Most guides describe the recruitment process in 7 steps: define the need, write the job ad, source, screen, run interviews, decide, onboard. That's accurate, for a company hiring for itself.
A recruitment agency or an IT services company lives through 12. Before the assignment, it has to detect the need and sell. In the middle, it has to convince candidates who aren't looking and present a shortlist to a client who runs on their own calendar. Afterwards, it has to invoice.
These 5 extra steps are the ones guides ignore, and they're often where the most time and revenue get lost. Here is the complete map of the 12 steps, each with its goal, the most common mistake, the metric to track and the tool that handles it.
Key takeaways
- The classic recruitment process counts 7 steps, designed for a company hiring for itself.
- A recruitment agency or an IT services company lives through 12: detecting the need, the client brief, approaching passive candidates, presenting the shortlist to the client and invoicing all get added to the base.
- In an agency, the client decides, not the recruiter. The process therefore has 2 calendars to synchronize.
- A process rarely breaks inside a step. It breaks between 2 steps, when information has to move from one tool to another.
- The metric that summarizes an agency's entire process is simple: the time between the client brief and the invoice.
- The process doesn't end at the placement: a well-maintained talent pool shortens the next one.
Why guides stop at 7 steps
The process of a company hiring for itself
A company that is hiring starts from an open position inside its own walls. The need is internal, the decision-maker is internal, and the recruitment ends when the new hire is onboarded.
In that context, the 7 classic steps are enough. There's nothing to sell upstream, no third party to present candidates to, and nothing to invoice downstream.
The 5 extra steps a recruitment agency or IT services company lives through
An agency recruits on behalf of a client. That changes the beginning, the middle and the end of the process.
- At the start, the need doesn't arrive on its own: it has to be spotted, then sold and scoped with the client.
- In the middle, the agency mostly works with profiles that aren't applying: they have to be approached and convinced. Then a shortlist has to be presented to a client who decides at their own pace.
- At the end, the placement triggers an invoice, and the recruitment is only profitable once the payment has been collected.
| Dimension | Company hiring for itself | Recruitment agency or IT services company |
|---|---|---|
| Starting point | An open position inside the company | A client need to detect and sell |
| Who decides | The company itself | The agency's client |
| Target candidates | Mostly inbound applications | Mostly passive profiles to approach |
| Number of steps | 7 | 12 |
| End of process | The new hire's onboarding | The invoice collected |
| Success metric | Quality and speed of hire | Time from brief to invoice, placement rate |
The map of the 12 steps of the recruitment process
Steps marked with an asterisk are the ones a company doesn't go through when hiring for itself.
| Step | Goal | Common mistake | Metric | Marvin tool |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Detect the need * | Spot an opportunity before the competitor | Waiting for the client to call | Opportunities opened per month | Marvin Radar |
| 2. Take the client brief * | Scope the role, the context and the timeline | Verbal brief never formalized | Time from brief to shortlist | Marvin Desk |
| 3. Define the profile | Separate the must-haves from the nice-to-haves | A list of criteria impossible to meet | Gap between target profile and profiles presented | |
| 4. Write and publish the job ad | Reach the right candidates in the right place | Vague ad, posted everywhere with no tracking | Qualified applications per channel | Marvin Career |
| 5. Source | Find profiles, including ones already in the base | Searching outside for what's already in the talent pool | Share of profiles sourced from the talent pool | Marvin Scout |
| 6. Approach passive candidates * | Convince candidates who aren't looking | Generic message sent in bulk | Response rate to approaches | Marvin Desk |
| 7. Screen | Rule out quickly and reply to everyone | Applications left without a reply | Time to first reply | |
| 8. Run interviews | Assess and keep a usable record | Notes lost in a notebook | Summaries attached to candidate records | Marvin Note |
| 9. Present the shortlist * | Give the client what they need to decide fast | Sending raw CVs by email | Client turnaround time | Marvin Board |
| 10. Decide | Choose on comparable criteria | Gut-feel decision, no scorecard | Offer acceptance rate | |
| 11. Onboard and follow up | Secure the start in the role | Silence after the signature | Departures during the probation period | Marvin People (IT services company) |
| 12. Invoice and follow up * | Collect on what was produced | Invoice issued by hand at month-end | Time from placement to payment | Marvin Cash |
"A recruitment agency doesn't sell candidates, it sells a process. Every time information has to be re-typed from one tool into another between the brief and the invoice, that process weakens."
Christophe Hébert, CEO and founder of Marvin
Before the assignment: the steps nobody describes
Step 1: detect the need before the client does
In an agency, an assignment is often won before the client has even formulated it. A funding round, a new executive, a wave of job postings at a target account: these are all signals that a need is coming.
