Request a demo
← Back to glossary

What is a job requisition?

Talent Acquisition

A job requisition is a formal request to fill a position, created by a hiring manager and approved before recruiting begins. It records why the role is needed and details such as the title, team, location, and budget. Once approved, the requisition opens the role for recruiting, and many teams start counting time to fill from that point.

How a job requisition works

A job requisition is the internal step between deciding a role is needed and starting to recruit for it. Recruiters often shorten it to "req." The hiring manager makes the request, the people who control headcount and budget approve it, and the approved requisition becomes the record that recruiting works from.

US federal hiring writes this step down. In OPM's Hiring Process Analysis Tool, the manager creates a Request for Personnel Action, the SF-52, to fill the position and obtains approval of it before recruiting moves forward. OPM's quick sheet on processing personnel actions shows the SF-52 has a dedicated part for reviews and approvals. Private employers usually run the same step in an applicant tracking system (ATS) or HR system, and the fields and approvers vary by company.

Most requisitions capture some version of the following:

  • The reason: Whether the role is new or a backfill for someone who left.
  • The position: Title, team, level, and location.
  • The budget: The pay range and the cost center that funds the role.
  • The approvals: Who signed off and when.

A requisition is different from a job posting, which is the public description candidates see, and from a job opening as government statistics count it. The Bureau of Labor Statistics JOLTS survey counts a job as open only when a specific position exists with work available, the work could start within 30 days, and the employer is actively recruiting from outside the establishment. Positions open only to internal transfers or promotions are excluded, so an approved requisition filled by an internal move never shows up in those figures.

Why job requisitions matter for talent teams

  • Metrics start here: The recruitment metrics standard ISO/TS 30430:2021 counts time to fill from the delivery of an approved requisition to staffing until the candidate accepts the offer. Findem's recruiting KPI dashboard template pulls the requisition ID and the requisition open or approval date from the ATS for the same calculation.
  • Late requisitions compress the search: Findem's post on proactive talent pipelines describes a requisition that reaches a recruiter six weeks after a business plan changed, with a start date that has already passed and no time left to build relationships, assess internal candidates, or test the market.
  • The requisition carries context: Candidate data, requisition context, and workflow history all live in the ATS, which is why Findem's guide to recruiting with MCP treats live ATS access as a requirement for AI tools that support recruiters.

How Findem approaches job requisitions

Findem works alongside the ATS rather than replacing the requisition record. According to Findem's integrations page, the ATS remains the system of record. ATS Rediscovery surfaces past applicants, finalists, and silver medalists who match current searches, and Candidate Export sends notes, tags, and attachments back to the ATS so context stays with the candidate record.

Once a requisition is approved, Intelligent Job Post starts from the job description. A guided intake captures what the description leaves out, such as must-haves, nice-to-haves, and screening criteria, and turns it into a scorecard. Findem then previews real, vetted candidates so the team can confirm or adjust the bar before the search starts, and people make the call on who advances.

Findem's workforce planning page also covers the limit of requisition data. Requisition reports show open roles, pipeline stages, and fill rates, but they can't show whether the skills a team needs exist in a target metro or whether current employees could move into those roles. Findem adds that evidence before requisitions open.

Further reading

Related terms

Sources

Frequently asked questions.

A job requisition is the internal request and approval to fill a position. A job posting is the public description candidates read when they apply. The requisition usually comes first, and the posting is written once the role is approved.

It depends on the employer. The hiring manager usually makes the request, and the people who control headcount and budget approve it, often including the manager's leader, finance, and HR. In US federal agencies, the manager creates an SF-52 Request for Personnel Action and obtains approval before recruiting begins.

An open requisition is an approved request that has not been filled yet. Recruiting teams track open requisitions to see current workload and how long roles stay unfilled, which is the basis of the time-to-fill metric.

Not always in government statistics. The BLS JOLTS survey counts a job as open only if a specific position exists, the work could start within 30 days, and the employer is actively recruiting from outside the establishment. Roles open only to internal candidates are excluded.

Findem works alongside the ATS, which remains the system of record. It surfaces past applicants and finalists who match current searches, turns a job description into a scorecard through a guided intake, and previews vetted candidates before the search starts. People decide who advances.