Configuring the Candidate Profile Template (CPT)

Learn about creating candidate profiles.

In today’s competitive market, most companies want to provide their candidates with a quick, easy and intuitive candidate experience.

As the consultant, you need to carefully find your way through the application process of a company and avoid configuration that would make a candidate want to abandon the application process.

The Profile Before Application feature allows customers to set the completion of the candidate profile to required (or obligatory) as the first step in the application process.

The candidate stops by the profile each time before completing an application, but they only need to enter the required data once. Each time after that, the candidate can verify that the data is correct and that data then is updated automatically in the application.

Activation of the Profile Before Application Feature

1. Log in to Provisioning.

2. In Company Settings, select the Complete Profile before Application check box.

To enable this Profile before Application feature, log in to Provisioning and turn on the following switch: Provisioning → Company Settings → Complete Profile Before Application.

It is best practice to enable the Profile Before Application feature. Collect all candidate-specific information in the candidate profile. Collect job-specific information in the application form.

The benefits of using the Profile before Application feature include:

• Synchronizes data completed first on the application with the profile, if the feature is enabled.

• Data completed first on the application automatically synchronizes with the profile if the feature is enabled.

Background elements on the candidate profile can be synced with User Background Elements when User Background Elements are imported.

The Candidate ID can be displayed on the candidate profile pages.

Functionality has to be enabled in Admin Center → Manage Recruiting Settings.

Zone 1, or the Meta Section, contains the template name, description, last modified date, and the spell check tag.

Template details

None of this data is visible in the user interface and no changes are needed here.

Instruction text In the Candidate Profile

Instruction text can be configured in the meta section, which can provide details for the candidate on what information they need to provide. The instruction can be same or different for internal or external candidates.

Zone 2 contains the field definitions.

Field permissions in the Candidate Profile template control the permission to view and edit each field in the candidate profile.

You can set permissions so that field can be hidden, set to read or write for candidates, and set to read or write for recruiting users. Customers can specify whether only a candidate can write to specific fields or whether defined recruiting users who are part of a dynamic group can also write to the field. Permissions can be defined based on the type of candidate (internal or external) and on the country/region of the candidate. If field-permission tags don't exist in the Candidate Profile XML, the default behavior is write permission for all the fields to the candidate and read permission for recruiting users.

Considerations include:

• Multiple role-name elements aren’t supported within a single field-permission element, but doesn't cause an error during Provisioning validation.
• To create a permission element for the candidate role, configure the role-name element with a CDATA value of "Candidate".
• To create a permission element for a dynamic group, configuring the role-name element with a CDATA value of "Dynamic Group".
• When setting up a Dynamic Group, the role-name element must also contain a group-name attribute defining the group the role is tied to.
• The field-permission element must contain at least one country element. Multiple country elements are supported.
• The country element must contain a two-digit ISO code for the applicable country/region or an asterisk to denote all countries/regions, such as US, DE, UK or *. Refer to the Online Browsing Platform (OBP) at the ISO website for the complete list of the two-digit country/region codes.
• For the country-specific permission feature to function properly, the Candidate Profile must contain a field-definition with the id="country" type="picklist" where the picklist-id="country". The country picklist loaded into the instance must be the ISO standard country values. The system does the conversion into the two-character ISO country code, such as US, DE, or UK. Don’t tie the country field to the ISOCountry picklist; this picklist is reserved for Employee Central.

The types of permissions include:

• Read (View) permission allows the appropriate user to read the fields.

• Write (Edit) permission allows the appropriate user to edit the fields; users who have write permission inherently also have read permission.

  

Dynamic groups can be associated to permissions. This feature does not consider groups from Manage Recruiting Groups under administrator.

To enable dynamic groups, proceed as follows:

1. Log in to Provisioning and navigate to Company Settings.

2. Select the checkbox for Dynamic Groups V2 (My Groups) and click Save.

3. Log in to the internal application as an administrator user and navigate to Options → Groups.

4. Create a dynamic group and save it.

5. Associate that dynamic group in the candidate profile.

Background elements may be mapped between the employee and candidate profiles.

