A hiring team fills a warehouse supervisor role through ADP Workforce Now. The applicant who ranked second on Candidate Relevancy never advances, and the application closes along with the job. Five months later, a nearly identical supervisor role opens at a different location. The team posts a new job and waits for fresh applications instead of pulling that earlier applicant back up.
ADP Workforce Now already holds the candidate's resume, relevance score, and application history from the first role. Posting a new job and sourcing from scratch wastes time and job board spend on someone the company already screened once.
In this expert guide, we cover what ADP Workforce Now offers for finding qualified applicants within your existing ATS database and talent pool. We also explore where those native features don't work and how an AI integration fills the gap.
What Is Candidate Rediscovery?
Candidate rediscovery involves matching existing candidates in your ADP Workforce Now account with newly opened roles. This process sources applicants from closed jobs, talent pools, and individuals who partially completed previous hiring stages. By automatically checking past candidates against new openings, rediscovery becomes an efficient sourcing channel and eliminates the need for manual searches.
Does ADP Workforce Now Provide Candidate Rediscovery?
No, ADP Workforce Now doesn’t have a candidate rediscovery tool or feature. Its recruitment module does include Candidate Relevancy, an AI tool that compares an applicant's education, experience, and skills to the job description they applied for.
Furthermore, it gives a score from 1 to 100 or categorizes applicants as High, Medium, or Low, based on the tool version in use. Recruiters can also search resumes for specific skills or experience levels.
Candidate Relevancy only scores applicants who applied for a specific job. It doesn’t scan closed jobs or access the wider applicant history when a new role opens. There’s no link between a strong applicant from one job and a newly posted one. Recruiters must remember past candidates and search for them by name or keyword manually.
How to Rediscover Candidates in ADP Workforce Now
Since ADP Workforce Now has no built-in way to source, score, or automatically surface past applicants across jobs, recruitment teams integrate Skima AI to scan that history every time a role opens. Below is a 5-step workflow, from connecting your account to acting on results:
Step 1: Connect Your ADP Workforce Now Account With Skima AI
Create an OAuth client in the ADP Developer Portal and upload the required certificate to receive a client ID and secret. This connection uses ADP's own API Central directly, with no middleware required. Skima AI needs both read and write access to function.
- Read access: job applications, worker records, job requisitions, and resume attachments
- Write access: application extension fields, candidate tags, and activity comments
- Pulled data: candidate contact details, resumes, application status, and job requisition details for scoring context
- Event notifications: application creation, updates, stage changes, and attachment uploads
If event notifications are not configured, Skima AI falls back to safe delta polling every 10 to 15 minutes.
Step 2: Configure Extension Fields and Confirm the Connection
Create the application extension fields Skima AI writes to, or authorize Skima AI to provision them during setup. These are Skima AI match scores, an integer from 0 to 100, and reasons, a short text block listing reasons for the fit. A Skima Screened tag gets added at the candidate profile level, so screened applicants stay filterable inside ADP Workforce Now.
Optional manager feedback and comments capture responses once a shortlist goes out, logged as activity comments on the application record.
Before rolling this out further, test it on one or two requisitions. Submit a resume, then confirm the Match Score and Reasons actually appear on that application.
Step 3: Launch Talent Rediscovery Against a Live Requisition
Open the job inside Skima AI, from the Jobs list or from within the job itself. Click the three-dot Actions menu and select Rediscover Candidates. A modal lets you scope the scan two ways. Limit it to a saved candidate segment, or leave it open to every synced ADP record.
Set the Candidate Created Date range next: All time, Last 6 months, Last 1 year, or a custom window, then click Apply. Skima AI scans the selected pool against this job's specific requirements and sends a notification once the scan finishes. Refresh the page to see the results.
Step 4: Review and Filter the Rediscovered Matches
Open the View Candidates tab to see a ranked list pulled from across your entire application history. Each candidate carries an AI match score and reason bullets explaining the fit. Filter by Industry, Work Mode, Experience Level, Notice Period, Location, and Salary Range.
Start broad and tighten the filters gradually. Narrowing too fast hides good candidates, including people who scored lower on an earlier role but line up well against this one.
Step 5: Shortlist and Sync Feedback Back to ADP Workforce Now
Build your shortlist from the ranked matches Skima AI surfaced. Generate a secure, no-login link and send it to the hiring manager. They can click a thumbs up, thumbs down, or maybe on each candidate, with an optional comment.
Skima AI writes that decision back into ADP Workforce Now through the same API connection for the audit trail, logging it as an activity comment on the application record. The feedback stays visible on the record without anyone opening a second tool.
What If Your ADP Workforce Now Database Is Duplicated
ADP Workforce Now lacks duplicate detection and merging workflows for candidate records in the Recruitment module. When the same person applies to multiple requisitions or reapplies after being rejected months earlier, each application is tracked separately with no automatic link between them.
Stale data makes this worse over time. A candidate record from a role filled two years ago may still have an old phone number and a resume that no longer reflects their current job. ADP Workforce Now does not flag this automatically, so a recruiter might only notice an old duplicate by recognizing a familiar name while reviewing a new application manually.
Skima AI treats this as ongoing maintenance rather than a one-time project. It first matches on email, phone, or LinkedIn URL. It also cross-references names, locations, and companies as a backup signal.
Additionally, a field comparison modal appears before any records merge, highlighting exactly what differs between the two. Missing details are filled in through contextual profile enrichment instead of remaining incomplete. A dedicated Duplicates tab logs every resolved case for later audit, divided into In Database, From Uploads, and Resolved sub-tabs.
