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Rejecting, deleting or blocking candidates

This article explains the three ways to handle a candidate you no longer want in your pipeline: rejecting an application, deleting a candidate and blocking a candidate. Available on desktop only.

JOIN offers three distinct ways to handle a candidate, and they are not interchangeable:

  • Reject an application when a candidate isn't a fit for a particular Job. Their data stays in JOIN and they can keep applying to other openings.

  • Delete a candidate to permanently erase all of their data, applications, emails, scorecards and documents from your account.

  • Block a candidate to stop them from applying to your company again, without them being notified. Save this option for cases of misconduct, fraud or spam — it doesn't replace a rejection or a deletion.

Rejecting from the "Candidates" tab

You can reject candidates from Candidates:

  1. Go to Candidates > Active in the sidebar

  2. Find the candidate by scrolling, using Filters or searching

    1. Click the search icon 🔍 in the top right

    2. Or press Command + F (Mac) or Ctrl + F (Windows) to search

  3. Tick the checkbox next to one or several candidates

  4. Click Reject in the toolbar at the bottom

If a candidate has several applications, rejecting them from the Candidates tab rejects all of their active applications at once. Applications already at the Hired stage aren't affected, which is indicated before the rejection is sent. If you want to reject one specific application, do it from that Job's pipeline or from the candidate's profile instead (see below).


After rejecting a candidate, you can still view their application or applications.

To see all rejected candidates across all of your openings:

  • Go to the Candidates > All sub-tab. All brings together active, rejected and hired candidates as well as those in the Talent Pool. Talent Pool candidates are kept for future openings.

  • To see only rejected candidates here, use the Recruitment status filter and select Rejected

Rejecting from a Job's pipeline

To reject a candidate directly from a Job's pipeline:

  1. Go to the Jobs > Active tab and select a Job

  2. This opens the Applications sub-tab

  3. Find the candidate manually or through the search bar in the top right

  4. Choose your preferred view:

    • Cards view (default): each application is shown as a card. Find the candidate's card and click the Reject candidate icon that appears in the top right when you hover over the card

    • Table view: click the settings icon to switch to Table view, then find the candidate. Click the Reject candidate icon that appears at the end of the row when you hover over it

  5. You can also select several applications with the checkboxes and click Reject in the toolbar at the bottom
    ​

Use the filters to narrow down your candidate list, or search directly (Command + F or Ctrl + F) for the candidate you want to reject.

Rejecting a candidate from a specific Job's pipeline only affects that application. The candidate's other applications aren't affected, even if you perform a bulk rejection from this view.

After rejecting a candidate, you can still view their application. Use the Active/Rejected selector at the top to switch between the active and rejected applications in your pipeline.

  • In Cards view, the candidate's card stays at the stage where they were rejected (e.g. phone screening, interview)

  • In Table view, the Stage column shows the stage they were at when they were rejected

This makes it easy to see at which point in the process the candidate dropped out.

Applications rejected automatically by your screening criteria appear with the Application sent status. This is also the case for candidates who don't meet the conditions of a knockout question.

Rejecting from the candidate's profile

You can also reject a candidate directly from their profile:

  1. Click the candidate's name to open their profile

  2. In the right-hand panel, find the Job you want to reject the candidate for

  3. Click the Reject candidate icon next to the Job and confirm the rejection

For candidates who have applied to several Jobs, the rejection is specific to that Job and doesn't affect their status on the other applications.

Reviewing and customising the rejection

When you reject a candidate, JOIN lets you choose how to communicate that rejection. You can use a predefined email template, write a custom message or decide not to notify the candidate at all.

1. Rejecting with an email

When you select one or several candidates and click Reject from the toolbar at the bottom of the screen (in Cards view, in Table view or from the Candidates tab):

  • Use the drop-down menu to select a template from your saved rejection templates

  • Hover over the template name to preview its content

  • Choose a sender address from the available options

  • Click Send and reject, or choose Reject without notification

You can't edit the email content with this method. All selected candidates receive the same message.

2. Rejecting with a custom message

When you click Reject for a specific candidate:

  • The rejection email window opens in the bottom right

  • You can edit the Subject and the content of the message

  • Use Templates if you want to start from a saved template

  • Choose when to send the message: Send and reject, Send later, or a custom date and time

  • You can also choose Reject without notification

3. Rejecting without notifying the candidate

To change a candidate's status without sending an email, select Reject without notification. We recommend letting candidates know as soon as possible.

Rejection emails are sent immediately after you click Send and reject. Automatic rejections from Knockout questions are handled separately and sent the following morning.

