What
Mercury Client Portal is used by recruiters in order to give the Client organisations they work with a higher level of visibility and control involving the recruitment process (reviewing candidates, requesting interviews, making offers).
Where
On first login, you will be emailed the URL for the portal and a temporary password. Upon entering this password you will be prompted to create a new one before gaining access to the system.
How
Jump to:
Create a new Vacancy in the Client Portal
Shortlisting Candidates to a Vacancy from Mercury
Dashboard
This is the main landing page for the Client Portal, made up three sections:
1. Upcoming Events & Actions
- Interviews today – View all Candidates that you (as the Hiring Manager) have interviews with today
- Candidates for review – View all Candidates submitted to you by the recruiter who have yet to be reviewed.
- Interviews requiring feedback – View Candidates where the latest interview date is in the past, but their Status is still at an interview stage (e.g. ‘Interview First’, ‘Interview Further’, ‘Interview Final’.
- Vacancies for review - View all Vacancies that have yet to be reviewed.
- Placements ending soon – View Placements that have a Status of 'Ending Soon'
- Interviews this week – View all Candidates that you (as the Hiring Manager) have interviews with this week
- Awaiting start - View Placements with the status 'Awaiting start'
- You may also see Your vacancies pending approval depending on your role. See Approving Vacancies for more information.
2. A grouped and selectable bar graph showing all active vacancies, and all placements in the portal over the last 12 months
3. A pie chart showing the furthest recruitment stage Candidates have reached in the last 30 days
Vacancies
1. The Vacancies tab will show Open Vacancies by default. Select the drop-down to choose from: All Vacancies, Closed Vacancies, or Rejected Vacancies.
2. Further filter options include:
- Type (Perm, Contract, Temp)
- Progress (Require CVs, Offer, Pending Approval, etc.)
- Positions
- Number of Candidates
- Date From
- Date To
3. Vacancy listing - click the Job Title for more information.
4. Create a New Vacancy. Click here to jump to the relevant section of this article.
View a Vacancy
Select the Job Title of a Vacancy to open details in a pop-up window.
Depending on your permissions, you can edit the vacancy details and view the job description, associated documents, and shortlisted Candidates.
General tab
- Fields with a white text box can be edited.
- Fields with a grey text box cannot be edited from the Client Portal, these edits must be made in the Vacancy record in Mercury.
- Furthest Status and Progress of the Vacancy.
- Any fields that are updated here are marked with a green tick in the text box.
- Select Back to Vacancies to not save any changes made, otherwise select Save.
Description tab
Write a job description of the Vacancy. This field can be left blank, otherwise there is a character limit: minimum of 3 - maximum of 5000 characters. This saves back to the Vacancy record on Mercury under the Job Details tab, in the Job Description field.
Documents tab
Upload documents to the Vacancy. Supported files are PDF and .docx. More than one file can be uploaded at a time. New files added successfully will show in the window under Validation passed. Once finished, click Save. These will save back to the Vacancy record under the Documents tab.
Candidates tab
View all Shortlisted Candidates for a Vacancy, including the following information: Name, Available, Status, Latest interview date, Salary, Rate, Latest feedback, Rejection Reason. Click on Name to open the Candidate information (see more information here). Click Latest Feedback to see a history of all feedback on the Candidate for this Vacancy.
Create a new Vacancy in the Client Portal
- Some fields can only be selected from a drop-down menu. For example, the Address can only be from those already associated with the Client.
- Other fields are free text but may have input constraints, e.g. only numbers can be entered in the Charge field.
- Select Back to Vacancies to not save any changes made, otherwise select Save.
- You may see the Approver field depending on your role. This means the Vacancy must be reviewed before it is published.
NOTE: Vacancies needing Approval will not show in Mercury until after this step is completed, but will show in the Client Portal with a Status of Pending Approval. See Vacancy approval process for more information. Even if a user has permission to approve Vacancies, they cannot approve their own.
Once published, Vacancy info also shows in Mercury (Contact record > Client Contact tab > Vacancies), with all entered data from the Client Portal.
The user that created the Vacancy shows as the Hiring Manager for the role (Vacancy record > Basic Info tab > INFORMATION > Hiring Manager).
Shortlisting Candidates to a Vacancy from Mercury
From Mercury, add Candidates to a Shortlist from the Vacancy record > Candidates tab. See Updating & Progressing a Candidate for more detailed information.
NOTE: These Candidates won't show in the Client Portal until the Candidate Status Reason has been updated from Selected to (at least) Submitted.
Once the Candidate has been submitted, they will be visible in two areas of the Client Portal:
- Vacancies tab > Vacancy > Candidates
- Candidates tab
Candidates
- The Candidates tab will show All Candidates by default. Select the drop-down to choose from: All Candidates, Candidates to Review, Interviews Arranged, or Offers Not Yet Accepted.
