Owner Assignment Rules

Owner Assignment RulesClosed in Bullhorn Automation help ensure that emails are sent from the most appropriate user and that notifications are directed to the right person. These rules allow you to automatically assign the best owner to each contact based on recent interactions or custom criteria. You can also choose to sync ownership updates back to your ATS if needed.

 

  • Owner Assignment Rules help ensure that emails and notifications come from the most relevant and active user.

  • Rules can assign ownership based on recent ATS interactions or custom contact list criteria.

  • You can choose to update ownership in Bullhorn Automation only, or sync changes back to your ATS.

  • Ownership updates may take up to two hours, so a wait step is recommended in related automations.

  • A Backup Rule ensures that every contact has an owner, preventing failures in sending messages.

  • Only licensed and active users can be assigned as owners.

  • Custom rules use Round Robin logic when multiple users are assigned.

Understanding Owner Assignment Rules

Owner assignment rules can be found by navigating to Settings > Owner Assignment Rules.

There are two main ways you can pick the best owners in Bullhorn Automation. You can mix and match these rules to make sure the right owner is assigned for any circumstance:

  • Using the Bullhorn Automation rules based on recent interactions.
    • Example: Make the owner whoever left the last note.
  • Custom rules that you define, based on the candidate.
    • Example: If the candidate lives in Florida, assign them to a recruiter in the Orlando office. 

By default, Owner Assignment rules only change ownership in Bullhorn Automation. There is an option to also have it change your ATS ownership if you'd like to enable that.

Bullhorn Automation Rules Based on Recent Interactions

These rules are pre-configured by Bullhorn Automation and are based on who most recently interacted with the candidate in the ATS. All of these rules require that the user for Bullhorn Automation is Active. This means that they are still able to log into and use the ATS and are not marked as "Inactive" in Bullhorn Automation. For more information on Active and Inactive users see ATS Users.

The rules and descriptions are listed below: 

  • Contact with an Active ATS Owner: If an active ATS user is marked as the owner, then assign to the ATS owner. This will make the owner in Bullhorn Automation the same user that is assigned to the contact in the ATS.
    • Bullhorn Automation adds this rule by default and makes it the first priority.
  • Note from Active Owner: If an active ATS user has left a note, then assign the user who left the note as the owner. This will make the owner in Bullhorn Automation whoever left the most recent note on the contact.
    • Bullhorn Automation adds this rule by default and makes it the second priority.
  • Backup Rule: If no previous rules apply, then assign ownership via "Round Robin".

Custom Rules Based on the Contact

Custom Rules allow you to define ownership logic using contact lists. You can create rules that assign one or more users to contacts in a list. If multiple users are selected, ownership is distributed evenly using Round Robin logic.

If there are four users selected for ownership, each ATS user has a 25% chance of owning a contact on that list.

Adding a Custom Rule

  1. Click the Add New Rule button and select Custom Rule.
  2. If you'd like the owner updated in the ATS toggle on Update Owner in Bullhorn?.
  3. Enter a name the rule.
  4.  Choose an existing contact list or create a new one.
    • Custom Rules from lists can only be created with Candidate or Sales-based lists.
  5. Select one or more users to assign as owners.
    • If multiple users are selected, ownership will be distributed among them based on a percentage.

You can create unlimited Owner Assignment Rules and assign multiple users to each. For each rule, you can also choose whether it should update ownership in the ATS.

Prioritizing Rules

You can reorder Owner Assignment Rules to determine which ones take precedence. Use the up and down arrows to move rules within the list.

The Backup Rule always runs last and ensures that every email or notification has an associated owner. If no rules apply and the Backup Rule has no user defined, the contact will not have an owner and emails will not be sent.


Reassigning Ownership

  1. To reassign ownership away from a specific user:

  2. Create a temporary rule assigning their contacts to someone else.

  3. Move the rule to the top of the list and allow time for the transfer.

  4. Delete the rule and create a new one to reassign their ATS-owned records, using a Bullhorn ATS tearsheet if needed.

Excluding a User from Ownership

To prevent a user from being assigned contacts or sending emails:

  • Set the user's status to Inactive in Bullhorn Automation.

  • Navigate to Settings > Bullhorn, then select the user's name and update their status.

Deleting a Custom Rule

To delete a custom rule:

  1. Click on the rule.

  2. Select the trashcan icon in the bottom-left corner.

Deleted rules cannot be recovered. To restore a deleted rule, it must be recreated.