Recruiting for Success

with Oracle iRecruitment

Prepared for:
OAUG COLLABORATE08

Author: Susan Beals

Date: April 15, 2008

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Table of Contents
Overview...............................................................................................................3
Implementation Considerations ............................................................................3
Recruiting Life Cycle and Processes .............................................................3
Manual verse Automated ...............................................................................3
Approvals Requirements ...............................................................................4
Security and Custom Responsibilities............................................................4
End User Training..........................................................................................4
Testing ...........................................................................................................5
System Decisions ..........................................................................................5
Pros and Cons of iRecruitment .............................................................................5
Recruiting for Success, Features of iRecruitment .................................................6
Using Descriptive Flexfields and Special Information Types .............................6
Assessments .....................................................................................................7
Security .............................................................................................................9
Job Postings......................................................................................................9
Create Vacancy Issue .....................................................................................10
Searching Requisitions....................................................................................10
View Applicant Details.....................................................................................11
Creating Disclosure Link .................................................................................11
View Applicant Details ........................................................................................12
Recruitment Terminology ................................................................................13
Statuses Defined .............................................................................................13
Issues and Workarounds ....................................................................................14
Candidates, Employees & External.....................................................................15
View New Jobs, Las 7 Days ............................................................................15
Search Results ................................................................................................16
External Candidates ........................................................................................16
Contingent Worker Issue.................................................................................18
Contact Information .........................................................................................18

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Overview
This white paper outlines how to maximize your investment in iRecruitment by
considering strategies for your implementation, discussing some of the pros and
cons of the application and looking at issues and workarounds.
In order to fully understand iRecruitment, we will also consider the features of the
application, as delivered by oracle and some of the ways you can enhance the
system using out of the box functionality, such as personalizations.

ImplementationConsiderations
Recruiting Life Cycle and Processes
It is imperative that future users of the system document what their current
recruiting life cycle (process flow) looks like and how it will look in the future. This
flow must take in the full life cycle, from creation of a vacancy to the filling of the
vacancy.
It is during this period consideration should be given to exceptions, such as
approvals and contingent workers. These should be documented to insure they
are captured as part of your business requirements.
The document you create here will be used to design/build your system and will
be used to extract your test plan, so you see how important it is to your process
and implementation.
You should also consider job postings as they relate to vacancies and
segregation of duties, job responsibilities. Who does what? Who owns the job
postings in your organization? Who are your recruiters? What role does a
manager play?
Now you are ready to prepare a detailed fit/gap analysis, you know what features
you want iRecruitment to meet; now working with your consultant you can identify
where the gaps are and what the workarounds will be.

Manual verse Automated

iRecruitment is very much a self service module, with very few pieces remaining
in the core application. Since many of your requests will happen on-line, such
as creating a vacancy, creating an offer letter, there are decisions to be made on
how you are going to notify key groups when actions must be taken (i.e.) How
will your HR team know when you have hired someone? Will you use Alerts? Will
you use a Manual Process?
To this end you must also consider approvals. What are the approval
requirements for new vacancies created? Do requisitions require approvals? This
will require the use of AME (Approvals Management)

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Approvals Requirements
Approvals are a very complex component of your implementation, or they can be,
so careful consideration should be given to the following: What needs to be
approved? Requisitions? Offer Letters? What is the timeline for approvals? How
many days should it take for an Offer Letter to be approved?
You must also consider what your approval hierarchy will look like and who will
approve what. For example does one approval structure meet all your needs? It
is critical that you do not forget the importance of writing and approving the
specifications for your approvals. These should be documented, signed by the
functional team and saved into the project library.
Remember that the more information you gather and document at the beginning
of your implementation the better positioned you will be when it comes time to
design the system.

Security and Custom Responsibilities

Security is a critical area of iRecruitment and often one that is deferred until
later, then later arrives and you are struggling to figure out what you need and
when. Consider what types of security you need, what types of responsibilities
are required. It is recommended you develop a responsibility matrix build upon
your corporate needs.
Remember you can use personalizations, at responsibility to level to help with
security requirements, but this needs to be thought out.

