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Workable Zapier integrationAutomate Workable with Zapier.

The Workable Zapier integration offers 3 triggers, 5 actions and 3 searches. Zapier reacts to new, moved and disqualified candidates, then adds candidates, comments, tags, stage moves and requisitions. Here is what each does, what it costs and where it trips.

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Overview

What the Workable Zapier integration does for your hiring

Connecting Workable to Zapier lets candidate events in your applicant tracking system set off work in other apps, and lets other apps add candidates or move them along, with no code. Zapier sees new candidates, stage moves and disqualifications, and can create, comment, tag, move and open requisitions.

Three results come up in most recruiting teams.

Referrals and event leads land in the pipeline. A referral form or a career-fair sign-up sheet feeds Create Candidate, so the person shows up under the right job without a recruiter retyping anything.

A silver-medal pool that builds itself. When New Disqualified Candidate fires, the Zap adds a tag with Add Tag to Candidate, and strong runners-up are easy to find for the next opening.

Interviewers get context on time. Updated Candidate Stage is instant, so a move to the interview stage can post a note through Add Comment Candidate, or alert the panel in another app, right away.

Two of the three triggers are instant, which is good news on the free plan. The exception is New Disqualified Candidate, which waits for Zapier's next check.

What Zapier does not do here: it cannot delete a candidate, edit their details after creation, or close a job. If those matter, the Workable n8n integration covers the same app on n8n, and n8n vs Zapier sets the two side by side.

Vocabulary

Zapier words you will meet on this page

Eight terms in plain English, so the notes below make sense on first read.

Zap
The automation you build on Zapier: one trigger, then one or more actions that run every time the trigger event happens.
Trigger
The event that starts the Zap. In Workable: a new candidate, a stage move or a disqualification.
Action
What the Zap does once it has started: the step that creates, moves, tags or comments for you.
Task
The unit Zapier bills: one action your Zap completes successfully. Your plan's allowance counts those.
Polling trigger
A trigger Zapier checks on a timer, keeping only what it has not seen yet. How often depends on your plan.
Instant trigger
A trigger the app reports itself, the moment it happens, with no wait for a check, whatever the plan.
Filter
A step that lets the Zap go on only when what arrived meets your condition, and stops it otherwise.
Search step
A step that looks up something that already exists, such as a candidate or a job, so later steps can use it.
Cost

What a Workable Zap really costs

Zapier bills tasks: each action that succeeds is one. The Workable trigger, and every check Zapier makes, cost nothing.

  • Trigger and checksFree
  • Each successful action1 task
  • Failed actionNot counted
  • Free plan100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps
  • Filter or searchMakes the Zap multi-step, paid plan

Workable is not a premium app, so it runs on the free plan: 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps, one trigger and one action. A filter, a search such as Find Candidate, or a second action makes the Zap multi-step, which needs a paid plan. An action that fails is not counted. The one polling trigger follows the grid below; the two instant triggers fire straight away on every plan, which keeps a free setup quick.

Connect

Connect Workable to Zapier in three steps

  1. 01

    Open the connection dialog

    From your Zapier account, open the Apps page and click + Add connection. Type Workable in the search box of the dialog and pick it from the results. It is listed by name.

  2. 02

    Sign in to Workable

    Click Add connection. Workable opens in a new tab: sign in with an account that can see the jobs and candidates your Zaps will read, and change the ones they will update.

  3. 03

    Grant access

    Allow Zapier to work with your Workable account. The connection is saved once, and from then on every Workable step, in every Zap, can reuse it. Nothing to redo for each new Zap.

First Zap

Your first Workable Zap: a talent pool from disqualified candidates

GoalEach candidate disqualified in Workable gets a talent-pool tag and a short comment, so recruiters can find them again for the next opening.

  1. 01

    Build: pick the trigger

    Create a Zap, choose Workable and New Disqualified Candidate, then pick your Account. It polls, so it checks on your plan's interval.

  2. 02

    Test the trigger

    Run the test: Zapier brings back the three most recent disqualified candidates, so you map from a real profile in the next steps.

  3. 03

    Add the tag

    Add Add Tag to Candidate, map the candidate, and type talent_pool in Tags: letters, numbers and underscores only, no spaces. Leave Overwrite Existing Tags? off.

  4. 04

    Add the comment

    Add Add Comment Candidate, map the same candidate, pick the Member shown as author, and write the note. A second action makes this a multi-step Zap, so a paid plan.

  5. 05

    Test and publish

    Test each action, check the profile in Workable, then click Publish. Candidates disqualified before that moment are not tagged.

