Every recruiter writes notes: after a phone screen, after an interview, after a client calls back with feedback. Months later those notes are often the only thing that explains why a candidate was rejected, what salary was discussed or which client already saw the profile. Too often they read like private reminders: undated fragments, abbreviations nobody else understands, opinions without facts. An Applicant Tracking System stores every note with the candidate, the vacancy and the author, but the quality of what is written still depends on agreements within your team. This article explains how to write candidate notes your team can rely on in your Applicant Tracking System.
The need is the same across segments. Recruitment agencies rely on notes when a candidate comes back for a different client. Staffing desks share candidates between consultants and shifts, so a note has to make sense to someone who never spoke to the candidate. Secondment firms follow consultants over several assignments. Executive search builds relationships with senior candidates over years. In-house recruitment teams work with hiring managers who read the same record. In every case a note is written for the next reader, not for the author.
Agree what a good note contains
A useful note answers three questions: what happened, what was agreed and what happens next. Write down facts and the candidate’s own words rather than impressions, and end with a concrete follow-up that matches the candidate’s next action date. Your Applicant Tracking System records the date and author automatically, in the same way it records who moved a candidate between stages, so the note itself can focus on content.
Link every note to the right context
A note about an interview for one vacancy says little when it floats loose on the candidate record. Link it to the vacancy and, where relevant, to the client or hiring manager. Notes about a client’s preferences belong on the client record, next to the pipeline, as described in why candidate and client relations belong beside the pipeline. When a candidate applies again later, the history is then easy to read per vacancy, and nothing gets lost when you merge duplicate candidate records.
Use fields for facts, notes for context
Information that you will want to search or filter on should not be hidden in free text. Salary expectation, notice period, preferred contact channel and languages belong in fields, such as a recorded salary expectation or a recorded notice period. The note explains the context behind those fields, for example why a candidate is flexible on salary for a shorter commute. Interview assessments belong in a shared scorecard with a written outcome, so the note does not have to repeat them.
Write as if the candidate will read it
Under data protection rules, candidates can ask to see what you have recorded about them, and notes are part of that. Write every note as if the candidate might read it during an access request: factual, respectful and relevant to the application. Leave out health information, assumptions about private life and anything that is not needed to assess suitability. Notes also fall under the same retention date as the rest of the candidate record.
Make notes useful for colleagues
The real test of a note comes when someone else picks up the work, during holidays, sickness or a handover between recruiters. Agree a short structure for the most common note types, such as a phone screen, an interview debrief and client feedback, and offer them as shared templates. Use user roles and access rights to decide which notes hiring managers or clients may see, so internal context stays internal.
A practical start
- Agree that every note covers what happened, what was agreed and what happens next
- Create short templates for phone screens, interview debriefs and client feedback
- Move recurring facts such as salary, notice period and availability from notes into fields
- Read a sample of last month’s notes and check whether a colleague could act on them
- Remind the team that candidates can ask to see their notes
A candidate history you can trust
Good notes are not about writing more, but about writing in a way the next reader can use. With agreed note types, notes linked to vacancies and clients, facts in fields and a factual tone, your Applicant Tracking System becomes a history the whole team can rely on. Explore the product or book a demo — we will show how notes, fields and templates work together in BoldATS for your segment.