End User Training

This is another area of your implementation that is often overlooked. Remember
you will have several people using the system and do your end users need
training? Pay particular attention to your HR Team who will be hiring Applicants
into Oracle HR.
The project plan should include your timeline for training, when it will occur in the
project timeline. An extension of the plan is what the delivery method of training
will be, classroom, train the trainer, web casts.
Lastly, dont forget your support team after go-live, should they be included in the
training.

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Testing
Testing is a critical piece to any implementation, but more so with iRecruitment
because of the External Candidates. You must develop a strong testing strategy,
what is being tested (scripts), who will be testing (test team), when will testing
occur (part of project plan). Insure your test plan includes rework and retesting
built into it. Expect that things wont work the first time, this doesnt mean you
have failed!
Consider how you will test, conference room pilots for example, test teams,
integrated testing, end to end.

System Decisions
One of your key decisions will be around the Proxy Server and its setup for
external candidates. This decision is generally made by your DBA and technical
team who will consider data integrity, security and costs.
It is important that you include this decision at the front of the project plan so
your tech team can be researching, deciding and obtaining approval for the
chosen plan of action early on. You dont want to wait until the 11th Hour

ProsandConsofiRecruitment
Offer Letters positive feature, but there are some limitations (i.e.) no ability to
create ad hoc offer letters.
Offer Letters do not contain State in the address in the delivered letter, you
must insert this. Requires someone with ability to work with XML Publisher.
Assessments positive feature, create assessments, tests and questionnaires
for recruiting; remember this is part of Oracle Training and Admin, not
iRecruitment.
Contingent Workers no functionality, currently, to handle the hiring of
contingent workers into HRMS, you must develop an internal process that meets
your organizations needs.

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RecruitingforSuccess,FeaturesofiRecruitment
There are several ways to setup iRecruitment for your business so the look and
feel for one company may differ from another.
Using Descriptive Flexfields and Special Information Types
You should consider whether or not you want to pull information from your
Descriptive Flexfields and/or Special Information Types. Both of these can be
used to enhance your system and capture additional pieces of information.
Some of the DFFs are shared with employees, in the case of the Vacancy DFF it
only applies to applicants, you are safe making segments required if you need to.
However, DFFs on the Person Form are shared by both Applicants and
Employees.
The Additional Personal Details DFF resides on the People Form. This is shared
by all person types so making it required for one can make it required applicants
will by default make it required for employees.
Careful planning is required for DFF and SITs used in iRecruitment to insure you
know whether you want them required or not and who you want to access them,
you could set access by personalization if necessary.

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Assessments
Assessments are actually part of Oracle Training Administration and are shared
with iRecruitment. You can set up assessments and attach them to your
vacancies.
In this example the client wanted to attach their application form to vacancies for
external employees only, no easy feat, this had to be done through
personalizations and OA Framework by the technical team. It would be
considered a customization.

Remember you can create as many assessments as you like. For example if
your company operates in Canada and the United States you may want two
types of assessments to meet different compliance requirements in the types of
questions you may ask.
Assessment Issue if you cannot see assessments > Assessment Admin Link in
your Custom Recruiting Responsibility then you must do the following
Responsibility = Use Functional Administrator
Click Create Grant
Enter Grant Name & Effective Date
Enter Responsibility Name
Click Next
Enter IRC Assessment Administration Permission Set > Finish

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Screenshots -

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Security
There is security setup within iRecruitment that you can use, however you should
remember that there is no correlation between IRC security and HR security
profiles. We tried to tie the two and ran into standard functionality issues not
supporting this approach (per Oracle Support).
Further, we were unable to set the default to Team through personalizations so
we added in a colorful note as shown.

Job Postings
Job postings are created so that when a vacancy is created it is automatically
associated with a job posting. The details pull into the vacancy based on this link.

