Candidate Submission System / Cognito Forms - General Overview

Created by Martin Parkinson, Modified on Wed, 8 Nov, 2023 at 1:18 PM by Graeme Orchard

A new feature has been added to Influence to allow the creation of a candidate submission form, where applicants can complete a form and then submit their details for inclusion in the database.

As well as allowing the submission of new candidate details, it is possible to use these forms to update the details of existing candidates within the database. You can find out more information about using a form to update existing candidate details HERE.

To provide this facility we have chosen to use Cognito Forms, a feature-rich on-line Form design package which allows the creation of comprehensive web forms with the ability to submit information to your Influence database.

If you wish to use Cognito Forms with your Influence Database, you will need to contact us to purchase a FORMS licence for your database. You will also need to sign-up for an account with Cognito themselves - please use the link below in the HOW DO I SIGN UP section!

Note: To use the feature your database will need to be version 1.00.23.056 (or later) - if not, then please contact us to arrange an update before you start trying to import forms into your database.

CONTENTS (Click an item to jump to that section)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What is It ?
Videos
How do I Sign Up ?
What can be Imported as part of a Form?
System Setup Process
Pricing
How to Create a Cognito Forms Account
Design Your Forms
How to Create a Candidate Record from a Form
Automatic Import of Forms from a specified Mailbox

What is It ?

Cognito Forms allows users to create their own on-line forms. Potential candidates can then be emailed links to these forms to fill-in and complete various details.

These forms can be used for things such as New Application Forms, or for capturing Availability. The forms can be imported (dragged/Dropped) into your Influence database to create a new candidate record, or to update the availability of an existing worker, etc.

Videos

Below are some videos showing examples of completing a form, and FORM Design.

Video: Example of Completing and Importing a Form into Influence

Video: Example of Form Design (Video by Cognito)

STEP 1
Contact the Influence sales team who will issue a quote for you to sign up for a Forms Import license. There is a flat monthly fee for this {not per-user}, which will be added to your subscription.

☎️ T: 01372 365716
E: Sales@influence-it.com

STEP 2
Signup with Cognito using the link below and pick your monthly pricing Plan. (TEAMS or Higher. The FREE plan from Cognito will not work.)

Use this Link: >>>>>> Click to Signup for a Cognito Forms Account <<<<<<<<<

NOTE: The Free plan will not work for forms import into influence as it does not support the necessary features.

STEP 3
Once you have signed and returned the quote from STEP 1, contact us. We will then activate the Forms Import feature in your database.

STEP 4
You can then design your forms using Cognito to capture the data you want. After you have designed the forms, you will need to go through and add relevant 'tags' to the Form so that Influence knows where to store the data when the Form is imported.

If you wish to sign-up to Cognito forms please use the link below (This will ensure that all the right APIs, keys etc. will be setup)

Use this link. >>>>>> Click to Signup for a Cognito Forms Account <<<<<<<<<

NOTE: After you have signed up for a Cognito forms account and purchased the Forms add-on for influence, please contact us for Example Forms / Templates

We have some useful forms which you can use as a starting point for your own form design, and contain the necessary 'field tags' to import information into your Influence database.

What can be Imported as part of a Form?

The Candidate Web Form Tool imports the submitted forms and uses the completed data and any attached documents to do some or all of the following:-

Create and Populate Candidate records e.g. Forename, Surname, email, etc.
Import and Process the candidate CV i.e. Will scan the CV to find Keywords
Import selected Attributes (Skills) for the Candidate
Import and store Specific candidate docs e.g. Any seen on the [Docs] tab
Manage their Compliance Data e.g. Driving License and Expiry date
Manage their Compliance Documents e.g. Scanned copy of Driving License
Manage Policy Opting e.g. Privacy Policy opt In or Out
Import Company Trade Details e.g. Company Name for Ltd Co workers
( and/or candidate bank details.)
Import Candidate Photo/Picture e.g. A *.jpg file as their photo
Work History e.g. Previous Employer & From/To Date
Referees e.g. Name, Tel, email & Type of referee
Candidate Availability (after ver1.00.21.310) e.g. Available Mon, Tue, Fri

System Setup Process

The basic process is:

1) Contact the Influence Sales Team to discuss which information you wish to capture from Candidates when they register and purchase a forms import licence for Influence.

2) Sign up for an Account with CoGnito Forms (Use the Link Below)

If you wish to sign-up to Cognito forms please use the link below (This will ensure that all the right APIs, keys etc. will be setup)

Click here to Signup for a CoGnito Forms Account

SIGNUP TO COGNITO FORMS

3) Import our Template Forms (using the links below) which contain examples of various elements which can be copied into your own form (e.g. CV Submission, Name & Address Capture, Example Skills upload, etc.)

This can then be used as a starting point for you to design your own Import Forms.

