Pipeline Stage
How pipeline stages work
Every ATS organises candidates into a linear sequence of stages. Moving a candidate from one stage to the next is an intentional action by a recruiter or hiring manager. Each stage transition is logged with a timestamp.
A typical pipeline for a technology role:
| Stage | Who owns it | SLA target |
|---|---|---|
| Applied | ATS (automatic) | Review within 2 days |
| Recruiter Screen | Recruiter | Schedule within 3 days of advance |
| First Interview | Hiring manager | Schedule within 5 days of advance |
| Technical Assessment | Hiring team | Complete within 7 days |
| Final Interview | Senior leadership | Schedule within 5 days of advance |
| Offer | Recruiter + HR | Extend within 3 days of decision |
| Hired / Rejected | Final state | — |
Stage design decisions
How many stages? More stages = more tracking granularity, but more friction. A 10-stage pipeline requires more stage moves and notifications than a 6-stage pipeline. For most SMBs, 5–7 stages is optimal. Enterprise companies with more complex approval processes may run 8–10.
One pipeline or multiple? Most companies run a single pipeline structure per role type (technical vs non-technical). Greenhouse allows role-level pipeline customisation. For high-volume roles (retail, customer service), a faster pipeline (3–4 stages) may be appropriate.
Disqualification tracking. Every stage should have a corresponding “rejected at X stage” state. This creates the applicant flow log required for OFCCP compliance and tells you where in the pipeline you’re losing candidates.
Time-in-stage: the most useful metric
Knowing how long candidates spend in each stage reveals bottlenecks:
- Long time in “Applied” = recruiter bandwidth problem
- Long time in “Recruiter Screen → First Interview” = scheduling friction
- Long time in “First Interview → Second Interview” = interviewer feedback lag
- Long time in “Final → Offer” = comp approval delay
This is the data that Ashby’s analytics surface natively and that Greenhouse provides via the stage report. Workable shows average time-in-stage in its analytics. Breezy HR and JazzHR have more basic pipeline reporting.
Stage gates and required actions
Good ATS implementations require specific actions before a candidate can advance to the next stage:
- Candidate cannot advance to “Interview” until recruiter screen scorecard is submitted
- Candidate cannot advance to “Offer” until all interview scorecards are submitted
- Offer cannot be extended until compensation band approval is recorded
These gates prevent candidates from slipping through the process without the required documentation. Greenhouse’s stage gates are more configurable than Workable’s.
OFCCP implications
Under OFCCP regulations (US federal contractors), you must document the reason for each disposition (why a candidate was rejected at each stage) and retain these records for 2 years. Your pipeline stage structure determines what disposition reasons you can assign.
Best practice: define 5–8 disposition reasons (not just “not selected”) and map them to your pipeline stages. “Not qualified — technical skills” at the technical assessment stage tells you more than “rejected” — and gives you defensible documentation if audited.