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Careers Website RFP Template: 80 Questions and a Vendor Scorecard
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Managing Director
Template and scorecard
Everything you need to run a careers website RFP: 80 questions, a weighted scorecard, a Word RFP shell and a demo script. Vendor-neutral, free and ready to paste.
By Jim Taylor. Updated November 2026.
What a careers website RFP should cover
A careers website is not a brochure. It is the place where a company converts search traffic, advert clicks and referrals into applications, in every market it hires in. An RFP that treats it like a website redesign will buy the wrong thing.
Definition: Careers website RFP
A request for proposal that asks vendors to describe, in writing and with evidence, how their platform will run your careers website: how content is edited, how fast and accessible the pages are, how jobs and data flow to and from your applicant tracking system, how it is secured, and what it costs over three years and on exit.
Most RFPs for careers websites fail in one of three ways. They are too thin: ten generic questions that every vendor answers with "yes". They are too long and unweighted: 200 questions where a question about favicons counts the same as a question about data ownership. Or they are too soft: they ask about promises (we are fast, we are accessible) instead of asking for results you can check yourself.
This template fixes all three. The 80 questions are grouped into ten sections. Each question comes with a plain description of what a good answer looks like, so evaluators who are not specialists can score fairly. The weights are yours to set. And the demo script makes every vendor do the same ten things live, which is the fastest way to separate what is true from what is on a slide.
80questions in ten sections, each with a "what good looks like" note
10step scripted demo that every shortlisted vendor runs live
3free downloads: a Word shell, an Excel scorecard and a demo script
Who should be on the evaluation panel
- Employer brand or talent marketing lead. Owns the design, content and candidate experience outcomes.
- Talent acquisition operations. Understands the applicant tracking system and the apply flow.
- A regional editor. Someone who will edit the site every week, to test day to day usability.
- IT or security. Reviews hosting, security and data processing answers.
- Procurement and legal. Owns the commercial schedule, term, renewal and exit.
- An accessibility lead, if you have one. Otherwise someone who can run a screen reader test.
A good RFP does not find the vendor with the longest feature list. It finds the one whose answers you can check.
Happydance
Before you start: five decisions
- The problem you are solving. Fewer applications, slow pages, an ageing design, language coverage, brand control or all of these. Write the top three goals on page one.
- What stays and what goes. Are you keeping your applicant tracking system, your CRM, your domain and your URLs? List the fixed points.
- Scope in markets and languages. The number of languages and brands changes the answer more than almost anything else.
- The decision date. Work backwards from the date you need the new site live. A careers website project is usually measured in months, not days.
- The budget range. Share it if your procurement process allows. It saves everyone time. See the cost guide.
Not sure a full RFP is the right route?
If you are still deciding what kind of platform you need, start with the 15-point CMS checklist and the buying guide. Come back here when you are ready to ask vendors to commit in writing.
The 80 questions, in 10 sections
The questions below are the full bank. Tick the sections you need in the builder, copy the tailored list, then download the Word shell for the full response format with space for answers. Section letters (A to J) match the Excel scorecard.
Free tool
RFP question builder
Tick the sections that apply to your project. Your list builds as you go. Copy it or download it as a text file.
| Section | Topic | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| A | Content management and design control | 8 |
| B | Governance, workflow and brand control | 8 |
| C | Performance and accessibility | 8 |
| D | Search, SEO and AI visibility | 8 |
| E | Integrations and data | 8 |
| F | Multilingual and global | 8 |
| G | Security, privacy and compliance | 8 |
| H | Implementation and migration | 8 |
| I | Support, success and roadmap | 8 |
| J | Commercials, pricing and exit | 8 |
This is the printable version. Switch on JavaScript to use the live calculator in your browser.
