Adding assessments to a project

This article explains how to add assessments to a project that already exists — or to one specific candidate — both manually from the customer portal and automatically when an ATS integration sends them.

Quick summary

• You can add assessments to the project as a whole, to selected candidates, or to a single candidate from their row in the participants table.
• You decide whether candidates get a new invitation email or not. Adding an assessment without notifying anyone is allowed and sometimes the right choice.
• Candidates who have already finished can have a new assessment added. Their existing scores are kept; they only need to take the new one.
• If the project came from an ATS, anything you add manually stays in HI. The ATS only ever sees what it originally asked for.

A few terms

Project's assessment list — the assessments offered within a project. Every candidate's assessments must come from this list.

Candidate's assessment list — the assessments assigned to one specific candidate. It can be smaller than the project's list. Two candidates in the same project can have different lists.

Adding from the customer portal

There are two entry points, both on the project page.

From the "Add assessment" button

Use this when you want to change the project itself or apply an assessment to several candidates at once.

The dialog asks you three things:

1. Which assessment(s) to add. Pick one or more from the list. Assessments already on the project are not shown — you can only add new ones.
2. Who to apply it to. A toggle named All participants controls this:

• On — every candidate in the project gets the new assessment.
• Off, with candidates picked — only the candidates you select.
• Off, with no one picked — the assessment is added to the project's list for future candidates, but no current candidate is touched.

3. Whether to send a new invitation email. The Send new invitation email toggle controls whether the candidates you targeted receive a fresh invitation email right away. It is off by default.

You'll be asked to confirm before the change is applied. The confirmation summarizes how many candidates are affected.

From the "+" button on a candidate's row

Use this when you want to add one assessment to one candidate.

In the participants table on the project page, each row shows a small + button under each assessment column where the candidate doesn't yet have that assessment.

Clicking the button opens a single-candidate version of the Add assessments dialog. The only choice you make is whether to leave Send new invitation email on or off.

It's the right tool for one-off additions and doesn't affect any other candidate.

What each candidate experiences

Once you submit, what happens to each targeted candidate depends on where they are:

• Hasn't started yet (status Invited): the new assessment is added to their list. They can take it from their existing invitation link. If you turned Send new invitation email on, a fresh email is also sent.
• In progress: the new assessment is added alongside whatever they're already taking. Same email rule applies.
• Already completed: the candidate is reopened — their status moves from Completed back to In Progress. Their existing scores are kept; they only need to take the newly added assessment. When they finish it, their status returns to Completed. If you turned Send new invitation email on, a fresh email goes out (the previous link may have expired, so this is the recommended choice when reopening). If you left it off, no email is sent — the candidate will only see the new assessment if they revisit using a link they still have.

Choosing whether to email

The Send new invitation email toggle gives you full control. Two examples:

• Use it on when you're adding an assessment to a candidate who has already finished and you want them to take the new one. They probably need a fresh link.
• Use it off when you've already coordinated the addition with the candidate (for example, you're adding it during a call), or when you want the assessment available without prompting them to act right away.

Adding from an ATS integration

If you've connected an ATS, the ATS itself can ask HI to assess a candidate. Whenever a recruiter assigns an assessment in the ATS, HI receives a request that says: here's the candidate, here's the job, here are the assessments to run, and here's where to send the results when the candidate is done.

The candidate is invited automatically and, when they complete, their results are pushed back to the ATS so they appear in the recruiter's familiar dashboard alongside everything else.

When the ATS adds a brand-new candidate

If the candidate isn't in HI yet:

• HI either creates a new project for the job (if this is the first candidate from this job) or reuses the existing one.
• HI adds the candidate with the assessments the ATS requested.
• HI sends the first invitation email.
• When the candidate finishes, results go back to the ATS and to your team in HI.

If the ATS asks for an assessment that isn't on the project's list yet, the list grows automatically to include it. Future candidates in the same project start with the larger list available.

