HirePlanner launches “Employee+” to Help Hiring Managers Drive Hiring Projects and Improve Collaboration with In-House Recruiters

April 24, 2026

HirePlanner has introduced Employee+ (Employee Plus), a new customizable user role designed to empower hiring managers to take a more active role in their recruitment projects while supporting in-house recruiting teams. By providing access to key recruiting tools and collaboration features, Employee+ enables hiring managers to help move candidates forward, reduce bottlenecks, and accelerate hiring decisions—without compromising data security or administrative control.

Employee+ shifts hiring managers from passive stakeholders to active drivers of the hiring process, allowing them to collaborate more closely with recruiters and contribute directly to pipeline progression. Alongside this release, HirePlanner has also introduced several UX and UI improvements aimed at improving requisition management, user administration, and overall hiring team efficiency.

Empowering Hiring Managers

Many organizations struggle to determine how much access hiring managers should have within recruiting platforms. Granting full recruiter permissions can introduce security risks, while limiting access to basic roles often slows hiring and creates unnecessary dependency on HR teams.

Employee+ addresses this challenge by enabling HR teams to assign granular permissions tailored to each hiring manager’s responsibilities, giving managers the tools they need to support recruiters while maintaining governance and visibility.

Employee+: Custom Access Built for Hiring Managers

Unlike traditional fixed roles, Employee+ allows administrators to selectively enable features for each individual user. Hiring managers gain access to the recruiting tools they need to actively support their recruiters, communicate with stakeholders, and move candidates through the hiring pipeline more efficiently.

Six customizable permissions are already currently available:

• – Blog Publishing — Contribute to the creation of employer branding content
  – Event Management — Promote your corporate meetups, seminars, and recruiting events
  – Recruiting Status Updates — Grants the possibility to update candidate application status in real time
  – Internal Messaging — Access the internal messenger to collaborate directly with recruiting teams
  – Candidate Messaging — Access to the candidate messenger to engage directly with applicants on assigned requisitions
  – Agency Messaging — Access to the agency messenger to coordinate and collaborate with external recruiting agents.Each hiring manager can be configured independently. For example, one manager may only need visibility into candidate status and internal messaging, while another may require full collaboration capabilities.

This flexibility allows recruiters to delegate operational tasks, reduce back-and-forth communication, and keep hiring projects moving forward.

HirePlanner also confirmed additional capabilities are currently under development, including self-service requisition creation, screening feedback sharing, and interview feedback submission. These upcoming features will further expand hiring manager autonomy and reduce dependency on recruiting teams.

Enhanced Requisition and Application Management

This April’s release also introduces multiple UI improvements designed to help teams manage job openings and candidate pipelines more efficiently:

• – Calendar indicators to spot “scheduled job postings” more easily
  – New filters to allow requisition searches by publication status (Published / Scheduled)
  – Visual categorization to distinguish more easily between OPEN & CLOSED requisitions
  – Improved duplication workflow when copying requisitions

Together, these updates not only improve visibility, but also reduce confusion, and enable faster hiring decisions.

Simplified Role Structure

HirePlanner has also streamlined its role hierarchy to improve clarity and reduce configuration complexity:

• • – Employee — Basic access for interviewers and stakeholders
    – Employee+ — Customizable access for involved hiring managers
    – Recruiter — Full recruiting workflow access for HR teams
    – Admin — Complete platform control

• Each role now includes clearer descriptions during user creation, helping administrators assign permissions more confidently.
  

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Redesigned Company Directory

The company directory section has been fully re-designed and now includes a:

• – Quick user search functionality
  – At-a-glance permission visibility
  – Disabled account tracking
  – Streamlined user administration
• These enhancements make it easier to onboard and monitor hiring stakeholders and audit access rights across teams.

Why This Matters

For HR Teams
Employee+ allows recruiters to delegate operational responsibilities while maintaining full oversight. By enabling hiring managers to update status, communicate with candidates, and collaborate directly with stakeholders, recruiters can focus on strategic sourcing and pipeline management.

For Hiring Managers
Hiring managers can take control of their hiring projects by actively participating in the recruitment process. With access to messaging tools, status updates, and collaboration features, they can support recruiters more efficiently, move candidates forward faster, and reduce delays in decision-making.

For Organizations
Organizations benefit from faster hiring cycles, improved cross-team collaboration, and a more responsive candidate experience. By enabling hiring managers to contribute directly to recruitment workflows, teams can reduce bottlenecks while maintaining strong access controls and structured data management.

Availability

Employee+ and the associated feature upgrades are now available to all active HirePlanner customers at no additional cost.

ABOUT HIREPLANNER.COM

Hireplanner.com is an innovative SaaS Recruiting Advertising and Employer Branding platform designed to help companies attract top talent in Japan by boosting their visibility, improving candidate engagement, and reducing their average cost per hire. It provides a wide range of services such as Job Posting Advertising, Application Tracking (ATS), Agency Vendors Management, Online Career Events organization, Employer Branding Video Production, and more. HirePlanner.com’s HR Tech solutions are available in both English and Japanese and include all essential features needed to recruit efficiently in Japan.

👉 Learn more at: www.hireplanner.com