Stage automation

Stage automation lets you attach a reusable sequence of activities — emails, interviews, reviews, assessments, surveys — to a pipeline stage. The moment a candidate enters that stage, the sequence runs on its own, in the order you set, instead of a recruiter triggering each activity by hand.

Build an automation

1. On the job's Interview Plan, click the lightning-bolt icon on a stage.

2. In the full-screen builder, add activities and drag them into order. Each activity can only be added once per stage.

3. Set when each activity runs: - The first activity runs Immediately (on stage entry) or After a delay. - Each later activity runs immediately after the previous one, or after a delay. If the previous activity is an interview, it can also wait until that interview is completed or until its scorecards are submitted. - Delays can be 1–720 hours or 1–30 days. If you type something outside that range, Kula corrects it when you click away.

4. For interviews, reviews and assessments, pick the interviewer or reviewer right in the builder. For interviews, also choose how they're booked: Schedule with AI coordinator, Self-schedule or Request availability.

5. Click Save.

Activity types

• Email — sends the email configured at the activity level in the Interview Plan (not the org-wide template from Settings → Templates).

• Interview — Schedule with AI coordinator, Self-schedule, or Request availability.

• Review — sends a review to the reviewers configured in the Interview Plan.

• Assessment — Kula-native or a third-party provider (HackerRank, HackerEarth, Criteria, CodeInterview).

• Survey — sends a survey to the candidate or the hiring manager.

When automations run

• Moving a candidate into the stage: Kula asks Move to stage with automation? Choose Move to run it, Move without automation to skip it for this candidate, or Cancel.

• Adding or importing a candidate straight into the stage: the automation runs, with a short notice instead of the question.

• Transferring a candidate to another job: the new job's automation runs, and anything pending on the old job is cancelled.

• Adding a candidate to another job as well: the new job's automation runs. Nothing changes on the original job.

• Quick review (pressing Y): runs the automation of the stage the candidate moves into.

• A candidate applies through your careers page: the first stage's automation runs when they apply. If the Fraud Detector is on, it runs only after the application passes the fraud check. This works for jobs listed on your public careers page.

When automations stop

• Moving a candidate out of the stage cancels anything still pending for that stage. There's no warning when you do this.

• Rejecting a candidate cancels their pending activities.

• Closing a job shows a warning that automations for N candidates will stop, then cancels them.

Watching it run

A Activities underway panel shows progress when you move, transfer or add a candidate. For about 15 seconds before the first activity goes out, hover over the panel to see Stop, which cancels the pending activities (the stage move itself still happens). Closing the panel doesn't stop anything; only Stop does. Bulk moves show one combined panel without a per-candidate Stop.

The candidate's Recent Activities feed lists every automated activity and any failure. If an activity fails, a red icon appears on the candidate's application. Hover over it to see why.

Good to know

• Automations only apply to new arrivals. Turning one on doesn't affect candidates already in the stage.

• Removing an automation is forward-only. Candidates already partway through keep going; only new arrivals skip it.

• A finished automation doesn't run again if the candidate comes back to the same stage later.

• Automations don't move candidates. They react to a candidate entering a stage; someone still has to move them.

• "After scorecards are submitted" waits for people. If nothing has gone out, check whether the interviewers have submitted their scorecards.

• Missing interviewer or timezone? If an activity has no interviewer, or the interviewer has no timezone set, fix it in the builder.

• No recruiter on the job? If a review or assessment is set to the job's recruiter but there isn't one, pick a reviewer in the builder.

• Assessment emails can take 10–45 minutes to arrive. That's the assessment provider's processing time.

• Automations can't read scorecards. They can wait for a scorecard to be submitted, but can't send something different depending on the rating.

• The Rejected stage can't have an automation.

FAQ

I turned on an automation, but nothing happened for candidates already in the stage. Is it broken? No. Automations only run for candidates who enter the stage after you save.

I set an email to go after the scorecard is submitted, but nothing has gone out. It's waiting for the interviewers to submit their scorecards.

Can an automation move a candidate to the next stage? No. It runs when a candidate enters a stage; it doesn't move them.

Can I send something only after a "Strong yes"? No. An automation can wait for a scorecard to be submitted, but it can't read the rating.

Will candidates I import straight into a stage get the automated emails? Yes. Adding or importing a candidate into a stage with an automation runs it.

Why doesn't the automated email show my name as the sender? Automated emails are sent from Kula's servers on behalf of your organization, not from your mailbox.

Can I stop the automation for one candidate? Yes. When moving them, choose Move without automation, or click Stop in the Activities underway panel within about 15 seconds.

Need help?

If you have questions or need assistance, reach out to us at support@kula.ai or use the in-app chat.