October 2019 Release Notes
Our October 2019 release focuses on high volume hiring, cross-system awareness and scalability - we are making it easier to engage with candidates at scale.
- Manage disposition codes: Admins can make disposition codes required and configure own disposition codes
- Auto-trigger assessments for new candidates: Assessments can be added to New stage of the hiring process - sent after candidate applies
- In-line Assessments: Assessments can be added as a part of application process to a job with seamless experience
- Adding positions in bulk: High volume hiring teams can add and manage positions in bulk
- Global compliance for hired candidates: Customize retention periods for hired candidates
- Universal Search: Single global search bar to find jobs and candidates in top navigation
- Net Hiring Score: Users can start NHS emails to their new hires and start collecting data for NHS dashboard
- SmartJobs in product: Admins can reach out to try/learn about SmartJobs
- SmartCRM includes multiple enhancements Community segments, Campaign template editor, Notes on prospect applications, and more.
- Approvals API: Customers using approval chains can configure them based on external logic
- Reviews API: Connecting SR reviews to 3rd party feedback management systems made easy
- Webhooks for the Customer API: Ability to scale API connectivity between SR and 3rd party systems
Manage Disposition Codes
- SmartRecruit
We've introduce new configuration options for rejection and withdrawal reasons that support greater customizability and support customers to be compliant with assigning disposition reasons to applicants.
Ability to remove default rejection and withdrawal reasons
Administrators can decide if the default list of rejection / withdrawal reasons will be included in the selection list when rejecting a candidate. The toggle will be on by default.
If the toggle below is turned off, then only the custom reasons that were created by the Administrator will be included in the selection list.
Please remember that default reasons are automatically translated by SmartRecruiters. Custom reasons are not automatically translated unless user enters them in a specified language.
Make rejection and withdrawal reason required
We've also added an additional setting for making rejection and withdrawal reasons a required field. This setting will help ensure data integrity when users reject candidates or mark them as withdrawn.
Auto-trigger assessments for new candidates
- SmartRecruit
Assessments can now be sent automatically to candidates after they submit their job application.
What's changed:
In our July release, we introduced the ability to setup an assessment to be automatically sent to a candidate at a specific step of the hiring process.
What's new:
We've enhanced the auto-triggered assessment so that it can also be configured to be sent immediately after a candidate applies and lands in the New stage.
Administrators can follow the same steps to setup an assessment for the New stage as they would for any other hiring process step.
Remember, only select assessments can be configured to be auto-triggered. These include: offers from a partner that can be consumed without limits and assessments transaction does not take place through SmartRecruiters.
In-line Assessments
- SmartRecruit
This feature is not yet available in sandbox accounts. Coming later in October.
In-line assessments introduces the ability to configure assessments as a part of the job application process. Candidates will be asked to take an assessment when they apply. Once they complete the assessment, the application will be created successfully and it will include the results of it.
In-line assessments are offered as a new category of assessments in our Marketplace. In order to add an in-line assessment, a system admin needs to simply edit the hiring process they want the in-line assessment to be active for.
If your organization’s preferred in-line assessment provider is not available in our Marketplace, please contact your Customer Success Manager to express your interest.
Adding Positions in Bulk
- SmartRecruit
Add multiple positions with a single click.
What's changed:
Previously, when adding positions to a job, users had to add them one by one.
What's new:
You can now add multiple positions at once by just entering the number of positions you want to add when creating a job or when editing a job from the job details tab.
Here is a step-by-step guide on how to do it:
1. Once you reach “Hiring Team” (Step 3 of Creating a Job) you will see the HEADCOUNT section. From the HEADCOUNT section, select the ADD dropdown. You now can choose from “Add Position” or “Add Multiple Positions.” Choose “Add Multiple Positions.”
2. Fill in three fields: number of positions, position open date, and target start date. The position open date and target start date you choose will be applied to all positions you create.
3. Once you have completed the remaining fields and the job is published, you will see the number of positions you opened in the Job Details Tab on the Job.
You can adjust the dates of those positions individually after they are created or at anytime in the future. This workflow applies whether you are in the process of creating a job or adding more positions in the job details tab.
For those customers using job approvals, the total number of positions created by the bulk action will also be included in the approval email:
When creating positions, you'll also notice that the Salary range field also includes a new currency picker:
For more information to share, please click the following link to download a PDF version.
Global Compliance for Hired Candidates
- SmartRecruit
Administrators can now set a separate data retention duration for hired candidates. This offers a new level of flexibility on top of existing retention periods for candidates who are rejected/withdrawn/removed from job. A default retention period can be set, as well as specific country-level retention. SmartRecruiters will auto-delete data for hired candidates who applied on or after October 4th, 2019 according to the data retention period that applies to each candidate. 
