A Glossary of Key Terms in Keap Platform Specific Data Object Definitions
In the dynamic world of HR and recruiting, leveraging robust CRM platforms like Keap is crucial for managing candidate pipelines, automating communications, and ensuring a seamless talent acquisition process. Understanding the core data objects within Keap is fundamental to optimizing these efforts. This glossary provides essential definitions for HR and recruiting professionals, explaining how these Keap-specific terms translate into practical applications for automating your talent strategy and enhancing operational efficiency.
Contact Record
The foundational data object in Keap, a Contact Record represents an individual – in an HR context, this is typically a candidate, employee, or hiring manager. It stores comprehensive information such as name, contact details, communication history, and any custom data fields pertinent to their role or application. For HR and recruiting, a meticulously maintained Contact Record is vital for tracking candidate progress through various stages of the hiring funnel, personalizing communications, and ensuring compliance, serving as a single source of truth for all interactions and data points related to that individual.
Company Record
Parallel to the Contact Record, a Company Record in Keap stores information about an organization. In HR and recruiting, this could represent a client company you’re hiring for, a vendor, or an internal department. It allows you to link multiple contacts to a single company, providing a holistic view of your relationships. This object is particularly useful for agencies managing multiple client accounts, or for internal HR teams tracking interactions with various departments for workforce planning, ensuring all team members have access to consistent and up-to-date company intelligence.
Opportunity
An Opportunity in Keap represents a potential sale or, in the recruiting world, a potential hire or placement. It’s a structured record used to track the progression of a candidate through the various stages of your recruitment pipeline, from initial application to offer acceptance and onboarding. Each stage can trigger specific automated actions, such as sending follow-up emails, assigning tasks to recruiters, or updating internal stakeholders. Managing Opportunities effectively ensures no candidate falls through the cracks and provides clear visibility into your hiring forecast and pipeline health.
Campaign
Keap Campaigns are automated sequences of marketing and sales actions, which are highly adaptable for HR and recruiting. These can include sending a series of emails, SMS messages, creating tasks, or applying tags based on a candidate’s engagement or stage in the hiring process. For example, a “New Applicant Campaign” might send an immediate confirmation, followed by assessment instructions, and then an interview scheduling link. Campaigns are powerful tools for nurturing candidates, improving the candidate experience, and significantly reducing manual administrative load for recruiters.
Tag
Tags are flexible labels you can apply to Contacts and Companies in Keap to categorize them based on various criteria. In an HR context, tags can be used to segment candidates by skill set, desired role, source (e.g., “LinkedIn Lead,” “Referral”), interview status, or specific qualifications. This allows for highly targeted communication and efficient filtering of your database. For instance, you could quickly pull up all candidates tagged “Software Engineer – Python” who are “Interviewed – Second Round” for a specific job opening, enabling rapid and relevant outreach.
Custom Fields
While Keap provides standard data fields, Custom Fields allow you to create your own, tailored data points specific to your HR and recruiting needs. This could include fields for “Desired Salary Range,” “Years of Experience,” “Visa Status,” “Assessment Score,” or “Onboarding Start Date.” Custom Fields ensure that your Keap database captures all unique information critical for your talent acquisition and management processes, enabling more precise candidate matching, reporting, and automation triggers based on highly specific data.
Product
In Keap, Products are typically used for services or goods that are sold. In an HR and recruiting context, while not directly selling, “Products” can be creatively repurposed to represent different job roles, service packages (for recruitment agencies), or even internal training modules. This allows for associating specific value or characteristics with a role or service, which can then be linked to opportunities or campaigns. For instance, a “Product” could be “Senior Software Developer Role” with associated required skills, simplifying the tracking of which roles a candidate is being considered for.
Subscription
Subscriptions in Keap manage recurring billing for services. For HR and recruiting, this might be less common internally but highly relevant for agencies offering retainer-based recruitment services or access to premium talent pools. It can automate the billing cycle and client communication related to these recurring services. Internally, a “Subscription” could hypothetically track ongoing access to certain internal training resources or professional development programs for employees, managing their enrollment and status.
Invoice
Keap’s Invoice feature allows for the generation and management of billing documents. For recruitment agencies, this is critical for billing clients for successful placements, retainers, or consulting services. The system can automate the creation and sending of invoices based on opportunity progression or service agreements, ensuring timely payment and accurate financial record-keeping. While not directly for internal HR, understanding its functionality helps agencies streamline their financial operations related to talent acquisition.
Appointment
The Appointment object in Keap facilitates scheduling and managing meetings. For HR and recruiting, this is invaluable for scheduling interviews (first-round, panel, final), candidate follow-ups, or internal team meetings related to specific hires. Integrations can allow candidates to self-schedule, reducing administrative back-and-forth. Properly utilized, the Appointment feature streamlines the interview process, minimizes scheduling conflicts, and enhances the professional image of your recruiting efforts through efficient calendar management.
Note
Notes in Keap are internal text entries attached to Contact or Company Records. They serve as a crucial tool for documenting qualitative information, specific candidate insights from interviews, follow-up actions, or any context that doesn’t fit into a structured custom field. For HR and recruiting, comprehensive notes ensure that all team members are up-to-date on a candidate’s journey, interview feedback, and any unique considerations, fostering better collaboration and informed decision-making throughout the hiring process.
Task
Tasks in Keap are actionable items assigned to users, often triggered by campaign automation or manually created for specific follow-ups. In HR and recruiting, tasks are essential for managing workflow: “Call Candidate X for first interview,” “Send Offer Letter to Candidate Y,” “Check References for Candidate Z.” Automating task creation ensures that critical steps in the hiring process are never missed, improving accountability and efficiency, and keeping the recruitment pipeline moving smoothly.
User
A User in Keap refers to an individual within your organization who has access to the platform. In an HR and recruiting context, these would be your recruiters, HR managers, hiring managers, or other team members involved in talent acquisition. Each user has specific permissions and can be assigned contacts, opportunities, and tasks. Managing Users effectively ensures appropriate access levels, tracks individual contributions, and facilitates collaborative efforts within the recruiting team.
Lead Scoring
Lead Scoring in Keap assigns a numerical value to contacts based on their engagement with your communications and other defined criteria. While typically used for sales leads, HR and recruiting can adapt this for “Candidate Scoring.” For example, a candidate might gain points for opening emails, clicking job links, submitting applications, or completing assessments. This allows recruiters to prioritize the most engaged and promising candidates, focusing their efforts where they are most likely to yield a successful hire, thereby optimizing resource allocation.
Webform
Keap Webforms are customizable online forms used to collect information from visitors or candidates. In HR and recruiting, Webforms are indispensable for job applications, screening questionnaires, event registrations for career fairs, or collecting feedback. They can be integrated directly into your website or shared via links, and submissions automatically create or update contact records in Keap, often triggering immediate campaign automations like application confirmations or further instructions. This automates the initial data collection phase, saving significant time.
If you would like to read more, we recommend this article: Keap Rollback for HR & Recruiting: Safeguarding Your Talent Pipeline
