You can control how applicants move through specific stages of your hiring process by setting permissions at the stage level. This lets you prevent a stage from being skipped, or restrict which team members can move applicants into or out of a stage — helpful for enforcing steps like background checks or manager sign-off before a candidate advances.
Configure permissions for a hiring stage
Go to the Admin View and proceed to Hiring Processes and select the hiring process you want to configure.
Select the stage you want to set permissions on (for example, Screening, VoiceAI Stage).
Open the Permissions tab that appears for the stage.
Turn on any of the following settings:
Disallow this stage to be skipped — applicants must pass through this stage in order; team members can't move an applicant past it to a later stage.
Only allow designated users or roles to move applicants into this stage — restricts who can advance an applicant into this stage.
Only allow designated users or roles to move applicants out of this stage — restricts who can move an applicant past this stage.
Select the specific users or roles allowed to perform the action, if applicable.
Click Save.
💡 Automations and Super Admin accounts are not affected by these restrictions — they can still move applicants through restricted stages.
⚠️ If a team member without the right permission tries to move an applicant into or out of a restricted stage, they'll see an error message (for example: "You don't have permission to move applicants to this stage") and the move will be blocked.
Learn how to add or edit the stages themselves in the Add and manage hiring stages article, or see the different stage types available in Explore the hiring stage types.