Quick snapshot: your current hiring pulse

• Tell me your typical monthly hiring volume for frontline hourly roles and your peak-month target. Options: Under 100, 100-499, 500-1,499, 1,500-4,999, 5,000+
• How many locations or site clusters would you consider for a first pilot? Options: Single location, 2-5 clusters, 6-20 clusters, 21-100 clusters, Enterprise-wide
• In a typical month, what is your target time-from-application-to-offer for a qualified candidate? Options: Under 24 hours, 24-72 hours, 3-7 days, 1-2 weeks
• Describe a recent peak hiring period that felt most stressful, and what made speed the critical factor.
• Name the primary systems your team relies on for candidate intake, ATS updates, and offer delivery. Options: Primary ATS, Payroll/HRIS, Onboarding system, Scheduling tool, Background check provider, In-house spreadsheet/process

Where slow offers are actually costing you people and profit

• If you lost 30 percent of hires this month because offers were slower than competitors, what immediate business impact would you see in staffing and operations?
• When your time-to-offer slips past your target window, where do the costs appear first: fill-rate, overtime, training, lost sales, or other? Options: Fill-rate, Overtime, Training delays, Lost sales/revenue, Increased agency spend, Other
• List the roles or locations that routinely lose candidates to faster competitors or have the highest vacancy pain. Options: Retail stores - high volume, Distribution centers, Contact centers, Healthcare sites, Remote locations, Flagship stores
• Walk me through a recent mobile application that abandoned, at which screen or question did the candidate drop off and why?
• If the platform could reliably shorten qualified time-to-offer to under 72 hours, what internal obstacle would stop you from adopting that change this quarter? Options: Integration risk, Leadership buy-in, Data/privacy concerns, Budget, Resource availability, Nothing would stop us

When automation misfires, who pays the price

• Describe the last time automated screening removed a candidate you later wished you had kept, and what followed operationally.
• Which screening criteria do you frequently relax during peaks versus which are non-negotiable? Options: Availability, Work authorization, Minimum experience, Certifications/licenses, Background check status, Other
• How does your team currently review and tune screening thresholds after a false negative or a manager escalation?
• Who absorbs the downstream cost when a qualified applicant is wrongly screened out: store managers, recruiters, HR ops, or others? Options: Store manager, Recruiters, HR operations, Onboarding team, Payroll team, Other
• What single screening rule, if misapplied during rollout, would make you stop the deployment immediately?

Who will say yes, who will say no, and what each of them cares about

• Who on your leadership team must sign off on a pilot and what metric does each person prioritize?
• Name the stakeholders who typically have veto power on deals of this type. Options: VP Talent Acquisition, Head of Hourly Recruiting, CFO, Head of Store Operations, Legal/Compliance, IT/Engineering, Payroll
• Which single metric would the VP of talent acquisition insist on above all during a pilot? Options: Time-to-offer, Drop-off rate, Mobile completion rate, Screening accuracy, Cost-per-hire, Other
• When the pilot delivers the agreed improvement, how quickly can procurement and legal finalize commercial and data agreements? Options: Within 1 week, 2-4 weeks, 1-2 months, 3+ months
• Is there a governance, privacy, or legal issue that would block you from moving forward regardless of pilot results? Options: Yes - data privacy, Yes - union/collective agreement, Yes - payroll/vendor contract, No, Unsure

What alternatives are you weighing right now

• List the alternatives you are actively evaluating: incumbent vendor, internal build, staffing agency, other platforms, or doing nothing. Options: Incumbent vendor, Internal build, Staffing agency expansion, Another external platform, No alternative/maintain status quo
• For any incumbent or vendor you might retain, what would they need to prove to keep your business?
• Does anyone on your team prefer solving this internally and who would lead that internal effort? Options: Yes - Recruiting Ops, Yes - IT/Engineering, Yes - HRIS/People Systems, No one has proposed internal build, Unsure
• Explain the most persuasive reason a current vendor or an internal build would beat bringing in a new external platform.
• Suppose an incumbent matched the pilot acceptance criteria and integration requirements within 30 days, would you still pilot a new platform? Options: Yes, still pilot, No, retain incumbent, Maybe, depends on terms

