A recruiting workflow for new office launches: pipeline build, scheduling and onboarding

Why a new office needs its own hiring workflow

A recruiting workflow for new office launches has to do three things at once. It has to fill a pipeline from zero, move a large group of candidates through interviews in a short window, and get every hire paid and ready on day one. Most teams try to do this with the same tools they use for steady-state backfills. That is where launches slip.

The problem is not effort. It is structure. When the new office shares an inbox, a candidate list and a messaging setup with headquarters, recruiters lose track of who applied where. Hiring managers at the new site cannot see their own pipeline. Candidates get messages that sound like they came from a different company. ATS Mako is built for high-volume and multi-location hiring, so a new office can run as its own unit from the first day while leadership keeps control of the whole operation.

Stage zero: set up the office before the first req opens

Do this work before you post a single job. A clean setup saves weeks of cleanup later.

Create the office in the hierarchy

ATS Mako's multi-tenant office hierarchy runs parent and child offices under one roof. Each office keeps its own isolated candidate data. Add the new location as a child office so its applicants, notes and stages stay separate from every other site. Recruiters at the new office work their own pipeline without stepping on anyone else's.

Configure how the office talks to candidates

Per-office communication settings let you set email and SMS configuration office by office. The new location can message candidates on its own terms, with its own sender details, while corporate keeps oversight. This matters most in launch week, when candidates need to know exactly which office is contacting them.

Brand it and lock down access

With full white-label branding, candidates see your logo, your colors and your domain at every step, from the first SMS to the offer letter. Then decide who can see what. Use roles and permissions to give the new site's hiring managers access to their own office without opening up the rest of the company.

Stage one: pipeline build

A new office starts with no talent pool. The goal of this stage is volume with order: lots of applicants, each one landing in the right office and the right stage.

1. 1 Map the launch process in the workflow builder Use the custom workflow builder to lay out your hiring process stage by stage. Then make it the standard for every recruiter and every req tied to the new office. Everyone works the same steps, so nothing depends on one person's memory.
2. 2 Publish branded apply pages Point job ads and local outreach to branded apply pages for the new location. Applicants land in the new office's pipeline, not a shared corporate bucket.
3. 3 Rank the first wave Launch roles often draw a large applicant surge in a short window. ATS Mako's AI candidate ranking helps recruiters see who to review first, so strong applicants do not sit untouched behind the pile.
4. 4 Screen at scale AI voice screening lets the team run first-round screens across a large group without booking every call by hand. Recruiters spend their time on candidates who are already a fit.

Stage two: scheduling

Scheduling is where launch hiring usually breaks. You have a short window, a small local team and many interviews to book. Every back-and-forth email costs a day.

ATS Mako includes interview scheduling, native SMS and an integrated email client in one place. Recruiters book interviews and message candidates from the same system that holds the pipeline. There is no copying details between a calendar, a phone and a spreadsheet.

Set triggers in the workflow builder so follow-ups and hand-offs fire on their own when a candidate moves stages. A candidate who passes a screen can get the next message without a recruiter remembering to send it. For more on what to automate, see how automated follow-ups and reminders fit into a hiring flow, and the guide on what to automate and what to keep human.

Hi [First name], thanks for applying to [Company] at our new [City] location. You're invited to interview for the [Role] position. Reply to this text to confirm a time, or let us know what works for you. We open [opening week] and are building the founding team now.

Stage three: onboarding

An offer accepted is not a hire ready. The new office still needs every person in payroll, set up in HR systems and holding the right documents before opening day.

• Connect your HRIS and payroll through ATS Mako's integrations, so candidate and new-hire data moves on its own instead of through manual exports and duplicate entry.
• Collect new-hire paperwork digitally, including W-4 and other new-hire tax forms, so the office is not chasing paper the week it opens.
• Store handbooks, policies and launch documents in the corporate document repository, one central and secure place the new site's team can reach.
• Use the activity log and audit trail to see who did what and when, across every office and req, if you need to review how a hire was handled.

Teams that want to connect ATS Mako to internal tools can review public API and developer access. For the full set of controls behind multi-office hiring, see the enterprise feature layer.

The workflow at a glance

Outcomes to measure

Every launch is different, so set your own baseline and track it. These are the numbers worth watching. Pull them for the new office on its own, then compare against your other locations.

• Time from req open to first qualified applicant at the new office.
• Time from application to first interview.
• Share of scheduled interviews that actually happen.
• Offer acceptance rate for launch roles.
• Hires fully set up in payroll and HR before opening day.
• Recruiter hours spent on scheduling and follow-up versus candidate conversations.

Common pitfalls

1. Opening reqs before the office exists in the system. Applicants pile into the wrong pipeline and someone spends launch week sorting them by hand.
2. Sharing one messaging setup across offices. Candidates get texts that do not name their location and assume they applied somewhere else.
3. Letting each recruiter run their own process. Without a standard workflow, stages drift and reporting stops meaning anything.
4. Giving the new site too much or too little access. Hiring managers either cannot see their own candidates or can see everyone's.
5. Treating onboarding as a separate project. If payroll and HR setup start after offers go out, the office opens short-staffed.
6. Skipping the review. After launch, check the outcomes above and adjust the workflow before the next office opens.

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