Flow – hiring managers typically prefer batch processing (over flow). Batch processing (i.e. "send me over some candidates to choose from…") is a corporate recruiting tradition. (So much of staffing follows corporate "traditions"). It's what hiring managers are most familiar with. It promotes indecision and a floating candidate spec. Batch processing creates waste tied to both waiting and defective candidates. The candidate threshold in batch environments is lower than in a flow processing environment. Staffing departments engaged in "in-box recruiting" are the worst. They run a monster search, grab a bunch of resumes and flush them to the hiring manager. Walla! That should keep 'em quite for a while!

Pull – (vs. push). Push systems promote overproduction, over processing, waiting and inventory waste. We see it all the time. The Kanban is a great tool when applied to staffing. The signal to the recruiting department that the hiring manager has interviewed the last candidate and would like to see another. Pull systems force the hiring manager to engage in the process. It promotes a dialog around every candidate that missed the mark. That leads to continuous improvement.  Often times the staffing group "pushes" candidates across the desk of the hiring manager when the hiring manager is ill prepared to focus on the (staffing) task at hand. The recruiter (and candidate) wait, and wait, and wait. The push system is the traditional approach. "I think we'll have an opening so can you begin sourcing?"

When you combine flow processing and a pull system you get the following:

1. Better communication between hiring manager and recruiter
2. Better candidate experience and a lower interview to offer ratio