Automation Steps Overview

This article provides a high-level overview of Bullhorn Automation's available steps, which can be used to create automations for different record types (entities) in Bullhorn Automation. It covers each step’s functionality and potential use cases, offering links to more detailed information for further guidance.

Add Billable Charge

Placements

This step is only available for BTE or BH1 customers.

The add Billable Charges step helps streamline the BTE user experience by automating their workflow. The automation hits a service’s REST API endpoint and passes the Placement ID along with the Earn Code ID and other required Billable Charge parameters back to the Placement entity in BH ATS to create a Billable Charge.

Example: A billing specialist would like to apply Perm Fee Billable Charges to placements automatically.

Add Branch

Candidates Contacts Leads Job Submissions Placements Jobs

Branching allows users to take different automated actions on various list criteria without having to build multiple automations.

A recruiter would like to tailor an email to contacts based on the Category listed on their ATS profile. The recruiter would set the branch step to say:

If the contacts in the main list match Category 1, send them through Branch 1. If they match Category 2, send them through Branch 2. etc.

Add Note

Candidates Contacts LeadsJob SubmissionsPlacementsJobs

This step allows a note to be added to the record in the ATS. The Note Author will show up as the Bullhorn Automation API User.

Example: If you would like to track emails sent from Bullhorn Automation in the ATS, add an Add Note step after every Send Email step. This will add a note to the record for each Automation Email step they complete.

Add Task

Candidates Contacts Leads Job Submissions Placements

This step will add a task for the Candidate or Contact Owner in the ATS. The task will be scheduled for when the candidate/contact reaches the task step in the automation. There is an option to notify the owner when the task is added.

Tip: The due date and time of Tasks added by Automation will be the date and time the record completed the Add Task step. Add a Send Notification step after the add Task step to notify your users.

Add Wait

Candidates Contacts Leads Job Submissions Placements Jobs

Wait steps allow users to control the timing of automated actions by setting delays in minutes (15, 30, and 45), hours, days, or weeks. This step determines the duration records are held before proceeding to the next automation step. These flexible delay settings are useful for staggering the start of automations, helping create a smoother and more controlled workflow that enhances the efficiency and responsiveness of your processes.

A recruiter would like to send multiple communications to a Candidate. Adding a wait for time to pass between the communication steps ensures that the emails aren’t all sent at once.

  • Send a welcome email

  • Add a wait step of 3 days

  • Send a follow up email

When using hours, days, or weeks as the duration, the system converts this time into minutes and holds the record for the specified duration before moving it to the next automation step.

Example: 

If a wait step is set for 1 hour:

  • A record enters the wait step at 1:00 PM.
  • The wait step holds the record until 2:00 PM.
  • The next step involves sending an email, which takes an additional 5 minutes to process.
  • Although the wait step accurately held for 60 minutes, the email will show as sent at 2:05 PM due to the processing time of the email step.

 

  • When using a Date-based Automation, it is recommended to add a wait step a minimum of 24 hours before the start date to allow the automation to prepare the list of records for the next step.
  • When an automation includes a wait step and is paused, the countdown timer for that wait step will reset to its original duration once the automation is re-activated. This means that any time already counted down before the pause will be lost.

Match Candidate

Jobs

Match Candidate is only available for BHA Enterprise Edition.

This step is used to match candidates to jobs that fit certain configurable criteria.

Note: To find out more about this step see the AI Auto Match articles.

Onboarding365

Candidates Job Submissions Placements

When the client has Onboarding365 integrated with Automation they can add a step to send out or cancel onboarding information to a candidate. Steps can be added for notification if the onboarding fails.

Example: A recruiter wants to automate canceling an onboarding process when a Placement is canceled.

Onboarding Talent Platform

Candidates Job Submissions

This step can be used to initiate onboarding workflows for clients that are integrated with Talent Platform. Clients can choose to initiate the workflow when the candidates are added to Talent Platform. They can include packages and forms, set alerts when they are completed by the candidate, set an expiration for the workflow, and determine next steps on a failed request.