| Section | Topic | Default weight (0 to 10) | Why it carries that weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | Content management and design control | 8 | It decides whether your team can run the site without tickets. |
| B | Governance, workflow and brand control | 7 | Without governance, speed turns into brand risk. |
| C | Performance and accessibility | 8 | Slow or inaccessible pages lose candidates and legal protection. |
| D | Search, SEO and AI visibility | 8 | Search and AI visibility drive most new applicants. |
| E | Integrations and data | 8 | Poor integration means manual work every day. |
| F | Multilingual and global | 5 | Matters most when you hire in many markets. |
| G | Security, privacy and compliance | 7 | A security gap can end a project at the last step. |
| H | Implementation and migration | 5 | A late go-live costs more than a slow vendor. |
| I | Support, success and roadmap | 5 | You live with support for years. |
| J | Commercials, pricing and exit | 5 | Total cost and the exit terms decide the real price. |
Content management and governance
These two sections decide how much of your time goes into running the site. If every change needs a developer or a ticket, your content gets stale and your brand slips. Ask vendors to show, not tell.
Section A: Content management and design control
Can your team run the careers website without raising tickets?
| Ref | Question to ask | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| A1 | Which parts of the careers website can our own team edit without a developer, and which need one? Show the full list. | Everything content related: pages, navigation, job page presentation, forms copy, languages, favicons and standard graphics. The "needs a developer" list is short and specific. |
| A2 | Build a new landing page from blocks, live, using our brand assets. How long did it take? | Under 30 minutes, by a talent marketer, with no help from your engineers. |
| A3 | How do templates and the design system keep regional teams on brand? | Locked brand tokens (colour, type, spacing) with flexible content blocks, so editors cannot break the design. |
| A4 | Can we preview exactly what each device will show before we publish? | Accurate mobile, tablet and desktop previews, with a shareable link for approvers. |
| A5 | How are images handled: formats, compression and different crops for different devices? | Automatic modern formats and sizes per device, with no manual exports by editors. |
| A6 | After go-live, how long does a typical content change take to reach the live site? | Minutes. Anything that needs a release cycle is a warning sign. |
| A7 | How do you support employee stories, video and rich media without hurting speed? | Lazy loading, streamed video and a published performance budget. |
| A8 | What limits exist on pages, blocks, custom code and third-party scripts? | Clear limits, reviewed tags only, and a documented process for adding scripts safely. |
How Happydance answers section A
Customers manage everything themselves, including multilingual content, favicons and basic standard graphics, with no developer needed. That is the standard we would hold any vendor to, so ask every vendor for the same proof.
Section B: Governance, workflow and brand control
Can you let many people edit and still stay in control?
| Ref | Question to ask | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| B1 | Describe roles and permissions. Can a regional editor be limited to their market and languages? | Granular roles by market, language, section and action (edit, approve, publish). |
| B2 | Is there an approval workflow, and can approvers see a change before it goes live? | Configurable approval steps with visible previews and notifications. |
| B3 | Is there a full audit log of who changed what and when, and can we roll back? | Complete audit trail with one-click rollback to any earlier version. |
| B4 | How do you run multiple brands or business units from one platform without sharing a template? | Separate brand themes, shared governance, and one reporting view across all of them. |
| B5 | How do you handle scheduling, expiry and campaign launches? | Schedule publish and unpublish dates, with recurring content blocks for seasonal campaigns. |
| B6 | How do legal and compliance teams sign off sensitive pages such as equal opportunity and accessibility statements? | A named approver role, locked wording, and a log of every change. |
| B7 | How do SSO and user lifecycle work when editors join and leave? | SAML or OIDC single sign-on, automatic deprovisioning and no shared logins. |
| B8 | What training do you provide and how long until a new editor is independent? | A short structured onboarding, usually days not weeks, with documentation and recordings. |
Performance, accessibility and SEO
Candidates browse on phones, often on slow connections, between other things. Search engines and AI assistants then decide whether your jobs are shown at all. Ask for evidence you can check yourself, not promises.