The classic mistake is waiting for the inbound call. The agency that calls at the right moment, with a precise reason, is a step ahead of everyone else.
That's the role of Marvin Radar: it monitors job postings, funding rounds and executive moves, cross-references them with your CRM and prioritizes the accounts to approach. Our Morning Brief agent delivers the signals relevant to your accounts every morning, a workflow we detail in our article on AI agents applied to recruitment.
Step 2: take the client brief
The brief is the assignment's moral contract. Anything left unsaid will resurface later, at the worst possible time: a forgotten criterion, an unrealistic salary, a decision-maker nobody had identified.
A good brief sets, at a minimum:
- the context of the role: newly created, replacement, growth
- the must-have criteria and the negotiable ones
- the client-side process: who decides, how many interviews, on what timeline
- the terms: compensation, location, remote work
The common mistake is a brief taken verbally and never formalized. In Marvin Desk, which brings the ATS and the CRM together in the same base, the brief is attached to the client opportunity and stays visible to the whole team throughout the assignment.
The core of the process: from profile to interview
Step 3: define the profile
Defining the profile means translating the brief into selection criteria. The discipline comes down to one question: of all these criteria, which ones are truly deal-breakers?
A profile that stacks 12 requirements at the same level describes a candidate who doesn't exist. Separate the must-haves from the nice-to-haves, and check what the job description needs to contain to stay both accurate and attractive.
Step 4: write and publish the job ad
The job ad is the first thing a candidate sees, and often the only thing if they don't apply. A precise job ad, with real context and clear terms, attracts fewer applications but more good ones.
Publishing follows the same logic: the right channels beat every channel. Multi-posting saves time as long as you track what each channel brings back. Marvin Career publishes your jobs on your careers site and on more than 90 job boards, and pulls applications back into your pipeline.
The job ad and the careers site also build your employer brand, well beyond the current assignment.
Step 5: source
Sourcing is the step where the most time gets wasted on what you already own. Many agencies launch an external search for every assignment while matching profiles are sitting dormant in their base.
Always start with your talent pool. Sourcing software that searches by meaning, not just exact keywords, surfaces profiles a boolean search would have missed. That's what Marvin Scout does, in your base as well as on LinkedIn.
Step 6: approach passive candidates
This is the step most specific to the agency business. The best profiles aren't applying: you have to go find them, and give them a reason to reply.
The common mistake is a generic message sent in bulk. It hurts both the response rate and the agency's image. An effective approach is short, personalized to the candidate's actual background, and followed by spaced-out reminders. LinkedIn recruiting remains the main channel, but not the only one.
Marvin Desk's sequences orchestrate these approaches across LinkedIn, email, WhatsApp and SMS, with quotas that protect your accounts, and gather replies into a single inbox.
Step 7: screen
Screening has 2 goals that seem to contradict each other: rule out quickly, and reply to everyone.
Knowing how to sort CVs without ruling out good profiles is a skill in its own right. Prequalification through a short phone call then avoids spending a full interview on a profile that doesn't fit.
The most neglected point remains replying to candidates who weren't selected. A candidate who hears nothing back is a candidate lost for future assignments.
Step 8: run interviews
The interview produces the most valuable information in the process: motivations, salary expectations, availability, reservations. And it's often the information that gets lost fastest, in a notebook or a document nobody will reopen.
Structure the HR interview around the criteria defined in step 3, and make sure its summary reaches the candidate's record. Marvin Note joins the video call, transcribes the conversation and automatically attaches the summary to the candidate's record.
After the choice: what sets an agency apart
Step 9: present the shortlist to the client
In an agency, the recruiter doesn't choose: they recommend. The quality of the presentation determines how fast the decision comes.
A useful shortlist presents few profiles, makes the case for each one, and makes comparison easy. The common mistake is sending raw CVs by email, followed by reminders to get feedback.
Marvin Board, the client portal included with Marvin Desk, lets you share a customizable shortlist, down to anonymization, collect the client's feedback and give them a real-time view of progress, with no account for them to create.
Step 10: decide
The decision is faster and fairer once candidates have been assessed against the same criteria. A scoring grid, built from the profile defined in step 3, turns an impression into an argued comparison.
In an agency, the decision belongs to the client. The recruiter's role is to inform it, then to carry the offer through to the candidate's acceptance.
Step 11: onboard and follow the probation period
A hire is only successful if the person stays. The first few weeks are when most early departures get decided.
A few planned touchpoints are often enough: a call at the end of the first week, a check-in after the first month, another one before the probation period ends. We've detailed how to track onboarding for a hire, and the rules to renew the probation period when it's needed.