Universal Search for Jobs & Candidates
- SmartRecruit
Users will now be able to use a single global search bar to find jobs and candidate. The search type ahead is available in the top navigation bar! The search bar will support dual searching on candidates and jobs. Partial matches on job titles and job REFID are also supported. Users can select "See all matches" to search the complete list of candidates or jobs.
Net Hiring Score
- SmartRecruit
We're bringing hiring success analytics in-product! There is no better determinant of a company’s overall hiring success than quality because it speaks to the relative productivity of each hire made. This measurement is a company’s Net Hiring Score or NHS. Similar to NPS, which speaks to how loyal and expressive an organization’s customers are, the NHS, which ranges from -100 to 100, tells you what percentage of your employees are great fits (i.e. high quality) for your organization.
In the October release, Administrators will be able to turn on a survey that will start collecting their company's Net Hiring score data.
When the Net Hiring Score survey is turned on, a field will be added to the New Hire form that asks users to choose the Hiring manager recipient for the Net Hiring Score survey.
Automated emails will be sent to the new hire and the selected hiring manager asking:
- For hiring managers: On a scale of 0-10, is this candidate the right fit for the job?
- For candidates: On a scale of 0-10, is this job that you've accepted, the right fit for you?
This email are sent exactly 90 days after the applicant’s start date as defined on the application Confirm Hiring screen. Please note that new hires will receive the survey at the email that they used to apply, not their employee email address.
This is the email for the Hiring Manager:
This is the email to the new hire:
The language of the email is determined by the language setting of the user who have set the candidate to hired.
Hiring managers and new hires will have 14 days to respond to the survey. They will be sent automatic follow-up reminders if they have not responded. The first email reminder is sent 48 hours after the initial email, and the second email reminder is sent 48 before the timeframe for the response is up.
Please note: If the candidate were to leave their role before the 90 day survey send date, then the candidate would still receive the email survey and it would be possible for them to respond.
SmartRecruiters will collect and store the responses from candidates and Hiring Managers. The calculated Net Hiring Score will be shown on a dashboard available to Administrators: 
SmartJobs in Admin
- SmartRecruit
- +
- SmartJobs
We are incorporating a SmartJobs starter form into the admin settings page to make it easier for administrators to spearhead the setup of their programmatic advertising spend and enquire about programmatic advertising solutions available to them.
Administrators can specify the key parameters they would like to optimize such as, the number of jobs they would like to receive candidates for via programmatic advertising, their budget, and advertising strategy preferences. Submitting the forms taps into our programmatic advertising solution, SmartJobs, and generates advertising strategy options that our programmatic advertising team can then discuss with the customer.
Administrators can reach the enquiry form here.
SmartCRM: Campaigns template editor, Campaign segments, Notes on prospect applications
- SmartRecruit
- +
- SmartCRM
Campaign template editor
This feature is not yet available in sandbox accounts. Coming later in October.
What's changed:
The upgraded campaign template editor offers drag-and-drop functionality for sourcers to build branded campaign templates with only a few clicks.
What's new:
The editor also includes new settings to define the template's background and body color, as well as content blocks and new components including: text, images, buttons, and dividers.
Select between two different layouts and then drag and drop components into the content blocks:
Upload images and choose the campaign template's background color under Design Settings:
In addition to branded campaigns, sourcers can still use the simple layout, to create a more direct message.
Community segments
Sourcers can create custom segments of prospects in their communities to better organize them and target groups of prospects with a campaign. To create a segment:
- Go to the Community prospect list. Select the prospects that you want to build a segment from.
- Open the Actions dropdown. Choose "Create new segment."
- Name your segment.
- The list of created segments will be available in the Community settings tab.
Segments can also be used as audiences when creating a campaign. This allows sourcers to build very targeted campaigns. 
Notes on prospect applications
Notes functionality in the system has been extended to prospect applications. Sourcers can write and share comments about prospects from the Notes tab on the prospect application page, including @-mentions and #-tagging prospects.
Find more information about how to use notes in SmartRecruiters here.
Prompt user to save campaigns as draft
- SmartRecruit
- +
- SmartCRM
When users are in the campaign wizard and click on "Return to campaigns" or the browser's back button, a message will appear prompting their user to save their changes.
Edit community application source
- SmartCRM
Sourcers are now able to change the prospect's source in a community and select another one from the existing source library.
Select any brand logo in campaign
- SmartCRM
When creating a campaign, sourcers can add any logo that has been added to a brand from brand settings.
