Closing vs. Failing an Applicant and Sending Emails

Failed vs. Closed

Your company's workflow(s) defines the steps an applicant goes through in your recruiting flow.  Each applicant's status is simply their step in the workflow, such as "New", "Resume Screen", "Phone Screen", "First Interview", etc.

You can fail an applicant by clicking the red thumbs down on either the Applicants' Table or on an individual applicant's page.  When you do this the applicant is moved to the Inactive file and their status marked as "Failed at xxx", where xxx was their last status (Failed at Phone Screen, etc).  Inactive applicants are not displayed on the Applicants' Table unless you click "show inactive applicants also", because TAM assumes once you fail them you're done with them.

When you Close/Fill a position TAM will mark all the remaining active applicants as "Closed at xxx", where xxx was their last status.  This allows you to distinguish between those applicants you deliberately failed vs. those who were simply still active when you closed/filled the position.

Sending "Thanks for Applying Emails"

The "Thanks for applying emails" typically come from one of your email templates, and it's your way of letting all the applicants know that you've closed/filled a position.  You can also use this email to ask them to check out other positions you may have available.  We highly recommend sending these emails as they greatly help your company's reputation amongst applicants.

There are currently four options for sending these emails.

1.  Wait until you close/fill a position and send out all emails at that time.  All applicants (except the one(s) you mark as hired) will be notified when you close the position.  This is the easiest solution.  For more details on closing/filling a position click here.

2.  You may send the email to each applicant when you fail them.  This way they are notified immediately, but of course you only want to do this if you're sure you're completely done with them.  This is also a little tedious if you have a lot of applicants.

3.  On a periodic basis you can send the email out to everyone who's already been failed.  To do this go to Talent Pool, Applicants, load the desired position and click on "show inactive applicants also".  In the filter box for the Status column enter "failed".  This will display only those applicants whom you've already failed.

When you're sure the table displays only those applicants you want to email just click the Email icon on the top of the table, load your email template on the email page and then Send.  Option 3 is not as tedious as option 2 but requires some discipline to remember to send the emails.

4.  You can specify a delay to send the email after you fail an applicant.  For example, you could set the delay to 3 days, then when you fail an applicant they will be emailed automatically 3 days later. See the article below for more details on using Event Triggers.

 https://theapplicantmanager.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203504839-Using-Event-Triggers

When using option 2 or 3 make sure you select the "Send only once" option on any email templates you use for the Thanks for Applying email.  This will ensure an applicant only gets the email once, so you don't have to keep track.