Hiring in Slack and ClickUp, message variables, and candidate lists

01Your pipelines, in Slack and ClickUp#

Hiring decisions get discussed where the team already talks, and until now that meant somebody copying updates out of Hivemind by hand. Connect Slack or ClickUp once for the whole company and the updates arrive on their own.

In Slack, every active pipeline gets its own private channel named after it, and teammates whose Slack email matches their Hivemind account are invited automatically. Activity is grouped into one digest a minute rather than a message per event: who applied, who moved stage, who finished, and who needs attention. When a pipeline is switched off, its channel is archived. Separately, each person gets a direct message for the work assigned to them, such as a review, an interview to schedule, a call, a mention or a reply.

In ClickUp, each live pipeline gets a channel in ClickUp Chat that carries only the moments that need a person: a manual review, an offer that needs signing, an interview to book, or an offer that came back with changes. Each message links straight to the task in Hivemind, and once the task is resolved the message updates itself to show the outcome, so the channel reads as a record of what was decided rather than a list of stale requests.

Two things worth knowing before you connect ClickUp: its channels are visible to the members of your ClickUp workspace, and they use ClickUp Chat, so Chat needs to be available on your ClickUp plan. We recommend connecting with a dedicated ClickUp account rather than your own.

1. 1Open Settings → Apps & Integrations and pick Slack or ClickUp under Messaging.
2. 2Choose Connect and approve access for your workspace.
3. 3Activate a pipeline, or keep the ones already live, and its channel is created for you.

02Write it once, use it in every message#

The same few values show up in almost every message you send: a booking link, a company address, a signature line. Changing one used to mean editing every outreach step and pipeline email that contained it.

Message variables fix that. Define a value once, such as calendar_link, and insert it anywhere as {calendar_link}. Company variables work in outreach steps and in pipeline emails and texts, so updating the value updates every message that uses it. A variable can carry a fallback after a pipe, like {city|your area}, for leads where there is nothing to fill in. Inside a message, Ctrl+/ (⌘/ on Mac) opens the variable picker without leaving the keyboard.

Outreach goes a step further. When you import prospects from a CSV, any column that is not a contact field becomes a variable for each lead, so a column of portfolio links or referral names can go straight into the message. Before a campaign launches, Hivemind checks every step: a token that is not a real variable blocks the launch instead of going out as literal text, and you are told how many leads are missing a value so you can decide whether the fallback is good enough.

03Keep the candidates you care about in lists#

Not every group of candidates maps to a pipeline. A shortlist for the hiring manager, the people you want to revisit next quarter, the strongest applicants across three roles: until now those lived in a spreadsheet or someone's head.

Candidate lists give them a place in Hivemind. Create a list, then add people from the candidate table, one row at a time or as a bulk action, or from the actions menu on a candidate's profile. Inside a list you can add everyone matching a search, up to 2,000 at a time, and candidates already on the list are left out of the picker so nothing is added twice.

A list only organises. Removing someone takes them off the list and nothing else, and deleting a list never deletes the candidates on it.

04Add a candidate at any stage#

A pipeline used to start with an application. That does not fit a referral you already spoke to, a candidate who applied by email, or someone from one role who is a better fit for another.

Now you can add a candidate yourself and choose the stage they enter at. Pick the pipeline, fill in their details, then pick the entry stage. Every stage in the picker says what will happen the moment they land: runs immediately, waits for the candidate, waits for you, or runs the pipeline from the top. That label matters, because a stage that runs immediately really runs, so dropping someone on an email step sends that email.

To move someone across roles, copy them to another pipeline instead. The original record stays exactly where it was, the new record reuses their resume, and you can pull answers across from the original application. Candidates added or copied this way carry a Manual or Copied badge in the table, so you can always tell how they got there.

05Every integration in one directory#

Integrations had grown into a long settings page, and finding the one you needed meant scrolling past the ones you did not.

Apps & Integrations is now a directory. Search by name, or browse by category: calendar and meetings, messaging, ATS, AI, analytics and developer tools. What you have connected sits above what is available, each app opens its settings in a side panel, and a connection that needs attention says so on its tile and in a banner at the top with a fix button.

Connecting an AI assistant is one short guide now, the same for every app, and the apps you have authorised are listed under Developer. Personal calendar connections also became private: a teammate can see that you can host a Google Meet or Zoom interview, but no longer your account details.

06Compare and shortlist candidates from your AI assistant#

The Hivemind MCP server already let an AI assistant read your pipelines and results. Choosing between candidates still meant opening each profile and building the comparison yourself.

Your assistant can now search candidates across your workspace, read up to ten of them in depth, and compare between two and ten side by side. When you are happy with the result, ask it to save the shortlist: it confirms with you first, then saves the candidates to a list you will find under Candidate Lists in Hivemind, ready for the rest of the team.

1. 1Connect your AI assistant from Settings → Apps & Integrations, using the How to connect guide.
2. 2Ask it to find and compare candidates for the role you are hiring for.
3. 3Confirm the shortlist when it asks, then open it under Candidate Lists.