A new vacancy arrives for a maintenance engineer with a forklift certificate and good German. You know the database holds people like that, because you spoke to two of them last spring. Yet the search returns nothing useful: one recruiter typed “forklift”, another “reach truck licence”, a third put it only in a note, and the German speaker was tagged “DE”. So the team starts sourcing from scratch. This article explains how to set up a shared skills and tag list in your Applicant Tracking System: what belongs on it, who maintains it, how to tag consistently and how a clean list lets you search the candidates you already know before you look anywhere else.
The benefit shows up in every segment. Recruitment agencies build a database over years, and its value depends on whether a recruiter can find the right people in it on a busy Monday. Staffing teams often need several workers with the same certificate at short notice. Secondment firms look for professionals who are about to finish an assignment and match the next request. Executive search consultants want to see sector and board experience at a glance. In-house recruitment teams want to reconsider earlier applicants for new roles instead of advertising again.
Why free-text tagging stops working
- Every recruiter invents their own words, so one skill ends up under five spellings, abbreviations and languages
- Important qualifications sit only in the CV or in a call note, where a filter cannot reach them
- The list keeps growing with tags that were used once and never again
- Nobody knows which tags are current, so people stop trusting the search and stop tagging altogether
- When a recruiter leaves, their personal tagging habits leave with them
Decide what belongs on the list
Keep the list short and practical. Group the tags into a few fixed categories, for example skills and tools, certificates and licences, languages, sector experience and the type of work a candidate is looking for, such as permanent, temporary or interim. Write each tag once, in one agreed form, and add the common synonyms behind it so a search for “reach truck” still finds the forklift tag. Base the categories on the fields you already use in a structured vacancy brief, so the requirements of a role and the tags on a candidate speak the same language.
Give the list one owner
A shared list needs someone who keeps it tidy, in the same way every open role needs a single owner. Recruiters may request a new tag, but the owner decides whether it is added, merged with an existing one or declined. Review the list every quarter: merge synonyms, retire tags that nobody uses and check that every category still fits the work you do. A small, trusted list is worth more than a large one that nobody believes.
Tag at fixed moments in the pipeline
- At the first screening — add the core skills, certificates and languages that the recruiter has actually checked
- After an interview — confirm or correct the tags based on what the conversation showed
- When a candidate is placed or withdraws — update availability and the type of work they want next
- When a certificate has an expiry date — record the date with the tag, so an expired certificate does not look valid
Make tagging part of the step itself rather than a separate task for later. A tag that is added while the information is fresh is far more reliable than one added from memory weeks afterwards.
Clean up what you already have
Most teams start with years of free text. Do not try to fix everything at once. Begin with the candidates you are most likely to contact again: recent applicants, runner-ups and people in your active talent pool. Map the most frequent old spellings to the new tags, and tidy the rest whenever a record is opened. Merging tags works best on clean records, so combine it with the habit of merging duplicate candidates instead of keeping two versions of the same person.
Search your own database first
With consistent tags, every new vacancy can start with a search of the people you already know. Filter on the must-have tags from the brief, sort by recent contact and availability, and look at the runner-up candidates in your talent pool before you advertise or start sourcing elsewhere. Because the original candidate source is recorded on each record, you can also see which channels bring in the profiles you need most often. Make this search a fixed first step and something you check in the weekly pipeline review.
Only tag what is relevant to the work
Tags describe skills and preferences that matter for a role, nothing more. Do not create tags for health, religion, origin, age or other personal characteristics, and do not use tags as a shortcut for opinions about a person. Tags fall under the same rules as the rest of the record, including the retention date, so remove them together with the candidate data when that date passes.
Measure it with your own data
Count from your own records: what share of active candidates carries at least the core tags, how many shortlisted candidates per vacancy were found in your existing database rather than through new sourcing, how many tags were not used in the past quarter and how many synonyms you merged. Report the number of records behind each figure and use the same filters every time. Do not rely on general figures you cannot verify; your own history shows whether the list is helping your recruiters find people faster.
Where artificial intelligence may help — and where it must not
Artificial intelligence may suggest tags from a CV or interview notes, point out likely synonyms that should be merged, or list records that still have no tags at all. It stays a helper. Artificial intelligence does not replace recruiters, does not decide whether a candidate is suitable and does not add tags without a recruiter confirming them. The judgement stays with the recruiter; the Applicant Tracking System makes sure the list is shared, consistent and searchable.
A practical start
- Choose four or five fixed tag categories that match your vacancy brief
- Agree one form per tag and record the common synonyms behind it
- Appoint one owner who approves new tags and reviews the list every quarter
- Add tagging to the first screening and the interview outcome step
- Start every new vacancy with a search of your own database
A database is only as good as its search
A shared skills and tag list turns years of conversations into candidates you can actually find again. It saves sourcing time, gives runner-ups a second chance and keeps knowledge in the team when people move on. Explore the product or book a demo — we show how candidate records, search and the pipeline work together in BoldATS for your segment.