How to Migrate Your ATS to Zoho Recruit — Step-by-Step Guide for Indian Companies
Migrating from Naukri RMS, LinkedIn Recruiter, or a legacy ATS to Zoho Recruit can save Indian companies 40–60% on recruitment software costs. This guide covers the full migration process — from data export to team training — for Indian recruitment teams.
Export your data from the current ATS: Export candidates (name, contact, resume, tags, status), job records (open, closed, archived), interview feedback notes, and placement/offer records. Most ATS tools (Naukri RMS, Freshteam, Greenhouse) allow CSV export of candidates and jobs. Request data export from support if self-service export is limited.
Set up Zoho Recruit with your structure: Before importing data: configure your pipeline stages to match your current recruitment workflow, create custom fields for industry-specific data (notice period, current CTC, expected CTC — standard for Indian recruitment), set up job portals (Naukri, LinkedIn, Indeed), and configure your career site with company branding.
Import candidates and job data: Zoho Recruit's import wizard supports CSV and XLS uploads. Map your current ATS field names to Zoho Recruit fields. For Indian recruitment, ensure you map: current CTC, expected CTC, notice period, PAN/Aadhaar (if stored), and reference source. Large databases (50,000+ candidates) should be imported in batches of 5,000.
Migrate active jobs and pipelines: Recreate active job openings in Zoho Recruit with your current stage mapping. For candidates in active pipelines, manually or via import assign them to the correct stage in the new system. This is the most time-sensitive step — do it over a weekend to minimise disruption to live recruitment.
Train your recruitment team: Zoho Recruit has a different UI from most legacy ATS tools. Plan 2–3 hours of hands-on training for recruiters (candidate management, job posting, interview scheduling) and 1 hour for admins (user management, portal settings, reports). We provide recorded training sessions for future hires.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does migrating to Zoho Recruit take for a 10-person Indian recruitment team?
Typically 2–3 weeks: Week 1 for setup and configuration, Week 2 for data import and validation, Week 3 for team training and parallel running. We recommend a 1-week parallel run (using both systems) before fully cutting over.
Will candidate resumes migrate to Zoho Recruit?
Yes — Zoho Recruit stores resumes as file attachments to candidate records. When you import candidate CSV data, you can separately upload resume files and link them to candidates via email or candidate ID matching. We assist with bulk resume upload as part of our migration service.
Is Zoho Recruit DPDP compliant for storing candidate data in India?
Yes — Zoho offers Indian data centre hosting and a DPDP-ready data processing addendum. Candidate data stored in Zoho Recruit can be configured to remain in India. You are responsible for obtaining candidate consent for data processing under DPDP Act 2023.
Migrate to Zoho Recruit with free data migration support — contact us for an assisted migration package.