Reject below-threshold candidates automatically and respectfully
Set a score threshold per role or organisation-wide, and Kaairo auto-rejects the moment a candidate's assessment completes — with a daily safety cap, a preview-impact tool to see who would be rejected before you flip the switch, and a customisable rejection email per assessment.
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What auto-rejection rules actually do
Threshold-driven, deterministic
Each rule has a single number: the score threshold. If a completed candidate's overall assessment score is below that threshold, Kaairo auto-rejects on completion. No AI judgement, no opaque ranking — just a number you set and can defend.
Org-level rule or per-assessment override
Set one organisation-wide rule and let it apply across every assessment, OR set a different threshold per assessment when a role demands a different bar. An optional 'allow assessment overrides' flag lets you keep the org default while permitting role-specific deviation.
Preview impact before turning it on
Before activating a rule, see exactly how many of your historical candidates would have been auto-rejected at the threshold you're considering. Move the slider, see the count change. No more 'I think this will affect ~10%' — you get the actual number.
The candidate-experience and time-saving win, in one
Below-bar candidates currently wait days or weeks for a rejection email — often without ever hearing back. Auto-rejection closes the loop the moment the assessment completes, frees recruiter time, and keeps the candidate's dignity intact.
Candidates hear back within minutes, not weeks
The single biggest candidate-experience complaint about hiring is silence after applying. Auto-rejection sends a respectful, customisable rejection email the moment the assessment completes — so candidates can move on to their next opportunity instead of waiting.
Recruiter time goes to viable candidates
Recruiters routinely spend hours per week reviewing assessments that are clearly below threshold. Auto-rejection removes that work so the team focuses only on candidates worth interviewing — the recruiter's actual job.
Daily safety cap built in
Auto-rejection includes a per-org daily cap. If an unusual influx of low-scoring candidates triggers the rule too many times in a day, further rejections pause automatically — protecting against a misconfigured threshold or a campaign that attracted a bad-fit audience.
Customisable rejection email per role
Set a default org-level rejection email and override it per assessment when a particular role needs a different tone — for example, a more technical close-out for senior engineering roles versus a warmer note for entry-level customer-service roles. Email templates ship with sensible defaults so you can enable the feature in minutes, not weeks.
Full audit trail on every rejected application
Every auto-rejected application records when it was rejected and which rule fired (auto_rejected_at and auto_rejection_rule_id columns on job_applications). If a candidate asks why they were rejected, or if compliance asks for documentation, the answer is one query away.
Reversible mistakes
Auto-rejection is enabled per rule with a single is_enabled flag. Disable the rule and future completions go back to manual review. Already-rejected candidates can be manually re-opened by a recruiter — auto-rejection sets the state, it does not delete the candidate.
Threshold to rule in four steps
Configure once per role or once for the whole organisation. Adjust as you learn.
Pick the scope
Org-level rule (one threshold across every assessment) or per-assessment rule (a specific threshold for a specific role). Exactly one scope per rule. If you set both, the per-assessment threshold wins when 'allow assessment overrides' is on.
Set the threshold (0–100)
Pick the score below which a candidate is auto-rejected. Kaairo rejects when Math.round(score) < threshold — so a threshold of 60 rejects anyone with a rounded score of 59 or below. The threshold is a single integer; what 'good enough' means is your judgement to make.
Preview impact
Before enabling, see how many of your historical candidates would have been auto-rejected at this threshold. Adjust the threshold up or down until the preview count matches your intent.
Customise the email and enable
Use the org default rejection email, or write a custom subject and body for this specific assessment. Flip is_enabled to true. From the next completed assessment onward, below-bar candidates are auto-rejected and emailed automatically — with the daily cap quietly protecting you from runaway misfires.
Automation, with the guardrails that should come with it
Auto-rejection is a powerful tool. Kaairo ships it with the safety mechanisms a responsible hiring team needs.
Owners and managers only
Auto-rejection rules can only be created, edited, or deleted by org owners and managers. Members do not have access. Combined with the Enterprise tier requirement, configuration is limited to senior hiring leadership.
One rule per scope, no stacking
A unique index enforces a single rule per organisation and a single rule per assessment. You cannot accidentally have two conflicting rules firing at the same time. Edit the rule; do not create competing ones.
Preview before enabling, audit after firing
Every threshold is previewable on historical data before activation. Every rejection is logged with the rule ID and timestamp on the candidate's application record. If compliance asks what happened, the answer is in the database.
System user attribution, never anonymous
When auto-rejection adds a note to the candidate's record, it is attributed to a dedicated system user (system+autoreject@kaairo.ai) that is permanently banned from login and cannot be a member of any organisation. No real user is impersonated; no note is anonymous.
Threshold is a number, not an opaque AI judgement
Kaairo's scoring engine produces the overall score; auto-rejection applies a single integer comparison. There is no model decision in the rejection logic itself — if a candidate questions the decision, the threshold and the score are auditable in plain terms.
Explore Related Solutions
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Frequently Asked Questions
What exactly triggers an auto-rejection?
When a candidate completes their assessment, Kaairo computes the overall score, rounds it to the nearest integer, and compares it to the threshold on the relevant rule (per-assessment if one exists and overrides are allowed, otherwise org-level). If the rounded score is below the threshold and the rule is enabled, the candidate is auto-rejected and the rejection email is sent.
Can I see how many candidates a threshold would have rejected before turning it on?
Yes. The preview-impact tool runs the proposed threshold against your historical completed candidates and shows how many would have been auto-rejected. Move the threshold up or down to find the level that matches your hiring bar.
What is the daily safety cap?
Auto-rejection enforces a per-organisation daily cap. If an unusually large number of auto-rejections fire in a single day — which usually indicates a misconfigured threshold or an unexpected campaign — further rejections pause automatically so your team can investigate. The cap protects against runaway misfires.
Can org-wide rules be overridden for specific roles?
Yes. The org-level rule has an 'allow assessment overrides' flag. When set to true, any rule defined on a specific assessment overrides the org default for that assessment. When set to false, the org-level rule applies uniformly across every assessment.
What does the rejection email look like?
Org-level rules use a default rejection email stored in the org email templates (template_key 'b2b.auto_reject') — you can edit the subject and body for your organisation. Per-assessment rules can optionally include their own subject (up to 200 characters) and body (up to 5000 characters), overriding the org default when set. All rejection emails go out through your configured email sender.
Can a recruiter manually un-reject a candidate?
Yes. Auto-rejection sets the application status; it does not delete the candidate. A recruiter with permission can re-open an auto-rejected application from the candidate view if the decision was wrong — for example, if the candidate's transcript shows something the score did not capture.
Is auto-rejection legally safe?
Auto-rejection compares a deterministic number (the rounded overall score) against a threshold you set. There is no model decision in the rejection logic itself. Every rejection is logged with the rule ID, the score, and the timestamp — auditable in plain terms. Local hiring law varies, so confirm with your legal team; the platform gives you the audit trail to defend the decision.
Which plan is auto-rejection available on?
Auto-rejection is available on the Enterprise and Enterprise+ plans. Starter and Professional plans receive scored results manually — recruiters review and decide.
See auto-rejection in action
Request a demo and we'll walk through the preview-impact tool, the daily-cap behaviour, and a custom rejection email — using a realistic candidate dataset.
Talk to us about your team
Share a few details about your org and what you're trying to solve. We'll follow up with a short call or an async walkthrough of how Kaairo can plug into your hiring, benchmarking, or L&D workflows.