Introduction
Designing your hiring process is key to finding great candidates while making the best use of your team’s time. We’ve supported over 35 recruitment rounds and frequently get asked about the two common approaches to application review: batched and rolling.
- Rolling application review: Applications are reviewed as they come in. Candidates can move through the process independently of others.
- Batched application review: Applications are reviewed together after the deadline (although you can start reviewing candidates in smaller batches as they come in). Candidates progress through stages at the same time as each other.
Each approach has its pros and cons, and the best option depends on your organization’s needs, role type, and timeline.
Rolling application review
Rolling application reviews are best for:
- Senior or specialized roles where top talent is scarce and may have competing time-sensitive offers.
- Organizations that need to hire quickly or lack capacity for high-volume processing at once.
| Pros | ✅ Quick feedback: Candidates are reviewed and contacted sooner, reducing the risk of losing top talent to other offers.
✅ Flexibility: It’s easier to accommodate strong candidates who apply early. ✅ Spreads workload: Review tasks are spread out over time, avoiding intense peaks of activity. |
| Cons | ❌ Harder comparisons: Early candidates may be evaluated against lower benchmarks compared to later applicants, or vice versa.
❌ End-of-deadline rush: Most applications still arrive close to the deadline, reducing the benefit of rolling review. ❌ Coordination challenges: Managing candidates at different stages can be trickier to keep consistent and transparent. |
Batched application review
Batched application reviews are best for:
- Junior or generalist roles where a larger candidate pool is expected.
- Organizations with a well-prepared team that can handle high-volume reviews efficiently.
| Pros | ✅ Fairer comparison: Candidates are assessed within the same timeframe, making it easier to directly compare their strengths.
✅ Efficient capacity planning: Interviews, tasks, and decisions can be scheduled in focused blocks, saving time and improving recall. ✅ Predictable process: Candidates have clearer timelines, making it easier for them to plan ahead and reducing the need for them to be flexible at last minute. |
| Cons | ❌ Risk of thin talent pools: If too few candidates meet the bar after the deadline, additional outreach efforts might start too late.
❌ Longer timelines: Exceptional candidates may accept other offers before hearing back. ❌ Less flexibility: It’s harder to fast-track exceptional candidates. ❌ Intense workload peaks: Reviewing and coordinating many candidates at once can overwhelm small teams. |
Which should you choose?
The decision between batched and rolling application reviews depends on:
- Role seniority: Senior or specialized roles benefit from rolling reviews; junior or generalist roles suit batched reviews.
- Hiring team capacity and working styles: Rolling reviews spread the workload; batched reviews focus it into shorter, more intense periods. Keep your capacity and bigger events in mind when deciding.
- Urgency: Rolling reviews accelerate timelines, while batched reviews allow for more thorough comparison.
It’s also possible to use a hybrid approach, consisting of elements of both approaches, depending on how your organization works best and how much capacity you have.
Getting support
At Impact Ops, we’ve run several internal hiring rounds, and five external hiring rounds for some of the organizations we’re supporting. We’re really proud of the feedback we’ve received so far:
“The support on the hiring process has been excellent! And I’ve found all the communication to be clear, prompt, and helpful.”
– Josh Rosenberg, CEO at the Forecasting Research Institute
“Overall, I’ve enjoyed working with the team and appreciated the collaborative environment, and all the Slack reactions 🙂 Sara is someone super easy to work with. I look forward to working with you again. Thanks for all your super valuable help!”
– Cecilia Saura Drago, Director of Operations at Simon Institute for Longterm Governance
“Sara is such a pro. She was always organized and prepared and made the entire process as painless for us as possible. We are also very happy with the ultimate hire.”
– Michael Page, former CEO at the Forecasting Research Institute
“[It] was awesome how fast this whole thing happened … And how well-organized it was and smooth and adaptive to my needs!”
– Vael Gates, Founder at Arkose
Our mission at Impact Ops is to enable high-impact projects to grow and thrive. In service of this mission we’re excited about supporting early-stage organizations to manage their hiring rounds — by freeing up team members’ time, reducing bias in the process, giving candidates constructive feedback, and building trust between the job seeker and employer.
If you’d like support running your next hiring round, please get in touch at hello@impact-ops.org. If you’re about to run a recruitment round, check out how to make hiring less painful.