When the ATS adds another assessment to a candidate already in the project

ATS systems differ in how their recruiters add a second (or third) assessment after a candidate has already been invited. There are two patterns, and HI handles both. From the candidate's point of view they look the same — it's the result tracking on the ATS side that differs.

Pattern A — Your ATS uses a separate trigger per assessment. The ATS treats each assessment as its own trigger. Adding a second one creates a new request alongside the first.

• HI adds the new assessment to the candidate's list.
• If the candidate had already finished, they are reopened (status returns to In Progress) and a fresh invitation email is sent so they can take the new one.
• When the candidate finishes the new assessment, that result is pushed to the ATS as its own update — independent of the original.

Pattern B — Your ATS reconfigures the existing trigger to add another assessment. The ATS keeps one trigger but expands what it asks for.

• HI adds the new assessment to the candidate's list.
• If the candidate had already finished, they are reopened and a fresh invitation email is sent.
• When the candidate finishes the new assessment, the full result set (the original assessments and the newly completed one) is sent to the ATS together in one update. This way the ATS sees a single, current view of the candidate.

In both patterns, ATS-driven additions automatically send a fresh invitation email — there's no opt-out from the ATS side.

The boundary: portal changes stay in HI

Adding via the portal does not update the ATS

When you add an assessment from the customer portal, that assessment is yours — it lives only in HI. The ATS that originally referred this candidate doesn't know about it. Its result fields don't have a place for the new score, and HI doesn't push something back that it didn't ask for.

In practice:

• Original ATS-requested assessments → results are published to the ATS as usual when the candidate completes them.
• Newly portal-added assessments → results stay in HI. They are visible to your team in the customer portal but are not sent to the ATS.

If you need a candidate's score to appear in the ATS, the request has to come from the ATS in the first place.

Adding via the ATS does update HI

The reverse direction is open. When the ATS asks for an additional assessment (Pattern A or B above), HI updates the candidate's list, the project's list, and notifies the candidate accordingly.

FAQ

I added an assessment but the existing candidates didn't get it. Why not?

You probably turned All participants off and didn't pick anyone. That combination grows the project's list without applying the assessment to any current candidate. To apply to existing candidates, turn All participants on, or leave it off and pick the candidates you want.

Why is the Add assessment button disabled?

The project must be Active. To add an assessment to a Completed project, reactivate it first if your role allows.

Can I add an assessment to a candidate who already finished, without sending them an email?

Yes. Leave Send new invitation email off in the dialog. The assessment is added and the candidate is reopened, but no email is sent. They'll only see the new assessment if they revisit using a link they still have — keep that in mind when deciding whether to notify them.

A candidate already completed everything. I added a new assessment via the portal. Will their original scores be re-sent to the ATS?

No. The original scores were already delivered to the ATS when the candidate first completed. They are not re-sent when you add a new assessment manually. The newly added assessment's score will live in HI only — it is not sent to the ATS.

Our ATS recruiter changed the trigger to add another assessment to a candidate. What happens?

When the ATS sends the updated request, HI adds the new assessment to the candidate's list. If they had already finished, they are reopened with a fresh invitation email. When they finish the new one, the full result set is sent back to the ATS so it sees a current view of the candidate.

Adding from the "+" button only affected that one person. Is that expected?

Yes. The + button is per-candidate. To apply an assessment to several candidates at once, use the Add assessment button at the top of the project page.

An ATS-invited candidate moved to Completed, then the ATS sent another request with another assessment. The candidate got a new invitation email. Was that intentional?

Yes. They have a new assessment to take, and their previous link may have expired. HI always sends a fresh invitation in this case so they have a working link.

Will adding an assessment retroactively update analytics or AI insights?

The new assessment's score is added to the candidate's profile when they complete it. AI insights generated before the new assessment was added will not refresh automatically, but they'll be marked as out of date so your team knows to regenerate them with the latest data.

Updated on: 30/04/2026