For an IT services company, this step takes a different shape: the consultant moves from one assignment to the next, and the challenge becomes anticipating the end of the current one. Marvin People tracks assignments, availability and bench time, and alerts 30 days before a contract ends to prepare redeployment.
Step 12: invoice and follow up
A placement is only profitable once the invoice has been collected. Yet this is the step most often handled separately, at month-end, from re-typed information.
The common mistake is that re-typing: every manually rebuilt invoice adds delay and a risk of error. Marvin Cash generates the invoice the moment the placement is confirmed in Marvin Desk, using information that's already there, then manages the follow-ups.
The topic is set to evolve further: e-invoicing is becoming mandatory between businesses, which makes the quality of upstream data even more important.
The step that loops back: reactivating the talent pool
The process doesn't stop at the placement. Every assignment leaves behind qualified candidates, not selected but relevant, who form the raw material for the next assignments.
A well-maintained talent pool shortens every following step: less external sourcing, already-qualified profiles, a relationship already under way. Conversely, a base that's never queried is just a storage cost.
Our Talent Refresh agent identifies profiles in your base that become relevant again for an open assignment, with no one having to launch a search.
Where a recruitment process actually breaks
When a hire fails, people often look for the fault inside a step: bad sourcing, a botched interview. In practice, breakdowns happen between steps, at the moment information has to change tools or people.
| Transition | What gets lost | Consequence |
|---|---|---|
| Brief to profile | Nuances said out loud | Off-target candidates presented to the client |
| Sourcing to approach | The history of a candidate already contacted | The same profile followed up twice by 2 consultants |
| Interview to record | Salary expectations and reservations | Information that has to be asked again |
| Shortlist to client | Feedback and its reasons | A decision delayed by several days |
| Placement to invoice | Amounts and details | A late or incorrect invoice |
This is why the number of tools matters as much as their quality. Every extra tool adds a transition. Across our clients, replacing a stack of 5 to 7 tools with a unified suite frees up around 7 hours per week per consultant, precisely because these transitions disappear.
If you're comparing solutions, we've detailed the criteria for choosing an ATS for a recruitment agency.
Recruitment process: our conclusion
The recruitment process of a recruitment agency or an IT services company counts 12 steps, not 7. The 5 extra steps, detecting, scoping, approaching, presenting and invoicing, are what set the trade apart, and what classic guides leave out.
A process's performance doesn't depend only on the quality of each step. It depends above all on what happens between them. A process where information flows without re-typing, from the brief to the invoice, is a faster and more reliable process.
That's the logic behind our suite for recruitment agencies and IT services companies: a single base, from detecting the need to collecting payment. If you want to see your own process mapped onto these 12 steps, show it to us in 30 minutes.
FAQ
What are the steps of the recruitment process?
For a company hiring for itself, there are generally 7: defining the need and the profile, writing and posting the job ad, sourcing, screening, running interviews, deciding and onboarding. A recruitment agency or an IT services company adds 5 more: detecting the need, taking the client brief, approaching passive candidates, presenting the shortlist to the client, and invoicing.
Why does a recruitment agency have more steps than a company?
Because it recruits on behalf of a client. It first has to detect and sell the assignment, works mostly with candidates who are not applying, presents its recommendations to a client who decides, then invoices the placement. These steps don't exist when a company recruits for its own needs.
How long does a recruitment process take?
There's no standard duration: it depends on the role, the market and how available the decision-makers are. The most effective lever for shortening it is rarely found within a single step. It's found in the delays between steps, especially response times to candidates and client feedback on the shortlist.
What is the most important step in the recruitment process?
The brief, or the definition of the need for a company. Every following step depends on it: a poorly defined criterion at the start produces a poorly targeted search, unnecessary interviews and a difficult decision. In an agency, a formalized brief shared with the whole team avoids most of the back-and-forth with the client.
How can you optimize your recruitment process?
By starting with the transitions between steps rather than the steps themselves. Identify the moments when information is re-entered from one tool to another, when a reply is late, when a summary gets lost. Reducing the number of tools and centralizing information in a single base removes most of these breakdowns.
What software should you use to manage the entire recruitment process?
For a company, an ATS covers most of the candidate journey. For a recruitment agency or an IT services company, you also need to cover the client relationship, shortlist presentation and invoicing, which an ATS alone doesn't do. The question to ask is simple: how many extra tools will you need to open besides the one you choose?
Who makes the hiring decision when you go through an agency?
The client. The agency selects, evaluates and recommends candidates, but the final decision belongs to the company that is hiring. The agency's role is to give it what it needs to decide quickly and well, then to carry the offer through to the candidate's acceptance.
