Candidate Workflows

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Overview

Evolve ATS allows you to maintain and customize your Workflows. These are the steps a candidate goes through during the hiring process, such as phone screening, interview, background check, etc. Optimizing your workflows will give you better reporting and visibility into your recruitment team's performance.

Audience

Admins

Use Cases

You may want to create different workflows for the following use cases, though not limited to the list below:

  • Categories / Departments - Example - Engineering candidates vs. Sales candidates
  • Job Types Example – Full-time vs. Contract
  • Subsidiaries - Example – Parent company vs. Subsidiary company

Best Practices

  • To make them easier to access, add Reject or other common steps as an action on every step in the workflow.
  • Refrain from deleting the Pending Approval predefined workflow step unless it is entirely without value because it is difficult to restore once deleted.
  • Leveraging Advanced Workflows in Screening Forms requires Workflow State names to be identical across all workflows if there are more than one.

NOTE: To be available in the Advanced Screening Forms for setting up Knock Out Questions, Workflow States must be identical (i.e., naming/label) and offered across all active and inactive workflows.

Getting Started

Please review Interview Types with Workflows before continuing.

All users start with one General (default) Workflow. Evolve ATS can easily support multiple workflows, but there are several essential things to keep in mind:

  • An Admin user role is required to access Workflows.
  • A Workflow associated with a requisition cannot be changed if any candidates are in Active states.
  • Candidates cannot be moved from one requisition to another if the two requisitions do not use the same workflow.
  • Workflow State names are modified respectively in each workflow; mass changes or edits across all workflows are generally unavailable except for the Interview Type steps.

NOTE: Newly added Interview Types will be added to the bottom of all workflows by default.

Add Workflow

If you would like to create multiple workflows, there are a few ways to add them:

  • Create an entirely new workflow
  • Copy an existing workflow
  • Reactivate an inactive workflow (if applicable) by expanding the Inactive Workflows dropdown and selecting Make Active.

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To add a new workflow, navigate to your user menu > Admin > ATS.

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Click View Workflows.

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Click Add Workflow.

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The Add Workflow dialog box will appear where you have two actions to complete:

  • Name the workflow.
    NOTE: It is best to give the workflow a name matching a Category or Department in your company (Product, Sales).
  • Copy From allows you to copy the format and steps of an existing workflow in your system and apply them to the new workflow. You can also select None if you don’t want to copy from an existing workflow.

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Once you've added a name and if you want to Copy From an existing workflow or not, click Submit. Your new workflow will now appear in your workflow list below the General (default) workflow.

NOTE: Selecting None from the Copy From dropdown menu will create a basic Evolve ATS workflow. It will not have the format and steps of an existing workflow in your system.

Workflow State Types

Predefined Workflow States

Predefined Workflow States are system-generated and have specific logic and associated requirements. These states are automatically added to your workflow(s).

For example, Submit to Hiring Manager will always be paired with the Approved by Hiring Manager step and Rejected by Hiring Manager step. This is because when a candidate is moved into that Workflow State, that candidate will be submitted to the hiring manager for approval. The hiring manager's response (Approve/Reject) will be captured in the system, and the candidate's Workflow State will be updated automatically.

Functionality includes:

  • Predefine Active or Inactive status when candidates are in specific steps
  • Request approval from approvers
  • Automatic status updates based on approver action (Approve/Reject)

NOTE: It is recommended not to delete or rename any predefined workflow states due to the system logic and requirements.

Interview Type Workflow States

Interview Type Workflow States have the following functionality:

  • Scheduling, assigning a deadline, no action (optional)
  • Candidate invitation (optional)
  • Evaluation (optional)
  • Include resume as an attachment (optional)
  • Include a link to the career website Job Description (optional)

Custom Workflow States

Custom Workflow States are generally used as placeholders, granular reporting, or vendor integrations.

Background checks and assessments are examples of custom vendor integration steps. Adding these steps typically requires the purchase and activation of third-party software.

Add Custom State

To add a Custom State to your workflow, navigate to your user menu > Admin > ATS > View Workflows.

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Click the desired Workflow from the main workflow page.

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Click Add Custom State.

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Add a Candidate State Name.

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Click Save.

