Recruitment Terms & Definitions
Job Requisition: Meaning, Approval Process and Status
A job requisition is essentially a formal request or authorization for a new position within a company. It’s the first step in the process of filling a job opening. When a department or team identifies a need for additional manpower due to expansion, turnover, or restructuring, they create a job requisition to outline the specifics of the role they need to fill.
This document typically includes details such as the job title, responsibilities, qualifications, salary range, and any other requirements deemed necessary for the position. It serves as a roadmap for the recruitment process, guiding recruiters and hiring managers in sourcing, screening, and selecting candidates who best fit the outlined criteria.
Job requisitions are crucial for maintaining organizational structure, ensuring that the right talent is brought on board to meet business objectives effectively. They also facilitate communication between hiring managers and recruiters, helping streamline the hiring process and ensure alignment between talent needs and company goals.
Once a requisition is approved, our job description templates cover the most common frontline and trades roles.
How to create a job requisition?
Creating a job requisition involves several key steps to ensure clarity, alignment, and effectiveness in the hiring process. Here’s a structured approach:
- Identify the need: Begin by clearly defining why a new position is necessary. Is it due to company growth, increased workload, or a need to fill a skill gap? Understanding the underlying need will help shape the job requisition.
- Define the position: Craft a detailed job description that outlines the responsibilities, duties, and objectives of the role. Be specific about the skills, qualifications, and experience required. Consider including information about the team the role will be part of, reporting structure, and any unique aspects of the position.
- Determine reporting structure and salary: Specify the reporting relationships for the position, including the direct supervisor and any team members. Decide on an appropriate salary range based on market research, internal equity considerations, and budget constraints.
- Establish key performance indicators (KPIs): Define the measurable outcomes and performance expectations for the role. This could include targets, goals, or metrics that the employee will be responsible for achieving.
- Review and approval process: Establish a process for reviewing and approving the job requisition. This typically involves obtaining sign-off from relevant stakeholders, such as department heads, HR, and finance, to ensure alignment with organizational goals and budget.
- Post-requisition procedures: Determine how the job requisition will be communicated internally and externally. Decide where the job posting will be advertised, whether it’s on the company’s careers page, job boards, or through recruitment agencies.
- Set timeline and deadlines: Establish a timeline for the recruitment process, including deadlines for submitting applications, conducting interviews, and making hiring decisions. Ensure that the timeline aligns with business needs and allows sufficient time to find and onboard the right candidate.
- Continuous review and improvement: After the position is filled, gather feedback from hiring managers, recruiters, and new hires to assess the effectiveness of the job requisition process. Use this feedback to make improvements and adjustments for future requisitions.
By following these steps, organizations can create clear and comprehensive job requisitions that attract qualified candidates and support the overall hiring strategy.
Who approves a job requisition?
The approval process for a job requisition typically involves several key stakeholders within an organization to ensure alignment with strategic objectives, budget constraints, and staffing needs. Here’s a breakdown of who might be involved in approving a job requisition:
Hiring Manager or Department Head: The hiring manager or department head is usually the primary initiator of the job requisition. They identify the need for a new position within their team or department and define the specific requirements and responsibilities of the role.
HR Department: The Human Resources (HR) department plays a crucial role in the job requisition process. HR professionals review the requisition to ensure compliance with company policies, fairness in job descriptions, alignment with organizational goals, and adherence to legal requirements.
Finance Department: The finance department may be involved in approving job requisitions, especially if the position will have budgetary implications such as salary, benefits, or additional resources needed. They assess whether the hiring aligns with the company’s budget and financial goals.
Executive Management: In some organizations, job requisitions may require approval from executive management or higher-level leadership. This ensures that new hires align with the company’s overall strategic direction and that resources are allocated appropriately across the organization.
Legal Department: Depending on the nature of the position and the industry in which the company operates, the legal department may need to review and approve job requisitions to ensure compliance with labor laws, regulations, and internal policies.
Diversity and Inclusion Representatives: In organizations with a focus on diversity and inclusion, representatives from these departments may also be involved in reviewing job requisitions to ensure that they promote diversity in hiring practices and foster an inclusive workplace culture.
