Let’s Talk Recruit: Are you still managing hiring manually?

Let’s Talk Recruit: Are you still managing hiring manually?


Welcome back to our Let’s Talk Recruit series! This time, we're talking about automation in hiring—the kind that saves you from the endless loop of manual updates, follow-ups, and status checks. You know the drill. You shortlist a candidate, send an email, and wait. Move them to the next stage, update the record, notify the hiring manager—repeat.  Now, what if all of this just… happened automatically?

Turns out, 75% of businesses have already automated parts of their hiring process. So here’s the real question: Are you keeping up, or falling behind?

How much of your hiring process still relies on manual effort? Let’s take a look at how Blueprints and Workflows can help.

Why automation matters in hiring  

Timing can make or break a great hire. A slow hiring process means:

    ➤ Losing top candidates—they accept another offer before you even schedule an interview.

    ➤ Getting buried in manual tasks, leaving little time for real hiring decisions.

    ➤ Inconsistent processes, where follow-ups get missed and approvals take too long.

Automation fixes this by ensuring:

    ➤ Hiring moves faster—no more waiting around for scheduling, approvals, or follow-ups.

    ➤ Everyone stays on the same page, every step is tracked, and nothing slips through the cracks.

    ➤ More time for real conversations—because hiring is about people, not just processes.

What are workflows and how do they help?   

Workflows in Zoho Recruit help you automate repetitive tasks, so you don’t have to do everything manually. Instead of updating records or sending emails one by one, Workflows can trigger actions automatically when a certain condition is met.


Idea
IRL Use Cases
  • Sending automated emails: Every time a candidate moves to the "Shortlisted" stage, an email is sent instantly.
  • Task creation: When an offer letter is generated, a task is assigned to the hiring manager for approval.
  • Status updates: If a candidate hasn’t responded in three days, their status is updated, and a follow-up email is sent.

Think of Workflows as your hiring assistant, handling small yet important tasks in the background.

What are blueprints and why do you need them?  

Blueprints let you structure your entire hiring process—ensuring every step is followed correctly and consistently.

For example, let’s say your hiring process involves the following flow:


With a Blueprint, each step is predefined. Recruiters cannot move forward until the required action is completed (e.g., an interview must be scheduled before moving to the offer stage).

This ensures:

  • A structured, step-by-step hiring process

  • Fewer delays and bottlenecks

  • Smoother team coordination

Blueprints act like a roadmap for hiring, guiding recruiters through each step without missing anything important.

Blueprints vs. Workflows: What’s the difference?   

Not sure when to use a Blueprint and when to use a Workflow? 

Here’s a simple breakdown:


IdeaBest Practice: Use Blueprints for structured process automation and Workflows for quick, rule-based actions.

Real Recruiters, Real Impact   

For the team at Aparajitha, manual hiring wasn’t just time-consuming—it was holding them back. With automation in place, they saved hours on routine tasks and kept their process running smoothly, even during peak hiring.

Take a look at how they did it. 


Let’s Talk Recruit!

Have you tried Workflows or Blueprints in Zoho Recruit? What’s the one hiring task you’d love to automate? Let’s hear it in the comments!

Drop your thoughts below! Let’s help each other make the most out of Zoho Recruit.



      • Sticky Posts

      • Zoho Recruit Community Meetup - London 🇬🇧

        Hello Recruiters! We’re excited to announce that the Zoho Recruit team is coming to the UK for an in-person Zoho User Group (ZUG) Meetup in London! This is your chance to connect with fellow Zoho users, learn from experts, and walk away with actionable

      • An update to improve email delivery | Email Authentication & Relay

        Update Rollout Latest Update: Enterprise users (8th July, 2025) This update is now live for Enterprise plan users in all regions. This includes People Plus, but not Zoho One, which will be covered in an upcoming update. Professional users (31st May 2025)

      • Zoho Recruit User Group Meet-up | INDIA 2025 (Venue Finalised)

