5 Must-Have Make.com Modules for Any HR Professional Building an Intake System

The landscape of HR is shifting rapidly, driven by the relentless march of automation and AI. For too long, HR teams have been mired in manual, repetitive tasks – from processing new hire requests to managing internal transfers and benefits enrollments. These operational demands often overshadow the strategic work that HR is uniquely positioned to deliver, leading to burnout and a perceived lack of agility. My work, particularly in *The Automated Recruiter*, emphasizes that automation isn’t about replacing human judgment but about augmenting it, freeing up valuable time and cognitive bandwidth for more impactful initiatives.

One of the most powerful and accessible tools for HR professionals looking to reclaim their time and streamline operations is Make.com (formerly Integromat). This visual integration platform allows you to connect virtually any web application and automate complex workflows without needing to write a single line of code. Think of it as your digital glue, connecting disparate systems and processes to create seamless, automated flows. For HR leaders, building an effective “intake system” is often the first step towards a truly automated department. Whether it’s a hiring manager submitting a requisition, an employee requesting a leave of absence, or a candidate applying for a role, an intake system ensures consistency, reduces errors, and accelerates processing. But which Make.com modules are truly indispensable for constructing such a system? Based on my experience transforming HR operations, here are five essential modules that will form the backbone of your automated HR intake.

1. Webhooks: Your Digital Front Door for Seamless Intake

The Custom Webhooks module in Make.com is arguably the most foundational element for any automated intake system, serving as the primary digital front door for incoming data. Imagine you need to collect information from hiring managers for a new requisition, or gather employee feedback, or even kickstart a complex onboarding workflow. Traditionally, this might involve email, shared documents, or manual data entry into an HRIS. A Make.com webhook eliminates these bottlenecks by providing a unique URL that acts as a listener, waiting for data to be sent to it from an external source. When data hits this URL, your Make.com scenario springs to life, ready to process that information. This is incredibly versatile. You can connect a webhook to a form builder like Google Forms, Typeform, or Jotform, allowing you to create beautiful, branded intake forms that, upon submission, instantly trigger your automated workflow. For more advanced users, you can even integrate webhooks directly with your existing internal systems or applicant tracking systems (ATS) that offer webhook support, creating a bridge for data flow without manual intervention. For instance, a hiring manager fills out a Typeform for a new role. The moment they click “submit,” the data (job title, department, required skills, budget approval) is sent via webhook to your Make.com scenario. This immediately allows the scenario to parse the information, ensuring it’s accurate and complete before moving it to the next stage, dramatically reducing the time spent chasing information or correcting errors. It’s the ultimate ‘set it and forget it’ trigger for getting data into your automated processes.

2. Google Sheets/Airtable: The Flexible Backbone for Data Storage and Tracking

Once data enters your Make.com system via a webhook or another trigger, you need a robust, yet flexible, place to store and manage it. The Google Sheets or Airtable modules are indispensable for this purpose. While your ultimate goal might be to push data into a sophisticated HRIS or ATS, these modules offer an agile, cost-effective, and highly customizable solution for temporary data staging, logging, and even creating mini-databases for specific HR processes. For example, when a new hire intake form is submitted, your Make.com scenario can immediately write all the relevant details (name, contact, start date, department, hiring manager) into a dedicated Google Sheet. This sheet can serve as a real-time tracking log for all new requisitions, onboarding statuses, or internal mobility requests. It provides a human-readable ledger that HR teams can access, filter, and review without needing to log into multiple systems.

Airtable takes this a step further, offering database-like functionalities within a spreadsheet interface. You can link records, create lookup fields, and build powerful views for different stakeholders. Imagine using Airtable to track the progress of every onboarding task for a new hire, with each row representing an action (e.g., IT setup, benefits enrollment, desk allocation). Your Make.com scenario can not only populate this base initially but also update statuses as tasks are completed or trigger new actions based on changes within Airtable. These modules are powerful for prototyping new HR workflows, providing an accessible data layer for analytics, and creating a single source of truth for dynamic, short-term HR data before it’s moved to a more permanent system.

