Building and Managing the Candidate Pipeline

The Candidate Pipeline, also called Talent pipeline or workbench, is used to manage candidates during the recruiting process. It allows recruiters to organize applicants to company needs, reducing guesswork and increasing efficiency with the hiring process.

The Candidate Pipeline clearly identifies where an applicant is within the recruiting process.

The user can decide between two views of the candidate workbench: the legacy candidate workbench view and the latest candidate workbench view.

Legacy candidate pipeline is automatically enabled in instance and available to all users with proper permissions.

When viewing candidates that have applied for the job, you can display only active candidates or all candidates.

If you are viewing only active candidates, disqualified statuses are excluded and role permissions are obeyed.

It is also possible to filter candidates based on Candidate Type (internal/external) on the Candidate Summary page, using the new Filter Options button or use the action options to forward a candidate or add to a talent pool.

When forwarding a candidate, it is possible to carry forward attachments of the type, multi-attachments selection. Users can also see an indication on the Jobs Applied portlet in the Job Application page to highlight the application from which the candidate was forwarded as an applicant.

Using the indication on the Job Application page, the recruiter can have access to the previous application’s interview feedback, comments, answers to prescreening questions, assessment results, background check results, and so on, from the current application.

Candidates can check the progress of their application by logging into their candidate account. The status and steps can be configured in the Admin Center.

It is possible to have different status labels for internal users and external users (for example, recruiter and candidate).

All Recruiting users can refine the latest applicant process with the applicant workbench tool once this tool is enabled in the instance. Users can search for individuals who have applied for specific jobs and view their details. The tool includes the following functionality:

• Keyword search capability
• Enhanced filtering functionality
• Configurable columns
• Quick actions

The functionality can be enabled in Admin Center→Manage Recruiting Settings→Enable Latest Applicant Workbench. Once the functionality is enabled you will see a switch in the top-right corner in the Recruiting→Applicant Workbench. You can easily switch between the legacy and the latest workbench by using the switch. 

If you do not want users to be able to switch between the legacy and the latest applicant workbench, you can disable the switch in Admin Center→ Manage Recruiting Settings→ Enable Latest Applicant Workbench→ Hide Legacy Workbench

The search functionality enables users to search on text standard fields, custom fields, and picklist fields.

You can switch between filters and statuses in the panel on the left side of the tool. The panel can be hidden completely, if needed. A list of available filters can be updated in Admin Center→Manage Data. Filters can be combined to reduce the list of the applicants and works in OR logic. 

Statuses are displayed as defined in the status set in Admin Center including the grouped statuses.

The central area displays a list of the applicants associated with a specific job requisition. Displayed columns can be managed through the cog wheel on the right-hand side. A maximum of nine columns, including the name of the applicant, can be displayed. Columns can be changed or reordered. 

A predefined starter kit of filters and displayed columns is available. This kit can be customized if the user has specific role-based permissions. To assign the permissions, go to Manage Permission Roles→Select Permission Role→Permission→Administrator Permissions→Manage MDF Recruiting Objects and set the following permissions:

• Recruiting User Personalization Objects Configuration
• Recruiting User Personalization Object Configuration.fields

To edit the filters or display specific columns, go to Admin Center→Manage Data. In the first Search field, select Recruiting User Personalization Object Configuration. In the second Search field, select List Page Type: Job Application. 

To add a new field or to change the settings on the starter kit fields, select Take Action and then select Make Correction from dropdown list. The fields and their settings become editable so that you can change the display or filter settings, change the order in which the fields appear, or add new fields.

Fields defined on the Candidate Application or the Candidate Profile Template, including background elements, can be configured as displayable (to be available for column selection) and filterable (to be available as a filter). Refer to the topic, Supported Field Types for Applicant Management, on help.sap.com for information on what data types are supported in the Recruiting User Personalization Object Configuration MDF object.

Applicant details can be accessed by selecting the name of the applicant. Selecting an applicant from the list immediately expands the view to see their detailed information. At the same time, the applicant list collapses and moves to the left column so that you can easily pick detailed views between various individuals, allowing you to compare among different applicants.

The top row in the detail view provides contact information for the applicant you're viewing. The details themselves are organized into tabs, with information separated into labeled sections. An administrator can control what portlets Recruiting users can see, add to, or edit, based on the permissions users have been assigned.