Section C: Performance and accessibility
Will candidates on a mid-range phone get a fast, usable page?
| Ref | Question to ask | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| C1 | What are the Lighthouse performance scores (mobile and desktop) for live customer careers websites, and how can we verify them ourselves? | Named, public, independently checkable results across many sites, not a single hand-picked demo. |
| C2 | What is your performance budget, and what happens when a customer adds heavy content? | A published budget, automatic safeguards and alerts when a page drifts beyond it. |
| C3 | What is the typical mobile Largest Contentful Paint and Interaction to Next Paint for customers? | Field data (not only lab data) showing Core Web Vitals in the "good" range for most pages. |
| C4 | Does the platform support WCAG 2.1 AA or higher? Provide your latest accessibility conformance report and testing method. | A current accessibility conformance report, a stated testing method and a remediation process. |
| C5 | How is accessibility kept intact as editors add content (alt text prompts, contrast checks, heading order)? | Guard rails inside the editor, so the content cannot easily break accessibility. |
| C6 | How is the apply flow tested with screen readers and keyboard only? | Regular manual testing with assistive technology, with results shared. |
| C7 | How do cookie consent and third-party tags avoid slowing the page? | Consent and tags load after the page is usable, with their effect measured. |
| C8 | How do you monitor performance and accessibility over time and report regressions? | Scheduled scans, a dashboard and alerts that go to your team. |
Ask for results, then check them yourself
Run Lighthouse on mobile and desktop for three customer websites you choose, not three the vendor picks. For a public benchmark, see the careers website performance leaderboard. Across 101 careers websites it scores mobile and desktop performance, accessibility, best practices and SEO out of 800.
723.0average leaderboard score of the 61 Happydance customer sites
618.6average score of the 40 other sites (38 Fortune 100 companies and 2 wild cards)
41sites at the top of the leaderboard are all Happydance customers
Sample disclosure: 101 careers websites, of which 61 are Happydance customers, 38 are Fortune 100 companies and 2 are wild cards. Scores are Lighthouse results for mobile and desktop, out of 800. It compares customers with large-company careers websites, not the whole market. See the best careers websites of 2026 for context.
Section D: Search, SEO and AI visibility
Will your jobs be found by Google, by AI assistants and by candidates?
| Ref | Question to ask | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| D1 | How is JobPosting structured data output, and how are validThrough dates and expired jobs handled? | Complete JobPosting markup on every job, correct expiry handling and no stale jobs left live. |
| D2 | Can we control metadata, canonical tags, hreflang, redirects and sitemaps per page and per language? | Full editor control without developer help, with sensible defaults. |
| D3 | How are job pages rendered so search engines and AI crawlers read them fully? | Server-rendered or pre-rendered HTML that contains the job content on first load. |
| D4 | How are job URLs structured, and what happens to the URL when a job closes? | Stable, readable URLs and a sensible redirect or closed-job experience. |
| D5 | How do jobs reach Google for Jobs and other aggregators: sitemaps, Indexing API or both? | A documented method, with monitoring in Search Console and a clear process for fixes. |
| D6 | What controls exist for robots.txt, llms.txt and AI crawler access? | Editor-level control, with a recommended policy and a log of changes. |
| D7 | What SEO reporting is included: indexation, impressions and jobs shown in Google for Jobs? | Reporting you can see yourself, not a monthly PDF you wait for. |
| D8 | Show an example of organic traffic after a migration and how rankings were protected at cutover. | A redirect map, pre and post-launch monitoring and a rollback plan. |
For the schema and structured data detail, see our JobPosting schema guide and the guide to AI search for careers websites.
Integrations and data
A careers website lives or dies on the freshness and accuracy of its jobs, and on how cleanly an application reaches your applicant tracking system. These two sections also cover the multilingual set-up for global teams.