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Create Vacancy Issue

If the Site name did not include the External Site then the posting wasnt
available to Internal Applicants. There were cases where we didnt want the
posting available to External candidates until a certain date, but when this was
not dated current our internal applicants could not see the posting either. We
ended up with an SR on this issue.

Searching Requisitions
The search requisition page can be personalized to meet your business needs;
hiding columns, hiding search fields.
Remember you can base your
personalizations on responsibility so they can be different for managers,
employees and recruiters if you like. This is another consideration you include in
your security decisions, using Personalizations at Responsibility level.
After you have found the Vacancy you may view it, if you want to make updates
to it you may also do so. You have to select update on the form, if it doesnt
appear then the vacancy isnt updateable, it may be closed or someone has
saved it. Remember you must select Update or your information will not be
saved.

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View Applicant Details

View applicants, who have applied for postings. Here you can validate their
status and you can also apply ratings. You can also personalize this form, in this
example we added in our Disclosure Link so that it is visible on the form.
Remember, this is done through personalization.

Creating Disclosure Link

Create your document and you must save it in an available file that can be found,
Destination URL. You also personalize the column as shown below.

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ViewApplicantDetails
Applicants can be viewed on line by your recruiters and managers if you allow
them to. While viewing applicants there are several actions that can also be
taken, such as Create Offer. It is in the view applicant details that you may view
the responses to the assessment created and you can view the status the
applicant is currently in.

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Recruitment Terminology
Candidate a person who has registered on your iRecruitment site, but has not
applied for a job. Candidates do not have to register to browse the recruiting
website.
Applicant a person who has applied for a job on your recruiting site, they must
register to apply and by so doing they become an Applicant.
Contingent Worker a person who is not an employee (not paid through payroll),
but who is performing a specific job/task for a specific period of time. You do not
want them included in Head Count Reports.
Statuses there are many statuses used in IRC, vacancy status, hiring status,
applicant status, each has a slightly different meaning and use.
Prospect Pool list of candidates/applicants in the system based on search
criteria.
Individuals represents only those employees who have applied for a position.
Resumes search your resume pool for keywords.
Applicants a person who has applied for a job on your recruiting site, they must
register to apply

Statuses Defined
Unapproved if approval process for vacancy is used and vacancy is not
approved yet
Hold is used by managers to hold onto a vacancy when candidates apply for
the vacancy.
Rejected Approver has rejected the approval of a new vacancy.
Approved the approver has approved. Candidate can only see vacancies in
Status = Approved.
Pending It means that someone is working or doing modification on vacancy
description.
Assigned the vacancy has been assigned to an approver to review.

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IssuesandWorkarounds
The following section outlines the known issues in the system; some of them may
have been with development and may have been resolved subsequent to
publication.
Missing Test Questions An assessment was created with 22 questions, when
the applicant completed the application there were only 19 questions, 3 were
missing. There was no solution. We recreated our assessment and on the third
attempt we were successful.
Test for Registrants remember you have to set the profile option IRC:
Registration Test to NO otherwise registrants will be required to complete the
assessment and when using it as an application you wouldnt want it completed
until they actually apply for an opening.
Do Not Want Qualification Type on Skills & Qualifications Form it is required
this is expected behavior.
External Applicants Address Does Not Save on the Form Refer to Note #
387203.1. Freeze DFF
Uploading Resume a specific user couldnt upload their resume from their
laptop. This was laptop specific, you are advised to check your desktops and
laptops in the event external applicants contact you for support.
Update Pencil Grayed Out Bug #5901421 will be fixed in next RUP, Oracle did
not have a one off for this issue
Alpha Characters in Phone Number for External Candidates this is intended
functionality to account for all legislations, some use alpha characters.
Registration Information Not Pulled When Candidate Applies for a Job Context
Box must be enabled on Personal Address Information DFF.
Seeded Offer letter, No State Placeholder As per development you can create
a copy of the template shipped with iRecruitment and modify according to your
needs. Apart from the other attributes for address region_1, region_2, region_3
are available in the data store xml provided
Questions In Our Candidate Questionnaire Must be Required - Patch 6182607
1OFF:6130867: HR FP K RUP 2: ASSESSMENT IN IRECRUTMNT NOT
WORKING address this issue through note 443782.1

