Do not contact
Shipping todayA blacklisted candidate stays out of reach until someone lifts the flag
A do-not-contact decision only works if the system enforces it at the moment somebody is about to make contact, not if it lives in a note that one recruiter remembers.
The candidate blacklist in Surhires marks a candidate with one of four reasons: repeated backouts, fraud or misrepresentation, performance, or other. While the flag stands, the candidate cannot be called or messaged from the system on any channel, one at a time or in bulk, and AI screening calls skip them. A banner on the record shows the reason to anyone who opens it.
By Surhires Editorial · Published · Reviewed
In the product: CandidateBlacklistBanner.tsx, CandidateCommsActions.tsx (isCandidateContactBlocked), CandidateBulkCommsActions.tsx and AutoShortlistSettings.tsx
What a blacklist is legitimately for
There is a narrow set of reasons an agency genuinely needs to stop contacting somebody. A candidate has backed out of offers more than once and a second client has already been embarrassed by it. A candidate misrepresented their experience or their documents. A candidate placed with a client was let go for performance and the client has asked you not to put them forward again. Each of those is a fact about something that happened, and each is worth recording so that it survives the recruiter who learned it leaving the desk.
The illegitimate version is the one everybody in the trade has seen: an informal list of people somebody found difficult, kept in a spreadsheet or in a senior recruiter's memory, with no reason written down and no way for anyone else to see why a name keeps being skipped. That list is a liability. A flag on the record with a stated reason is a very different object, because anybody who opens the record can see what it says and question it.
The same logic applies to candidates who simply want to be left alone. A person who has asked not to be contacted again should not receive a sequence six months later because a different recruiter found them in a search. The blacklist is the one place in the system where that request is enforced rather than remembered.
Four reasons, chosen from a fixed list
A candidate is blacklisted with one of four reasons: repeated backouts, fraud or misrepresentation, performance, or other. The list is fixed rather than free text for the same reason dispositions are. Fixed reasons can be counted and reported on, and a desk that blacklists far more candidates than any other becomes visible as a pattern instead of staying invisible as a habit.
Other exists because real life does not fit four boxes, but it is the reason worth reviewing most often. If most of your entries end up there, the categories are not describing what your team actually uses the flag for, and that is worth a conversation before it becomes an informal list under a different name.
- Repeated backouts
- Fraud or misrepresentation
- Performance
- Other
The block applies on every channel, not only on the record
A register nobody enforces changes nothing. When a candidate is blacklisted, the actions that reach them disappear from the candidate record: there is no call button and no message option on any channel while the flag stands. The check runs before any contact action is offered, so a recruiter who has never seen the banner still cannot make the call.
Bulk actions respect the flag too. Adding four hundred candidates to a sequence or a broadcast excludes blacklisted records and tells you how many were excluded, because a bulk send is exactly where an informal list fails and a candidate who should never hear from you again receives a campaign.
The block is deliberately firm-wide. A blacklisted candidate is out of reach for every requisition on your desk, not only the client whose experience caused the flag. That is the right default for the reasons the list exists for, and it is why the flag should be used for real reasons rather than as a way of parking a candidate one client did not like.
AI screening calls skip blacklisted candidates
The shortlist can hand candidates to automated screening calls. A blacklisted candidate is always skipped by those calls, whatever their score, so turning on automation never re-opens contact that a person closed on purpose.
This matters most in exactly the situation automation creates: a large applicant pool, a threshold score and a job that dials whoever clears it. Without the check, the one candidate your team agreed never to call again is the one most likely to be called at nine in the evening by a system that has never heard of them.
The banner explains the flag to whoever opens the record
A blacklisted candidate's record carries a banner showing that the flag is set and the reason it was set for. A recruiter who searches the database and finds a strong-looking profile learns why the name keeps being passed over before they spend an afternoon on it, rather than after they have already submitted the candidate to a client.
Lifting the flag restores normal contact. A candidate who backed out twice three years ago may be exactly right today, and the decision to reopen contact is a deliberate one made on the record rather than an accident.
What this must never be used for
The blacklist must never be used to exclude somebody on the basis of a protected characteristic, or on a proxy for one. Race, sex, age, disability, religion, pregnancy, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status and the equivalent categories in every market you operate in are not reasons, and a flag that gestures at one is a serious problem however it is worded.
