Bulk Actions for Candidates in Your ATS: How To Message and Move Whole Groups at Once

What bulk actions do

If you are looking up bulk actions for candidates in your ATS and how to use them, this is the short version: ATS Mako lets you act on a whole group in one move instead of opening each profile. You can send SMS and email to many candidates in a single send, advance, hold or close entire groups, and tie outreach to dates so messages go out on schedule. The full feature overview lives on the Bulk Actions at Scale page.

• Mass SMS and email: reach a large group across text, email or both in one send.
• Dynamic audience builder: slice your pipeline by role, stage, location or activity. The segment stays current as candidates change.
• Bulk status updates: advance, hold or close a whole segment at once so nobody stalls.
• Calendar-triggered outreach: tie messages to dates and scheduling events and set the trigger once.
• Your brand on every touch: bulk texts and emails go out under your logo, colors and domain.

Why a bulk action might not reach everyone

Most problems with bulk sends or bulk moves come down to who is in the audience and who is allowed to receive a message. Check these first.

• The audience criteria are too narrow or too broad. A filter on the wrong role, stage or location changes who is included.
• Some candidates opted out of SMS by replying STOP, or unsubscribed from email. They will not receive bulk messages.
• The send falls inside quiet hours for SMS, so texts are held rather than delivered right away.
• A candidate has not given consent to receive texts.

How to message and move candidates in bulk

1. 1 Build your audience Use the dynamic audience builder to define who you want. Filter by role, stage, location or activity. For example, every applicant for a warehouse role at one branch who has not been contacted yet. More on targeting is in audience segmentation and targeting.
2. 2 Review the segment before you act Scan the list. Make sure the people you expect are there and the people you do not want are not. Adjust the criteria until the group is right. Because the segment updates itself, saved criteria keep pulling in the right candidates next time.
3. 3 To move a group, apply a bulk status update Choose to advance, hold or close the whole segment in one action. This is how you bulk move candidates between stages, such as pushing every screened applicant forward to interview.
4. 4 To message a group, pick your channel Choose SMS, email or both. Write the message once.
5. 5 Personalize with candidate details Bulk sends pull in candidate details, sometimes called merge fields, so each text and email reads like a one-to-one message rather than a blast. Use this when you mass text selected applicants so each person sees their own name and role.
6. 6 Send now or set a trigger Send immediately, or tie the message to a date or scheduling event so it fires at the right moment automatically. See conversational SMS and automations for follow-up ideas.

Example message

Hi [candidate first name], thanks for applying for [role] at [location]. We would like to set up a short interview. Reply here with a good time. Reply STOP to opt out.

Safeguards: opt-outs and quiet hours

Mass texting in ATS Mako runs on consent. SMS includes opt-in, Reply STOP opt-out and quiet-hours awareness. Email includes unsubscribe handling. These guardrails help you move fast at volume without putting your brand at risk.

How to confirm it worked

1. After a bulk status update, check that the group now sits in the new stage and nobody was left behind.
2. After a bulk send, watch for replies coming back from candidates in the segment.
3. If some candidates did not get a text, check whether they opted out or whether the send landed in quiet hours.
4. If you moved the wrong group, rebuild the audience and apply another bulk status update to put them back where they belong.

For a closer look at status changes specifically, read how to bulk update candidate status.

When to contact support

Contact support if a segment includes candidates who clearly do not match your criteria, if a bulk status update did not apply to the whole group, if consenting candidates are not receiving texts outside quiet hours, or if you need to review what a past bulk action changed. Share the audience criteria you used and the approximate time of the action so the issue can be traced quickly.