Hiring & Talent Acquisition Handbook

• Job: A job refers to the job title (ex: Customer Support Specialist). This will also be what appears on external job boards. In the case there are multiple positions open that are the same, and we only want to list once, we can have multiple ‘openings’ (see next section) opened within one ‘Job’. Each job will have a unique identifier called a Requisition ID (example- 1001).
• Opening: A job can have multiple openings attached to it (ex: you are hiring 3 Customer Support Specialists. You would then have 1 ‘Job’ and 3 ‘openings’ against that job). A job can have multiple openings against it, but an opening can not be associated with multiple jobs. Each opening will have a unique identifier called an Opening ID (example- 1001-1, 1001-2, 1001-3).
• GHPiD: GHP ID is the link between Adaptive (what we use to track our operating plan) and Greenhouse (our ATS). A GHP ID has a one to one relationship with an Opening ID. It is the key interlock between our hiring plans and our Talent Acquisition activity. This is a custom field in Greenhouse.

• Prelude: To gain CES-level access to Prelude, ask your manager to message the Support team at Prelude.
• Guide: Check with your manager if you do not have higher level access to navigate inside of Prelude.
• DocuSign

• How to open headcount on R&D
• How to open headcount on Sales and G&A

• Instructions here
• Open a kickoff session

• Creating an evergreen req
• Evergreen req guide
• An Evergreen Job is a requisition that is ‘always open’. More specifically, it is used when we have at least 3 openings for a particular job repeated each quarter. There is then one Evergreen job posted for internal, external and passive candidates. It is important that no candidate is hired to an Evergreen job, and instead is moved to an approved opening (aka an opening with a single corresponding GHPiD). TA Leadership will open EVG roles at the start of a fiscal year, with a quarterly review cadence, by leveraging the hiring plan and attrition assumptions. See the pages above for more information.
• Tips and Tricks

  Know your department before you open your req. If you need to change the department name later, the approval chain will not automatically update. If this happens to you, please contact Enablement.

  We do not re-open jobs after they have been closed. This is because permissions and approvers may have changed in the time since the job was first closed.

• Post an internal job
• Post an external job
• Using Rules
• Auto-tags
• Tips and Tricks

  Salary transparency: In select US states, GitLab discloses salaries in job descriptions in accordance with local laws. Total Rewards will add this information to the job’s approvals page. When you create your external job post, utilize Pay Transparency Rules and select Hiring in the USA. If the job will not be posted in the US, select N/A.

  EEOC questions should be checked off in the US only

  Click here for more information on selecting the correct location for your job. This will help ensure that your LinkedIn listings are posted in the correct countries.

  Our jobs are now set up to automatically go to Indeed and Glassdoor and be posted as remote roles on both sites. Recruiters should unselect or leave unselected the option in Greenhouse to “publish to free job boards” as this requires us to input city, state, and country data that overrides the remote job listing. There is an automation in place to automatically send jobs to Indeed and Glassdoor.

• As a member of the Talent Acquisition team, you have the ability to add team members to view your job with differing layers of access. By default, all team members can access the interview kit & scorecard of someone they’re interviewing and this access does not need to be granted. For team members who require additional access, such as a Hiring Manager or their EBA, you will need to grant that access where appropriate. You can use this guide to help determine the appropriate access.
• As you are deciding what access level someone should have, default to the setting that allows the most confidentiality for a candidate. If a team member does not need access to scorecards, for example, we should be choosing an access level that does not allow them to see them. A job admin (someone with higher level permissions) typically should not be at the same level or a direct report of a job they have access to. Recruiters typically grant only Hiring Manager access - interviewers do not need special access and cannot access scorecards or candidate profiles through Greenhouse.
• To add or remove access in a job, go to ‘job setup’ and click ‘hiring team’. Add or remove access under “Who can see this job?”. Unfortunately, there is no way to bulk add or remove access. You can also add and remove access when creating your job from a template. If you are searching for a team member and cannot find their name, ensure that you do not have filters activated. Do not grant admin access through templates, because this could create problems in the future.

• There are two elements of a scorecard: the Scorecard section and the Interview Plan section. Both are accessible through Job Setup.
• Scorecard Depending on your department, you may have a lot of your scorecard options pre-filled. R&D scorecards are always set up for you, and may only require small tweaks depending on technical language or job grade.
• Interview Plan
• Tips and Tricks

  Name your interviews in a way that will help your Candidate Experience Specialist partner schedule your interview. We recommend ‘Topic - Interviewer - Time’ i.e. ‘Values Interview - Beyonce Knowles - 45 min’. If you are pulling from a large interviewer pool, you can discuss with your Candidate Experience Specialist partner if it makes sense to create a Prelude interviewer pool that will help with scheduling.

