An intake meeting is the working session where a recruiter and a hiring manager agree what the role needs, how to judge candidates and how the process will run. Plan 45 to 60 minutes, bring a written agenda and a question list, and leave with a signed-off brief, a scorecard, a timeline and a named owner for each step.
Key takeaways
- Prepare before the meeting: read the old job description, the team structure and recent hires for similar roles.
- Use a fixed agenda: outcomes, must-haves, nice-to-haves, interview plan, timeline, pay range and risks.
- Calibrate with three or four real example CVs. This shows what the manager means in practice.
- End with written decisions and dates. Send the notes within one working day.
- Treat the meeting as a joint design session, not an order form.
How an intake meeting differs from a kickoff
Many teams use “intake” and “kickoff” for the same meeting. In this guide, an intake meeting is the detailed working session between the recruiter and the hiring manager. A kickoff may add more people, such as the interview panel. If you want the broader view, read our guide on the recruiter kickoff meeting. Here the focus is the question bank and the calibration step, which many teams skip.
Before the meeting: 30 minutes of preparation
- Read the old description and the team structure. Note anything that seems out of date.
- Look at past hires for similar roles. What worked? How long did hiring take? Use your own records, such as a hiring dashboard.
- Check the market. Collect a few current adverts for similar roles, with their requirements and pay if shown. Bring them as examples, not as a standard.
- Send a short pre-read. Ask the manager to write three bullet points: what will this person achieve in a year, what tasks will they do, and what skills are essential.
- Book 60 minutes and a quiet room. Block time for a 10-minute follow-up call if you need it.
A 50-minute agenda
| Minutes | Topic | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 5 | Purpose and agenda; confirm the decision-maker and approval status | Shared view of what the meeting must achieve |
| 5 to 15 | Outcomes and tasks: what success looks like in 6 and 12 months | Three outcomes, five to eight main tasks |
| 15 to 25 | Must-haves and nice-to-haves, and what evidence shows each | Draft must-have list with evidence examples |
| 25 to 35 | Calibration with sample CVs | Agreement on what a strong, a maybe and a not-yet CV looks like |
| 35 to 42 | Interview plan and scorecard: stages, panel, questions, tasks | Plan with owners |
| 42 to 47 | Timeline, pay range, approval and risks | Dates and constraints |
| 47 to 50 | Summary and next steps | List of decisions and follow-ups |
The question bank
Outcomes and context
- What should this person have achieved after six months and after twelve months?
- What is the most important problem they will solve?
- Why is the role open now? Is it new, a replacement or a change?
- Who will they work with every day? What do those people need?
- What would make you say, a year from now, that this was a great hire?
Requirements and evidence
- Which three skills or experiences does the person need on day one? What could they learn in the first three months?
- For each must-have, what would we see in a CV or hear in an interview that proves it?
- Which requirements come from the work, and which come from habit or past hires?
- Would a person with different experience but the same skill succeed? Which routes into this role are valid?
- Is any requirement a qualification the law or a regulator requires?
Process and logistics
- Who will be on the interview panel? Can all of them attend in the next two weeks?
- How fast can you give feedback after each stage? What turnaround do you commit to?
- What is the pay range, what flexibility exists, and who approves an offer?
- What is the target start date? What notice periods are likely?
- What would make you pause or end the search?
You can send the question bank before the meeting. Managers who see the questions in advance often arrive with better answers.
The calibration step: use real CVs
Words such as “strong communication” or “senior” mean different things to different people. Calibration turns them into examples. Take three or four anonymised CVs, for example from a past search with names removed or from public sample CVs, and ask the manager to mark each as strong, maybe or not yet. Then ask why. Write the reasons as evidence statements, such as “has led a team of at least five for a year” or “has handled customer complaints in writing”. Look for hidden criteria such as school names or employer prestige. If they appear, discuss whether they are job-related.
This step also exposes disagreements between the manager and other interviewers, which are much easier to fix before the search than in the debrief. Our guide on interview debrief meetings shows how disagreements surface later if they are not resolved earlier.
Keep the process fair
- Check each requirement for a protected trait. “Digital native”, “recent graduate” and “young team” signal age. “Native speaker” can signal national origin. Use a precise skill level instead.
- Do not accept cultural fit as a criterion. Ask for values-related behaviours that can be observed, and define them.
- Agree the same questions for every candidate. See structured interviews.
- Keep notes about work, not people. Record evidence for requirements.
The official sources on discrimination give the baseline. In the US, see the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission page on prohibited employment policies and practices. In Great Britain, see the Acas page on recruitment. In the EU, see the Employment Equality Directive and your national law.
