Getting Started Guide - State Farm Users

Welcome to your State Farm CareerPlug account!

In this article:

• CareerPlug Overview
• Log into Your CareerPlug Account
• Configure your careers page
• Post your first job
• Job posting tips
• Review and contact your applicants

CareerPlug Overview

For an overview of your State Farm CareerPlug account, watch this video, or learn more below.

Log into Your CareerPlug Account

Visit app.careerplug.com in your web browser and enter your email username and password. If you do not remember your password, click the Forgot your password? link and follow the guided steps to set a new password.

Configure your careers page

Your careers page is your custom recruiting site for your company. You can find this by clicking the Careers Page button in the top right-hand corner of your CareerPlug dashboard. All of your job posts can be accessed from this link, so if you ever need to refer an interested candidate to apply for a job, you can tell them to apply directly via this link.

This link may be placed on your email signature line, on a business card, and even on your company's website. You can also post this link to outside sources such as Facebook or local university career centers to drive applicant traffic from those sources to your CareerPlug system.

Here's an example:

We recommend configuring your careers page before you post your first job. Click here for an in-depth guide detailing how to configure your careers page.

Post your first job

Watch a video on how to post a State Farm job or follow along below.

On the Jobs page, click the plus icon (+) in the top left corner of your screen.

Choose to either:

• Use a job template: Use a prebuilt template configured by CareerPlug for specific State Farm roles. You can click the Preview link to see how these prebuilt templates look when posted on a careers page.
• Create a blank job: Use a blank template that you can customize with multiple options that State Farm Corporate has provided to CareerPlug.

Use a job template

If you select one of the four job templates we have built for you, you will not have to customize the job posting as you would when selecting the blank job builder (although you can make minor changes if you feel the template is close but not exactly what you are needing). The templates have all of the prescreen questions, requirements, and descriptions for four unique role types:

• Producer/Sales Role Template: for those who may want to be an agent or work in sales, but who are not currently licensed
• Licensed & Experienced Agent Template: for seeking applicants currently licensed and experienced as insurance agents
• Service Role Template: for various administrative or customer service type roles
• Pivot Role Template: for a role that is service-oriented but may transition into a sales role if needed

If you would rather fully configure your job posting, use the blank job builder instead.

Create a blank job - Job Posting section

• Location: Set the location in which the job should be posted.
• Job title: Select a job title that best fits what you are seeking from the drop-down menu.
  • A job title add-on is optional.
• Position Overview: Select one of prewritten position overviews.
  • Any of these will serve as a dynamic and inviting job description for your applicants.
• Responsibilities: Select 2-3 of the prewritten job responsibilities that apply.
• Benefits: You will need to select at least one.
• Requirements: Choose 8-10 requirements.
  • These range from different skills and experiences to languages spoken.

Create a blank job - Applicant Evaluation section

Prescreen Questions

These are questions on the application page that an applicant must answer in order to apply. Click the Select Questions button, then click the toggle to the right of a question to add it.

After you add a question, you can edit its settings by clicking the settings icon.

Decide whether each of the responses will be scored as Auto Fast Track, Fast Track, Normal or Disqualify.

Fast Track

You can identify and contact your top applicants faster using Fast Track. Based on responses to initial prescreen questions, applicants can be sorted as Fast Track or even Disqualified. When editing a prescreen question, you can choose the Fast Track type from a drop-down list:

• Normal (default): This means that no matter how the applicant responds, the response is scored normally and will not be considered for Fast Track.
• Auto Fast Track: This means that no matter how the applicant responds to other prescreen questions, if they select an Auto Fast Track response, they will automatically be considered Fast Track. This is useful if you have one key response or requirement you know you will want to move forward within the hiring process.
• Fast Track: This means that if the applicant chooses a Fast Track response, that person has the potential to be considered Fast Track. These applicants must correctly select all other Fast Track responses you have set up in order to be considered Fast Track.
• Disqualify: This means that an applicant should not be considered in the hiring process if they select a Disqualify response.

Assessments

The toggles for the Math/Verbal and Sales/Leadership assessment will be on by default. This does not mean that an applicant will be required to take them. It simply gives you the option to send these assessments to an applicant during the hiring process.

Here's what each assessment measures:

• Math/Verbal Assessment: A cognitive ability test that focuses on applicant problem-solving skills, numerical skills, verbal skills, and reasoning, which are aspects of cognitive ability. The purpose of the assessment is to gauge the applicant’s potential to acquire new job information and solve problems on the job. It is a 12-minute timed test.
• Sales/Leadership Assessment: A personality test that looks for sales and leadership potential.

