1. Implementing Recruiting
  2. Configure Synonyms for Candidate Experience Keyword Search

Configure Synonyms for Candidate Experience Keyword Search

You can enhance the keyword search experience for external career sites by allowing candidates to use common synonyms and abbreviations.

For example, if candidates search using terms such as "Sr" results will be returned using the word "senior". Searching for "product owner" also returns "product manager" in the results. This makes it easier for candidates to find a job they want to apply to, because more relevant search results will be returned. Synonyms are checked against the requisition title, job function, and job family, but not the description. This means if a candidate searches for "Product Owner" and a job has "Product Manager" in the description (but not in the title, function, or family), that job won't be returned in the search results.

Support for synonyms is automatically enabled, and a default list of synonyms is provided in Setup and Maintenance. If you want to add your own synonyms, you can download, edit, and re-upload the list.

You can add multiple languages to the file. The following languages are supported:

  • English
  • Spanish
  • French
  • Arabic
  • German

Before you start

  • Enable Oracle Search. If Oracle Search isn't enabled, or synonyms are disabled using profile option, then the Configure Synonyms section in Setup and Maintenance is enabled, but uploading a file won't have any effect.
  • Files must be zipped CSV-UTF8.

Download the Synonym List

  1. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to:
    • Offering: Recruiting and Candidate Experience
    • Functional Area: Recruiting and Candidate Experience Maintenance
    • Task: Enterprise Recruiting and Candidate Experience Information
  2. Scroll down and expand the Configure Synonym section. Notice that you can see when the synonym file was last updated, and a link to download a copy to work with. In the example above, the file is listed as "From Seed Data" which means it's never been updated, and is the version that was provided by Oracle.
  3. Click Download Latest Synonyms Definition File, and save the file to a location on your hard drive or network. The downloaded file is an unzipped CSV file.
  4. Open the CSV file.

    Each row in the file represents one instance of synonyms. Column A lists the words and phrases that mean the same thing; for example "recruiter, recruiting specialist, talent acquisition specialist => recruiter, recruiting specialist, talent acquisition specialist". You'll notice the words in the synonym column appear twice, but the instances are separated by an arrow (=>). In the seeded file, the words and phrases on both sides of an arrow are the same. This means that when a candidate searches using one of the listed phrases, all of listed synonyms are searched.

    Similarly, when you add more words or phrases to a row in Column A, you'll need to use the same words on either side of the arrow, and ensure that they're spelled the same way. If you don't, candidates might not see all of the results you want them to see. For example, if you add a row containing "product manager => product owner", candidates searching for “product manager” might end up getting only “product owner” results, even though you might have jobs using both names. Instead you should add "product manager, product owner => product manager, product owner".

    Column B lists the language codes. They define the language for a synonym row. The synonyms from each row will only be used in sites that use that language. You can only add one language per row. The following language codes must be used for the supported languages:

    • English - en
    • Spanish - es
    • French - fr
    • Arabic - ar
    • German - de
  5. Update the file as necessary and save it.
    Note: Synonyms file can't contain a "?" character. You can only upload .zip files so you'll need to zip your saved CSV file before uploading it to Recruiting. Instructions for creating CSV-UTF8 files can be found online.

Upload the Synonym File

  1. Open and inspect your files before uploading, especially if the file contains languages other than English.
  2. Check for special characters. If there are any, it means the file isn't saved correctly in a UTF-8 format.
  3. In the Setup and Maintenance work area, go to:
    • Offering: Recruiting and Candidate Experience
    • Functional Area: Recruiting and Candidate Experience Maintenance
    • Task: Enterprise Recruiting and Candidate Experience Information

  4. Scroll down and expand the Configure Synonym section and click Edit.

  5. Click Click Here to Upload, or use the drag-and-drop functionality to drag the zipped CSV file to the upload area.

Related Topics