2361686 - XML Feeds - Recruiting Marketing

This article presents a summary about XML Feeds in Recruiting Marketing and related information that might be useful for customers and partners to know.

Image/data in this KBA is from SAP internal systems, sample data, or demo systems. Any resemblance to real data is purely coincidental.

Prerequisite : Note Career Site Builder must be active and with live jobs posted to generate a feed.

XML Feeds are the automated method of delivery of job content between the customer’s CSB (Career Site Builder) instance and job boards and aggregators, replacing the manual posting of jobs or direct site scraping. Within these job feeds, source tracking is automatically set up for each job within the feed if intended for a specific vendor/product.  Feeds are generated on demand via their unique URL and reflect the job content at the time of collection.  Each feed is intended for a unique vendor and has specific source tracking in place to be used for that purpose.  For example, an XML feed for Vendor A would not be used to provide jobs to Vendor B.

There are two types of XML feeds set up for customers: Note both of these can be created by SAP Professional Services or Implementation Partners from the backend of Career Site Builder (Command Center).

Standard Feed

These would be “All Jobs” feeds that involve no customization to set up and distribute to the receiving source. This is an effective alternative for direct site scrapes to ensure proper candidate source tracking.

• Example:  Free job board that accepts all jobs and requires basic field values (i.e. Title, Location, Job Category, etc.)
• Best practice uses for standard feeds:
• Unlimited Inventory Job Boards
• Free Job Postings
• OFCCP Compliance Postings (i.e. Circa, Direct Employers, etc.)

Custom XML Feeds

This would be any job feed that requires a level of specific filtering criteria, client/vendor customization, and/or manual value entry by rule to create and deliver to the source.

• Example 1: Only Nursing department jobs are sent to a Niche Healthcare site
• Example 2: Jobs with “Account Executive” in the job title are sent to a niche sales job board
• Example 3:  Vendor requires the city of “London” be entered by location ID “13” and country “UK” as “4”

• Best Practice for Custom Feeds:
  • Job Prioritization (Job Slots)
  • Limited Job Inventory (Job Postings) 
  • Specialized (Niche) Job Boards

Job filtering can be done by multiple variables or combinations:

• Job Board Picklist Code within the ATS (Ad Code field)
• Available Job Data (Location, Title, Department, Facility, etc.)

Cost of Custom XML Feeds: 

These types of feeds will require additional service effort by SAP PS or supporting partner and will only include the initial creation support.  For any future rule modifications, additions or troubleshooting this will require a minor, separate engagement to facilitate changes.  The cost of the effort would need to be determined after review of the requested changes and the amount of time expected to complete them.

Requesting a new source:

Ideally new source creation should be initiated via Recruiting Posting as that is the primary method of delivery for the Recruiting platform.  If a temporary solution is needed to set up a new vendor delivery while the Job Board Marketplace submission is pending, it is possible to ask for a new source to be reviewed/created through the CSB XML Feeds.  To request this creation, an SAP Support Ticket is required (Component: LOD-SF-RMK-MED) and there are requirements for any action to proceed:

• Vendor Name/Product Name
• Vendor Feed Requirements/Spec Document
• Vendor Point of Contact (Name & e-mail)
• There must be enough of an inventory to support the feed creation (i.e. single job feeds are not to be created as these are bulk job deliveries).
• If this is a custom filtered feed, additional service hours should be procured in advance of effort by SAP

New feed source creation will be dependent on collaboration with the vendor.  The feed implementation would be based on the level of correspondence and compatibility with our delivery method.  The timeline of establishing a connection varies by media source (job board) but generally it will range from 5 to 15 business days. We do not guarantee compatibility between SAP and the intended source as there can be unknown or unseen complexities, however if there are known challenges they will be addressed once they are identified in the initial submission review or in the implementation process.

Setting Up a Customer specific Source:

All of the vendor connections are established in the CSB feed system are based upon overall best practice field standards and mapping.  In certain scenarios the SAP PS team can moderately adjust source templates to adapt to non-standard field mapping.

• Example 1:  There is a need for brand separation in a feed for a vendor.  Brand Name is mapped to the RMK “Facility” field.  To adapt for that, the <company> field normally aligned for the CSB Site Name is replaced with the “Facility” field mapping so that each job is uniquely aligned to the proper brand when posted to the vendor.

