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Talent Pools

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Talent pools are groups of good candidates you want to keep, organised by the team or role they fit. Pools live at Talent Pools in the nav, shown as colour cover tiles with a big member count. A small pink count next to Talent Pools in the left menu shows how many people have newly arrived in pools you can see - arrivals from the last 30 days since you last opened each pool, not counting people you added yourself. Opening a pool clears that pool's share of the count. Candidates get into a pool three ways: by AI rule, by hand, or by asking to join from your careers page. The payoff is rediscovery: when a new job goes live, Lovelio puts the matching pool members straight into its funnel, before you have sourced anyone.

Creating and setting up a pool

  • Hit "New pool" on the Talent Pools page. Give it a name and a plain-English "who belongs in this pool" description, for example "3+ years as an electrical engineer in Australia". A duplicate name is rejected with "A pool with that name already exists".
  • AI matching is on by default at creation but needs the eligibility description filled in, since that is what the AI judges against.
  • "Scan my existing candidates now" at creation (or "Scan everyone again" later in Settings) checks everyone already in your database against the description and quietly adds the matches. Progress counters update live and you get one summary notification when the scan finishes; scan adds skip per-member notifications. Deleting the pool, switching matching off, or setting a score floor stops a running scan. One scan per pool runs at a time, and the scan uses a small amount of AI credit per candidate. Scans remember their verdicts: a candidate already in the pool, or already judged against the current eligibility description, is skipped on every later scan - so re-running a scan only pays for candidates who are new or not yet judged. Editing the eligibility description resets that memory (new wording means everyone deserves a fresh look). Removing someone from a pool also means scans will not quietly re-add them. A pool with a score floor cannot scan at all: the scan has no assessment scores to check, so a floored pool fills from assessments only. Clear the floors in Settings to scan.
  • As you type the "who belongs" description when creating a pool (with AI matching on), Lovelio shows the pool size live underneath it - "Roughly 140 of your 6,500 candidates match this description" - so you see how big the pool will be while you are still writing it. The estimate comes from a random sample of your database judged against the description by the same AI as the scan, scaled up; on a small database the sample is everyone, so the number is exact. If nobody matches yet, it says so ("No one in your database matches this yet - widen the wording"). This fires whether or not you scan your existing candidates now, because a broad description floods an auto-add pool over time just as a scan floods it at once.
  • If the estimate is over 200 people, creating the pool interrupts with "That would be a big pool" and the numbers, so you can make the wording more specific before the pool fills up. It is a nudge, not a wall: "Create pool anyway" or "Scan anyway" proceeds. The same check runs behind the "Scan everyone again" button in Settings. The sense check uses a small amount of AI credit (a few hundred candidates judged) and only re-runs when the wording changes; if it cannot run, pools and scans work as normal without it.
  • As a backstop, a scan stops itself after adding 500 candidates in one run and the summary notification says the description looks too broad and to tighten it in the pool settings before scanning again. This also protects pools created through the V1 API or an AI agent, where nobody saw the sense check.
  • A pool detail page has four tabs: Members, Pending, Documents, and Settings. It reopens on the tab you last used.
  • Settings is written as plain-English rules, one sentence each: who the pool is for, whether people who fit join on their own, any score floor, how often members are emailed, and who can see it. Every underlined phrase is the control: click it and its panel opens underneath, so there is exactly one place per setting. There is no Edit button. Switches and sharing save the moment you flip them; the name, colour, description and score floors stage until you hit Save changes on the bar that appears at the bottom while there is something unsaved. Underneath the rules is a row of figures (in the pool, found by matching, checked so far, last full scan) and the scan button. The pool's tile, its name and its colour sit in a column on the right, with the delete link below them.
  • Deleting a pool: "Delete this pool" under the tile on the Settings tab removes the pool for good after a confirm. It deletes only the bucket - the pool, its membership list, its sharing and its join requests all go. Every candidate stays in your bank; a candidate who was only ever reached through this pool is still there under Candidates. Deleting cannot be undone, and it frees the name so you can reuse it. Agents and the V1 API can delete a pool too (DELETE /v1/talent-pools/{id}).