Bulk rejection

To reject several candidates at once:

  1. Tick the checkboxes next to the candidates

  2. Click Reject in the toolbar at the bottom

  3. Choose a template, or select Reject without notification

  4. Click Send and reject

You can't customise emails individually in bulk mode. The same template or the same method applies to all selected candidates.

Undoing a rejection

If you rejected a candidate by mistake, use Undo rejection. The candidate then returns to the stage they were at before the rejection.

You can undo a rejection from several views:

  • Cards view: click the Undo rejection icon on the candidate's card.

  • Table view: go to Applications > Rejected, find the candidate, then click the arrow icon in the Actions column

  • Confirmation notification: right after the rejection, a message appears at the bottom of the screen. Click Undo changes to revert

No email and no notification is sent when you undo a rejection. The candidate simply returns to their last stage in the pipeline.

Deleting candidates

Deleting a candidate is permanent. Unlike a rejection, it doesn't just close an application: it erases the candidate's entire profile, along with all of their applications, emails, scorecards and documents. This action can't be undone.

⚠️ Deleting a candidate can't be undone. If you only want to take them out of a Job while keeping their data, reject the application instead.

Deleting from the candidate's profile

  1. Open the candidate's profile

  2. Click ...More in the top right

  3. Select Delete candidate

  4. Tick the I confirm I want to permanently delete this candidate checkbox

  5. Click Delete candidate to confirm

Deleting from the "Candidates" tab

You can also delete one or several candidates in one go:

  1. Go to the Candidates tab

  2. Tick the checkbox next to one or several candidates to delete

  3. Click ... in the toolbar at the bottom

  4. Select Delete candidates

  5. Tick the confirmation checkbox and click Delete candidates to confirm

If the candidate you're deleting is blocked, the confirmation dialog is slightly different, and the block itself is not removed. See Deleting a blocked candidate below.

Blocking a candidate

For candidates who have shown misconduct, fraudulent behaviour or spam, rejecting or deleting them once isn't always enough — they can easily apply again. Blocking a candidate prevents this permanently, without them being notified.

Only system administrators can block or unblock candidates, and this is only possible from the candidate's profile. If you don't see the Block candidate option, you don't have this permission.

Blocking a candidate:

  • Removes them from your Talent Pool, if they had been added to it

  • Automatically rejects all of their open applications with your default rejection template on the next working day, and does the same for any future application using the same email address, without triggering a "new application" notification — so the candidate never knows they have been blocked

  • Cancels all interviews scheduled with them

  • Stops their messages from reaching your JOIN inbox, and disables Reply and Forward on any existing message thread with them (they can keep sending messages, you simply won't see them and won't be able to reply)

  • Switches their candidate profile to read-only: you can still delete the profile, unblock them or add notes or tags, but all other actions are disabled

Blocking a candidate

  1. Open the candidate's profile

  2. Click ...More in the top right

  3. Select Block candidate

  4. Choose a Reason: Candidate misconduct, Fraudulent behaviour, Spam or Other

  5. If you choose Other, add more details. For the other reasons, this is optional.

  6. Click Block candidate to confirm

Any details you add are only visible internally, to your team. The candidate never sees a reason and is never informed that they have been blocked.

Once blocked, a banner appears at the top of the candidate's profile, showing who blocked them, when and why. If additional details were added, a More info link opens the full entry in the activity log.

If you try to manually add or import a candidate whose email address is already blocked, JOIN warns you before you continue. You can cancel or unblock the candidate to carry on with the addition.

Unblocking a candidate

Unblocking a candidate restores full access to their profile.

This stops the automatic rejections and you can resume any activity as normal, such as sending or receiving emails, scheduling interviews, and so on.

To unblock a candidate:

  1. Open the candidate's profile

  2. Click ...More and select Unblock candidate, or use the Unblock candidate link in the block banner

  3. Click Unblock candidate to confirm

Unblocking a candidate:

  • Stops the automatic rejection of their future applications, which will appear in your pipeline as normal again

  • Resumes the forwarding of their messages to your inbox

  • Removes the read-only restriction from their profile

Deleting a blocked candidate

Deleting a blocked candidate's profile doesn't lift the block, even if the candidate withdraws their consent to their data being kept. The block is tied to their email address, not to their profile, so it stays active even after their data is deleted. If they apply again later, JOIN creates a new profile that is already blocked — so a block can't be lifted by deleting the profile or withdrawing consent.

You can delete a blocked candidate's profile like any other candidate's, see Deleting candidates above. The confirmation dialog specifies that the block will remain active afterwards.

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