Create a blank job - Hiring Settings section

In the Hiring Settings section, confirm the hiring manager and configure notifications.

In the Additional Users section, you can remove a hiring manager’s access to a job by clicking the "X" to the right of their name. To give another user access, start typing their name and select it from the drop-down list.

Click the Configure Notifications button to specify what kinds of notifications each user should receive about this job. By default, each person will receive a daily email alerting them about new applicants (the “Daily Digest”). Turn the toggle on to add any additional notifications.

Create a blank job - Select posting status

A pop-up will appear asking you to set your job’s posting status and enable optional settings.

These are the available job post statuses:

Active	Your job will be immediately posted on your careers page and sent to external job boards. It may take up to 24 hours to appear on job boards.
Pending	Choose this status if you’re not ready for the job to be posted anywhere yet, or if you want to post the job at a future date. You can find all of your Pending jobs on the Drafts tab of your Jobs page.
Careers Pages Only	Your job will be created and posted on your careers page, but not sent to any external job boards. You can find all of your internal-only jobs on the Passive tab of your Jobs page.

Job posting tips

Sponsoring a Job with Indeed

Rather than needing to communicate with an Indeed rep and manage all of your sponsored jobs on Indeed, you now have the ability to sponsor a job directly through the CareerPlug.

Find the job on the Jobs page that you wish to sponsor on Indeed. Click the three-dots icon, then click the Sponsor link.

This link opens a pop-up that allows you to set a budget for the job posting and enter your Indeed account information.

This will set the job as sponsored in CareerPlug's standard Indeed feed and set the budget for the job based on the option selected in the popup. The next time the feed updates, Indeed will process the sponsorship request. This means that sponsoring your job through CareerPlug will not be instant and may take up to 12 hours to update in the feed. If Indeed has questions, needs to collect payment information, or otherwise contact the user about their sponsored posting they will do so outside of CareerPlug. More information here.

Posting a Job to Outside Sources

We recommend posting on as many outside sources as possible in order to ensure that you are getting your job posting in front of as many top-quality applicants as possible. While the job boards CareerPlug automatically posts your jobs to often produce a high volume of applicants, posting on local job boards, getting the word out on social media, and posting to Craigslist can bring in many more strong applicants.

To post your job to local job boards and other sources, go to your Jobs tab and find the job that you would like to post to additional sources and click the Share button.

To post to Craigslist, Google+, or use an employee referral: Click the Manual Sources tab, then click on the drop-down to the right of the sources, click Copy Link, or Copy Link with description and the link and description will be ready for you to paste.

To post to a social site, like Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook, click the associated icons at the top right and follow the instructions.

To post to a source that is not listed (for example, a local university or Chamber of Commerce), click the Add Custom Source button. Type the name of the source into the box labeled “Enter a title for custom source” and then click Save. This creates a unique URL that you will use when posting to external sources. In order to drive applicants back to your careers page, you must include this unique URL in whatever external job posting you create.

You can always find this link again by following the same steps above.

Posting at a Later Date

Setting a job to post at a later date lets you set a job to post on the best days for applicant flow — Monday through Wednesday — without having to log into your account on those days. Job seekers are most active on the job boards Monday through Wednesday. We recommend posting your jobs to be available to job seekers for these days to give you the highest visibility for your jobs and the highest potential applicant flow.

When you click the Post a Job button from your Dashboard or Jobs tab, the last step will be selecting the job posting status in a pop-up that appears. If you choose Pending or Accepting for Future Openings as your job status, an option to Post this job at a later date appears. Turn the toggle on, then use the calendar icon to select any date in the future you'd like your job to be posted. When you click the button to Post Job, the job will be saved on your Draft tab.

Due to the volume of job postings submitted to job boards, new jobs may take up to 24 business hours to appear in their organic job feed. If it’s taking longer for your job to show up, it could be a result of the job board performing a thorough quality review in order to protect the applicant experience.

As a result, we suggest posting your jobs on Friday or Saturday to ensure they are live by the following Monday.

Review and contact your applicants

Reviewing new applicants

You can view all of your applicants on your Applicants page. Click the Start Review button to get started.

This brings you to a page where you will quickly view applicant resumes, one after the other. Other important information is available here, including the job that the candidate applied for and any answers to prescreen questions.

After reviewing the candidate's resume and prescreen information, it's time to decide whether to reject or advance them.

Click the thumbs-up icon to move an applicant forward in your hiring process. Click the thumbs-down icon to send a courteous rejection email.

To learn how to move your applicants through the rest of your hiring process, watch this video or follow the steps below:

Using your hiring process

Your hiring process is the set of steps that each applicant goes through before they are hired. Using a hiring process keeps you organized and helps to remove bias from the hiring process.

