What Are Evergreen Requisitions?

When companies need to fill a position, they begin the process by notifying their recruitment team or agency. The process typically begins with the creation of a job requisition, which is the permission or notification to begin the recruiting process. A standard requisition has information related to why the posting is necessary (i.e. backfill or net new role), start date, salary range, skill requirements, job location, hiring manager, and job description. The requisition is closed once a hire is made.

One of the ways to make talent acquisition more efficient is by utilizing evergreen requisitions, which are continually open. They don’t have an end date and are utilized to create a pool of candidates for current or future opportunities in the same job title.

Why Are Evergreen Requisitions Important?

Evergreen requisitions are beneficial for high-turnover, high-volume, hard-to-fill, or critical positions. Examples of jobs where evergreen requisitions may be beneficial include:

  • Call center representatives
  • Healthcare workers
  • Maintenance/housekeeping personnel
  • Cashiers

It can be an effective tool to reduce time-to-fill rates; however, to have the right impact, a strategy must be created and followed.

Strategic Considerations for Evergreen Requisitions

Evergreen requisitions are an effective tool but are not always the best solution. When determining if an evergreen requisition is the right talent acquisition approach, you will need to consider the following strategic items.

  • Do all the positions require 100% the same skillset? Even if the job title is the same, there are times a different skill may be required. If this is the case, evergreen will not be the right requisition to be used.
  • Are the positions in the same location? If the answer is no, then evergreen may not be correct for this type of posting. Some locations have differing laws, regulations, and salary expectations to consider.
  • Is your organization required to post individual positions (i.e., government contractors)? If so, evergreen requisitions are not right for you.

It is important to understand the needs of your business to determine whether evergreen positions will benefit your talent acquisition needs. Start with a strategic workforce-planning vision of the organization for the next 12 months. Based on that, determine the estimated increase in positions, type of roles, and skills required. This information will help you decide on the types of requisitions that should be posted, the impact of the type of posting, and the process to ensure effective hiring.

What Should Be Included in an Evergreen Requisition

Similar to a standard requisition, evergreen requisitions should include the following items at minimum:

  • Job title
  • Hiring manager
  • Department
  • Position classification (full time, part-time, contractor)
  • Job description, including:
    • Essential responsibilities
    • Minimum Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs)
    • Preferred skill set
  • Number of available positions (this is critical component for  evergreen requisitions and may be different from traditional requisitions)
  • Location
  • Salary expectation

Having this information in advance allows recruiters to thoroughly understand what skills a successful candidate should have and allows candidates to determine if they have the necessary skills.

Potential Challenges of Evergreen Requisitions

Even with the positive aspects of evergreen requisitions, there are challenges that can be created that you should be aware of.

Challenge 1: Analytical Reporting

Since evergreen requisitions remain continually open, they can skew your data (such as time-to-fill) and misrepresent what is actually happening. You may want to consider having a process to open a new requisition for the position when it is needed, moving candidates into the newly created requisition from the evergreen requisition so your time-to-fill data is based on the actual position opening, not the evergreen opening. Then you will be able to accurately report data for any compliance reporting necessary, such as the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and Affirmative Action Plans (AAP), as well as your own efficiency tracking.

Challenge 2: Recruiting Search Engines

The longer a position remains open, the fewer views on job boards and aggregate sites it will get. A tip to resolve this is to access your applicant system and refresh the posting or duplicate the posting with a new requisition ID number.  A best practice is to refresh at least once a quarter.

Challenge 3: Communicate with Candidates

If you are creating a pool for future opportunities, make sure candidates are aware of this,  or they may believe you simply did not follow up with them on their application. That can have a negative impact on their interest in working for you and the organization’s brand.

So once the pool is created, remain engaged with the candidates.

To ensure the pool of candidates remains viable, it is important to have periodic interactions with them. Having a partnership between marketing and talent acquisition staff is key to designing a targeted marketing talent acquisition strategy. Consider these activities:

  • Invite candidates to opt into company blogs, newsletters, and social media sites.
  • Share career and employee engagement tips with them via email campaign.
  • Send a survey asking what information they are interested in finding out about the company.
  • Encourage them to provide interview feedback to enhance the process for others