Stage automations and rejection emails

How stage entry emails, auto-reject and rejection emails work, and how to hold back, send or cancel them.

Recruit sends candidates some emails without anyone pressing a button: an email when they enter a pipeline stage, an email when they are rejected, and a rejection when they have sat in a stage for too long. Each one is set in a different place. This article covers all of them, how a rejection email can be delayed, sent later by hand or cancelled, and how Recruit decides which email a candidate receives.

Who can change these settings

Stage emails and auto-reject are set on a pipeline template in Settings > Pipeline Templates. This is for System Admin and HR users. Rejection emails are written in Settings > Communication Templates, also System Admin and HR only.

The rejection email timing and template for a single job are set on that job's Settings tab. On a job in any status, only System Admin, HR and the job's hiring lead see these controls. Everyone else, including a job's Recruiter, sees the message "Only Admin, HR, or the job's hiring lead can change these settings at this stage."

Scheduled Emails is System Admin and HR only. An HR user restricted to certain locations only sees candidates on jobs they can access.

Email sent when a candidate enters a stage

Go to Settings > Pipeline Templates and open the template.
Expand the stage and find the Candidate Experience section.
Under Email sent on stage entry, choose an email template. Choose No automated email to send nothing.
Select Save Changes.

The email goes to the candidate as soon as they are moved into that stage. It is sent again if they enter the stage a second time, but not if a recruiter re-sends an invitation while the candidate is already in the stage. When a pipeline is saved, Recruit checks that the stage and job email templates you chose exist in your organisation, so a missing template cannot be saved.

The box labelled Email delay (days) under the picker does not hold these emails back. Nothing is queued, so a stage entry email never appears in Scheduled Emails. If the template has since been deleted, or the candidate has no email address, nothing is sent and no error is shown. Check the candidate's Communications tab to see what actually went out. These emails appear there with the source Stage Automation.

The Applied stage works differently

The first stage, Applied, does not have an Email sent on stage entry picker. It has two required pickers instead, and the pipeline cannot be saved until both are filled in.

Application started email: sent once, when a candidate on a multi-page application form first saves or moves past page one. Later saves send nothing. The email needs a way back into the form, so it should contain the resume link field. Templates in the Application Started category must contain the field or they cannot be saved.
Application complete email: sent once the candidate submits the finished form, including when they come back to a saved draft and finish it.

If the form has one page and the candidate submits it directly, they receive only the Application complete email. If the chosen template has been deleted, Recruit sends standard wording so the candidate is never left without an acknowledgement. Applications submitted by an agency send the candidate none of these emails, and no stage entry email either.

Auto-reject

Auto-reject rejects candidates who sit in a stage for too long. It is set per stage, on the same template.

Expand the stage under Settings > Pipeline Templates.
In Candidate Experience, enter a number of days in Auto-reject after (days). It accepts 1 to 365. Leave it empty for no auto-reject.
Select Save Changes.

Recruit checks once a day, overnight. A candidate is rejected when they have been in the stage for longer than the number of days you set, counted from when they entered it. The rejection reason is recorded as "Auto-rejected: exceeded N days in stage", where N is your number. Only active applications are touched, and stages of the Offer type are never auto-rejected. The candidate then gets a rejection email, chosen by the same rules as a manual rejection (below). There is no user behind an auto-reject, so the field shows the job's hiring lead.

Rejection emails

When someone rejects a candidate, or auto-reject does, Recruit can email the candidate. You control the timing and the template for each job.

Open the job and go to the Settings tab.
Find Rejection Email Settings.
Choose an Email Delay Mode:
- No Email: no rejection email is sent automatically on this job. A recruiter can still send one later from the pipeline (see "Sending rejection emails yourself").
- Send Immediately: sent the moment the candidate is rejected. This is the default.
- Delay 24 Hours, Delay 48 Hours or Delay 1 Week: sent that long after the rejection.
Unless you chose No Email, pick an Email template. The list shows your Rejection templates. The first option in the list sets the job to use your organisation's default.
Select Save. The button is greyed out until you change something. You will see "Rejection email settings saved".

A line under the timing confirms your choice, for example "Sent 24 hours after a candidate is rejected." Changing the setting later does not alter emails that are already scheduled. New jobs start with the timing and template set under Rejection Email Defaults at the bottom of the default pipeline template (Default send timing and Default email template). Change them on the job if it needs something different.

