Introducing Reviewer Mode: Controlled Hiring Manager Access in Treegarden

Why Hiring Manager access needs its own operating model

Recruiters and Hiring Managers work toward the same hiring decision, but their responsibilities are different. Recruiters manage sourcing, candidate communication, pipeline movement and ATS administration. Hiring Managers review relevant candidates, add context and make role-specific decisions.

When both groups receive the same controls, the interface becomes harder to understand and ownership becomes less clear. A Hiring Manager can be presented with tools they rarely use, while the recruitment team has to explain which actions are safe. Treegarden Reviewer Mode addresses that mismatch with a company-wide Hiring Manager setting designed around review rather than administration.

A focused candidate review experience

When Reviewer Mode is enabled, Hiring Manager users receive a streamlined view of the ATS. They continue to see candidates for the jobs they are authorised to access, but the controls that belong to recruitment operations are removed or disabled.

The restricted experience includes:

• No candidate creation. Hiring Managers review candidates already managed by the recruitment team.
• No custom pipeline columns. Recruiters retain responsibility for the structure of each hiring workflow.
• No Job Boards navigation. Posting and distribution tools stay with the users who own sourcing.
• No candidate stage changes. Drag-and-drop movement, profile actions and direct requests are blocked while Reviewer Mode is active.
• No Edera AI controls. Hiring Managers are not shown AI features that sit outside their review responsibilities.
• No application-question administration. The settings used to create or manage application questions remain with recruiters and authorised HR Managers.

This is more than a visual clean-up. Restricted actions are also protected at the request level, so removing a button does not become the only line of defence.

Keep sensitive candidate information configurable

Different organisations draw the line in different places. Reviewer Mode therefore works alongside Treegarden's Hiring Team Access controls, where recruiters and authorised HR Managers can decide whether Hiring Manager users may see:

• Desired salary information supplied by applicants.
• The Applicant Emails tab and candidate email conversations.
• The Received Applications Column, the inbox where applicants first arrive after applying.

When the Received Applications Column is hidden, a lock indicator explains that Hiring Managers currently cannot see candidates in that column. If visibility is enabled, the indicator disappears. The result is clear for recruiters managing access and clear for Hiring Managers using the pipeline.

Hide individual application questions and answers

Not every application answer belongs in a Hiring Manager review. Salary expectations, sensitive declarations or recruiter-only screening notes may need tighter handling, while experience and work-sample answers can remain visible.

Treegarden now allows each custom application question to be marked Hide from Hiring Manager view. When selected, both the question and the candidate's answer are withheld from Hiring Manager users. The control applies to supported screening formats, including single-select checkbox and drop-down questions.

For answers that remain visible, the Form tab now explains its purpose directly: it contains the information applicants submitted with their application. That small piece of guidance makes the candidate profile easier to understand for occasional users.

Collaboration without administrative noise

Reviewer Mode reduces the candidate profile to the sections a Hiring Manager needs most: Form and Internal Chat. Timeline and Interviews are removed from this restricted view, keeping attention on the application and the discussion with the recruitment team.

Internal Chat remains available because collaboration is central to the Hiring Manager role. Mentions can notify teammates by email, so a recruiter can ask for a decision without relying on a separate conversation. Edera AI is excluded from the Hiring Manager experience to keep those discussions direct and unambiguous.

Scorecards remain independently configurable. Recruiters and authorised HR Managers can leave scorecard add and edit access available when structured feedback is part of the process, or disable it when Hiring Managers should contribute through Internal Chat only.

Recruiters retain pipeline ownership

A read-only interface is most valuable when it also makes ownership obvious. If a Hiring Manager attempts to move a candidate while Reviewer Mode is enabled, Treegarden explains that pipeline movement is controlled by the recruitment team. Recruiters can then make the change or adjust the company-wide setting when the operating model requires broader access.

This separation reduces accidental stage changes, prevents conflicting candidate communications and gives applicants a more consistent experience. Hiring Managers still influence the decision; recruiters remain responsible for executing it in the ATS.

Safer Hiring Manager account administration

The update also improves day-to-day account management. Recruiters and HR Managers with ATS access can change passwords and remove Hiring Manager accounts when responsibilities change. Deleting an account revokes access without removing the historical hiring records associated with that user.

Treegarden also prevents a recruiter from disabling their own account or accidentally changing their own role from the user list. This protects the person managing access from locking themselves out while they administer the wider team.

How to configure Reviewer Mode

1. Open Settings and go to Hiring Team Access.
2. Enable Reviewer Mode for Hiring Manager users.
3. Review visibility for Desired Salary, Applicant Emails and the Received Applications Column.
4. Choose whether Hiring Managers can add or edit scorecards.
5. When creating or editing a job, mark any application question that should be hidden from Hiring Manager view.
6. Assign each Hiring Manager only to the jobs they need to review.

Reviewer Mode is company-wide for the Hiring Manager role, while job access remains specific to each user. That combination gives recruitment teams a consistent operating model without exposing unrelated vacancies.

Frequently Asked Questions