Processing candidates and applicants

This article will explain how you manage applicants in RecMan on the background of a job posting.

About applicant management in general

Applicant management in RecMan is possibly a little different from other systems you may be used to. The reason for this is that the system is used for candidate management in staffing, recruitment, headhunting and search. This means that the system has to work for those that have 2000 applicants on a job posting, those that need to have a very simple pipeline, and those that need a complex pipeline with many steps (i.e., 2nd and 3rd interviews, background checks etc.) and not to forget those that need such a pipeline without ever having a job posting.

The system also allows you to have a pipeline containing candidates who have applied for the position, those you have found in your own candidate base, from an external base, and you can add people who have neither applied nor have added their CV to the system manually.

To be able to handle this, we have split the applicant management and the associated pipeline. This means that you have two parts, and they are connected. Even without a job posting, you can still make a pipeline that will then be linked to a project.

Applications

In this module, the idea is to conduct a rough sorting of the applicants, so you only bring those relevant for the position into the pipeline.

Here, you also have an overview of which applicants have been rejected (Note that “thank you for the application”-emails are sent out automatically when someone applies).

Here, you can also send emails to all applicants and present one or more to a functional manager etc.

And from here, you can make a selection you want to keep working within the associated pipeline.

In case the process is super simple, you can finish it in the module without having to bring any applicants into an applicant pipeline.

Pipeline

In this module, you have, among other things, control over the application pipeline itself. Here you can:

• Take relevant applicants and, using drag&drop, move them to the different pipeline steps (interview, reference check, declined etc.).
• Present one or more applicants to a customer electronically or manually edit CVs that will be sent out.
• Get feedback on presented candidates from a customer.
• Call in for an interview with calendar integration.
• Register an interview.
• Make a dynamic preview of the candidate card (make notes, see attachments) without needing to leave the window.

Practical use of the applicant management

There is no right or wrong way to use applicant management and how to structure your work pattern. Therefore, in the steps below, we have chosen to ask a client to demonstrate how they structure the pipeline, and from this, we believe that you can get a picture of how the features can be used in a way that fits your work. The customer in the example usually receives around 400 applicants for a position.

Rough sorting, cleaning and rejecting «first pool»

It can be advantageous to clean up continuously as applicants tick in, maybe every other day. The purpose of the first step is to clean up the applicants, as you can be sure that some of them will definitely not be taken into the pipeline.

Go to applications, then the relevant Job posting. In the overview of the applicant, you will be able to simply view the individual CVs, applications and attachments by first going on to a candidate, then clicking forward to the next applicant. Here, you can do all the same things as on the candidate card, i.e., make notes, see references, education etc. Note that only boxes that have been filled in the candidate card will be shown here.

If you see that the person is completely irrelevant, close the preview, hold the mouse pointer over the candidate’s picture, and drag them to the red tag. This applicant will now receive a red circle on their line.

You will do the same with the other applicants. Those that are a “maybe” should be marked in yellow, and those that are very relevant for being taken into a pipeline you mark in green.

Remember that you can choose to see several on the same page by pressing the button for selection limiting.

You can also tag the different applicants by crossing them off and selecting them in the menu above.

Some prefer to wait until the end of the process before they reject the applicant, but with regard to the applicant, there is nothing wrong with rejecting applicants continuously.

To only show those marked in red, click on Red on the left side. You will then be shown a selection of only applicants marked in red.

Now mark the applicants) by clicking the check box next to their picture, and then click on Decline applicants. You will then be directed to a box that lets you reject these applicants. It pays off to have a template for this (done on your profile). When you press Decline applicants, all of them will receive the status Declined.

Bring relevant applicants into the pipeline

By pressing the different colored tags, you can switch between viewing red, yellow or green. By pressing the same color twice, you will see all applicants again.

We now wish to work on green ones, and the way to do this is to bring them into an application pipeline. It is very simple:

1. Press the red tag to see only the applicants with this tag;
2. Mark them all;
3. Press the button Insert into pipeline;
4. Select the pipeline and the category.

