A Glossary of Core Make.com Automation Terminology for HR Professionals
In the fast-evolving landscape of human resources and recruiting, automation is no longer a luxury but a strategic imperative. Make.com (formerly Integromat) stands out as a powerful low-code platform for orchestrating complex workflows, capable of streamlining everything from candidate sourcing to onboarding. To effectively leverage this tool and build resilient HR automations, professionals must grasp its core terminology. This glossary demystifies key Make.com concepts, providing practical context for how these elements can transform your HR operations, save valuable time, and reduce human error.
Scenario
In Make.com, a Scenario is the fundamental automated workflow you create. It’s a sequence of modules designed to perform a specific task, triggered by an event or a schedule. For HR, a Scenario might be “New Applicant Process,” which automatically takes a submitted job application, parses the resume, adds the candidate to your CRM, and sends an automated acknowledgment email. Each Scenario is a complete, self-contained automation that executes a defined business process, eliminating manual steps and ensuring consistency across your recruitment and HR functions.
Module
A Module is a specific application or service within Make.com that performs an action. It’s the building block of any Scenario. For example, a “Google Sheets” module might add a new row of candidate data, a “Mailchimp” module could send an email campaign, or an “ATS” module could create a new job application record. Each Module interacts with a connected service, allowing you to seamlessly transfer data and automate actions across dozens of HR and business tools, turning disconnected processes into cohesive, automated workflows.
Webhook
A Webhook is a mechanism that allows applications to send real-time data to Make.com when a specific event occurs. It acts as an instant trigger for your Scenarios, making them highly responsive. In an HR context, a Webhook might be configured to listen for new form submissions (e.g., job applications, employee feedback forms, interview scheduling confirmations) from platforms like Typeform, Google Forms, or your ATS. When a new submission occurs, the Webhook instantly sends that data to Make.com, initiating your automation scenario without any delay or manual intervention.
Operation
An Operation refers to a single data processing task executed by a module within a Scenario. Each time a module runs to perform its function—whether it’s creating a record, updating an item, or searching for data—it consumes one or more operations. Understanding operations is crucial for managing your Make.com subscription and optimizing Scenarios for efficiency. For HR, an operation could be “create candidate record in CRM,” “send email confirmation,” or “parse resume keywords,” with each action contributing to your total operation count.
Data Store
A Data Store in Make.com provides persistent storage for data directly within the platform, allowing you to save and retrieve information that needs to endure across multiple Scenario executions. Unlike transient data that flows through a Scenario, Data Stores are ideal for maintaining lists of candidates, tracking application statuses, storing unique identifiers for deduplication, or managing lookup tables for HR policies. They enable Scenarios to remember past actions and make informed decisions, ensuring continuity and intelligence in your HR automation processes.
Array
An Array is a structured collection of multiple items or values. In Make.com, data often comes in arrays, especially when dealing with lists like multiple skills from a parsed resume, a list of applicants matching specific criteria, or multiple interview slots. Understanding how to work with arrays is vital for processing complex datasets. HR automations frequently use arrays to manage multiple pieces of information associated with a single candidate or job opening, ensuring all relevant data points are captured and processed accurately.
Iterator
The Iterator module is used to process each item within an Array individually. If you have an array of job application documents, an Iterator would allow your Scenario to act upon each document one by one—perhaps sending each to a document parser or uploading them to a cloud storage service. For HR, this is incredibly useful for systematically processing multiple files, skills, or data points associated with a single candidate or for looping through a list of employees to perform an action, ensuring no item is overlooked.
Aggregator
An Aggregator module does the opposite of an Iterator; it collects and combines multiple bundles of data into a single, cohesive bundle or document. For instance, after iterating through several interviewers’ feedback forms, an Aggregator could compile all that feedback into a single summary document or email for the hiring manager. This is invaluable for HR tasks like compiling comprehensive candidate profiles, generating consolidated reports from various data sources, or creating a single onboarding document from disparate pieces of information.
Router
A Router module allows a Scenario to split into multiple paths, sending data down different routes based on specific conditions. This provides immense flexibility for building dynamic HR workflows. For example, a Router could direct a new job application to one path if the candidate is a senior-level professional (triggering an executive recruiter notification) and to another path if they are an entry-level applicant (triggering an automated skills assessment). Routers are essential for creating intelligent, branching automations that adapt to varying HR requirements.
Filter
A Filter is a crucial tool within Make.com used to control the flow of data within a Scenario by setting specific conditions that data bundles must meet to proceed. If a bundle doesn’t satisfy the filter’s conditions, it’s stopped, preventing unnecessary operations. For HR, a Filter might only allow applications with “5+ years experience” or “specific certifications” to continue to the next stage of the hiring process, or it might prevent duplicate candidate profiles from being created, ensuring only relevant and qualified data moves forward.
Mapping
Mapping is the process of linking data fields between different modules in a Scenario. It ensures that the output from one module is correctly transformed and passed as the input to the next. For example, you would map the “Candidate Name” field from your webhook module to the “First Name” and “Last Name” fields in your CRM module. Accurate data mapping is fundamental to building seamless HR automations, ensuring that applicant information, employee data, or onboarding details are transferred precisely across all integrated systems.
Connections
Connections are the authorized links between Make.com and your various third-party applications (like your ATS, HRIS, CRM, email client, or payroll system). Before a module can interact with a service, a secure connection must be established, typically involving API keys or OAuth authentication. HR professionals will set up connections for all their essential tools, enabling Make.com to securely read from and write data to these platforms, thereby automating data synchronization and operational tasks across their entire tech stack.
Error Handling
Error Handling refers to the strategies and modules used within Make.com to anticipate, detect, and respond to errors that may occur during a Scenario’s execution. Implementing robust error handling—through tools like “Rollback,” “Break,” or custom notification modules—is critical for HR automations. It ensures that if an integration fails (e.g., the CRM is temporarily down), the Scenario can gracefully recover, retry, notify an administrator, or prevent data loss, safeguarding the integrity of your HR data and processes.
Scheduling/Triggering
Scheduling refers to setting a specific time or interval for a Make.com Scenario to run (e.g., every hour, daily at 9 AM, or once a week). Triggering refers to an immediate event that initiates a Scenario (e.g., a webhook receiving data). For HR, Scenarios might be scheduled to generate daily reports, sync employee data nightly, or send weekly follow-up emails. Conversely, they are triggered instantly by new job applications, submitted feedback forms, or onboarding task completions, ensuring timely and responsive HR operations.
Flow Control
Flow Control modules are specialized tools within Make.com that manage the execution flow of a Scenario, allowing for more advanced logic and error management. These include modules like “Router,” “Filter,” “Iterator,” and “Aggregator,” as well as “Break,” “Commit,” and “Rollback” directives. For HR, sophisticated flow control enables the creation of highly nuanced automations—such as conditional email sequences, complex data transformations, or robust error recovery processes—ensuring that workflows behave exactly as intended under various conditions.
If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: Mastering HR Automation in Make.com: Your Guide to Webhooks vs. Mailhooks