        Hello Zoho Recruit users from India, We’re pleased and excited to announce our 2025 edition of Zoho user group meet-up in India in five cities! In this meet-up, our team of experts will help you understand the intricate nuances to use Zoho Recruit better,

      • Zoho Recruit is coming to the UK | Zoho Community Learning Series

        Customers from the United Kingdom, Exciting news: We will be in London for the Zoho Recruit user meet up. Our team will help you better understand the intricate nuances of Zoho Recruit to help you hire faster, inform about new and upcoming features, and

      • Ask the experts - A live Q & A discussion on Zoho Recruit

        We are delighted to come back with another edition of Ask the Experts community series. This edition, we'll be focusing on everything about Zoho Recruit. The topics will focus on the features that are used/asked by the majority of users and also based

        • Recent Topics

        • cloud console support for music websites

          Hi Friends, I am not from a very technical background.. So need support from the Zoho family. I want to build a e-commerce website which is in Musical Niche. It will help people learn music & play instruments of all types. There are a few players in the market like Chordify , Guitaa, Guitar Dashboard, ChordU & few others. But I all these websites allow only a few instruments  to play. So I want to build a better  website than the one I mentioned. So wnated to know what UI & AI should I use so that

        • Scheduled Reports - Do not send empty report

          Hello, We are intensively using reports in the CRM, especially for sales managers. When data is empty, they still receive an email. Can you add an option to avoid sending the report when data is empty?

        • Is Zoho One Desktop more secure than Zoho One Web SaaS?

          Is Zoho One Desktop more secure than using Zoho One in browser? Inherently, it seems desktop would be unless you don't do things like share your pw or leave pc on. I am concerned about data being on the cloud or someone else's server and database.

        • Reminder Settings - Time Tracker

          On the time tracker in Reminder Settings I created a reminder according to the Zoho manual. But a manager asked me to change the message that goes in the email. Is it possible to change the message? I didn't find that in the Zoho manual. Another question: I configured to receive the reminder everyone who logged in less than 40 hours. Does Zoho consider less than 40 hours of the current week or the whole month? Another situation, I put it so that I and another specific user would receive the notification,

        • Create Item group from a composite Item

          I have applied my mind for hours but cannot figure this out. Can you have a composite item in an item group?. E.g. We bundle different color and size SKU's together as composite items. Also Using composite items as Bill of Materials. We want to create

        • Main difference of Zoho Recruit Corporte version and Staffing HR vesion

          Hi Zoho, I need help to fully understand what is the main key point differences of Recruit Corporate version versus the Staffing HR version? We are currently using Corporate HR version and we are looking on having an insightful automated reporting, does

        • Out of Stock items showing in Commerce

          I have over 6000 items and most are not in stock, but all items are showing up in Commerce whether they are inventory or not. What option or feature can you use to hide items in Commerce at zero or negative quantities? I currently am using Commerce for

        • Is it possible to transfer data from one related list to another within the same module ?

          In the Leads module, there is an existing default Product related list that already contains data. Recently, I added a custom multi-lookup field, which created a new related list in the same Leads module. Now, I need to move the existing data from the

        • How to implement new online payment gateway?

          Hello, Can you tell me how to proceed to implement my local payment gateway? DIBS has an open avaiable API that should be easy to implement into ZOHO BOOKS. http://tech.dibspayment.com/dibs_payment_window

        • Formula working in MS Excel , is not working in Zoho Sheets, Filter fuction which is working in MS sheets per the attached workbook / Daily update.

          Filter function , which is working in MS Excel is not working in Zoho sheets. Please help on function of filter of particular class sheets and extract students name who has more than 3.5 hours of study hours on particular day depending on date in D7 cell.

