Table of Contents
This article includes the following sections to assist you in accessing profiles and taking action on candidates in iCIMS Candidate Relationship Management (CRM):
Overview of iCIMS Candidate Relationship Management (CRM)
iCIMS Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) enables you to develop a comprehensive talent network by capturing and communicating with qualified candidates. CRM works in tandem with iCIMS Applicant Tracking (ATS) so that all applicants for your jobs are added to your network by default; candidates can also add themselves from your career site via a Join Our Talent Community sign-up field.
For more information about CRM, refer to the article Getting Started with iCIMS Candidate Relationship Management (CRM). And to express interest in acquiring it, reach out to your iCIMS account manager.
Accessing Candidate Profiles in CRM
Every candidate in CRM has a Candidate profile, which includes all relevant information about them, such as contact information, employment and education background, and email history with your organization. (The Viewing Information in Candidate Profiles section below details all fields and tabs included within each profile.)
Profiles can be accessed anywhere candidates are listed, including:
- The Candidate Search page
- Dedicated pipeline pages (on either the Unreviewed or In Pipeline tab), accessed via Pipelines in the navigation menu
- The Applications tab on the Submissions page
Opening Profiles in Table View
By default, candidates are listed in table view—in individual rows with various columns. For instance, the Candidate Search page includes columns for each candidate's:
- Name
- Tags (i.e., labels such as Military Veteran)
- Location
- Current Role
- Highest Education
- Job Apps
- Activity (For more information, review Evaluating Candidate Activity below.)
To open a candidate's profile, select their name from the table. Or select anywhere in their row to open a preview of their profile at the bottom, which enables you to quickly view their information without leaving the page to view their full profile.
Selecting a candidate's row in the table opens a preview of their profile.
Notes:
- A recruiter admin can reorder these columns and remove certain ones, if desired, using the Configure Columns tab on the Admin Settings page. Changing the column configuration will apply the changes to all CRM users. For more information, review the article Managing Recruiter Access and Settings in iCIMS Candidate Relationship Management (CRM).
- If a candidate has a resume, a clipboard icon will display to the right of their name. Select this icon to open their resume file.
- When a candidate completes a job application or signs up for your talent network from your career site, the data they provide automatically transfers to their candidate profile in CRM. If the candidate was manually entered into CRM by a recruiter, however, the recruiter supplies any data they have on the candidate upon creating the new candidate record. For more on adding candidates to CRM, refer to the article Adding Candidates in iCIMS Candidate Relationship Management (CRM).
Opening Profiles in Resume View
Instead of viewing candidates as part of a table, you have the option to switch to resume view using the toggle button at the top right of the page. This allows you to quickly view the resumes of individual candidates by selecting the arrows at the far left and right of the screen.
To open a candidate's full profile while viewing their resume, select the Go to Candidate Page (box) icon next to their name at the top.
Viewing Information in Candidate Profiles
Each full Candidate profile includes the following components:
- A heading that displays the candidate's name and some basic information (e.g., contact information, location, current job title, current employer) if available.
- Note: For customers whose CRM is synced with iCIMS ATS, this heading also displays the candidate’s ATS ID and Person folder.
- Four main tabs: Background, Documents, Messages, and History. These are discussed in the sections below.
- An Actions button at the top right. This is outlined in Taking Action on Candidates in CRM below.
Note: As part of a sync between iCIMS ATS and CRM, any updates and additions made to a profile in one system are subsequently reflected in the other. Thus, certain information on a candidate's CRM profile may originate from their profile in ATS. For more information, review the
Understanding Data Syncing Between iCIMS Applicant Tracking (ATS) and iCIMS Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) article.
Understanding the Background Tab
The Background tab includes general information about the candidate—such as phone and email address, employment history, and education background—as well as any jobs they have applied to at your organization and any pipelines they belong to in CRM.
The tab is broken up into four sub-tabs (Profile, Additional Information, Activity, Pipelines) with the following blocks of data:
Profile:
- Basic Information (e.g., Location, Email Address, Phone Number, Created Date, Updated Date, Last Login Date.)
- This block includes the candidate's recent engagements and the date each one occurred. (Engagements are actions taken by the candidate or taken by a recruiter pertaining to that candidate in the CRM.) The candidate's current activity status is also included (e.g., Unreviewed, Contacted), which corresponds to their engagements. For more information, review Evaluating Candidate Activity below.