Triggers

The 3 Workable triggers

3 events start a Zap when something happens in Workable, and 2 of them are instant: the app calls Zapier straight away, whatever your plan.

1

New Candidate

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a new candidate is created. Optionally, you can specify a specific job and stage to limit by.”

Starts the Zap as soon as a candidate is created in Workable. You can narrow it to one job, and to one stage of that job, so the Zap only hears about the roles you care about.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan
When to use it
a startup hiring engineers that wants each new applicant for the backend role posted to the hiring manager in another app right away.
Watch out
without the job and stage options, every candidate in the account sets the Zap off, and each run costs a task if it has an action.
2

New Disqualified Candidate

Polling trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a candidate is disqualified.”

Fires when a candidate is disqualified in the Workable account you choose. It is the only one of the three that waits for Zapier to come and check.

How it fires
Zapier goes and looks at regular intervals, and how often depends on your plan: every 15 minutes on the free one
When to use it
building a talent pool, or sending a candidate's details to a nurturing list once a recruiter has closed the door on this role.
Watch out
the Account setting is required, and on the free plan a disqualification can take up to 15 minutes to reach the Zap.
3

Updated Candidate Stage

Instant trigger

In Zapier“Triggers when a candidate moves to a new stage.”

Reacts each time a candidate moves to a new stage of the pipeline, whatever the stages of that job are called. It is the trigger that follows a candidate's progress rather than their arrival.

How it fires
the app tells Zapier the moment it happens, so the Zap starts right away, whatever your plan
When to use it
an HR team that wants onboarding to start in another app the moment someone reaches the last stage of your pipeline.
Watch out
never pair it with Move Candidate Stage in the same Zap without a filter, or each move restarts the Zap.
Actions

The 5 Workable actions, grouped by what they do

Workable gives you 5 actions. For each one: what it does for you, when to reach for it, and what to watch out for.

1

Add Comment Candidate

Action

In Zapier“Add a comment to a candidate”

Writes a comment on a candidate's profile, signed by the Workable Member you choose, and visible on the candidate's profile.

When to use it
attaching a scorecard summary or an assessment result coming from another app.
Watch out
the Member field is required; the comment appears under that person's name, not Zapier's.
2

Create Candidate

Action

In Zapier“Creates a new candidate in a Workable position.”

Adds a person to a Workable job from data arriving in the Zap: first name, last name, email and the job are required, plus the Sourced choice.

When to use it
pulling referrals or career-fair contacts into the right job.
Watch out
set Sourced to No and Workable treats them as if they applied, so each one receives a "Thank you for applying" email.
3

Move Candidate Stage

Action

In Zapier“Move a candidate to a selected stage”

Pushes a candidate to the stage you choose. You pick the job, then the candidate, then a stage from that job's own list, and the Member credited with the move.

When to use it
moving someone to the assessment stage once they finish a test in another tool.
Watch out
the stages offered depend on the job selected, so set the job first.
4

Create Requisition

Action

In Zapier“Create a new requisition.”

Opens a requisition, the internal request for a hire, against a job. It asks for a Code, the hiring manager, an owner, a reason and a Plan Date.

When to use it
turning an approved headcount request from another tool into a Workable requisition.
Watch out
the Code must be unique, and Plan Date expects the YYYY-MM-DD format for the month the new hire should start.
5

Add Tag to Candidate

Action

In Zapier“Adds one or more tags to a selected Candidate in Workable.”

Puts one or more tags on a candidate, separated by commas, to make them easy to filter later in Workable.

When to use it
marking where a candidate came from, or flagging strong runners-up for a talent pool.
Watch out
tags accept letters, numbers and underscores only, and Overwrite Existing Tags? set to Yes erases the tags already there.
Searches

The 3 Workable searches, and their settings

3 search steps look for data that already exists in Workable, so a later step can use it.

A search step looks inside Workable for a candidate or a job that already exists and hands it to the next steps. Like any extra step, it makes the Zap multi-step. Searches sit at the bottom of the Action event list, under SEARCH.

1

Find Candidate

SearchFind or create

In Zapier“Find a candidate in your Workable account.”

Looks up a candidate across your Workable account by their email address, then passes the profile on.

When to use it
checking whether a referral already exists before adding them. Tick the create box and the same search becomes Find or Create Candidate, which adds the person only when the email is unknown.
Watch out
Candidate E-Mail is required, so the step needs an email from an earlier step.
2

Find Candidate in Job

Search

In Zapier“Find a candidate in your Workable account in a specific job.”

Searches for a candidate by email inside one specific job, rather than across the whole account.