Integration, data, and other gates we cannot skip

• Provide every system that must integrate for the pilot to be meaningful and identify the owner for each connection.
• Do those systems currently expose APIs that allow bi-directional updates for offers, candidate status, and payroll triggers? Options: Yes, fully bi-directional, Partially, some endpoints, No, not available, Unsure
• Are technical resources available to start integration work within the next 30 days and what is their allocation? Options: Dedicated engineer(s) assigned, Shared resource with other projects, No resources available, Need approval to assign
• Rate the cleanliness and accessibility of your candidate application data for the past six months. Options: Clean and mapped, Moderate cleanup required, Significant gaps, Not accessible
• Identify the regulatory approvals or compliance checks that could gate access to candidate data for a pilot. Options: Legal privacy review, Union/collective bargaining approval, State background check consent, Payroll vendor agreement, Other
• Is there any integration or compliance constraint that would prevent a pilot within your target timeline, and if so explain the blocker and estimated delay.

Designing a pilot that proves value fast

• Assuming the pilot meets your target reduction in time-to-offer, what immediate operational change would you implement to capture the value?
• Select the KPIs we must track during the pilot for you to consider it successful. Options: Time-to-offer, Mobile completion rate, Drop-off rate, Screening accuracy, Recruiter time-per-hire, Cost-per-hire, Candidate NPS
• Pick the location or cluster types that are ideal for a peak-season pilot. Options: High-volume retail stores, Distribution centers, Contact centers, Urban stores, Rural stores, Healthcare sites
• Choose the pilot window length during peak season that would give you statistical confidence. Options: 2 weeks, 1 month, 6 weeks, 3 months
• Identify the day-to-day owner of the pilot within your organization and the person who will make operational decisions. Options: Recruiting Ops Manager, Site/Store Manager, HR Director, Head of Hourly Recruiting, Other
• Assume the pilot meets the acceptance thresholds, who is authorized to approve an enterprise rollout and within what timeframe would they commit?

Timing, trade-offs, and the fastest path to yes

• With technical and performance risks mitigated, what is your ideal timeline for a commercial decision? Options: Immediate (within 1 week), 2-4 weeks, 1-2 months, 3+ months
• Choose the trade-offs you are willing to accept to accelerate go-live: narrower scope, manual workarounds, or phased integrations. Options: Narrower scope, Manual workarounds, Phased integrations, Extended pilot, None of the above
• Rate the importance of maintaining recruiter oversight of borderline candidates during the pilot. Options: Critical, Important, Nice to have, Not important
• What contract or budget terms would materially reduce procurement's time to sign?
• Given a pilot contract and an SLA that match your top two concerns, would you be prepared to sign within your preferred decision window? Options: Yes, Maybe, No

• Solution Experience — Shortening Time-to-Offer

• Confirm the current state and its cost
• You confirm the demonstrated workflow removes the manual screening and scheduling rework that caused multi-week offers.
• Provide one high-volume job opening and recent application export including abandonment and time-to-offer metrics for the live scenario.
• You agree that the mobile experience shown directly addresses the abandonment you reported and that the projected completion aligns with your target.
• Run a live hiring scenario to prove time-to-offer
• Identify the pilot location cluster and the expected peak hiring window for measurement.
• Run a sample candidate run using the provided job and return a time-to-offer and drop-off projection before the follow-up session.
• You confirm that the screening rules and override process preserve candidate quality and are acceptable as pilot acceptance criteria.
• Demonstrate the mobile application flow
• Show automated screening with quality preservation
• You agree on the evidence the seller must deliver next to launch the pilot and the exact metrics to be measured.
• Share a proposed pilot acceptance criteria document that maps the agreed metrics to pass/fail gates.
• Validate that this matches your required outcomes
• Agree pilot metrics and next evidence

• Solution Experience — Shortening Time-to-Offer
• Solution Experience Deck
• Solution Brief

• meeting
• slides
• document

• Mobile Application Intake Implementation
• Structured Screening Workflow Activation
• Automated Qualification and Eligibility Verification
• Automated Interview Scheduling Deployment
• Digital Conditional Offer and E-signature Setup
• Offer-to-Payroll Handoff Integration
• Onboarding System Handoff Automation
• Pilot Launch at Location Cluster
• Screening Rule Tuning and Inclusion Exceptions
• Personalized Mobile Candidate Messaging
• Recruiter and Hiring Manager Training
• Pilot Performance Dashboard (time-to-offer, drop-off, completion)
• Import Historical Applicant Records

Mobile Application Intake Implementation

• Describe the candidate mobile path you currently use for hourly roles (for example: job link > mobile form > SMS confirmation).
• Which job posting channels feed candidates into your mobile intake (for example: store career page, third-party job board links, in-store QR posters)? Options: Store career page, Third-party job boards, Recruiter-referral links, In-store QR/URL, Other
• How many unique mobile job forms do you need implemented at pilot launch (for example: cashier, stock, delivery driver)? Options: 1, 2-3, 4-6, 7+
• Where are applicant-facing assets hosted today that need embedding or redirecting (for example: your careers CMS page or the store microsite)?
• Who will provide final copy and images for the mobile job page and mobile intake flow for the pilot cluster?