The specific approval process may vary depending on the organization’s structure, size, and internal policies. However, involving these key stakeholders helps ensure that job requisitions are thoroughly vetted, aligned with organizational goals, and compliant with relevant regulations.
Requisition, job description, job posting: three different documents
These three get used interchangeably and they are not the same thing. The requisition is an internal authorization to spend money on a person. The job description defines the role. The job posting is the public advertisement written to attract applicants. One approves, one defines, one sells.
| Document | Audience | What it is for | Who signs it off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job requisition | Internal only | Authorizes the headcount and the budget for a specific opening | Hiring manager, finance, HR |
| Job description | Internal, then reused externally | Defines duties, requirements and essential functions of the role | Hiring manager, HR |
| Job posting or job ad | Candidates | Attracts applications; written to be read on a phone in ninety seconds | Whoever owns recruiting |
A common and expensive mistake is publishing the requisition’s contents as the advertisement. The requisition is written to satisfy an approver; the ad has to satisfy a candidate. See job description templates for the middle document and the job posting template for the public one.
Requisition status: what each stage actually means
Most applicant tracking systems move a requisition through a fixed set of states. The labels vary between systems, but the sequence does not.
| Status | What it means | What should be happening |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Being written; not yet submitted | The hiring manager is defining the role and the budget |
| Pending approval | Submitted and waiting on a sign-off | Nothing is being recruited. This is dead time and it counts against your time to fill |
| Approved | The headcount and budget are authorized; the role may now be advertised | Post the job the same day. An approved requisition that sits unposted is the single most common source of avoidable delay |
| Open or posted | Live and accepting applications | Sourcing, screening and interviewing |
| On hold | Paused, usually for budget or a reorganization | Tell every candidate in the pipeline. Silence here is what produces the reviews you do not want |
| Filled | An offer has been accepted | Close out everyone else — see the rejection templates |
| Closed or canceled | The role will not be filled | Same as filled: close out the pipeline rather than leaving it open |
The status that deserves attention is approved. Approval is the moment the clock starts on money you have already committed, and an approved requisition that nobody has posted is pure waste. Time to fill is measured from requisition opened to offer accepted, so every day in pending approval and every day between approval and posting is in your number whether or not anybody was recruiting.
Who approves a requisition, and how long it should take
The approval chain usually runs hiring manager, then department head or finance, then HR. In a small frontline business it is often one owner signing their own request, which is faster and carries its own risk: nobody checks whether the role is really needed or whether the pay is still competitive.
Whatever the chain, put a service-level agreement on it. Two business days is a reasonable ceiling for a frontline requisition. SHRM’s 2026 benchmarking puts the median time to fill for non-executive roles at 39 calendar days, measured from the requisition being opened to the offer being accepted, so an approval step that routinely takes a week is consuming an eighth of the whole cycle before a single candidate has seen the job.
If approval is slow because the budget is genuinely uncertain, the fix is a standing workforce plan with pre-approved backfills for predictable turnover, rather than treating every replacement hire as a new negotiation.
Frequently asked questions
What is a job requisition?
A job requisition is a formal internal request to fill a position. It authorizes the headcount and the budget for one specific opening and records the title, the reason for the opening, the pay range and the approvals. It is an internal document and is never the text you advertise.
What does requisition status approved mean?
It means the headcount and the budget have been signed off and the role can now be advertised. It does not mean the job has been posted. An approved requisition that has not been posted is dead time that still counts against your time to fill, so the job should go live the same day.
What is the difference between a job requisition and a job description?
The requisition authorizes the spend for one opening; the job description defines the role itself. The requisition is internal and short-lived, while the job description is reused every time you hire for that role.
Who approves a job requisition?
Typically the hiring manager raises it, a department head or finance approves the budget, and HR confirms the pay range and the job description. In a small business it is often a single owner. What matters more than the number of approvers is putting a time limit on the step.
What does job req mean?
Job req is shorthand for job requisition. A requisition ID or req number is the reference an applicant tracking system assigns so applications, interviews and the eventual hire can be tied back to one authorized opening.
How long should requisition approval take?
Two business days is a reasonable ceiling for a frontline role. Against a median time to fill of 39 calendar days for non-executive positions, an approval step that takes a week is consuming a meaningful share of the cycle before anyone has seen the job advertised.