- Employment
- Education
- Skills (Terms for skills are populated from a static list of industry skills; the specific skills listed for a candidate are typically synced from iCIMS ATS or extracted from an uploaded resume.)
- Links
- Recruiter Notes (Recruiters can enter any sort of note or comment about the candidate in this section by typing in the field and selecting Save Note.)
- Recently Saved Notes (Any notes created in CRM are listed here. Additionally, some notes added to the candidate’s profile in ATS may appear here if they were part of a one-time sync from ATS to CRM; for more information, review the Understanding Data Syncing Between iCIMS Applicant Tracking (ATS) and iCIMS Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) article. Notes can be made public or private by checking the Make Private box. Only recruiter admins and note creators have the option to share, edit, or delete a note.)
- Tags (This is populated from a list of tags available in your system. For more on tag management, review the article Managing Recruiter Access and Settings in iCIMS Candidate Relationship Management (CRM).)
Additional Information:
Note: The information in this section often comes from signup forms or event signup forms. For more information on how these forms work, review the Adding Talent Network Sign-Up Forms to Your Career Site Using iCIMS Candidate Relationship Management (CRM) article.
- Basic Profile Information (This includes Profile Type, an indication of how the candidate entered CRM—e.g., Candidate Authenticated, Recruiter Generated.)
- Location Information (e.g., Willing to Relocate)
- Employment Preferences (e.g., Desired Job Level, Full-Time or Part-Time)
- Employment Eligibility (e.g., Fluent Languages)
- Communication Preferences (e.g., Preferred Communication Method)
- Custom Fields (This includes any custom fields added to profiles by a recruiter admin. For more on custom fields, review the article Managing Recruiter Access and Settings in iCIMS Candidate Relationship Management (CRM).)
Activity:
- All jobs the candidate has applied to at your organization, in table format with the following columns:
- Job Application
- ATS Bin (e.g., Submissions)
- ATS Hiring Status (e.g., Rejected)
- Date/Time (i.e., timestamp of the most recent Hiring Status change)
- All events the candidate is associated with, in table format with the following columns:
- Event Name (This is linked to the Event profile.)
- Category (e.g., Career Fair)
- Registered (i.e., if they pre-registered through the event registration page)
- Attended (i.e., if they attended without pre-registering)
- Rating (i.e,, the star rating assigned to the candidate)
Pipelines:
- All pipelines in CRM to which the candidate belongs and to which the user has access, in table format with the following information:
- The name of the pipeline, linked to the dedicated pipeline page
- The workflow status to which the candidate is assigned
- A Remove button to delete the candidate from that pipeline
Understanding the Documents Tab
The Documents tab allows you to add any relevant files to the candidate's profile, such as cover letters or writing samples. New files can be added via the Upload New Attachment section, by selecting the Upload File button or dragging and dropping a file from your computer into the Drag and Drop block. You must assign an Attachment Type to each file you upload (Resume, Cover Letter, or Additional Document).
Note: Any files uploaded here will not parse out and replace information in other tabs on the candidate's profile.
All documents you upload for a candidate are listed in the Uploaded Attachments section with the following information:
- Attachment Name: The name of the file when uploaded. Selecting the attachment name opens the file
- Attachment Type: Either Resume, Cover Letter, or Additional Document
- Upload Date/Time: The timestamp of when the file was uploaded
- Delete Button: A button to remove the document from the profile
- Download Button: A button to download the document to your computer
Understanding the Messages Tab
The Messages tab features an Email sub-tab listing all emails sent to the candidate, including:
- Campaign emails in which the candidate was a recipient (set up through the Campaigns page)
- Emails sent to the candidate individually through CRM
Each email here includes the subject of the email (linked to a preview of the message), the sender of the email, and timestamps for the following tracking statistics: Sent, Delivered, Opened, Clicked, and Bounced. For more on these email statistics, review the article Creating and Sending Email Campaigns in iCIMS Candidate Relationship Management (CRM).
Notes:
- Email messages display based on user permissions. All emails display to recruiter admins, while recruiter users can only access their own emails or emails from campaigns they have access to.
- If your organization uses Text Engagement an additional Text Engagement sub-tab will display next to Email, with a listing of all text messages sent to the candidate from CRM.
Understanding the History Tab
The History tab shows the different actions and updates made to the candidate's profile over time. On the left, each action is listed in its own block, which includes the type of action taken (e.g., update, insert), the email address of the person who performed it, and the date it was performed.