Approval API
- SmartRecruit
- and
- SmartConnect
Our new Approval API offers greater flexibility for customers using job and offer approvals to define custom logic to drive the approvers on an approval request. This API supports the ability to retrieve pending approval requests and create new approval requests. Customers can build custom logic outside of the system, beyond just using the in-system Org field configuration.
-
The Approval API endpoints include:
-
GET Approval Requests - lists the approval requests where the user is the approver.
-
POST Approval Request - creates a new approval request with the given approval Id and abandons the old request.
-
Approval resource includes the following fields in the request body: approval id, subject (job or offer), type (parallel or sequential), decision mode (all or only one must approve), steps (steps of approver).
Access the live API documentation on our developer portal here.
To build custom logic to drive approvals, we recommend using the Customer API to pull data for:
-
Job fields - https://dev.smartrecruiters.com/customer-api/live-docs/job-api/#/jobs/jobs.get
-
Positions - https://dev.smartrecruiters.com/customer-api/live-docs/job-api/#/jobs/jobs.positions.all
-
Hiring teams - https://dev.smartrecruiters.com/customer-api/live-docs/job-api/#/jobs/jobs.hiring-team.get
-
Candidate fields - https://dev.smartrecruiters.com/customer-api/live-docs/candidate-api/#/candidates/candidates.properties.getForJob
-
Offer fields - https://dev.smartrecruiters.com/customer-api/live-docs/offer-api/#/offers/candidates.offers.find
-
Screening Question answers - https://dev.smartrecruiters.com/customer-api/live-docs/candidate-api/#/candidates/candidates.screening-answers.get
Reviews API
- SmartRecruit
- and
- SmartConnect
Our new Reviews API supports customers to be able to retrieve a list of reviews on a specific candidate, create new reviews and update reviews through an integration. The API will include the following endpoints:
|
GET:/review/candidate/{id}/job/{jobid} |
Retrieve a list of reviews for a specific application |
|
POST:/review |
Creates a review on a specific candidate application |
|
GET:/review/{id} |
Get a specific review |
|
PATCH/PUT:/review/{id} |
Edit/update a specific review |
|
DELETE:/review/{id} |
Remove a specific review |
Webhooks
- SmartRecruit
- and
- SmartConnect
We are introducing a brand new functionality for our Customer API that will improve the integration experience for customers and partners alike. Webhooks allow developers to subscribe to entity changes in the system instead of polling for updates. A webhook notifies your application by sending outgoing HTTP requests to a URL of your choosing.
The Webhooks Subscription API exposes endpoints you can use to create webhooks, define the events notifications you want to receive, set callback URLs, and remove webhooks when they are no longer needed.
If your application is integrating using OAuth 2.0, you will need to ensure you have included the necessary access scopes to create a webhook. Learn more about the different options for connecting to our Customer API.
Find out more about the new webhooks functionality in our Developer Portal.
Report Builder Enhancements
- SmartRecruit
- and
- SmartConnect
We've continuously improved Report Builder throughout in the last quarter. Enhancements include:
Additional data points
- Ability to report on “Job location - State”
- Ability to report on whether a job is a template. If the job is a template, then the value will show TRUE and FALSE if otherwise.
- Job Approvals
- Offer Approvals
- Offers - excludes offer fields and comments
- Salary min/max on the job
- Interviews data
- Application update date
- Candidate update date
- Screening Questions
- Employment History
- Education
Users will be able to build reports to analyze approvals lag time, aggregate the total number of offers extended, and calculate offer acceptance rate. See the full list of available data points here. All data can also be retrieved from the Reporting API after new reports are created.
More Filters
- Filter on Job Location - Country
- Filter on default Department Org Field
Additional highlighted reporting areas
When creating a report, users will see a couple additional reporting areas highlighted:
We’ve added many additional data points including: Offer, Interviews and Reviews data. The full list is available here.
Reports informational view
We added a page for report viewers to see the selected reporting area, data fields and filters that have been setup for the report. Users can see what is included in the report without going through the additional download step.
Report scheduled status
We’ve also improved the visibility of reports schedule status so you’ll be able to see at a glance which reports are recurring and which are ad-hoc reports.
Report filters not added warning
We noticed cases where users had selected a filter, but missed the step to add it to the report. We now show a warning to alert users. From the warning, users can choose to “Apply” the filter directly or to “Skip” and move ahead without adding the filter.
Report Builder permission change
We are going to be closing access to create reports for Extended users. Originally, this was planned to be released with new screening questions data in Report Builder, but it was launched one week early.
