Multi-location candidate routing is the job of getting each applicant to the office that should own them, quickly, without opening every pipeline to everyone. Done badly, good candidates sit in the wrong queue while the branch down the road is short-staffed. Done well, each office works its own applicants, hand-offs are deliberate, and leadership can see the whole picture. Here is how a team does it in ATS Mako, stage by stage.
Why applicants land at the wrong location
Candidates apply to the posting they see first, not the branch with the open shift. That creates predictable mismatches.
- One posting covers several sites, so the applicant guesses which location to pick.
- A candidate lives closer to a different branch than the one they applied to.
- A branch is fully staffed but keeps receiving applicants for a role it no longer needs.
- Applications arrive in a general inbox that no single office owns.
- A referral from an employee at one site is really a fit for another.
None of these are fixed by more spreadsheets or forwarded emails. They are fixed by structure: where each office's data lives, who owns which applicants, how a hand-off happens and who is allowed to see what. Start by making sure applications enter one system. Your apply pages are the front door, and if applications also come in by email, capturing them straight into the ATS keeps them out of an inbox where nobody is accountable.
Set up the structure first: offices, data and messaging
ATS Mako's Multi-Tenant Office Hierarchy lets you run parent and child offices under one roof. Each office has its own isolated candidate data, so every location operates independently without stepping on the others. That isolation is the default you want. Sharing then becomes a choice you make on purpose, not an accident.
Messaging follows the same pattern. With Per-Office Communication Config, you set email and SMS settings office by office. Each location messages candidates on its own terms, while you keep control of the whole operation. When a candidate is handed to a new branch, they should hear from that branch, not from a generic corporate sender.
Routing rules by role, region or capacity
Decide your routing policy before you configure anything. Most teams want to route applicants to the nearest location, but distance is only one input. Role ownership and branch capacity matter just as much. Write the policy down, then make it standard.
| Routing basis | When it fits | What you need to decide |
|---|---|---|
| By role | Specialized roles are hired by one site or a small set of sites | Which office owns each role, and who covers when that office is closed to new hires |
| By region | Hourly or shift roles where commute matters | How you determine an applicant's area, and which branch serves it |
| By capacity | A branch fills up while neighbors still need people | Who receives overflow, and who approves the move |
ATS Mako's Custom Workflow Builder lets you map your hiring process stage by stage, then make it the standard across every recruiter and req. You set the trigger, and the platform handles the follow-ups and hand-offs. That is where your routing policy stops being a memo and becomes how work actually moves. If you would rather not build it yourself, White-Glove Implementation means the ATS Mako team stands up your platform, wires in your integrations and configures your workflows for you.
Routing policy worksheet
Role family: ____ Primary routing basis (role / region / capacity): ____ Owning office or offices: ____ Overflow office when owner is full: ____ Who can trigger a hand-off: ____ Who must accept a hand-off: ____ What the candidate is told, and by which office: ____ Who reviews routing exceptions, and how often: ____
Fill one out per role family. Use it as the brief for configuring your workflow.
Reassigning and sharing candidates
Candidate sharing across branches should be a hand-off with an owner, not a free-for-all where any manager can grab any applicant. Treat it as a stage in your workflow.
- 1 Spot the mismatch The receiving office, or a corporate recruiter, sees that the applicant fits another location better by role, area or capacity.
- 2 Trigger the hand-off Only the people your policy names should be able to start it. Build it as a defined step in your workflow so it happens the same way every time.
- 3 The new office picks it up The receiving branch manager takes ownership. Make the hand-off stage clear enough that nobody wonders whose candidate it is.
- 4 The candidate hears from the right office Because messaging is configured per office, follow-up comes from the branch that now owns the candidate.
- 5 The record shows what happened The Activity Log and Audit Trail shows who did what, and when, across every office and req.
Permissions for branch managers
To assign applicants to branch managers safely, each manager needs access that matches their responsibility. ATS Mako ships with built-in recruiter, admin and super-admin roles. Assign a role and the right access comes with it. On top of the role, you can fine-tune permissions per user, deciding exactly what each person can see, edit and manage.
- Give each branch manager access to their own office's pipeline and nothing else by default.
- Use per-office access control to keep pipelines private where they should be and visible where leadership needs them.
- Decide who can edit candidates versus who can only view them.
- Set the structure once. It holds as you add offices and recruiters.
People move. When a manager changes roles, reassign their role or adjust their permissions and the new boundaries take effect right away. When someone leaves, pull their access so they no longer see candidate records or office pipelines. More detail is on the roles and permissions page.
Visibility for corporate recruiters
Corporate and regional recruiters need the view branch managers do not. Super-admin oversight gives leadership the keys without handing them to everyone. Super-admins set the rules, manage roles and keep the full view across every user and every office. For a regional lead who should see a group of branches but not the whole company, use granular per-user permissions so access lines up with the offices they are responsible for.
That full view is what makes routing work at scale. A corporate recruiter can see where applicants are piling up and where a branch is short, then start a hand-off through the workflow rather than by phone call. The audit trail keeps that oversight accountable when it is time to answer hard questions.
Measuring response by branch
Routing is only working if candidates get a fast response from the office that owns them. ATS Mako does not promise a result here. What it gives you is a record of who did what, and when, across every office. Use it to compare branches on the same measures.
| What to measure | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Time from application to first contact, per office | Shows which branches act quickly and which let applicants wait |
| Hand-offs started, per office | Frequent outbound hand-offs can mean postings point people to the wrong location |
| Hand-offs that stall after transfer | Reveals receiving offices that are not picking up shared candidates |
| Shared candidates who reach interview | Tells you whether routing produces hires or just moves records around |
| Access changes after staff moves | Confirms permissions are updated when people change roles or leave |
Review these on a set schedule and look at outliers. A branch that is always slow to respond may need help. A branch that constantly sends candidates away may need its postings rewritten.
Common pitfalls
- Configuring before deciding. Without a written routing policy, the workflow encodes whatever habits exist today.
- Shared logins at the branch level. They erase the audit trail and make per-user permissions meaningless.
- Opening all offices to all managers. It feels collaborative and quickly becomes nobody's job.
- Hand-offs without an acceptor. If no one has to pick up a transferred candidate, they wait.
- Corporate messages to branch candidates. Let the owning office's settings handle outreach so the candidate knows who they are dealing with.
- Forgetting offboarding. Access that outlives employment is a data problem waiting to happen.
Where to go next
For the wider picture of running several offices on one platform, see multi-location recruiting with office-level control. Once routing is in place, the next step is outreach. This SMS workflow for multi-location employers covers consent through follow-up. You can also review pricing or book a demo to walk through your own office structure.
See candidate routing mapped to your offices
Book a demo and walk through your office structure, branch permissions and hand-off workflow in ATS Mako.