Opening Tags vs. Candidate Labels

Opening Tags and Candidate Labels help organize information in Trakstar Hire, but they serve different purposes.

• Opening Tags organize and categorize job openings.
• Candidate Labels organize and categorize candidates.

Understanding the difference helps ensure you use the right feature for reporting, filtering, and organizing your recruiting process.

Opening Tags

Opening Tags are applied to job openings to help organize and filter positions.

You can use tags to group openings by characteristics such as:

• Department
• Office location
• Employment type
• Hiring initiative
• Business unit
• Any other category that helps organize your openings

Tags make it easier to search, filter, and report on job openings across your account.

When to Use Opening Tags

Use Opening Tags when you want to categorize the position itself rather than the people applying for it.

For example, you might create tags for:

• Sales
• Engineering
• Remote
• New York
• Seasonal

These tags stay with the opening regardless of which candidates apply.

Filtering by opening tags

On the left-hand side of your openings page, click the blue +Add Filter option, and select Tags from the dropdown:

Candidate Labels

Candidate Labels are applied directly to candidate profiles.

Labels help recruiters organize candidates based on recruiting activities, qualifications, or internal processes.

Examples include:

• Silver Medalist
• Employee Referral
• High Priority
• Internship Candidate
• Alumni
• Future Opportunity

Unlike Opening Tags, Candidate Labels travel with the candidate and can be used across multiple openings if the candidate applies again.

If there are already labels on a candidate, the option for adding a new label (or editing/deleting labels) will say Edit labels.

When to Use Candidate Labels

Use Candidate Labels when you want to classify or identify candidates rather than the jobs they're applying for.

Labels are useful for:

• Organizing talent pools
• Highlighting priority candidates
• Identifying referral candidates
• Tracking internal recruiting programs
• Creating candidate filters

You can also bulk-label candidates from the candidate list page by checking the box next to their name and clicking the Label option.

Filtering by labels

Once labels are applied, you can sort candidates via their labels by any of these methods:

• Clicking on the label from within the candidate's profile or the candidate dashboard
• Clicking Filter by Label on the lower left-hand side of your candidate dashboard
• Through the advanced candidate search feature.

Opening Tags vs. Candidate Labels

Which Should You Use?

Choose the feature based on what you're trying to organize.

Use Opening Tags when you need to categorize or report on job openings.

Use Candidate Labels when you need to organize, filter, or identify candidates throughout your recruiting process.

In many recruiting workflows, both features are used together—Opening Tags organize the positions you're hiring for, while Candidate Labels organize the people applying to those positions.

Best Practices

• Use Opening Tags consistently across similar openings.
• Create standardized Candidate Labels so recruiters use the same terminology.
• Avoid creating duplicate tags or labels with similar meanings.
• Review tags and labels periodically to keep your account organized.
• Use Opening Tags and Candidate Labels together to improve filtering and reporting.