Section E: Integrations and data
Does the careers website work with the rest of your stack?
| Ref | Question to ask | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| E1 | List the ATS integrations live in production today and how each connects (API, feed, webhook). | A named list with connection method, and the number of live customers for each. |
| E2 | How quickly do new jobs, edits and closures appear on the careers website after a change in the ATS? | Minutes, with failures alerted. Overnight batch updates are a warning sign. |
| E3 | How does the apply flow work: redirect, embedded or native? What happens to source tracking? | A clear route with source and campaign data passed to the ATS intact. |
| E4 | Which CRM, marketing automation and talent community systems integrate, and how? | Native or documented integrations, with data flowing both ways where it matters. |
| E5 | How is source and campaign data passed into the ATS and analytics? | Standard UTM handling plus first-party analytics you can export. |
| E6 | What data do we own and can export: content, analytics and candidate interaction data? In which formats? | You own all of it, exportable on request in open formats without fees. |
| E7 | What APIs and webhooks do you expose, with what rate limits and documentation? | Public documentation, sandbox access and sensible limits. |
| E8 | How are integration failures handled: monitoring, alerts and fallback behaviour? | Automatic monitoring, alerts to a named contact and a graceful fallback. |
Section F: Multilingual and global
Can one platform serve every market without chaos?
| Ref | Question to ask | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| F1 | How many languages can one careers website run, and how is each managed (content, URLs, metadata)? | Dozens of languages in one editor, each with its own URLs, metadata and approval. |
| F2 | Who translates: can editors manage translations in the platform or only via an external process? | Editors manage translated content directly, with optional integration to translation tools. |
| F3 | How are right-to-left languages and local character sets handled? | Tested layouts for right-to-left languages and no broken characters. |
| F4 | Can regions have local content, jobs and legal text while sharing one global design? | Yes, with local editors limited to their own market. |
| F5 | How are language fallbacks handled when a translation is missing? | A defined, visible fallback rule, not a blank page or the wrong language. |
| F6 | How are country-specific cookie, privacy and equal opportunity requirements supported? | Per-market consent and legal text, managed by the local team. |
| F7 | How is hreflang configured and tested? | Automatic, correct hreflang across all language versions, with checks before launch. |
| F8 | How are forms, dates, salary formats and currencies localised? | Locale-aware formatting by default. |
Security, privacy and compliance
Security and privacy questions are the ones most likely to stop a project late. Put them in the first round, and send the answers to your security team in week three, not week nine.
Section G: Security, privacy and compliance
Will your security and legal teams approve it first time?
| Ref | Question to ask | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| G1 | Which security certifications do you hold (for example ISO 27001 or SOC 2 Type II)? Share reports under NDA. | Current certifications with recent audit reports available on request. |
| G2 | Where is data hosted, can we choose the region, and which sub-processors are used? | Regional hosting options and a published, current sub-processor list. |
| G3 | How is personal data from candidate interactions stored, minimised and deleted? What are the controller and processor roles? | A clear data processing agreement, data minimisation and defined retention. |
| G4 | Describe security testing, how often it is done and the vulnerability disclosure process. | Regular testing at a stated frequency and a clear disclosure route. |
| G5 | What is your uptime commitment, the last 12 months of actual uptime and your incident communication process? | A written uptime commitment, a public status page and honest incident reports. |
| G6 | Describe backups and disaster recovery objectives (RPO and RTO) and how often they are tested. | Stated objectives, regular tested restores and documented results. |
| G7 | How are SSO (SAML or OIDC) and multi-factor authentication supported for editors? | Both supported as standard, not a premium add-on. |
| G8 | How do you support our own security, privacy and accessibility reviews? | A dedicated route for questionnaires with named responders and turnaround times. |
How Happydance answers section G
Customers choose a data region: US, UK or EU. Recovery time and recovery point objectives are both 12 hours. The uptime commitment is 99.9% on Elite and 95% on Standard. Ask every vendor for the same three answers in writing.
Implementation, support and pricing
The final three sections cover the people side: how the project is run, what support is like, and what you actually pay and own over time.
