When a submitted application is received by your hiring system, an Applicant File is created automatically. Your hiring system is capturing all of the information provided at the time of submission; however, some applicant profile information can appear incomplete or missing depending on the Applicant Source. The following explains the differences between complete and incomplete applicant profiles and the role Applicant Sources have in determining what information is received.
Complete Applicant Profiles
A fully-populated applicant profile contains the required default fields: First Name, Last Name, Email, Mobile Phone, Address, City, State, and Zip. This example shows how a complete applicant profile will look:
Incomplete Applicant Profiles
At times, some or all of the required information may be missing from the applicant's profile. This is because the source of the job application (e.g., Indeed Apply, ZipRecruiter, etc.) does not directly collect this information. Instead, these job boards parse it from the applicant’s resume. If the applicant’s resume does not contain it, the job board cannot pull it from that resume. In cases like these, the profile will look like the example below.
Applicant Source Determines Applicant Profile Information
Technically, when an applicant applies using Indeed Apply or ZipRecruiter Apply, they are presented with all applicant question sets, and their resume is included as part of the job application automatically.
However, neither Indeed nor ZipRecruiter mandate address data as part of the easy apply process or their account creation process for individual job seekers. They do require a name and email and upon applying, and our system maps Name to Name and Email to Email. However, addresses are treated differently for each Applicant Source.
Indeed Apply
- For Indeed Apply, the address, city, state, and zip code data will map from the Applicant’s Indeed resume to the Applicant File in your system if (i) the applicant’s original resume has the address information within it and (ii) it is in a format that can be parsed.
- If the information is not present in the resume, there’s nothing to map to the Applicant File and it will display as a blank field (and you will end up reading this Knowledge Base article!).
ZipRecruiter
- For ZipRecruiter Apply applicants, address data does not automatically flow from the resume provided by ZipRecruiter to the Applicant file. ZipRecruiter is working on evolving this particular piece of data flow, but you will still see Applicant Files with missing data (i.e., applicants often do not put all address fields in a resume).
Additional Applicant Sources
- Applicants coming from any other source besides Indeed Apply or ZipRecruiter should have complete Applicant Profile information.
What solutions do I have if I rely on Applicant Address information for my recruiting process and it is missing?
If applicant address information is required for your recruiting process, you can take the following approaches to improve or eliminate the data gap:
- Check the applicant's resume to verify if it includes a street address, city, state, or zip. If it does, you can then use the Edit Applicant Profile feature to update the missing information.
- Send an applicant message requesting this information directly. Upon receipt, you can update the Applicant Profile using the same Edit Applicant Profile feature.
- If your company simply cannot complete its recruiting process without full address information in the applicant profile, you can turn off both Indeed Apply and ZipRecruiter via Admin > Applicant Sources. This will ensure virtually all Applicant Files will have complete address information. However, doing so will result in reduced applicant flow to your open jobs.
Are you working to see if this can be addressed with the job boards?
Yes, we will continue to work with each individual job board to see if they will attend to this fundamental problem. We understand that address information is important for many organizations and that the above solutions are not ideal and put some additional work on your team. This article will be updated as progress is made.