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

    • 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

    • Restriction on 'From' addresses with a public domain

      Dear Zoho Recruit Community, We hope this message finds you well. This post is to inform you about some important updates regarding email restrictions within Zoho Recruit. Effective post 31st March 2025, we will be implementing changes to the use of email

    • Recent Topics

    • Default Tagging on API-generated Transactions

      If one assigns tags to an Item or Customer, those tags get auto-populated in each line item of an Invoice or Sales Order when one creates those documents. However, if one creates the Sales Order or Invoice via the API (either directly coding or using

    • DKIM cannot be enabled for the domain as no verified default selector present

      Hi Support Team, For Domain DKIM record trying to enable status. but showing error "DKIM cannot be enabled for the domain as no verified default selector present" So, please resolve the issue. Thank you.

    • unable to send message reason 554 5.1.8 Email outgoing blocked

      unable to send message reason 554 5.1.8 Email outgoing blocked

    • I can't log in to my account on Thunderbird

      I've just had to rebuild my PC (calamitous mess from Microsoft with Win10/Win 11 'upgrade' - they confirmed I had to start with a new build). I have used Zoho mail for years via Mozilla Thunderbird, but now I've had to download the latest version of TBird,

    • Should I Use DMARC?

      When I configure Zoho Mail's DMARC settings, it's mandatory to fill in the RUA and RUF (Aggregate notification email address*, Forensic notification email address*) addresses. When we enter an email address in these fields, we receive reports from the

    • Introducing Profile Summary: Faster Candidate Insights with Zia

      We’re excited to launch Profile Summary, a powerful new feature in Zoho Recruit that transforms how you review candidate profiles. What used to take minutes of resume scanning can now be assessed in seconds—thanks to Zia. A Quick Example Say you’re hiring

    • Books API Receiving an Error that Doesn't Make Sense when Creating Credit Note - trying to use 'ignore_auto_number_generation' argument

      Hello, I'm working on a newly created routine and I'm getting an error that doesn't make sense when trying to create a new Credit Note. Here is my POST request. Endpoint: https://www.zohoapis.com/books/v3/creditnotes?organization_id=########## Body:     {

    • How to move emails to Shared Mailbox?

      Hello, I created a Shred Mailbox instead of using a distribution group. But I cannot move previous emails to certain shared mailbox. Is it possible move some emails from inbox to shared mailbox?

    • Collaboration with free plan user.

      Hello. Do both users need to be on Pro plan to collaborate? Or can a Pro user share a note with a free plan user with the ability to edit?

    • Connection to other user

      Zoho Cliq handles sharing of Custom OAuth Connections that require individual user logins.

    • In arattai received message can't be deleted

      The issue has been noticed in following: arattai app (Android) arattai app (Window) arattai web While the message posted by me may be deleted, the ones received from others can't be. The item <Delete> change to <Report> when the message is a received

    • Analytics Portal

      I have the "standard plan" and want to explore the portal option; I activated the 15-day trial but do not see the pricing for the add-on. How can I get the price under "Upgrade add-ons." Thanks Rudy

    • Can I filter a Lookup field to only show related records from another Lookup in Zoho CRM?

      In our Leads module, we have two Lookup fields: Recruitment Agency – the agency that the lead came from Recruiter – the individual contact from that agency who sent us the lead Both fields link correctly to their respective records in CRM. However, our

    • Zoho Books API invoice email bouncing with 'relaying-issues' error

      I have waited over 30 days for zoho books uk to assist with the following and i have had no replies or tickets erronously closed. The service has been terrible - very unlike zoho! So i am raising this here hoping that a community member can assist: Hello,

    • How do I filter contacts by account parameters?

      Need to filter a contact view according to account parameter, eg account type. Without this filter users are overwhelmed with irrelevant contacts. Workaround is to create a custom 'Contact Type' field but this unbearable duplicity as the information already

    • Zoho Writer to Zoho Sign Template Misalignment – Request for Community

      We are currently facing a critical issue impacting our live business operations due to a misalignment problem between Zoho Writer templates and Zoho Sign output. Issue Summary: We have an automated workflow in Zoho CRM using Deluge scripts that generates

    • Account blocked

      Yesterday I got my Zeptomail account blocked due to too many hard bounces. My account is used exclusively for sending transactional emails (eg. your order has been shipped, a form has been filled, etc) and the sudden blocking impacted hundreds of websites

    • Migration Tool Download

      Since apparently you have to ask for the migration tool to download (why?), I need the download for the migration tool for exchange servers. Please forward link, thanks.

    • IF Formula

      Hi, I'm having trouble setting up a custom formula in a field. Can you help me with it? The formula should do the following: If the created date is less or equal to 30 days the field should display a string New in pieline or Exisitng pipeline if above

    • Autorespond to one specific sender

      Is there any way to create a rule or filter that sends an automatic reply to messages from one specific email address?  I really need to set up something like a "vacation response" but only for one "received from" address.

