Requisition Intake and Approval Workflow

This template is used to submit a job requisition with the details approvers need to review it: role scope, business justification, headcount type, budget, and hiring ownership. It creates a consistent intake path instead of relying on email threads or ad hoc messages. The approval section also leaves an audit trail of who reviewed the request and what they approved.

The hiring manager usually completes the intake, often with support from HR or a recruiter. Finance may need to confirm budget fields before approval, but they should not be asked to rewrite the role scope. If your organization uses a workforce planning team, they can also prefill or validate the request before routing it onward.

Use it every time you need approval to open a new role, replace a departing employee, or change staffing type for an existing need. It is also useful when a role is being reopened after a hiring pause or when the budget source changes. Keeping the same form for every request makes approvals easier to compare and track.

The business justification should explain why the role is needed now, what work will not get done without it, and how the position supports the team or department. Avoid vague statements like "we are busy" and instead tie the request to workload, revenue, service levels, compliance, or a replacement need. If the role is temporary or project-based, say so in the justification.

The headcount and budget section captures the staffing type, FTE, salary range, budget source, and budget justification so finance can review the request without chasing missing details. That helps reduce back-and-forth and makes it easier to compare the request against approved headcount plans. If your process requires it, you can add conditional logic for different budget owners or approval paths.

Yes. You can add conditional fields for contractor, part-time, temporary, or replacement requests, and you can tailor required skills by department or job family. For highly regulated roles, you can also add fields for license requirements, shift coverage, or location constraints. Keep the form lean by showing only the fields that apply to the request type.

Common mistakes include leaving out the replacement reason, using free-text salary fields instead of structured numeric inputs, and marking every field required. Another frequent issue is collecting too much personal data too early, which creates unnecessary PII exposure. The form should also make clear what happens after submission so requesters know when to expect review.

Email and chat requests often miss key fields, create version confusion, and make approvals hard to audit later. This template standardizes the intake so hiring, finance, and HR review the same information in the same order. It also supports clearer validation, fewer follow-up questions, and a more reliable approval trail.

After submission, the request should route to the hiring manager, finance, and HR in the order your process requires, with status updates or approval notes captured along the way. If a field is missing or the budget is unclear, the request should be returned for correction rather than approved by exception. The submitter should see whether the requisition is pending, approved, or needs revision.