Candidate journey: six stages from discovery to onboarding

A candidate journey focuses on considering a role and going through recruitment. An employee journey follows someone’s experience after joining, including work, development, changes in role and eventual departure. The offer-to-start handover connects them.

This guide includes preboarding and the start of onboarding to make that handover visible. It is not a complete model of the employee lifecycle. For the platform context, see the connected employee journey across Hire, Onboard and Grow.

Someone may first notice your organisation through a job advertisement, social channel, company article or conversation. Check what that first contact tells them and where they can find more information.

Keep the job and employer information consistent across those channels. A candidate should be able to recognise the organisation and reach the relevant career page or vacancy.

At this stage, a person looks beyond the vacancy to learn about the organisation, its values and working culture. Employee stories and practical information can help them form a clearer picture of the work.

Use the employer branding guide to review what you communicate about the workplace. Keep the message consistent with what candidates will hear in interviews and what employees experience after joining.

Walk through the application for the job you are advertising. Check the instructions, required information and mobile experience. Remove unnecessary complexity and make the next step clear.

Confirm receipt of the application and explain how the process will continue. Give the candidate a contact and an expected timeline, then communicate when the arrangements change.

Use interviews to discuss the work, expectations and questions from both sides. Explain the role's challenges and the team's ways of working so the candidate can consider whether the position suits them.

The employer and candidate both decide whether to continue. A candidate may be rejected, withdraw or decline an offer. Give each outcome an owner for clear closing communication. The candidate experience guide covers the practical treatment of candidates across the process.

After acceptance, continue the contact and arrange the practical start. Confirm arrival details, introduce the relevant contact and coordinate the work that internal teams need to complete.

The preboarding tips guide gives that handover structure. Keep what was discussed during hiring connected to the manager's preparation and the welcome, rather than asking the new employee to repeat every detail.

Illustrative example at a fintech infrastructure organisation: an Implementation Manager accepts an offer after discussing a team location and first-week introductions. The recruiter confirms the agreed arrangements and hands the preparation to the manager and People team. The first-week plan includes Product for the platform overview, Engineering for technical questions and Support for understanding how internal questions are handed over. The manager explains why each introduction matters to this illustrative role, checks what is still outstanding and names the contact before day one.

Arrange introductions, role learning, clear expectations and regular conversations. The employee needs a prepared start and support as they begin working with new colleagues and processes.

Ask candidates and new employees which contact or instruction was unclear. Review the stages together to find where information was lost or a handover lacked an owner. For a practical recruitment reference, request the hiring guide.

Choose one vacancy and walk through what a candidate actually receives. For each stage, record the contact, the question it should answer, the person responsible and the next step. Use actual messages and instructions rather than an idealised process diagram.

For example, after offer acceptance, record who sends the arrival details, what the candidate still needs to confirm and who handles a changed start date. If two teams assume the other will send the message, assign one owner. Review the handover with the colleague receiving it.

Include routes that stop before acceptance. Check who communicates a rejection, acknowledges a withdrawal or closes a declined offer, and what the candidate is told about the outcome. A map that only follows successful hires misses those contacts.