Table of Contents

What is Auto Engage?

Auto Engage is a new feature designed to optimize candidate engagement with minimal effort from the user. This feature allows users to bulk select candidates they want to contact, and automate a series of follow-up emails to accelerate candidate engagement.

With bulk select actions, Auto Engage streamlines the recruiting process by enabling quick selection of multiple candidates that match requirements. The bulk select action can reduce manual selection time by up to 80%. Toggled-on by default for new searches, Auto Engage email functionality aims to make candidate engagement effortless by automating up to three (3) follow-up emails. Data shows that multiple emails can double response rates.

Default Behavior: The Auto Engage toggle is enabled by default for single candidate messages.
Email Outreach: The feature sends a series of follow-up emails to candidates after the initial contact, which encourages a response. You are not charged for these emails.
Follow-Up Process: Auto Engage sends emails 2, 3, and 4 automatically under the hood, ensuring continuous engagement with candidates. In other words, you don't need to worry about manually crafting follow-up emails to candidates of interest.

How Does It Work?

Note:

As a prerequisite to using Auto Engage, you must first have your Gmail or Outlook account integrated with your Findem account. For steps on how to complete the Gmail connection, click here. For Outlook, click here.

When you're ready to message a candidate, click Message as always. This will bring up the candidate's enriched profile, where you then will select Email. You'll see the messaging modal with the Auto Engage toggle enabled by default.
The email modal will show a clear visual indication that Auto Engage is active. Again, it's worth noting that Auto Engage will be on by default. You can always toggle it off.
- Hovering over the Auto Engage toggle will display a tooltip explaining its function: "Auto-engage uses proven recruiting best practices to boost candidate responses. When enabled, Auto-engage sends a series of follow-up messages."
If you choose to turn off Auto Engage, you'll see the follow-up emails 2-4, where you can delete any number of them if you'd like. Note that turning off Auto Engage here applies at the action level, and will revert to "ON" each time you enter a new email template.

Bulk Select Actions

The second part of Auto Engage is the ability to bulk select candidates that you want to enroll in the automated follow-ups. There are three ways to bulk select candidates you want to message.

1. Select all

2. Select individual by clicking on profile picture

3. Select in bulk using the toolbar at the bottom of the results page

Edit Auto Engage Templates

- You're able to edit the first message in the Auto Engage series by clicking Edit Template. As of now, you cannot edit the follow-up messages (emails 2-4) as these are pre-set to nudge candidates back to the top of their inbox. Note that the content within the follow-up emails is more or less the same as in the initial email, only meant to nudge the candidate for a response.

Outreach Specificity

Templates are unique to the specific search. Editing the template within one search will not affect other searches emails.

There is also no cross-search impact, meaning you can apply different messaging strategies to each search without worrying about affecting other emails.

Tracking, Status & Management

- Status: Once messages are sent, users will see the email status in the main All Contacts page. This includes information about emails sent, upcoming scheduled messages, and the ability to pause individual messages.
- You can also manage your emails from the main Searches page, or landing page. From here, in the Status column, if you pause an outreach, this pauses the entire outreach for all candidates in the search.

The Status column will show you all contacted candidates' current status.

- Reach Out indicates you haven't yet contacted the candidate
- In Progress shows that an email has been sent to the candidate
- You'll receive an informational notice if a candidate has already been added to an email outreach recently (pre-outreach)
- Candidates that have scheduled messages in an outreach where the outreach is paused will show up as Paused
- Candidates with email messages sending in the next ~30 minutes will be displayed as Sending now

Important to Note

First-Time Users: Non-recruiters, particularly those who are not experienced with outreach emails, may initially hesitate to send follow-ups, fearing it might appear "needy." However, the goal is to ease them into this practice through automated nudges that improve response rates.
Flexibility: While Auto Engage is on by default, users can still turn it off if they prefer to manually manage their outreach process.
Limitations: Currently Auto Engage is on a per-candidate basis only. You cannot bulk email candidates with the Auto Engage feature.

Best Practices

We recommend manually pausing the outreach for everyone if you have enough interested candidates to the point where you don't want to send more communications out right now. Once a candidate applies, the email outreach will pause for them automatically.

Once an outreach is paused, you can resume it at any time. If you resume after email 2 was sent out, it will resume at email 3, exactly where it was left off and on the same cadence (email is sent once every 4 days).

Other best practices to keep in mind:

Send from your work email (standard email integration)
Send follow ups - often it's about catching the candidate at the right time
Cadence "3 2 2"
Use custom variables in the subject line (Candidate + Company = Opportunity)
Include content
Light introduction

FAQ

Q: Will a candidate be sent multiple sets of emails if they're already part of an existing outreach?

A: No. Candidates will only receive one set of emails based on the initial email list they were made a part of.

Q: If a candidate was already messaged outside of Auto Engage, will they be messaged again if I turn on Auto Engage?

