What Is 360 Recruitment?
360 recruitment (also called full-desk recruiting) is a model where a single recruiter manages the complete hiring cycle — from winning client business to sourcing candidates, formatting and submitting resumes, coordinating interviews, and closing placements.
The '360' refers to the full circle: the recruiter is the single point of contact for both the client and the candidate throughout the entire process. This contrasts with split-desk models where business development and recruitment delivery are handled by different people.
It's the most common model at staffing agencies with fewer than 50 recruiters, and it's how most agency recruiters start their careers.
The 6 Stages of 360 Recruitment
Stage 1: Business Development
The recruiter identifies potential clients, builds relationships, and wins job orders. This includes cold outreach, networking, attending industry events, and leveraging existing client relationships for repeat business.
- Identify target companies and hiring managers in your niche
- Conduct outreach via phone, email, LinkedIn, and in-person meetings
- Present your agency's value proposition and track record
- Negotiate terms: fees, guarantees, exclusivity
Formatting connection: Professional, branded resume submissions from previous placements are your best business development tool. Clients remember quality deliverables.
Stage 2: Job Intake
Once a client provides a job order, the recruiter conducts a thorough intake to understand the role requirements, team dynamics, hiring timeline, and must-have vs. nice-to-have qualifications.
- Document technical requirements, experience levels, and soft skills
- Understand the client's interview process and timeline
- Clarify resume formatting preferences — some clients want specific layouts or blind resumes
- Establish submission expectations: how many candidates, response turnaround, format requirements
Stage 3: Sourcing
The recruiter finds candidates through job boards, LinkedIn, their ATS database, referrals, and direct outreach. This is typically the most time-intensive stage.
- Search your ATS database for existing candidates matching the role
- Post the role on relevant job boards
- Source passive candidates on LinkedIn and industry communities
- Leverage referrals from placed candidates and industry contacts
Stage 4: Screening & Qualification
Review resumes, conduct phone screens, assess technical skills, and evaluate cultural fit. The goal is to narrow the candidate pool to 3-5 strong submissions per role.
- Initial resume review for baseline qualifications
- Phone or video screening (15-30 minutes) for communication and motivation
- Technical assessment or skills verification as needed
- Reference checks (preliminary or full, depending on your process)
Stage 5: Submission & Presentation
This is where resume formatting becomes critical. The recruiter prepares candidate materials for client submission: reformatting the resume into the agency's branded template, writing a candidate summary, and presenting the shortlist to the client.
- Reformat the resume into your branded template with consistent fonts, layout, and branding
- Write a positioning statement (2-3 sentences on why this candidate fits the role)
- Remove candidate contact information for client-facing submissions
- Generate both Word and PDF versions
- Submit with a professional email summarizing each candidate's fit
The formatting bottleneck: This stage takes 30-60 minutes per candidate when done manually. With 3-5 candidates per submission, that's 1.5-5 hours per job order — time that directly competes with sourcing and BD activities.
Stage 6: Placement Management
Coordinate interviews between client and candidates, negotiate offers, manage the acceptance process, and handle onboarding support. The recruiter remains the single point of contact through placement completion.
- Schedule and prep candidates for interviews
- Gather and relay client feedback after each interview round
- Negotiate salary, start date, and benefits
- Manage the offer and acceptance process
- Follow up post-placement to ensure satisfaction on both sides
360 vs. Split Desk: Which Model Is Better?
360 Recruiting vs. Split Desk Model
| Factor | 360 (Full Desk) | Split Desk |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | One recruiter handles everything | BD and delivery split between people |
| Client relationship | Deeper — single point of contact | Divided — may feel less personal |
| Recruiter skill needed | Must excel at BD + recruiting | Can specialize in one area |
| Scalability | Limited by individual bandwidth | Scales better at 50+ recruiters |
| Revenue per recruiter | Higher when performing well | More consistent but lower ceiling |
| Common at | Agencies with <50 recruiters | Large agencies with 50+ recruiters |
| Formatting burden | Falls entirely on the recruiter | Delivery team handles formatting |
The Formatting Bottleneck in 360 Recruiting
In a 360 model, the recruiter does everything. That means resume formatting directly competes with business development and sourcing — the two highest-value activities. Every hour spent formatting is an hour not spent winning new clients or finding candidates.
The math is simple:
5-8 hrs
Weekly formatting time for 360 recruiters
Source: Agency surveys
30-60 min
Per resume, manual formatting
Source: iReformat data
$15K-25K
Annual cost per recruiter in formatting time
Source: At $45/hr average
Automating resume formatting is the single highest-ROI improvement for 360 recruiters because it reclaims time for revenue-generating activities without requiring any change to the recruiter's client relationships or sourcing approach.
Optimizing Your 360 Workflow
Beyond formatting automation, here are proven ways to make 360 recruiting more efficient:
- Template everything: Email templates for outreach, submission templates for clients, intake forms for job orders
- Time-block your day: BD in the morning (9-11), sourcing midday (11-2), submissions afternoon (2-4), admin end of day
- Automate formatting: Use a tool to eliminate the 30-60 minutes per resume bottleneck
- Build a pipeline: Always have candidates in multiple stages — don't wait for one job to close before starting the next
- Track your metrics: Submissions-to-interview ratio, time-to-submit, placements per month — you can't improve what you don't measure