AI matching (auto-add)

Every new candidate who lands in your bank, through any door, is judged against every auto-add pool's eligibility description in one AI pass. Judging is semantic, not keyword: related skills and tools count, adjacent titles count, industry categories count, and locations contain their cities and regions (Australia covers Sydney; Sydney does not cover Perth). It is deliberately conservative: a thin or empty profile is a no. Matches land in the pool automatically with the reason stored on the add. Candidates flagged do-not-approach are never auto-added.

Optional score floors (minimum AI assessment score and minimum Client Fit score, 0 to 100) gate a pool before the matcher runs. A floored pool fills from assessments: when a candidate is assessed against a job, their scores are checked first and only passers reach the matcher. A brand-new arrival has no scores, and a missing score fails a floor rather than bypassing it, so floored pools skip new arrivals entirely until they are assessed. Database scans skip floored pools for the same reason: the Scan button is replaced with an explanation while a floor is set.

Adding and removing members by hand

  • "Add candidate" on the Members tab searches your existing candidates. You can also drop a resume file anywhere on the pool page: it parses, dedupes by email against your bank (no email in the file means nothing is created, and an existing candidate's details are never overwritten), and adds the person. Recruiter adds log to the candidate's timeline and fire a notification; re-adding an existing member is a quiet no-op.
  • The pool picker used from candidate lists and slideouts greys out a pool once every selected candidate is already in it; a mixed selection still works for the ones not yet in.
  • The Members tab is the same grid as candidate search results: row click opens a snapshot, and the "..." menu and bulk bar offer Add to job, Float to a client (up to 5 at once), Share to marketplace, Add to talent pool, Assess against role, Email candidate, Log call, Add note, Remove from pool, and Delete. Removing deletes only the pool membership; the candidate stays in your bank.

Sharing, join requests, and consent

  • A pool is private to the recruiter who created it until shared, either with specific teammates or the whole agency. Pools created through the API are visible to everyone.
  • A published pool has a public page on your careers site where people ask to join with name, email, optional LinkedIn and CV, and a required consent tick. The pool tile shows "Live on your careers page" or "Not published yet"; there is no publish switch in the pool's settings today, publishing is set through the V1 API.
  • Requests are pending only: nobody becomes a member or even a candidate record until a recruiter approves them on the Pending tab. If the email matches someone already in your bank, the request shows "Known candidate" with their application count. Approving creates or matches the candidate by email, parses an attached CV, and adds them; declining is silent, no email goes to the applicant.
  • Consent renewal: members who joined by request get a "still interested?" email 11 months after their consent; one click keeps them for another year. If it goes unanswered for 30 days past the 12-month mark, recruiters get an in-app flag. Nobody is auto-deleted; removing someone stays a human decision.

Keep in touch (monthly check-in)

With "Keep in touch" on, members get a monthly one-click email: still looking, could be tempted, or not looking. Nobody is emailed more than once every 30 days or within their first 7 days in the pool; anyone who answers "not looking" is never emailed again, and unsubscribed or bounced addresses are skipped. A "could be tempted" reply notifies you immediately and invites a one-line note on what it would take. Answers and the tempted note show under each member's name. The wording is editable in Settings, Email Templates, under "Talent pool check-in"; the three answer buttons are added automatically and cannot be lost, and disabling that template stops the check-in entirely. Separately, every Monday morning each teammate gets a digest of the pools they can see: member counts, new members this week, pending requests, and hires to date. Quiet weeks send nothing.