Structured Screening Workflow Activation

• Specify the core knock-out screening questions you currently use on resumes or phone screens for frontline hires (for example: minimum age, valid work authorization, required certifications).
• Which role types in the pilot cluster require role-specific screening branches (for example: driver license verification for delivery drivers)? Options: All roles, Selected roles only, None
• How many conditional screening outcomes should be configured (for example: advance to interview, request documents, reject)? Options: 2, 3, 4+
• Identify the document upload types your mobile flow must accept during screening in the pilot (for example: driver's license image, certification PDF, resume). Options: Driver's license, Certification, Resume/CV, Other
• When a candidate fails an automated screen, what exception path should be available for manual recruiter review (for example: escalate to local recruiter queue, schedule phone follow-up)? Options: Escalate to recruiter queue, Send to hiring manager for review, Automatic reject, Other

Automated Qualification and Eligibility Verification

• Provide the specific eligibility checks needed for the pilot roles (for example: validity check of work authorization document, age verification, valid driving record check).
• Which external verification vendors or background check types must be invoked from your integration endpoints during pilot screening (for example: criminal background, motor vehicle record)? Options: Criminal background, Motor vehicle record, Employment verification, Education verification, None
• How will you accept verification results into your HR systems — as status codes, completed documents, or both (for example: MVR code + PDF)? Options: Status codes only, Documents only, Both status codes and documents
• Identify acceptable turnaround thresholds for automated verifications during pilot hours (for example: under 4 hours during peak hiring windows). Options: Under 1 hour, Under 4 hours, Under 24 hours, Other
• Who on your operations team will own verification exception handling and vendor disputes during the pilot?

Automated Interview Scheduling Deployment

• List the interview types you want automated for the pilot cluster (for example: phone screen, in-store quick interview, virtual video interview). Options: Phone screen, In-store quick interview, Video interview, On-site assessment
• Which scheduling source should the platform read availability from for the pilot (for example: recruiter Google calendar, hiring manager Outlook calendar, shared store schedule)? Options: Recruiter calendar, Hiring manager calendar, Shared store schedule, Manual availability
• How long should candidate-facing scheduling windows remain open before auto-expiring (for example: 24 hours to accept an interview slot)? Options: 4 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, 48 hours
• Who will confirm the interview templates and confirmation message text for in-store interview types for the pilot?
• When a candidate reschedules, which stakeholders should receive automatic notifications (for example: local store manager, recruiter, hiring manager)? Options: Recruiter, Hiring manager, Store manager, All of the above

Digital Conditional Offer and E-signature Setup

• Describe the conditional offer elements you require in the pilot (for example: base hourly rate, conditional contingent on background, start-date window).
• Which tax and employment forms must be captured at e-sign for new hires in the pilot cluster (for example: W-4, I-9 supporting documents)? Options: W-4, I-9, State tax forms, Direct deposit form, Other
• How will you accept signed offers into your HRIS or ATS — as PDF attachments, structured fields, or both? Options: PDF only, Structured fields only, Both PDF and structured fields
• Who signs final commercial acceptance for e-signature audit trails in your organization (for example: HR compliance lead)?
• Specify retention requirements for signed offer records for the pilot (for example: 3 years, 7 years). Options: 1 year, 3 years, 7 years, Custom

Offer-to-Payroll Handoff Integration

• Which payroll system endpoint will receive new hire data from the platform for the pilot (for example: payroll API endpoint, SFTP file drop)? Options: Payroll API endpoint, SFTP file drop, Manual CSV import, Other
• Which exact ATS or HRIS fields must map from signed offer to payroll for pay setup (for example: pay rate field, tax withholding code, employee ID)?
• Specify the maximum allowable delay from offer acceptance to payroll-ready record creation during pilot (for example: under 24 hours). Options: Under 1 hour, Under 4 hours, Under 24 hours, 48+ hours
• Confirm who on your payroll or compensation team will validate field mappings and run the first pilot payroll validation.
• What defines acceptance of the payroll handoff at pilot close — for example, successful ingestion of 95% of pilot hires without manual correction? Options: Successful ingestion >= 95%, Successful ingestion >= 90%, Successful ingestion >= 80%, Other