5 Benefits of Candidate Rediscovery with Skima AI in ADP Workforce Now
Talent rediscovery with Skima AI changes what an ADP Workforce Now team can achieve with its application history in 5 specific ways:
- Faster Time-to-Screen: Rediscovered candidates arrive already scored, so recruiters skip the raw resume pile entirely. In a documented 30-day ADP pilot, a team reduce time-to-screen by 58%.
- More Interviews From the Same Shortlist: The same pilot saw interviews from the top shortlist double compared to the prior process.
- Explainable Match Scores With an Audit Trail: Every rediscovered match carries reason bullets tied to skills and experience, logged as an activity comment alongside a Skima Screened tag for instant filtering inside ADP Workforce Now.
- Hiring Manager Engagement Without a New Login: The shortlist feedback loop keeps managers responding through a link, no ADP credentials required. Manager satisfaction rose 24 points on NPS in that same pilot.
- Lower Cost Per Hire on Repeat Roles: Rediscovered candidates were already sourced once, so filling a role you've hired for before needs zero new job board spend.
5 Best Practices to Rediscover Talent in ADP Workforce Now
None of these benefits happen automatically inside ADP Workforce Now without a few deliberate habits. The 5 practices below cover search timing, data hygiene, and fitting rediscovery around how midsize businesses actually hire:
- Check Candidate Relevancy First, Then Widen the Search: Candidate Relevancy already scores people who applied to a specific job. Review that score before turning to Skima AI's Talent Rediscovery, which reaches further back into closed jobs and applicants Candidate Relevancy never touches for this requisition.
- Turn On Automatic Rediscovery for Every New Job: Skima AI's setting under Preferences and General starts a database scan the instant a new job is created. Enable it so no requisition slips through without a first look at your existing applicant history.
- Use Reverse Search for Candidates Who Scored Low on a Different Role: A candidate who scored poorly on Candidate Relevancy for one job may fit a different open role well. Reverse Search starts from that profile and returns every open job they match, ranked by score.
- Segment Scans With the Candidate Created Date Filter: Choose a 6-month or 1-year window when a role needs someone who was recently active. Widen to All time for a niche or hard-to-fill role where the applicant pool has always been thin.
- Review the Duplicates Tab After Every Hiring Cycle: Midsize businesses hiring across multiple departments or locations generate duplicate applications quickly, since the same candidate can apply to similar postings in different offices. Checking the In Database sub-tab after each cycle keeps that from piling into a backlog.
Is Candidate Rediscovery Worth It for Your Recruitment Team?
A mid-sized business hiring across multiple locations or departments has significant value stored in its application history. However, a company hiring for mostly one-off, specialized roles has less to gain.
Setup effort matters too. Creating an OAuth client, uploading a certificate through the ADP Developer Portal, and configuring extension fields all take some initial IT configuration.
Furthermore, a smaller company hiring occasionally has less applicant history worth rediscovering, and the added cost may not pay off yet. Candidate rediscovery becomes cost-effective once your hiring is frequent enough that the same kinds of roles, and sometimes the same candidates, keep resurfacing.
Pilot Talent Rediscovery in ADP Workforce Now
For mid-sized and enterprise businesses hiring consistently on ADP, a pilot with Skima AI can deliver high ROI. The right move is not switching every requisition over at once. Start with one or two live roles, ideally ones your company has filled more than once before.
Connect Skima AI, configure the extension fields, and launch Talent Rediscovery on those roles. Skima AI's ADP integration organizes this as a 30-day pilot, with checkpoints on day 15 and day 30.
Track time-to-screen, how many rediscovered candidates reach an interview, and hiring manager response. Based on a documented 30-day ADP pilot, expect over a 58% drop in time-to-screen and double the number of interviews from your top shortlist. From there, expanding to more requisitions becomes a decision backed by your own data, not a guess.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Does ADP Workforce Now have a built-in talent rediscovery feature?
No, ADP Workforce Now does not have a built-in talent rediscovery feature to source past applicants. ADP Workforce Now's Recruitment module offers Candidate Relevancy, which scores applicants against the job they applied to, and keyword search across resumes. Neither scans closed jobs or the wider applicant history when a new role opens.
2. How to conduct candidate rediscovery in ADP Workforce Now?
To conduct candidate rediscovery in ADP Workforce Now, connect Skima AI to ADP Workforce Now through an OAuth client from the ADP Developer Portal, configure extension fields, then launch Talent Rediscovery on a live requisition. Skima AI scans your application history, ranks candidates, and syncs hiring manager feedback back automatically.
3. What are the benefits of ADP Workforce Now candidate rediscovery?
Rediscovered candidates arrive pre-scored, cutting screening time by over 58% in a documented 30-day pilot and doubling interviews from the top shortlist. Matches carry explainable reasons, a Skima Screened tag for filtering, and hiring manager feedback without a new login.
4. Is Skima AI safe to integrate with ADP Workforce Now for talent rediscovery?
Yes, Skima AI encrypts candidate data in transit and at rest, follows GDPR and SOC 2 Type II practices, and logs every AI decision and manager response for audit. Scores rely on resume-based evidence only, with no automatic rejections.
5. Is candidate rediscovery useful for ADP Workforce Now's typical customers?
Yes, especially for midsize businesses and enterprises that hire across multiple locations or departments and refill similar roles over time. The value grows the more often the same kinds of positions, and sometimes the same candidates, come back into play.
