Overview
This article describes how Source & CRM merges candidates and profiles, the rules for determining the default profile, and what happens to edited data in Evolve Recruitment Marketing (RM).
Audience
Admins
FAQ
Q. When does profile merging occur in Source & CRM?
A. Resumes/Profiles that come into Evolve RM with the same email address(any contact email address for candidates with multiple emails) become part of the same candidate record. The source of the resumes/profiles (i.e., ATS via API, imported resumes, add-ins, job board resumes, etc.) doesn't matter. Then, resumes and profiles are added to the same candidate, and a default resume/profile is chosen.
Q. What is the rule for determining the default (aka primary) profile when merging profiles?
A. First, we check the option selected in the CRM feature to set the primary profile as ATS Profile or Most Recent Profile. By default, all accounts have this set to ATS Profile, though it can be changed to Most Recent Profile if this option better suits the company's business needs. When the feature is set to ATS Profile, ATS candidates will have their ATS profile set the default. Candidates with multiple ATS profiles get the newest ATS profile (based on the Age of Resume) set the default. When the feature is set to Most Recent Profile, any newest profile, regardless of its source, is set as the default. The exclusion of this rule is if the person's default profile was defined manually by a recruiter. In this case, the default profile will not change even after a newer profile is merged into that person. The Visitor profile will never be the default profile for a candidate (special rule).
Q. Can a user force a specific profile to be the default/primary?
A. Yes. A recruiter could choose a specific profile for the candidate to be the primary. The user goes to the Profiles tab, chooses a profile that is not the primary, and selects Set as Primary.
Once a profile is primary, it remains primary even if newer profiles are added to the candidate.
Q. What are the criteria used to merge candidates and profiles?
A. The main criteria for merging a candidate is an identical email address (any contact email address for candidates with multiple emails). However, there are a few exceptional cases:
- If a candidate is created via an inbound text message, that temporary candidate only has an SMS number. If a new candidate with an identical SMS number comes into the system, the message history is merged (the temporary profile is removed).
- For visitors, we are initially merging based on the visitor web tracking ID. Once the candidate gets known information (e.g., the email address), merging is done based on the email address.
Q. How do Evolve RM and the Updated Profile UI behave when a candidate has many profiles?
A. When there are multiple profiles with the same email address, they are merged into a single candidate with multiple profiles. We have a maximum of 50 profiles per candidate, after which we will stop linking those profiles together into a single candidate. After 50 profiles, each profile will get its own candidate. There are many reasons for that, including the performance of the backend and the UI for recruiters.
Q. When profiles are merged, what data is shown on the candidate?
- Contact Data
- The contact data is always from the primary/default profile (see "What happens to edited data when profiles are merged?" for a special case)
- If a new profile comes in and becomes primary/default, the contact data changes to be the new primary. NOTE: If the new primary profile has poor contact data (compared to the previous primary profile), then the contact data could get worse.
- Work History/Education History/Summary (Overview Tab)
- From the default profile.
- You can see each profile's specific Work History/Education History/Summary on the Profiles tab.
- Applications
- Show applications from all profiles (grouped by profile).
- Other Fields/Custom Fields
- Shows all fielded data collected from all profiles.
- Default profile fields may override data or be primary if data is on the same field on multiple profiles.
- You can see the list of the specific data collected on each field by expanding (Show All).
Q. What happens to edited data when profiles are merged?
- Contact Data Edits override contact data from new primary profiles.
- Once a user edits a candidate's contact data, new profiles will appear that do not affect the contact data.
- Custom Field edits override new fielded data from new primary profiles.
- Only affects the specific field that has edited data.
- New data goes into history for that field (Show All) but does not get indexed/not searchable.
Examples of merging candidates with custom field data.
- Both candidates have edited field A: after the merge, the value from the primary profile is displayed in the field. The value from the merged profile is not saved.
- The main candidate has edited field A, and the secondary candidate has edited field B. The resulting candidate has both fields A and B.
- The main candidate has no value for field A, and the secondary candidate has an edited value for the same field, resulting in the candidate having the edited value for the field.
- The main candidate has an edited value for field A, and the secondary candidate has an original value for the same field: the resulting candidate has the edited value; the original value can be seen under Show All.
- The main candidate has an original value for field A, and the secondary candidate has an edited value for the same field: the resulting candidate has the edited value; the original value can be seen under Show All.
- The main candidate has an original field A, and the secondary candidate has an edited field B: the resulting candidate has A and B fields.
- One candidate has original field A, and another has original field B: the resulting candidate has both A and B fields.
- Both candidates have the same original field: the resulting candidate has the value of the primary profile; the other value can be seen under Show All.
Q. I know that two candidates in Evolve RM are the same person but have different emails (or one is missing an email). How can I merge them?
- Go to one of the profiles that you want to merge.
- Edit Contact Info.
- Change the email address to match the other profile (i.e., edit the candidate's old email address and enter the new/correct/preferred email address that exists as another candidate).
- You will be prompted to merge.
- Confirm the merge.
- You will see the new combined Candidate with both of the profiles. The default profile will be chosen based on the newest profile.