Selecting an individual block opens the full content of the candidate's profile after that particular action was performed (in the pane on the right).
Note: This section records material changes to a candidate’s profile. Engagements and other actions are recorded elsewhere.
Evaluating Candidate Activity
CRM keeps a record of all actions taken by a candidate and all actions taken by a recruiter related to a candidate. These are referred to as engagements and are included in candidate listings and on each candidate's profile. For instance, when a recruiter invites a candidate to apply for a job through the system, the Sent Invite to Apply engagement is attached to that candidate's profile.
The following engagements are available in CRM:
- Candidate Authenticated: The candidate logged in to your organization's portal
- Recruiter Generated: The candidate was entered into the system by a recruiter
- Sent Campaign Email: The candidate was included on a campaign email
- Hired: The candidate is an applicant who was hired for a job at your organization
- Candidate Opt-in: The candidate opted in to subscribe to mass emails
- Sent Direct Email: The candidate was messaged by a recruiter using the Email or Email Candidate action
- Candidate Opt-out: The candidate opted out of subscribing to mass emails
- Sent Invite to Apply: The candidate was sent an invitation to apply to a job
- Recruiter Reviewed: The candidate's profile was opened by a recruiter
Recent engagements for a candidate are listed on their candidate profile (and profile preview) on the Background tab in the Basic Information block. The date each engagement occurred is also included.
Additionally, their overall activity status is listed. For more on activity status, review Reviewing Candidate Activity Status below.
A candidate profile with their activity status and recent engagements highlighted
Note: Candidate activity is enabled by default for all customers, but it can be turned off by contacting iCIMS Technical Support.
Reviewing Candidate Activity Status
CRM categorizes a candidate's current level of activity by status. Each candidate has one of several tiered statuses, which corresponds to the engagements on their profile:
- Unreviewed: The candidate has not yet been reviewed by a recruiter. For instance, Travis Agbayani is a new candidate with just the Candidate Authenticated engagement on this profile; he has the activity status of Unreviewed, since no one has reviewed his information.
- Reviewed: The candidate has been reviewed by a recruiter. For instance, once a recruiter reviews Travis's information, he receives another engagement, Recruiter Reviewed, and his activity status changes to Reviewed.
- Note: New candidates added to the system by a recruiter receive both the Recruiter Generated and Recruiter Reviewed engagements, since a recruiter likely reviewed their information before adding them. Thus, their activity status is Reviewed.
- Contacted: The candidate has been contacted by your organization from CRM via a direct email, a campaign email, a job alert, or an invitation to apply for a job. For instance, a recruiter includes Travis on a campaign email listing open jobs; he then receives the Sent Campaign Email engagement, and his activity status changes to Contacted.
- Hired: The candidate has been hired for a job at your organization. For instance, Travis gets hired for one of those open jobs; he then receives the Hired engagement, and his activity status changes to Hired.
- Disengaged: The candidate withdrawn their application or removed themselves from consideration.
Candidates can also have the status of
Ineligible; this is assigned when you mark the candidate as ineligible from their profile (by selecting Mark Ineligible from the Actions button at the top right). No actions in CRM (e.g, emailing) are restricted or unavailable for ineligible candidates; the status is for informative purposes only.
Activity statuses are included in the Activity column in the candidate results on the Candidate Search page, as well as on each candidate's profile on the Background tab.
Notes:
- You cannot manually change a candidate's engagements or activity status; this is all automated. However, after you mark a candidate as ineligible, you can remove the Ineligible status by selecting Mark Eligible from the Actions button on their candidate profile.
- Activity column and activity statuses are also included in candidate listings for pipelines.
Using Candidate Activity Filters
On the Candidate Search page, the Search Candidates panel includes candidate activity filters to help you find candidates with a certain activity status or specific engagements on their profile. The filters are:
- Candidate Engagement: Select specific engagements so that only candidates with those engagements display in the results. When multiple engagements are selected, the system displays candidates with any of those engagements, not all of them.
- Exclude Candidate Engagement: Select specific engagements so that all candidates with those engagements are removed from the results. For instance, if you're not interested in candidates who've already been hired at your organization, select the Hired engagement.
- Candidate Activity: Select a specific activity status so that only candidates with that status display in the results.
