Taking candidate follow-up from 60% to 100%

The problem

An agency like this has a candidate experience problem it knows about but hasn't solved. Every application is supposed to get a follow-up email within 48 hours, and every completed interview an outcome email. In practice, both happen when someone remembers, which is around 60% of the time.

The remaining 40% of candidates hear nothing. Some chase, some don't, and all of them form an impression the team would not be proud of.

What the audit found

An agency like this uses Bullhorn as its ATS. A workflow session often surfaces that Bullhorn's webhook system, which fires an event every time a candidate's status changes, is configured but not connected to anything, typically set up by a previous IT contact and never used.

The fix is usually half-built already. An audit identifies the connection between Bullhorn's webhooks and an email sequence as the highest-priority item: zero new tooling required, with the manual step fully removable.

What gets built

Two automated email sequences, triggered by Bullhorn status changes. The first fires when a candidate's application status moves to "received": a personalised acknowledgement with a timeline. The second fires when a status moves to "interview complete": an outcome email with next steps.

Both sequences use the candidate's name and role title pulled from Bullhorn, so they read as personal emails, not automated ones. You review and approve the templates before go-live.

What changes

Follow-up reaches 100% from day one, and the roughly 6 hours a week of manual email drafting disappears. With contact this fast and consistent, candidate response rates typically climb; in a setup like this an uplift of around a third is realistic.

Faster, more consistent communication is what candidates notice, and it is the kind of thing that earns positive reviews mentioning responsiveness.