Let's Talk Recruit: An approval process with zero follow-ups

Let's Talk Recruit: An approval process with zero follow-ups



Welcome back to our Let's Talk Recruit series! Today, the topic of discussion is the Approval process. We’ll discuss how approval workflows function in recruitment, explore real-world use cases, and show how automation in Zoho Recruit can streamline approvals and drive efficiency in your organization.

What is an approval process?

An approval process is a structured workflow used to authorize various stages in the recruitment process, such as job requisitions, candidate approvals, and offer letters. Automating approvals in Zoho Recruit ensures efficiency, reduces delays, and eliminates miscommunication.
For instance, when a recruiter shortlists a candidate for a specific role, the hiring manager must approve the selection before scheduling further rounds. Additionally, once a final candidate is chosen, approval from HR and upper management is required before extending an offer.

Why automate approvals?

It automates the repetitive, cumbersome, and time-consuming tasks

Without Automation

With Automation

Manual follow-ups
Automatic notifications
Delayed decisions
Timely approvals
Miscommunication
Clear approval trials
Lost candidates
Faster hiring cycles
Inconsistent process
Standardized workflows

How does the approval process function?

The diagram above illustrates how a typical approval workflow functions in Zoho Recruit:

When should you use an approval process?

Objective:

An organization needs a streamlined process to manage approvals for job offers sent to selected candidates before finalizing the hiring process.

Example Scenario:

An internal recruitment team collaborates with various departments to hire candidates. When a candidate is selected after the final interview, the job offer must be approved internally before it is sent out. The HR manager and finance team must review the offer details, such as salary, benefits, and contract terms, before the final approval.

They want the approval process to be automated so that:
  • Automated Approval Initiation:
    Once a recruiter selects a candidate and generates a job offer, the approval process should start automatically to avoid delays.
  • Multi-Level Approvals:
    The job offer must first be approved by the HR manager to ensure compliance with company policies.☆ If the salary exceeds a predefined limit, it must be reviewed by the finance department to verify budget availability.
  • Pending Background Verification:
    If a candidate’s background verification is still pending, the offer should not be sent until the verification is completed and approved.
  • Final Offer Dispatch:
    Once the approvals are received, the system should automatically send the final job offer via email to the candidate with a confirmation notification.


Here's a challenge for you:

Identify activities that need automatic approvals. Create a rule and set up a trigger. Send approval requests automatically and put it to test
Start small—maybe automate email approvals or candidate shortlisting—and build from there!

Let’s Talk Recruit!

Now Over to You! Have you used approval processes in your hiring workflow? What’s your favourite feature in Zoho Recruit’s approval system? Drop a comment and let’s share ideas! Let’s help each other recruit smarter.

    • 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

    • What’s New in Zoho Inventory — Latest Features, Integrations & Updates | December 2025

      Zoho Inventory has evolved significantly over the past months, bringing you smarter, faster, and more connected tools to streamline your operations. Whether you’re managing multichannel sales, complex fulfillment workflows, or fast-moving stock, our newest

    • Marketer’s Space - Multi-Channel Campaigns for the Biggest Shopping Week with Zoho Marketing Automation

      Hello marketers, Welcome back to another post in Marketers Space! The biggest shopping week of the year is almost here, and it’s your moment to shine without the stress. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner, being present across email,

    • Pricing Strategies: #5 Stay local, Price & Sell Global

      Arun had always dreamed of taking his handmade craft business beyond his hometown. For years, he sold locally. Most of his customers are familiar faces, in our usual currency and with the exact expectations. But one day, a traveller visited his workshop

    • No feedback from Zoho Books regarding Yodlee feeds for Investec

      I reported on 6 Feb 2025 that the Bank Feeds for Investec bank via Yodlee are not working. To date there has been no resolution. You are charging us for a suite of products where the functionality does not work. Please advise how you will refund me for

    • Service One. Bill Another. Zero Hassle.

      In field service operations, one challenge often comes up: the person who needs the service isn’t always the one who pays for it. Think about tenants vs. property managers, corporate offices vs. their finance departments, or school buildings vs. central

    • Presenting ABM for Zoho CRM: Expand and retain your customers with precision

      Picture this scenario: You're a growing SaaS company ready to launch a powerful business suite, and are looking to gain traction and momentum. But as a business with a tight budget, you know acquiring new customers is slow, expensive, and often delivers

    • Can Zoho Flows repeat Actions more than once?

