Importing Candidates from CSV

There are a number of ways to import candidates into the database; either from a CV via our CV import mailboxes, manually via Create or even via our candidate portals, where candidates can sign up & register online.

However, sometimes none of these are suitable options; maybe you are migrating data from another platform or have gathered sign up data from a recruitment fayre etc, so a CV isn't available... Introducing the Candidate Import tool, which will allow you to create new records from a CSV.

Hint - Got CVs that you want to want, rather than in a spreadsheet? Check out our best practise guides here for when a CV is available.

Candidate Import

You can find the candidate import within the Import options on the blue Eploymenu (permission dependent), which when selected will open in the Candidate Import window.

Once open, there are 5 steps to importing candidate data, which the import wizard will walk through:

• Upload Data - Where you are upload your prepared candidate data, after reviewing the sample CSV.
• CSV Validation - The tool will make sure your columns are mapped to fields correctly & highlight any errors.

• Missing Data - This step is for any drop down lists which are being set on the candidate record
• Existing Records - How to handle duplicate records as part of the import.
• Import - Where new records are created & the tool is complete.

Upload Data - Preparing your Candidate info

The first step to importing candidates is to prepare your candidate data. This needs to be done in a a CSV, where each of the columns of data needs to be mapped to a field within Eploy. To do this, click Generate Example CSV / XML (CSV if you arent comfortable working with XML) which will trigger a download of all the field which are available to import against. 

From the sample, search for the field header that you need to import data against and copy into the header of your dataset - don't try to add your data into the sample sheet as there are lots of fields available, some of which you wont need to populate!

Hint - In the sample, the fields are in alphabetical order, based on the import merge field and have the field description detailed below. Its the import merge field that you need to include in your data, in order to map the fields. You will find import merge fields for all candidate fields (Cand_ ), application fields (VacApp_ ), placement fields (Plcmt_ ) and any custom questions (QID).

Once you have added the import merge fields to your data, it should look something like this:

Save the data as a CSV and back within the Candidate Import tool, select the saved file to upload before clicking Continue.

Hint - As a minimum, you need to include Cand_Email within the import.

CSV Validation

After clicking continue, the tool will do a first check to ensure that all of the colum headers have ben entered into the CSV correctly. If there are any unrecognised headers, they will be flagged at this stage, before allowing you to proceed or restrart to amend your data.

A successful validation of all the headers will look like this, with each column shown with a tick:

Any columns without a tick means that the header has not be recognised, so if you are looking to import that data, revisit your dataset and restart the process.

Missing Data

Once the CSV headers have been validated, the data will then be checked to ensure that it is compatible with the import. This can include ensuring that all drop down values exist already, as well there are no missing fields such as email address for all records. If there is any missing data, it will be highlighted within the tool and you will not be able to proceed without correcting the data within your spreadsheet.

Use the restart option if you have to correct any data, or use Continue if its available to move into Existing Records.

Existing Records

Within Existing Records, this is where you can duplicate check any records in your data set and compare to your existing database. As default, the tool will duplicate check using the candidate email address to identify any records which already exist:

if there are any matched records, the information from your spreadsheet will be displayed, along with a link to the candidate in the database so you can decide what to do with that data.

Hint - You can also also use the candidate name, as well as the email address, to identify potential duplicates, by using the Match to Existing Records on setting & Update to rerun the check.

Once you have identified your duplicate records, you then have two options in regards of How to Handle Matched Records:

• Import - This will create a new record based on the information in the spreadsheet. The existing record will not be affected at all.
• Exclude - This will ignore that row from the spreadsheet and no new record will be created. The existing record will not be affected.

Hint - There is no option to update existing candidate records using the import tool. If you chose to use the Import option for any duplicates, you can then use the Find Duplicates tool to merge the records together, max 100 records at a time. For more information on managing duplicates, please see here.

Chose the appropriate option and click on continue.

Import

The final stage will then show you a summary of the records to be imported, including the total number of new candidates that will be created.

This is your last opportunity to go back or restart the process so ensure you are happy with the data being added to the database. Once you are ready, click Import & the process will begin. As this can take some time, based on the number or records and fields being imported, you can track the import from here before eventually seeing Complete.

Now that the import is complete, click Finish and the tool will close, whilst the list of imported records will then be displayed in full.