Screening questions can contain sensitive data such as EEO and Diversity related responses. We wanted to provide an added layer of security to ensure this data can only be accessed by users who should have access.
Ideally, if the customer is comfortable with giving access to this sensitive data, then they can create a custom system role to allow Full access to Report Builder.
User Interface Enhancements
Several UI elements have been updated over the last several months to increase accessibility and raise the visual standards of SmartRecruiters. These elements include icons, forms styling, error messaging, typography adjustments, and more. These changes ensure a smoother and more consistent experience for users.
Alert banners
- SmartRecruit
This is a simple visual change to the alert banners. The update includes success, error, warning, and information messages.
Updated icons
This is a simple style change to update the older icons in our system to a more sleek design. The icons update is part of an ongoing design effort to maintain a high usability standard to ensure the best experience for our users.
| Old |
|---|
 |
| New |
|---|
 |
Candidate Portal Enhancements
Offers page
| Old | New |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Interviews page
| Old | New |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Progress bar
The status bar was updated on the single application view as well as the all applications view. On the single application view, the status bar is represented with the brand color.
On the all applications view, the status bar is in the same blue as our navigation bar.
Brand website
We are now displaying the website of the brand directly next to progress bar so that it is easy for candidates to get more information. In case there is no brand website specified in your Brands settings, there won’t be any button available.
New Sign-In Page & Sign-in with Google
- SmartRecruit
Candidate now have a new, branded and engaging sign-in page to enter their SmartRecruiters candidate portal.
New navigation in Candidate Portal
- SmartRecruit
We are moving our grey left navigation bar to a top one with an avatar menu, it will be transparent on the application page and blue everywhere else. This will also allow for a greater focus on the company when the candidate lands on an application page. The pictures below depicts a “New / Before” state of the new navigation.
Profile Completeness Bar
- SmartRecruit
The SmartProfile page in the Candidate Portal is getting a progress bar. Candidates will be encouraged to build a complete profile to increase their score. The progress bar will be on the SmartProfile page in the Candidate Portal. It will recruiters to review candidates faster and improve the profile quality.
Delightful Enhancements
Here's a list of smaller but still high impact improvements that were released weekly throughout the entire quarter. Access the running Delightful Enhancements log to stay up to date.
Support permissions in People filters (including Screening Questions!)
Ability to add attachments in Job Details
- SmartRecruit
Now you will be able to add attachments to your job in the Job Details tab, right under Internal Notes. There is no limit to the number of attachments you can add.
The access levels required by Hiring Teams to use this feature are:
Internal Job Details
Write: Can add / remove attachment
Read: Can see attachment
None: Can't see or add attachments
Setting to share the latest resume across all applications
- SmartRecruit
In April 2019, we released application specific attachments. It means that when viewing the application of a candidate, you can only see the attachments that pertained to this specific application.
Following the release, we noticed that some of our customers needed to have a resume that would be shared across all applications. We listened to you and we are releasing a setting called “Attachment visibility” that allows you to have the latest resume shared across all applications.
When turned on and if you add a candidate to another job, you’ll be able to see the resume without having to download it / reupload it to the application. This setting is turned off by default.
Ability to retrieve SSO ID from the User API
Ability to choose the consent wording for Global Compliance
- SmartRecruit
In the Global Compliance setting, you will now be able to decide which line of wording you would like to use in the consent sentence for your privacy policy. Administrators will be able to choose between “read and understand” versus “read and agree”. Depending on what you choose, the change will be propagated in the application experience and the consent request screen.
Please note, that if you are using CRM, the change is not yet propagated in Lead Capture Forms.
Choose a source when adding a candidate to a job
- SmartRecruit
When adding a candidate to another job, users will now be able to enter which source this candidate is coming from. The default source is the one of the application you are taking the action from. Before, when adding a candidate to another job, it was defaulted to SmartRecruiters as a source.
|
Before |
After |
New time-stamp in Activity tab when a user changes the status of a candidate
- SmartRecruit
Everytime a user moves a candidate manually through the hiring process statuses, an audit trail will be recorded in the Activity tab of the application. Please note that automatic status updates will not be appearing in the Activity tab, only manual actions will.
Quick link to access all reviews of a candidate from the application page
- SmartRecruit
It is sometimes hard to navigate between applications to see all the reviews that have been made about a candidate. We added a quick link in the reviews tab that takes you to the list of all the reviews that have been previously made about that candidate for other jobs. You will only be able to see the reviews that you have permissions to access (from your system role access, if the job is part of your access group, your hiring team role on the job, or if a candidate has been shared with you).
