Configuring Email Domains

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to configure email domain authentication settings.

Your Email Domain Authentication

Setting up an email domain for SmartRecruiters emails to candidates offers critical benefits centered on trust, deliverability, and employer branding. Authenticating your email domain in SmartRecruiters allows you to send emails to candidates from your own company's domain instead of the default @smartrecruiters.com domain.

Using a corporate email domain ensures a professional, consistent brand experience at every candidate touchpoint. Instead of emails appearing to come from a generic, third-party platform address, they clearly originate from your company's own domain. This reinforces your brand identity and conveys that the recruiting communication is official and trustworthy.

Note

This process requires access to your company's DNS records. If you do not have direct access, you will need assistance from your IT team.

Affected Emails

Authenticated email domain configuration applied only to emails to candidates. Below is the full list of emails the setting applies to:

Email	Type	Trigger By
Rejection to candidate	Conversation	Employee
Candidate appointment update	Conversation	Employee
General conversation email to candidate	Conversation	Employee
Interview invitation	Conversation	Employee
Offer to candidate	Conversation	Employee
Auto-reply after application	Notification	Candidate on application submission
Candidate application in review	Notification	System on candidate application moved to In Review status
Emails to candidate configured against workflows	Notification	System
Interview self-scheduling invitation	Conversation	Employee
General email to community application	Conversation	Employee
Referral	Notification	System
Referral confirmation to referrer	Notification	System
Consent request email	Notification	Employee or system
Consent request expired email	Notification	Employee, system, or candidate
Net hiring score survey	Notification	System
Employee app tracking - one time password	Notification	Employee

Add an Email Domain

Steps

Navigate to Settings.
Select Email Domain Authentication in the Configuration section.
Select the Authenticate Domain button.
Enter the valid, available domain you wish to use in the field Domain you send from.
Select Add to proceed to authenticate the domain access for SmartRecruiters email services.
1. If the MX record of the domain you wish to configure is already used, the Receive From Field (sub-domain) will be required.
2. The configured sub-domain affects the display of the reply-to email address. Specifically in the example below, if the sub-domain is configured as recruiting, the displayed reply-to email address will be changed to @recruting.srgalaticempire.com.
3. Configuring the sub-domain also ensures email replies from the candidate can be received and displayed in SmartRecruiters.
4. SmartRecruiters will not be able to receive candidates' reply emails with a domain that is already used elsewhere (not necessarily by SmartRecruiters). If you attempt to configure using only the domain when it is already in use, you will receive an error message.

Authenticate an Email Domain

Steps

After an email domain is added, a new group of DNS records associated with that domain will be created.
1. If the status of the DNS records is Creating, check back in later.
2. If the status is Pending Verification, you may proceed to the next step.
3. DNS records creation usually only takes a few seconds and should not take longer than 2 hours.
4. You will need to copy the provided DNS record information and provide it to your IT team if you cannot make these updates yourself. Once the DNS records have been updated, you can proceed with the verification process within SmartRecruiters.
Select the DNS Records globe icon of the domain.
A list of CNAMEs and MX DNS records associated with the domain is displayed. Copy these records using the copy icon next to each link and paste them into your own domain DNS records.
Once all the records have been copied and pasted, select Verify on the bottom of the list, and SmartRecruiters will begin to verify if the DNS records are installed correctly.
If SmartRecruiters is able to verify the DNS records, the domain name status will be updated to Verified.
In cases where the DNS records verification failed, select the DNS records icon to revisit the list of CNAMEs and MX records to locate records that do not have the Verified status and make the necessary adjustments to your own domain DNS records.
Navigate back to the Email Domain Authentication page to view the list of domains.
Switch on the toggle for the selected domain.
The domain you selected must be in the Verified status.
Select Save to confirm the domain activation.
Watch this video for more details about email domain authentication.
This video is for demonstration purposes. Any references made in this video to previous or later videos in this course (including titles, numbers, links, or sequence) may differ from the current course structure. Additionally, some functionalities shown may have evolved over time due to ongoing enhancements or business decisions.

Summary

Email domain authentication in SmartRecruiters allows you to send emails from your company's domain.
Configuring your domain requires access to your company's DNS records and involves entering the domain and updating DNS settings.
Only one domain can be actively used for sending emails at a time.

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