And Should We Still Use Them?

Have you fallen victim to the “Evergreen” job posting? You’re not alone, and odds are, your application has been submitted to the virtual limbo known in the recruiting space as an “evergreen req”. The classic default “pipelining” efforts of many organizations. Claimed by many to be a useful way to collect applications on roles that are hired for frequently, but more realistically a disappointing black hole for candidates, and non-compliant slush pile of applicant interest that no recruiter has the energy or daily discipline to comb through.

So what is an “Evergreen” Req and why do we still use them?

Historically, evergreen reqs have been used as a mechanism for “pipelining” talent. It’s a requisition or job posting that stays open indefinitely, to allow applications to collect over time. Theoretically, this allows a recruiter or manager to go in “pro-actively” when they anticipate a need, and find viable candidates.

When organizations are able to identify core or strategic roles that impact their strategic goals, the strategy is generally to find a mechanism for “pipelining” this type of talent, and always have a person ready to be interviewed or hired. It’s also common to use evergreen reqs for roles that have high turnover, or high volume roles (let’s say manufacturing or software development) Sounds reasonable right?

Well, here’s where this has gone very very wrong over the years…

1. Compliance – Evergreen Requisitions and job postings (usually one in the same), are NOT being captured, and governed in many cases like other requisitions, which means the applicants/candidates are not receiving the standard minimum fair hiring practices governed by the EEOC and OFCCP. It’s a very grey area of compliance reporting and typically gets scrubbed from data outputs for government purposes because it’s not seen as an “active” requisition – it’s merely “branding”. *Disclaimer* – not all companies do this and most do not intend to be non-compliant – but the lines are incredibly blurred.
2. Candidates will get lost – which means it’s losing it’s intended purpose! Rarely are these postings transparently stating that you’re applying for a potential opening in the future, and rather – it’s a standard job description posting, creating the illusion that someone is applying for an active opening. On the back end of this collection – it’s random at best when a recruiter will review the list of applicants and, once reviewed – the candidate may be deemed “not a fit” for one manager or department, and won’t get to be re-reviewed unless another recruiter opens up the old applications on the list. It’s very messy and nuanced between how recruiters are reviewing the information since it’s usually a shared requisition between team members.
3. Poor Candidate Experience – Often this is the reason candidates are NOT ever hearing back from companies, because they applied to an evergreen req. Since these remain open indefinitely (or long term), there is very little “dispositioning” taking place from recruiters on that req – because there is no actual opening yet to disposition them for. Therefore, the candidate assumes they applied for something, and might be mystified why they never hear back!
4. The pool becomes obsolete quickly – Just because someone was actively interested in the job a month ago – does not mean they will be today. Without heavy applicant management – these lists of potential candidates quickly becomes useless, which is why recruiters often don’t want to waste their time scrubbing an evergreen req to begin with!
5. Back end reporting becomes HELL with evergreen requisitions – If you’re using them, and want any form of data integrity, you need to have a buttoned up process in place for how candidates get managed and financially available requisitions get opened off of said evergreen req. Otherwise – you’ll end up with a typical mess of data discrepancies between financial reports and HR/Talent data.

There are far better approaches to pipelining candidates now than using an evergreen job req.

Technology and applicant tracking system advancements can be configured in a way similar to CRM platforms now allowing for detailed candidate management if set up properly (though admittedly – that’s rare). When candidates are treated like potential customers and managed similarly with regular outreach, “courting”, you can maintain pools of future hires and manage focused lists of viable candidates.

What I’m seeing now that truly disappoints me is the leverage of an evergreen requisition to take advantage of a saturated job seeker market. I’ve seen more random evergreen posts lately than I have in years. On one hand – I am better able to identify them because many companies are trying to be more transparent about their intentions with the posting. I often see these identified as “talent network” or “future opening” as the titles. On the other hand, I’m seeing these in the form of re-posted jobs, that visibly have hundreds of applications and continuously get re-posted.

This tells me a few things: You’re either using the posting in an evergreen fashion, and have no intention of hiring on it (until you’re desperate) – or – you really don’t know what you want to hire for (because surely there is someone qualified in that pool!). For all the reasons above, I’ll never be a fan.

What do you think?