    • View comprehensive logs of all actions in Custom Module History

      Hello everyone, We are happy to announce our new feature, Detail View in Custom Module History, which enhances visibility, control and accountability over your records. Users can now access a detailed timeline of every action that has been performed on

    • Track ZohoForm Conversion using Postmessage event

      Hi, I’ve been using a third-party lead tracking tool to capture leads from my website along with their source. Earlier, with the HubSpot form, the third-party script was able to detect the postMessage event that iframe forms typically send back to the

    • Email task creator when task is updated/marked complete

      I am looking for a way to notify the creator of a task in zoho todo when - Task is updated Task is closed Comments entered 1 and 2 are critical, and I cannot find a zoho flow to do this. There is no way that as a manager I will know when someone has completed

    • Email Recall Feature In Zoho Mail Which Should Also Work For Outside Organisation Members

      Add a feature to recall or undo sending an email within a configurable short time window (e.g., 30 seconds to 2 minutes) after hitting send, similar to Gmail’s undo send. Currently the sent email can not be recall If the recipient is not from within your

    • How to implement calculating average value of averaged values?

      Hi, I'm trying to implement a formula in my layout for a module that calculates the average of 2 averaged values, but I can't do so using the formula custom field. To calculate the 2 averaged values, I could use the formula custom field, but in the custom

    • Zoho Recruit update published job boards

      If we have a job thats already posted on several different job boards and we edit this job in zoho recruit (e.g. the description of the job), does this then automatically update this new information to all the published job boards?  If not, how does the

    • Narrative 14: The magic bazaar of Desk

      Behind the scenes of a successful ticketing system: BTS Series Narrative 14: The magic bazaar of Desk Marketplace is a centralized platform where users can discover Zoho and third-party applications that can be integrated with their Desk account to facilitate

    • Collections Management: #2 Late Payment Automation

      "Sir, I'll process the payment by evening, please don't apply any late payment charges", the customer said while arranging papers on his desk. Sanjay stood there with a tired smile. He had already visited twice that week. Payment collection was one thing.

    • Create a table in the layout section of modules

      Dear Sirs, I would like to know whether is possible to create a table under new fields in layouts section of modules. In fact in this section there are single line, multi line, pick list, multi-select, date, formula etc. but I am unable to add a table

    • Nimble enhancements to WhatsApp for Business integration in Zoho CRM: Enjoy context and clarity in business messaging

      Dear Customers, We hope you're well! WhatsApp for business is a renowned business messaging platform that takes your business closer to your customers; it gives your business the power of personalized outreach. Using the WhatsApp for Business integration

    • Power of Automation :: Automatic Task Status Handling for Users

      Hello Everyone, A custom function is a software code that can be used to automate a process and this allows you to automate a notification, call a webhook, or perform logic immediately after a workflow rule is triggered. This feature helps to automate

    • Question - why no way to input a 'tool description' and 'tree of 'tools'

      Every business is different, with different business processes. To be truly useful Zoho MCP needs to have user editable tool descriptions (or ruleset) and a 'tool tree' so that the LLM is context aware when being used. For example, the tool description

    • Develop Zoho Meeting as a Full Native Application (Not a Browser Wrapper)

      Hello Zoho Meeting Team, Hope you are doing well. We would like to suggest an important improvement regarding the Zoho Meeting desktop application. At the moment, the Zoho Meeting app feels more like a mini browser window or an iframe that loads the web

    • Can I create a custom function for chart of accounts?

      I'm trying to add a custom function that should run whenever a record in the Chart of Accounts module is edited, but on the form for creating a new function, the module dropdown does not include the chart of accounts as an option.

    • billing

      hi, I am being billed $12/year, and I can't remember why. My User ID is 691273115 Thanks for your help, --Kitty Pearl

    • Unable to confirm Super Admin assignment — confirmation button not working

      I’m trying to change the roles within my organization. I am currently a super admin and would like to add another user as a super admin. When I attempt to confirm the action, a screen appears asking for my password to verify my identity. However, when

    • Automation#36: Auto-create time-entry after performing the Blueprint transition

      Hello Everyone, This week’s edition focuses on configuring a custom function within Zoho Desk to streamline time tracking within the Blueprint. In this case, we create a custom field, and request the agent to enter the spending time within the single

    • Feature Request: Reviews

      Any chance we could get a "Reviews" element to put on sites? It should be extremely simple to do. Basically just take the comments box and add an option for a star rating. At the very least, it would be nice to have more customization options for the comment box so the text could be changed from "Comments" to "Reviews". I've looked at a bunch of embeddable review widgets but nothing meets my needs so this would be a great feature to have added to the site builder.

    • Can we handle a support like (incident management) project in Zoho Projects?

      Hi, I have a new profile of a project whereby we provide "ticket" base support to a client. They have a request and ideally we would handle comms via a email exchange logged in Zoho. Today we use Zoho Projects for all out projects, which means that we

    • Trying to show the actual Terms & Conditions on PDF

      Hi, On Zoho forms I am trying to have the actual terms and conditions that the user needs to accept also show on the pdf that they receive after. Right now it only says "Agreed". Please help.

    • Next Page