NOTE: Each new step added to the workflow will automatically be placed at the bottom. Since this is not typically an ideal position, you can re-position the step with a simple drag and drop.

Customize Workflow State Actions

Workflow State Actions are offered on the Candidate Details page. These options can be customized by adding, removing, and/or renaming. After creating the custom workflow step, you will need to add Action Steps so you can seamlessly move from one step to the next.

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To add an Action Step, navigate to your user menu > Admin > ATS > View Workflows.  

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Select the desired Workflow.

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Click the new workflow custom step you created, then click Add New Action.

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This will bring up the Candidate Action window. You can select one or multiple steps to attach to the custom workflow step in this window. You will want to choose the action that proceeds to the next step (after your custom step).

For example, if the state you created were Interview, you would likely select Proceed to Reference Check from the checklist below.

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NOTE: After choosing the next step as an action, add Proceed to Reject as another step since candidates can be rejected at any point in the process. It's best to add Reject to every step in your workflow, except for the final step (Offer Accepted).

Delete Workflow States

Workflow steps can be deleted if the following two criteria are met:

  • No candidates are occupying that state. To vacate a Workflow State for deletion, go to the candidate list page and bulk move candidates out of the Workflow State you want to delete from your workflows.
  • The Workflow State is not added as an available State Action option in any other steps in the workflow.

Deleted Workflow and Interview Type Best Practices

  • Deleted Predefined Workflow Steps can be restored from Deleted States.
  • Deleted Custom States (non-interview steps) cannot be restored and must be recreated; however, historical data from previously deleted custom states will be reportable.

Retrieve Deleted Predefined Workflow States

Predefined Workflow States and Interview Types are the only workflow states that can be retrieved from Deleted States.

To restore a predefined workflow state or interview type, navigate to your user menu > Admin > ATS > View Workflows.

Select a workflow.

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Click Deleted States.

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Click Restore next to the desired state.

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This will add the restored workflow state to the bottom of your workflow page. You can then add state actions and adjust where the step falls within your workflow.

Repeat this process as needed.  

Rename Workflow States

Evolve ATS supports the functionality of renaming Workflow States and State Actions individually. Please remember that to use Workflow States for knock-out questions on Screening Forms, names must be identical across the board.

Rename Workflow State

To rename a workflow state, navigate to your user menu > Admin > ATS > View Workflows.

Select a Workflow.

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Click the Edit icon next to the workflow state you want to rename.

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Add a new name to the Candidate State Name field.

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Click Save.

Repeat this process as needed.  

When you rename a Workflow State, it becomes its reportable step, even if it is derived from the same Interview Type.

Rename Workflow State Action

To rename a workflow state action, navigate to your user menu > Admin > ATS > View Workflows.

Select a Workflow.

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Click the Edit icon next to the workflow state.

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Click the Edit icon next to the workflow state action.

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Enter a new name in the Display Name field.

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Click Save.

Repeat this process as needed.  

Reporting

Although each workflow step is reportable (even if renamed), they do not appear in Analytics as specific fields but as filter value options.

The Application Workflow history for candidates can be seen in a report using Next Workflow State Name as a pivot and Last Date in Next Workflow State as a measure.

To restrict report results to candidates who have been in a specific step, the Last Date or First Date measure (along with Next Workflow State Name) needs to be used as a filter, with the specific workflow state entered as a value. If all workflow states need to be included, you can simply include the Last Date in the Next Workflow State as a filter and enter the date range for the candidates you want to view.

FAQ

Q. Who has access to customizing workflows?

A. Admins are the only internal users who can customize workflows. You can also submit a Help Center ticket to have workflows created or updated.

Q. How do I know if my changes are implemented?

A. A good technique would be to add a test requisition and test candidate to test your Workflows; when you're done, delete the test requisition and test candidate.

Q. Why can't I find a Workflow step in Advanced Workflows on my screening forms?

A. For a Workflow State to be offered in Advanced Workflows, it must be added as a Workflow State in all your workflows (active and inactive), using a consistent name.

Q. Can I restrict workflow buttons for specific user roles?

A. If you would like to restrict workflow buttons for specific user roles, there are a few ways in which you can accomplish this:

 

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