A vacancy request form decides what a manager is asked for when they request a new role, who approves the request, and who can submit one at all. You set it up in Settings → Forms → Vacancy request in four steps. The last step, Who can submit?, decides whether anybody except administrators sees the form.
Before you start
Recruit must be on your plan. The Vacancy request tile only appears on accounts with Recruit.
You need access to the Forms settings. Administrators always have it. For other roles, an administrator adds Forms to the role's settings permissions.
Decide on the approvers first. Requests that are already submitted keep the approval chain they started with, so changes only affect new requests.
Create a form
1. Go to Settings → Forms and select the Vacancy request tile. The list shows every published form, who created it and when it was last updated. Click + Form.
Step 1. Details
2. Enter the Vacancy request name. Managers pick the form by this name, so use what they would call it, for example "New headcount" or "Backfill". The Description is optional and appears as a tooltip next to the name in the forms list. Click Next.
Step 2. Fields
3. Under Vacancy fields, choose what the manager has to fill in. A new form starts with all standard fields already added, so this step is mostly about removing what you don't need:
Click × at the end of a row to remove a field.
Tick Required if the manager can't submit the request without this field. Vacancy title is always required and can't be removed.
Drag a row by the six-dot icon on the left to change the order.
4. Click Add field to bring back a field you removed or to add one of your custom vacancy fields. To create a new custom field, click Manage vacancy fields; it opens in a new tab. Click Next.
Note: the form needs at least one field. Legal entity appears in the list only if legal entities are switched on for your account.
Default fields and what they mean for a request
Vacancy title is the only core field. It is always on the form, always required and can't be removed, because every request needs a title to become a vacancy. All other default fields can be made optional or removed:
Make a field optional: clear Required next to it. The requester sees the field but can submit the request without filling it in, so the vacancy may be created without that value.
Make a field required: tick Required when the recruiter can't open the vacancy without that information, for example the department or the number of positions.
Remove a field: click ×. The requester isn't asked for it, and the vacancy created from the request won't have that value either.
Manage custom vacancy fields
Custom fields are managed in Settings → Vacancy fields (in the Recruit section), or through Manage vacancy fields on the Fields step.
Edit: click the pencil icon to change the name, help text, required setting or options.
Delete: click the trash icon and confirm. The field is removed from every vacancy request form at once and stops showing on requests that are still in progress. A deleted field can't be restored.
Custom fields can't be archived. To stop asking for a field on one form only, remove it from that form with × instead of deleting the field.
Step 3. Approvals
5. Tick Approvals enabled to send each request through an approval chain. If you leave it off, a request is approved as soon as it is submitted.
6. Click Add approver and choose who approves at this step. Each step is a rule, not a fixed person, so the same chain works for anyone who submits the form:
Personal: the requester's Manager, Manager's manager, 3rd level manager, Team lead(s), or a Person reference field from their profile
Department: the manager of the requester's department, or a person reference field on the department
Specific person: the same named person for every request
Add as many approvers as you need. They approve one after another, in the order listed. If the requester is also the approver at a step, that step is approved automatically.
7. Choose what happens when a rule finds nobody:
Skip unassigned enabled: the step is skipped instead of blocking the request, for example when the requester has no manager.
Substitution enabled: requests for an approver who is on non-working leave go to their substitute.
8. Click Next.
Step 4. Who can submit?
9. Choose who can see and submit the form:
Everyone: the whole company.
Specific people: click Add condition to limit the form by department, location, job level, team or named people.
⚠️ Specific people with no conditions is selected by default. If you leave it like that, 0 people match and nobody can find the form. Administrators see every published form, so the form looks fine to you but not to anybody else.
People who aren't employed or hired are always excluded, as the Lifecycle status is Employed, Hired label shows.
9. Click Complete to publish the form.
What happens to a request
Fields carry over to the vacancy. When someone clicks Create vacancy on an approved request, the new vacancy is pre-filled with the request's values. A request without a priority arrives as Normal.
Expected start date and notes stay on the request. They are not copied to the vacancy.
Approval doesn't create the vacancy. Someone still has to click Create vacancy on the approved request.
Approvers can only approve or reject. There is no option to send a request back for changes.
Manage forms
Click ⋯ next to a form to Edit, Make a copy or Delete it.
Changes to a form apply only to requests submitted after the change.
You can have several forms, for example one per region or one for backfills. Managers pick the one they need by name.
Deleting a form doesn't delete the requests already made with it.
💡 A form is saved only when you click Complete. If you start another new form before finishing, your unfinished one is deleted.