Editing a job after you have created it
What you can change on a job at each status, who can change it, and what happens to approvals and live adverts when you do.
What you can change on a job at each status, who can change it, and what happens to approvals and live adverts when you do.
What you can edit on a job depends on two things: the job's status and your role. Before approval, the people working on the job can change most of it. Once a job has been approved, and especially once it is live, changes are limited to Admin and HR users, and the job details themselves stay locked unless your organisation has allowed edits after approval. This article covers each status, each step of the edit screens, who can use them and what a save does.
How to reach the edit screens
Open the job from Jobs, select the three-dot actions menu at the top right of the job page and choose Edit. Where you land depends on the status:
- Approved, Scheduled, Published, Paused and Closed jobs open the multi-step Edit Job screen. Its steps are Job Details, Application Form, Recruitment Team, Pipeline and Publishing. Each step saves when you move on, and Done on the last step returns you to the job. Save and Exit saves the current step and takes you back to the job.
- Draft, Pending Approval and Archived jobs open a single-page Edit Job form covering the job details. Select Save changes when you have finished.
- Pending Setup jobs are finished through Go to Setup on the job page, the same steps used when the job was first set up.
If you do not see Edit, your role cannot edit the job at its current status. Blind scoring, confidential shortlisting and the other job settings are on the Settings tab of the job page, not in the edit steps.
What you can edit at each status
| Status | What can be edited | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | Job details. The approval workflow and the justification answers are chosen on the Approvals step when you submit. The application form cannot be configured yet. | The person who raised the job, Admin and HR users, and users with the recruiter or hiring manager job role |
| Pending Approval | Job details only. The chosen workflow and the justification answers are read-only. To change anything else, withdraw the request. | Approvers at the current level whose level is set to Can Edit, and a System Admin when admin bypass is turned on |
| Pending Setup | All setup steps: job details, application form, team, pipeline and publishing. Job details are not locked at this status. | Admin and HR users |
| Approved | Every step. Job details and justification answers are locked unless edits after approval are allowed. | Admin and HR users. The hiring lead can also change the team, pipeline and job settings, but not the application form. |
| Scheduled, Published, Paused | Every step. Job details and justification answers are locked unless edits after approval are allowed. | Admin and HR users only |
| Closed | Job details, application form, team and pipeline. Job details are not locked. Publishing is read-only until the job is reopened. | Admin and HR users |
| Archived | Job details, through the single-page form. | Admin and HR users |
Even if your organisation does not require approvals, the lock on job details applies to live jobs in the same way.
The steps of the edit screen
Job Details. The same fields used when the job was created, with the same required fields. On a locked job the step is shown read-only under the heading "Job details are locked", and you can still move on to the other steps. Changing the closing date to a date in the past is refused with "Expiry date cannot be in the past".
Application Form. Changes to the form the candidate completes. Only Admin and HR users can edit it, and only after the job has first been approved.
Recruitment Team. Add people to the team, change their job role or remove them. Agency users cannot be added as team members.
Pipeline. Add, reorder, edit or remove stages.
Publishing. On a live job this step does not choose boards. It shows an Expiry date that applies to every channel, including your careers page, and lists each posting. A posting that is still scheduled can be moved with Reschedule, but the new date must be in the future and before the expiry date. A posting that is already live shows "The posting date can only be changed while the posting is scheduled." To add more boards to a published job, use Post to More Boards in the job's actions menu. On a closed job the step shows "Publishing is locked".
Job settings. The Settings tab holds Blind Scoring, Confidential Shortlisting (with its Auto-Reveal Stage), the rejection email options and the shortlisting configuration for each stage. On a Published, Scheduled or Paused job, only Admin and HR users can change these. Other users see "Only Admin, HR, or the job's hiring lead can change these settings at this stage." When you turn confidential shortlisting off, you are asked whether to unredact applications that are already hidden or keep them redacted.
Allowing edits to job details after approval
Job details and the approval justification are locked once a job has been approved, and stay locked while it is live. To unlock them, a System Admin goes to Settings > Roles & Permissions and, in the Approval permissions section, turns on Allow editing of job details after approval. It is off by default and saves as soon as you change it.
With it on, Admin and HR users can edit job details and justification answers on approved and live jobs. Nobody else can, whatever their job role. Turning it off locks them again straight away, including on jobs that are already live. Everything else on the edit screens, such as the team, pipeline, application form and publishing, is not affected by this setting.
What an edit does
A live job. Changes to a Published, Scheduled or Paused job take effect when saved. The job is not sent back for approval and stays live. If the job is Published and the change affects what job boards display, such as the title, description, salary, location or closing date, the updated advert is sent to the boards it is posted on. A new closing date is applied to every active posting.
An approved job that is not yet live. Almost any change here sends the job back through approval. The approval starts again at level 1, the previous approval is recorded as withdrawn in the Approval History, and the first group is emailed. You will see a message reading "Sent back for approval". The job is out of use until it has been approved again. If any group in the workflow has no members, the edit is refused and not saved, with a message naming the group. Add members to it in Settings first.
A job in approval. An approver's edit does not restart the approval or move the job to another level. The level stays where it was.
Problems and messages
- Edit (blocked during approval). The job is waiting for approval and you are not an approver at the current level with Can Edit, or your level is Approve only. Ask an Admin to withdraw the request, or ask the current approvers. The person who submitted it, or an Admin, can withdraw it from the Approval Actions card.
- Edit is missing from the menu. On a live job, only Admin and HR users see it. A hiring lead, recruiter or hiring manager on the job team does not.
- Job details are locked. The job has been approved and edits after approval are not allowed. Ask a System Admin to turn on the setting described above, or use one of the other steps.
- Only Admin or HR users can edit job details or justifications after approval. You have opened a locked step without an Admin or HR role. Ask an Admin or HR user to make the change.
- This job changed while you were editing. Someone else moved the job to another status, or changed it, while you had it open. Your changes were not saved. The job is refreshed, so check the current details and make the change again.
- Missing required fields. A required job detail is empty. Fill in the fields listed and save again.