Managing the talent pool

How candidates get into the talent pool, how to find them, and how to put them into a live vacancy.

The talent pool is a list of candidates you want to keep on file for future vacancies. It sits on the Talent Pool tab of the Candidates page. This article covers how candidates get there, how to find them, and how to put them into a vacancy.

What the talent pool is

Being in the pool is a flag on the candidate record. It does not depend on whether the candidate has applications. A candidate who was never attached to a vacancy can be in the pool, and so can a candidate who still has live applications. Someone in that second group appears on both the Active tab and the Talent Pool tab.

Moving a candidate to the pool does not touch their applications. Stage history, notes and anything else on those applications stay exactly as they were.

How candidates get into the pool

Move to Pool from the candidates list

Go to Candidates and stay on the Active tab.
Tick the candidates you want to move.
Open the Move menu in the bar that appears and choose Move to Pool.
Optionally enter a Reason for moving to pool. It can be up to 255 characters.
Select Move to Pool to confirm.

The reason is stored against every candidate in the batch. If some candidates fail, for example because they are already in the pool, you see a message such as "2 succeeded, 1 failed". The rest are still moved. The Move to Pool option only appears on the Active tab.

Move to Pool from a candidate profile

Open the candidate.
Select the three-dot Actions menu at the top right of the profile and choose Move to Pool.
Optionally add a reason, then select Move to Pool.

You see "Candidate moved to talent pool." and a Talent Pool badge appears next to the name. Once a candidate is in the pool, the same menu item changes to Assign to Job. If someone else moved them first, you see "This candidate is already in the talent pool. Refresh the page to see their current pool status."

Creating a candidate without a job

On Candidates, select Create Candidate. In the Job Assignment section, leave Assign to Job (Optional) on No job, add to talent pool only. The candidate is created and goes straight into the pool. If you pick a job instead, you must also pick a Pipeline Stage, and the candidate is created with an application on that job. Only Admin and HR users can create candidates, and the email address must not already belong to another candidate.

Register Your Interest on the careers page

If your organisation switches on Register Your Interest, visitors to your public careers page see a Register Your Interest tab beside Open Roles. They enter their first name, last name, email address and an optional phone number (or complete the application form template you have chosen), and must tick the consent box before selecting Register Interest. No application is created. The candidate goes into the pool with the source Direct and the reason shown as "register_interest", and receives a confirmation email.

If the email address already belongs to a candidate in your organisation, the visitor sees "This email address is already registered" and nothing on the existing record changes. It does not add an existing candidate to the pool.

An Admin sets this up under Settings > Careers Page, in the Register Your Interest section:

Enable Register Your Interest tab shows or hides the tab on the public page.
Page header is the heading above the form, up to 255 characters. If you leave it empty, the page shows "Register your interest for future roles".
Application form template lets you use one of your saved application forms, or keep the standard fields (first name, last name, email, phone, CV).

Select Save when you are done. The wording of the confirmation email is the Register Interest Received template under Settings > Templates.

Viewing the pool

Open Candidates and select Talent Pool. The number on the tab counts the candidates on the current page and shows as 20+ when there are more. The list shows 20 candidates per page. The columns are Name (with email address underneath), Tags, Source, Previous Job, Reason, Added to Pool and Actions. Previous Job is empty for candidates moved to the pool in Recruit. Select a column heading to sort by Name, Source or Added to Pool. Select a row to open the candidate's profile, where the pool details also appear in a Talent Pool panel.

You can narrow the list in two ways:

The search box matches on name, email, tag or application reference.
Filter by Tag keeps candidates who carry any of the tags you select. The tag selection applies to the Active tab as well.

The job and pipeline stage filters only exist on the Active tab. With nothing in the pool, the tab reads "No candidates in talent pool."

The talent-pool CV

A pooled candidate who has no application can still have a CV on file. On their profile, System Admin and HR users see an Upload talent-pool CV button in the Documents section. Use it to attach the CV you hold for them while they are in the pool.

Assigning a pool candidate to a job

On the Talent Pool tab, select Assign to Job on the candidate's row. You can also open their profile and choose Assign to Job from the Actions menu.
In the dialog, open Select Job and pick the vacancy.
If the candidate has a talent-pool CV and you are a System Admin or HR user, tick Attach the talent-pool CV to this application if you want the CV to go onto the new application.
Select Assign to Job.

Recruit creates a new application for the candidate on that job, at the first stage of the job's pipeline, and takes the candidate out of the pool. You see "Candidate assigned to job." The candidate then appears on the Active tab and in the job's pipeline. Their pool reason and date are cleared. Any other applications they hold are left as they are.

Which jobs you can choose:

Only jobs with the status Published are listed. If there are none, the dialog says "No published jobs available. Publish a job first." and the Assign to Job button on the row is greyed out.
The job needs a pipeline with at least one stage. If it has none, you see "This job isn't ready to receive applications yet. Please contact your administrator or try again later."
A candidate cannot be assigned to a job they already have an application on, whatever the status of that application. The assignment fails with "We couldn't assign this candidate to the job. Please try again." Use a different job.

Bulk actions on pool candidates

Tick one or more rows on the Talent Pool tab to bring up the action bar. One action places candidates on a job in bulk: Copy to Job (under Move) creates an application on the chosen job for each selected candidate and leaves them in the pool. Candidates who already have an application on that job are skipped. Only Admin and HR users can use this action. It is greyed out when there are no published jobs, and it lists Published jobs only. If some candidates fail, the message reads "N succeeded, N failed" and the rest go through.

There is no bulk action that takes candidates out of the pool and puts them on a job. To do that, use Assign to Job on each candidate's row or from their profile.

The bar also offers Add Tags (enter tags separated by commas), Download documents (a link to the download is emailed to you), Send Email and, where your organisation has the SMS add-on, Send SMS. Candidates without an email address or phone number are left out of a send. Move to Pool is not offered on this tab because everyone here is already in it.

Who can see pool candidates

Admin users see every candidate in the pool.
HR users see every pool candidate. An HR user restricted to certain locations still sees candidates with no applications at all, which covers everyone who registered interest, but sees candidates who have applications only if one of them is on a job at their locations or a job with no location. An HR user with no location access sees no candidates.
Members cannot see the pool as such. A Member only sees candidates who have an application on a job where they are the hiring lead or on the job team, so a candidate who is only in the pool, with no application, never appears for them.
Agency users only see candidates their agency submitted.

If something does not work

Move to Pool is missing from the bar. You are on the Talent Pool tab. Switch to Active.
A candidate you expect is not on the Talent Pool tab. Clear the search box and the tag filter, then check the next page. If you are not an Admin, your access may hide them, as described above.
"We couldn't move this candidate to the talent pool." Try again. If the message keeps coming back, refresh the page and check that the candidate still appears in your candidate list.
A sign-up did not appear. Someone with that email address is already a candidate in your organisation, so the form was refused. Search for the address on the Candidates page.