How to qualify a job order: go/no-go criteria, a pay check and a scoring sheet

To qualify a job order, decide before you source whether it can realistically be filled, on terms that pay you, in the time the client expects. Run knock-out questions first: signed terms, direct access to the hiring manager, pay that can attract the people described, an approved opening, and no discriminatory requirements. Then score what is left on exclusivity, urgency, feedback speed, your fill history with this client and the effort required, and weigh the expected fee against the hours. The answer is one of three: work it, work it on conditions, or decline it.

This is the accept-or-decline decision. The call that gathers the facts is in the client intake call agenda and intake meeting questions; the form that records them, with a quick scoring table, is the job order form template; ranking orders you have already accepted is in how to prioritize open requisitions; and the client's side of the handover is in how to brief a recruiting agency.

Why qualify a job order at all?

Contingency recruiting pays only for placements, so every hour on an order that will never fill is unpaid. Desks that take every order end up giving each one a little time, missing the ones they could have won. Qualifying also protects the client relationship: telling a client early what would make the role fillable is more useful than sending weak candidates for six weeks. The decision is about the order, not the client; a good client can still send an order that is not fillable as written.

Which questions knock a job order out?

Ask these first. A "no" on any of them means you do not start sourcing until it changes.

The last gate is not optional. The EEOC's enforcement guidance on staffing firms says "the fact that a staffing firm's discriminatory assignment practice is based on its client's requirement is no defense," and that a staffing firm is liable "if it honors a client's discriminatory assignment request." Requests about age, sex, national origin, religion or similar traits get declined, whatever the fee.

How do you check the pay against the market?

Use public wage data as the baseline and your own placements as the correction. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) publishes estimates each year for approximately 830 occupations, for the nation, each state, and metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. As of October 2026, the latest tables are for May 2025, and each occupation profile shows wages at the 10th, 25th, 50th, 75th and 90th percentiles.

1. Pick the occupation. Match the job to the closest Standard Occupational Classification title by its duties, not its job title. "Talent partner" may be a Human Resources Specialist (13-1071).
2. Pick the area. Use the metropolitan area where the work is done; for remote roles, the areas you will recruit from.
3. Place the offer on the curve. Note where the client's range falls among the percentiles.
4. Adjust for the profile. A must-have list that describes a senior specialist belongs near the 75th percentile or above; an entry-level profile near the 25th.
5. Adjust for time. May 2025 estimates describe pay at that point, so check them against your recent placements and current postings for the same role.

Example, with made-up numbers: a client wants a senior specialist with niche software experience and offers a salary that sits near the area's median for the occupation. Your last three placements for that profile went at pay near the 75th percentile. That gap is the first thing to raise, with the data, before you accept the order.

Posted ranges matter too. Where pay transparency laws apply, the range in the client's posting must be real, and agencies can be on the hook for the range in their own ads; see pay transparency for staffing agencies.

How do you use your fill history with this client?

Your own records predict this order better than any market data. Before accepting, pull the client's last year:

• Orders received and orders filled, by you and, if you know it, by anyone.
• Submittal-to-interview ratio. Low ratios mean unclear requirements or a manager who doesn't read; see how to improve your submittal-to-interview ratio.
• Interview-to-offer ratio and offer acceptance, which show whether the process converts; the metric is explained in interview-to-offer ratio.
• Days to feedback on submittals and interviews.
• Orders canceled or filled internally after you had worked them.

A client that filled none of its last five orders with any agency is telling you something about its process, not about the market.

A job order qualification sheet

Score each line 0, 1 or 2 after the gates are passed. Unlike a priority list, this sheet answers whether to take the order at all, so it includes the effort side.

Then sense-check the economics with a rough expected value: the fee, times your honest chance of filling, divided by the hours it will take. Example, with made-up numbers: a $20,000 fee with a one-in-four chance and 40 hours of work is worth about $125 an hour of desk time; a $12,000 fee with a three-in-four chance and 20 hours is worth about $450. The smaller fee is the better order. Use your own fill rates and time records once you have them, and revisit the thresholds after a quarter.

How do you say no, or "not yet"?

Most orders that fail qualification can be fixed. Offer the fix before you decline:

• Pay: "At this range I can find people with three of your five must-haves. Either we move the range or we drop two requirements."
• Exclusivity: "Give me two weeks exclusive and I'll put this at the top of my desk, with a shortlist by [date]."
• Access: "I need 20 minutes with [manager] and two held interview slots a week; without them I can't give it priority."
• Hard searches: propose an engagement fee or a retained search; see retained vs. contingency recruiting.

Hi [client], thanks for sending the [role] order. Before I commit
time, two things would make it fillable: [the range moving to X,
or dropping requirement Y], and a 20-minute call with [manager]
this week. If those aren't possible right now, I'd rather tell you
honestly than send people who won't fit. Happy to revisit when
anything changes.

What extra checks apply to temp and contract orders?

• Margin. The bill rate must cover pay, payroll costs, insurance and your margin; the arithmetic is in the job order form template.
• Safety. OSHA treats the staffing agency and the host employer as jointly responsible for a safe work environment, so ask about hazards, training and equipment before you accept.
• Volume and timing. Can you fill the headcount on the start date? A partial fill hurts the fill rate clients track; see fill rate for staffing agencies.
• VMS programs. Check the program's fee and submittal rules before you accept the order, because they change the margin and the process.

When should you re-qualify an order?

Re-run the gates when something material changes: the hiring manager leaves, the range moves, another agency is added, the client pauses interviews, or two weeks pass without feedback. An order that qualified on day one can stop qualifying, and saying so early keeps your desk working on orders that can still close.