HR Recruitment Process using Ultimate Forms

Hello All,

Ultimate Forms is a suite of SharePoint components which provide all the capabilities to build state-of-the-art electronic forms in minutes, using the browser only.

In this post we'll show how to build a simple HR recruitment system using Ultimate Form. We'll see how easily we can create an HR solution within SharePoint, with minimum of work.

Let's start with the recruitment process goals:

1. To Insert into the system the candidate details, CV's, recommendations and any other useful documentation
2. To categorize the candidate
3. To set some approval tasks for the managers and give them tools to decide whether to move on with the candidate.
4. Send confirmation email on every stage to the appropriate person.

All of this should show us at end of the process the big picture regarding every candidate. And one last thing - everything should be based on a SharePoint list!

Well, it's not too much to ask for , so let's see how we made it.

Let's begin with the process roles. In this example there are three roles: the recruitment agent, the HR manager and the appropriate division manager.

The process starts when the recruitment agent creates new item, uploads a CV file, and starts to fill out the form. The recruitment agent form is actually split into four steps, in a wizard-like style (powered by Smart List Pro). Using the wizard style simplifies the metadata entry and enables the recruitment agent to fill out several fields at a time instead of many fields on the same page which can be a pain. The fields are grouped into logical subjects (each subject represented by a tab in the wizard) e.g.- basic details, candidate details, affiliation and etc.

Here are some screenshots of the recruitment agent forms:

After the recruitment agent finishes to fill in her fields, the next stage is the HR Manager approval. To proceed to the next stage, the system sends a confirmation email to The HR Manager (powered by Smart Alert Pro), which indicates that she has a new candidate to review.

Here is a screenshot of the HR Manager confirmation email:

The HR manager edits the item and can review all the candidate details by switching the form tabs and can decide whether to move forward with the candidate or reject him. Afterwards the HR manager needs to electronically sign the form (powered by Electronic Signature Field) and finally add some remarks about her decision.
*remark - In some cases, the HR manager or HR director is the final step at the process. It can be changed with slight adjustments.

HR Manager form:

The last stage the division manager approval. After the HR manager approves the candidate, according to the candidate affiliation (filled in by the recruitment agent), the appropriate division manager gets a confirmation email which indicates that he has a new candidate to review.

So far, we saw the user interface. Now let's see how all of this done behind the scenes.

It all starts with SharePoint custom list, we built a list containing all the necessary columns for all stages of the process. With the help of Smart List Pro we divided all the list columns into six different tabs: Basic Details, Candidate Details, Affiliation, Summary, HR Manager Approval and Division Manager Approval.

We've activated the wizard mode for the list - Under Smart List Pro – "Tabs and Tabs Permissions", under the "General Settings" section – we marked the "Wizard Mode" checkbox.

Here is a screenshot of the Tabs and tab permissions form – Smart List Pro Settings:

For the recruitment agent tabs - Basic Details, Candidate Details, Affiliation and Summary We left the Permissions section empty, that means that every user can add candidates, which was good enough for this example. It's possible to restrict the tabs only to the recruitment agents by adding a permission rule to the recruitment agents Active Directory group or SharePoint group. That would restrict the tabs only for the recruitment agents.

For the HR manager and the division manager tabs we added permission rules.

The first rule is for The HR Manager, at this example – Mary Sheldon. We gave her Write permission for all of the list forms – New, Edit and View forms. We set the "HR Manager Approval" tab to be her default tab, this means that when she edits the candidate item – the focus will set to the "HR Manager Approval" tab. We also gave Read permissions to the division manager – in this example Jonathan Summers, so he would be able to view the HR decisions and remarks. He would also have the same set of permissions on the "Division Manager" tab and this tab would be his default tab.

Here is a screenshot of the "Tabs and Tab Permissions" focused on the "HR Manager Approval" tab. You can see the rules under the "Current permission rules" section:

And what about the email alert for the HR Manager right after the recruitment agent submits her form and the same for the Division Manager's alert after the HR Manager submits her form? Well, this magic happens thanks to Smart Alert Pro, which enables to create an alert, configure a condition for the alert and assign the alert to any user. With Smart Alert Pro it's possible to use alert templates and define how exactly the alert would appear to the end user using alert templates!

Basically, what we did here is to create an alert using Smart Alert Pro and assign it to The HR Manager – Mary Sheldon. Afterwards, we added a condition to the alert so it would sent only if the "Recruitment Agent Decision" column is equal to "Passed" , then we created a Mail Template which we designed it to contain all the necessary fields and data.

Here is how it looks at the Smart Alert Pro "create new alert" form:

Here is the Manage mail Templates section at the same Smart Alert Pro " Add alert" form:

Here we can see that the template contains some rich text and placeholders for list fields. Is very simple to create templates and manage them. Mail templates also enables to share templates between users and to add an attachment to the alert!

As you can see, it is very simple to create electronic forms out of SharePoint lists. Ultimate Forms and Smart Alert Pro enables you to create electronic forms and business processes in minutes without the need of InfoPath or SharePoint Designer.

This is only an example of how to create HR applications within SharePoint and this example doesn't cover all of the HR needs and features, but with our products and with SharePoint out-of-the-box features you can easily create powerful applications. That’s the only way to do it this days!

(This article is based on the HR Recruitment Process using Ultimate Forms video)