Integrating with Canvass

Canvass is an async video service that allows you to conduct non real-time video interviews with your applicants.

"Async" is short for "asynchronous", and it means that unlike a standard Zoom interview etc., not all members of the job selection panel, or the candidate has to be available at the same time.  You can set up a series of interview questions (either plain text questions, or video based questions), and the applicant can answer them at their leisure.

Setting up the Integration

Below are the steps you will need to take to set up the integration between Canvass and HR Partner.

Canvass Setup

Log into your Canvass account that you have created, and click on the 'gear' icon on the top bar to go to the settings page.

Then on the settings page, (1) click the ' Integrate' tab and then (2) click on the drop down list to select the integration type:

Choose ' HR Partner' from the list of applicant tracking systems to integrate with:

Then click the ' Add Integration' button to complete the task:

This will then show you an API Key which you will need to complete the integration on the HR Partner side.  

Copy this key onto your clipboard by highlighting the whole sequence of numbers and pressing [Ctrl-C] on your keyboard ([Command-C] for Macs).

HR Partner Setup

In HR Partner, you can now go to the Recruitment -> Configure -> Integrations menu.

This is where you normally configure which job board to post your job listings to, but you will notice a new area now where you can choose your async video interview provider.  Change the slider to 'On' next to Canvass:

When you turn the slider ON, another section will pop up asking for the API key that you obtained from Canvass as per the instructions above.  Paste the copied key in here exactly as it appears in Canvass, then click Save.

The integration is done!

Setting up Positions

So, now that the two systems are integrated, how do you use it?  Well, you will need to set up ' Positions' in Canvass, that match your 'Job Listings' in HR Partner.  You don't have to have a one to one match either.  You may decide to have one or two standard video interview setups in Canvass that you can re-use across multiple job listings in HR Partner, or else you can opt to have specific interview question for individual jobs.  This is entirely up to you.

Setting up Positions in Canvass

We won't go through the detailed steps of setting up an interview in Canvass, as that is covered in their own help documentation, but we will quickly show you how to set up a simple 3 question interview that can be associated with a job listing in your system, and send that out to your applicants as needed.

Click on the ' Add Position' button on your Canvass dashboard.

This will open the wizard for setting up a new position.  Enter in the name of the position (this doesn't have to be exactly the same as the position description in HR Partner, by the way).

Next, you can enter the questions that you would like to ask the applicant when they conduct this interview.  You can get as fancy as you like, and you can even add an intro and outro video to your interview so you can tell the applicant more about your company etc., but we will keep this simple for our example.  Instead of recording any video questions (which we highly recommend by the way), we are going to use text questions only.

Click the ' Add Text Question' button multiple times to add a series of text questions.

When finished, click 'Next' for the last step, which is to configure how long the applicant will have to think about and answer the questions.

Now you are done on the Canvass side of things (for now).

Linking Positions in HR Partner

Now that you have set up the interview sequence(s) in Canvass, you can associate the Positions on that platform to your job listings in HR Partner.  To do this, edit your job listing as you would normally do by going to Recruitment -> Jobs then clicking the 'Edit' button next to a job listing.

About a third of the way down the job listing edit screen, you will now see a drop down asking you for the Canvass interview sequence to associate this job listing to.

You can choose the name of the position in Canvass here (or else you can leave it as '(none)' if you don't want to use the integrated questions for this particular job listing).

You can now save the job listing.

Sending and Viewing Interviews from HR Partner

Now comes the exciting bit.  How do we send an async video request to an applicant? And how do we view it after they have finished?

Well, this is all done under the application view screen, when you are looking at an applicant's form, their file attachments and scorecards.  It is under the 'Interviews' tab.

Don't worry, all you normal ways of scheduling a standard Zoom or in person interview is still there.  But async videos are essentially an 'interview' as well, so we have added an extra section below your normal interviews for your Canvass ones too.

As you can see above, we have not sent this applicant a Canvass video invite yet, so their status is ' Not Started'.  To send them an invite, simply click the 'Send Invitation' button.

That's it!  You should see a message at the top of the screen stating that the video invitation was sent out successfully.  That means they will have been emailed from Canvass with the link to the interview so they can commence/complete it.

Here is what the email invitation to the applicant looks like.

Each applicant will receive a unique link to complete their interview.

If you look at the 'Interviews' tab for the applicant now, you will see that their Canvass status has been changed to 'Invited'.

There is also a link there with the special URL they will need to go to in order to start the interview.  This will have been sent to them in their invitation email from Canvass, or else if they lose that original email inviting them, you can copy and paste this link in another email to them from HR Partner.

Once an applicant has completed the interview, this status will change to ' Completed', and the 'Watch Interview' button will take you to their complete video answers that you and anyone on the selection panel will be able to look at.

You can't cancel an interview once it has been sent from HR Partner.  You will have to go to the Canvass platform to find the applicant there and cancel the interview from their end.  But once you do cancel it, their status will change to 'Cancelled' in HR Partner automatically.