Email automation
Build reusable email templates and have Vakanssi send one automatically the moment a candidate reaches a stage in your pipeline.
On this page(7)
Email automation Pro feature, requires a Vakanssi Pro license does two things: it gives you a library of reusable email templates, and it lets you attach one of those templates to a pipeline stage so it sends by itself whenever a candidate arrives there.
It is the difference between remembering to tell every applicant you are reviewing them, and it just happening.
Everything lives under Hiring, then Settings, then Automation, in two cards: Custom templates and Stage rules.
Step 1: write a template
- Click Hiring, then Settings, then Automation.
- In Custom templates, fill in the first blank row: a Name (only you see this), a Subject, and a Body.
- Click Save changes.
There is no “add template” button. The table always leaves two blank rows at the bottom, so you fill a blank row and save to add a template. To delete one, clear its Name or Body and save.
Bodies are plain text. Type your paragraphs normally and Vakanssi turns the line breaks into paragraphs and wraps the result in the same branded header and footer as the rest of your candidate email, so an automated note looks like everything else you send. HTML tags you type are removed when you save, so write plain text; a web address still becomes a link.
Merge tags
Drop any of these into a subject or body and Vakanssi fills them in per candidate:
| Tag | What it becomes |
|---|---|
{first_name} | The candidate’s first name |
{last_name} | The candidate’s last name |
{full_name} | The candidate’s full name |
{job_title} | The title of the job applied for |
{company} | Your company name, from Settings, falling back to your site title |
{stage} | The stage the candidate just moved to |
{site_name} | Your site title |
{candidate_email} | The candidate’s email address |
{candidate_phone} | The candidate’s phone number |
Two tags stay Emails-tab only
Automation templates support the nine tags above. {application_url} and {source}, from the Emails tab, always render blank here: both are staff-only, and an automation template is always candidate-facing.
Step 2: pick the stage that sends it
- Still on the Automation tab, find Stage rules.
- Find the stage you want in the Stage column.
- Choose one of your templates in the Template column.
- Tick Enabled.
- Click Save changes.
Which stages you can choose
The list only offers your open stages, and it leaves out the very first one. With the default pipeline that means you can automate In Review, Interview, and Offer.
The first stage is missing on purpose. Every applicant lands there the moment they apply, and that moment is already covered by the application confirmation email on the Emails tab. Your Hired and Rejected stages are missing for the same reason: the offer and rejection emails already handle them.
Stage rules are set once for your whole site rather than per job.
When it sends, and when it does not
An automated email goes out when a candidate moves into a stage that has an enabled rule. That covers dragging a card on the stage board, changing the stage in the candidate panel, and the bulk stage action on the Applications list.
Since v0.33.40, the message is written at the moment of the move but delivered after the page has responded, so a board move never waits for your mail server. A bulk move into a stage with an enabled rule now asks first, warning that each selected candidate will receive that stage’s automated email.
It does not send when:
- Someone applies. New applicants are placed on the first stage, which cannot carry a rule.
- The candidate reaches Hired or Rejected, or any other closed stage.
- The candidate has withdrawn. Moving a withdrawn candidate’s card is filing, not getting back in touch.
- The rule is unticked, or no template is chosen.
- The template the rule pointed at has been deleted. The Stage rules card flags that stage, and the skipped send is recorded on the candidate’s Activity tab.
- The same candidate enters that same stage a second time after a successful send. Each application gets a given stage’s email once.
- The candidate record has no email address on it.
- The move was made as a quiet move (see below).
Sending once is permanent
Once a stage’s automated email has gone out to an application, moving somebody back a stage and forward again does not send it a second time. There is no way to reset that from the admin, so test a new rule on a test application rather than a real candidate.
Quiet moves skip automation too
Since v0.33.40, a move made without emailing the candidate also skips the stage’s automation rule. On the board, the Move without emailing choice appears only for moves into a hired or rejected stage. Developers can make any move quiet through the REST API’s notify parameter. A suppressed message is still sent the next time the candidate enters that stage.
Seeing what was sent
Every automated send is logged on the application like any other email. Open the candidate panel, then the Activity tab, and it appears in the timeline as Automated email sent to the candidate’s address, with the subject underneath.
If your site could not hand the message to its mail server, the row reads could not be sent instead, and the stage is not marked as done for that candidate, so it is tried again the next time they enter that stage.
If a large batch runs out of time, each unsent message leaves a row on that candidate’s timeline saying so, and it too is sent the next time they enter the stage.
A row offers Resend only while the rule for the candidate’s current stage still produces that exact subject. Since v0.33.40, a row it can no longer reproduce (the candidate has moved on, or the template was edited or deleted) shows no Resend button, rather than one that would send a different message.
Getting started quickly
If you let the setup wizard install sample content, you already have two example templates (Interview invitation and Application received) and one enabled rule on the Interview stage, so you can see the whole shape of the feature before writing anything yourself. Removing the sample content from Hiring, then Tools, then Status removes them again.
Removing sample content clears every template and rule
Removing the sample content does not pick out just the two examples. It deletes the whole template library and every stage rule, including the templates and rules you created yourself afterwards. Copy anything you want to keep before you remove the sample content.