        • New in Smart Prompt: Record Assistant for contextual assistance, and support for new AI models

          Smart Prompt helps teams stay informed and move faster by providing relevant suggestions where work happens in CRM. With this update, Smart Prompt becomes more adaptable to your organization’s AI preferences. You can now choose which Large Language Model

        • Improved Integration Failure Information (And Notification Options)

          Hi, When an attachment service for example fails, you just get "Field x - Error", I can check the field it is failing on and find nothing wrong, same file size, type, dimensions, etc. so more information as to the actual issue would be helpful. And an

        • Change User Role in a Form

          Hi, When in a form, it would be good (And consistent) to be able to change the user role/permission like you can with Shared Reports, All Entries or the actual User itself, rather than having to delete the users permission and then add it back again with

        • Reassign Partially Saved Entries

          Hi, I would like to be able to go to Partially Saved Entries and like the option to delete them I would like the option to multi-select and be able to reassign them to another user to complete (Such as when a user has left the company). Thanks Dan

        • Increase the "Maximum Saved Entries per User" Options Limit

          Hi, You can create lots of saved entries, yet the Limit when you apply one is 25, we may often expect 32 to be in draft, and therefore want to enforce that, can we increase the limit of this field from 25 to 100 (As you can just turn it off and have more

        • Product Updates in Zoho Workplace applications | December 2025

          Hello Workplace Community, Let’s take a look at the new features and enhancements that went live across all Workplace applications this December. Zoho Mail Block emails without notifying the sender Block emails without sending a rejection notification

        • Zoho CRM for Gmail Extension Not Working in Brave Browser?

          Is anyone able to get the Zoho CRM Chrome Extension working in the Brave browser? They're both built on the Chromium platform and every other Chrome Extension works with the exception of Zoho CRM for Gmail so any ideas here?

        • Set Frozen Cells in the Report Settings

          Hi, It would be nice to be able to set the frozen cells in the report Settings, and have an option if this is fixed or can be changed after loading (On the next load it still goes back to the Settings). Thanks Dan

        • Microsoft Teams now available as an online meeting provider

          Hello everyone, We're pleased to announce that Zoho CRM now supports Microsoft Teams as an online meeting provider—alongside the other providers already available. Admins can enable Microsoft Teams directly from the Preferences tab under the Meetings

        • Tip of the week #26: Import/ Export calendars in Zoho Calendar.

          Any calendar on the web or calendars that you create in any other calendar application can be imported in to Zoho Calendar. This will help you to add the events from the calendars that you import to your Zoho Calendar. You also have the option to export

        • Add Zoho Forms to Zoho CRM Plus bundle

          Great Zoho apps like CRM and Desk have very limited form builders when it comes to form and field rules, design, integration and deployment options. Many of my clients who use Zoho CRM Plus often hit limitations with the built in forms in CRM or Desk and are then disappointed to hear that they have to additionally pay for Zoho Forms to get all these great forms functionalities. Please consider adding Zoho Forms in the Zoho CRM Plus bundle. Best regards, Mladen Svraka Zoho Certified Consultant and

        • Social icons, open in new tab?

          Hello, I have two social icons on my footer, Facebook and Psychology Today. Clicking on the Facebook icon opens a new tab, the Psychology Today icon does not. I would like them both to open a new tab. Am I missing a setting somewhere?

        • Real-Time Screen Annotation During Zoho Cliq Screen Sharing

          Hi Zoho Support Team, Hope you're doing well. We’d like to request the addition of real-time screen annotation tools during screen sharing sessions in Zoho Cliq video calls. 🔍 What We're Looking For: The ability for the presenter—and optionally, other

        • Autofill address using smart fields mapped over the pdf document

          Hi, I'm using mail merge to map smart fields onto PDF documents I plan to distribute for signing. I already have a Zoho Sign subscription. When mapping smart fields from the Employee form, I only see the permanent and current addresses which include the

        • How do I cap employee leave accrual

          HI there, How do I cap an employee's leave accrual? The policy is that you accrue 15 days leave annually (1.25 days a month) and once you reach 15 days, you wont accrue more until you take leave. Thank you!

