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Configure the Duplicate tag

Permissions: Site Admin

Product tier: Available for new subscription tiers (Core, Plus, and Pro)

The Duplicate tag helps your team quickly spot people who might already exist in your Greenhouse Recruiting account.

With duplicate tagging configuration, you choose which matching criteria (name, email, phone number, and LinkedIn URL) should trigger the Duplicate tag. This controls when the Duplicate tag appears in the app, but it does not change auto-merge behavior.

Note: Duplicate tag configuration affects only the visual Duplicate tag in Greenhouse Recruiting and applies to future records. Existing tags are not added or removed when you change your settings.

The Duplicate tag in Greenhouse Recruiting and the Greenhouse Recruiting Chrome extension both highlight potential duplicate profiles, but they use different rules:

  • In Greenhouse Recruiting, duplicate tagging uses the criteria you select (any combination of name, email, phone number, and LinkedIn URL) to decide when to show the Duplicate tag.
  • The Chrome extension always checks all four criteria (name, email, phone number, and LinkedIn URL), regardless of how you configure duplicate tagging in the app.

For phone number checks, Greenhouse compares the underlying local number and ignores country codes. If the local number matches an existing person, the Duplicate tag can appear even when the country codes are different.

Auto-merge is configured separately and only merges people who match the specific criteria you choose in your organization settings. Changing duplicate tagging does not change auto-merge behavior.

In this article

How to configure duplicate tagging

To configure duplicate tagging, click the Configure icon on your navigation bar and then click Organization on the left.

On the Organization page, find the Auto-Merge Candidates section. In the Duplicate tag row, click Configure duplicate tagging.

Configure___Dupe tag EPL.png

On the Configure duplicate tagging page, choose which criteria should trigger the Duplicate tag by selecting one or more checkboxes:

  • Name
  • Email
  • Phone number
  • LinkedIn

The Duplicate tag appears when a new person matches an existing person on any of the selected criteria.

Configure___Greenhouse_Recruiting.png

By default, email, phone number, and LinkedIn are selected. 

To use LinkedIn matching, make sure your application or sourcing flows save LinkedIn profile URLs to the Social Media Addresses field on the candidate profile (for example, by linking a custom application question to this field). 

When you are finished, click Save.

Configure___Greenhouse_Recruiting-2.png

Optional: Set up LinkedIn URLs for duplicate tagging

If you want to use LinkedIn profile URLs as a match condition, first make sure you’re collecting LinkedIn URLs in a field that duplicate tagging can use.

  1. When you create or edit a job post, go to Custom application questions.
  2. Add a custom application question to ask for a LinkedIn profile URL.
  3. In the Answers section, select Link answers to a custom field on the candidate’s profile.
  4. For Custom Field, select Social Media Addresses. 

This setup saves LinkedIn URLs into the Social Media Addresses field on the candidate profile, which is the field used by both Duplicate tag and auto-merge when they look for LinkedIn matches. 

Edit_Job_Post___Greenhouse_Recruiting-2.png

Duplicate tag options and common use cases

Duplicate tagging supports any combination of four criteria:

  • Name — Flags a duplicate when Greenhouse determines that two profiles match on name.
  • Email — Flags a duplicate when profiles share the same email address.
  • Phone number — Flags a duplicate when profiles share the same phone number.
  • LinkedIn — Flags a duplicate when profiles share the same LinkedIn profile URL stored in Social Media Addresses.

By default, Greenhouse enables Email, Phone number, and LinkedIn, and leaves Name disabled. Existing organizations keep their current behavior until a Site Admin changes the configuration.

Use these examples to decide which options to select:

  • Reduce noise from common names — Leave Name unchecked and rely on email, phone number, and LinkedIn so that only strong contact matches surface the Duplicate tag.
  • Catch more duplicates in niche talent pools — Turn on Name when candidates often lack consistent contact details but share highly distinctive names in a narrow market.
  • LinkedIn-heavy sourcing — Keep LinkedIn enabled and ensure your forms save LinkedIn URLs to Social Media Addresses so profiles sourced from LinkedIn are checked consistently.
  • Phone-first workflows — Keep Phone number enabled when phone is the most reliable identifier (for example, in regions where email use is inconsistent).
  • Temporarily turn duplicate tagging off — Deselect all criteria and click Save to stop new Duplicate tags from appearing. You can re-enable criteria later.

How duplicate tagging works

After you configure duplicate tagging, Greenhouse evaluates each new person's record against existing people in your organization.

  • When a new person is created, Greenhouse compares their values to existing profiles using the criteria you selected (name, email, phone number, and LinkedIn).
  • If the new person matches any existing person on at least one enabled criterion, Greenhouse applies the Duplicate tag.
  • The Duplicate tag appears on the candidate profile and in flows that surface potential duplicates, such as Application Review and Talent Matching.
  • Where available, you can click the Duplicate tag to open the merge flow and decide whether to merge or leave profiles separate.

Configuration changes are forward-only. When you change your duplicate tagging settings, Greenhouse applies the new criteria only to people created after the change. Existing profiles keep whatever Duplicate tags they already have.

Duplicate tagging is separate from auto-merge:

  • Duplicate tagging controls when the Duplicate tag appears as a visual signal.
  • Auto-merge controls when Greenhouse automatically merges people who match your auto-merge criteria.
  • Changing duplicate tagging does not change auto-merge criteria, and changing auto-merge does not change when the Duplicate tag appears.

Chrome extension behavior

The Greenhouse Recruiting Chrome extension also surfaces potential duplicates while you are sourcing candidates, but it does not use your duplicate tagging configuration.

  • The Chrome extension always checks all four criteria: name, email, phone number, and LinkedIn URL, even if you disable some of these criteria in the Configure duplicate tagging page.
  • When the extension finds a match on any of these signals, it shows a duplicate alert so you can open or review the existing profile before adding a new one.
  • Changes you make to duplicate tagging apply only to Duplicate tags shown in the Greenhouse Recruiting web app and do not change how the Chrome extension evaluates duplicates.

Use duplicate tagging to tune the signal your team sees inside Greenhouse, and rely on the Chrome extension to catch potential duplicates at the moment you are adding new people from external sites.

Troubleshooting and limitations

The Duplicate tag did not appear

  • Confirm which criteria are selected on the Configure duplicate tagging page. If only Email is selected, for example, two profiles that share only a phone number or LinkedIn URL will not be tagged.
  • Check when the profile was created. Configuration changes are not retroactive, so people created before you changed the settings are not re-evaluated.
  • If the Duplicate tag appears in the Chrome extension but not in the app, remember that the extension always checks all four criteria, while the app only uses the criteria you selected.

The Duplicate tag appeared unexpectedly

  • Review the candidate’s name, email, phone number, and LinkedIn URL and compare them to other profiles. Any enabled criteria that matches will cause the Duplicate tag to appear.
  • If you are seeing many false positives, consider turning off Name or adjusting your configuration to rely more on contact details.

Duplicate tag appears but profiles are not auto-merged

  • This is expected. The Duplicate tag is a visual signal only and does not guarantee that auto-merge will run.
  • Review your Auto-merge settings under Configure > Organization to confirm which criteria are enabled for automatic merges.

You want to turn duplicate tagging off completely

  • Deselect all four criteria on the Configure duplicate tagging page and click Save. New people will no longer receive the Duplicate tag, though existing tags remain in place.