Partner Recruiting with ChannelSUITE

The ChannelSUITE Recruiter function helps facilitate and organize your partner recruiting efforts. It provides a list of open “in process” partner recruit applications, along with useful features for collecting and organizing data on each recruit. When a recruit is approved, the data is used to create a new Partner record in channelADMIN, along with a new Location record and a new Contact record. Historical data for both approved and rejected recruit applications is available.

One key to understanding the Recruiter function: The system does NOT impose a rigid work flow. From the time a recruit application enters the system to the time it's either approved or rejected, data can be added in any order it becomes available, by anyone who has the appropriate system permission to perform that action (see the “roles and permissions” section below).

Recruits can be entered in the system by your staff, or may optionally be entered by prospective partners themselves via a form on your public website.

Permissions control who is allowed to do something, whereas roles define who is responsible for doing something.

Permissions are set under an admin user's System Account tab (Administrators > Summary > users name > Systems Account). There are 4 permissions relevant to the Recruiter function:

• the Manage Recruits permission is needed to make updates to the Recruit record, such as marking off checklist items, adding endorsements, or adding notes or attachments.
• the Approve Recruits permission is needed to grant final approval and create a new Partner record. Only users with authority to sign off on partner applications should be granted this permission.
• the System Manager permission is needed to add new checklist items and manage the email notifications.
• the Manage Admin Accounts permissions is needed to grant permissions and assign roles.

There are 2 roles related to the Recruiter function:

• the Recruit Coordinator receive an email when new recruit applications are entered in the system, and are expected to either assign the application to another admin or move the application forward. The recruit coordinator role is set at Recruits > Manage Other Settings. Anyone with this role would need to have the Manage Recruits permission.
• the Recruit Final Approval role is notified when a recruit application is changed to the “ready for final approval” status by any of the admins. Only people with the Approve Recruits permission are eligible for this role.

In a small organization, there may be one person who has primary responsibility for recruiting, and one other person with authority to approve new partners. In this case, the first person should be given the “manage recruits” permission and assigned the “recruit coordinator” role. The second person should be given the “manage recruits” and “approve recruits” permissions, and be assigned the “final approver” role. The first person would process the application until it's “ready for final approval” or “rejected”. When the application is changed to “ready for final approval” status, the “final approver” will be notified via email and will then approve (or reject).

In this organization, one or more people should be given the “recruit coordinator” role. Their job should be to perform “triage” and assign the incoming recruits to an appropriate admin (who must have the “manage recruits” permission) based on geographic or other characteristics of the recruit. The assigned admins would then be responsible for pushing the application through the process, “referring” the application to other admins for input as needed, until the application is marked “ready for final approval” (with an email automatically sent to the final approver(s)) or “rejected”.

• Can I get an email notification when a new recruit application is received? – Yes, if you have the “recruit coordinator” role. Multiple recruit coordinators may be assigned.
• What's the difference between “new” and “open” status? – The “new” status indicates that nobody has started to process the application yet.
• Why can't I approve this recruit? – Only admins with the “approve recruits” permission can approve an application. However, you can change the status to “ready for final approval”, and admins with the “final approvers” role will be notified that approval action is required.
• How do recruit applications get into the system? – They can be entered by admins, or they can be received from a public website (see the integration section below)
• What are these “checklist” items for? Can I add new items to the list? – checklist items can show steps to be taken in processing a recruit application (e.g. “check references”), characteristics of the recruit (“has on-site repair facility”), or both. New checklist items can be added to the list by your system administrator.

If you're actively recruiting new partners, you may want to put an application form on your public website. The submitted applications can be directly inserted into your recruit summary with status “new”. See the recruiter integration for more information.