Notification preferences
Choose which notification emails you receive from Recruit, and how an administrator sets the defaults for everyone else.
Choose which notification emails you receive from Recruit, and how an administrator sets the defaults for everyone else.
Recruit sends notification emails when something happens that involves you, such as a new application on your job, a booked interview or an approval waiting for your decision. Each type has its own switch, and you can turn off the ones you do not need. Recruit does not have an in-app notification bell or inbox. Notifications reach you by email only.
Who can use this page
Everyone who signs in with an Admin, HR or Member role has the Notifications card and can change their own switches. Agency users do not have access to Settings, so they do not see it. Only an Admin can open the organisation defaults and decide whether people may edit their own switches. HR and Member users cannot.
Open your notification preferences
- Select your avatar, then choose Settings.
- In the Personal group, open Notifications.
Every change saves the moment you flip a switch, and you see Saved successfully. If the change does not go through you see "Could not save your notification preferences. Please try again." Flip the switch again once your connection is back.
Email delivery
The Email Delivery card at the top has two controls.
Email notifications is the master switch. Turn it off and you receive none of the notification emails listed below. It also stops approval request emails, which have no in-app alternative, so leave it on if you are an approver. It does not affect emails Recruit sends to candidates.
Delivery frequency is either Immediate or Daily summary. Immediate sends each email as the event happens. Daily summary holds your notifications and sends one email called "Your daily notification summary" each morning, listing how many of each type built up. If nothing built up, no summary is sent.
Two things to know about the daily summary. Approval emails are held too, so an approver on Daily summary can see a request up to a day late. The one exception is Interview scheduled, which always arrives straight away because an interviewer needs to hear about a booking immediately.
What each switch controls
The switches sit on the Notifications card, grouped by area. Each one only applies to the emails you are actually a recipient of, as shown below.
| Switch | You receive it when |
|---|---|
| New application received (Applications) | A candidate submits an application to a job where you are the hiring manager. If a job has no hiring manager on its team, the email goes to the job's hiring lead. |
| Application withdrawn (Applications) | A candidate withdraws their own application on a job where you are a hiring manager. Withdrawals recorded by a recruiter do not trigger it. |
| Interview scheduled (Interviews) | An interview is booked for you as the interviewer, whether the candidate booked it themselves, a recruiter booked it or it was an ad-hoc interview. |
| Interview reminder (Interviews) | An interview is due within the next 24 hours. It goes to the interviewer, the event hosts and the job's hiring managers. |
| Interview feedback completed (Interviews) | Interview feedback is submitted for a candidate on a job where you are a recruiter. |
| Shortlisting completed (Shortlisting) | A shortlisting evaluation is submitted on a job where you are a recruiter. |
| Stage change (Pipeline) | A candidate moves to a different pipeline stage on a job where you are a hiring manager. Moving a candidate to the stage they are already on sends nothing. |
| Offer accepted (Pipeline) | A candidate accepts an offer. It goes to the job's hiring managers and the person who created the offer. |
| Candidate emails not sent (Candidate emails) | You are a recruiter on the job and an email to a candidate was held back because required information, such as a link or an interview time, was missing. If the job has no recruiter, the job's hiring lead receives it. |
| Note mentions (Notes) | Someone mentions you in a candidate note. |
| Reference received (References) | A reference is completed. Admins receive it for every job. HR users receive it only for jobs where they are on the job team. |
| Approval action needed (Approvals) | A job is waiting for your approval. |
| Approval approved (Approvals) | A job you submitted for approval has been approved. |
| Approval rejected (Approvals) | A job you submitted for approval has been rejected. |
| Approval withdrawn (Approvals) | An approval request you were an approver on is withdrawn. |
| Advert expiry (Job adverts) | A published job's closing date is 24 hours away and you are a hiring manager on it. This also needs the Advert Expiry Reminder switched on under Settings then Reminders, which it is unless someone turned it off. |
| Data deletion request (Data deletion) | A candidate asks for their data to be deleted, or an automatic deletion fails and needs review. Only Admin and HR users receive this. |
| Onboarding updates (Onboarding) | Onboarding starts or finishes for a new hire on a job where you are a hiring manager, a new hire submits a task for review on a job where you are a recruiter or hiring manager, or an onboarding task email is set to go to its assignee and that is you. |
Next to each approval switch there is an eye icon. It opens a preview of the email Recruit sends for that notification, with a link to edit the template.
When the master Email notifications switch is off, the whole list is greyed out and cannot be changed, and the Delivery frequency menu is locked with it.
Starting values
Nobody has to set anything up. Every person starts on their organisation's defaults for their role, and the built-in defaults are these. Admin and HR users have every notification on. Members have the same list with these turned off: Application withdrawn, Stage change, Offer accepted, Advert expiry, Reference received and Data deletion request. Members have Candidate emails not sent on. Everyone starts on Immediate delivery.
Recruit only stores the switches you change yourself. Any switch you never touch keeps following the organisation defaults, so a later change by an admin reaches you on those switches.
Organisation defaults (Admin only)
Admins see a Configure defaults button at the top right of the Notifications page. It opens Default notifications by role, a grid with one row per notification and a column each for Admin, HR and Member. Group admins share the Admin column.
- Select Configure defaults.
- Switch each notification on or off for each role. Data deletion request is locked off for Members because they can never receive it.
- To change people who already have an account, tick Apply to existing users too. This box appears once you change something.
- Select Save. You see Notification defaults saved, and if you ticked the box, how many existing users were updated.
Without the tick, new defaults reach new users and anyone who has never changed that switch. People who already chose their own value keep it. With the tick, the switches you changed are overwritten for every existing user in that role, including ones they set themselves. Switches you did not change are left alone. Delivery frequency is always Immediate in this grid, and each person picks Daily summary for themselves.
The same window has an Email and text delivery issues digest section with a switch labelled Send admins a daily email about delivery issues. It is on by default. When on, admins get a daily email called "Email and text delivery issues in the last 24h". It lists emails and text messages that failed or were not sent, and it also flags scheduled reminders that were delayed. On a day when nothing failed but some reminders were late, the email is called "Some scheduled reminders were delayed". It does not change any other notification.
Stop people editing their own notifications (Admin only)
Admins can make notifications fully organisation-controlled.
- Go to Settings, then Roles & Permissions in the Team & Access group.
- Under Notification permissions, find Allow people to edit their own notifications.
- Turn it off. It is on by default.
With it off, everyone follows the organisation defaults and personal choices stop applying. Nothing is deleted. People's saved choices come back if you turn the setting on again.
For people who are not admins, the Notifications card disappears from Settings, and opening its address takes them back to the Settings page. Admins can still open the Notifications page. They see the message "Your organisation manages notification preferences centrally, so these settings are read-only. An administrator can change them under organisation defaults." Their own switches are locked like everyone else's, so an admin changes the defaults through Configure defaults.
If your switches are locked
- Every switch is greyed out and a banner mentions central management: your organisation has turned off personal editing. Ask an admin to change the defaults.
- The list is greyed out but the banner is missing: your own Email notifications switch is off. Turn it back on.
- You are not receiving an email you expect: check that its switch is on, that your Delivery frequency is not on Daily summary, and that you are the right kind of recipient in the table above, for example a hiring manager or recruiter on that job.