Creating the Offer Detail Template

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
  • Configure the offer fields in the offer details template
  • Create the job offer approval workflow
  • Enable mobile fields in the offer details template
  • Upload the offer details template

Creation of the Offer Details

The Offer Details is the data model (XML) that hosts all of the offer and compensation details for a candidate that need to be approved before a recruiting user can present the candidate with an offer. The fields configured in the Offer Details will be used during the Offer Approval (as the information that needs approval) and in the Offer Letter. When building the Offer Details XML, you will reference fields from both the Job Requisition and the Application templates (ex. Job title, location, candidate first and last name, and so on.).

The Offer Details also controls the approval workflow for the offer, as different compensation packages for different levels of positions may require simple or complex approval workflows.

Changes can be down in Offer Approval XML that is downloaded from Provisioning or in Admin Center Manage Template.

Offer Details XML Fields

The Offer Approval XML has three general zones, as follows:

  • Field Definition: This contains the fields that displays on the approval.

  • Mobile Fields: This contains fields that displays on a mobile device, if using.

  • Approvers: This contains a pre-configured approval workflow, if using.

Document Outline page is displayed. It has three general zones.

Offer Details Field Definition

Within the field definition zone, Offer Approval fields can be tied to Job Requisition or Application fields. The figure, Offer Approval Field Definition, displays the following definitions:

  • The Postal Code field is defined on the application.

  • The Requisition ID field is defined on the requisition.

Code block is displayed.

XML Code: Candidate Full Name

Maintain the field definition from the requisition and application:  If the field definition is a text field in the requisition, be sure it maintains the same field type (text field) on the Offer Approval.

  • There is a Candidate Name token available for use in email templates and offer letters. This token represents the candidate’s full name, which concatenates the first, middle, and last name, but is blank when clients first attempt to insert the token. To successfully insert the token, the id of candidateName must be added in the CPT and CDM XML. However, it does not need to be permissioned. See the following code example:

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Offer Approval: Custom and Standard Fields

In addition to using requisition and application fields, the offer XML may also contain custom fields that only display on the offer approval.

There are 45 possible custom fields, with a limitation in each category as follows:

  • customString 1-15

  • customLong 1-10

  • customDate 1-10

  • customPicklist 1-10

    Code block is displayed.

Offer Approval: Custom Token Configuration

Considerations for custom tokens configuration include:

  • Users that have permission to write in the requisition will also have permission to write in the offer approval.

  • Custom fields that come from the job requisition or application are editable on the approval as long as they are reportable.

  • Custom fields in the Offer Approval need to be configured as custom tokens in Provisioning → Configure Custom Tokens if they are to be used on the offer letter.

    Configure Custom tokens is highlighted.

    Note

    In the offer template, you cannot enable permissions for field definitions by role, so there is no zone for permissions.

Foundation Object (FO) and Generic Object (GO) Fields in Offer Approvals

In the Offer template, a field of the foundation object/generic object type can only be defined if the field is derived from the job requisition, that is, a field with the attributetemplate-type="job-req".

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Offer Approval Workflow

A pre-configured approval workflow can be added to the Offer XML.

Enabling this pre-defined offer approval workflow prevents the offer approval from being improperly routed.

Offer Approvers

Approvers can be based on a recruiting role, group, or a specific user.

The recruiting user is able to select only from the users that belong to a recruiting group, when specified on the Offer Approval XML configuration template.

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Approver fields are added after the last mobile field item. If mobile fields are not in use, approver fields are added after the last field definition item.

Unlike job requisitions, offer approvals do not use a route map.

To set up the approval process, users may take either of the following actions:

  • Choose to configure a pre-defined workflow in the Offer XML and pre-populate operators from the job requisition.

  • Create their own ad hoc workflow for offer approvals by adding users on the fly from the front end.

Offer Details Mobile Fields

Mobile fields can be added to the Offer XML. When using these fields, it is recommended to have fewer than 20 fields configured in this section to allow for ease of use on mobile devices. Mobile fields are added after the last field definition item.

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Offer Detail Template Upload

You can upload the offer approval template in Provisioning → Import/Update/Export Offer Detail Template.

Select Import/Update/Export Offer Detail Template to upload the offer approval template.

Offer Template Validation

  • Since an Offer Detail template refers many of its fields from either Job Requisition XML or Application XML, proper validation is required to make sure that the fields and attributes are not altered when compared with the respective referring template. This validation functionality aims to bring out the possible validation errors and warnings associated with this scenario.

  • Oftentimes, fields won’t get populated promptly in the Offer Detail screen when appropriate validation is not applied. For instance, when referring a template field from either Job Requisition template or Application template, the field type and id should remain identical, failing which may result in unexpected behavior.

  • To validate an Offer template, select Provisioning → Managing Recruiting → Import/Update/Export Offer Detail Template.

Button to validate an Offer Template is displayed.

Validations Performed on Offer Detail Template Upload

The import tool performs three categories of validations with respect to an offer detail template: Against all active job requisition, job application, and other offer detail templates. Currently all validations performed against other templates will be shown only as a "Warning". This is to ensure backward compatibility.

The list of validations performed include the following:

  1. Field Type Mismatch

    Consider we have a field, "Country" that is defined as type "text" in the Offer Detail Template. However, the field is being referred from the Application XML where it is defined as type "picklist". This leads to a mismatch in types. This will make the offer field, "Country", to appear as text (showing the picklist id) in the offer screen.