  Once you have set up the stages and interview names, add the specific interview questions asked into the “Interview Questions” section of the Interview Plan.

  If you need to make bulk changes to a large number of jobs’ scorecards at once, Enablement has the ability to make bulk changes. Please contact them for assistance.

  Recruiters don’t need to be the only ones adding interview questions to the interview plan. Invite your Hiring Manager to complete this task alongside you.

Please note that the names of stages is important, and we should only have stages with the names listed below. Anything outside of these stages will not appear on reporting.

Scorecards are required in all stages that require interviews. Confidential, personal information and disclosures about being part of a protected class are never to be written in scorecards. Recruiters can add salary information into Private Notes outside of the scorecard to maintain confidentiality.

• Get to Know Us: This is an application review stage.
• Qualified: This is the stage where positive applications will be triaged. Candidates can wait here to be scheduled for interviews, to ensure the right mix of well-qualified candidates are screened at the right times.
• Screening: Phone or video interview with a recruiter, scheduled through Calendly.
• Assessment: This is an optional stage where written assignments can be submitted. Learn more here.
• Initial Interview: This is the first video interview with a member of the team, which helps determine if they will move forward to additional interviews. This stage ensures we are utilizing the interviewers’ and candidates’ time thoughtfully, and is typically either a Hiring Manager or Technical interview.
• Team Interview: All other team interviews live here.
• Debrief: This will come after the reference check stage for Engineering requisitions, because the reference checks will be initiated as the Justification (R&D’s process for the Debrief stage) is initiated. For non-Engineering departments, this will be a holding stage where candidates wait until a decision is made, to track the time it takes for us to reach a decision on a candidate who has completed their interviews. See the Engineering’s Justification process.
• Reference Check: The reference check stage can sometimes be done in tandem with the Debrief and Background Check and Offer stages. They can be completed by the Hiring Manager or Recruiter.
• Background Check and Offer: Recruiters move candidates into this stage once they’re ready to receive their verbal offer. Before that time, this stage is where an offer is prepared and goes through approvals. This is the final stage in the process.

• Candidate Experience Specialists use Prelude to schedule.
• Interview confirmations are sent through Guide. Because of this, confirmations have calendar invites that can be downloaded rather than being sent through. For this reason, Recruiters are not able to be added to candidate interview invites.

• There are a few elements of Greenhouse that are different for internal candidates. Please note that internal candidates refer to current, full time team members. Interns converting to full time, contractors, or rehires are not considered internal candidates.
• Interviews will always be scheduled as “private” events to ensure the candidate’s privacy. Interviews will show up as “busy” events on candidate and interviewers calendars rather than showing as interviews.
• If internal applicants apply via our internal job board, the yellow “internal applicant” tag will automatically show in the GH profile. If you don’t see this tag, you can add it by navigating to the “Details” tab in GH and scroll down to “Source & Responsibility”. Click the pencil next to Source and select Internal Applicant from the drop down.
• CES will use the internal applicant’s Google Calendar to find an appropriate time for them to meet, and do not need to be sent an availability email.
• Former GitLab team members who re-apply are not considered internal candidates. Their source should be whatever they used to apply (ie application), and you should add a “Former Team Member” tag to their profile.

• Merging candidates

  Recruiters should merge applicant profiles whenever you see the opportunity and can verify that the candidates are the same. Merging applicant profiles allows you to keep data up to date, and also ensures that you know the full application history of anyone who applies. Aside from Internal candidates who should be merged right before hiring, you can merge candidates at any stage of the process.

  All of Talent Acquisition has access to merge profiles. You can merge candidate profiles by viewing the right hand toolbar on an applicant profile, and clicking on either the alert that appears at the top of the toolbar or ‘See More’ in the ‘Tools’ section.Before beginning, please ensure that the profiles are a match for each other by verifying that their emails, phone numbers, and/or resumes are the same.

  When selecting which profile is Primary (right side), consider the following:

  As a default, the most recent applicant profile should most likely be the Primary one, unless the most recent is a Prospect.

  If this is an internal candidate, the most recent profile should always be Primary, but should not be merged until the candidate has accepted their offer to minimize the number of people with access to this information.

  After merging, check the Activity Feed and Details tabs to see what information was removed from old profiles and ensure that you have the most accurate Recruiter, Coordinator, and Source.