- Further filter options include:
- Status
- Hiring Manager
- Available From
- Available To
- Last Interview Date From
- Last Interview Date To
- Candidate information. Click on Name, Vacancy, or Latest Feedback for further information.
View a Candidate
Select the Name of a Candidate to open details in a pop-up window.
CV tab
PDFs can be viewed; Word documents must be downloaded.
Progress Candidate tab
A Candidate can be progressed through 3 stages of the recruitment process from this tab:
- Select Request Interview from the drop-down list (Required)
- Insert feedback (Required)
- Select up to 3 dates and times for interviews (only Date 1 is required).
NOTE: These dates are not sent to the Candidate, this is the Client informing the Consultant what dates/times are available.
NOTE: Request Interview here shows up as Client Shortlisted in Mercury Vacancy shortlist. i.e. you can only request interview dates in the Portal - and only create interviews in Mercury.
Which records does the interview information show on?
In the Hiring Manager's Contact record, a Shortlist Update shows in the Timeline with the Candidate name and latest shortlist status (Client Shortlisted) when an interview has been requested.
In the Shortlist record the Status Reason of the Shortlist record updates to Client Shortlisted. Additionally, a Shortlist Update (which includes Candidate name and latest shortlist status of Client Shortlisted) and Shortlist Feedback (which includes requested interview dates) show in the Timeline.
In the Vacancy record, a Shortlist Update shows in the Timeline. This record includes the Candidate name and latest shortlist status of Client Shortlisted.
In the Candidate record, a Shortlist Update (which includes Candidate name and latest shortlist status of Client Shortlisted) and Shortlist Feedback (which includes requested interview dates) shows in the Timeline.
- Select Reject Candidate from the drop-down list (Required)
- Select Reason for Rejection from the drop-down list (Required)
- Insert Feedback (Required)
- Select Make Offer from the drop-down list (Required)
- Insert feedback (Required)
Moving a Candidate from Offer Made to Offer Accepted must be done in Mercury, see Shortlist Board - Candidate Shortlists for more information.
Once the Candidate accepts, their Status updates to Accepted, and a Placement record is then created in both the Client Portal and in Mercury with the Status of Pending.
Placements
1. The Placements tab will show Placements of All Statuses by default. Select the drop-down to choose from different statuses, e.g.: Awaiting Paperwork, Pending, Awaiting, Live, Cancelled – Changed Client, etc.
2. Further filter options include:
- Start Date From
- Start Date To
- Original End Date From
- Original End Date To
- Actual End Date From
- Actual End Date To
3. Select the tick-box and click Alter Dates to make any amendments. Only one Placement can be selected at a time. New End Date and Comments are both required fields. For more information see Placement Amendments.
Accepting a Placement Offer
When a Candidate accepts an offer, it first shows under Placements with the Status of Pending.
The next step in the placement process is Placement Approval. See the Placement Approval Stage.
Timesheets
Timesheets first need to be generated within Mercury before they are visible in the Client Portal.
- Within a Placement record > Timesheets & Expenses tab > Set Approvers (up to 3).
- Toggle Create Timesheets? to Yes. Then click Create Timesheets Now to generate.
Why can't I see the "Create Timesheets Now?" button?
This button won't be available until the Placement is fully validated and finalised, and any Vacancy approvals are completed.
Timesheets are then viewed in the Candidate Portal under “My Timesheets” tab. Once the Candidate has filled it in and submitted it, the Timesheet will then be available in the Timesheets tab of Client Portal. By default, only Outstanding timesheets are shown. For further information, see the Candidate Portal section of the Knowledge Base.
Click the Candidate name to open the Timesheet:
- Toggle through weeks using the arrows
- Select the approval type (approve or reject) from the drop-down menu
- View the input values for each rate type as applicable
- Once checked, select Submit
To approve the timesheet, select Approve. A checkbox will then appear with a final message to check details are correct before the Submit button becomes available.
If data is not correct, it cannot be edited from here. If any changes need to be made by the Candidate, select Reject, add a rejection reason (Required), and select Submit. The timesheet then goes back to the Candidate as a draft where they can resubmit it.
Expenses
View Candidate expenses such as travel expenses, accommodation, etc. Outstanding expenses are shown by default.
Click the Candidate name to open the Expenses:
- Toggle through weeks using the arrows
- Select the approval type (approve or reject) from the drop-down menu
- View the expense type
- Select the eye icon to view and download any associated documents/receipts
- Once checked, select Submit
To approve the expense, select Approve. A checkbox will then appear with a final message to check details are correct before the Submit button becomes available.
If data is not correct, it cannot be edited from here. If any changes need to be made by the Candidate, select Reject, add a rejection reason (Required), and select Submit. The expense form then goes back to the Candidate as a draft where then can resubmit it.