact is harder than splitting one.

Summary

• Two independent doors: a general application form, and applying at the opportunity level.
• Use a general form when you want to speak to people before pointing them at a role.
• Use opportunity-level intake when the roles speak for themselves.
• A recruitment workflow is the per-opportunity rule set for what counts as approved.
• It can be one shared form, a form per opportunity, or no form at all.
• Start with one shared form and split it later. Splitting is easier than merging.

Where to go next

• How should I organize recruitment on Vome?
• Recruitment Workflows on Vome
• How do I use Forms on Vome?
• How do Form statuses work?