When to use it
finding out whether someone who just applied for one role is already in the pipeline of another.
Watch out
pick the Account first, or the Job list stays out of reach.
3

Find Job

Search

In Zapier“Finds a published or closed job in your account by title.”

Finds a published or closed job by its title and returns the best match. Case does not matter.

When to use it
when another app only knows a role by name, and the next step needs the Workable job.
Watch out
it returns the best match, so two similar titles can mix up; keep job names distinct.

The three settings every search exposes

  1. Successful if no search results are found?
    Left on its default, a search that finds nothing stops the Zap there, and the steps that depended on it are skipped. Switched on, the Zap carries on empty-handed.
  2. Create X if it doesn't exist yet?
    Ticked on Find Candidate, it becomes Find or Create Candidate: the setting above disappears and Zapier asks for the fields needed to create the candidate.
  3. If multiple search results are found?
    Three ways out when several items match: keep the first one, which is the default, stop the Zap, or hand all of them on at once.
When it breaks

When a Workable Zap breaks

Zapier attaches no help article to Workable and lists no app-specific limit, so the traps below are Zapier's general ones, applied to how these candidate steps behave.

None of these are bugs, and each one is cheaper to plan for than to find in your task count. If a Zap still misbehaves, Zapier troubleshooting is the next stop.

  • Stage moves that chase each other

    Updated Candidate Stage with Move Candidate Stage in the same Zap restarts it with every move it makes, and burns through your task count fast.

  • Earlier candidates are skipped

    A Zap only reacts to what happens after you publish it. Candidates already in Workable are not picked up; moving that backlog is a separate job.

  • A bulk import can be held back

    If a large batch of candidates arrives at once, after an import or a migration, Zapier's flood protection can hold it back.

  • The same candidate fires once

    On the polling New Disqualified Candidate trigger, Zapier keeps track of what it has seen, so one disqualification starts the Zap only once.
Need help

Need help automating Workable with Zapier?

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FAQ

Workable Zapier integration: frequent questions

01Is the Workable Zapier integration free?
Yes, it works on Zapier's free plan, since Workable is not a premium app. That plan gives you 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps: one Workable trigger and one action. A filter, a search such as Find Candidate, or a second action turns the Zap into a multi-step one, which needs a paid plan. A simple New Candidate then Add Tag to Candidate Zap fits on the free plan.
02How many tasks does a Workable Zap use?
One task per action that succeeds. The trigger never costs anything, and neither do Zapier's checks on the polling trigger, however often they happen. A Zap that tags each new candidate uses one task per candidate; one that tags and comments uses two. An action that fails is not counted. On a busy job, it is worth narrowing New Candidate to one job so you do not pay for every applicant in the account.
03Is Workable on Zapier real time?
Mostly, yes. New Candidate and Updated Candidate Stage are instant: Workable tells Zapier the moment a candidate is created or moved, whatever your plan. New Disqualified Candidate is a polling trigger, checked every 15 minutes on Free, every 2 on Professional and every minute on Team and Enterprise. On paid plans you can also run a check by hand from the editor when testing. For most hiring Zaps, that means the instant triggers are the ones to build on.
04What does it take to connect Workable to Zapier?
A Workable account and a Zapier account. You add the connection from the Apps page with + Add connection, sign in to Workable in the tab that opens and grant access. Then prepare two things: almost every step asks you to pick the Account, and comments and stage moves ask for a Member who will appear as author, so that person must belong to the Workable account. Check this before you build, not after.
05Why did imported candidates get a thank-you email?
Because Create Candidate was set with Sourced on No. That choice tells Workable the people applied themselves, so each one receives a "Thank you for applying" email. To add referrals or event contacts quietly, set Sourced to Yes. The separate Disqualified option, which brings candidates in as already disqualified, only works for candidates imported as sourced. Check both settings on a test candidate before you publish the Zap. It saves an awkward email.
06What if the Workable operation you need is not on Zapier?
Then this integration does not offer it. Zapier's Workable app has three triggers, five actions and three searches: nothing to delete a candidate, edit their details after creation or close a job. One way around it is to combine what exists, for example a stage move plus a comment instead of an edit. For anything beyond that, compare the same app on n8n, whose own page lists what it covers. Start from that list before you build anything.
07Zapier, Make or n8n for Workable?
Judge on criteria rather than a ranking. Speed: on Zapier, two of the three Workable triggers are instant, so check whether the alternative matches that. Coverage: Zapier offers create, move, comment, tag and requisition actions plus three searches, but no delete or edit. Cost: Zapier counts one task per successful action, and the free plan stops at two-step Zaps, so a filter or a search already means a paid plan.
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