Overview
Source information is amongst the most valuable data stored within your organization's iCIMS Applicant Tracking (ATS) and iCIMS Connect (Legacy CRM). It provides unique insight into how candidates discover both your organization and your open jobs. This article outlines the importance of source information, the different types of source data, and how the information flows into the system. Additionally, strategies for maintaining clean and useful source data are discussed.
The sections of this article include:
What is Source?
Source is best defined as information that indicates how a candidate first found out about your organization and/or a specific job opportunity. It also indicates how a candidate first entered your system. A candidate's source information answers the questions "How did you hear about us?" and "How did you hear about this job opportunity?" The answers to these questions provide essential information you can leverage when determining where to focus your recruitment marketing efforts. By identifying the trends and effectiveness of different sources, you can make better-informed decisions regarding which recruiting activities, partners, and events attract the best candidates and are worth continuing.
Types of Source Data
Source information is stored in a variety of fields on both Person and Recruiting Workflow profiles. Person and Recruiting Workflow source, as well as the individual source fields, are outlined below.
Person Source vs. Per-Application Source
ATS and Connect store source data within fields on both the Person profile and the Recruiting Workflow profile. Each profile type contains a unique set of source fields that represent different categories of source data: person source and per-application source. While there may be some overlap in the data captured, these sets of fields often contain different information and help answer separate questions.
The source information found on the Person profile, often referred to as
person source, answers the question "How did the candidate first discover my organization and enter the system?" This information is captured when a candidate's profile is first created, either by the candidate themselves or by a recruiter who manually added them to their system. By default, person source information is stored in fields located on the Candidate Details tab of the Person profile. A candidate's person source typically stays static once their profile is created and does not change even if they apply to several different jobs.
Comparatively, a Recruiting Workflow profile features its own set of source fields that answer the question "How did the candidate find this specific job opportunity?" This source information is typically referred to as a candidate's
per-application source since a candidate may have unique source data for each job application they submit. A candidate's per-application source information is stored in fields on the Source (Workflow) tab and may vary from application to application.
For example, a candidate finds a job post for your organization on Indeed and applies. During the application process, they indicate their source for how they found that first job (i.e. Indeed). Six months later, that same candidate finds another job post for your organization on a different job board and applies. They identify their source for how they came across this second job post, which differs from how they found the first job. Since a candidate can apply to multiple jobs with an organization, they are asked to provide fresh source data for each application. This fresh information helps ensure source reporting is up-to-date, accurate, and more representative of the effectiveness of various sources.
Each source type (person and per-application) has its use based on the insight your organization is interested in. Person source is best used when looking for information on how candidates first found your organization or how they first entered your system. Per-application source is best used when seeking out numbers relating to unique applications rather than unique candidates. It is also best used when looking for trends relating to specific jobs or categories of jobs.
Key Source Fields
There are a variety of source fields available on both Person and Recruiting Workflow profiles. Some key fields to pay extra attention to are detailed below. Note that unless otherwise specified, each type of field is available on both Person and Recruiting Workflow profiles.
Source ChannelSource Channel provides high-level information describing the mechanism through which a candidate profile or application entered the system. For example, Source Channel can indicate if a candidate created their profile on an iCIMS ATS career site or through a Connect event.
Source Channel is typically automatically detected and assigned by the system and is not self-reported by a candidate.
Some standard values and what they indicate are listed below:
- Careers: Profile or application was created via your organization's external iCIMS career site
- CSV/XML Import: Profile or application was created via flat-file import
- Email Import: Profile or application was created via iResume email import
- Event Registration: Profile or application was created through a Connect event
- iCIMS Talent Platform: Profile or application was created by an internal user of the system
SourceSource contains data that indicates where a candidate found your organization or specific job post. Depending upon your organization's configuration, Source may be either general or specific. For example, Source may indicate a candidate found your company through an unspecified job board or it may indicate a given job board's name.
Source may be provided by the candidate, the system user that submitted them, or auto-sourced through a third party. For more information, review the
How is source information captured? section of this article.
Some standard values and what they indicate are listed below:
- Job Board: The candidate found the job through an online post
- Email Campaign: The candidate found the job through a Connect email campaign
- Employee Referral: The candidate was referred by an internal employee
- Identify Feature: The candidate was identified and submitted to the job by an internal user of the system
Source NameSource Name (sometimes referred to as Source Specifics) builds upon the information captured in the Source field and provides more specific details of how the candidate found your organization or specific job post. For example, a candidate may list their Source as Job Board, then specify which job board (e.g. Indeed) in the Source Name field. As a Source Name may not be necessary in all scenarios, not all candidates will have this field completed on their profile.
