Operating the Archive

Archive reasons and structure

Visually, the Archive mirrors the structure of the other sections of the pipeline. However, unlike the Lead, Applicant and Interview sections, the Archive is segmented by archive reasons instead of stages. You will find archive reasons arranged horizontally above the opportunity list. Selecting an archive reason will filter for opportunities archived for that specific reason.

Example of archive reasons in the Archive section of the pipeline 

As with the stages in Applicant and Interview sections, archive reasons are configured when your organization first sets up their Lever instance. If you wish to add, change, or remove archive reasons after your Lever instance has been set up, this can be by a Super Admin or user with permission to manage pipeline stages via their Settings. To learn more, refer to our help article on archive reason customization.

Adding opportunities to the Archive

Opportunities can be moved to the Archive from any section or stage of the pipeline. There are three ways in which an opportunity can be archived:

#1: From the candidate profile

• Click into an opportunity to open the corresponding candidate profile
• Click the Archive button next to the stage drop-down menu

• Select an archive reason from the drop-down menu. If the candidate has other active opportunities, you will be provided with the option to archive those as well.
• Click the Archive button

#2: From the opportunity list 

This method is best for archiving multiple opportunities at once.

• Check the box next to the opportunity (or opportunities) that you wish to move in the opportunity list
• Click the Archive button in the action toolbar

• In the modal that appears, select an archive reason from the drop-down menu.
  • If you are archiving multiple opportunities for different jobs, you will also be required to either select the postings associated with the opportunities you wish to archive or Archive everything to archive all checked opportunities.

• Click the Archive button

#3: Triggered by an automation workflow

Users with Super Admin access or automation manage permissions can set up automation workflows in their Lever instance that will auto-archive opportunities that meet certain conditions. This feature is commonly used to auto-archive candidates based off of knockout questions in the application form.

Check out our article on automation workflows to learn how they can enable your recruitment team to be more efficient.

Editing an opportunity's archive reason

You may find that you need to change an opportunity's archive reason in light of new information or as part of your regular data hygiene practices. There are two ways to change an opportunity's archive reason:

#1: From the candidate profile

• Click into an opportunity to open the corresponding candidate profile
• Click Edit on the archive reason banner and select Edit Archive Reason 

• Select an archive reason from the menu

#2: From the opportunity list in the Archive

This method is best for changing the archive reason for multiple opportunities at once.

• Check the box next to the opportunity (or opportunities) for which you wish to change the archive reason
• Click the Archive button in the action toolbar

• In the modal that appears, select a new archive reason from the menu and click Archive

Reactivating an opportunity

In the event that you need to reactivate a candidate's opportunity, you can do so by undoing the archive. From a candidate's profile, click the Edit button on the archive reason banner and select Undo Archive. The opportunity will revert to the last active stage that it was in prior to being archived. Note, you should only reactive an opportunity this way as a continuation of the original application.

If you would like to consider a candidate with an opportunity for a new role, click the Consider for a New Job option in the menu when editing the archive reason, to begin the process of generating a new opportunity for that candidate.

Reviewing the Archive for insights

The 'Last stage reached' filter in the Archive section allows those reviewing the Archive to see the tallies of the last stage reached by listed opportunities. These tallies update to reflect any filters you apply to the Archive. Use filter to identify where the largest number of opportunities are dropping off in your pipeline. Make sure these numbers align with your archive reasons and make adjustments to your recruitment processes as needed.

Example

To illustrate this concept, let's look at an example. In the image below the Archive has been filtered for opportunities that have been archived as 'Under-qualified.' We can see in the filter menu that the majority of opportunities archived for this reason are archived from the 'Hiring Manager Screen' stage.

This tells us that most under-qualified candidates make it all the way to face-to-face interview with a hiring manager before they are vetted out of the pipeline. As a talent leader, I could take this metric as reason to review the processes my team employs at the 'Recruiter screen' stage to see if there is a change we can make to dismiss more under-qualified candidates before they get passed on to a hiring manager.

Next steps...

Now that you know the ins and outs of each section of the pipeline, we will end this series by examining how you can use filters to drill down to specific opportunities.

If you would like to jump back to the other articles in this series, select from the options below:

• Pipeline structure
• Candidates and opportunities
• Leads
• Applicants
• Interviews