By the end of this tutorial, you’ll know how to create a new hire signal agent in lemlist, define the job titles you want to monitor, choose the scope you want to track, set a daily identification limit, choose how signals should be processed, and launch the agent.
Why this matters
New hires often create strong buying momentum. When a decision-maker joins a company, they’re more likely to review tools, test new workflows, and make changes quickly.
A well-built new hire signal agent helps you act on that timing. Instead of reaching out randomly, you can contact the right people when priorities are shifting and your message is more likely to land.
It also helps keep your feed focused. By choosing the right job titles, scope, and daily limit, you can focus on the most relevant opportunities and control how many new leads are identified each day.
Prerequisites
You should already have access to Signal agents in your lemlist workspace.
You should already know which job titles and company criteria you want to target.
If you plan to narrow your targeting, you should already have a rough idea of the segment, contact list, or specific segment you want to monitor.
You should already have a rough idea of your daily credit budget, since this signal is billed on success.
Billing note: The new hire signal is billed on success at 100 credits per lead identified.
How the workflow works
Creating a new hire signal agent is a multi-step workflow. You’ll choose the signal, define the roles you care about, choose the scope to monitor, control how many signals you want per day, and decide what should happen when new leads are detected.
In practice, the workflow looks like this:
Create a new signal agent from Signal agents.
Select New hire joined the company.
Add the job titles you want to monitor.
Choose the scope you want to monitor.
Set a daily identification limit.
Choose how to process detected signals.
Review the summary and launch the signal agent.
Core lesson: Build your new hire signal agent step by step
Phase 1: Start a new signal agent
Go to Signal agents from the left sidebar, then click Create signal agent in the top-right corner. This opens the builder, where you’ll configure the full workflow from signal selection to launch.
In the Signal to detect step, expand People moves, select New hire joined the company, then click Next. This tells lemlist to monitor people who recently joined a company instead of other signal types.
Phase 2: Define the roles you want to track
Add a clear Agent name so your team can recognize the use case later.
In Job titles to monitor, enter the roles you want lemlist to track, such as VP Sales or Chief Technology Officer, then continue to the next step. This step matters because your title list directly shapes signal quality: the more closely your titles match your ideal buyers, the more relevant your results will be.
Best practices for job titles:
Include both abbreviations and full titles, such as VP Sales and Vice President of Sales.
Add title variations used across regions or company types.
Start with a focused list, then expand once you see which titles generate the best signals.
Phase 3: Choose the scope to monitor
In the Scope step, choose the audience you want to monitor: All segments, Contact list, or Specific segment. Use All segments for the broadest coverage, Contact list to monitor an existing list in lemlist, or Specific segment to monitor contacts from a CSV-based segment.
In Identification limit, choose the maximum number of signals you want lemlist to identify each day. The slider and quick-select options help you balance lead volume with team capacity and credit usage, then click Next.
This phase determines how broad or narrow your signal agent will be:
Use All segments when you want the widest coverage.
Use Contact list if you only want to monitor contacts from an existing list in lemlist.
Use Specific segment if you want to limit monitoring to a CSV-based segment.
Start narrow if your goal is highly targeted outreach, then expand once you confirm signal quality.
Phase 4: Set your daily identification limit
Your daily identification limit directly affects both lead volume and spend.
Why this matters:
Each identified new hire costs 100 credits.
A higher daily cap creates more opportunities, but it also increases daily and monthly spend.
Your limit should match how many leads your team can realistically review or work each day.
For example, if you set the limit to 20, the estimated cost is about 2,000 credits per day. This makes it easier to control budget before signals start coming in.
Phase 5: Choose how signals should be processed
In the Signals processing step, choose what should happen when lemlist detects a matching new hire. You can review signals manually, auto-create tasks, or auto-push leads to a campaign, then click Next. This is where you decide whether the signal agent stays review-based or becomes part of an automated outbound workflow.
If you choose Auto-push to campaign, select the campaign you want to use and review the campaign-level options before continuing.
Use each option based on your workflow:
Review signals manually if you want to check every lead before taking action.
Auto-create tasks if reps should qualify leads first.
Auto-push to campaign if you already have a ready-to-use campaign for new hires.
Phase 6: Review and launch your signal agent
Review the summary to confirm the signal type, monitored job titles, billing, processing method, and selected scope, then finalize the signal agent. This last check helps you catch overly broad filters or the wrong job-title setup before credits are used.
Practical application
Imagine you sell a customer support or CX platform. You could create a new hire signal agent for titles like Head of Customer Experience, Customer Experience Manager, VP Customer Success, and CX Lead.
You could then choose the scope that best fits your workflow:
All segments if you want the broadest monitoring.
Contact list if your team already works from a curated list.
Specific segment if you want to upload and monitor a very targeted audience.
When a new leader joins one of those companies, you can reach out with messaging tied to first-90-days priorities like team performance, process improvement, reporting, or tool consolidation. That makes your outreach more timely and more relevant than a generic cold message.
Try it yourself:
Choose 3 to 5 job titles that map to your best buyers.
Pick the scope that matches how broad you want your targeting to be.
Set a daily cap your team can actually handle.
Decide whether manual review, task creation, or automatic campaign push makes more sense for your workflow.
Troubleshooting and pitfalls
Issue: I’m not seeing any signals yet
Root cause: New signal agents may need time before relevant hires are detected, or your targeting may be too narrow.
Fix:
Wait a few days for signals to populate.
Add close job-title variations to widen your coverage.
Broaden your scope if it is too restrictive.
Issue: I’m getting too few results
Root cause: Your job titles or scope may be too restrictive.
Fix:
Add more job-title variants.
Switch from a narrow scope to a broader one, such as All segments.
Review whether your selected list or segment is too limited.
Issue: I’m spending credits too quickly
Root cause: Your daily identification limit may be too high for your budget, or your targeting is too broad.
Fix:
Lower the daily identification limit.
Tighten your job-title targeting.
Use a narrower scope, such as a specific contact list or segment.
Focus on your highest-value job titles first.
Issue: My team can’t act on the leads fast enough
Root cause: Signal volume is higher than your team’s operational capacity.
Fix:
Reduce the daily cap.
Switch to Review signals manually or Auto-create tasks instead of automatic campaign pushes.
Create a dedicated campaign or review workflow specifically for new hire leads.
Quick recap
To create a strong new hire signal agent:
Open Signal agents and create a signal agent.
Select New hire joined the company.
Define the job titles you want to monitor.
Choose the scope you want to monitor.
Set a daily identification limit that fits your budget.
Choose how you want to process signals.
Review the summary and launch the signal agent.
When set up well, the new hire signal helps you reach the right people at the right moment—just as they step into a new role and are most open to change—while keeping your workflow aligned with your team’s capacity and budget.