Source Name may be reported by the candidate, the system user that submitted them, or auto-sourced through a third party. For more information, review the
How is source information captured? section of this article.
Some example values and what they indicate are listed below:
- A Job Board Name: The specific job board on which the candidate found the job post
- An Employee's Name: The individual who referred the candidate
- A Social Network Name: The specific social network on which the candidate found the job, such as LinkedIn
Source OriginSource Origin functions similarly to Source Channel and aims to provide more easily digestible information regarding how a candidate was submitted to a job. It is important to note that Source Origin was added to the system in 2015, and candidates submitted to jobs in 2015 or earlier will not have any Source Origin data stored in their profiles.
Source Origin is typically automatically detected and assigned by the system and is not self-reported by a candidate. Source Origin is only available on Recruiting Workflow profiles.
Some standard values and what they indicate are listed below:
- Self-Submission: The candidate submitted themselves to the job
- Referral: The candidate was referred and submitted to the job by an internal employee
- Note: This option is only available if the system is configured to allow individuals to create and submit profiles for their referrals.
- Recruiter Submission: A recruiter or other internal system user submitted the candidate to the job
- Social Network Post: The candidate applied to the job through a job post shared via iCIMS Social Distribution
- Import: The candidate was associated with the job through a flat-file import
Source PortalSource Portal identifies the iCIMS career site through which the candidate created their profile and/or applied to a job. Like Source Origin, Source Portal was also added to the system in 2015, and candidate profiles and applications created in 2015 or earlier will not have any Source Portal data stored in their profiles.
Source Portal is typically automatically detected and assigned by the system and is not self-reported by a candidate.
The available options for this field are the names of your organization's iCIMS career sites.
How is source information captured by the iCIMS Hiring Suite?
While some source fields (e.g. Source Channel, Source Portal, etc.) are automatically detected by the system itself, fields like Source and Source Name are typically completed in one of two ways: self-selection by the candidate or automatic selection (auto-sourcing) by the source itself.
Note: These methods apply to both person source and per-application source. Per-application source is used as the primary example within this section.
Candidate Self-Selection
When a candidate applies for a job through an iCIMS career site, they are asked to indicate what source led them to that particular position. When they reach the question, they are presented with a list of options, and their selection is then stored in the Source field on their profile.
Candidates can only choose from the options provided to them. Therefore, it becomes paramount to offer a robust and meaningful list of sources to candidates so that they can choose appropriately. As it is unlikely to think of all possible sources, you may choose to allow candidates to write in source specifics as free-text. However, it is important to keep in mind that free-text source information can cause issues when running reports due to the number of different ways a single item can be written (e.g. Indeed vs. Indeed.com).
Automatically Sourced Candidates
The vast majority of candidates that find jobs online are not self-selecting their source. Instead, their source is automatically provided by the place the candidates found the job post before reaching an iCIMS career site. When a candidate is automatically sourced, they are not asked to self-report their source during the application process and are unable to manually change the provided source.
For example, a candidate finds a link to an iCIMS career site job post on a job aggregator site. The link URL contains embedded source information provided by the job aggregator. When the candidate selects the link and arrives at the career site, the source information from the URL is automatically used to complete the application source question. This information is then stored within the system on the candidate's profile.
Many online sources provide this information as it is in their best interest to tag candidates appropriately and ensure accurate data enters your system. While this provides a huge benefit when it comes to accurate reporting, it's important to consider the fact that auto-sourced candidates are labeled with whatever information the provider sent, which may be different than how you would like it labeled within your system. For example, your source list may contain a source called
Job Aggregator Name, but that aggregator may send over candidates with a source of
JobAggregatorName.com. As this information is sent by a third party, you cannot control how the information is presented. In these cases, it is recommended to update your source list to reflect the information being sent from the sources themselves for more consistent reporting. Review the
Source Management section of this article for more information.
Manually Created and/or Submitted Candidates
It is easy to overlook the importance of managing source information for manually created candidates or candidates recruiters submit to specific jobs. In these scenarios, these candidates have the system itself listed as their Source Channel, and their Source listed as Identify Feature (or other default recruiter submission value). In certain cases, this may not be desired as an organization may want to preserve a candidate's original source.
For example, a candidate applied for a job through the career site. A recruiter reviews their application, decides they are a better fit for a different position, and submits the candidate to that other position. The candidate's per-application source for this second position is now listed as the recruiter instead of the source from their original application.
In this scenario, you may choose to edit the source information to match the original to retain a record of how the candidate found your organization. An internal system user with the appropriate permissions can edit a candidate's source information on their profile in the same manner other fields within the system can be edited.
Note: Depending upon your organization's system configurations, some source fields may not be editable. For assistance, contact your user administrator.
Source Management
To produce quality source reports, it is good practice to stay on top of the data that enters the system. In addition to standard source values and any values entered by internal users, your system's source list likely also contains job board and job aggregator values generated through auto-sourcing. This can result in the list containing multiple versions of the same source with slightly different wording or format (e.g. Indeed vs. Indeed.com).
As a best practice, it is recommended to regularly prune and clean up source data within the system. This practice helps cut down on clutter, simplify reports, and eliminate any potential confusion. Cleaning up source data can be accomplished through the use of the Bulk Edit tool available in searches. This process is broken into three sections: running the search, analyzing the results, and consolidating sources using Bulk Edit. The steps for this process are listed below.
Running a Source Cleanup Search
- From the main menu bar, select Search > Person > Person.
- On the search form, leave the Filters section empty. In the Output section, select – None – from the Output Template dropdown.
- In the Pick Columns section, select Add Column and add Source. The selection path is Cand. Details Tab > Source.
- In the Group Results By, select Add Group-By and add Source. The selection path is Cand. Details Tab > Source.
- Select Search to run the search.
Notes:
- A Person search is used to clean up person source data only. For per-application source data, choose Search > Recruiting Workflow in step 1 above.
- For per-application source cleanup, select the Source option available under Source (Workflow) Tab for steps 3 and 4 above (instead of Cand. Details Tab > Source).
Analyzing the ResultsAfter running the search, results will look similar to the below image:
From reviewing the results, there are some listed sources that are very similar to or duplicative of one another. For example, there is an entry for
Job Board - FakeJobBoard, but an additional row for
Job Board - FakeJobBoard.com also exists. If these results were used as a source effectiveness report, it would be easy to overlook the fact that these two entries represent the same source and should be tallied together. Similarly, separate entries for
Career Fair and
Job Fair both exist as this example organization used the term Job Fair historically but recently decided to use Career Fair instead. For an accurate tally when running a source effectiveness report, the report would need to be exported and these rows would need to be manually combined.
In both of these scenarios, the Bulk Edit tool can be used to update the system source information to help streamline reports and cut down on duplicate entries that skew data.
Consolidating Sources via Bulk EditFrom the search results, you can leverage the Bulk Edit tool to combine duplicate source entries so that all candidates from a given source are grouped together. The steps for bulk editing source data are listed below.
- From the search results, identify which value in a group of similar sources is the preferred source value. Select the records that should be updated to the preferred source by checking the box to the right of each appropriate row.
- Example: Values for both Career Fair and Job Fair are displayed. The preferred value is Career Fair, so the Job Fair grouping should be selected as those records need to be updated.
- Note: Only 5,000 records can be updated at a time via Bulk Edit.
- Select Bulk Edit from the options displayed above the search results to launch the Edit Profiles popup. Depending on the number of available options, Bulk Edit may be located under the More menu.
- On the popup, select Profile. From the Tab drop-down, choose Cand. Details (or other tab that houses the Source field). From the Field drop-down, select Source.
- Tip: The Profile option is used when updating person source data. If updating per-application source information, select Workflow.
- After selecting Source from the Field drop-down, an additional drop-down for Source displays on the popup. From the Source drop-down, select the preferred source value identified in Step 1.
- Select Save to update the records. The search results will refresh to reflect the update. Repeat this process as needed for any additional source cleanup.
Because your organization's source list can grow from third parties auto-sourcing your incoming candidates, it is beneficial to keep track of any new sources added to the list and take note of which sources have the most candidates associated with them. As a general rule, the sources with the most applicants are the sources created by third parties and cannot be renamed. To keep source data clean and easily reportable, periodically update your source list and candidate records to reflect the information being sent from these third parties for more consistent reporting.
Additional Resources