Rediscovery: the pool works for you

  • When a job is created, all pool members across every pool are matched against it using the same search engine as everywhere else, respecting the job's full requirements. Each match is then scored with the same AI assessment every applicant gets, and only people whose verdict is Yes or Maybe go into the job's funnel, alongside the people who applied, so you decide Yes, No or Maybe on all of them in one place. Someone Lovelio would mark No is never added; the job's timeline says how many were left out. There is nothing to accept first.
  • A job's pools are checked three times on their own: the moment it goes live, 7 days later and 14 days later. Then the automatic checks stop. The first check looks at everyone in your pools; the day-7 and day-14 checks look only at people who joined a pool since the last check, so nobody is assessed twice. Each check assesses at most five people (the best-ranked matches), and up to 10 people per job come from your pools in total, so a funnel never fills up with candidates you did not ask for. Assessments use your credits like any other.
  • The job page says exactly where a job is in that schedule, in one line on the right-hand card: "Checked your talent pools on 3 Sept: 2 people went into the funnel. Checking again on 10 and 17 Sept." After the third check it reads "Not checking again." Next to it, "Check pools again" runs one more check whenever you like (only people who joined since the last check, at most five assessed) and takes a few minutes; the job timeline records every check, including ones that found nobody.
  • Nobody arrives twice. Someone you removed from the job, or waved off on a pool page, is never put back.
  • You get a notification, the list is saved to the job's timeline, and each person's own timeline says which pool they came from and what matched ("Was a Data Analyst at Woolworths until 2024"). When the job's client has a completed Client DNA, that line also ties them to what the client hires for. Their Source reads "Talent pool" with the pool's name, and they are never emailed about it - they did not apply.
  • Job titles are matched on what they mean, not word for word. Every company words titles differently, so Lovelio works out the other names for the same job - Business Development Manager also finds BDM, Sales Executive and Account Executive - and matches on all of them. It is careful about it: an abbreviation that usually means a different job is thrown out, so a Chief Transformation Officer role will not fill up with Chief Technology Officers. If we cannot work out what a title means, it ranks people instead of hiding them, so a job never comes back empty just because of how it was typed.
  • What counts as a hard requirement: the job's location, the title once we understand it, and the skills the ad names that we recognise. A skill in the ad we cannot recognise, like "Bain experience", lifts the people who have it instead of hiding everyone who does not. Typed searches are different. There the words are yours, so "Python, Sydney" is taken literally.
  • A requirement nobody in your pools has, or one everybody has, does not affect the ranking order - only requirements that actually separate people do. If the match itself could not run, the job is left alone and checked again on the next sweep; a failed check is never treated as "your pools hold nobody".
  • Each pool page also shows "Suggested for open jobs": members whose skills overlap a live role, with a "Draft outreach" button that writes email, LinkedIn, or WhatsApp drafts to copy. You get three, each in a different tone, and the copy button takes the subject line with the message. Not interested in someone for that job? Hit the x on the right of the row and it goes for good, and the next strongest match takes its place. That is remembered against the person and the job, so it stays gone on every pool they are in and they will not be suggested for that job by rediscovery either. The last one you hide can be undone from the line under the list.
  • Silver medalists: when a job closes or a placement lands, up to 5 of the furthest-along candidates who reached submitted, client interview, or offer on it but were not placed are re-judged, first against your other live jobs, then, only if no job fits, against clients with a completed Client DNA as a spec pitch. Only matches scoring 80 or more surface, one suggestion per candidate, a pair is suggested once ever, and at most 3 of these appear per agency per day (shared with new-arrival matching). They land on the review queue, readable through the V1 API. Triage-stage candidates never qualify.

Common questions

  • Why did a candidate appear in my pool by themselves? AI matching judged them a fit at arrival, after an assessment, or during a database scan; the reason is stored on the add.
  • Why did my scan add nobody? Check the eligibility description is specific and that candidates have parsed profiles; empty profiles are always a no.
  • Why can a teammate not see my pool? Pools are private to their creator; share it from Settings.
  • Do members who say "not looking" get more check-ins? No, never.
  • Can Ask Lovelio manage pools? Yes: it can list members, list pending join requests, add or remove a member, approve or decline a join request, create a pool, and delete a pool, each write behind a confirmation.