      I'm attempting to make an intentional Zoho Flow loop using the below layout. However, when "WithinLimit" condition is met, the program fails to execute the action "Get & Add Request Co..." again. Is this by design? Is Zoho Flows unable to repeat actions

    • Video interviews not compatible on mobile

      Hi Zoho,  The 2-way video interview feature you have added to Recruit would be great if the candidate was able to use the link to the video on a mobile phone, it doesn't work on Samsung browser, it doesn't work on chrome/firefox mobile version of browser,

    • Zoho Desk View Open Tickets and Open Shared Tickets

      Hi, I would like to create a custom view so that an agent can view all the open tickets he has access to, including the shared tickets created by a different department. Currently my team has to swich between two views (Open Tickets and Shared Open Tickets).

    • Enviro Recycling EHF Fee's

      ​​I'm in Canada and each province has it's own recycling program with it's own fee's. There are numerous categories that electronics fall into and each category has a taxable rate applied to it. I need a way to be able to apply the correct rate depending

    • Zoho Desk API - Influence which layout is used

      Hello, how can the ticket layout be changed using the API? I would like to choose the layout directly when creating the ticket. If this is not possible, my question would be how can I change it afterwards? Best regards, Sven

    • Has CSS Changed for Common Elements?

      I noticed today that the standard title headings on my Forms and Reports display smaller in size than before. Google Dev Tools (attached), seems to confirm my suspicion. Something appears to be overriding the 1.375rem to 1.125rem. The font size on the

    • Text field alignment

      Is it possible to align text in the text field? Or even better, is there a possibility to have a field which accepts only numbers?

    • email moderation issue when email is sent in the name of a mail group

      Symptom: an email that is sent by a mail group moderator in the name of a moderated mail group is held back for approval. Reproduction: Create a moderated mail group with members and moderators. Allow that mails can be sent in the name of the group (extended

    • Pipeline in Custom Modules

      I love the way the Sales Pipeline looks and functions with reports. I would like to add the save pipeline features and visualization to a custom module, however, I only see that these pipelines are only available for the Deals module. Is there a way to add pipelines to custom modules?

    • Tip #53- Remote Billing: Your End-to-End Billing Solution in Zoho Assist- 'Insider Insights'

      Manual invoicing, after every remote support session, can be time-consuming and often error-prone. As an MSP, IT admin, or even a freelance support technician, it may become overwhelming to keep track of session time, service rates, and client invoices.

    • Record history and ticket interaction tab in contacts and accounts

      Hello everyone! We have improved the History tab to help users trace updates in the interaction activity logs of the Contacts and Accounts detail pages in the Customer Module. This enhancement make it easier to get clear details about who made each update,

    • Is there an API to "File a Ticket" in Desk

      Hi, Is there an API to "File a Ticket" in Desk to zoho projects?

    • Keyboard UX for Assemblies

      The new Assembly module has a counter-intuitive behavior that ought to be corrected. When an Assembly is ready to be entered, there are two options given, the blue-highlighted "Assemble" and the gray "Save as Draft". This correctly implies that the normal

    • Why can't I see images uploaded by other users in the Library for Campaigns

      We are several users of zoho Campaign. I have uploaded visuals of our company, but my team members can't see them.

    • zoho sheet stuck

      I Need help. ZOHO sheets stuck on the loading screen. I've already deleted the system cache and cookies of my browser (google chrome) but it's still not opening. 

    • Tip of the Week #78 – Cut response time with multichannel shared inboxes

      If you’ve ever felt your team juggling between multiple email accounts, social pages, and chat apps just to reply to customers, you’re not alone. Managing conversations in multiple channels can quickly turn messy. Important messages across inboxes, replies

    • Need a way to run a client script longet than 10 seconds

      By The Grace of G-D. Hi, Currently, Client Scripts are Timing out at 10 seconds. We have complex logics that needs more time. Can you add a feature request to increase the timeout?