Alphabetical sorting on candidate fields values
- SmartRecruit
- or
- SmartGlobal
Now, in the Candidate Fields setting, you will be able to alphabetically order all of the values entered from one click of a button!
Job Fields Values Limit increased to 5,000
Hired positions data is not cleared when a candidate is deleted
Useful tips on Screening Question configuration
- SmartRecruit
We released some helpful tips when editing a screening questions set. Just click on the link below and you will see a popup with explanations!
If you click on “How to” in the second tip, it also gives you some info on how to use markdowns to format your screening questions:
Preview all formatting when creating a screening question
- SmartRecruit
When creating new screening questions, users can apply markdown to format the question text. The preview section now supports all markdown formatting and will show users what the text formatting for their screening questions look like.
New languages: Ukrainian and Czech
Mobile Hiring App: Searching for Jobs using RefID
- SmartRecruit
When you review jobs from the Jobs list, you can now find jobs by searching with the the REFID.
Mobile Hiring App: Employee tag on the applicant list
- SmartRecruit
When you review applicants from the Jobs tab, you can now distinguish internal applicants easily. Just open the People tab to see the new label.
Candidate SmartProfile: Retaining active applications
- SmartRecruit
In addition to being able to edit, add or delete specific information (personal, work experience etc.) of their existing active applications in the Candidate Portal, candidates can fully delete their Candidate SmartProfile. With this enhancement all existing, active applications will be kept when a candidate deletes their full SmartProfile unless they take a specific, separate action.
The following message will notify them that their active applications will be retained:
I understand that (please check all the following):
My SmartRecruiters Candidate Portal account will be deleted and I will not be able to access it anymore
Deleting my SmartRecruiters Candidate Portal account cannot be undone
Please note that deleting your candidate portal will NOT delete your profile and applications at the companies you have applied to.
If you wish to withdraw your interest or delete your profile for each company, please go to the “My Application” page to proceed.
In the above text, we made sure that we were specifying “SmartRecruiters” account in every sentence and that no data will be deleted from the companies the candidate applied to unless they take a specific action on the “My Application” page.
Although this enhancement aims to keep active applications visible to the user, the candidate continues to have full ownership of their own data and they can withdraw/delete active applications at any time.
SmartRecruiters banner for Facebook jobs
- SmartRecruit
We've added a branded SmartRecruiters banner for all jobs posted on Facebook.
Job board contract management improvements
Selecting a job is required for Add Candidate
Users will be required to select a job when adding a candidate through the Add Candidate functionality. The addition of this requirement prevents users from accidentally adding candidates to General Application when no job is selected.
Small change in wording of the In-Review email
- SmartRecruit
We are clarifying that data controllership in the in-review email notification as well as the popup that shows on the SmartRecruiters candidate portal after a candidate applies, by adding the word SmartRecruiters.
|
Before |
After |
|
Dear [First Name], Your profile is being viewed by the hiring team. You can check your status by clicking the link below. |
Dear [First Name], Your profile is being viewed by the hiring team. You can check your status on your SmartRecruiters account by clicking on the link below. |
|
Welcome to your Candidate Portal
Now head over your inbox and click on the link of the email we just sent you in order to finalize the creation of your Candidate Portal. |
Welcome to SmartRecruiters! This is the best place to:
Get access to all of these by creating your SmartRecruiters account. Head over your inbox and click on the link of the email we've just sent you in order to complete this process. |
New Audit API Events
Additionally, the 2 new events below is also now available:
-
Job fields update
-
Position update
SmartLabs
As a company, SmartRecruiters is focused on not just building innovative products to help connect people to jobs: we're also a company of intelligent people with a passion for recruiting and a ton of great ideas. Our SmartLabs innovation program is designed to capture these ideas and make them a reality.
Note that SmartLabs features are experimental and provide without warranty as to functionality. Customers may report bugs and request improvements via normal channels, but should have no expectations of following our regular SLAs.
Unpublished Date on Job Creation
- SmartRecruit
At Hiring Success 2017’s hackathon, an amazing team of Customer + SmartRecruiters engineers produced a great hack: through a Chrome Extension and some setup for each user, you were able to set up unpublishing dates for your jobs. After seeing high usage, we decided to make it available for all of our customers. In Admin / Settings, you will be able to find a new page called “SmartLabs”.
Turning the toggle on will allow any users who have a publish/unpublish job permission to set an unpublish date as well for all types of jobs (public, internal, private). It will be unpublished on the date set up, at midnight in the timezone of the unpublishing user (the timezone is the one of the user’s computer).
Please note that the existing chrome extension will not be needed anymore and it can be uninstalled from the chrome browser.