The system will now suggest putting all these on the first step of the pipeline. Depending on how your system is configured, the first step will normally be relevant candidates. Then press Save, and you will notice that all the green ones have received the status In pipeline, and the pipelines they are in is displayed underneath, e.g., phase 1. Now click the blue button, View pipeline.

You can also add a candidate directly to the pipeline from the overview via drag-n-drop:

Working with candidates in a pipeline

As evident, our recruitment task is actually done inside the pipeline, and we no longer have to worry about seeing candidates we know are irrelevant. It gives a much better overview. From step 2, we remember that we brought a selection of applicants into our pipeline.

Inside the pipeline window, you can use drag&drop by hovering the mouse pointer over a name, holding the left mouse button, and dragging it down to the step you wish. Release on the category that you want to.

Continuously as the candidates are called in for interviews, interviews done, reference checks made etc., you will end up with one or more that should actually be hired for the position. These you drag to the category Landed. This step is separated from the rest by having its own status in the application overview.

In the pipeline, you can:

Call for interview – The system sends out an email, adds a calendar event to the candidate, and adds the interview to your calendar (and tasks on the home screen).

Register a conducted interview – Based on a template if you wish.

Preview candidate – Functions the same way as in Applications.

Send email – To one or several candidates.

Present candidates – Send a professional electronic presentation of one or more candidates to one or several customers to be able to view later to whom it was sent and see reviews from customers and comments.

Candidates who have shown interest

If your job posting has been published on Jobreg.no, candidates in that portal will be able to show their interest in your posting without actually applying for it. Candidates who do this will become visible at the top of your application pipeline.

You get some information about the candidate and the option of giving a Thumbs up or Thumbs down.

If you choose thumbs up, the candidate will be imported from Jobreg and added to the application list underneath. If you choose thumbs down, the candidate will be removed. The candidate will not be notified no matter which action you take, so it could be a good idea to send them an email if you include them in your pipeline.

Landing and cleaning up

When candidates are marked as landed in your pipeline, we are ready to finish the application management. Press the button Job applications.

We now know two things: anyone marked in yellow should now be rejected since we did not end up needing any of them. View all yellows, mark them all, and then reject them.

We also know that anyone who was in the pipeline but was not landed now also needs to be rejected (the step landed is seen as no longer in the pipeline). So instead of choosing a color, we will choose to display all candidates who are in the pipeline from the menu on the left and reject these. All the candidates that are rejected will also automatically be removed from pipelines and are then available in the system (the pipeline tag is removed from these in the database).

You will now be in a situation where all candidates will either have the status Rejected or Landed. The application management is now over, everyone has received an answer, and all left is to contact those who got the job to continue the process. The tags you don’t need to worry about may be useful for later, so you can go back and see who was considered or not.

In the Application overview, you can do several things:

• Mark one/several/all candidates, change the tag (color) or remove tags (resetting).
• Mark one/several/all and change the status to unprocessed, which will then remove them from the pipeline.
• Send an email to a group based on color tag, status or user definitions.
• Create a public applicant list.
• Present one or several candidates to an external receiver via email (electronic presentation).

Pipeline and applications

Tips and tricks

In the pipeline window, you can choose to view all your pipelines simultaneously and not just for one project at a time. You can also search for a specific pipeline directly from the search field in the pipeline.

Adding a candidate to a pipeline directly from the candidate base

You can also add a candidate to a pipeline manually. Click on the pipeline button behind the candidate’s name in the candidate base. The same candidate can be in several pipelines.

It’s also possible to add a candidate to a pipeline from their candidate card, see which pipelines this candidate is currently in (and which co-worker the pipeline belongs to and to which project it is connected), and move the person to a different step (or remove them from the pipeline) directly from here.

Adding a candidate manually

You can add a candidate manually by being in the Candidate base and pressing the button Create candidate. When you create a candidate, it is only required to write the first and last name, and you can, as part of the same operation, add this person to a pipeline and add them as an applicant even if they have not applied within the system (e.g., if you have received an application in written format). By adding an email and password, you can also send this to the candidate at the same time.