Mitigating Risk with Evergreen Requisitions

An evergreen requisition is a requisition that is continually open. They are commonly used for high turnover positions, highly populated positions, entry level, or hard to fill and mission critical positions. Evergreen requisitions can be an efficient recruitment tool for recruiters and the recruiting process. However, it can also create unnecessarily large applicant pools if there is not a method for determining who from the candidate pool is interested in and qualified for the specific requisition. Ideally, contractors want small and well-defined applicant pools for each hire that is made.

Berkshire recommends not using evergreen requisitions if they are not necessary. If they are crucial to your recruitment strategy, it is recommended that before opening an evergreen requisition, to be strategic about how it will be used. First, determine the need:

• Is it a hard-to-find skill set?
• Are there multiple hires for a single requisition?
• Is the same position at different locations?
• Is it a high-turnover position?

Next, determine how the applicant tracking system data will be used to explain the specific selection decisions. For instance, the evergreen requisition can be closed on a regularly scheduled basis, such as monthly or quarterly. Placing limits on the length of time requisitions can be open will help limit the size of the pool.

The evergreen requisition could used as an internal resume database. When opening a specific requisition, contractors might conduct a search on the evergreen requisition to find the candidates who meet minimum qualifications. Or recruiters could search for individuals who indicated they were applying for a specific location. The next step is to narrow down who is qualified and who is interested by notifying candidates that they might want to apply to the open position on your career page.

A final point of note is that if the entire talent pool is reviewed for each requisition, there is a record-keeping obligation to apply every candidate under every requisition. The recruiters will need to reach out to each person at least two times before dispositioning as not interested. Finally, be sure to audit the use of evergreen requisitions for patterns of consistent impact ratio analysis results over time within the organization.