Concept: Candidate Skills Match

Workday uses machine learning algorithms to calculate skills match similarity. We calculate the similarity based on how well the skills derived from the candidate’s job application match skills derived from the job requisition.

For calculations, Workday uses Skills Cloud skills:

Derived from the job application and resume.

That applicants enter on the job application and resumes.

Derived from the job details and qualifications sections on the job requisition.

That recruiters enter on the job requisition.

Workday processes applicant resumes in these file types:

DOC

DOCX

HTM

HTML

PDF

RTF

TXT

The skills match similarity improves as the skills on the job application match more of the job requisition. Workday assigns greater weight to job applications with the required skills specified on the job requisition. Possible skills match scores are:

Strong

Good

Fair

Low

Pending

Unable to Score

Score Details

When you configure your job requisition to display

Skills Match Score Details

, you can drill down on the score to view:

Education and certification details on the job application.

Job experience details on the job application.

Skills match details.

Details display on these sections when applicable:

Section	Considerations
Required Skills	Relevant skills on the job application that match required skills on the job requisition. Workday assigns greater weight to these skills in the match calculation.
Relevant Skills	All other skills on the job application that match the skills on the job requisition.
Skills Not Found	Skills on the job requisition that aren't on the job application.

Any masked information doesn’t display in the skills match details.

Score Processing

When you first set up this feature, the background process calculates the skills match for all active job applications on open job requisitions. These results display on the candidate list grid on the job requisition. Depending on the volume, this process can take a few hours to days.

After the initial calculation, the background process runs every hour to calculate skills match for job applications. The background process calculates a match for an active job application when you create, update, or partially purge a job application or associated job requisition.

Workday scores most job applications through the background process every hour, however Workday immediately scores job applications when you:

Add resume attachments from the

Attachments

profile group of the job application.

Edit the job application using the related actions menu.

Move the job application.

Reactivate the job application.

Use the

Create Job Application

task.

Use the

Edit Evergreen Requisition

task.

Use the

Edit Job Requisition

task.

Workday can’t calculate a skills match score and displays

Low

Unable to Score

when:

Either or both the job application or job requisition are in another language than English.

Either or both the job application or job requisition don’t have enough skills data.

The uploaded resume is in an unsupported format.

A recruiter or administrator completely purges the job application or the candidate.

Skills match score calculation doesn’t consider:

How recently a candidate has acquired relevant skills.

How long a candidate used relevant skills.

Years of total work experience.

Reset Skills Match Scores

If you disable Candidate Skills Match and want to re-enable it, you can reset skills match scores for all active job applications so that the scores reflect the latest changes to the job application and requisitions. You can use the

Reset Skills Match Scores

task only while the feature remains disabled. Once reset, you can’t undo this change.