You can perform the following actions directly from the applicant list in the latest applicant workbench:

• Change statuses with the move button - The most frequently performed action on the applicant list is to move the status of one or more applicants. A button, Move, is located prominently on the top-right corner of the list, and lets users open the Move Applicants dialog directly for their selected applicants. Recruiting users can control all applicant status changes through the Move button. For this reason, any existing business rule scenario for job applications that uses a field change (OnChange) rule to update the applicant status field is ignored in Applicant Management.
• Add to requisition – Add those candidates to job requisition who have been forwarded to the job but have yet to apply.
• Contact applicants – Contact applicants through email as well as text messages if the SMS feature is enabled. When dealing with agency-managed applicants, recruiters can choose whether to contact the agency, the applicant, or both.
• Add a comment
• Invite a candidates – Encourage candidates who have been forwarded to the job to apply.
• Add applicants to talent pools
• Forward candidates – Send potential candidates to job requisitions or colleagues.
• Forward as applicant
• Download resume and cover letters Please note, up to 50 candidates can be selected at a time to download documents. The documents can be downloaded as a single PDF or ZIP file.
• Invite a candidate as a late stage applicant (if this feature is enabled)
• Ability to initiate (and reinitiate) assessments
• Ability to initiate background checks with third party vendors
• Ability to initiate Onboarding
• View and compare details – With the View Details option, users can select multiple applicants to compare. Selected applicants then slide over to an abbreviated list for users to easily view and compare.
• View, add or edit applicant's tags: Maximum length of the tag is 35 characters and candidate can have maximum of 10 tags assigned plus 1 Favorite tag. User has to have assigned candidate tagging permissions to be able to assign the tag to a candidate.

The following mass action options are currently available in the Candidate Workbench:

• Move Action
• Add Comment
• Add to Job Requisition
• Forward (As Applicant, To Colleague, To Requisition)
• Contact
• Invite to Apply
• Invite Late Stage Applicant
• Download Documents

Mass action can be performed on up to 500 applicants. While a mass action is in progress, the recruiter cannot start another mass action on the same job requisition until the current one is complete. However, it is possible to view and update individual application during this time

Additional functionalities in the latest Applicant Workbench are as follows:

The candidate pipeline is formed from different statuses that are grouped into a status set. Depending on company needs and preferences, various statuses can form specific status sets. Not all statuses have to be used in every status set.

Status sets can be accessed by using the Action Search and typing Edit Applicant Status Configuration.

Create a Status Set - Internal and External Candidates

Status sets can be named differently for internal candidates and external candidates.

Different email notifications can be associated with statuses and sent to various people involved in the hiring process.

Email templates need to be configured in the recruiting email template section of the Admin Center.

Statuses can be visible to and selectable by specified recruiting roles; for example, Recruiter or Hiring Manager. Only selected people see the status in candidate pipeline (visible to section) and can move candidates into the status (selectable by section).

Create a Status Set - Required Checkbox

When the Required checkbox is selected, the candidate must move into this status before advancing into subsequent statuses.

The available status visibilities are:

• Enable this status only for internal candidates: Used for statuses that pertain to internal candidates only.
• Enable this status only for external candidates: Used for statuses that pertain to external candidates only (for example, a background check status).
• Hide the status from users who don't have the Visible To privilege: When enabled, if a user does not have Visible To permissions, the status is hidden in the pipeline. The applicant count for that status is also hidden for users without Visible To permissions.
• Hide applicant count from the users who don't have the Visible To privilege: When enabled, if a user does not have Visible To permissions, the applicant count for that status is hidden. The number of applicants in the hidden status is also subtracted from the overall applicant count. Users can still see the status.
• Collect comment if this status is skipped: If this option is selected, when the recruiting user progresses an applicant to a status beyond this one without first placing the applicant in this status, the recruiting user must add a free text comment to explain why they are bypassing this step. This option is grayed out if the status is required; there is no way to skip the status.

These options are used in cases where both Recruiting and Employee Central are used. The specific set of the statuses are used to manage the transfer of candidate data from Recruiting to Employee Central.

Related statuses can be grouped together to create a simplified and more manageable talent pipeline. For instance, all statuses related to the interview process can be grouped into one status called Interview. This status could contain sub-statuses related to the interview process (for example, Phone-screen, Interview 1, Interview 2, and so on).

To group statuses into subgroups:

• Open an existing status set.
• Choose Add New Status Group.

• Input the name and label, and then select the applicable statuses to be grouped together.
• For In-Progress statuses, require the candidate to be assigned to at least one status in this group before they can move to the next status group (optional).

Related statuses can be grouped together to create a simplified and more manageable talent pipeline. For instance, all statuses related to the interview process can be grouped into one status called Interview. This status could contain sub-statuses related to the interview process (for example, Phone-screen, Interview 1, Interview 2, and so on).

To group statuses into subgroups:

• Open an existing status set.
• Select Add New Status Group.

Status Subgroup Detail Settings

• Input the name and label, and then select the applicable statuses to be grouped together.
• For In-Progress statuses, require the candidate to be assigned to at least one status in this group before they can move to the next status group (optional).