Recruitment has never been just about posting a job announcement and waiting for applications. For many Vietnamese businesses, it is a complex journey: from identifying staffing needs, communicating the employer brand, to evaluating candidates and retaining talent after they join. In reality, each step in the recruitment process carries hidden risks if not designed scientifically—potentially leading to wasted time, costs, and even losing the best candidates to competitors.
This is why more and more businesses are starting to build a recruitment process flowchart (Recruitment Process Flowchart). More than just a visual diagram, this flowchart serves as a "compass" helping HR and managers coordinate seamlessly, make timely decisions, and select the right people.
What is a Recruitment Process?
A recruitment process is a systematic series of steps that a business undertakes to find, evaluate, and select suitable candidates to fill vacant positions within the organization.
The goals of a recruitment process are to:
- Attract talent: Seek candidates with skills, experience, and cultural fit with the company.
- Save time and costs: Help the HR department work efficiently, avoiding resource waste.
- Build employer brand: Create a professional impression with potential candidates.
The Importance of Standardized Recruitment Processes
In an increasingly competitive talent market, having a clear and standardized recruitment process not only helps businesses save costs but also enhances candidate experience, thereby attracting and retaining talent.
Many Vietnamese businesses currently conduct recruitment in a fragmented, unsystematic way, leading to common problems such as: extended recruitment timelines, candidate dropout, or hiring the wrong person. Building and implementing a recruitment process flowchart will help visualize all steps, making optimization and management easier.
Benefits of a Clear Process Flowchart
- Helps different departments coordinate smoothly at each recruitment stage.
- Ensures transparent information, avoiding loss of potential candidates.
- Reduces recruitment time, increases budget efficiency.
Impact on Recruitment Effectiveness
According to GrowUpWork, the average time to recruit a quality employee in Vietnam ranges from 30-45 days. With a standardized process and flowchart, this number can be reduced by 20-25%, especially when integrated with technology tools.
The 7 Basic Steps in a Recruitment Process
A standard recruitment process typically includes 7 main steps:
1. Identify Staffing Needs
The first step in any recruitment process is clearly identifying staffing needs. Businesses need to answer: why do we need to hire more people, what role does this position play in achieving KPIs and growth targets? In reality, many companies rush to post ads when someone leaves without carefully assessing needs, leading to "hiring just for hiring" or hiring the wrong person. A detailed job description, linked to business objectives and core competencies, will save considerable time in subsequent steps.
2. Post Job Announcements
With a clear job description in hand, the next step is to post announcements on appropriate channels. Job posts with images of the work environment or company culture videos typically generate 2-3 times more applications than dry text-only posts.
3. Screen Resumes
After receiving applications, HR conducts screening to select the most suitable candidates for the next round. This is the most time-consuming phase, especially for IT or service companies that may receive thousands of CVs. If done manually, HR can easily become overwhelmed and miss promising candidates. This is why many businesses are now adopting ATS or AI screening to automatically analyze and rank candidates, reducing screening time from days to just minutes.
4. Interview and Evaluation
Interviewing is an important stage to assess both technical competencies and cultural fit of candidates. The candidate's experience during the interview is also critical. Therefore, a slow or unprofessional process can cause top candidates to reject the offer.
5. Make Hiring Decisions
Once evaluation results are available, businesses need to make hiring decisions quickly. Promising candidates, especially in "talent-hungry" fields like technology, often receive multiple offers simultaneously. If a business takes too long to approve, the risk of losing candidates to competitors is very high. Therefore, an effective recruitment process needs clear SLAs (Service Level Agreements)—for example, committing to provide interview results within 48 hours.
6. Negotiate and Sign Contracts
At this stage, HR works with the candidate on salary, benefits, and contract terms. Nowadays, candidates—especially Gen Z and Millennials—care not only about salary but also value flexibility, work environment, and learning opportunities. An attractive offer needs to balance monetary compensation with non-financial benefits, such as hybrid work opportunities, training budgets, or comprehensive health insurance.
Salary negotiation, benefits structure, and probation period. Note compliance with the Vietnamese Labor Code.
7. Onboarding
Onboarding is the final step but has significant impact on employee retention. It is the process of helping new employees integrate into the company's culture and work processes. A good onboarding experience makes employees feel welcomed and have clear direction for the first 90 days. Many companies implement a buddy system—assigning a colleague to support the new employee—to ensure smooth onboarding.
In reality, even with a clear process flowchart, HR still spends considerable time on repetitive tasks like sending interview invitations, announcing results, or reporting progress to managers. Hire Central has developed 25 standardized recruitment email templates (including recruitment reporting email templates), helping you:
- Reduce repetitive manual work.
- Maintain consistent and professional candidate experience at every stage.
- Integrate directly into the system, sending automatically according to each flowchart step.
Download the complete 25-email template package to apply immediately, combined with the process flowchart, for smoother and more effective recruitment.
Learn more:
- The trend in Using AI in Human Resource Recruitment for Businesses
- The Human Resource Recruitment Process & Essential Supporting Tools
- AI-Powered ATS Optimization: Transforming Recruitment in Vietnam
Detailed Recruitment Process Flowchart Template
A standard recruitment flowchart (process diagram) typically describes the entire candidate journey from the time of posting to when new staff integrate into the company.
Detailed Recruitment Process Diagram
In the diagram, each step is connected by arrows, making it easy to see the process flow, who is responsible at each stage, and which points require approval before proceeding.
Customizing the Process According to Business Scale
Flexible adjustment helps the process not become an "administrative burden" while still ensuring hiring quality.
- Small businesses (<100 employees): Simple process with few intermediary steps. Can be reduced to just 4-5 steps, combining interview and evaluation into one round with onboarding.
- Medium businesses (100-500 employees): Need clarity in resume screening and technical interview phases, usually with additional testing.
- Large businesses (>500 employees): Complex process with multiple departments involved, requiring ATS implementation and dedicated recruitment KPIs.
Integrating Technology into the Recruitment Process
In the digital age, technology not only supports but transforms recruitment methods. Currently, many Vietnamese businesses are adopting recruitment management software (ATS) to shorten timelines and increase efficiency.
For example, the Hire Central platform, a local solution, allows businesses to:
- Automatically post jobs across multiple channels.
- Filter CVs and suggest suitable candidates in just seconds.
- Track candidate status at each flowchart step.
- Report recruitment KPIs in real-time to optimize costs.
Schedule a free demo of intelligent recruitment management software with AI.
However, note common mistakes and how to overcome them:
- Not clearly identifying needs → leads to hiring the wrong person.
- Over-relying on feelings when interviewing → standardize question sets.
- Lacking management tools → candidates get lost or responses are delayed.
And an effective recruitment process must ensure legal compliance:
- Comply with regulations on recruitment and labor contracts from the Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs.
- Protect candidate information according to data security laws.
- Ensure rights during probation and official contract signing.
Learn more:
- AI-Powered ATS Optimization: Transforming Recruitment in Vietnam
- 03 Methods to standardize an effective recruitment framework
- Recruitment Report: Instructions and Free Templates
- Recruitment Process in Technology Companies
Conclusion
A standardized recruitment process flowchart not only provides businesses with a clear, transparent view of each stage but also creates coordination among all HR-related departments. When combined with technology like ATS, this process not only shortens recruitment time and costs but also enhances the candidate experience.
Businesses that build a tight, flexible process adaptable to the changing labor market will have a sustainable competitive advantage in the new era. Register for a Demo and receive consultation on optimizing your recruitment process with Hire Central.