Example: A Recruiter wants to automate the sending of Talent Platform specific forms/packages once an interview is scheduled.

Send Email

Candidates ContactsLeads Job Submissions PlacementsJobs

This step will send an email. When added to the automation, it will open the email builder and allow the following options:

  • Template
  • From Existing
  • From Scratch - Drag and Drop,
  • From Scratch - Plain Text
  • A/B Test

 

  • When creating from scratch there is the option of using the drag-and-drop builder or the plain text builder.
  • For visual newsletter type messages select drag-and-drop.
  • For a message that should appear to have been sent directly from a recruiter, use the plain text builder.

Send Text

Candidates Contacts Leads Job Submissions Placements Jobs

Send SMS via Bullhorn Messaging is only available for BHA Enterprise Edition.

Accounts enabled for texting, will have the Send Text option. The text function works very similarly to email and has options to use a previously drafted text message or create one from scratch in the Text Message Builder.

 

  • The text message character limit is 360.
  • Messages over 140 characters may be sent as multiple messages.
  • Candidates/Contacts must have a mobile number associated with their ATS profile in order to receive a text message.

Send Engagement

Candidates Contacts Leads Job Submissions Placements

Send Engagement in BHA Corporate Edition only allows for Surveys.

This allows a survey or chat to be sent to a specific audience via email or text message. Select your engagement type and begin typing the name of the engagement into the Find box to locate it.

Note: Only engagaements that match the entity of the automation can be added. The exception is Candidate and Contact based engagements, which can be used in Submission and Placement automations.

Send Notification

Candidates ContactsLeads Job Submissions Placements

There are universal notification settings that allow you to enable or disable common notifications such as job views or key sales actions.This step is used to add other email notifications to the owner or someone else.

Note: For more information, see Creating Your Own Notifications.

Update Steps

CandidatesContactsLeads Job Submissions PlacementsJobs

The type of record that can be updated varies based on the entity of the automation:

  • Placement-based: Candidate, Contact, Placement, or Job
  • Sales Contact-based: Sales Contact or Company
  • Candidate-based: Candidate
  • Lead-based: Lead (Enterprise Only)
  • Submission-based: Candidate, Contact, Submissions, or Job

This allows any field on an ATS record to be updated. There are some basic fields available by default, but any custom fields can be added.

Tip: If the field is a picker, select to either Add to Existing Values or Replace Existing Values. For text fields, the newly-added value will always overwrite the previous field value.

Update Credential

Jobs

This step will update a job's credential requirements. The update types supported are:

  • Add Credential Requirement
  • Replace Credential Requirement
  • Clear Specific Credential Requirements
  • Clear All Credential Requirements
Note: For more information see the article Update Credential Automation Step.

Webhook

Candidates ContactsLeadsJob Submissions PlacementsJobs

Webhooks are one of a few ways web applications can communicate with each other. With this step, Bullhorn Automation can send real-time data to a third-party application whenever a record passes through the automation step.

Webhook is only available for BHA Enterprise Edition. Bullhorn Automation Support can speak to the functionality of the Webhook Step but they will not be able to speak to, or troubleshoot, your Webhook payload content or third-party interactions.

Note: For more information see the article Using the Automation Webhook Step.

End Automation

Candidates Contacts Leads Job Submissions Placements

After completing all the steps in the campaign there is the option of adding a stop step. This step is not required and sometimes not ideal. Some scenarios are described below:

  • Stop: This is useful for campaigns that have a specific start and end (e.g. a 6 week sales campaign or a common job seeker campaign). Once people are done, they are removed and you have the option of searching for people who’ve finished it or even adding them to it again.
  • No Stop: This is useful for ongoing campaigns or even ad hoc campaigns you may decide to run without a complete strategy figured out. When a contact runs out of steps, they'll just wait at the end of the campaign. If you forgot to add a message (or just weren't ready to add one yet), they will get it once you’ve added it.
Tip: We do not recommend adding a Stop within Date-Based Automations. This allows records to move to different steps within the Automation if the date for that record is updated in ATS.