        • Open sub form from a button as a popup form

          Is there a way within a form to use similar code as below to show a button in the form when clicked opens the subform for data to be added to the record being viewed in the form OpenUrl("#Form:<Customer_Delivery_Address>?<Delivery_Address>=" + input.ID,"popup

        • Dont have backup option in setting

          Hi guys. I started using zoho book a week ago. I bought premium package yet I don't have backup option in setting. I hope anyone can help me find a solution. Thanks in advance

        • Making Tags Mandatory

          When creating an expense, is it possible to make the Tags field mandatory?  I see the option in settings to make other fields mandatory, like Merchant, Description, Customer, etc, but nothing about Tags. Thanks! Kevin

        • Is there a plan to integrate zoho voice with zoho books?

          Hello, Is there a plan to integrate zoho voice with zoho books? Right now we are using the Twilio SMS integration into zoho books, but have recently decided to switch to zoho voice for calls and sms. Is there a plan to integrate zoho voice natively into

        • Pass variables to Zoho Desk via URL to create a fast new ticket landing page

          We are integrating our phone system into Zoho Desk. Currently when a helpdesk agent answers the phone, a soft client opens a new tab with zoho desk at the new case page. https://desk.zoho.com/support/companyname/ShowHomePage.do#Cases/new We would like

        • Zoho Books Extension: What Happens If Custom Fields Already Exist?

          When developing Zoho Books extensions, what happens if the target Zoho Books organization already has a custom field with the same API name as one defined in the extension? I’m asking because we originally created an on-Books version of this functionality,

        • Modular Permission Levels

          We need more modular Permissions per module in Books we have 2 use cases that are creating problems We need per module export permission we have a use case where users should be able to view the sales orders but not export it, but they can export other

        • Free Webinar on 21 January: Looking back at Zoho Mail in 2025

          Hello Zoho Community! Curious about how Zoho Mail evolved in 2025? Wondering how these updates can make your everyday email work simpler? We’ve got a session you won’t want to miss. In our Zoho Mail 2025 recap webinar, we’ll walk you through the key features

        • Cliq Networks users can see all other network users contact information

          Is there a way to hide user contact information from each user in networks? I would only like the users to see the admin's contact information, not other users. Network users information shared by default

        • Zoho Sheet - Printing - Page Breaks and Printing Customization

          I think the title is descriptive enough in that I cannot find help documentation on a simple task of adding in page brakes for separating pages on print. Thanks

        • Missing the "Find & Merge Duplicates" choice

          Hi, I am missing the "Find & Merge Duplicates" choice. I looked under the "More Actions" menu in Contacts, Accounts, Vendors, and Leads and it is not there. I have full permissions. Please assist me on finding this feature. Thanks!

        • OAuth integration issues

          I'm experiencing persistent OAuth errors when trying to connect Make with Zoho API. I've tried multiple approaches but keep encountering the following issues: First error: 'Invalid Redirect Uri - Redirect URI passed does not match with the one configured'

        • Marketing Tip #16: Ideal sizes and formats for adding images to your online store

          Images can make (or break) your storefront experience. When your banners and product photos follow the right sizes and aspect ratios, your store looks cleaner, loads faster, and feels more trustworthy—especially on mobile. Here are recommended image sizes

        • Improve WhatsApp Module in Zoho CRM

          The current WhatsApp module UI in Zoho CRM feels cluttered and complex, especially when handling high volumes of conversations. It would be great to enhance the WhatsApp module UI/UX by adopting a clean and simplified interface similar to Bigin CRM’s

        • Blueprint transitions on locked records

          We use the ability to automatically lock records (quotes, sales orders, etc.) based on criteria, such as stage. For instance, if a quote has been sent to a client, the quote is then locked for further edits. Our ideal quote stage process is: Draft>Sent>Won.

        • Next Page