Configuring pipeline stages

How pipeline templates and job pipelines work, and how to add, order, remove and configure the stages candidates move through.

Every job in Recruit has its own pipeline: an ordered list of stages such as Applied, Shortlisting, Interview and Offer. New jobs get their stages from a pipeline template that an Admin sets up under Settings. This article covers the templates, the settings on each stage, and what you can no longer change once candidates are in a job's pipeline.

Who can do this

Pipeline templates: an Admin creates, edits, deletes and sets the default. HR users can open the page and read the templates, but cannot save changes. If your organisation is part of a group, group administrators who have been granted access to a company get a company selector at the top of the page and work on that company's templates.
A job's own pipeline: Admin and HR users, plus the job's hiring lead. While a job is waiting for setup, only Admin and HR can change the pipeline. Once a job is live, only Admin and HR can.
Moving candidates and editing sub-statuses: controlled by two switches under Settings > Roles & Permissions, described near the end of this article.

Templates and job pipelines

A pipeline template is a named list of stages with all their settings. You can have as many templates as you need, for example one for office roles and one for high-volume hiring. One template is marked Default, and that is the one new jobs start from.

When a job is created, Recruit copies the default template's stages onto the job. From then on the job owns its stages. Editing or deleting a template later does not change jobs that already exist. To pick a different template for a job, use Apply Template in the job's Pipeline step (see below).

Create or edit a template

Go to Settings > Pipeline Templates. Your templates are listed on the left, each showing its stage count and how many times it has been used.
To start a new one, select + Add Template. It is created straight away as "New Template" (or "New Template 2" and so on) with five stages: Applied, Shortlisting, Interview, Offer and Hired. To edit an existing one, select it in the list.
Change the Template Name (required, up to 100 characters) and edit the stages as described below.
Select Save Changes. The button only appears once you have changed something. If it is disabled, the reason is shown in red next to it.

To make a template the default, select it and choose Set Default. The default template cannot be deleted: set another template as default first, then select the old one and choose Delete Template. Deleting cannot be undone, and you will be asked to confirm.

If you select a different template while you have unsaved changes, Recruit asks whether to Keep Editing or Discard Changes.

Add, order and remove stages

Add a stage: select Add Stage below the list. It is added at the bottom with the type Custom and opens ready for a name.
Reorder: drag a stage by its handle (labelled "Drag to reorder stage"). The keyboard works too. The order you see is the order candidates progress through.
Remove: select the bin icon on the stage row. It is disabled while only one stage is left. Stages removed from a template disappear when you save.
Open a stage: select the arrow on the row to expand its settings. The row also shows who can see it: "Everyone" or a count of roles.

Every stage needs a name, up to 100 characters. Names must be unique within the template, ignoring capital letters and extra spaces. You will see "Stage name is required." or "Stage names must be unique within the pipeline." beside the stage, and Save Changes stays disabled until it is fixed.

Stage types

The Stage Type dropdown decides how Recruit treats candidates in the stage.

Type	What it does
Application received	Only offered on the first stage. It is the inbound stage where new applications land. It has no evaluation form, but it carries the application emails and the auto-advance setting described below.
Screening / shortlisting	Takes a default shortlisting checklist. Candidates cannot be moved forward until the required reviewers have finished and the pass threshold is met, if checklists are attached to the stage.
Interview	Takes an interview evaluation form. Scheduling is set to calendar-based when you choose this type. Interview stages are the ones that appear on the job's Events tab, so a job needs at least one to schedule interviews.
Video interview	Only shown if your organisation has the video interviewing add-on. Takes a video interview template. See Video interviews with HireFlix.
Assessment	No type-specific settings. Use it to label an assessment step.
Offer	Moving a candidate here runs the right to work check. Depending on your organisation's setting, the move is either allowed with a warning or blocked until right to work is verified. Candidates in an Offer stage are never auto-rejected. See Right to work and governance.
Custom	No type-specific settings. Use it for anything else, such as Hired.

Changing a stage's type clears any feedback form or checklist that does not belong to the new type. Stages themselves cannot be colour-coded. Only sub-statuses have colours.

Stage settings

Each expanded stage has a short plain-English summary at the top, then up to four sections.

Stage Basics

Stage Name and Stage Type, covered above.

Team Access

Three checkboxes: Recruiters can see candidates at this stage, Hiring managers can see candidates at this stage and Interviewers can see candidates at this stage. Tick none and everyone on the job can see the stage. Tick some and only those job roles can. Admin and HR users always see every stage. A person who moves a candidate must be able to see both the stage the candidate is leaving and the one they are entering.

