Rejecting a candidate is rarely one action. There's the email, the tag so you can find them again, the note for whoever picks up the conversation next. Automated actions do all of it for you: attach them to a disqualify reason once, and they run every time your team picks that reason — in any job, for one candidate or forty.

Note: To add or change automated actions you need the Manage automated actions permission. Anyone can disqualify a candidate with a reason that has actions attached, whether or not they can edit them

How automated actions for disqualify reasons work

An automated action is attached to a disqualify reason, not to a job. Set one up on Not a fit and it runs whenever anyone disqualifies a candidate for Not a fit, anywhere in your account. Each reason can hold more than one automation, and each automation can run several actions in a row. A reason that already has automations shows an Automations bar underneath it in settings, with a count of how many.

Important: Automated actions for disqualify reasons are company-wide. You can't set them up differently for each job. If you need job-specific behavior, use pipeline automations instead.

What you can automate

When you disqualify a candidate, you can:

Send an email — choose who it comes from and who it goes to, write the subject and body, add placeholders, a signature, and attachments. You can send it immediately or schedule it for later.
Add a note — leave a note on the candidate profile, visible to everyone or only to selected people and roles.
Add a task — name the task, set a due date, and assign it to specific team members or to whoever holds a role in the job, like the recruiter or the hiring manager.
Add tags — tag the profile so you can filter on it later in candidate search and reporting.
Add followers — add team members as followers so they're notified about changes on the profile.
Assign to a job/talent pool — move the candidate into a talent pool or another job, so good people don't disappear when one role closes.

Note: Available actions and automation templates depend on your current Recruitee plan. Conditions for disqualify reason automations are only available on the Optimize plan. Request an also evaluation isn't available here. It's an action for pipeline automations, where a candidate is still in the running.

Add an automated action to a disqualify reason

Choose a reason and set up the actions you want to run when you disqualify a candidate.

Go to Settings > Workflow > Disqualify reasons, find the reason you want to automate, and click its lightning icon.

In the New automation window, click Create a custom automation or choose one of the ready-made templates under Or start with a template. The automation builder opens with the trigger already set. Under When this happens, you’ll see Candidate is disqualified with your reason selected.

Under Then do this, click Choose an action to run and select your action. Fill in its details, such as the email content, note text, or tags. If you want to run several actions, click Add an action to include another.

When everything is ready, click Save automation.

Tip: Don't click the pencil icon expecting to find automations there — that one renames or deletes the reason itself. The lightning icon is the one you want.

Note: If you don't see the lightning icon at all, your hiring role doesn't have the Manage automated actions permission.

Schedule an email instead of sending it right away

Sending a rejection the same second someone clicks Disqualify can read as careless. In the email action, open the send options and set Send after — a number of days, a time of day, and a time zone. The builder shows you a summary, like Email will be sent 2 days after this automation is triggered, at 09:00.

Narrow it down with conditions

An automation doesn't have to run for everyone disqualified with that reason. Between the trigger and the actions, click Add a condition to set an Only if rule, then And if for any further ones. Conditions let you split one reason into different treatments — for example, send a warmer, more personal email only when the candidate made it past the first interview stage.

Note: The conditions on offer depend on the trigger, so you'll see a different set here than in a pipeline automation.

Edit, duplicate, and delete automations

Everything happens in Settings > Workflow > Disqualify reasons. Click the Automations bar under a reason to expand it and see what's attached.

Edit an automation

Click the edit icon (pencil) on the automation. Change the actions or conditions, then click Save changes.

Note: You can't move an existing automation to a different disqualify reason. The trigger is locked once the automation is saved — to move it, recreate it on the other reason.

Duplicate an automation

Click the ... menu on the automation and choose Duplicate. The copy opens straight away for editing. This is the fastest way to build a second variation of a long rejection email.

Delete an automation

Click the ... menu on the automation and choose Delete. You can also click Delete inside the automation builder.

Confirm with Delete automation.

Important: Deleting an automation can’t be undone. Deleting the disqualify reason also deletes all automations attached to it.

What your team sees when a candidate is disqualified

Disqualifying one candidate

When you select a disqualify reason with automated actions for a single candidate, Recruitee starts the actions and shows a progress bar. The single-candidate flow does not include a confirmation screen or a preview of the actions before they start. You can pause or cancel the remaining actions from the progress bar.

Disqualifying candidates in bulk

Select the candidates, click the disqualify icon in the bulk actions bar, and pick your reason. A Bulk automated actions window lists what will run — There are 3 actions assigned to this disqualify reason — and offers two ways forward: go ahead, or click Disqualify without actions to disqualify quietly.

Recruitee always shows a confirmation screen before the bulk disqualification starts. The Bulk automated actions window previews the actions that will run and gives you two options:

Continue with the automated actions.
Select Disqualify without actions to disqualify the candidates without running the attached actions.

After you confirm, a progress bar shows the status while the actions run.

Tip: Disqualify without actions is the escape hatch for the case everyone hits eventually — cleaning up test candidates, or rejecting someone you've already phoned personally.

Pause or cancel actions while they run

Once the actions start, a panel appears on your interface showing their progress — Disqualifying candidates..., then Completing 3 actions.... While it's running you can:

Pause it, and Resume when you're ready.
Cancel it, which stops the remaining actions.
Preview email or Edit email before the action is completed via the ^ Expand button.

When it finishes you'll see All actions completed, All actions canceled, or a count of what failed, like 1 action could not be completed.

Note: Actions that have already run can't be undone from this panel. Pausing quickly is what buys you the chance to stop an email.

How teams use disqualify reason automations

Here are three ways teams use disqualify reason automations in Tellent Recruitee to follow up with candidates and keep their hiring process organized.

Notify remaining candidates when a role is filled

A team has made a hire, but 40 candidates are still in the pipeline. It adds a Send an email action to the reason it uses when a role is filled and schedules the message for one day after disqualification at 9 AM. The recruiter disqualifies the remaining candidates in bulk with that reason. Each candidate receives an update without the recruiter writing 40 individual emails.

Keep strong candidates available for future roles

A candidate has the right experience, but their salary expectations are above the role’s budget. The team adds two actions to its salary-related disqualify reason: Add tags with strong-candidate and Assign to a job/talent pool with the Keep warm talent pool selected. When the budget changes or another role opens, the team can find the candidate in the pool.

Keep the hiring team informed

A recruiter wants to share the reason for a rejection with the hiring team. The team adds an Add a note action with visibility limited to selected hiring team members and an Add followers action for the hiring manager. When the recruiter uses that reason, the note records the context and the hiring manager becomes a follower of the candidate profile.

Frequently asked questions

Can I stop an email after it's been sent?

No. You can pause or cancel while the actions are still running, but anything already completed stands. Scheduling an email for the next day gives you a much bigger window.

Can one reason have more than one automation?

Yes — and each automation can run several actions. Use conditions if you want them to apply to different candidates.

What happens if the person disqualifying doesn't have access to a feature?

If someone's hiring role doesn't give them access to a feature — emails, for example — the matching action won't run when they disqualify a candidate.

Do actions re-run when I move a candidate backwards in the pipeline?

That's a separate thing — pipeline automations, not disqualify reasons. When you move a candidate back into a stage they've already been in, Recruitee asks Do you want these actions to be done again? so you can choose.

What happens to the automations if I delete the disqualify reason?

They're deleted with it, and it can't be undone.

Can I set different automated actions per job?

No. Disqualify reason automations are company-wide. For job-specific behavior, use pipeline automations on that job's stages.

Will the actions run again if I requalify someone and disqualify them again?

Yes. The actions are tied to the reason, so picking it again triggers them again.