9 ATS automation templates for screening candidates

You’ve just opened a new job and—oops. You got 500 applications in 3 days. You’ve put the job on pause but now you’ve got to get through these applicants.

Knockout questions on the application are a great starting point, but they’re not the only type of automation that can help at this stage.

Automations can help you apply tags, fast-track certain candidates, keep candidates engaged, and nudge internal team members. So you can speed up hiring and make sure great candidates don’t get missed.

To inspire you, here are 9 ATS automation ideas for screening candidates.

This page is part of a series. See the full template library here →

Fast track internal and referred applicants (Advanced)

Description: Think of this as the opposite of knockout questions. You might want to fast-track certain candidates. For example, this automation will ensure that all internal or referred candidates at least get a first interview.

Make it your own: You can expand on this with more conditions, branches, and actions. For example, if you have different departments who want to fast track different types of candidates, or handle them differently.

Trigger: Application is created

Condition: Application is tagged Internal or the channel equals Employee referral

Action: Move to interview stage

Engage with applicants at each stage (Advanced)

Description: To keep candidates informed and engaged, this automation updates candidates each time their application is moved to a new stage of the process.

Make it your own: Configure the stages of your hiring process and how you want to engage with candidates at each stage. In the next automation, we’ll also show how you can use branching conditions to create different flows for different types of candidates.

Trigger: Application moves stage

Branching Condition: Stage equals…

Review:

• • Email applicant

Interview:

• • Email applicant

Final interview:

• • Email applicant, with follow up email from hiring manager

Offer:

• Email applicant, with follow up email from hiring manager

Engage candidates differently depending on department (Advanced)

Description: Building on our previous example, let’s imagine that two departments want to engage candidates at each stage, but they have different stages of their hiring process, and want to engage candidates differently across the stages. This automation uses branching conditions to allow for different stages and actions between those departments.

Make it your own: Customize the branches and actions, and change the conditions. For example, you could use a similar automation to manage communication with candidates in different locations.

Branching condition: Department equals…

• Operations
  • Branching condition to trigger specific actions at each stage, similar to above
• Sales
  • Branching condition to trigger specific actions at each stage, similar to above

Apply tags based on one application response (Basic)

Description: This automation will apply tags to candidates based on their responses to questions on the application form. For example, you might ask if they’re open to working remotely, have management experience, or require a visa.

Make it your own: Fully customize the application question, response, and tags applied.

Trigger: Application is created

Condition: Answer to question “Do you have more than 1 year of experience managing people?” equals response “Yes”

Action: Apply tag “Management experience”

Apply tags based on multiple application responses (Advanced)

Description: Building on our previous template, you can also create branching conditions with different actions for different candidate responses. In this example, we’re hiring for a role that requires working in-person, so we’re asking candidates whether they’re locally based. This is an adapted version of a real automation used by Pinpoint customer Article. You can read more about how they use it here.

Make it your own: Fully customize the application question, response, and tags applied.

Trigger: Application is created

Condition: Answer to question “Are you locally based?” equals…

• Yes:
  • Apply tag “local” and send candidate to Review
• No, but willing to relocate:
  • Apply tag “Relocate” and send candidate an email with a follow-up questionnaire
• No:
  • Apply tag “Nonlocal” and send candidate to Reject and send a customized email that includes the rejection reason

Reject applications based on application responses (Basic)

Description: Yes, we’ve finally gotten to knockout questions. Here’s a simple one to start with. This automation will reject applicants who respond a certain way to a question on the application. This is helpful if you have certain non-negotiable requirements for a role.

Make it your own: Customize the question and the rejection message. You can also add more branching conditions and actions, as we’ll show you in more examples below.

Trigger: Application is created

Condition: Answer to question “X” equals “Y”

Action: Reject application and send customized email

Reject applications based on department and application responses (Advanced)

Description: Building on our previous example, imagine that you have two departments with different requirements for minimum experience. This automation uses a branching condition to manage both within one automation. You can use conditions to scope them to the appropriate jobs. This makes the process easier to manage, because you can see everything in one place.

Make it your own: Customize the branches, questions, and actions. For example, Pinpoint’s template library includes a similar automation with branches based on location rather than department.

Trigger: Application is created

Branch: Job department equals…

• Department A:
  • Check application response, and move to Review stage or Reject
• Department B:
  • Check application response, and move to Review stage or Reject

Mini skills assessment (Advanced)

Description: A variation on knockout questions. For jobs that attract a lot of applicants, you might find it helpful to build a basic skills test into your application. Pinpoint has integrations with more advanced assessment tools, but a very simple test at the point of application can help identify clearly underqualified candidates. This automation manages that process.

Make it your own: You can change the questions and responses of course. And you could choose to tag or move candidates to a stage if you’d prefer to manually review them before rejecting.

Trigger: Application is updated

Condition: Final skills test question is completed (as measured by completing the final question)

True/False Condition: Skills test questions have the correct responses

• If true:
  • Move to Review stage
• If false:
  • Move to Reject stage, send email, and set disposition tag

Prioritize and reject candidates based on multiple criteria (Advanced)

Description: This advanced automation includes multiple branching conditions to fast-track certain candidates and reject others based on multiple criteria such as internal/referral, experience level,

Make it your own: Configure your own conditions, branches, and actions based on your preferences.

Trigger: Application is created

Condition: Application channel equals internal or referral?

• True:
  • Move to phone screen
• False:
  • Move to next step

Branch: Check right to work?

• False:
  • Apply disposition tag and reject
• True:
  • Move to next step

Branch: Check experience level

• Less than 1 year:
  • Apply the disposition tag and reject
• 1 to 3 years
  • Move to next step
• More than 3 years:
  • Move to phone screen

Branch: Check response to question “Are you locally based and willing to work in office 2 days per week?”

• Yes:
  • Move to phone screen
• No, but willing to relocate:
  • Send follow up questionnaire
• No:
  • Apply disposition tag and reject

Part 2

4 ATS automations to control high volume

Part 4

8 ATS automations for offers & talent pipelines