3. Email (Gmail/Microsoft 365 Mail): The Universal Communicator for Notifications and Confirmations

Effective communication is the lifeblood of any HR process, and the Email modules (Gmail, Microsoft 365 Mail, etc.) in Make.com are your go-to for ensuring timely and personalized notifications. Whether it’s confirming receipt of an application, alerting a hiring manager that their requisition has been approved, or reminding an employee about an upcoming benefits enrollment deadline, automated emails streamline communication and reduce manual outreach. After a new hire request is submitted via a webhook and stored in Google Sheets, your Make.com scenario can immediately trigger an email to the hiring manager confirming their submission and outlining the next steps. It can also send an internal notification to the recruiting team, prompting them to begin sourcing.

The power here lies in personalization and conditional sending. You can dynamically pull data from your intake form or Google Sheet to populate email templates with specific details like the candidate’s name, the job title, or the relevant department. Furthermore, you can use filters within Make.com to send different email templates based on specific criteria (e.g., a different onboarding email for exempt vs. non-exempt employees, or a tailored message for internal transfers). This not only saves HR professionals countless hours drafting individual emails but also ensures a consistent and professional communication experience for all stakeholders, enhancing employer branding and improving the overall efficiency of your HR processes.

4. Task Management (Asana/Trello/Jira/Monday.com): Transforming Intake into Actionable Work

An intake system isn’t just about collecting information; it’s about turning that information into actionable tasks for various teams. This is where the integration with Task Management modules like Asana, Trello, Jira, or Monday.com becomes invaluable. When a new hire request comes in, it doesn’t just sit there; it triggers a cascade of tasks across HR, IT, facilities, and the hiring manager’s team. Manually creating these tasks, assigning them, and tracking their completion is incredibly time-consuming and prone to oversight.

With Make.com, you can automate this entire task creation process. For instance, when a new employee record is added to your Google Sheet (following a successful intake), your Make.com scenario can automatically create a new project or task in Asana for the onboarding team. This single task can then be broken down into sub-tasks: “Order laptop for [Employee Name],” “Set up email access,” “Prepare welcome packet,” each assigned to the relevant department owner with a due date. Similarly, if an employee submits a request for a job change, the scenario can create tasks in Jira for HR to review compensation and in Monday.com for the talent development team to update career paths. This ensures that every piece of information collected through your intake system immediately translates into defined, trackable actions, distributed to the right people at the right time. This level of automation drastically improves accountability, reduces delays, and provides clear visibility into the progress of complex HR workflows.

5. Routers and Filters: The Logic Engines for Intelligent HR Workflows

While modules like Webhooks and Email handle the input and output, Routers and Filters are the brain of your Make.com scenarios, enabling sophisticated, conditional logic that mimics human decision-making. These are not “app” modules but rather built-in Make.com tools for controlling the flow of data within a scenario.

A **Router** allows you to split a single incoming data stream into multiple paths, executing different actions based on specific conditions. For example, a new hire intake form might have fields for “Employee Type” (e.g., Full-time, Part-time, Contractor) and “Department.” Using a Router, you can define separate paths for each employee type, sending full-time employees to a comprehensive onboarding checklist, part-time employees to a more streamlined one, and contractors to a different set of compliance tasks. Each path can then interact with different HRIS systems, task managers, or communication channels as needed.

**Filters**, on the other hand, allow you to set conditions that data must meet before proceeding to the next step in a scenario. This is crucial for ensuring data quality and relevance. Imagine an intake form for leave requests. You can add a filter that only allows requests from employees with more than six months of tenure to proceed down a certain approval path, or a filter that flags requests exceeding a certain number of days for immediate HR review. By strategically deploying Routers and Filters, HR professionals can build highly intelligent, self-correcting workflows that adapt to various inputs and conditions, minimizing manual intervention and ensuring that the right data goes to the right place at the right time, every time. They transform simple automation into truly smart, responsive HR operations.

Harnessing the power of these Make.com modules will transform your HR intake processes from manual bottlenecks into streamlined, strategic assets. By automating the foundational tasks, you free up your team to focus on what truly matters: people. If you’re ready to dive deeper into building these automated systems and want a partner in transforming your HR operations, let’s connect.

If you want a speaker who brings practical, workshop-ready advice on these topics, I’m available for keynotes, workshops, breakout sessions, panel discussions, and virtual webinars or masterclasses. Contact me today!