• If mapped, they can be copied and pasted from the data model into the CPT. You might need to remove max-file-size-KB if this attribute was included in the data model.

• Order matters. The background sections display in the candidate profile in exactly the order they are configured.

  

The information collected in the candidate profile remains with the candidates, though candidates can update their profile at any time by logging into the Career website.

• Background elements, like in the People Profile, can also be captured in the candidate profile.

• Background element information collected in the candidate profile can be queried in the candidate search for future positions.

The candidate profile background element can be mapped to the People Profile background element for employee data to pre-populate the candidate profile.

Education background data

If a background section is synchronized with the Live Profile, their field definitions must be the same. This includes the field ID and type ID.

Employees are already set up with a People Profile that is defined by using the Succession Management data model.

Background sections from the People Profile can be mapped to the candidate profile to facilitate consistent information for employees. This allows internal candidates with People Profile data to have that data auto-populate into the correlating sections of the candidate profile.

Candidate Profile and People Profile

For internal candidates, updating these fields in the candidate profile automatically updates the linked fields in the People Profile and vice versa. Most importantly, the background sections must be exactly alike to map properly.

In the figure below, the Formal Education field is mapped between the People Profile and the candidate profile.

For data to synchronize between the candidate profile and People Profile, the fields must be mapped.

• The first field ID references the field-id as configured in the candidate profile. The second map-to field ID references the field as configured in the People Profile (Succession Data Model).

  

If an sm-mapping sync exists between the candidate and People Profile for a specific field or background element, permissions are defined in RBPs. For example, if the last name, first name, email, and city are coming from a Human Resource Information System, and employees cannot edit this data in the People Profile, they will also not be able to edit it in the candidate profile. These permissions, of course, only apply to internal candidates as they will have a People Profile.

Field permissions

• Customers can enable visibility permission and edit permission for each field in the profile. They can specify for each field whether a candidate can view, a recruiter or dynamic group can view, or if everyone can view.

• Permissions can be defined based on the type of candidate (internal or external) and on the country of the candidate.

Navigate to Admin Center → Set User Permissions → Manage Permission Roles → Employee Data to internal CPT field permissions.

The figure, Data Mapping Diagram, illustrates the data synchronization and mapping process between the application, the candidate profile, and the My Employee File.

The figure, Candidate Profile view, shows an example of the profile of an internal candidate.

Pitfalls

Once you map a field from the data model, it carries the same permissions. So, a field you think you should be able to change within the candidate profile may not be editable.

Fields that are not mapped will only show on the candidate profile and are not accessible from the People Profile or anywhere else in the suite.

To have the data synchronize from People Profile to the candidate profile, the fields must be mapped.

Sync configuration

Note

Only the IDs used in the CPT for background elements must exactly match those defined in the data model for syncing to occur (not so for the other field definition IDs).

The first field-id listed references the field-id as configured in the Candidate Profile, the second map-to field-idreferences the field as configured in the data model.

Mapping is done in Zone 4 of the CPT.

Candidate fields defined on the Application template can be used as display options in the Candidate Workbench. To customize the available display option fields, nominate the fields in the Candidate Profile template.

Considerations include:

• Custom fields must be made reportable in Provisioning to work as display options.
• The Candidate Summary Display options do not respect permissions outlined in the XML. Fields containing secure data or data that can’t be shared across roles, must not be configured as a Display column.

To configure the Candidate Summary display options, proceed as follows:

1. Add the candidate-summary-display-options-confignode to the Candidate Profile template after the <button-permission> node.
2. Define the required categories to group the display options on the Candidate Workbench.
   Code Snippet

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   <category id="candidateContactData" name="candidateContactData">
   <label xml:lang="en_US><![CDATA[Candidate Contact and Application Data]]</label>
   </category>

3. Add fields to the category.
   • <column field-ref> attribute corresponds to the standard or custom field ID.
   • <select-by-default> attribute controls if the field is selected in the Display Options panel by default.
   • <gridOrder>attribute controls the order of the fields within the category. Each value for <gridOrder> must be unique for the category.
     Code Snippet