Onboarding System Handoff Automation

• Which onboarding system endpoint must receive new-hire packets in the pilot (for example: onboarding API, LMS import, vendor SFTP)? Options: Onboarding API, LMS import, SFTP, Other
• List mandatory onboarding assets to push at handoff (for example: signed offer PDF, I-9 docs, direct deposit form, training checklist).
• How should onboarding tasks be sequenced after handoff (for example: task 1 assigned to store manager, task 2 assigned to HR coordinator)?
• Who owns remediation when onboarding tasks fail to create in the downstream system during pilot?
• When onboarding handoff fails, which rollback behavior do you prefer for the offer record (for example: keep offer accepted and queue retry, revert to pending)? Options: Queue retry and notify, Revert to pending, Manual intervention required

Pilot Launch at Location Cluster

• Which cluster of locations will be in scope for the pilot and why (for example: 10 high-volume stores in the Northeast during holiday peak)?
• How many hires per week across the pilot cluster do you expect during peak hiring weeks? Options: <50, 50-200, 200-500, 500+
• Identify the peak hiring date window you plan to run the pilot in (for example: Nov 15 to Dec 31).
• Who will be the local operator responsible for daily pilot monitoring at each pilot location (for example: store manager name or HR lead)?
• What pilot acceptance gate on time-to-offer reduction will you require to consider the pilot successful (for example: 50% reduction from baseline)? Options: >=50% reduction, >=30% reduction, >=20% reduction, Custom

Screening Rule Tuning and Inclusion Exceptions

• Specify common inclusion exceptions you want enabled to prevent automated rejection of marginal candidates (for example: fallback review for incomplete but high-fit applicants).
• Which screening rules require human override capability for pilot roles (for example: felonies older than 7 years, gaps in employment)?
• How often do you want rule tuning reviews during the pilot window (for example: weekly, twice-weekly)? Options: Daily, Twice-weekly, Weekly, At pilot midpoint
• Who will approve changes to screening thresholds during the pilot (for example: local HR lead, corporate talent acquisition)?
• When tuning a rule that affects mobile completion, what maximum drop in completion rate do you accept while iterating (for example: no more than 5 percentage points)? Options: No more than 2 pts, No more than 5 pts, No more than 10 pts, Other

Personalized Mobile Candidate Messaging

• Describe the candidate message types to personalize in the pilot (for example: SMS interview reminders, conditional offer SMS, drop-off recovery messages).
• Which candidate attributes should drive personalization tokens (for example: store location, shift type, preferred language)? Options: Store location, Shift type, Preferred language, Role applied
• How many languages must the pilot mobile messages support for your candidate base? Options: 1, 2, 3+, Other
• Who will provide approved templates for SMS and in-app messages for the pilot cluster?
• Which KPIs for messaging do you want measured during pilot (for example: SMS click-through, interview show-rate, recovery conversion)? Options: SMS click-through, Interview show-rate, Recovery conversion, Other

Recruiter and Hiring Manager Training

• List the target audience groups for pilot training (for example: local store managers, regional recruiters, onboarding coordinators). Options: Store managers, Regional recruiters, Onboarding coordinators, Hiring managers
• Specify the preferred delivery format for training for the pilot (for example: live webinar, recorded video, job-aid PDF). Options: Live webinar, Recorded video, Job-aid PDF, In-person workshop
• How long should training sessions be for busy store managers during peak hiring (for example: 30 minutes, 60 minutes)? Options: 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 60 minutes, Custom
• Who will be the approved trainer or SME from your side for system walkthroughs and Q&A during pilot?
• When should training be scheduled relative to pilot start (for example: 2 weeks before go-live, 3 days before)? Options: 2 weeks before, 1 week before, 3 days before, Day of

Pilot Performance Dashboard (time-to-offer, drop-off, completion)

