Why are there duplicate Candidate records

Problem

There are a few different reasons why duplicate Candidate records occur in FastTrack. The most common are:

Details entered by the Candidate in a job application or Registration form are different to the existing record
Candidate has applied to a job via Seek and fields other than First Name, Surname & Check Email are being checked for duplicates
An Agency user uses Outlook Extensions > Add Candidate to update a Candidate’s Resume but details differ to the existing record

Below are some guidelines to determine why a duplicate record was created.

Solution

There 2 parts to the guidelines, these are:

Part 1 - Identify how the Candidate was created

Before being able to determine why a duplicate record was created, you first need to identify how it was created.

How to do this will depend on whether the Candidate was created before or after upgrading to 11.37. Click on the below links for details on how to do this.

The Creation Date of a record can be found in the Record Properties section.

Part 2 Determine why a duplicate was created

If the creation source of the duplicate is Job Board Application, Registration or Outlook Extensions, there are 2 reasons why a duplicate record is created, these are:

Current settings may not reflect what the settings were at the time the duplicate was created.

If duplicates are being created from the API and assistance is needed to determine why, lodge a request via our Service Desk portal

These duplicate settings aren’t used when an Agency User creates a record however a check is done based on all letters of the First Name and Surname. If an existing Candidate exists, the below message will appear. The record will be created if OK is selected.

Candidate Duplicate Check

Before creating a record, the system performs a check against existing records to determine if the Candidate already exists. The check is done by comparing certain information being imported against existing records. The Candidate Duplicate Check options determine what information is checked.

To check what options are selected, go to:

Maintenance > Questionnaire > Maintenance
Click Candidate Duplicate Check - for further information refer to Candidate Duplicate Check Maintenance

A duplicate won’t be identified if:

the details entered by a Candidate in a job application or Registration form are different to an existing record
Candidate has applied to a job via Seek and fields other than First Name, Surname & Check Email are being checked for duplicates

If jobs are advertised on Seek via Broadbean, we recommend only the below duplicate check options are selected. If options such as Mobile Phone and/or Suburb are selected, duplicates will be created as these details are not included in the Seek application.

An Agency user uses Outlook Extensions > Add Candidate to update a Candidate’s Resume but details differ to the existing record

A spelling mistake can cause a duplicate record

Example

If the below options are selected and there is an existing Candidate called Steve Smith

If one of the following occurs, a duplicate record will be created as all letters of the First Name don’t match the existing record (Surname and email address is the same as the existing record):

Candidate applies for a job and in their response they enter Steven as their first name - to find out how to check what details were entered, refer to Job Board Application
Candidate completes a Registration form and they enter Steven as their first name - to find out how to check what details were entered, refer to Registration Form
An Agency User uses Outlook Extensions > Add Candidate to add an updated Resume which has Steven as their first name

If details in a duplicate record are updated to match the existing record (either manually or automatically from a parsed Resume), next time the Candidate applies for a job, all records that match the Candidate Duplicate Check details will be added to the Referral Workflow, not just one.

Duplicate Settings

If a duplicate is identified, the Duplicate Settings determine whether a new Candidate record is created. To check these settings, go to:

Maintenance > Questionnaire > Maintenance
Click General Settings
If Create New Always is selected, a new record will always be created - for further information refer to How to Configure the Duplicate Settings