What you see when you reject someone

The rejection dialog tells you how the email will be handled before you confirm. With immediate sending it reads "If a rejection template is available, an email will be sent immediately. The result will confirm the email outcome." With a delay it reads, for example, "The configured email delay is 24 hours. The rejection result will confirm whether an email was scheduled." On a job set to No Email it says no rejection email will be sent.

After you confirm, the result tells you what happened, for a single rejection, a bulk rejection or an auto-reject.

"Rejection email(s) scheduled for" followed by the time: the email is queued.
"Rejection email was not sent or scheduled because no rejection template is configured. Configure a Rejection template in Settings or select a job or stage template." For a bulk rejection the result also gives a count of the emails skipped.
"The application was rejected, but the rejection email was not sent or scheduled.": something went wrong with the email. The application is still rejected.

The candidate's Communications tab records a skipped rejection email as Failed with the same explanation, and it has no Resend button.

Sending rejection emails yourself

If a rejection email was not sent, for example because the job is set to No Email, or because it is waiting on a delay, you can send it from the pipeline later.

In the pipeline, rejected candidates are grouped in the Rejected column by where their rejection email stands:

Awaiting rejection email: nothing has been sent or scheduled.
Rejection email queued: a delayed email is waiting to go.
Rejection email sent: the candidate has been emailed.
Rejected before email tracking: older rejections, from before Recruit recorded this.

Tick the rejected cards or rows you want to email. Withdrawn applications cannot be ticked.
Select Send rejection email. This is only enabled when every application you have ticked is rejected. If you have ticked anything else you see "Select only rejected applications to send a rejection email".
The email window opens, limited to your Rejection templates, and lists the recipients. Choose a template and send.

The email is sent as each application's rejection email, and the applications stay rejected. Merge fields fill in the same way as for an automatic rejection, with the job's hiring lead as the recruiter name.

A rejected application cannot be moved. Move Stage is disabled while one is ticked, with the message "Rejected applications cannot be moved. Reactivate one from its review panel to return it to the process." Use Reactivate in the review panel to put the candidate back in the process. If a rejection email was scheduled and the application is reactivated before it goes, the email is cancelled.

Writing a rejection template

Go to Settings > Communication Templates, create an email template and give it the Rejection category. These fields are filled in for every rejection email:

, , , ,
, , , , ,
and
, the job's hiring lead
, the person who rejected the candidate, or the hiring lead for an auto-reject
, the date the email is actually sent. On a delayed email that is the later date.

Which rejection email is sent

Recruit works down this list and uses the first template it finds.

The template set under Rejection email for this stage on the stage the candidate was rejected from. Find it in the same Candidate Experience section as the other stage settings. The picker shows "Use default rejection email" until you choose one.
The template chosen on the job.
If the job has no template chosen, the most recently created Rejection template in your organisation.

If a stage template has been deleted, Recruit moves on to the next step. If the job has a template chosen and that template has been deleted, nothing is sent, so pick a new one.

Nothing is sent either when the job is set to No Email, when the candidate has no email address, or when the organisation has no Rejection template at all. In the last case the rejection result says so, as described above.

See and cancel delayed emails

A rejection email with a delay is placed in a queue. Go to Settings > Scheduled Emails to see it. The list shows the Candidate, Subject, Scheduled for and Source. Use the source filter to show only Rejection emails. Manual, event invite, scheduling and onboarding emails that are waiting to go out appear here too.

Select Cancel on the row.
Confirm with Cancel email. To back out, select Keep it scheduled.

You will see "Scheduled email cancelled". This cannot be undone, and the candidate is not sent that email later. The candidate stays rejected. Cancelling only stops the email. Once Recruit has started delivering an email, it cannot be cancelled and you will see "Email is currently being delivered and cannot be cancelled".

If the candidate is no longer rejected when the time comes, for example because the application was reactivated, the email is not sent.

The candidate's Communications tab shows the same email with a status of Scheduled, Sent, Cancelled or Failed. A Failed email shows the reason, such as the recipient having unsubscribed, their address being suppressed after a bounce, or "Not sent" followed by the names of any required information that was missing.

Which email a candidate receives

On the Applied stage, the Application started and Application complete emails are used. The stage entry email does not apply there.
On every other stage, the stage entry email is sent when the candidate moves in.
On rejection, the stage template beats the job template, which beats the organisation default. The job's timing setting decides whether it goes now, later or never automatically.
Applications submitted by an agency send the candidate none of the application or stage entry emails.
A candidate without an email address gets nothing from any of these.