3209167 - Behavior of candidate contactEmail and primaryEmail address - Recruiting Management

This article describes the behavior of candidate contactEmail and primaryEmail address fields and how the system detects duplicates. 

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SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting Management

Primary Email vs Contact Email

1. On the candidate profile template, there is usually a standard field called contactEmail. This is visible depending on the permissions in the candidate profile template. This is the email address where the email notifications are sent to. This is typically the email seen in the candidate profile.

<field-definition id="contactEmail" type="text" required="false" custom="false" anonymize="false" sensitive="false">
<field-label mime-type="text-plain"><![CDATA[Email]]></field-label>
<field-description><![CDATA[Email]]></field-description>
</field-definition>

2. There is another email that is built-in on the system called primaryEmail. It is usually hidden and is typically auto-populated on Candidate Profile creation. This is the email used for candidate profile login on the career site.

Please see the section, Username and Email Address under Configuring an External Candidate Account, for more information.

How is the Primary Email and Contact Email associated?

On candidate profile creation, the email populated in the candidate profile becomes the primaryEmail and also the contactEmail. This means, the candidate login email (primaryEmail) and the email where the candidate receives email notifications to (contactEmail) are the same.

However, any subsequent changes in the email field in the candidate profile only changes the contactEmail and not the primaryEmail. 

Is it possible to have multiple candidates with the same email address in the UI?

The short answer is, yes, but they are not considered duplicates. 

How do candidate profiles or applications with the same email addresses get created? Why are they not tagged as duplicates?

Here's a sample timeline of occurrence.

a. The candidate profiles would be created with different primaryEmail and contactEmail addresses.

On Candidate Profile Creation:

Candidate 1 - Mary Lee 
primary email: mlee@gmail.com 
contact email: mlee@gmail.com 

Candidate 2 - Mary Lee 
primary email: marylee@gmail.com
contact email: marylee@gmail.com

b. Later on, the candidate would change their email address but it would (by default) only change the contactEmail.

After Email Changes:

Candidate 1 - Mary Lee (No Changes)
primary email: mlee@gmail.com 
contact email: mlee@gmail.com 

Candidate 2 - Mary Lee (Email Changes) 
primary email: marylee@gmail.com
contact email: mlee@gmail.com 

c. Hence, from the UI, the candidates appear to be duplicates since the name and the visible email (contactEmail) are the same. 

d. However, this setup is possible since the system only checks the primaryEmail for duplicates, it does not check the firstName or lastName fields, or the contactEmail. If you report the primaryEmail and contactEmail in Integration Center, it would show the original email address for the candidate profiles, hence proving that the email address is unique on creation.

e. The behavior for the primaryEmail and contactEmail applies to all types of candidate profiles, i.e., Internal, External, and Agency, but with agency candidates, the phone number is an additional parameter being checked for duplicate candidates. 

How is it possible for employees to create an external candidate profile with their employee email address?

Depending on how the External to Internal Candidate Profile conversion is configured, the primaryEmail address may be populated with the employee's username, hence, the system does not detect a duplicate when the employee email address is used for the external candidate profile. 

2741189 - How to Report on Primary Email and Contact Email Address fields via Integration Center - Recruiting Management

Email, primaryEmail, contactEmail, primary email, contact email, duplicates, same email, Recruiting, RCM, applications, employee, username , KBA , LOD-SF-RCM-CAN , General Candidate Issues (not Offers, not Profiles) , How To