Setting up your email sender and domain
Set who your emails come from, add your own sending domain, and control where candidate replies go.
Set who your emails come from, add your own sending domain, and control where candidate replies go.
Every email Recruit sends to a candidate has a sender and a reply address. Out of the box, emails go out under your organisation's name from a HireRoad sending address. If you want them to come from your own domain, for example jobs@mail.yourcompany.com, you add the domain in Settings, ask whoever manages your DNS to add a few records, and verify it. This article covers the domain setup and the reply-to options on the same page.
Who can do this
Only System Admins can open this page and save changes. HR and Member users do not see it in Settings. If your account belongs to a group of companies, a company selector sits beside the page title, and the settings apply to whichever company you have selected.
You also need access to your domain's DNS settings, or someone who has it. That is usually your IT team or your domain registrar. Recruit cannot add the records for you.
Where to find it
Go to Settings and open the Custom Sending Domain card. The page has up to four sections: Sender, Reply-To Address, Domain Configuration and, once a domain is saved, Domain Verification. One Save button at the top right saves the sender, reply-to and domain fields. Verify domain and Check status act straight away and do not need a save.
What candidates see before your domain is set up
Until a domain is verified, emails are sent from a HireRoad address, with your organisation's name shown as the sender name. A value in Custom From Email (optional) is not used at this point, so candidates will not see it. Emails are still delivered as normal. They just do not carry your own domain.
There is no separate sender name field. The name candidates see is your organisation's name.
Set up your sending domain
- Open Settings then Custom Sending Domain.
- In Custom Domain, enter the domain or subdomain you want to send from, such as
mail.yourcompany.com. It must be a full domain name. A subdomain such asmail.leaves your main domain's existing email setup untouched. - Optionally, enter an address in Custom From Email (optional), such as
jobs@yourcompany.com. It must be a valid email address, and it only takes effect if it sits on the domain you entered in step 2 or a subdomain of it. - Select Save. The Domain Verification section now appears.
- Select Verify domain. Recruit registers the domain and lists the DNS records to add.
- Send those records to your IT or DNS administrator. The screen tells you to ask them to add the records to your domain's DNS settings.
- Once they have added them, select Check status.
If you change the domain later, save it and select Verify domain again so the new domain gets its own records.
The DNS records
The records table shows a Type, a Name / Host, a Value, a Priority (only used by the mail record) and a Purpose. The copy button on each row copies the value, so your DNS administrator can paste it exactly. The names and values are specific to your domain, so copy them from the screen. You will see these:
| Purpose shown | Type | What to add |
|---|---|---|
| DKIM | CNAME | One or more CNAME records, each with a long generated name ending in your domain and a value pointing to a mail provider address. These prove the emails really come from you. Add every one listed. |
| MAIL FROM MX | MX | A mail record on the name starting bounces. followed by your domain, with priority 10. It handles bounced emails. |
| MAIL FROM SPF | TXT | A text record on the same bounces. name that authorises the mail provider to send for you. |
| DMARC | TXT | A text record on the name starting _dmarc. followed by your domain. It tells receiving mail systems how to treat email that fails checks. The suggested policy is the most permissive one, so nothing is blocked. |
Some DNS providers add your domain to the end of the name automatically. If yours does, your administrator may need to enter only the part of the name before your domain.
Verification status and timing
The status badge in the Domain Verification section shows one of three states.
- Not started: no verification has been requested yet.
- Pending: verification has been requested but the records have not all been found.
- Verified: the records were found. A line underneath reads "Verified on" followed by the date.
Select Check status whenever you want an immediate answer. Recruit also rechecks every unverified domain automatically about every six hours, so a domain can change to Verified without anyone opening the page. How long your DNS provider takes to publish the records is outside Recruit's control, and the screen gives no estimate. If the status is still Pending shortly after your administrator has added everything, check again later.
What happens once the domain is verified
Emails to candidates are sent from your domain, with your organisation's name as the sender name. The address used is your Custom From Email if it is on the verified domain or one of its subdomains. If you left it blank, or it is on a different domain, Recruit sends from noreply@ followed by your domain. The change applies to emails sent from that point.
Reply-to behaviour
The reply-to address decides where a candidate's reply lands when they press reply. It is separate from the sending domain and works whether or not a domain is verified. Recruit uses the first of these that applies:
- The address a user chose in the From field when writing a message themselves. It must belong to an active user in your organisation, otherwise Recruit rejects it with "From address must belong to an active user in your organisation".
- The email address of the user who sent the email, if Send replies to the person who sent the email is on in the Sender section. It is on by default.
- The address in Default reply-to address in the Reply-To Address section.
- An automatic reply address for that candidate, so their answer is attached to their record in Recruit.
- The email address of the job's owner.
Leave Send replies to the person who sent the email on if you want recruiters to receive replies personally. To collect all replies in one place, turn it off and enter a shared mailbox such as careers@yourcompany.com in Default reply-to address. Clear that field and save to remove it. If the switch is off and the field is empty, replies use the automatic per-candidate address.
Problems you might hit
- Could not save email settings. Please try again. Check that the domain is a full domain name with no spaces or
http://, and that the from and reply-to fields are valid email addresses. - Could not initiate domain verification. Please try again. Verification works on the saved domain, so save the domain first, then select Verify domain again.
- Status stays Pending. Compare each record in your DNS with the table on screen. A missing record is the usual cause, so every record listed must be present. Then select Check status.
- Emails still show a HireRoad address. The status must read Verified. Until then your domain is not used.
- Your custom from address is being ignored. It has to be on the sending domain you entered, or a subdomain of it. An address on any other domain is replaced by
noreply@on your sending domain.
If the records match the screen and the status will not change, contact HireRoad support with your domain name and a copy of the records table.