Custom flags

Turn a candidate tag into a small icon that shows on pipeline cards, so your hiring team can spot it at a glance.

A custom flag is a name and an icon that you link to one candidate tag. Any candidate who carries that tag shows the icon on their card in a job's pipeline. Typical uses are Disability Confident, armed forces or care leaver status, or anything else your team needs to notice before opening the application.

Who can set up and see flags

System Admins and HR users can open Settings > Job Setup > Custom Flags, and both can create, edit and delete flags. Other roles cannot open the page.

The icons on pipeline cards are shown to System Admins and HR users only. Recruiters, hiring managers, interviewers, Members and Agency users do not see them, even though they can see the same candidates. If your organisation is a group parent, a company picker at the top of the settings page lets you choose whose flags you are working on.

Create a flag

1. Go to Settings > Job Setup > Custom Flags.
2. Select Add Flag. If you have no flags yet, the page says "No custom flags configured. Create your first flag to get started." and offers the same button.
3. In Name, type what the flag means, for example Disability Confident. This is the text people see when they hover over the icon. The limit is 255 characters.
4. Under Icon, choose one of the twelve icons. A preview underneath shows the icon next to your name.
5. In Candidate tag, type the tag that triggers the flag, for example disability_confident. Use lowercase letters, digits and underscores only, up to 100 characters.
6. Select Create Flag. You see "Flag saved" and the flag appears in the list on the left.

The Create Flag button stays disabled until both Name and Candidate tag are filled in. If the tag contains capitals, spaces or punctuation you see "Only lowercase letters, digits, and underscores are allowed".

Icons and colours

Each icon has its own fixed colour. You choose the icon and the colour comes with it. The icon is white on a solid coloured circle.

Two flags can use the same icon, but they will look identical on a card, so give each flag its own icon where you can. New flags start with the Accessibility icon selected.

How the tag mapping works

The Candidate tag is the link between a candidate and the flag. A candidate shows the flag when the tag on their record is exactly the same as the tag you entered. Tags are matched character for character, so a candidate tagged Disability Confident (capitals and a space) will not show a flag mapped to disability_confident.

It does not matter how the tag got onto the candidate. It can be added by a recruiter, by the bulk Add Tags action, or automatically from an application form answer (see below).

Each tag can be linked to one flag only. If you enter a tag that another flag already uses, the save fails with "A flag already maps to the tag" followed by the tag name. Use a different tag, or edit the other flag first.

Because the flag depends on an exact match, add tags to candidates by typing them exactly as they appear in the Candidate tag field. When you use bulk Add Tags on the Candidates page, separate tags with commas and use the lowercase underscore form, for example: disability_confident, care_leaver.

Add the tag to candidates

There are three ways to give a candidate the tag.

• To tag one candidate, open them and select the tag icon (Edit tags) next to their name. Type the tag in the custom tag box and select Add, or press Enter. To remove it, untick it in the same list. Changes save straight away.
• To tag many candidates at once, select them on the Candidates page, open Manage and choose Add Tags. You can add up to 50 tags in one go to up to 100 candidates, and a candidate can hold 200 tags in total. Bulk removal is not possible.
• To tag candidates automatically from an application form answer, use the optional question setting described next.

To find everyone who carries a tag, use the Tags filter on the Candidates page. It lists candidates with any of the tags you tick.

Tag candidates automatically from an application form

Under Application form question (optional) the flag has two more fields:

• Question text: the wording of the question on your application form, for example Do you consider yourself to have a disability? Up to 1,000 characters.
• Trigger answer: the answer that should apply the tag, for example Yes. Up to 255 characters.

When a candidate submits your application form from the careers page and gives that answer to that question, Recruit adds the flag's tag to the candidate. This also applies when a candidate finishes an application they saved earlier.

• Both fields must be filled in. With only one of them, nothing is applied.
• The question text has to match the question's label on the form. Capital letters and extra spaces are ignored, but any other difference in wording means it will not match. If you later reword the question on the form, update the flag to match.
• The answer can be typed text or a choice from a list or set of options. If several options can be ticked, the flag applies when one of them is your trigger answer.
• The tag is added when the application is submitted. It is not added to candidates who applied earlier, and it is not added when a recruiter edits an application's answers afterwards.
• Answers that do not match leave the candidate's tags unchanged. Candidates are never untagged automatically.

Where flags appear

Flags show on candidate cards in a job's Pipeline tab, in each stage, to System Admin and HR users. Each icon sits on the card below the candidate's details. Hover over an icon, or focus it with the keyboard, to see the flag's name.

A card shows up to four icons. If a candidate matches more than four flags, the rest are collected into a "+N more" badge, and hovering over it lists their names.

Flags do not appear on the Candidates page or on the candidate's own profile. There you see the underlying tag, in the Tags column and in the tag editor.

Edit a flag

1. Open Settings > Job Setup > Custom Flags.
2. Select the flag in the list. The panel on the right changes to Edit Flag.
3. Change the name, icon, candidate tag or question settings.
4. Select Save.

Name and icon changes show on pipeline cards straight away, for every candidate who has the tag. If you change the Candidate tag, candidates who carry the old tag stop showing the flag and candidates who carry the new tag start showing it. Nobody's tags are changed. To go back to adding a new flag, select Add Flag below the list.

Delete a flag

Open the flag, select Delete and confirm in the Delete Flag box. You see "Flag deleted".

Candidates who already have the tag keep it, but it no longer shows as an icon. If you create a flag again with the same tag, the icons return for everyone who still has the tag. Deleting a flag cannot be undone, but it is quick to recreate.