In CareerPlug, each applicant’s full hiring process is visible on the applicant's profile page. To view an applicant’s profile page, click their name. Here, you will see the full hiring process laid out for you.

On the Applicants page, the buttons in the Actions column will tell you the next step in the hiring process for an applicant. If you wish to view the full hiring process, click the applicant's name.

Review step

Before taking any action on an applicant, make sure to review their prescreen question responses and resume.

The applicant’s prescreen score — an average grade based on their answers to any prescreen questions that you chose when you created this job — is visible in the box to the left of their name. Hover over the score to view the answers to the prescreen questions.

Click the Quick Look link under an applicant’s name to view their resume.

Some candidates might be marked as "Fast Track" (the green double arrows pictured below). Fast Track candidates marked a preferred answer to a prescreen question.

Fast Track helps you identify and contact your top applicants faster. Applicants will be indicated as Fast Track based on responses to initial screening questions set on the job posting. As soon as a Fast Track applicant applies, the job's hiring manager will receive a notification email. You will also be able to see the Fast Track icon next to their prescreen score (the green double arrows pictured below).

An example of how Fast Track works: If one of your prescreen questions asks "Are you bilingual in Spanish?" and the job requires Spanish fluency, "Yes - Fluent" might be marked as a Fast-Tracked answer by the person who set up the job posting.

If an applicant is deemed acceptable, click the thumbs-up icon.

If you don’t want to move forward with the applicant, click the thumbs-down icon and send the applicant a pre-written, courteous rejection letter.

Assessment step

If your company uses CareerPlug's assessments, the assessment hiring step is generally after the review step.

Send the assessments to an applicant to measure them on the characteristics most important to the position.

Click the Send Invitation button to load a pre-written email that you can send straight from the CareerPlug.

The email won't be sent until you click Send Email.

Phone Screen/Interview step

In many hiring processes, the next steps are the Phone Screen (a basic phone interview with your applicant) and the Interview (an in-person interview with your applicant).

Click Send Invitation to open up a pre-written message template that asks the applicant for some days and times they would be available for the interview.

You will correspond with the applicant from your own email inbox.

Once you and your applicant have agreed upon a time, you can click the Schedule Interview or Confirm Interview button to send a confirmation email and calendar invite to the applicant. You have the option to sync it to your calendar as well.

Interview Scorecards

Scorecards are interview guides filled with suggested questions for you to use while you are interviewing your applicant. You can rate your candidate’s responses, make comments on the scorecard, and save their scorecard for other managers to access.

In hiring steps with interviews, you have the option to complete a scorecard.

View all scorecards on the Scorecards tab.

Deactivate & Reject

During any part of the hiring process, if you do not wish to move forward with an applicant, click the thumbs-down icon to the far right. This will not completely remove the applicant from CareerPlug, it will simply remove them from your active applicant view. It will also give you the option to send them a pre-written rejection email (we highly recommend doing so!)

Other hiring steps

References step

Click the Invite button to load a pre-written email requesting professional references. You can also use a scorecard to evaluate those references once you've contacted and interviewed them.

Offer step

You have the option to send applicants digital offer letters if an administrator on your account has set up an offer letter template. Click here to learn how to send offer letters through CareerPlug.

Background step

CareerPlug does not conduct background checks. However, we do work with a couple of partners that many of our clients use for their background check needs. Working with one of our partners will allow you to fully integrate your background checks with your hiring process. Learn more.

Hire step

Marking hires is extremely important in order to keep your reporting accurate. When your business makes its first hire, we'll plant a tree in your honor through our partnership with WeForest!

Hiring will move the applicant and all of their information to your Team page. If you use CareerPlug's Onboarding, the applicant will also be moved there and accessible on the Employees page once they log in for the first time. They'll be emailed with instructions for logging in to complete their new hire paperwork.

More Options

Clicking the three-dots icon on the far right side of an applicant's record will open a drop-down menu with these options:

• View Profile
• Move to Pipeline
• Add Comment
• Share
• Transfer to another job

Move to Pipeline

During any part of the hiring process, if you find a strong applicant that is not exactly right for the position for which they applied, click Move to Pipeline option. This will enable you to save an applicant for future openings for which they may be a better fit.

Share

If you wish to share an applicant with another member of your team to review, click Share. A box will pop up allowing you to enter email addresses and an optional message before sending to your recipients.

Transfer to another job

Selecting Transfer allows you to move the applicant to a different job for which they might be a better fit. Simply select the CareerPlug job you want to transfer them to in the drop-down, then click Submit Transfer.