Where recruiting time goes
Recruiters spend their best hours in conversations, and sourcing gets squeezed into whatever time is left. New roles open, old ones stay open longer than planned, and applicants wait for an answer because nobody checked the queue. Most of that work repeats every day in the same shape. Search for people who match, summarize them, remind the hiring manager, report on the pipeline.
A scheduled agent takes the repeating part. It runs the search on time, writes a short summary of each candidate against the role requirements, remembers who it already suggested and puts the list where your team works.
Recruiting jobs worth scheduling
| Instruction | Schedule | Destination |
|---|---|---|
| Find 15 new candidates on public profiles who match the senior backend role and summarize each in three lines | Every weekday at 7 AM | Google Sheets shortlist |
| List applicants who have waited more than 5 days without a reply and draft a status note | Every day at 9 AM | Gmail drafts, sent after approval |
| Remind hiring managers about candidates waiting for their feedback | Every Tuesday and Thursday at 10 AM | Slack direct message |
| Summarize pipeline per open role with counts per stage and the oldest candidate | Every Friday at 3 PM | Notion hiring page |
| Check our open job posts for outdated salary ranges or requirements | First day of each month | Slack recruiting channel |
| Compare new applications with role requirements and sort them into strong, maybe and no | Every 2 hours on weekdays | Google Sheets |
The recruiting sourcing template sets up the first job with memory so candidates are never suggested twice.
A time math example for one recruiter
Hypothetical example, not a measured result. Imagine a recruiter who spends 90 minutes a day searching and summarizing profiles for three open roles. Over a month of working days that is about 33 hours. If a morning cron produces the shortlist and the recruiter spends 20 minutes reviewing it, sourcing time drops to about 7 hours a month, leaving more time for calls. Track your own hours for a week before and after to see the real difference.
Controls for candidate communication
Candidates remember how a company treated them, so nothing should reach them unchecked. In Crons any email to a candidate can wait behind an approval gate. The recruiter reads the draft, edits or approves it, and the run log records the decision. The agent summarizes and sorts, while people make the hiring decisions.
- Approval before any email to a candidate
- Run log showing which sources were read and how each summary was produced
- Memory so the same candidate is not sourced twice
- Viewer roles on Pro and Teams so hiring managers see results without editing crons
- Run log retention of 30 days on Starter, 90 days on Pro and one year on Teams
Read how data is handled on the security page.
How to set up your first recruiting cron
- 1Describe the role in the instruction with must have skills, nice to have skills, location and seniority.
- 2Name the sources to search and how many new candidates you want per run.
- 3Choose a Google Sheet as the shortlist so the whole hiring team can see and comment on it.
- 4Put an approval gate in front of any email step so outreach always gets a human review.
- 5Test with dry run mode, read the summaries and refine the requirements before you turn on the daily schedule.
When a role closes, pause its cron and clone it for the next opening. Usage already spent in the billing period stays counted, so pausing is the right move rather than deleting and recreating crons.
Which plan fits a recruiting team
One recruiter with a few daily sourcing crons fits Starter. A hiring team of up to five people, with hiring managers as viewers and crons running every 15 minutes, fits Pro. Talent teams that need SSO, an audit log, approval rules per team and a one year run log choose Teams. See the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
Does the agent make hiring decisions?
No. It sources, summarizes and sorts candidates against your stated requirements. People on your team decide who moves forward.
Can it email candidates automatically?
It drafts emails and holds them behind an approval gate. A recruiter approves each one before it leaves Gmail.
Where does it find candidates?
On the public sources and job boards you name in the instruction, and in your own applicant data through an API or webhook if you connect it.
Will it suggest the same person again next week?
No. Memory keeps a list of candidates already suggested for each role, so every shortlist contains new names only.
Can hiring managers see the results without editing anything?
Yes. Pro and Teams include viewer roles, and results can go to a shared Google Sheet, Notion page or Slack channel.
How many roles can one cron cover?
One cron per role keeps the requirements and memory clean. Starter allows 10 active crons, Pro 50 and Teams unlimited active crons under fair use, so most hiring teams run one sourcing cron for every open role.