How do you submit a hiring request?
A manager submits a hiring request when they need a new employee. The request covers the position, the reason, the salary range, the start date and the candidate requirements. Usually a senior manager and an HR BP approve it, and then a recruiter takes it on. In Pachca, you can set this up in different ways: post requests from a template in a chat and approve them with reactions, or submit them through a bot with a form and buttons. A bot makes sense when there are lots of requests and every field has to be filled in. Below is the version with the Hiring bot. Walk through the manager’s side of it yourself.
Bot
Abby Knight claimed request #9 (Sales manager).
/start
To submit a hiring request, click the button.
Hiring
Bot
Abby Knight claimed request #9 (Sales manager).
/start
To submit a hiring request, click the button.
What to include in the request
- The position and department.
- The reason: a new position or a replacement for an employee.
- The salary range before НДФЛ.
- The location and workplace type: on-site, hybrid or remote.
- The date the new employee should start.
- Responsibilities and experience requirements.
- Who runs the interviews.
Why handle hiring requests in your team chat
Usually a manager emails the request out for approval. The email bounces between the director and the HR BP, and the manager has no idea whose inbox it’s stuck in. The recruiter gets a request that says “market rate” instead of a salary range and has to ask again. The manager only finds out the search has started when the recruiter reaches out.
In your team chat, the request and every decision on it live in one place, and the manager can see who approved it and who took it on.
- Requests don’t get lost. They’re all in the Hiring requests chat, where the head of recruiting sees requests from across the company. Six months later, you can find a request and the discussion around it by searching for the position.
- You can see who’s already approved it. The director and the HR BP respond to the request in Pachca, and the manager gets a notification about every decision.
- The manager knows the search has started. Right under the request, the recruiter marks that they’ve taken it on, and the manager gets a notification.
- Questions go in the thread under the request. The recruiter loops the manager into the thread with an @mention, even if the manager isn’t in the Hiring requests chat. The manager gets a notification, and the thread shows up in their Threads.
- With a bot, requests arrive complete. The bot’s form won’t submit until the required fields are filled in, so the recruiter doesn’t have to chase down the salary range and start date.
- The bot collects decisions with buttons. The bot sends the request to the sales director and then to the HR BP with “Approve” and “Reject” buttons, and to the recruiters with a “Claim” button. The bot messages the manager every time someone clicks.
How to set it up
You can run hiring requests in Pachca with or without a bot. Without one, the manager posts the request from a template in a chat, and the approvers and the recruiter respond with reactions. With a bot, the manager fills out a form, and the approvers and the recruiter click buttons, like in the demo above.
Without a bot: a template and reactions
- 1
Create a chat for requests
Click + next to search, select Chat and name it "Hiring requests." Add the managers who submit requests, the approvers and the recruiters. - 2
Pin a request template
Post a template in the chat with the fields from the "What to include in the request" list. Then right-click the message and select Pin. Managers copy the template, fill it in and post the request as a separate message. - 3
Approve requests with reactions
The director and the HR BP react to the request with ✅ once they've approved it. If a request is rejected, the reason goes in the thread under it. The recruiter who takes on the request reacts with 👀. Authors get a notification about every reaction to their message, so the manager sees every decision.
With a bot: a form and buttons
A bot in Pachca works like a workspace member: you can send it a direct message and add it to a chat. On its own, a bot doesn't reply. When someone messages it, clicks a button or submits a form, Pachca passes that event to a handler. A handler is a program that receives events from Pachca and replies on the bot's behalf. In this use case, the handler opens the form for the manager, sends the request to the approvers, posts the approved request in the Hiring requests chat and tells the manager about every decision.
There are three ways to build a handler. With no code, you can put it together in n8n, an automation tool. A ready-made workflow with a form and buttons is walked through in the time off use case: all that's left is to swap the form fields and add a second approval and a "Claim" button. You can also write the handler with an AI coding assistant, like Claude Code or Cursor with Pachca's skills. We cover how to work with an assistant in the "How do you build an AI agent without code?" use case. The third way: a developer writes the handler using the Pachca API docs.
- 1
Create a chat for requests
Click + next to search, select Chat and name it "Hiring requests." Add the recruiters and the head of recruiting. This is the chat where the bot will post approved requests. Then open the chat in the Pachca web app and copy the number at the end of the page URL. That's the chat ID, and the handler will need it. - 2
Create the bot
In the Integrations menu, choose Bots and click Create bot. Name it "Hiring" and make it public, so managers can find the bot in search and message it directly. Then copy the bot's token and user_id from the API tab: the handler will need them. - 3
Add the bot to the chat
Open the Hiring requests chat settings, click Add members, go to the Integrations tab and select Hiring. Without this, the bot can't post requests. Only a chat admin or the chat's creator can add a bot. - 4
Enter the handler's address
Open the Hiring bot settings and go to the Outgoing webhook tab. Paste your handler's URL into the Webhook URL field. Under event types, check New messages, Button clicks and Form submissions. Enter /start in the command filter: that way, this command is the only message to the bot that reaches the handler. - 5
Submit a test request
While you're testing, set yourself as the approver in the handler. Send the bot /start, and it'll reply with a "Fill out request" button. Fill out and submit the form, then click "Approve" in the bot's messages. The request should then show up in the Hiring requests chat. Click "Claim" under it and go back to your chat with the bot: you'll see a message that the request has been claimed.
With your team
Agree on who approves requests for each department and how soon a recruiter claims an approved request. The recruiter asks questions about the role in the thread under the request and loops the manager in with an @mention. Pachca has cross-chat threads, so you can loop in someone who isn't even in the chat. Once the role is filled, the recruiter posts about it in the thread.
Troubleshooting
- The bot doesn't respond to /start. Make sure the Outgoing webhook tab has your handler's address, the New messages event is checked and /start is in the command filter.
- The form doesn't open, or the buttons don't work. Most likely, the Button clicks event isn't checked in the bot's outgoing webhook.
- The form was submitted, but the approvers didn't get the request. Make sure the Form submissions event is checked in the bot's outgoing webhook.
- The request was approved, but it isn't in the chat. Make sure the bot has been added to the Hiring requests chat and the handler has that chat's ID.