u/Brave-Pop2767

Hi r/humanresources,

I'm exploring a problem I've observed in hiring workflows and I want to make sure I actually understand it before I go further — so I'm coming here to talk to people who live this every day.

Here's what I think might be a real frustration — please tell me if I'm wrong:

When a ro

Hi r/AskHR

I'm exploring a problem I've observed in hiring workflows and I want to make sure I actually understand it before I go further — so I'm coming here to talk to people who live this every day.

Here's what I think might be a real frustration — please tell me if I'm wrong:

When a role is filled (or cancelled), the candidates you interviewed — including good ones who just weren't the right fit at the time — essentially disappear. When a new role opens, most HR teams start from scratch: new job post, new LinkedIn search, new pipeline. The good candidates from 6 months ago rarely get a second look.

I'd genuinely love to know:

1. When a new role opens, what's the first thing you actually do? Walk me through it.
2. What do you currently use to track candidates — ATS, spreadsheet, something else?
3. Has a great candidate ever slipped through the cracks? What happened?
4. Is going back to past candidates something you'd want to do more of — or is there a reason it doesn't happen?
5. What's the most broken part of your current hiring workflow that no tool has fixed yet?

I'm not selling anything. I haven't built anything. I'm just trying to understand whether this is a real problem or a problem I made up in my head.

Even a short reply like "this isn't actually a problem for me because X" is incredibly useful. That's the kind of honest feedback I'm here for.

Thanks in advance.