Section H: Implementation and migration
Will go-live be calm, on time and good for search?
| Ref | Question to ask | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| H1 | Provide a realistic project plan from contract to go-live. What drives the timeline? | Weeks, not quarters, with the dependencies on your side stated plainly. |
| H2 | Which people from your team are assigned, and what do you need from ours (roles and hours per week)? | Named roles on both sides and a realistic time commitment. |
| H3 | How are content, URLs and redirects migrated, and how are existing search rankings protected? | A redirect map, pre-launch crawl comparison and post-launch monitoring. |
| H4 | What does the content audit and information architecture phase include? | A structured review of current pages, journeys and gaps before any design starts. |
| H5 | Do we get a bespoke design, a template or a design system? | Clarity on what is bespoke, what is reusable and who owns it. |
| H6 | How do you test before launch (performance, accessibility, SEO, integrations, devices)? | A written test plan with evidence you can review. |
| H7 | What does go-live look like, and what is the rollback plan? | A tested cutover plan with a clear rollback and a hypercare period. |
| H8 | What training and handover do you provide, and what do customers manage themselves afterwards? | Editors trained before launch and independent from day one. |
Section I: Support, success and roadmap
What is it like to work with them after the contract is signed?
| Ref | Question to ask | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| I1 | What are the support channels and hours, and what are your response targets for each priority and how do you report performance against them? | Stated hours, published targets for each priority and a clear way to see how they are met. |
| I2 | What is the escalation path, and who is our named contact? | A named contact and a documented path for urgent issues. |
| I3 | How do customers raise support requests, and which tasks can customers do themselves without a ticket? | One clear route for requests and a plain list of what customers handle themselves in the editor. |
| I4 | What does customer success include beyond support: reviews, optimisation and benchmarking? | Regular reviews with benchmark data and clear recommendations. |
| I5 | How are product updates released, and do they ever need customer work? | Continuous updates with no customer effort and clear release notes. |
| I6 | Show the roadmap for the next 12 months and explain how customers influence it. | A real roadmap, a customer advisory route and examples of customer-led features. |
| I7 | How do you measure and report customer satisfaction? | Published measures and willingness to share them. |
| I8 | Provide three references of similar size, region and ATS, and tell us what we can ask them. | Open references you can speak to without a script. |
How Happydance answers section I
Happydance support is Standard (9 to 5, UK and Eastern time) or Elite (24/7), and every request goes through support.happydance.love. Some customers report saving up to 40 hours a month. That figure is customer-reported, not an average. Ask every vendor for the same detail: hours, response targets for each priority and how they report against them.
Section J: Commercials, pricing and exit
Do you know the full three-year cost, and can you leave cleanly?
| Ref | Question to ask | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|
| J1 | Provide a full price breakdown: licence, implementation, languages, sites, integrations, support and hosting. | An itemised quote with every line explained and no "to be confirmed" lines. |
| J2 | What triggers extra fees (traffic, pages, languages, editors, jobs or integrations)? | A short, clear list, ideally with no usage-based surprises. |
| J3 | What are the contract term, renewal mechanism and price increase cap? | A stated cap on increases and a notice period you can live with. |
| J4 | What is included in the price and what is a paid extra? Itemise. | Support, hosting, updates and training included. |
| J5 | What is the exit plan: data and content export, redirects and handover help, and any fees? | A written exit plan with no fee for exporting your own content. |
| J6 | Who owns the design, content, URLs and domain? Confirm in writing. | You own all of it, and the contract says so. |
| J7 | What service credits or penalties apply if service levels are missed? | Defined service credits tied to the uptime and response commitments. |
| J8 | What do you need from us to hold your quote for 90 days, and what is offered for multi-year terms? | A quote validity period that covers your procurement timeline. |
Red flags in the answers
- Every answer is "yes" with no evidence, no number and no named customer.
