> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://help.smartcv.co/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://help.smartcv.co/hiring-plans-overview.md).
# Hiring Plans Overview
Hiring Plans help your organization plan and monitor future recruitment needs before individual hiring requests are created.
A Hiring Plan represents what your organization expects to hire and why during a specific period. It provides a higher-level view of planned recruitment activity and can be used to organize hiring needs by organization, department, owner, period, and budget.
Hiring Plans are intentionally separate from individual hiring requests. A plan may be created and activated well before recruitment actually begins, and it may later contain one or more Requisitions.
This allows HR teams to plan ahead without being required to immediately create or publish jobs.
To learn how individual hiring requests are managed, see Requisitions.
**When to use a Hiring Plan**
A Hiring Plan is useful when your organization wants to plan recruitment activity in advance.
For example, an organization may create an annual or departmental Hiring Plan covering:
* planned recruitment for the next year;
* expansion of a specific department;
* replacement or growth hiring;
* recruitment associated with a new project or business unit;
* hiring activity within an approved budget.
The Hiring Plan provides the planning layer. Actual requests to start recruiting are created separately as Requisitions.
**Creating a Hiring Plan**
When creating a Hiring Plan, you can define information such as:
* Name – a descriptive name for the plan;
* Organization – the organization to which the plan applies;
* Department – the relevant department, where applicable;
* Owner – the person responsible for the plan;
* Start and end dates – the period covered by the plan;
* Budget – the planned recruitment budget;
* Description – additional information about the purpose or context of the plan.
A Hiring Plan is initially created as a Draft.
This allows you to prepare and review the plan before making it available for operational use.
**Activating a Hiring Plan**
When a Hiring Plan is ready, it can be changed from Draft to Active.
An Active Hiring Plan can then be used when creating Requisitions.
Activation does not automatically create jobs or start recruitment. It simply indicates that the plan has been approved internally for operational use.
This separation is important: planning a future hire does not necessarily mean that recruitment should start immediately.
**Returning a Hiring Plan to Draft**
An Active Hiring Plan can be returned to Draft while it has no associated Requisitions.
Once Requisitions have been created under the plan, it cannot be returned to Draft.
This protects the consistency of existing hiring requests and their relationship with the plan.
**Creating Requisitions from a Hiring Plan**
A Hiring Plan can contain multiple Requisitions.
For example, a plan for expanding a Sales department could eventually contain separate Requisitions for:
* Sales Representatives;
* Account Managers;
* a Sales Manager.
This means that the relationship is not necessarily one Hiring Plan to one job.
A Hiring Plan describes the broader recruitment requirement, while each Requisition represents a specific request to begin a hiring process.
For more information about creating and managing hiring requests, see Requisitions.
**Monitoring Hiring Plan progress**
The Hiring Plan details page provides a consolidated view of the activity associated with the plan.
Depending on the available data, you can monitor information such as:
* total Requisitions;
* pending Requisitions;
* approved Requisitions;
* rejected Requisitions;
* planned headcount;
* approved headcount;
* requested budget;
* approved budget usage;
* remaining budget.
This allows HR teams and managers to compare the original recruitment plan with the requests that have actually progressed through the organization.
**Requisitions and approvals**
Requisitions created under a Hiring Plan may require approval before recruitment can proceed.
Approval requirements are controlled through reusable Approval Workflows.
An Approval Workflow can include multiple approval levels and multiple approvers at each level.
The Hiring Plan itself remains the planning layer, while approvals take place at the individual Requisition level.
For details about approval levels, approvers, and approval rules, see Approval Workflows.
**Hiring Planning Report**
The Hiring Planning Report provides an aggregated view of Hiring Plans and their associated Requisitions.
It can be used to analyze information such as:
* Hiring Plan status;
* Requisition status;
* planned headcount;
* approved Requisitions;
* budget;
* activity over time;
* distribution by department;
* distribution by owner.
Filters can be used to focus the report on a specific period, organization, department, owner, or status.
**Deleting a Hiring Plan**
A Hiring Plan can only be deleted while it is in Draft status and has no associated Requisitions.
Once Requisitions exist, the plan forms part of the recruitment history and cannot be deleted through the normal Hiring Plan deletion process.
**Hiring Plans vs. Requisitions**
The easiest way to understand the distinction is:
Hiring Plan: \
What do we expect or intend to hire?
Requisition: \
Are we ready to request and approve this specific hire?
A Hiring Plan can therefore exist without any Requisitions, and a single Hiring Plan can later result in multiple Requisitions.
This separation allows organizations to use Worklife Recruit for recruitment planning without forcing every planned hire to immediately become an active recruitment process.
**Related Help**
* Requisitions – Learn how to create, submit, approve, reject, and manage individual hiring requests.
* Approval Workflows – Learn how reusable approval processes are configured and applied to Requisitions.
