Job applicant kanban board
The drag-and-drop board for moving candidates through a job. Columns are statuses; cards are candidates; the applicant menu launches every action — interviews, emails, decisions, sharing.
The Applicants kanban is the central screen for moving candidates through a job. Each column is a status in your workflow (default or custom). Cards represent candidates. You drag, you sort, you filter, you bulk-select — and from each card you launch all the actions documented in the rest of this section.
Columns and statuses
Columns reflect the workflow stages configured for your organization. Stage names, order, and count vary by tenant — your admin sets them in Settings. Each column shows a count of candidates currently in that status.
What a card shows
Each card includes: name, photo, city, star rating, tags, recent activity date, and the applicant menu. The menu is the launch point for every action covered in this section — schedule interview, send email/SMS/survey, decline, deny, hire, tag, share (with a colleague, a client contact or an email address).
The comment count. In the board’s Vertical and Horizontal layouts (switcher above the board, on the right), every card shows a bubble followed by the number of the candidate’s comments — always, 0 included. On Vertical, it sits at the end of the status line, after the star rating, whether or not the card has tags; on Horizontal, it has its own column, just before the application date. Only active comments are counted: archived comments are not, so the number can be lower than the count on the comments’ All chip, which includes them. Clicking the number opens the application drawer, like the rest of the card. The Legacy layout does not show this number.
The star rating on Vertical. On a Vertical card, the rating is read-only — a star followed by the number (★ 4). It cannot be changed from the card: click the card to open the application drawer and change it there. On Horizontal, the stars stay editable right on the row.
When the mobility the candidate declared does not fit the job, a small amber chip appears next to the status — see The mobility hint below.
The mobility hint
Now that the candidate profile has a Mobility section (where they can work) and the job a Work mode, the kanban compares the two for every card. When they do not fit, an amber chip shows next to the status:
- “<city> ∉ regions” — the candidate declared regions and none of them matches the job’s city (or province). For example, a job in Québec for a candidate who only accepts Montréal and Laval.
- “remote only” — the candidate only accepts remote work and the job is On-site.
It is only a hint, never a block: the card drags, moves and opens exactly like any other. A relocation set to Open or Yes does not remove the chip — it is pointed out on hover so you can judge for yourself.
The hover says why. Hover the card: the popover adds up to four rows — Mobility (the accepted modes; only when that is the cause), Regions (the declared regions, with ✓ includes the job city when they fit), Job (the job’s city and work mode; — work modes do not overlap when applicable) and Relocation (with the candidate’s note in quotes). A candidate without mobility shows Mobility: not set — no hint shown.
When the chip never appears:
- the candidate has no mobility filled in;
- the job is Remote — including older jobs that still carry the Remote contract type rather than a work mode;
- the job has neither a city nor a work mode;
- the candidate’s regions include the job’s city or province (the comparison ignores case and accents).
Work modes trigger the chip in one case only — remote only against an on-site job. A Hybrid candidate on an On-site job, or a Remote-only candidate on a Hybrid job, is not flagged for their modes; only their regions can still be.
Drag-and-drop
Hold a card and drag it to a different column to change its status. The status updates immediately; no confirmation, no extra clicks. If you need to move several candidates at once, see Move applicant in workflow.
Filtering
The filter button at the top of the kanban opens a drawer with these filters:
- City — restrict to candidates in one city. The list of cities is auto-populated from the candidates on this job.
- Stars — operator (≥ / ≤ / =) plus a value (1–5). Useful for showing only top-rated candidates.
- Tags — operator (any / all) plus a list of tags. Filter to “all candidates tagged senior AND remote-ready”.
- Mobility — filters on the mobility declared in the candidate’s profile, like the City filter: the On-site, Hybrid and Remote chips keep candidates who accept at least one of the selected modes; the Region list (default All regions) only offers the regions declared by this job’s candidates and keeps those who declared it; the Fits this job chip keeps only cards without a mobility hint — candidates with no mobility filled in are hidden while it is on. See The mobility hint.
- Archive toggle — show archived candidates (default off). Archive happens when a candidate is moved into a terminal status or explicitly archived from the bulk-action bar.
Search
A search box at the top filters cards by candidate name. Type partial — “smi” finds Smith, Smyth, Smithson.
Sorting
The sort control changes the order of cards within each column. Default: most recent activity first. Other options: candidate name, application date.
Multi-select and bulk actions
Each card has a checkbox. Check several cards to unlock the bulk-action bar at the top — it shows a counter (“3 selected”) and exposes bulk versions of every per-card action: move, share, send email, send text, send survey, apply to another job, add tag, archive.
Archive
The selection toolbar includes an Archive action. Select one or more candidates, then click Archive — a confirmation dialog appears: “Are you sure you want to archive these application(s)? This operation can be reverted.” Confirming removes the candidate(s) from the active kanban view without deleting them.
Archived candidates are still visible by flipping the archive toggle on. Use it when a candidate is permanently off this job but you don’t want to lose history. Because the operation can be reverted, archiving is safer than deleting when you’re unsure.
Export to Excel
An export button at the top right exports kanban data to XLSX — three sheets covering applications, statuses, and candidate details. Useful for offline review or for sharing with stakeholders without giving them Nextal access.
Who can do what
| What you want to do | What you need |
|---|---|
| View the kanban | Read access to applications |
| Drag cards between columns | Edit access to applications |
| Use bulk actions | Same — plus any specific permission for the action (e.g. send email permission for bulk-send) |
| Export to Excel | Read access |
Tips
- Lean on filter + bulk select. Filter to “everyone tagged ‘interview-ready’” then bulk-schedule a phone interview — saves a lot of clicks.
- Multi-select is your friend for repetitive moves. Especially during the screening pass: select the strong applications, bulk-move them to Phone Screen in one action.
- The export is for stakeholders, not for analytics — for charts, use the Reports tab.
- Each per-card action has its own deep page in this section — open the applicant menu to see all the options.