A stage action is the only mechanism in Element that sends messages by itself. You configure it on a stage in the recruitment process.
Project stages — actions are configured on each one
When an action fires
You choose one of three moments:
when a candidate arrives at this stage — the most common case,
after a candidate is rejected — the rejection message,
on application — a response to an incoming submission.
What it can do
An action sends a message — email, SMS, or both. For each you set the subject, body, recipients and attachments.
An action can also send a Slack message to a channel or to selected people. See the article on the Slack integration.
The recipient does not have to be the candidate. You can send a message to people with access to the stage — that is how you build a notification telling a hiring manager someone is waiting for their opinion. There is also an explicit option not to send to the candidate.
Delay
Every action can carry a delay in days, hours or minutes. Useful when a rejection sent a second after the rejection itself looks too mechanical.
You always see a preview
When you move a candidate, the system shows a dialog with the messages about to go out. You can edit, delay or delete them — only then is anything sent.
Actions versus stage templates
Global stage templates only let you configure message sending. Additional action types, such as commissioning a test, are configured directly in a project.