Manage Applicants - Request Reference Letter

Manage Applicants Deprecation: Cornerstone is deprecating Manage Applicants in Q1 2024. See Manage Applicants Overview.

The Request Reference Letter action on the Manage Applicants page allows recruiters to request reference letters from an applicant. The request process works in conjunction with the Form Management functionality by sending a reference letter form to the referrers that the applicant specifies when completing the Request Reference Letter task. A reference letter form must first be created by the administrator and available to the recruiter in order to properly use the Request Reference Letter action. The Reference Letter Request (to External References) email trigger must also be set up.

Configuration Note: A form for completing reference letters must be available in order to use the Request Reference Letter action properly. Forms are created by the administrator in the Manage Forms area of the Form Management functionality.

  1. An administrator creates a reference letter form in Form Management > Manage Forms. The form will be sent to referrers when requesting references from applicants. Note: If the administrator would like to allow the referrer to copy and paste letter text directly into the form, a question must be created with the field type as Text and the advanced options as field display = Multiline and character max = 10,000.
  2. The administrator configures the Request References email (for applicants), the Reference Letter Request email (for external referrers), and the Reference Letter Form Complete (for recruiters) in Email Administration.

    3. The Reference Letter Request email must be configured with the following:

    • The email must the contain link to launch the form: FORM.LINK (NEW)
    • Email Recipient "External Reference" must be selected in order to send the email to the external reference
  3. A recruiter accesses the Manage Applicants page and requests reference letters from an external applicant using the Request Reference Letter action. The action assigns the Reference Letter Request task to the applicant.
  4. The applicant accesses the task from their My Profile page on the career site. Note: Internal applicants access the task from Career Center.
  5. The applicant launches the task and enters the names and email addresses of each referrer.
  6. The applicant submits the task. This triggers the Reference Letter Request email to be sent to each referrer.
  7. A referrer receives the Reference Letter Request email. The email contains a link to the reference letter form that was created by the administrator in step 1. The referrer clicks the link for the form, and then completes and submits the reference letter.
  8. The recruiter views the completed reference letter from the Reference Forms section on the Documents tab of the Applicant Profile page.

Click here for a visual view of the workflow.

To access the Manage Applicants page, go to Recruit > Manage Requisition. On the Manage Job Requisitions page, locate the requisition for which you would like to manage applicants. From there, click the linked number of applicants in the Applicants column.

PERMISSION NAME PERMISSION DESCRIPTION CATEGORY
Request Reference Letter

Grants access to request references from an applicant and assign a reference letter form in Manage Applicants. This permission cannot be constrained.

 Recruiting
Requisition: Manage Grants ability to access and manage all requisitions regardless of ownership (constraints permitting). This permission also grants read-only access to the Applicant Review tab when creating or editing a job requisition. This permission can be constrained by OU, User's OU, and Grade. Recruiting
Requisition: Owner

Enables owner to access requisitions and applicants for requisitions for which they are an owner. This permission also grants read-only access to video interviews that are completed by applicants via HireVue. For portals with Referral Suite enabled, this permission also enables requisition owners to edit the referral source on the Applicant Profile page. This permission cannot be constrained.

Note: This is a dynamically assigned permission that is not available in Security Role Administration. If the user is removed as an owner, the permission is revoked for the associated requisition. This permission cannot be manually assigned. Also, if a user has both the permission necessary to manage requisitions and be a requisition owner, the constraints of the Requisition: Manage permission overrule those of the Requisition: Owner permission. For requisition owners that do not also have permission to manage requisitions, only certain fields are editable when editing a requisition.

Recruiting
Requisition: Reviewer

Enables reviewer to access requisitions and applicants for requisitions for which they are a reviewer. This permission cannot be constrained.

Note: This is a dynamically assigned permission that is not available in Security Role Administration. Once a requisition is in a Closed or Cancelled status or if the user is removed as a reviewer, the permission is revoked for the associated requisition. This permission cannot be manually assigned.

Note: If an applicant reviewer is removed as a reviewer via the Applicant Profile page, the Requisition: Reviewer permission is revoked for the associated requisition. However, if the reviewer was also added as a reviewer via the General tab when creating, editing, or copying the requisition, the reviewer still appears on the In Review panel as a duplicate reviewer and retains access to the requisition and applicants from the Requisition: Reviewer permission. See Applicant Profile Page Overview for more information about duplicate reviewer instances.

Recruiting

Request Reference Letter

The Request Reference Letter action allows recruiters to request reference letters from an applicant. This action can be performed for one applicant or a single group of applicants. The action sends the Reference Letter Request task to the applicant. The task is hard-coded and includes name and email address fields in which the applicant enters their referrer information.

To request reference letters from an applicant:

  1. Select one or more applicants from whom to request references.
  2. Select the Request Reference Letter action from the Actions drop-down. This opens the Select Form pop-up.
  3. Select the appropriate form from the pop-up. This refreshes the pop-up to display the Request References button. Note: The forms in the pop-up are the forms for which the recruiter meets the availability criteria. The recruiter must choose the appropriate form. Forms that require an e-signature cannot be used for the Request Reference Letter action.
  4. Select the Request References button. This opens the Applicant Action Results pop-up to indicate whether or not the action was successful. The following occurs if the action is successful:
    • The Request Reference Letter task is assigned to the applicant.
    • The Reference Letter Request email is triggered, if the email is configured by the administrator in Email Administration.
    • The Assigned Forms column on the Manage Applicants page indicates that the form has been assigned by increasing the existing number of assigned forms by one.

    If the action is not successful for one or more applicants, then the following occurs:

    • The unsuccessful action is noted in the Applicant Action Results pop-up.
    • The Request Reference Letter task is not sent to the applicant.
    • The Reference Letter Request email is not triggered.

    If references have already been requested for an applicant, then "Already Requested" displays in the Details column in the pop-up.

    To cancel requesting references, click the Cancel button in the Select Form pop-up. This closes the pop-up without assigning the form task.