3687635 - Delayed Emails to Disqualified Candidates in Recruiting – Configuration and Expected Behaviors

You want to understand how delayed emails to disqualified candidates work in Recruiting Management, how to configure the feature, and what are the possible system behaviors or issues when candidates move between statuses manually or through API.

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SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting Management

How to Implement

1. Go to Admin Center → Manage Recruiting Settings.
2. Locate Delay Emails to Disqualified Candidates (in hours).
3. Enter the number of hours that emails should be delayed.
4. Select a Job Owner user.
   • This user must stay active. If the Job Owner becomes inactive, the delay job will not run and emails will not be sent.
5. Save the configuration.

Important Notes

• If the option is enabled but no hours are provided, emails will not be sent.
• The delay applies to:
  • Manual disqualification
  • Auto-disqualification
  • API disqualification
• If a disqualified status does not have a candidate-facing email template, nothing will be sent even if the delay is configured.
• Interaction With “Don’t Send Emails Older Than (in days)”:
  • Delay = 24 hours
  • Don’t send emails older than = 1 day
  • If the job fails temporarily, the email may be skipped because it surpassed the “older than X days” limit.

How the Job Works (Quartz Job)

• Enabling the delay creates a Quartz Job that runs every 30 minutes.
• The job checks for:
  • Candidates in a disqualified status
  • Candidates who have not yet received the disqualification email
  • Candidates whose disqualification happened “x” hours ago

If all conditions are met, the system sends the email tied to the candidate’s current disqualification status.

Best Practices When Updating the Configuration

Before modifying hours, days, or job owner:

1. Disable the Delay Emails feature.
2. Apply the changes.
3. Re-enable the feature.

API Disqualification Ignoring Delay (Old Behavior – Fixed) 

Previously, candidates moved via OData API to a disqualification status would receive the disqualification email immediately, ignoring the configured delay. As of January 16th, 2025, this behavior has been corrected. Now, API disqualified candidates now fully respect the delay configuration, same as manual UI actions.

Moving Between Disqualification Statuses (Behavior Scenarios) 

• Candidate moved to a disqualification status manually. 
  • RESULT: Receives email after 72 hours (delay job).
• Candidate disqualified. Within 72 hours, candidate moved back to a qualified (in-process) status.
  • RESULT: Email is not sent.
• Candidate moved from disqualified Status A to disqualified Status B before delay expires.
  •  RESULT:
    • Email for Status B will be sent after the remaining delay.
    • Email for Status A will not be sent.
  • NOTE: The delay does not reset because the candidate remains within the Disqualified category. 
• Delay timeframe for Status A has already passed. Candidate is then moved to Status B.
  • RESULT:
    • Email for Status A is sent immediately (because delay expired).
    • Delay resets, and email for Status B will be sent after another 72 hours.

Candidate Does Not Receive Any Email

Possible causes:

• No email template is tied to the current disqualification status.
• No email template is tied to the current disqualification status.
• Job Owner user became inactive.
• “Don’t send emails older than (in days)” is blocking emails due to overlap with delay hours.

Delay, Disqualified, Email, Disqualification Email, OData API, Status, Recruiting, Notifications, Quartz Job , KBA , LOD-SF-RCM-EML , Recruiting Emails and Notifications , LOD-SF-RCM-APP , Applicants and Job Applications , How To