Problem

Keeping track of candidates' movement from one workflow status to another or figuring out who has completed iForm requests can be difficult to manage manually. Perhaps you use a system of dashboard searches or rely on just your memory to monitor these types of situations. Methods such as these can lead to frustration and lost time conducting menial tasks. 

Solution

Setting up automatic notifications within iCIMS Connect (Legacy CRM), iCIMS Applicant Tracking (ATS), iCIMS Offer Management, and iCIMS Onboarding can help alleviate manual processes by enabling the system to automatically send out emails when certain actions occur within the system, such as a candidate being moved into a specific status or a particular iForm being completed. By using automatic notifications, you won't need to repeatedly run workflow status reports or manually check on each candidate's profile to see if a requested form has been completed. 

Automation is achieved by leveraging a feature called Event Notifications. Some uses for Event Notifications include:

• Notifying a hiring manager when a candidate has been submitted for their review
• Alerting a recruiter when a candidate has signed an important iForm, such as an Offer Letter
• Informing IT and Facilities when a new employee has been hired 

Event Notifications are not self-service and must be set up with the assistance of iCIMS Technical Support, but first, it is important to understand how these notifications work and what you need to provide in order to implement them. 

Creating an Event Notification

Select a Trigger

Event Notifications are based on conditional triggers. When a specified event occurs within the system, it triggers an email notification to be sent out to the appropriate individual. The triggers available for use are as follows:

1. iForm Updated: The notification is sent out when a specified iForm is either updated or completed.
2. Recruiting Workflow Status Updated: The notification is sent out when a candidate is moved to a specified workflow status.
3. Portal Application Completed: The notification is sent out when a candidate completes the online application process on a specified career portal.
   • Note: The Portal Application Completed trigger is based on a candidate completing the entire career portal job application process, not just completing an application iForm. 

When requesting the setup of an Event Notification, the first step is to choose one of the three triggers listed above. For example, if you want to be notified when a candidate completes a background check authorization iForm, the trigger would be iForm Updated. If you want recruiters to be notified when a new candidate applies to one of their jobs on the career portal, the trigger would be Portal Application Completed. 

After a trigger is chosen, additional criteria can be specified to further tailor when the automatic notification is sent out. For Recruiting Workflow Status Updated, one or more specific statuses can be chosen as the trigger so that the notification is only sent out when a candidate is moved into those statuses. This trigger type can also utilize job details as part of the notification conditions. For example, in addition to the specified status, the trigger could be narrowed down to only candidates on jobs within a certain department or jobs that have a particular hiring manager. For the iForm Updated trigger, additional qualifying criteria can stem from fields on the specified form, such as a signature checkbox.

The additional criteria available for use directly corresponds to search filters. For the Recruiting Workflow Status Updated trigger, filters available within a Recruiting Workflow search can be leveraged as additional conditions. For iForm Updated, filters available in an iForms search can be used. 

Choose a Recipient

Choosing the right recipient is an essential part of creating your Event Notification as you want to ensure the system is sending information to the correct person. Event Notifications can have multiple recipients and can be sent to both specific individuals and relational recipients. Choosing a specific individual is simple - simply indicate the email address(es) that needs to be notified. Note that a profile containing the particular email address must exist within the system in order to be attached to an Event Notification.

Relational recipients allow you to choose a recipient based on their relationship to the notification's trigger rather than by the individuals' specific email addresses. A relational recipient acts as a dynamic placeholder that is automatically filled with an individual's email address when the notification is sent out based on the details of each individual notification. For example, a Recruiting Workflow Status Updated notification can be sent to the relational recipient for "hiring manager", which will automatically send the notification to the email address of the hiring manager listed on the candidate's related Job profile. This enables you to use a single Event Notification to send information to a variety of hiring managers while ensuring that each individual only receives notifications in relation to their own specific candidates. 

Write the Email

Once a trigger for when a notification should be sent out is selected, and the recipient is determined, the next step is to define the actual content of the email. Like other emails sent from the system, email variables can be used, though the selection available is dependent upon the trigger chosen. Automatic notification messaging should be kept simple and aim to quickly inform the recipient as to what they are receiving and what they should do with the information. When thinking about the content of your notification, don't forget to include a subject line. 

Submitting the Request to iCIMS Technical Support

The following is a simple example that contains all the information to provide to iCIMS Technical Support to create an Event Notification in your iCIMS system. In this example, the automatic notification is used to let hiring managers of marketing jobs know a new candidate has been submitted for their review. 

• Trigger: Recruiting Workflow Status Updated
• Trigger Conditions: Department is Marketing; Status is 'Hiring Manager Review: Submitted"
• Recipient: The hiring manager listed on the Job profile
• Email Subject Line: New Candidate Submission
• Email Message (Brackets are used to indicate email variables): ​