Req 1234: <company>RedBrand</company>
Req 3456: <company>BlueBrand</company>

• Example 2:  Due to varied vendor requirements and alignments, field naming conventions of the fields can be adapted to match the vendor’s schema. 

Normal Field:  <company>
Adapted Field:  <LOB>

These non-standard customer templates are reviewed on a case by case basis. However, for feed and system efficiency it is strongly recommended to maintain the best practice process of field mapping and not altering the field naming conventions unless required for vendor connections.  Most vendors can accept the field labels that are provided and adapt the job collection to align to their import values.  In the case where non-standard field mapping is in place and a unique customer template is required to establish a feed connection so to provide accurate field values. 

 Feeds for internal jobs

In normal XML Feeds, only the external job URLs are present in them as they are primarily intended for external vendors and processes.  If Internal Career Site powered by CSB is properly and fully enabled, there is an additional option in the feed creation where you can make the feed intended for Internal only.  This selector is shown at the top of the feed screen.

If the tickbox of "Internal Feed" is changed to "Yes" then the URL shown would be for the internal career site and only populate internal jobs.  This feed should then NOT be shared with external vendors as it would alter the candidate workflow and may break the tracking connection.

Automated job broadcasting to Standard Job Distribution partners (Organic Network):

Customer jobs are automatically distributed to many of the interactive sources used today like job aggregation sites and free job posting sites. SAP maintains a partnership network with a number of job aggregators and job boards that drive traffic to SuccessFactors customer career sites.

Automated (no customer effort needed) feeds are set up on the customer’s “opt in” approval.  This is generally recommended at CSB go-live but can be submitted at any time during the customer’s site life cycle. The objective of this program is to select partners that deliver not only quantity of candidates but also quality of candidates. SuccessFactors also holds these partners to very high standards and policies to ensure a quality candidate experience. Many job boards and aggregators in the industry have job distribution practices that are not candidate friendly. SAP cannot control the practice of every global job board or aggregator; however, the Organic Network does aid in providing the most direct connection of candidates to your Talent Community. Other notes:

• Partners are asked to not re-distribute customer jobs to other 3^rd parties
• Partners are asked to not require registration of candidates on their site (though some have this as mandatory)
• Only relevant jobs are sent to relevant sources; for example, a regional specific partner only accepts country relevant jobs. Additionally, if a niche board only selects a part-time or temporary postings then they are delivered as such.
• Upon request, a customer can be supplied a code that prevents selected jobs from being in this job distribution program. 
• Include “EX:OUT” in job description or in the RMK Ad Code field
• Not all sources accept all jobs from the feeds, and some may be a case by case basis. SAP cannot guarantee that all jobs will always be posted, nor the success of the postings. Results may vary from customer to customer.
• If there are multiple brands, not all vendors are able to accept them in the bulk delivery as they prefer a single entity in this method.  The alternative to address this would be to utilize Recruiting Posting (as many partners are included in the Job Board Marketplace for free) or to request individual feeds be created for them via implementation partner or support ticket. 
• For customer “Opt-In” an SAP Support Ticket must be submitted to component LOD-SF-RMK-MED by the customer or implementation partner to ensure process is set up (recommended 3-5 days prior to RMK go-live or once active jobs are posted on career site to validate field mapping aligns with requirements).

Inclusion in the Organic Network is “all in” or not at all. Customers are not able to choose specific sources to send to, as the delivery is universal and filtered on the backend. If the customer wants to send only to a specific partner in the Organic Network, it will have to be based on their specific relationship and with a standard XML feed or via Recruiting Posting in the Job Board Marketplace free job board options.

For more information, see the following resources:

Organic Network Overview & Source List

Indeed Authorization Form (Network Opt-In)

3425858 - Standard Data Fields for Career Site Builder Job Distribution - Recruiting Marketing

Organic Network Overview & Source List

Indeed Authorization Form (Network Opt-In)

XML Feeds, Standard and Custom Feeds , Media Services , Job Distribution , KBA , LOD-SF-RMK-MED , RMK Media Requests and Feeds , How To