Recruiting teams lose candidates and miss hiring deadlines when interview stages stall without visibility. Candidates wait weeks for feedback, hiring managers don't know bottlenecks exist, and recruiters lack automated reminders to move candidates forward. This breaks SLAs, damages employer brand, and increases time-to-hire.
This workflow monitors candidate progression through interview stages, compares actual duration against defined SLAs, sends escalating reminders to owners when stages exceed thresholds, and surfaces SLA violations for leadership review. It reduces manual tracking, prevents candidate ghosting, and creates accountability across recruiting teams.
Trigger: Daily scheduled check of all candidates in active pipeline stages, or manual trigger when candidate stage is updated
Pull all candidates currently in active pipeline stages from your ATS (Workday, Greenhouse, Lever, etc.). Include stage name, entry date, assigned owner, and candidate contact info. Filter out completed hires and rejected candidates.
For each candidate, compute the number of days elapsed since entering the current stage. Compare against the SLA threshold defined for that stage (e.g., 'Phone Screen' SLA = 3 days).
Flag candidates as 'At Risk' (80% of SLA threshold) or 'Breached' (exceeded SLA). Example: if Phone Screen SLA is 3 days, flag at 2.4 days and escalate at 3+ days. Segment by severity.
Email the assigned interviewer or hiring manager when a candidate hits 'At Risk' status. Include candidate name, stage, days elapsed, SLA deadline, and a direct link to next action (schedule interview, send feedback, move to next stage).
If candidate remains in stage beyond SLA threshold, send escalation email to hiring manager and recruiter lead. Include SLA breach details, candidate risk of disengagement, and request for status update within 24 hours.
Record each SLA breach in a centralized log (Google Sheet, Airtable, or ATS custom field). Include candidate name, stage, days overdue, owner, and reason (if available). Use for weekly talent ops reviews.
Weekly, talent ops manager reviews SLA breach log. Identify patterns (e.g., 'Technical Interview' consistently breaches, specific hiring managers slow to schedule). Document blockers and recommend process changes.
If data shows SLAs are unrealistic for certain stages or candidate types, propose threshold adjustments to recruiting leadership. Approve and update automation rules.
1. **Define SLA thresholds**: Work with recruiting leadership to set realistic stage durations (e.g., Phone Screen 3 days, Technical Interview 5 days, Offer Review 2 days). Document in a shared reference table. 2. **Configure ATS API**: Obtain API credentials from your ATS. Test read access to candidate records, stage history, and assigned owner fields. 3. **Build automation**: Use Zapier, Make, or native ATS workflow builder to create daily scheduled trigger. Add steps to query active candidates, calculate days in stage, and compare against SLA thresholds. 4. **Create email templates**: Draft reminder email (friendly, actionable) and escalation email (urgent, with context). Include candidate name, stage, days elapsed, SLA deadline, and next-step link. 5. **Set up logging**: Create a Google Sheet or Airtable base with columns for candidate name, stage, days overdue, owner, and reason. Link automation to append SLA breaches. 6. **Test with pilot**: Run workflow on a subset of candidates (e.g., 10–20) for 1 week. Verify emails send correctly, calculations are accurate, and logging works. 7. **Deploy and monitor**: Roll out to full pipeline. Monitor first week for false positives or missed candidates. Adjust thresholds or automation logic as needed. 8. **Schedule weekly review**: Set calendar reminder for talent ops manager to review SLA log, identify patterns, and recommend process changes.