After the meeting: the one-page brief
Send a one-page summary within one working day. Ask the manager to reply “agreed” or to mark changes. Use this layout.
| Section | Content |
|---|---|
| Role and reporting line | Title, team, manager, location or remote rules |
| Outcomes | Three outcomes for the first year |
| Main tasks | Five to eight |
| Must-haves | Three to five, each with the evidence that shows it |
| Nice-to-haves | Up to five, not used for rejection |
| Process | Stages, panel, tasks, scorecard, expected dates |
| Pay and approvals | Range, who approves, any limits |
| Risks and open points | Items to fix, with owner and date |
Save the brief where the whole team can find it. It becomes the base for the advert, the screening sheet and the scorecard. If the manager later asks to change the requirements, update the brief and tell everyone who is affected.
Common problems, and what to do
| Problem | Response |
|---|---|
| The manager has no time | Offer a 30-minute version with the three most important sections, and a short follow-up by email |
| The manager lists 15 must-haves | Ask which three the person needs on day one. Move the rest to nice-to-have or training |
| The manager says “I will know it when I see it” | Use calibration CVs to turn this into evidence statements |
| The manager wants a copy of the last hire | Ask what the last hire did well and what was missing. Describe those as outcomes |
| The manager changes requirements mid-search | Agree a rule: changes are logged, and the team reviews already declined CVs against the new rule |
FastHire is being built for the step right after this meeting. It shows each job requirement next to the exact CV passage that supports it, so the must-haves you agreed become checks a reviewer can see. FastHire is coming soon. It does not rank, score or reject candidates. People make every decision.
A worked example (fictional)
This example is invented to show how the agenda works in practice. A recruiter meets a hiring manager who needs a customer support team lead.
| Topic | What the manager first said | What the recruiter asked | Result in the brief |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outcomes | “Someone who can fix our support problems.” | “What would be fixed after six months? How would we know?” | Cut the time customers wait for a first reply; train two new agents; write a weekly summary of top issues |
| Must-haves | “Five years as a team lead, a degree, CRM experience.” | “Which of these would a strong person lack on day one, and could you train it?” | Must-have: has led or coached other support staff, paid or unpaid; handles complaints in writing. CRM: nice-to-have, taught in the first month. Degree: removed |
| Evidence | “I will see it in the CV.” | “What would you see? Show me on a sample CV.” | Evidence: a CV line that names the team size or the coaching task and the outcome |
| Process | “We will chat to a few people.” | “Who will interview? What will each ask? When will you give feedback?” | Two stages, a panel of two, one scorecard, feedback within two working days |
The manager started with a status list and ended with a short list of observable skills. The change came from a few direct questions and one sample CV, not from a debate. The recruiter then sent the one-page brief within a day, and the manager replied “agreed” with one correction.
Use the meeting to set service levels
An intake meeting is also the best moment to agree what each side promises. Write two short lists in the brief: what the recruiter will do and what the manager will do.
| Recruiter commits to | Hiring manager commits to |
|---|---|
| Share a first shortlist with evidence by an agreed date | Review the shortlist within an agreed number of working days |
| Update the manager weekly, even if there is no news | Attend scheduled interviews or give notice of changes |
| Tell every candidate the outcome | Submit scorecards within one working day after each interview |
| Raise problems early, such as a thin pipeline | Say early if requirements change |
Agreeing these points at the start makes them easier to enforce later. When a delay occurs, you point to a shared note instead of starting an argument. For ways to track the numbers behind these promises, see eight recruitment numbers worth tracking.
Remote and multi-country intake
If the manager and the recruiter work in different places, run the intake by video and share a document during the call. Use one shared document so that both of you edit the same brief and nobody keeps a private version. If the role covers more than one country, add a section that states, for each country, the employment type, the pay range, the language needed, the work authorisation rules and the notice periods. Rules differ across the US, the UK and the EU, so involve HR or a local adviser early. Our guide to hiring in another country lists the main questions.
Time zones add friction. Agree the hours when the manager can respond to candidates and the hours for interviews. Write them in the brief, and put them in the candidate preparation message too.
Frequently asked questions
How long should an intake meeting be?
Aim for 45 to 60 minutes for a new role. A repeat role with an up-to-date brief can take 20 to 30 minutes.
Who should attend?
The recruiter and the hiring manager. Add a peer or the HR partner if the role is new or sensitive. Keep the group small, so decisions are made in the room.
Should I use a form instead of a meeting?
A form helps with the pre-read, but a conversation finds disagreements and unclear words. Use both.
What if the manager is senior and pushes back on my suggestions?
Bring evidence: past hires, market adverts and candidate feedback. Offer a short test period for the new approach and agree what you will check. Our guide on pushing back on unrealistic requests has scripts.
Do I need a new intake for each opening of the same role?
Review the existing brief. If the work has changed, run a short intake. If not, confirm the details and update the timeline.
Related guides
- Hiring guides for recruiters and HR teams
- Recruiter kickoff meeting
- How to write a role brief
- Must-haves vs nice-to-haves
- All hiring guides for employers
- How to push back on unrealistic hiring manager requests
- How to read market data before you open a role
- How to run a calibrated shortlist review with hiring managers
- How to work with agencies: a briefing and fee checklist
This is general information, not legal advice.