Every recruitment team builds up a large group of candidates who applied, were interviewed or were approached once and then went quiet. In the Applicant Tracking System those profiles still look complete, yet the job title, availability, salary expectation and even the phone number may be a year old. When a new vacancy opens, recruiters either trust outdated information or ignore the database altogether and start sourcing from scratch. Keeping dormant candidate profiles up to date makes your own database a reliable first place to look. This article describes a practical refresh routine that fits normal recruitment work.
The problem looks slightly different per segment. Recruitment agencies depend on a warm database to submit candidates quickly to clients. Staffing and secondment teams need current availability and working-hours preferences before they can propose someone for an assignment. Executive search firms track senior people over years, when roles and employers change. In-house recruitment teams want to re-approach former applicants and runner-ups without guessing whether the information still holds. The routine below works across those contexts.
Decide what “dormant” means for your team
Start with a clear definition: for example, a candidate with no recorded contact, application or pipeline movement for six or twelve months. Base it on the last meaningful activity in the record, not on when someone last opened the profile. Combined with a next action date on active candidates, this gives every profile a visible status: active, dormant or due for review. Agree the definition once and make it a saved filter, so every recruiter looks at the same group.
Choose the fields that go stale first
Not every field ages at the same speed. Availability and notice period, current employer and role, salary expectation, work location and travel radius and preferred contract type and working hours change often. Certificates with expiry dates can lapse without anyone noticing. Skills and language levels change more slowly. Mark the fast-changing fields with a “last confirmed” date, so a recruiter can see at a glance which information is current and which needs checking before a submission.
Refresh in small, planned batches
A one-off cleaning project rarely lasts. Instead, plan a small batch of dormant profiles each week, prioritised by the skills and segments you expect to need soon. Use the candidate’s preferred contact channel and shared message templates to ask a short question: are you open to new opportunities, and has anything changed? Record the answer and the date in the profile, even when the answer is “not now”. If you use bulk actions to send these requests, apply the usual safety checks on selection and wording.
Respect consent and retention while refreshing
A refresh is also the moment to check whether you may keep the profile at all. Confirm that the candidate still agrees to be kept in your talent pool and update the retention date accordingly. When someone asks to be removed, or when the retention period has passed without renewed consent, delete or anonymise the record instead of refreshing it. Profiles that turn out to be duplicates should be merged rather than kept twice, so the refreshed information ends up in one place.
Make refreshed profiles part of daily work
The routine pays off when recruiters actually use the result. Make searching your own database before sourcing externally a standard step for every new vacancy, filtered on recently confirmed profiles. Use refreshed answers to re-engage runner-up candidates and to support outreach to passive candidates. Write each refresh as a short, factual note in line with candidate notes your team can rely on, and bring the weekly batch into the weekly pipeline review so progress stays visible.
A practical start
- Define dormant as no meaningful activity for a fixed number of months
- Add a “last confirmed” date to availability, role, salary expectation, location and contract preferences
- Refresh a small, prioritised batch of dormant profiles every week
- Ask one short question through the candidate’s preferred channel and record the answer with a date
- Check consent and retention at every refresh, and delete or anonymise when required
- Search refreshed profiles first whenever a new vacancy opens
A database you can trust again
Keeping dormant candidate profiles up to date in an Applicant Tracking System turns a growing archive into a usable source of candidates. With a clear definition of dormant, confirmed dates on the fields that age fastest, a steady weekly refresh and respect for consent and retention, recruiters can rely on what they find. Explore the product or book a demo — we will show how candidate profiles, saved filters and follow-up work in BoldATS for your segment.