Zapier is your wizard’s stick when you are overloaded with tasks at your work and want to automate as many of them as possible.
What is Zapier?
It is an online tool that integrates over 2.000 applications and makes it possible to automate your work and tasks. Suppose a certain event happens in any app (for example, you receive a new job application in your ATS or Spreadsheet). In that case, it signals another application to make an action (for example, send an alert, email, or set a task). It works on the principle, “If this, then that.” Zapier creates automated workflows that significantly save time on manual operations.
For example: You want to track the number of calls per week that you have and include this data into your reporting. With Zapier you can automate this calculation and traction.
Another example: You want to send “thank you” emails or schedule follow-up messages to your candidates immediately after filling out an application form. With Zapier, it is possible to connect your email system and ATS.
Why automate?
Automation is needed in our regular life when
- You don’t want to forget about tasks, follow-ups, calls
- You don’t want to jump between the tools, copy-paste content, or integrate tools manually
- You want to avoid doing repetitive copy-pasting tasks.
Why is Zapier Useful for Recruiters and Sourcers?
We have a lot of work to automate and systemize. When there is a lot of communication, connections, calls, tasks, etc., automation helps you not to lose information and keep everything organized.
After each call, you have to make certain notes in ATS or update an Excel table with candidates – automate it!
Or you receive tons of messages on LinkedIn and Facebook – export them to Slack, Asana or Evernote to read them later or even set yourself a task to do it.
Zapier helps to connect calendars, email, social platforms, and ATS, making it easier and faster for recruiters to do their regular work. Moreover, with automation, you save a lot of time on repetitive tasks and do not have to jump across many tools and apps to update/add/delete data.
Why Zapier?
- Zapier is very easy to use, and you don’t need any coding knowledge to create automated workflows
- Zapier has over 2.000 “Zaps” and can connect almost any tool you work with
- Zapier’s free plan is pretty comprehensive
- Zapier’s support team is always there to help
- Zapier will save you a tremendous amount of time and make your work more efficiently
In this article, I will tell you how to start working with Zapier and what automations are the most useful for recruiters.
How to Get Started with Zapier
First of all, you need to create a Zapier account. It has a free-forever plan if your workflows do not exceed 100 automations per month. Otherwise, it will cost you $20-25 / month, but you will always have an option to downgrade the account at any time and pay less when you don’t need Zapier.
Connect applications and platforms that you use during your work, for example, Asana, Evernote, Workable, Zoho, Slack, Gmail, Trello, Google Spreadsheets, Calendars, Outlook, etc.
On the Zapier main page, go to “My Apps.” Choose “Connect a New Account”:
Click on “Make a Zap” and start creating automation workflows. We will go through it below. But first, let’s learn a little bit about Zapier terms.
The Zapier Vocabulary
Zap
A Zap is an internal name for workflows that you create in Zapier. Each Zap consists of a trigger (“what has happened”) and one or more actions (what should be done”). When you turn your Zap on, it will run the action steps every time the trigger event occurs.
App
An app is a web service or application, such as Google Docs, Slack, or Salesforce, that you want to connect.
Trigger
A trigger is an event that starts your Zap. For example, if you want to send a text message each time you receive an email, the trigger is a new email in your inbox.
Sample data
Sample data is needed to test that your Zap will work properly. Make sure to make a trigger action before launching the Zap. For example, whenever a new person fills your Typeform questionnaire, send them an email. First, fill out the questionnaire so that Zapier can identify fields for name, email, and other personalization tokens.
Action
An action is an event that happens after a trigger appears. For example, if you want to send a text message each time you receive an email, the action is to send a text message.
How to Create a Zap
Every Zap consists of a trigger step (“when this happens…”) and one or more action steps (“then do this…”).
Decide on what you want as a result. Notification? Email? A task in your calendar? The logic is the following: you define what you want to get and where you want to get it. Something like: I want that every webinar registrant gets a confirmation email and my manager receives information about new registrants by email”.
First, you need to set a trigger; for example, you receive:
- New row (data) in your spreadsheet
- New email
- New form submission
- New webinar registrant.
It means “where data comes from.” Click on “Make a Zap” and choose an application that will cause an action:
Let’s have Google Spreadsheets; choose the trigger among the options in the dropdown menu:
Select Spreadsheet from the list and the worksheet:
After you press “Continue,” test trigger, you will be sure that Zapier pulls the right data from the right columns.
Now you are done with setting up your trigger. Next, you must choose what will happen next when the trigger appears. In our example trigger is a “new row in the Spreadsheet.”
It can be: “When new data is added to the Spreadsheet – send me an email.”
Select an app that should make the action. You can type the application’s name or choose from the apps that Zapier suggests. Usually, the system suggests the most popular or used ones.
In our case, we want to send a notification email as soon as a new contact appears in the Spreadsheet.
Enter the email of the person who will get the notification.
You can add any additional message to the email the receiver will get.
This is it! This is a very basic example of how Zapier works. Time to see what kind of automation we can make with it to simplify the recruitment routine.
Before you start, connect your ATS platform to Zapier (use this list of integrations from GettApp) – you will be surprised how many of them are integrated with Zapier.
Useful Zaps for Recruiters and Sourcers
Send a confirmation email to new candidates
The trigger is a new form submission on a website or a new connection on LinkedIn, Google Forms, Survey Monkey, Typeform or Lemlist. You can send an automated confirmation or welcome email to the new lead/connection as soon as it appears.
Schedule interviews
You can use Calendly, Google Forms, or Typeform for interview scheduling. Connect the scheduling tool via Zapier to receive instant notifications by email, Slack, or set a task in Asana with all details about the scheduled call.
Update your Spreadsheet when the candidate cancels the call
To keep your candidate database clean, use this automation and stay current on candidate status. This workflow will trigger when someone cancels a call and automatically update the appropriate row in Google Spreadsheets.
Add new leads to your ATS
When you receive a candidate application, you can add them to your ATS so you will never miss new submissions.
Choose where you store important files like CVs
If you get a lot of CVs via the website or by email, you can save all the applications in a specific folder on your computer or in the cloud (ATS, Google Drive). Zapier automatically extracts important files and uploads them to the right folder.
Set up your tasks based on the calendar schedule
Make Zapier automatically create a task in your task manager as soon as you receive a request for a call or meeting. You can play around with timing when you receive such notifications or the types of tasks that should be assigned to you or the team members.
Share job announcements and important content via social media
In order not to copy-paste the same publication across your social media accounts, you can distribute it simultaneously using Zapier. Connect a social platform where you will make a post and assign a task to Zapier to share it across other accounts.
Export Eventbrite registrants to the Spreadsheet
When you organize an event, use this Zap to collect all the registrants in Google Spreadsheet to approach them later.
I hope this guide will help you leverage Zapier to save time and get significant results!
