A staffing desk schedules a warehouse worker for a Monday morning shift. On site, the client asks to see his forklift certificate and finds that it expired two months ago. The worker is sent home, the client is left a person short and the desk spends the morning looking for a replacement. Nobody had checked, because the certificate was mentioned once in an intake note and never again. Certificates, licences and professional registrations decide whether a candidate may do the work at all, yet they are often stored as a loose tag or an attachment without a date. This article explains why every candidate in your Applicant Tracking System needs recorded certificates and expiry dates: what goes wrong without them, which details to record, who owns the follow-up, when to check them in the pipeline, how to handle documents and privacy, how the approach differs per segment and how to check with your own data whether it works.
Certificates matter in every segment. Recruitment agencies submit engineers, nurses and drivers whose registration or licence is a condition of the role. Staffing desks schedule flexible workers for shifts that require safety, first aid or equipment certificates. Secondment firms place specialists on assignments where a client requires a current qualification for the full duration. Executive search firms present senior candidates for regulated positions where a professional registration must be in good standing. In-house recruitment teams hire for roles where a licence or certificate is required by law or by internal policy. In every case the question is the same: can you see in one place which certificates a candidate holds, until when they are valid and who has checked them?
What goes wrong without recorded certificates
- A certificate is mentioned in a note or a CV, but nobody knows whether it is still valid
- A candidate is submitted or scheduled and turns out not to meet a requirement of the role
- Expiry dates pass unnoticed during a running assignment or placement
- Different recruiters write the same certificate in different ways, so searches miss candidates
- Copies of documents are kept in mailboxes and shared folders without a clear purpose or end date
The result is cancelled starts, unhappy clients, extra work for recruiters and documents that are hard to justify when a candidate asks what you keep about them.
What to record for each certificate
Keep the record short and the same for every candidate:
- Type of certificate or licence — chosen from the shared skills and tag list, not typed as free text
- Issue date and expiry date — or a clear note that the certificate does not expire
- Verification — who checked the certificate, when and how, for example by seeing the original or checking a public register
- Status — for example valid, expiring soon, expired or in progress, so a course that is booked but not yet completed is visible
- Link to requirements — the certificates a vacancy or assignment requires, recorded in the structured brief
With these details on the candidate record, a recruiter can search for candidates with a valid certificate on a given date instead of reading through CVs.
A named owner and reminders before expiry
An expiry date only helps if someone acts on it. Make the recruiter or consultant who owns the candidate responsible for certificates, and record a stand-in for absences. Give every expiry date a reminder well before the date passes, set as a next-action date, so there is time to ask the candidate for a renewed certificate or to plan a course. For candidates on a running assignment, link the reminder to the assignment as well, so the end of a certificate does not come as a surprise to the client.
Check certificates at the right moments in the pipeline
Certificates belong in the pipeline, not only in the profile. Make a valid certificate one of the written entry criteria for the stages where it matters: before a candidate is submitted to a client, before a shift is scheduled and before a start date is confirmed. Combine it with the right-to-work check before start and confirmed availability, so one final check covers everything a start depends on. Ask candidates about required certificates through short screening questions at application, and verify the actual documents only once the candidate moves forward.
Documents and privacy
Not every certificate needs a stored copy. Record what you checked and when, and keep a copy only if a client agreement, a law or your own policy requires it. Tell the candidate which details you record and why, in line with your own privacy statement, and set a retention date for copies just as you do for the candidate record. Share certificate details with a client only when they are needed for the submission, and make sure you can answer a data access request from the same record.
Differences per segment
Agencies focus on certificates and registrations that are a hard requirement of the client’s role, and record them before the first submission. Staffing desks check certificates most often, because each shift can require a different one, and benefit most from searching for valid certificates on a given date. Secondment firms compare expiry dates with the planned end of the assignment and plan renewals or courses ahead, in line with the end date and redeployment check. Executive search firms verify professional registrations for regulated positions discreetly and record the outcome without storing more than needed. In-house teams align with HR on which certificates are checked at hiring and which are followed up after the start.
Let the system help
Much of the follow-up repeats and suits automation: reminders before an expiry date, a warning when a candidate without a valid certificate is moved to a stage that requires one, a list of certificates that expire during a running assignment and a request to the candidate to upload a renewed certificate. An artificial intelligence helper can suggest certificates mentioned in a CV, so the recruiter does not have to read every line. The recruiter checks the suggestion and verifies the certificate; artificial intelligence does not replace recruiters and does not decide on its own whether a candidate meets a requirement.
Common mistakes to avoid
- A tag without a date — the candidate seems qualified, but nobody knows until when
- Trusting the CV alone — a certificate listed on a CV is not the same as a verified certificate
- Checking only at intake — certificates expire during long assignments and between placements
- Storing every copy indefinitely — the file grows, but you cannot explain why you still hold each document
- No owner for reminders — expiry dates are recorded, but nobody acts on them
Questions teams ask
- Which certificates should we record? — Those that a role, a client or the law requires, plus those your recruiters regularly search for; keep the list short and shared
- Do we need a copy of every certificate? — No; record what was checked, by whom and when, and keep a copy only if an agreement, a law or your policy requires it
- Who follows up on expiry dates? — The recruiter who owns the candidate, with a stand-in, prompted by reminders from the system
- What if a certificate is in progress? — Record the status and the expected completion date, and discuss with the client whether an exception is acceptable
- What if the requirement changes per client? — Record the required certificates per vacancy or assignment and compare them with the candidate record before each submission
Check it with your own data
Count from your own records, per team and per segment: how many active candidates have at least one certificate without an expiry date, how many certificates expire in the coming period, how many submissions or starts were stopped because a certificate was missing or expired and how many certificates were renewed before the date passed. Discuss these figures in your weekly pipeline review and report the number of candidates behind each figure. Do not compare with industry averages; your own trend is the number that matters.
A practical start
- Agree on a short shared list of certificates and licences
- Record type, issue date, expiry date, verification and status on every candidate record
- Name an owner and a stand-in and set reminders before each expiry date
- Make a valid certificate an entry criterion before submission, scheduling and start
- Keep copies only where required and give them a retention date
A valid certificate is part of a reliable placement
Candidates, clients and recruiters all depend on certificates being valid on the day the work starts. Record every certificate with its dates and verification, give expiry dates an owner and a reminder, check them at the stages where they matter and keep only the documents you need. Explore the product or book a demo — we show how candidate records, requirements and the pipeline work together in BoldATS for your segment.