- Performance and accessibility claims rest on one hand-picked example.
- Anything you need on day one is "on the roadmap".
- The editor demo is driven by the vendor, never by your team.
- Pricing arrives with several "to be confirmed" lines, or an unusual list of extras.
- There is no written exit plan, or you pay to export your own content.
How to score responses (worked example)
Score every answer from 0 to 5 using the same scale, with at least two evaluators per section. Average the scores for each section, multiply by the weight, add them up and divide by the total weight. The result is a percentage you can compare across vendors. The Excel scorecard does this for you with live formulas.
| Score | Meaning | Typical evidence |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | No answer or does not meet | Question skipped, or the feature does not exist |
| 1 | Weak | Vague answer with no evidence |
| 2 | Partly meets | Meets some of the need with significant gaps |
| 3 | Meets the basic need | Clear answer, no evidence |
| 4 | Meets well | Clear answer with a named customer or document |
| 5 | Fully meets | Clear answer, evidence and something that goes beyond the ask |
| Section | Weight | Provider A | Provider B | Provider C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. Content management and design control | 8 | 4.5 | 3.5 | 3 |
| B. Governance, workflow and brand control | 7 | 4 | 3 | 3.5 |
| C. Performance and accessibility | 8 | 4.5 | 3 | 2.5 |
| D. Search, SEO and AI visibility | 8 | 4 | 3.5 | 3 |
| E. Integrations and data | 8 | 4 | 4.5 | 3.5 |
| F. Multilingual and global | 5 | 4.5 | 3 | 2 |
| G. Security, privacy and compliance | 7 | 4 | 4.5 | 3.5 |
| H. Implementation and migration | 5 | 3.5 | 4 | 3 |
| I. Support, success and roadmap | 5 | 4.5 | 3.5 | 3 |
| J. Commercials, pricing and exit | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4.5 |
| Weighted score (out of 100) | 82 | 73 | 63 | |
| Unweighted average (out of 100) | 81 | 73 | 63 |
In this example, Provider A comes out ahead on the weighted score (82) and Provider C comes last (63). Notice how weights matter. The unweighted view has the providers much closer together (63 to 81), so a panel that skipped the weighting step would see a smaller gap and argue about it for weeks.
Three scoring rules that save arguments
- Weights first. Agree and lock them before anyone reads a response.
- Score alone, then compare. Each person scores before the group meets, so the loudest voice does not set the numbers.
- Evidence beats confidence. A fully meets (5) needs a document, a customer or a live demonstration.
Free tool
Weighted vendor scorecard
Set your weights, score each vendor by section and see the weighted result live. For per-question scoring, download the Excel version.
| Section | Weight | Vendor A | Vendor B | Vendor C |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. Content management and design control | 8 | |||
| B. Governance, workflow and brand control | 7 | |||
| C. Performance and accessibility | 8 | |||
| D. Search, SEO and AI visibility | 8 | |||
| E. Integrations and data | 8 | |||
| F. Multilingual and global | 5 | |||
| G. Security, privacy and compliance | 7 | |||
| H. Implementation and migration | 5 | |||
| I. Support, success and roadmap | 5 | |||
| J. Commercials, pricing and exit | 5 |
This is the printable version. Switch on JavaScript to use the live calculator in your browser.
Demo script and procurement timeline
A scripted demo is the single best way to compare vendors fairly. Give every vendor the same ten tasks, the same sample content and the same time. Insist that someone from your team drives the editor for the page build, not the vendor. The script below is also in the download pack, with space to score each step.
- 1. WelcomeVendor repeats back your top three goals.
- 2. Build a pageYour editor builds a campaign page from blocks.
- 3. GovernanceEdit, approve, publish, then roll back.
- 4. LanguagesCreate a second language version live.
- 5. Jobs and ATSFollow a job from the ATS to the page and back.
- 6. Search and AIShow structured data, sitemaps and crawler controls.