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     <column field-ref="cellPhone" select-by-default="true" gridOrder="1"/>

4. To make any custom fields reportable, go to Provisioning → Configure Reportable Custom Fields.
5. Enter the field names for the custom fields in the XML Custom Field ID column.
6. To update the reportable data, select Synchronize Existing Data.
7. Upload the modified Candidate Profile XML template.
   Code Snippet

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   <candidate-summary-display-options-config>
   
   <category id="candidateContactData" name="candidateContactData">
   <label xml:lang="en_US"><![CDATA[Candidate Contact and Application Data]]></label>
   <column field-ref="cellPhone" bge-ref="none" select-by-default="true" gridOrder="1"/>
   <column field-ref="contactEmail" bge-ref="none" select-by-default="true" gridOrder="2"/>
   <column field-ref="country" bge-ref="none" select-by-default="false" gridOrder="3"/>
   </category>
   
   <category id="referralData" name="referralInfo">
   <label xml:lang="en_US"><![CDATA[Referral Info]]></label>
   <column field-ref="referralName" bge-ref="none" select-by-default="true" gridOrder="4"/>
   </category>
   
   </candidate-summary-display-options-config>

In today’s competitive market, most companies want to provide their candidates with a quick, easy and intuitive candidate experience.

As the consultant, you need to carefully find your way through the application process of a company and avoid configuration that would make a candidate want to abandon the application process.

A candidate search tool can be used to search profile used to search profile data of internal and external candidates.

Adding of an external candidate manually

A recruiting user who has candidate search permission can add an external candidate manually.

To add a candidate, the following information must be completed:

• First Name

• Last Name

• Email

• Phone

• Country

The recruiting user can also attach a resume and cover or complete background information. Once the information is saved, the candidate profile is available.

Candidates added into the system through this method receive an email notification informing them they have been added. The email notification also provides information about how to reset their password and access their account to manage or delete their data.

Additionally, recruiting users can also choose visibility settings for these candidates. Navigate to Provisioning → Edit Candidate Privacy Option and check the following:

• Ask external candidates to set their visibility settings when creating an account or profile.

• Allow internal users with appropriate add candidate permissions to set external candidate visibility upon manually adding a candidate.

Recruiting users can only set the visibility settings during candidate creation and cannot update the setting.

Candidates can update the setting on their profiles.

This setting is not available to agencies or employee referrals when adding candidates.

Management of candidate profiles includes:

• Mass uploads of résumés
• Bulk create candidates from a .CSV file

Mass upload résumés

Recruiter users can upload up to 100 résumé files and have the system automatically parse the résumé, and create candidate profiles from the information in the résumé. The candidates created via the mass upload process can be searched via the batch name the user indicates during the process.

Résumés files can be uploaded in word, text, pdf and even image formats. Recruiters themselves with the appropriate permissions can easily create many candidate profiles for the résumé files they may receive. Successfully created candidates can be searched and added to talent pools, email campaigns, and forwarded to requisitions.

Prerequisites for this functionality include the following:

• Resume Parsing: Turned on and configured

• Switch: Enable Recruiting Users to Mass Upload Candidate Resumes

• User Permission: Mass Upload Candidate Resumes

For more information about this functionality, check the Recruiting Management Implementation Guide.

Bulk create candidates from a .CSV file

Recruiter users can upload a .CSV file containing candidate data (up to 1000 candidates in each file) and have the system automatically create candidate profiles from the information. The candidates created via the bulk create process can be searched via the'batch name the user indicates during the process.

This functionality enables Recruiters or Administrators to bulk create candidates from a file themselves to have the means to easily add candidates into the system. Successfully created candidates can be searched and added to talent pools, email campaigns and forwarded to requisitions.

Prerequisites for this functionality include the following:

• Switch: Enable Recruiting users to Bulk Create Candidates from .CSV File

• User Permission: Bulk Create Candidates from .CSV File

For more information about this functionality, check the Recruiting Management Implementation Guide.