Nor is it a place for a general opinion about a candidate. Difficult, not a culture fit and would not recommend are judgements without evidence. If a candidate genuinely failed a defined requirement, record the requirement they failed on the record itself, and keep the flag for the reasons in the list.
Software cannot make misuse impossible, and we would rather say that than claim otherwise. A fixed reason list and a visible banner make a flag something that can be found, questioned and lifted, which is the difference between a documented restriction and an undocumented one.
What the blacklist does not do today
We would rather list the gaps than let a buyer discover them. The flag is firm-wide: there is no per-client or per-client-group scope today, so a restriction one client asked for applies to every role on your desk. Entries do not carry a review date or an automatic expiry, so an off-limits agreement tied to a contract end date has to be lifted by a person when it ends. There is no separate evidence attachment on the flag itself and no standalone export of the list.
The blacklist is also not a deletion and not a marketing suppression list. A blacklisted candidate still has a record, a history and a set of data rights, and a request to stop contacting somebody is not by itself a request to erase them. Channel-level unsubscribe handling after a STOP keyword is a separate mechanism, and the erasure workflow handles a request to be forgotten.
What you get
Fixed reason list
Repeated backouts, fraud or misrepresentation, performance, or other.
Record banner
Shown on the candidate record with the reason, before anyone makes contact.
All-channel block
No call or message actions are offered for a blacklisted candidate on any channel.
Bulk-send guard
Sequences and broadcasts exclude blacklisted candidates and report how many were excluded.
Screening-call skip
Automated AI screening calls always skip a blacklisted candidate, whatever the score.
Firm-wide by design
A flag applies across every requisition on your desk until a person lifts it.
Deliberate reversal
Lifting the flag restores normal contact, as a decision taken on the record.
Separate from suppression
Channel-level unsubscribe handling stays distinct from a blacklist flag.
Checked before contact
The block is evaluated before any contact action is offered, not after a message is drafted.
Excluded count on bulk sends
A bulk action states how many blacklisted candidates it left out, so nothing is silently dropped.
Record kept intact
Blacklisting never deletes the candidate; history and data rights stay on the record.
Shortlist-safe automation
A candidate above your shortlist threshold is still never called while the flag stands.
Questions recruiters ask
Is keeping a blacklist even acceptable?
For narrow, evidenced reasons, yes: repeated backouts, fraud or misrepresentation, a performance issue a client raised, or a candidate who has asked not to be contacted. It is not acceptable as an informal list of people somebody found difficult. That is why every flag carries a reason from a fixed list and a banner anybody opening the record can read.
Can a blacklisted candidate still be messaged by accident?
Not from the system. While the flag stands, the call and message actions are not offered on the candidate record for any channel, and bulk sends exclude the candidate and tell you how many records were left out. Someone could still ring the candidate from a personal phone, which is why the reason is shown on the banner rather than hidden.
Do AI screening calls respect the blacklist?
Yes. A blacklisted candidate is always skipped by automated screening calls, even if their application scores above your shortlist threshold. Switching on automation never reopens contact that a person closed on purpose.
Can we blacklist a candidate for one client only?
Not today. The flag is firm-wide, so it applies to every requisition on your desk. If a restriction really belongs to one client, record it on the candidate for that client's roles and keep the blacklist for reasons that apply everywhere. Per-client scope is a known gap rather than a hidden one.
Do blacklist entries expire?
No. A flag stays until a person lifts it; there is no review date or automatic expiry on the entry. For a contractual off-limits period, note the end date on the record and lift the flag when the obligation ends.
Is this the same as an unsubscribe list?
No. Communication suppression works at the channel level after an unsubscribe or a STOP keyword and stops one kind of message. A blacklist flag is a decision about the relationship, recorded with a reason, and it blocks contact on every channel. Keeping them separate is what lets you explain which one applied.
Can a candidate find out they are on the list?
The flag is part of the record you hold about them, so it falls within a subject access request along with everything else. That is a good reason to use the fixed reasons honestly and to keep opinions off the record, which is the standard the fixed list is there to enforce.
See it against your own reqs
Bring one live role and three resumes. In twenty minutes you will see the match scores, the shortlist and the placement invoice that comes out the other end.