This feature reduces the number of duplicate candidates that recruiters must review manually by automatically merging confirmed duplicates in cases where human judgment is not required.

It complements the existing cool-down period behavior by cleaning up duplicates that still slip through (or are created later through edits), so teams can focus on the duplicates that truly require a decision.

This feature applies to multiple use cases, including:

• High-volume of applications—Organizations keep their database cleaner by automatically resolving confirmed duplicates that are not within the cool-down period.
• Backlogs of duplicates—Teams that regularly see many duplicates where it’s clearly the same person, and there are no conflicting active processes.
• Duplicates created via edits or imported data—Candidates that become duplicates after profile updates (for example, email corrections) can be merged without requiring manual cleanup.
• Account consolidation—After merging multiple Recruit accounts into one (after M&A), the combined database often contains a high volume of duplicates that can be safely merged.

What to expect

• Fewer duplicates to resolve manually, especially the “obvious” ones.
• Some duplicates will remain unmerged when the system detects active-process conflicts or fee-risk conditions, see When candidates will not be merged below.
• After a merge, one candidate can have multiple active processes. You will see a green badge with the count on the Positions tab.

How it works

Once enabled for your company, Recruit continuously monitors candidate records and automatically merges confirmed duplicates, both retroactively on existing data and in real time as new candidates are added or updated.

When does auto-merge run?

Auto-merge runs automatically in two situations:

1. When a new candidate is created: From any channel (direct application, sourcing, manual creation, API import, etc.).
2. When an existing candidate is updated: Specifically, when identifying fields such as email address, phone number, or ID are changed.

In both cases, Recruit evaluates the candidate against existing records and merges confirmed duplicates automatically, without any recruiter action or manual script needed.

How “confirmed duplicates” are identified

Two candidate records are treated as confirmed duplicates when they have the same email address.

When candidates will not be merged

Even if candidates match the rules above, Recruit does not merge them if any of the following apply:

1. Identity and source-based exclusions:
   • The submitting email appears to be from a recruiting agency. To avoid merging different candidates submitted with the same agency email, merges are skipped when the submitter’s domain matches a source contact’s domain (common consumer domains like Gmail are excluded)
   • Both candidates have IDs, but the IDs are different
   • Recruit identified that the domain of the email address belongs to a recruiting agency.
2. Fee-risk safety checks:
   • If a candidate is active in multiple hiring processes, Recruit avoids automatically merging their profiles when there’s a risk of placement fees or source conflicts.
   • For example, if one application is already in progress and another comes from a different source that could still claim a fee—or has an unknown source—Recruit keeps the records separate. This helps prevent situations where merging candidates could create uncertainty about who should receive credit or payment.
3. Same position with two active processes: Both candidates have hiring processes for the same position with status In progress, On-hold, or Awaiting decision.

4. Either candidate has been pseudonymized.

What happens when confirmed duplicates are merged

When a confirmed duplicate merge occurs:

• Recruit uses the most recent profile for the candidate’s personal details (first/last name, phone, and more).
• The duplicate profile’s hiring process is then added under that same candidate.
• The system uses the same merge logic as manual duplicate resolution.
• A record of the merge is saved in the activity log for the process. This includes details like the candidate’s name, email, phone number, ID, custom fields, tags, and source. This record can help support the Detach processes later if a merge needs to be fixed.