Pricing

Use of the Form Submission system requires a Cognito Forms account (Contact Cognito ) and a Forms Import License (Monthly Subscription) to use the import facility within your influence database. Please contact our Sales team to purchase this License.

T: 01372 365716
E: Sales@influence-it.com

If you attempt to import a form into an unlicensed Influence database you will see a message similar to the one below:

NB: You may also want to purchase an additional User License for your Influence database as this is needed if you want to automatically monitor an email inbox and auto-import the submissions, otherwise they can be imported manually using Drag/Drop without the need for an extra license.

How to Create a Cognito Forms Account

Have a look at the Cognito website and decide which level of plan is right for you, in terms of numbers of submissions, security and storage, then contact Cognito and sign up.

When signing up make sure to choose a suitable plan. Free accounts will not work as they don't support the relevant features. At the time of writing, in order to work with submissions to Influence your Cognito account must be 'TEAMS' or higher.

Important
If you intend to gather and store personal information and details such as driving licenses or financial information you should consider the correct level of security and encryption for any data stored within your Cognito Forms database when choosing your account level. You would be wise to ensure that any Personal Data you collect is encrypted. Encryption is available fromTeam or Enterprise level upwards. For more information about the features of each plan offered, please contact Cognito Forms.

REMINDER: The Free (Individual) account offered by Cognito Forms will not work for the candidate submission system as it does not support the necessary features to enable the sending of calculation fields needed for the integration.

Design Your Forms

Once you have signed up for a Cognito account, and also purchased the Cognito Integration from Influence, You can start to design your Forms.

For more help, see our full Form Design Article: HERE

Typically you will want forms to capture new applications, and may also want forms for things such as updating bank details or addresses.

Having signed up for an account, and got the Congiot Add-on for your Influience database, please take a look at our FORM DESIGN guide. This has some helpful Resource Forms - and these templates can be imported into your Cognito account as a good starting point for your own forms. We suggest you make a copy and then begin to customise the form to match your particular Influence database.

Typical information to be captured on a form will be basic applicant info such as Name, Address, Telephone/Mobile numbers, Date of Birth & Nationality. It is also common to request information about the type of Role(s) they wish to apply for, perhaps some skills and also request the submission of a CV Document.

This would then allow the creation of a basic Candidate Record and then your internal sales team could take over and arrange further meetings/interviews to asses their skills, take copies of relevant documents such as proof of ID, etc.

A form might look something like the below one:

The precise information you wish to capture within the web form will depend upon the sector in which you work, the type of applicants you receive and the nature of their assignments.

Always be mindful of any local regulations and laws applicable to the gathering of candidate information and compliance when designing these forms and the processes you will use to gather the information.

When adding fields to your form it is also important to add fields in the correct way, and you will need to see our about Form Building in order to ensure that you add the fields to the form in the correct way, so that it works when you import it into your database.

Note: Form design is down to you. We (Influence) do not perform your form design, and whilst we do provide limited guidance via our support articles, we are not responsible for the design or maintenance of your forms.

If we do provide form design services this falls outside the scope of our normal support and you would therefore be charged on a time and materials basis at our standard consultancy rates.

How to Create a Candidate Record from a Form

Completed forms can be submitted and imported into the Influence database to create candidates. The basic process is:

1. Candidate fills in online form and clicks [Submit]

2. The email is received in an MS Outlook Mailbox which you have specified as part of your Form Design

3. The Email is Dragged/Dropped into Influence on the [Candidate] workbench to create a new Candidate record

Note: It is also possible to setup a process to automatically monitor a particular email box, and import any mails received as Form Submissions.
This process will require an extra influence user licence, since a session will need to be logged-in to the database to monitor and process the emails.

Automatic Import of Forms from a specified Mailbox

It is possible to have the system scan a specific mailbox and automatically import the forms which arrived into that mailbox.

NOTE: Automatically monitoring a mailbox will require an additional influence user licence, as you will need to leave machine logged-in and monitoring the mailbox.

- Before logging into Influence ensure the PC for the auto user can login and see the relevant mailbox/Folder in MS Outlook and ensure MS Outlook is running on the machine.

- Login as the relevant Automatic User, e.g. AUTO
(The UserID can be found from parameter PRO-WBEN,Text(3) )

- Go to [Workbench] > [Toolbox] and expand the Mail folders at the top right, and select the folder containing the incoming FORM applications (i.e. Notification emails)

Having selected the email folder choose Web Form Import Tool at the left of the workbench, then press [Go]

The system will then ask for confirmation that you wish to scan the selected mailbox for FORM applications. Saying YES will commence the scan.

The mailbox will be scanned periodically and any new applications will be processed and imported. The frequency of the scan is controlled with parameter PRO-WBEN,Integer(1)

NOTE: The default period between scans is 20mins, and we do NOT recommend the scan period is reduced below this.

When running the screen will look like the one below.