.webp?dpl=dpl_2NXrXaCSAwnf35WUzyKNeu34kwSb)
Stages you define
Name the stages, order them, and keep a different pipeline for each role. The pipeline in Yardstick matches the process you actually run, not a fixed template.
A hiring pipeline shaped like your process.
Define the stages each role actually moves through, attach automation rules to them, and let the routine follow-through run on its own while your team makes the decisions.
Fixed stages force your process into someone else’s shape.
No two roles run the same hiring process. An executive search has stages a sales-rep pipeline never sees, and a high-volume role needs a short pipeline that moves fast. When the ATS dictates the stages, teams route around it: the real process lives in spreadsheets and Slack threads, and the pipeline view stops telling the truth.
In Yardstick the pipeline is yours to define. Each role gets the stages its process needs, in the order it needs them, so the pipeline view stays the one place where the state of every search is actually true.
Custom stages, with automation attached.
Automation rules on your stages
Attach automation rules to the stages you created, so the routine follow-through happens without someone remembering to do it.
People still make the calls
Automation moves the operational work along. Advancing or rejecting a candidate stays a human decision, and candidate email follows your approved templates and sequences.
That split is deliberate, and it is the same one Yardstick draws everywhere: automation and agents prepare the work, and humans approve it.
One pipeline per role, not per ATS.
A custom hiring pipeline earns its keep when roles differ. Three examples of the same account running three different processes.
A work-sample role
Add a take-home stage between the screen and the onsite, so the exercise has a real place in the pipeline instead of living in an email thread.
An executive search
Add reference and board-conversation stages at the end, where a sales-rep pipeline would already be done.
A high-volume role
Keep the pipeline short and let the screen-new-applicants-nightly agent prepare rejection drafts for your review, so the first stage does not silt up.
The stages carry evidence, not just status.
Most pipeline tools tell you where a candidate is. Yardstick is a structured-interview ATS, so the stages also tell you what you learned there: each role carries a job-specific interview plan, interviews produce scorecards, and by the final stage the team is comparing candidates on shared evidence instead of memory. That is what makes the pipeline worth shaping in the first place: every stage you add is a place where hiring evidence gets collected.
Your own agent can work the same pipeline. Through the yardstick CLI, public API, or MCP, a coding agent can inspect pipeline state, prepare actions, and draft updates, and it requests your approval before anything sensitive happens to a candidate.
Common questions about hiring pipelines.
Can I customize pipeline stages in Yardstick?
Yes. Pipeline stages are configurable: you define the stages, their order, and can run a different pipeline for each role. Custom stages and stage automations are available on every account.
What can hiring workflow automation do in Yardstick?
You attach automation rules to your pipeline stages so routine operational follow-through happens on its own. Decisions stay with people: automation never advances or rejects a candidate for you, and candidate email runs through templates and sequences a human has approved.
Can each role have its own pipeline?
Yes. A sales role, an engineering role, and an executive search can each run a pipeline shaped for that role, with the stages and automations that role needs.
How do interviews fit into the pipeline?
Yardstick is a structured-interview ATS, so the pipeline is not just a status board. Roles carry job-specific interview plans, interviews produce scorecards, and the pipeline tracks candidates through the stages where that evidence gets collected.
Can an agent work with my pipeline?
Yes. Your own coding agent (Claude Code, Codex, or similar) can operate Yardstick through the yardstick CLI, public API, or MCP: it can inspect pipeline state, prepare actions, and draft updates, and it requests your approval for sensitive actions like advancing or rejecting a candidate.
Do I keep my pipeline history if I switch from another ATS?
Yes. Yardstick's preview-first importer brings over candidates, jobs, and applications, including which candidate sat in which stage of which job. You approve a dry-run preview before anything is written.