What is Full Cycle Recruitment: A Comprehensive Guide

What is full cycle recruitment?" you may wonder—is it a modern hiring process or a repackaged ancient one? Today, we're unraveling the details surrounding this concept, exploring its core, its step-by-step process, and, crucially, its relevance in meeting the demands of contemporary hiring. Full cycle recruitment, often synonymous with end-to-end recruitment, encapsulates the entirety of the hiring journey, encompassing every step from drafting a job description to onboarding the selected candidate.


In a full cycle hiring process, each stage is distinctive, involving at least one manual resource to ensure a comprehensive and timely completion of the entire process. While it might seem seamless to some, for a smaller team, it poses a challenging task that consumes a significant portion of their bandwidth. Here's a secret: there's a perfect solution to minimize hiring time and maximize efficiency. But before we delve into that, let's take a closer look at full cycle recruitment.

The Classic 6 Full Cycle Recruitment Process:

The traditional hiring process is often classified into six prominent steps, laying the foundation for the entire recruitment journey. Though some may argue for additional steps, these six are the bedrock, with others derived from them.

1. Preparing:

Kicking off the hiring process, the team enters the preparation phase with a realization of low bandwidth. This marks the initial stage where the hiring manager and HR team collaboratively outline requirements and job responsibilities. Job descriptions are crafted and disseminated across various communication channels like LinkedIn, social media platforms, or internal networks.

2. Sourcing:

The second step involves sourcing, where recruiters gather potential resumes and candidate profiles. While job applications often flood in through public postings, recruiters may need to proactively reach out to potential candidates, especially for specific domains. This sourcing phase is a demanding task for HR teams, striving to find candidates perfectly fitting the profile.

3. Screening:

The screening phase, the third in the process, sees the recruitment team meticulously reviewing applications. Potential candidates are shortlisted for further assessments, and a short phonetic interview is often conducted. This step ensures that candidates meet the necessary criteria, such as location, salary expectations, and notice period.

4. Selecting:

Moving to the selecting phase, each chosen candidate undergoes interviews and various skill assessment tests. This crucial stage ensures that every hired candidate is the best fit for the role. Managers often administer multiple phases of tests, evaluating candidates on personality, technical skills, and communication. The tests may vary based on job profile requirements.

5. Hiring:

After tests and interviews, the hiring process enters the assessment phase. Each candidate's profile is analyzed, and an assessment score is assigned. The top candidates are finalized, and the recruitment team initiates the offer letter and other formalities. However, the process doesn't conclude here; it extends to background checks, document verification, and salary negotiations.

6. Onboarding:

The onboarding phase, often perceived as a one-day process, is a comprehensive undertaking involving candidate training, document verification, onboarding formalities, introduction to the team, and familiarity with tools and technology. Effective communication with the HR team becomes imperative for new hires to acclimate to the work environment.

The Role of Flocareer in Streamlining Full Cycle Recruitment:

While full cycle recruitment ensures the best-fit candidates and a smooth process, the traditional method involving extensive manual efforts can be time-consuming. Enter Flocareer—an innovative solution to minimize hiring time. Flocareer's AI-powered video interview platform boasts capabilities to expedite the hiring process in any scenario. With a structured interviewing tool and seamless ATS integration, recruiters gain efficiency, reducing the time required for each candidate.

Embrace the sweetness of full cycle recruitment, but consider the potential transformation that AI tools, like Flocareer, bring to the table. They have the power to fast-track the hiring process, making it more agile and responsive to the demands of the evolving job market.

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