Candidate Experience

Email sent on stage entry: choose an email template, or No automated email. The email goes to the candidate each time they are moved into the stage from a different stage. Moving to the stage they are already in sends nothing. On the first stage this control is replaced by the application emails below.
Auto-reject after (days): a whole number from 1 to 365, or empty for no auto-reject. Once a day, overnight, Recruit rejects every active candidate who entered the stage more than that many days ago. The clock starts from their most recent move into the stage. The rejection reason recorded is "Auto-rejected: exceeded N days in stage", and the candidate receives the stage's rejection email if one is set, otherwise the job's default. Offer stages are never auto-rejected.
Rejection email for this stage: choose a rejection template for this stage, or leave it on Use default rejection email.

The first stage has two email pickers and both are required: Application started email (sent once, when the candidate first saves or moves past page one of the form) and Application complete email (sent once the candidate submits the finished form). Until both are chosen, Save Changes is disabled with the message "The Applied stage needs both an acknowledgement email and an application complete email." If a job using the stage has a multi-page application form, include the resume link in the started email so candidates can return to it. See Stage automations and rejection emails for how the templates work.

Decision Rules

Shown on screening and interview stages.

On a screening stage, Default Shortlisting Checklist (optional) picks from your active checklists. Jobs made from the template start with that checklist attached. See Shortlisting checklists.
On an interview stage, Interview Evaluation Form (optional) picks from your interview feedback forms. See Interview feedback form templates.

Video interview stages have their own Video Interview section with a Video Interview Template (optional) picker.

Once a job has its own pipeline you can set more on the interview stage: Pass Threshold and Minimum Respondents, the number of interviewers who must submit feedback. Moving a candidate forward when the threshold is not met, or too few have responded, shows a warning but does not block the move. Screening thresholds do block. Minimum respondents cannot be higher than the number of interviewers in the stage's pool.

Advance on completion

The first stage has one extra control, When the application is complete, advance candidate to. The default is Don't advance automatically. Pick a later stage and candidates are moved there as soon as their application is complete. The move is recorded in their history like any other, and the stage entry email for the new stage is sent. Only stages after the first can be chosen. If you delete or move the chosen stage the setting is cleared.

Sub-statuses

Sub-statuses let recruiters tag candidates within a stage, for example "Attempt to contact 1", "Attempt to contact 2". In the stage's Sub-statuses section, type a name (up to 100 characters), select Add, then drag to reorder, pick one of eight colours, rename by editing the text, or delete with the bin icon. Deleting a sub-status never fails: candidates who had it lose it. In a template, sub-status changes are saved with Save Changes. On a job's pipeline they are saved immediately.

Rejection Email Defaults

At the foot of each template, Default send timing offers No default (use system default), Send Immediately, No Email, Delay 24 Hours, Delay 48 Hours and Delay 1 Week. Unless you choose No Email or No default, a Default email template picker appears. New jobs inherit these settings and can override them.

Changing a job's pipeline

Open the Pipeline step of the job wizard, during setup or later through Edit Job. It has the same stage editor as the template page, plus a Pipeline Preview of the stage order and a description field on each stage (up to 500 characters). A job's stage names need at least 2 characters, and setup cannot be completed with fewer than 2 stages.

Apply Template replaces the job's stages with another template's. The job's existing Applied stage is kept and updated rather than duplicated, so candidates already in it stay put.
Update to latest appears before the job is published when the job's template has been changed since the job took it. It re-applies the template's current stages.

Adding, editing or deleting a stage on an approved job that is not yet live sends the job back through approval. Reordering does not.

What is locked once candidates are in a stage

A stage cannot be deleted while any application is in it: "Cannot delete stage with active applications. Move applications first."
A stage cannot be deleted if any candidate has ever passed through it: "Cannot delete a stage that candidates have passed through." Rename it or stop using it instead.
The first stage cannot be deleted from a job: "Cannot delete the default stage".
Update to latest stops working the moment a job has any applications: "Cannot refresh the pipeline once a job has applications". Before that, it is only available before the job is published.
Once a job is live, only Admin and HR can change its pipeline.

Nothing else about a stage is locked. Names, settings, team access and order can all still be edited, and candidates stay in the stage they are in.

Who can move candidates and edit sub-statuses

Go to Settings > Roles & Permissions. Under Pipeline permissions there are two switches, both off by default.

Allow hiring managers and interviewers to move candidates: when off, only Admin, HR and a job's recruiter can move candidates between stages. Each stage's Team Access still applies on top.
Allow hiring managers to edit a candidate's sub-status: when off, only Admin, HR and the job's recruiter can change a sub-status. Interviewers can never change one.

Shared workflows in a group

If your organisation is a company within a group and the parent has shared its recruitment workflows, the parent's templates appear in your list with a shared badge and are read-only. An Admin can select one and choose Use as default for new jobs, and later Stop using as default to go back to your own default.