    • FSM Improvement Idea - Show an Import button when there is no data

      I am setting up FSM for a client and I noticed that there is no option to import data, see screenshot below. Even when you click Create Contact there is only an option to Import from Zoho Invoice. It is only after you add at lease 1 record that the Import

    • UI Improvement - Ability to Collapse Flow

      The UI for Flow is generally pretty good. However, when multiple decision trees are used, the layout can get pretty convoluted and hard-to-follow (see one of my Flows below): In these cases, even the auto-arrange fails to make this something that a normal

    • Tasks Statuses

      Hi, The task status "Completed" is a final status which closes the task. We need to have a status "Cancelled". However, when the status is set to "Cancelled", the task prompt still has a blue button to Close Task. When the customer clicks that and closes

    • Add Lookup Field in Tasks Module

      Hello, I have a need to add a Lookup field in addition to the ones that are already there in the Tasks module. I've seen this thread and so understand that the reason lookup fields may not be part of it is that there are already links to the tables (

    • Create New Tasks Layout in CRM

      I am able to do this in Leads, Contacts, Meetings, Calls - every other module, but cannot create a new layout in tasks. I have the appropriate access but it's simply not appearing as an option. Only "Standard" option shows. Please help!

    • Using IMAP configuration for shared email inboxes

      Our customer service team utilizes shared email boxes to allow multiple people to view and handle incoming customer requests. For example, the customer sends an email to info@xxxx.com and multiple people can view it and handle the request. How can I configure

    • Auto-sync field of lookup value

      This feature has been requested many times in the discussion Field of Lookup Announcement and this post aims to track it separately. At the moment the value of a 'field of lookup' is a snapshot but once the parent lookup field is updated the values diverge.

    • Zoho Recruit Subscription

      Hello Zoho Recruit Team, Good day! I would like to inquire about your recruitment subscription plans and would also like to verify the current subscription our company is enrolled in under Zoho Recruit. Thank you, and I look forward to your response.

    • Automatic Portal invite

      We have numerous customers we move through a blueprint in deals, when they get to a certain point we need to give them portal access, how can this be done through deluge or a workflow? Latest Update (December 2025): The option to automate portal invitations

    • Marketer's Space: Why mobile optimization deserves a place in your email strategy

      Hello Marketers, Welcome back to Marketer's Space! Today, we'll talk about the importance of creating mobile-friendly email designs. While mobile phones were once used only to make phone calls, today they're used for almost everything, including texting,

    • Enhancements in Canvas

      Dear All, Greetings! Canvas lets you design the record details page to suit your brand or business preferences. We are glad to introduce the following enhancements to uplift your design experience. Reusable Components Style Presets Let's go! Reusable

    • Introducing Dark Mode / Light Mode : A New Look For Your CRM

      Hello Users, We are excited to announce a highly anticipated feature - the launch of Day, Night and Auto Mode implementation in Zoho CRM's NextGen user interface! This feature is designed to provide a visually appealing and comfortable experience for

    • ABN with Legal Entity Name

      Hi, How can I execute this? The ABN number is entered in Accounts Module and ideally, it should display or suggest the correct Legal Entity Name based on the ABN lookup. ex. Account Name: JPG Resources ABN Number: 65 067 761 871 Legal Entity Name: (auto

    • Issue: Ticket Export Does Not Include Ticket Threads

      Dear Zoho Desk Support Team, I hope you’re doing well. I wanted to bring to your attention that the current ticket export feature in Zoho Desk does not seem to include the ticket threads or conversation history. When exporting tickets, only the summary

    • Pushover Notification Module

      Hello, it would be good if there would be a "Pushover" (https://pushover.net/) module besides the standard SMS module. Pushover is now very well known, especially in IT, and is becoming more and more popular. The biggest advantage are the customizable

    • Forward - no Ticket Number

      Hello, when I send an email to Zoho Desk via Reply or Reply All, the ticket number is in the subject line. But if I use forward then not. Is there an option to change this? We often forward e-mails and a reply to this will of course create a new ticket

    • Checkout: Adding Images

      Hello everyone, I’m trying to add a small GoGreen logo in the shipping section of the checkout to promote our sustainable shipping. While I can insert text without any issues, it seems that adding images is not supported in this area. Is there currently

    • Next Page