Combine Candidates Records

From ROL Help System

From time to time, a candidate may apply online a number of times without using their existing username and password, which means they complete the online application form again and when submitted, it creates a duplicate record on the system and yet another username and password.

Additionally, when entering candidate details onto the system, if the user does not check that the candidate might already be entered on the system prior to creating another record, then a duplicate record will be created.

So it is not uncommon that you could find more than one record for a particular candidate. If you find a candidate has more than one record in ROL then it would be advisable to combine their records.

The process is reasonably straight forward but it is essential that you choose the correct record to keep and the correct record/s to merge into the 'kept' record, because once it is merged, it cannot be reversed!!!

How to combine a candidate's record

• If you suspect that a record has 1 or more duplicates, search for the candidate's record/s.
• Review the results, especially looking at items such as recent notes (eg the most recent the note - potentially, the more current information) or the most recent application, the similarity of the addresses, phone numbers etc.
• From reviewing the duplicated candidates, determine which one of the records is the best one to keep - ensuring you have the right one because once you proceed, this cannot be undone.
  • IMPORTANT - the merge process will merge all notes, application histories, resumes, keywords, but it will not merge the following:
  • address information
  • candidate status
  • registered with
  • interviewed
  • It will keep this information from the record that you select to merge into only.
• In the Tools menu, click on the Admin link, then under 'SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATION::', click the 'Combine Candidates Records' link.
• Put in the surname of the candidate you wish to combine and click on the Select Records to Combine button.
• Enter your search criteria. You can search by First name, Last name or Email address.
• When the results come up, select the record that you want to keep from the 'green' column
  • Ideally, this is the record with the ROL username that is an email address, as it is much easier for a candidate to remember their username if it is their email address.
• Next, carefully select the record/s you wish to combine from the 'red' column. Remember, once merged, this cannot be reversed!
• Click 'Merge Records'.
  • If you are merging into a record without some details which the other records contain (eg one record may contain a mobile number which does not appear on the record you are going to merge into), then you should take note or copy this data so that you can enter it into the 'newly merged' record, otherwise you will not be able to get that data back.
• Once merged, a confirmation of the merge will show, with a link to the newly merged record.

If you merged into a record where the candidate has applied for many positions and created multiple usernames and passwords with these records, it is advisable to reset the candidate's username & password and send them a confirmation email with their new username and password, because if you merge the record with login details which they are currently using, they will not be able to log in using those details any longer.

For information on how to allocate log-in details for a candidate, see this page: Assign Candidate Login Details

Duplicate Candidates Report

To make things a little easier, we have provided users with a report called Combine Records: Report of Candidate Duplicates in the Admin page ('More' -> 'Admin' on toolbar) - this is a report of all the duplicate records on the system (those that share the same email address).

Users can view this report and click through each record, which will bring them to the 'Combine Candidate Records' page (as per instructions above) to merge the duplicated records together.