A: Yes. If you previously messaged a user, we will still attempt to contact them via Auto Engage if enabled. The exception is when you are already using Auto Engage in another search, we will prevent that candidate from receiving multiple sets of messages and follow ups from multiple searches.

Q: How do I edit a template?

A: After initiating a messaging workflow, users can click to Edit Template, which enters a template editing mode. As opposed to the normal author mode which allows you to personalize the content for a single candidate a time - changes made and saved in the Edit Template mode will be applied to all future outgoing messages for that candidate search. Each search has its own template that can be customized. New searches will always start with our default template.

Q: Can I customize the Auto Engage templates?

A: Yes. You can see the edit button for the first template. To edit a follow-up template, sImply toggle-off the Auto Engage feature. You can edit each template in the series and even delete them if you prefer. Once you save your changes, just toggle Auto Engage back on to have the automated messages continue.

Q: What should I do if I encounter errors while saving an email template?

A: If you encounter errors while saving an email template, check the following: 1) Verify that all campaign variables are either completely filled out or removed, 2) Ensure you have the necessary permissions to edit the template, 3) Check that the variables you're using are currently active in your workspace. If problems persist, reach out to technical support with specific details about the error you're experiencing.

Q: Isn't this spam?

A: While that's a perfectly understandable question, our data shows that multiple emails can actually double response rates because candidates may not see your first message or forget to respond. Life is busy. Candidates may just need an encouraging reminder to respond when they have time. And this way you don't have to remember to send them a reminder either.

Q: Why are there emails being sent without me knowing? Why did you send multiple emails on my behalf?

A: Auto Engage is a powerful recruiting feature that is on by default. The best way to get a reply is catch candidates at the right moment, with the right content. Sending a respectful series of follow ups greatly increases you chances of success and overall response rate.

However, you still maintain flexibility and control over the details. Findem does not send messages with missing details and only uses details provided by you. In the same way, we only send messages from the address you provide so that deliverability is not impacted, and messages are not sent to spam. In addition, data shows that multiple messages increase response rates by up to 20%. We know that drafting and personalizing a series of emails is time consuming, so this feature cuts out the manual work by automatically personalizing email templates with your provided details. You can edit templates at any time.

Auto Engage increases the chances of a response while boosting your efficiency, without requiring more time and effort form you. If you prefer not to have the automation work for you in the background simply toggle the Auto Engage feature off at the bottom of a message window for a particular candidate, or pause Auto Engage for an entire search.

Q: Can I pause Auto Engage if I progress a candidate or make a hire?

A: Yes. You can pause Auto Engage at any time by going to your saved searches and pressing the pause button. This will pause all outreach for the entire candidate list in your search. You can also pause Auto Engage for an individual candidate if you want to.

Q: Do I have to pause Auto Engage for every single candidate who responds?

A: No. Recruiting Copilot syncs with your email. So Auto Engage will know if a candidate responds. You'll see the Status change to "Needs Response" and no additional emails will be sent to that candidate.

Q: If I turn off Auto Engage for one candidate does it turn it off for everyone?

A: If you bulk select, toggle Auto Engage off on one candidate, then go into a different candidate, and then edit a template, Auto Engage stays on even though you toggled it off on the other candidate.

Q: What happens if my email authentication expires?

A: When your email authentication expires, all configured auto-engage emails will be automatically paused, and no emails will be sent to candidates. You'll need to re-authenticate your email in the Account Management section under Integrations to restart your campaigns and continue contacting candidates.

Q: What should I do if my auto-engage emails are not being sent?

A: If your auto-engage emails are not being sent, first check your email authentication status. Expired email authentication will pause all configured auto-engage emails. Follow the re-authentication steps to restore your email integration and restart your outreach campaigns. If problems persist after re-authentication, contact technical support.

Q: Will emails from Auto Engage be sent from my integrated mail service, or from Findem's systems?

A: Your's. By integrating your email with Findem, we'll be able to send emails on your behalf. This is a recruiting best practice. Messages coming from an personalized or work related email are more trusted, and receive higher response rates from candidates. A copy of anything sent on your behalf can be viewed in your sent items inbox.

Q: What are the Auto Engage statuses and what do they mean?

A: The primary statuses are: "In Progress" which means Auto Engage is running and follow ups will continue to be scheduled. "Replied" The candidate has replied and Auto Engage will be paused, not further emails will go out. "Complete" means Auto Engage has completed and the candidate has not replied. You can try other outreach mentions like a phone call or text message.

Q: Will I be notified that another recruiter has already contacted a prospect if I bulk select them and have Auto Engage on?

A: The system will know the candidate is already enrolled in a sequence. We won't start a new email sequence for that candidate once one is already in progress.

Q: How do I ensure that I only send one message for each candidate in my search?
A: To ensure you send only one message to each candidate in your search:

Toggle Auto Engage off.
Edit template steps and remove follow ups (2, 3, 4).
Save the template.

On your next action in that search, Auto Engage will show as "ON", but the template running will just be the single step that you see in the editor.

Auto Engage Emails