- 7. PerformanceRun Lighthouse live on sites you choose.
- 8. AnalyticsShow self-serve reports and data export.
- 9. Security and exitWalk through certifications, support and exit.
- 10. QuestionsOpen questions and next steps.
| Week | What happens | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Agree goals, weights, panel and budget | Locked criteria |
| 2 | Issue the RFP to three to five vendors | Same document, same deadline |
| 3 to 4 | Vendor questions and written responses | Shared questions and answers |
| 5 | Score written responses and cut to two or three | Shortlist |
| 6 to 7 | Scripted demonstrations | Demo scores |
| 8 | Reference calls, security and accessibility review | Risk notes |
| 9 | Commercial negotiation and three-year cost comparison | Final pricing |
| 10 | Final scoring and decision | Recommendation and contract |
If you are replacing an existing provider, plan the exit at the same time. Our migration checklist covers redirects and rankings, and our switching guide lays out a 90 day plan.
FAQ
What is a careers website RFP?
A careers website RFP is a request for proposal that asks vendors to describe, in writing and with evidence, how their platform will run your careers website. It covers content management, performance, accessibility, search, integrations, security, support and pricing. It lets you compare vendors on the same criteria.
How many questions should a careers website RFP include?
Between 60 and 100 well-chosen questions is enough for an enterprise careers website. This template has 80, grouped into ten sections. Fewer than 40 usually gets generic answers, and more than 120 usually means evaluators stop reading closely.
How long should a careers website RFP process take?
Plan for about ten weeks from agreeing criteria to signing a contract: one week to agree weights and the panel, three weeks for questions and written responses, two weeks of scripted demonstrations, and the rest for references, security review, negotiation and decision. Add time if legal review is slow.
How should I weight the criteria?
Start with the scorecard defaults, then change the weights to fit your goals. A team hiring in many languages should weight multilingual and governance higher. A team with a poor apply flow should weight integrations higher. Agree the weights with the whole panel before reading any response.
Should we ask for pricing in the first round?
Yes. Ask for a complete three-year price using the pricing schedule in the Word shell, and ask for everything that costs extra. Early pricing stops you falling for a platform you cannot afford, and it makes the three-year cost comparison fair.
Who should be on the evaluation panel?
Include the employer brand or talent marketing lead, talent acquisition operations, a regional editor who will use the platform every week, IT or security, procurement and legal. Add an accessibility lead if you have one. Everyone scores independently before the group discusses results.
Can I use this template if I am keeping my applicant tracking system?
Yes. Most careers website RFPs keep the applicant tracking system and replace the website layer. Section E covers integrations and data flow, so use it to ask exactly how each vendor connects to your system and how quickly jobs and closures update.
Is the template free to use and share?
Yes. The Word RFP shell, Excel scorecard and demo script are free. Copy, adapt and share them inside your organisation or with your procurement team. If you adapt the questions, keep the section letters so the scorecard keeps working.
Download the template pack
Word RFP shellIntroduction, instructions, 80 questions with response boxes, pricing schedule and declaration.Excel scorecardAll 80 questions, weights you can edit and live weighted totals for three vendors.Demo scriptA ten step scripted demo with scoring boxes and pre-work to send to vendors.
Free to use. No sign-up. If a vendor answers every question with "yes", ask them to show you.
Happydance careers websites are live for brands including Ingram Micro, Criteo, Domino's, National Grid and General Motors. Read how they run theirs in our customer experiences.
Keep going
How to choose a careers website CMS: 15-point checklistHow much does a careers website cost?Careers website business case templateCareers website platform comparison toolCareers website audit checklist and scorecardFree Happydance CMS Training Course: 72 lessons on managing a careers website
Want to see how a careers website CMS works before you write the RFP? Read about the careers website CMS built for enterprise employer brand teams, or book a demo.
Want a demo to score?
Book a demo and we will run it against this script, live, with your team driving the editor.
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