  If you have any questions, please contact the Enablement Manager because profile merges cannot be undone.

• Reference check information
• Reference check forms are mandatory. If you receive reference check information outside of the form and don’t want a candidate to fill it out again, Enablement can help you adjust the form to collect the remaining information. These forms are important because they provide necessary information for the accuracy and completion of a contract.
• Tips and Tricks

  These forms, just like an offer in Greenhouse, do not transfer when you move a candidate from one job to another. Ensure that your candidate is in the role they’ll be hired for before sending.

  Completed forms live in a candidate’s “application” tab. If you can’t find the form, it’s likely there!

  While nicknames, preferred last names, and PIAA details will save to the details page automatically, legal name will not. Please ensure the legal first and last name is set as the candidates’ name before sending contracts.

  If you have a candidate in the Netherlands, they are required to provide their BSN and date of birth. Recruiters should add those fields into the offer.

• Creating an offer in Greenhouse
• Common approval challenges

  Offer stuck in approvals: If the offer is stuck in the approvals chain because someone is out of office, the recruiter can talk to the approver’s manager about an appropriate temporary adjustment and recommend this to the Enablement team. Recruiters should be proactive in reaching out to approvers if an offer is urgent or a candidate is being inconvenienced by a long wait time. If there is a known OOO, this discussion should happen before there’s an offer waiting for approval. Enablement can help with any changes needed.

  Offer approvals chain is incorrect: If approvers are missing or incorrect, the Recruiter should contact a member of the Enablement team to adjust. The only people with access to make approvers changes are Enablement and Director, Executive Recruiting, who change approval chains to maintain confidentiality for executive positions. Often, approval chains are incorrect because you have chosen the wrong department, so it’s important to choose the right one before opening your req.

• Contact the Senior Background Check Specialist at backgroundchecks@gitlab.com with any questions or requests for status updates.
• The most commonly asked question for candidates outside the US is, “Why can’t I enter more than one past employer?” Outside of ​the US, candidates will only submit one former employer and Sterling is working as expected.

• To set up Slack to notify you when you’re tagged in candidate notes, select your initials in the upper right hand corner of Greenhouse. From there, you can activate your Slack integration. Toggle the button to send @mentions to Slack. This is also a great button to point out to Hiring Managers so they are easier for the team to reach.
• Additionally, you will see a section for “Notification Preferences”. Most recruiters will set these up, but they are optional if you prefer to only receive notifications by email.

• There are two ways to set up your email notifications. The first is to select your initials in the top right corner of Greenhouse, and under “notification preferences”, select where you would like to receive notifications about jobs. This is an easy way for Hiring Managers to set up their preferences for all jobs at once, but may not be as easy for the Talent Acquisition team to remember to update.
• Instead, we would recommend setting your reminders either during your job setup process or after, by clicking into your Notifications tab of an individual job’s Job Setup. Here, we recommend that you stay in the loop on your candidates by electing to receive emails every time a scorecard is submitted, an internal candidate applies, a referral is submitted, and an offer is fully approved. You can choose your name or “Candidate’s Recruiter”, but you’ll want to be sure that you’re listed as the recruiter on the role to make this work. Recruiters should double check during this time that no one is receiving notifications that should not (ie an interviewer receiving offer notifications) and adjust privacy settings accordingly.
• You can sync your emails between Greenhouse and Gmail. Greenhouse has a Gmail add-on that can help with syncing communications. You can learn more about it by going here.

• The “country hiring status” section within the compensation calculator is the best place to look for a list of current countries available for hiring.
• This country list, maintained by and accessible to recruiters, details specific information about each country that can help you answer candidate questions and prepare for potential hiring delays.
• For general questions about specific policies or whether we support certain types of visas or sponsorship, message #people-group-confidential. If the request is more involved, or requires a conversation, you can slack Harley Devlin.

• For candidates who are located in Countries where we do not have an entity, we use a PEO (Professional Employment Organization). The actual employment contracts will be sent and issued by the PEO who also handles the processing and payment of payroll and associated taxes and compliance in each of the countries on behalf of GitLab. The contracts themselves are between the individual and the PEO.
• GitLab is currently hiring into three PEOs
• Remote.com
• Global Upside
• Papaya
• The following timelines to onboarding are advised:

Remote.com: remote.com onboarding timeline

Global Upside:

Papaya

Processing for the United Arab Emirates could take up to a month, so we recommend start dates at least 6 weeks after the offer is generated.