  2. Missing Fields

    If the Offer Detail template is having some fields that refer to a job requisition template or job application, and the field is not available in the referring template, this could lead to errors.

  3. Check for mismatch in Required attribute values

    Some fields might be defined as Required in the Offer Detail Template (required="true") while in the referring template it might be defined otherwise.

  4. Validation of Standalone fields across multiple Offer Detail templates

    This includes validation of one offer detail template against all the other active offer detail templates. Consider that we have two offer detail templates with each having a field "customPicklist4" of type picklist. Ideally, these fields should remain identical in both the templates.

    Having the same fields (type picklist) defined in the two templates with different labels would possibly cause issues especially while creating ad hoc reports, For instance, while creating an ad hoc report, it will take either of the labels, most probably the one that is defined first. However, the values will be populated for both the fields.

  5. Check for unsupported fields

    Only certain field IDs may be referenced from the Requisition or Application XML. There are some fields that are not supported in the offer detail template (for example, filter1 from Requisition).

Offer Template Validation Results

Once the template is uploaded successfully, it appears in the list of templates. Click the validate against other offer detail templates button for the required template, and then Show Results link to view the list of errors.

Show Results link is highlighted. Select Show Results link to view the list of errors.

Validation Results Against Job Application Templates

A dialog with all the validation results appears. By default, validation results against other job application templates are shown. Validation results against other template types can be viewed by selecting the subsequent tabs.

Validation Results are displayed.

Validation Results for Unsupported Fields While Importing

  • The third tab shows validation results against other active offer detail templates. It performs a validation to check for fields with same field definition but different field labels. This check is performed for the field types: picklist, text, number, and date.

  • For validation on unsupported fields the messages is shown as soon as the template is uploaded in the import offer detail template tool.

An error message is displayed indicating validation results for unsupported fields during the import process.

Configure the Offer Details Template

Business Example

When it is time to make an offer, an offer approval template can be configured to get buy-in from all necessary parties before sending the formal offer to the candidate. This exercise leads you through the steps of configuring an offer approval template.

Task 1: Turn on Offer Approvals in the Provisioning

Steps

  1. In Provisioning → Company Settings, verify that the Offer Approvals option is ON.

    1. In Provisioning, navigate to Company Settings. Find the setting for Offer Approval and enable the setting by selecting the checkbox.

    2. Save your setting.

Task 2: Update the Job Requisition Template

Steps

  1. In an XML editor, open the latest version of the JRDM

    1. In Provisioning, navigate to Managing Recruiting → Import/Update/Export Job Requisition Template and download the latest version of the JRDM to your hard drive.

    2. Open your XML editor and open the version of the JRDM that was downloaded.

  2. Find the offerApproval feature permission.

  3. Remove the beginning (<!–) and ending (-->) comment tags.

  4. Insert Status Name e.g. Offer where indicated in the feature permission definition. In this status the user will be able to start offer approval process.

  5. Save the file with a new name, validate, and return to Provisioning to import the updated file.

Task 3: Configure the Fields in the Offer Details XML File

Steps

  1. In your XML editor, open the Offer Details template provided in your starter course files. Also open the latest versions of your JRDM and CDM files.

  2. Add the following fields (some fields already exist):

    1. Requisition ID

    2. Hiring Manager

    3. Title

    4. First Name

    5. Last Name

    6. Resume

    7. Base Salary

    8. Target Bonus Amount

    9. Notice Period

    Hint

    Decide which fields currently exist in the JRDM or CDM and which fields need to be added. Remember, new fields that do not currently exist should first be added to the JRDM or CDM. Refer to the Standard Field Guides to help you decide whether or not the fields are standard and where they should be added (do not forget to upload any updated files).

    1. Configure the fields to your Offer Details starter file. Note that some of these fields might already exist on the template. Refer to the Standard Field Guides for details on the field names.

      Note

      If you need instructions on how to enter a new field on JRDM refer to the relevant topic in this course.

  3. Validate against the offer details DTD provided in your course files and correct any errors that may be caused by unsupported attributes copied over (hint!). Save your file.

Task 4: Configure the Offer Approval Details Template

Steps

  1. In the Offer Details XML, add the Recruiter role as the last approver in the pre-configured approval workflow.

    1. In the Offer Details XML, find the approval workflow field for Hiring Manager approval role.

      This will be found either after the last field definition or the last mobile-field specified.

    2. Add the Recruiter role as the last approver in the pre-configured approval workflow.

      • Copy and paste the hiringManagerApproval field definition.

  2. Follow the same format as the Hiring Manager approval role, changing only the ID (for consistency, input an ID of recruiterApproval), label, and role letter.

    1. Change the field ID to recruiterApproval and update the label(s) and the role letter to R.

  3. Validate against the offer details DTD.

  4. Save the file with a new name.

Task 5: Upload Offer Details Template to Provisioning

Steps

  1. In Provisioning, select Import/Update/Export Offer Detail Template. Import the updated Offer Details template.

    1. Log in to Provisioning and navigate to Managing Recruiting → Import/Update/Export Offer Detail Template.

    2. Browse for the file you updated above.

    3. To upload the modified file, select Import.

      Note

      Testing of the offer approval will take place in a different exercise.

  2. Select Validate against other Templates to validate the export file.

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