SilkRoad RecruitingGuide

Index

  1. Registering on the ATS, Roles
  2. Steps to create and manage your job requisition
  3. The Job Announcement – as it appears online
  4. Approving your job requisition, viewing your announcement and hiring list
  5. View candidate resumes
  6. Sharing resumes & interviewing
  7. How to Manage & Update an ATS Hiring List
  8. Ranking Candidates
  9. How to Create A Report & Email Rejection Messages
  10. Administrative Functions (HR admin only)

Getting Started – Registering on the ATS

First, if HR has just added you as a user to the system, you must first respond to the Activation message sent by SilkRoad to acknowledge your account. Then you can register using these steps:

  1. Register at with your CSI email address and click on “Forgot your password?”
  2. Wait for an email from SilkRoad letting you set/reset your password
  3. Enter full first and last name
  4. Enter your CSI email address as your user name

ATS Roles

Note: The recruiting & hiring managers can both view and act on dept. jobs. The (HR) administrator turns into the recruiter once a job is posted. All others can receive resumes by email only. Those with recruiting and hiring manager roles MUST ALSO have that access in the User Acct as a Recruiting Manager.

Note: Only HR admin will post jobs to the website when approved and/or cloned.

Steps to Create/Manage Requisitions

  1. “Add” to request a new job under Manage Requisitions– NOT Manage Jobs

  1. Requisition Administrator = Judy Heatwole so I can get messages and support you
  2. Choose a Job template = classification – just start typing any part of the job title
  3. Complete all items with asterisksplusjob locationdepartment name
  4. Note: Internal and posted job title must ALWAYS BE THE SAME
  5. Some items are reference only, but thesewillappear in the announcement:
  6. Job description may be cut and pasted entirely into the first JD window
  7. Include closing date or delayed start dates in the JD as needed
  8. Job location select by starting to type the town (Ex: Twin Falls, Main Campus)
  9. Department selected by typing department name (Ex: Human Resources)
  10. Position type (Full-time/regular is the default)
  11. Salary (Ex: $10 USD will populate as the minimum with the template)
  12. From the Custom fields, we created for CSI, complete the following:
  13. Grant funded? Yes/No
  14. FLSA: Exempt/non-exempt will populate – Do NOT overwrite this
  15. Faculty contract? (Contract length is optional)
  16. Work days/hours are required
  17. Internally only? (A questionnaire will need to be attached)
  18. Cover letter required? Yes/No
  19. Transcripts required to apply? Yes/No
  20. Notes –are internal only to the recruitment team and/or administrator
  21. Advertising (located in the custom fields area) will always include the following:
  22. Daily job board feeds by SilkRoad: Simplyhired.com, Indeed.com, Jobing.com, Recruit.net, Theladders.com, Trovit.com, Monster.com, LinkedIn, Apexopus.com, Careerjet.com, Jobbydoo, Directemployers.org, Jobshakers.com, Livecareer.com, Jobzoom.com, and Glassdoor.com. – which also posts on Google Jobs.
  23. The Department of Labor posts all CSI positions that are open externally

Optional: ads/newspapers at the discretion of and billable to the hiring dept
Notes about advertising preferences for the administrator appear last

The Job Announcement – as it appears online

Create an Approval Path

Full-time jobs


Jobs are approved in sequence (the default setting) starting with:

1stis your Direct Super and a VP is 2ndif appropriate for your department
2nd is Todd Schwarz if full-time
3rdis Jeff Harmon
4this Eric Nielson
5this Jeff Fox if full-time

Admin – if you are delaying posting a job for any reason, please communicate that to HR (Judy). Also, HR can approve a job for a supervisor that is unable to do so for him/herself.

Post a Job (announce online) by the HR Office

Once the green light has been given through the approval process, the HR officewill:

  1. Review job details and determine who will receive emails about incoming applications
  2. Determine job category for posting: Admin, Instructional, Service, etc.
  3. Assign questionnaires as needed; 4 application questions, cover/transcripts required and/or internal candidates only accepted.
  4. Keepactive 30 days, deactivating when you wish to stop the application stage
  5. View/format draft announcement, post, and announce the position to all staff/faculty
  6. Place advertising as requested by the hiring authority

View Your Announcement and Hiring List

These are the navigation bar choices to view your requested or posted job and applicants:

Recruiter Dashboard / Overview of hiring stages, requisitions, candidate aging
Jobs Dashboard / Lists all Career Site Postings
Manage Jobs / View jobs, deactivate jobs, edit and reassign roles
Manage Requisitions / Request to Add or monitor a job in the requested stage
Track All Jobs / Lists jobs, resumes, workflow by Unit (HR & Head Start)
Track My Jobs / Lists jobs as recruiting or hiring manager
Jobs / Lists open jobs assigned to a certain administrator

View Candidate Resumes

From the Jobs Dashboard or Track My Jobs (or by searching for your job by title or job # under Jobs Search), view and act on specific candidate applications:

  1. A first BEST step to manage an applicant or applicants is to mark them as qualified or not qualified. In the individual applicant window the hiring authority can read and determine qualifications and mark qualified (Yes/No) at the top of the applicant box.
  1. You can also do this as a batch of applicants in the Resumes view by checking the box by each name you wish to update, and changing the Recruiting Activity to Qualified or Disqualify Selected.


  1. Next: SEND QUALIFIED applicant resumes, individually or as a batch in the Resumes view, to your selection team. At this point you will also want to change the hiring stage to “Interview Team Resume Review.” You can sort your applicants now following the steps below.