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Candidates,Employees&External
The following section discusses both employee and external candidates in
iRecruitment.
Employees can log into the Oracle Recruiting site and search for openings and
apply for them based on what you post internally. You can personalize the
employee candidate forms to meet your business needs and requirements. TEST
the personalizations to make sure you are not impacting the external candidate
forms as well.

View New Jobs, Las 7 Days

As part of your training or in a note on the form, make sure employees are aware
that Only those City, Locations appear in the Search that are tied to an actual
vacancy. A user cannot enter this combination if it isnt tied to a vacancy.
If you use Location as a Search Criteria you must use Distance from Location
as they are tied together, but by using City, Location you arent forced to use
Distance.

Note: This page has been personalized.

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Search Results
Again, you can personalize the results page that employees see after they
search for vacancies.

The employee can now apply for vacancies they are interested in simply by
selecting the icon next to the vacancy.
When they apply for the position their personal information will be pulled from
the Oracle HR system so they do not have to do double entry. In addition if you
are using any Descriptive Flexfields they will see these and be asked to answer
them.
They will be asked for Employment and Educational requirements if you are
requiring it. Remember you can make these fields required, but you cannot force
them to select Add Another Row. Until they do this they wont be required to
enter data.

External Candidates
One important item to remember for your External Candidates is to change the
logo on the iRecruitment form to your company logo.
It is also important to remember that a candidate is not an applicant until they
register AND they apply for a vacancy.

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When external candidate register in iRecruitment they must use an email. It is

important to note that the system will only accept one unique email address per
registrant. In other words Mr. John Doe registers today with [email protected] then
he re-registers again with the same email. The system will not permit this; it will
tell him he is already registered.
External candidates have no information in the system so nothing is pulled for
them, they must enter all their information, but they only have to do this one time
it is retained for them. Further, they can upload their resume if they have one
and wish to do so. They will also be given the opportunity further in the
registration process to select a resume format if they wish.
It is important that you test this functionality to insure that resume uploading
works correctly. You may encounter an issue on some of your computers that
they cannot upload, it is important you know why so if an applicant calls you
someone can guide them through the process.
During your testing if you encounter an issue saving an external candidates
address insure that the DFF Additional Notifications Preference Details is frozen.
You can modify your DFF for external candidates, again using personalizations.
In this case we added information about former employment history.

There are preferences that can be set by the External Candidate, however there
is one that you can set to checked by setting a profile option Allow Account to
be Searched
This will allow your recruiters to search the candidates account. Since some
candidates my gloss over this form, it is advised that you set this to default to
yes on their behalf.
Once the candidate registers than available jobs will appear depending on their
search criteria. Although they can search jobs without being registered they
cannot apply for them until they register.
Remember you can attach assessments to vacancies. In our example, we used
the assessment similar to a job application. We did not want to ask existing
employees these questions only external candidates. We did this through

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personalization and the OA Framework, but it was a customization and was a

technical solution.
Managers and recruiters who have access to the application can view applicants
against jobs, they will see both internal and external people and they can see the
status and apply ratings if they wish.
Contingent Worker Issue
In the current release of iRecruitment you cannot hire into the person type
Contingent Worker from IRC. You must create a process for hiring this type of
worker.
It is also important to remember that if you do not hire into Person Type =
Employee; then the Filled Column in iRecruitment is not populated. One
possible workaround is to create a new status Hired Contingent Worker. When
your HR team hires a contractor they can set this status against the applicant so
it appears in iRecruitment. It may not be the best solution, but until Oracle
enhances the product to handle contingent workers you will need to develop
something.

Contact Information

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