Taking Action on Candidates in CRM
Once you've reviewed a candidate's information, you can take action on them (e.g., email them, move them forward with a job) directly from either their profile or from a candidate listing.
Editing Candidate Profiles
At the top right of each candidate profile is an Actions button. Selecting this button opens a list of different actions to take on that candidate.
To edit a candidate's profile, select the first option for Edit Profile; this opens the Edit Candidate page with fields for all general information found on their Profile sub-tab.
After making any changes or additions, select Submit at the bottom to save your updates, or select Cancel to abandon this page without saving.
Performing Other Actions from Candidate Profiles
In addition to Edit Profile, several other actions are available from the Actions button at the top of each candidate's profile.
- Email: To send a message to the candidate.
- Invite to Apply: To email the candidate with a recommended job to apply to.
- Submit to Job: To submit the candidate to an open job in iCIMS ATS. Only recruiters with an ATS ID can use this action.
- Add to Pipeline: To add the candidate to one or more pipelines in your system. For more on pipelines, review the article Setting Up Pipelines in iCIMS Candidate Relationship Management (CRM).
- Remove from Pipeline: To remove the candidate from one or more pipelines in your system.
- Add to Event: To add a candidate to one or more existing events, with or without marking them as having attended.
- View Talent Matches: To find other candidates in your system with similar skills and experience. (Note: This action is only available for customers with iCIMS Talent Cloud AI.) For more on this Talent Match feature, review the article Searching for Candidates in iCIMS Candidate Relationship Management (CRM).
- Subscribe/Unsubscribe: To subscribe or unsubscribe the candidate from campaign emails. (Available only to recruiter admins.)
- Export Full Profile: To export a .TXT file with all information from the candidate's profile. When you select this button, an Export Candidate(s) page opens, where you can select the specific columns to include in your export. For more on exporting profiles, review Exporting Candidate Profiles below.
- Parse Resume: To replace all current information in the candidate's profile with information from their parsed resume. This action is irreversible.
- Mark Ineligible: To assign the Ineligible status to the candidate. After this action is taken, you can undo it by selecting the new Mark Eligible option that displays from the Actions button.
- Deactivate: To remove the candidate's profile from the CRM so they are no longer searchable. (Available only to recruiter admins.)
- Delete Candidate: To permanently delete the candidate's personally identifying information and remove their profile from searches. For more on exporting profiles, review Deleting Candidate Profiles below. (Available only to recruiter admins.)
Performing Actions from Candidate Listings
You can also apply actions to candidates from the various listings in CRM, as outlined above in Accessing Candidate Profiles in CRM. These actions can be applied to candidates individually or in bulk, as described in the sections below.
Performing Individual Actions in Table View
Each person's row in the table includes a three-dot button at the far right. Select this button to select one of the following actions to take on the candidate:
- Email Candidate (envelope icon): To send a message to the candidate
- Invite Candidate to Apply (briefcase icon): To email the candidate with a recommended job to apply to
- Manage Tags (tag icon): To add or remove the candidate's tags
- Add to Pipeline (people icon): To add the candidate to one or more pipelines in your system
- Add to Event (calendar icon): To add the candidate to one or more events in your system
- View Talent Matches (overlapping circles icon): To find other candidates in your system with similar skills and experience. (Note: This action is only available for customers with iCIMS Talent Cloud AI.)
Performing Bulk Actions in Table View
You can also apply an action to multiple candidates at once from the Candidate Search page. In the table, candidates can be selected for bulk action by selecting the checkbox at the far left of their row. (A checked box becomes yellow.)
As soon as a box is checked, a group of buttons displays at the top of the results. Many of these are also available from the Actions button on candidate profiles, as outlined above in Performing Other Actions from Candidate Profiles.
Note: Each option in the list is followed by the maximum number of candidates per bulk action.
- Email (up to 50 candidates at once)
- Invite to Apply (up to 50 candidates at once)
- Submit to Job (up to 50 candidates at once)
- Manage Tags (up to 100,000 candidates at once)
- Add to Pipeline (up to 100,000 candidates at once)
- Remove from Pipeline (up to 100,000 candidates at once)
- Add to Event (up to 50 candidates at once)
- Download Resumes (up to 50 candidates at once)
- Bulk Text (up to 50 candidates initially, but more can be added between campaign creation and when the campaign is sent): To send one or more text messages to several candidates at once through iCIMS Text Engagement. This action is only available for customers with an active Text Engagement integration from iCIMS. Any text conversation in CRM can be continued in Text Engagement or ATS.