Also, HR can inform inquiring applicants about their status – which is really helpful to us and the applicants that call to inquire!


  1. SORT applicants in the Resume view to bring all Qualified or all applicants in the same Current Stage of hiring to the top, click on the underlined headers above those values. A good way to view the most current applications is by sorting on the date.
  1. PLEASE ALWAYS personally contact internal applicants that apply for your positions whether you intend to interview them or not. Thank them sincerely for their interest in working with your team. Do this before starting the interview phase please.
  2. Status reports to applicants are not sentthrough this program and any correspondence you may send through SilkRoad is received as junk to the applicant. Please send an email to those persons through the CSI email. See instructions Page 8.

Sharing resumes & interviewing

BEFORE you close a position is the ONLY time to share resumes in batch form. At the point that a job is closed, the program NO LONGER lets you send resumes to your team in a batch. After you have determined which candidates are most qualified for your opening, you will want to share their materials with your team.

  1. Add a subject line inviting your team to review your job applicants
  2. Start typing team first names in the Internal Recipient bar, adding persons outside CSI with complete email addresses as external recipients
  3. Choose all the materials you wish to forward for each candidate selected
  4. Refine the message with instructions for your team, if needed, & send

Your team will receive each candidate’s materials in a separate email and may reply to each with their interview suggestions.

How to Manage & Update an ATS Hiring List

  1. Hiring lists need to be updated from the time that applications start arriving and throughout the process until completed – if only because HR depends on this list to update applicants when they call for a status report. We can ONLY provide this assistance with current information online.
  2. Start by marking each applicant as qualified, yes or no, from the moment you complete reviewing their resume, cover letter and eApplication online. Not sure? Are they a maybe? Leave them as Not Defined instead. Feel free to continue considering them for interview.
  3. Find your hiring list to make “batch” updates by clicking on the number of resumes from both Track All Jobs and Track My Jobs. Sort on Qualified to bring all marked YES to the top. Anyone marked as NO has reached the end of the process with no further action needed.
  4. Keep the Current (Hiring) Stage updated for each applicant by selecting all similar applicants and choose Take Action to Change the Hiring Stage. There are FIVE choices under the Hiring Stages workflow ending with Interview or Offer Declined. (Shared Stages are NOT a choice here. That’s why they say “None.”) Sort on Current Stage to bring all those you intend to interview to the top.
  5. Contact Judy to CLOSE your position to application once you’ve selected your candidates to interview. You may now find your job under Closed or Deactivated.
  6. When a candidate is Hired (pending background check), you select that Disposition from the Perform Recruiting Activity dropdown or in the candidate’s application window. You will be redirected to anew window that is the template to an offer letter.Update five areas: Hire date, was the job description shared and discussed, FLSA (exempt/nonexempt status) and supervisor name and title, and then Continue.
  7. PLEASE contact all applicants not interviewedby CSI email using the process to create an ATS report containing those addresses on the next page.

Note: If an applicant gets stuck during the application process and needs assistance, please refer them to HR. If all else fails, we can receive their materials and upload them for them.

Rank the candidate online (optional):

  1. From the Workflow, Select Recruiter Resume Review
  2. Select an Action choose Evaluation Ranking to open a scoring matrix
  3. Complete the scoring with comments as needed
  4. Save and refer to the score later under the candidate Evaluations

  1. Disposition applicantsby selecting Perform Recruiting Activity from the hiring list or individually by choosing Summary and Edit. The Disposition is the first question. Choose declined, withdrew, hired, or rejected: more qualified candidate selected. These are the only and best choices and all the program offers.
  1. DO NOT ARCHIVE applicants in your pool as it removes them from appearing on the Hiring List in the future. There are times we need to review these lists and want them to represent everyone that applied.
  2. NOTE: The Shared Stages feature has been inactivated, as it does not fit how we process applications. Instead, we ask you to choose a Hiring Stage or final Disposition to change an applicant’s status.
  3. Finally, please let Judy knowwhen you have finished your job process so I can help you complete any missing pieces of information and point you to the next hiring steps.

Note: In the event of a failed seach, a posted Job may be cloned and re-announced with the same details as before. It will first appear as ON HOLD in the Edit mode, Job Status field, until ready to post by HR. Any job that is reannounced with changes will first need to complete an approval process as a Requisition. Cloned jobs that are reposted months later also need to be approved informally by email to the approving parties.

How to Create A Report of Email Addresses to Send Rejection Messages
Once you have updated your Hiring List, you can use that data to send messages to your applicants about the outcome of their application.

  1. First, update your hiring list to show the current Hiring Stage and Disposition.
  2. Please contact all interviewed candidates by telephone once the successful candidate is identified and offer extended and accepted (even if pending background screen).
  3. Contact all other applicants NOT interviewed by email or hard copy.

In the left navigation bar for Recruiting find the Analyze process, select Report Builder.

  1. Create New Report – Create Report & select Applicant Tracking Log
  2. Export Report (change from HTML) to MS Excel
  1. Choose your data fields and filters and make these selections:
  2. Contact Info
  3. Either Address, City, Postal Code & State -or- Email Address
  4. Full Name
  5. Department Info
  6. Dept Name
  7. Hiring Stage
  8. Current Stage
  9. Posting Info
  10. Internal Job Title (number)
  11. Finish and View Report – which will download so you can open in Excel.

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