• Which pilot KPIs must appear on the dashboard at daily cadence (for example: median time-to-offer, candidate drop-off rate on mobile form, application completion rate)? Options: Median time-to-offer, Drop-off rate by step, Completion rate by device, Screening accuracy
• Specify the baseline values to compare against during pilot (for example: current median time-to-offer = 7 days, mobile completion = 55%).
• What acceptance threshold on screening accuracy will you require to pass pilot review (for example: >= 90% agreement with recruiter decisions)? Options: >=95%, >=90%, >=85%, Other
• Who receives daily dashboard alerts for KPI regressions in the pilot cluster (for example: regional talent lead, local store manager)? Options: Regional talent lead, Local store manager, Recruiting operations, All of the above
• How often do you want the dashboard to refresh data from ATS and payroll endpoints during the pilot? Options: Real-time, Hourly, Daily, End-of-day

• decision_readiness
• stakeholders
• gaps
• success_criteria
• desired_state
• current_state
• decision_readiness
• current_state
• desired_state
• success_criteria
• gaps
• stakeholders
• desired_state
• success_criteria
• stakeholders
• current_state
• gaps
• decision_readiness
• decision_readiness
• decision_readiness
• decision_readiness
• decision_readiness

• Order Form / Subscription Agreement
• Master Services Agreement (MSA)
• Statement of Work (SOW) — Implementation & Pilot
• Pilot Acceptance Addendum
• Operational Responsibilities & Data Access Agreement
• Data Processing Agreement (DPA) — Privacy & Regulatory Addendum
• Security & Compliance Addendum
• Change Order Agreement

• Go-live Health Check (Weeks 1-4)
• First Outcomes Measurement (Weeks 4-10)
• Acceptance Gate Review (Around Day 90) — Pilot Evaluation
• Ongoing Success Review (Quarterly)

• Adjust monitoring thresholds and alerts for integration errors that impact post-offer handoffs.
• Run an expanded screening accuracy audit on a larger sample and deliver results ahead of the acceptance gate.
• Fix any integration exceptions blocking post-offer handoffs and validate with end-to-end test cases.
• Restate acceptance criteria and numeric targets recorded in Pilot Evaluation
• Produce a documented pass/fail decision for each acceptance criterion recorded in Pilot Evaluation and capture the buyer's named signatory as required.
• If any criteria failed, record a remediation plan with specific resolution dates leading to re-test or conditional acceptance.
• Confirm the incumbent system is either decommissioned or formally retained read-only and its data migrated or archived as required.
• Publish the signed acceptance decision and the remediation tracker showing items, owners, and due dates.
• Execute the incumbent data migration or archive workflow and provide verification artifacts.
• Schedule any required re-test windows for conditional pass items and communicate cutover dates to operations.
• Trend review for key metrics
• Confirm that time-to-offer and candidate drop-off rate remain at or are improving toward the targets recorded in Pilot Evaluation.
• Ensure top operational issues and enhancement requests are prioritized with delivery windows for the next quarter.
• Verify integration uptime and incident rates are within acceptable bounds to sustain realized time savings.
• Publish the prioritized enhancement backlog with estimated delivery quarters and acceptance criteria.
• Schedule a training refresh or targeted coaching for teams showing adoption or efficiency regression.
• Re-confirm success criteria and owners
• Deployment components and core integrations validated as functioning for the pilot locations.
• Open issues are documented with owners and committed resolution dates.
• Next measurement meeting date and data sources for outcome metrics confirmed.
• Publish the go-live validation checklist with confirmed owners and resolution dates for open issues.
• Provide access credentials or data feeds required by the analytics owner to collect outcome metrics for the first measurement.
• Implement any critical workarounds to keep the pilot operational until permanent fixes are deployed.
• Present initial outcome data
• Establish whether time-to-offer and mobile application completion rate are improving toward the targets recorded in Pilot Evaluation.
• Agree a concrete root-cause remediation plan with dates to correct any underperformance before the acceptance gate.
• Confirm screening accuracy sampling methodology and pass/fail thresholds for quality checks.
• Execute agreed configuration changes or A/B tests to address identified root causes.
• Present outcome data against each criterion
• Adoption and efficiency indicators
• Deployment and integration validation
• Screening quality review
• Document pass/fail per criterion and capture acceptance decision
• Early adoption signals and usage patterns
• Open issues and enhancement backlog
• Root-cause diagnosis for any metric gaps
• Integration health and incident summary
• Incumbent system wind-down confirmation
• Blockers, incidents, and open issues
• Integration and handoff exceptions
• Agree corrective actions and timeline to acceptance gate
• Agree remediation items and final resolution timeline
• Agree next quarter action plan
• Agree immediate remediation actions and follow-up cadence