- Export (up to 100,000 candidates at once)
The following buttons also display for recruiters admins only:
- Subscribe (up to 50 candidates at once)
- Unsubscribe (up to 50 candidates at once)
- Purge (up to 50 candidates at once)
Once all desired candidates have been selected, select the appropriate button from the toolbar to apply that bulk action.
Notes:
- Selecting the single checkbox at the top of the results (to the left of the Name column header) quickly selects/deselects all candidates currently visible in the results. When all candidates on the page are selected, this single checkbox displays a checkmark icon; when a partial set of candidates are selected, the checkbox displays a dash icon.
- When all candidates on the page are selected, an information bar opens at the top, allowing you to select all candidates from the search (on all additional pages).
- The Subscribe and Unsubscribe buttons are accessible to recruiter admins when selecting any of the 50 candidates visible on the page. The buttons are disabled when selecting more than 50 candidates (e.g., when using the "select all candidates from search" functionality).
Performing Individual Actions in Resume View
When viewing a candidate's resume in resume view, select the circular button (with three vertical dots) at the bottom right to apply an action to that person. Several options are available from this menu:
- Email
- Add to Pipeline
- Manage Tags
- Invite to Apply
Close this menu by selecting anywhere on the page.
Note: If the candidate's LinkedIn profile is available, a second icon will display at the top that allows you to access that profile.
Setting Up Automated Hired Actions
In addition to the manual actions described above, automated actions can be applied specifically to hired candidates. When candidates are hired for a job in ATS (i.e., they were placed into a Hired recruiting workflow status), you can have them automatically:
- Unsubscribed from campaign emails in CRM
- Marked as inactive in CRM
To enable any of these automated actions, reach out to iCIMS Technical Support or your iCIMS technical point of contact.
Understanding Candidates' Right to Data Privacy
CRM is capable of supporting customer efforts to maintain compliance with data privacy requirements, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It is your organization's responsibility to provide a mechanism through which candidates (and any other applicable persons) may exercise applicable rights. The sections below provide further instruction regarding information access and deletion.
Exporting Candidate Profiles
To support a candidate's request for data access or portability, a recruiter can export the candidate's data from their profile using the following steps:
- Navigate to the Candidate Search page to find the candidate in your system. (You can find a candidate quickly by opening the Search Candidates panel and entering their name in the Search by Keyword field.)
- Open the candidate's profile.
- Select the Actions button at the top right and select Export Full Profile.
- On the Exporting Candidates page that opens, select which profile fields to include in your export and select Submit at the bottom. Once processed, your CSV export is downloaded automatically.
Once the CSV is downloaded, you can then email it to the candidate via the Email action in CRM or through your organization's email system.
Note: To export several candidates' data at once from the Candidate Search page, check the box next to all appropriate candidates in the table (up to 100,000 total) and select Export in the group of buttons that opens at the top.
Updating Candidate Profiles
To support a candidate's request for data correction and rectification, a recruiter can edit the candidate's profile using the steps outlined in Editing Candidate Profiles above.
Deleting Candidate Profiles
To support a candidate's deletion or erasure request, a recruiter admin can permanently delete their profile from the CRM using the following steps:
- Navigate to the Candidate Search page to find the candidate in your system.
- Open the candidate's profile.
- Select the Actions button at the top right and select Delete Candidate. This opens the Permanently Delete Candidate? popup.
- Note: Deleting profiles is irreversible.
- Select the Delete button in this popup to complete the deletion.
Notes:
- To delete several candidates at once from the Candidate Search page, check the box next to all appropriate candidates in the table and select Delete Candidates in the group of buttons that opens at the top, then select Delete in the Permanently Delete Candidate? popup.
- For customers with an integrated iCIMS ATS, deleting a candidate’s profile from CRM also moves the candidate’s ATS profile to the purge folder. For more information on purging candidates in ATS, review the Purging Person Profiles article.
Accessing Additional Resources
To learn more about iCIMS Privacy program, including Records of Processing Activities (ROPAs), Cookies, FAQs, and more, please visit iCIMS Trust Center Portal. For more information regarding data sharing between iCIMS ATS and iCIMS CRM and how the iCIMS system can support customer privacy efforts, review the following resources:
