Bulk importing candidates

Accessing the bulk import tool

To access the bulk candidate import tool:

• Navigate to the Candidates section of your Lever environment
• Click the + Add candidate button next to the search bar in the platform header
• Select Bulk Candidate Import
  • Super Admins will see this option by default. Admins, Team Members, and Limited Team Members will only see this option if the ability to bulk import candidates has been enabled for their user profile. To learn about configuring user permissions, refer our user management help article.

Filling out the spreadsheet template

On the importer main page, you will find links to download a spreadsheet template, into which you will input information for the candidates you wish to import to Lever. You can download two versions of the spreadsheet template:

Template with instructions (file type: .xlsx)
This template contains instructions for filling out the spreadsheet including definitions of each field. If you download and fill out this version of the template, you must delete the additional tab and rows containing instructions and save the file as a .csv file before uploading it to Lever. We recommend using this template if you are bulk importing candidates to Lever for the first time.

The rows and tab with instructions need to be deleted from this template before uploading.

Blank template (file type: .csv)
This template is designed to be used as is. Simply fill out the fields and upload the file. We recommend using this template if you are familiar with bulk importing candidates to Lever.

Guidelines for filling out the template

Bear in mind the following guidelines when filling out the template:

• The 'Full Name' field is the only column that requires an input on the template in order for a candidate to be imported.
• Column order does not matter.
• Some fields on the template are dependent upon each other, meaning if one field has an input the other dependent fields must also have an input.
• The uploaded template must be no larger than 1 GB in size.

Data field breakdown

Data fields on the template are divided into two types:

• Contact fields - information specific to the candidate, regardless of the job(s) for which they are considered
• Opportunity fields - information specific to a job for which a candidate is being considered

Depicted below is an example of how contact-level information and opportunity-level information is displayed on a single profile. To learn more, refer to our help article on understanding the difference between candidates and opportunities.

Refer to the following table for definitions of each field in the template:

Date/time formatting

The bulk import tool accepts a wide variety of date/time formats for time-based data fields. Expand the menu below to see examples of the accepted date/time formats.

Running the import

Once you have filled out the template, you will be ready to begin the import process. There are two phases to the process:

• Phase 1: Upload - the CSV template is loaded into Lever
• Phase 2: Import - candidate profiles and opportunities are generated based on the information in the CSV template

Uploading the CSV template

To upload the CSV template, you can drag it into the upload field or click Upload file and select the file from your desktop.

During the upload phase, Lever will check for any errors with the spreadsheet itself. At this point, Lever is not analyzing the contents of the cells in the spreadsheet - it is simply checking for errors with the file and the columns within. If there are any errors found during the upload phase, they will be listed above the file upload field. Below is a list of the upload errors you may encounter:

Importing the template

Once any upload errors have been resolved, click the Start Import button to initiate the import phase. During import, Lever will analyze the contents of each cell in the spreadsheet and map the information accordingly. As the file is being imported, you will see a count of rows from the file that have been successfully imported as well as a count of those that have been found to contain errors.

When the import is complete, you will have the option to download a CSV containing all rows in which errors were found. Alongside each row, you will find an error message informing you of which cell in the row contains the error as well as how to fix it. This file will be available for 30 days following the initial import attempt. Download the CSV of rows with errors, resolve the errors, and re-upload that spreadsheet into the bulk import tool.

Expand the menu below to view the list of row import errors.

As the import is running, you can navigate away from the bulk import tool and continue to work elsewhere in Lever. When the import is complete, you will receive an in-app notification as well as an email.

Example of an import completion email

You can cancel an in-progress import at anytime by clicking the Cancel Import button on the import progress page. If you navigated away from the import progress page, you can revisit the import status via Settings > Candidate Import History and cancel the import from there. Any candidates that had been imported prior to the cancellation will remain in your Lever environment. Refer to the Import Summary to review which candidates were imported before the cancellation. If you need assistance undoing a bulk candidate import, please contact Lever Support.

There can only ever be one import running at a time in a Lever environment. If a user attempts to initiate an import while another import is already in progress, they will be informed as such and prompted to try again later.

All successfully imported candidates will have a unique tag applied to their opportunities, so you can easily trace opportunities that came from a specific bulk import. Clicking the View Opportunities button on the Import Summary will open a view of your pipeline and archive filtered for opportunities with that specific import tag.

Reviewing import history

You can review the historical record of all bulk candidate imports by navigating to Settings > Candidate Import History. This page is visible to any user in your Lever environment that has the ability to run bulk imports.

The Import History page shows all completed, cancelled, and failed bulk candidate imports. It also shows in-progress imports, so you and your team members can monitor their status and plan their own imports accordingly. You can view the runtime for each import, to get a sense of how long each import takes on average relative to the number of candidates imported. Opening an entry in the list will reveal its Import Summary, from which you can view details pertaining to the import including the user that ran the import, when it was run, how long it took to complete, successfully imported candidates, and any rows from the file that failed to import.