Recruiting mode finds candidates for an open role and reaches out to them, instead of running a sales search. You sign up in recruiting mode, describe the role, and Ken builds a candidate search around it. This guide takes you from the role to your first candidate search.

In Recruiting, Kenso uses recruiting words: a lead is a candidate, an audience is an ideal candidate, a company is an employer, and a meeting is a screen. A positive reply is labeled Interested in the role.

The Launch your first candidate search task in Today closes when your first campaign launches.

Describe the role

Ken starts from the role you want to fill. Pick how to give it to Ken:

  • Read my careers page. Ken reads your site's careers page. This is the default when your site has one.
  • I'll paste the job description. Paste the post into the chat.
  • I'll describe the role. Tell Ken in your own words.

When you build a campaign yourself, the Role details step takes a Job post or link. Paste the post, or a link to it, and click Fill in. Ken reads it into the role's fields and says "Ken filled the role from the post. Check it and change anything."

Check the fields Ken filled:

  • Title, Employer, Employer website and Job link.
  • Location and Work mode: On-site, Hybrid or Remote.
  • Seniority.
  • Pay from, Pay to, Currency and Per.
  • Must-haves, Nice-to-haves and Description. Write one per line. These tell Ken who to look for.

Review your candidate plans

Ken builds the campaign around the role. It works through the role brief, the ideal candidate, the angles to write from and the messages. Then it shows you your first candidate plans.

Each plan is one candidate: who they are, their title and employer, and the messages Ken has planned for them. At this stage Kenso shows names and titles only.

  1. In Today, open the Review your first 5 accounts task and read the first five plans.
  2. Check that each person fits the role you described.
  3. If one doesn't, press ⌘J and tell Ken what to change.

Plans work like account plans in the rest of Kenso.

Connect your ATS

Connecting your applicant tracking system lets Ken import your open jobs as roles, skip people already in process, and send interested candidates to the right job. Kenso connects to the four below. Each one shows only where it is turned on for your workspace.

  • Ashby
  • Greenhouse
  • Lever
  • Bullhorn
  1. Open Settings, then Integrations. Find your ATS under ATS.
  2. For Bullhorn, click Connect Bullhorn and sign in. For Ashby, Greenhouse or Lever, paste an API key under API key and click Connect. Kenso tells you where to create the key. For Greenhouse, paste the client ID and secret of a Harvest v3 credential as client_id:client_secret.
  3. Under Open jobs, click Import as role next to each job you want to fill. Imported jobs show Imported.
  4. Under Sync, choose what Kenso does: Send interested candidates, Send candidates who book a screen, Pull stage changes and Skip people already in process.

Only workspace admins can connect or disconnect an ATS. To link a role to a job later, open the campaign's Settings tab and find its role. Click Link a job, then use Change job or Unlink to change it.

Reach out to candidates

Candidate outreach goes through the same approval flow as every campaign. Ken writes the messages, and you review them before they send.

By default, a campaign reaches candidates on LinkedIn first, then by work email. You can choose email only or LinkedIn only when you build the campaign.

  1. In the campaign builder, click Create campaign.
  2. Approve the first messages in Today.
  3. Pick a billing plan when Kenso asks, because sending needs one. Free credits can't send. See The Free credits, Platform and Performance plans.

When a candidate replies, the reply lands in your inbox with the label Interested in the role for a yes. Kenso adds interested candidates to your ATS if you turned on Send interested candidates.

If something goes wrong

  • "Couldn't read that job." Paste the text of the post instead of the link, or fill the fields by hand.
  • "Couldn't save the role. Try again." Check that Title is filled in, then try again.
  • "Couldn't create the campaign. Try again." Wait a moment and click Create campaign again.
  • "Recruiting is off for this workspace." Recruiting isn't turned on yet. Write to [email protected] to ask for it.
  • "Connecting an ATS isn't available in this workspace." ATS connections are turned on workspace by workspace. Write to [email protected] to ask for yours.
  • "Only workspace admins can connect or disconnect an ATS." Ask an admin to connect it.
  • "Greenhouse needs the Client ID and Client Secret of a Harvest v3 credential, entered as client_id:client_secret." Paste both values into the one field, with a colon between them.
  • "That connect link expired. Start again from this page." Click Connect again.
  • "Couldn't connect Bullhorn: it did not grant access. Try again." Sign in again and approve access.
  • "Not linked. Link a job so Kenso sends interested candidates to your ATS." Click Link a job on the role.