If you’re in HR and tired of juggling spreadsheets, emails, and sticky notes to track candidates, you’re not alone. The hiring process is chaotic enough without having your pipeline scattered everywhere. This guide is for HR folks who want a real, working recruitment pipeline in Monday, without getting lost in the endless features or cutesy templates. You’ll get the steps that actually matter, the pitfalls to avoid, and a few shortcuts to save your sanity.
Why Use Monday for Your Recruitment Pipeline?
Let’s keep it real: Monday is not a full-blown applicant tracking system (ATS). But it is a flexible work management tool that can handle recruitment pipelines pretty well—if you set it up with intention. You get visibility, automation, and collaboration in one place. Just don’t expect magic: you’ll still need to do the work of tracking, following up, and making decisions.
Step 1: Map Out Your Hiring Process First (Seriously, Do This)
Don’t even open Monday yet. Grab a notepad or whiteboard and sketch out your actual recruitment process. Why? Because if you skip this, your Monday board will turn into a mess.
What to map: - Where do candidates come from? (Job boards, referrals, LinkedIn, etc.) - What are your pipeline stages? (Sourced, Applied, Phone Screen, Interviewed, Offer, Hired, Rejected) - Who does what? (Who screens? Who interviews? Who sends offers?) - What info do you need on every candidate? (Resume, contact, status, notes)
Pro tip: If you’ve got a small team, don’t overcomplicate it. Stick to the stages you actually use.
Step 2: Build Your Main Recruitment Board
Now, open Monday and create a new board from scratch. Ignore the “Recruitment Pipeline” templates for now—they’re fine, but they’re usually bloated and you’ll end up deleting half the columns anyway.
Set up your board with these columns: - Candidate Name: Text column. - Stage: Status column (set up with your pipeline stages). - Position: Dropdown or text (if you hire for multiple roles). - Source: Dropdown (LinkedIn, Referral, etc.). - Email/Phone: Text columns. - Resume Link: Link column, or file if you want to upload. - Owner: Person column (who’s responsible for this candidate). - Notes: Long text. - Applied Date: Date column.
What you can skip:
- Don’t bother with “time in stage” or “rating” columns unless you’ll actually use them.
- Avoid over-engineering with too many columns—clutter just slows you down.
Pro tip: If you have a lot of open roles, consider one board per department or major role. Otherwise, keep it all in one for visibility.
Step 3: Customize Views for Clarity
Monday lets you create different views, like Kanban, Table, Calendar, etc. This is where the tool actually shines for recruitment.
- Kanban View: Drag and drop candidates through stages. Great for visual thinkers.
- Table View: Classic spreadsheet look. Good for bulk edits.
- Calendar View: Useful to see interviews or due dates at a glance (if you use the Date column for interviews).
Don’t bother with:
- Gantt chart or Timeline view—these are more for projects, not tracking candidates.
Pro tip: Set the default view to whatever your team actually uses. No point in a fancy Kanban setup if everyone just sticks to the Table.
Step 4: Set Up Automations (But Don’t Go Overboard)
Automations in Monday are tempting. They can save time, but if you go wild, you’ll end up with a spaghetti mess that’s hard to debug.
Automations that actually help: - Stage change reminders: “When status changes to Interview, notify [Person].” - Overdue nudges: “If Interview hasn’t happened after 5 days, send a reminder.” - New candidate assignment: “When item is created, assign to [Recruiter].”
What to skip:
- Automated rejection emails—Monday isn’t a real ATS, and you’ll end up sending the wrong message at the wrong time.
- Complicated multi-step automations. If you can’t explain it in one sentence, don’t automate it.
Pro tip: Start with one or two automations. Add more only when you’re sure they’re worth it.
Step 5: Make It Easy for Others to Add Candidates
If you’re the bottleneck for adding candidates, your pipeline will stall. Monday has a few options to let others fill the board without chaos.
- Form View: Build a simple form tied to your board. Share the link with hiring managers or recruiters. Their entries go straight to your board.
- Email integrations: You can set up automations so that emails to a certain address create new items. This is hit-or-miss, but can help if you get resumes via email.
- Manual entry: Sometimes, it’s just faster to paste in the info yourself.
What to ignore:
- Zapier integrations, unless you’re already a power user. They’re powerful but often break or need constant fixing.
Pro tip: Keep the form short—just the essentials. You can always fill in more details later.
Step 6: Collaborate and Communicate (Without Spamming)
Monday’s update section on each item is basically a chat thread. Use it to keep all candidate discussions in one place.
- Tag teammates when you need input (“@Sarah—thoughts on this candidate?”).
- Upload interview notes as files or paste them in.
- Track decisions (“Moving to offer stage—approved by John and Priya.”)
Don’t:
- Use Monday as your main interview scheduling tool. It’s not built for that. Use your calendar and paste the details in.
- Expect people to check Monday constantly—send a Slack or email for anything urgent.
Step 7: Reporting and Metrics—Keep It Simple
You’ll want some basic reporting (how many candidates at each stage, time to hire, etc.), but Monday’s dashboards have limits.
- Use the built-in charts: Pie or bar charts for candidates per stage or per recruiter.
- Export to Excel/Google Sheets if you need deeper analysis.
What to ignore:
- Fancy dashboard widgets you don’t understand. If you’re spending more time tweaking dashboards than hiring, something’s off.
Pro tip: The “Chart” view is often enough—don’t stress about perfecting reports.
Step 8: Review and Tweak Your Pipeline
No setup is perfect the first time. Every couple weeks, look at your board:
- What columns never get filled in? Delete them.
- Are candidates getting stuck in a stage? That’s a process issue, not a board issue.
- Too many automations? Cut back.
- Are people skipping the board and using email instead? Figure out why—it’s usually because the board is too clunky or complicated.
Iterate. Don’t be precious about your setup.
Don’t let the bells and whistles distract you. The real goal is to keep your hiring pipeline visible and moving. Start simple. Make it fit your actual process, not what you wish your process was. Tweak as you go. Most “fancy” features in Monday only matter if they save you time—ditch the rest. A recruitment pipeline should help you hire faster, not become another monster to manage. Good luck, and remember: simple wins.