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 on the Talent Pools tab of the People page, shown as colour cover tiles with a big member count. A small pink count on the Talent Pools tab 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 two ways: by AI rule or by hand. 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 "Check again" beside "Add people automatically" 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 is included in every plan. 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 checks 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 "Check again" button in Settings ("Check anyway" proceeds). The sense check judges a few hundred candidates 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 three tabs: Members, Documents, and Settings. It reopens on the tab you last used.
Settings is one plain list: a label on the left, its control on the right, every control visible. The rows are Name, Who belongs, Add people automatically (a switch that says On or Off, how many it has added and when it last checked, a "Check again" link, and a "Minimum scores" link that opens the AI score and Client Fit floors), Monthly check-in email (a switch, plus "Edit the wording" which opens the email template in Settings), Who can see it (a dropdown: Only you, Everyone at your agency, or Pick people, which lists your teammates to tick), and Colour. There is no Edit button. Switches and sharing save the moment you change them; the name, description, minimum scores and colour wait until you hit Save changes on the bar that appears at the bottom while there is something unsaved. If you did not create the pool, Who can see it says who shared it with you, and only they can change it.
Deleting a pool: "Delete pool" at the bottom of the Settings tab removes the pool for good after a confirm. It deletes only the bucket - the pool, its membership list and its sharing 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.
From a job, Find candidates, The web: the add box lists your pools too, and puts someone found on the web straight into a pool. They become a candidate with their public profile saved as written, and their email is found in the background. See the Jobs card for what that costs.
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. 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.
Adding a pool member to a job from a pool page (the "..." menu, the bulk bar, or the member's pool file) credits the pool: their Source on the job reads "Talent pool" with the pool's name.

A member's pool file

Clicking a member, or a name under "Suggested for open jobs", opens their pool file on the right. It reads the person against this pool, not in general.

The header shows their title, employer, location and when they joined the pool, a pill with their check-in answer (Still looking, Could be tempted, Not looking, No answer yet, Not asked yet, or Check-ins off), Add to job, Email, and the "..." menu with the grid's other actions. The arrows step to the previous or next member in the grid's order.
Down the left, under "The pool's rules": the pool's description, each score floor, and Still looking. Under "In this pool": Sent to jobs. A tick means they meet it. Someone added by hand is checked against the pool's description straight after they are added, with the same AI judgement that fills the pool: the file says whether they fit and why ("Ken does not match this rule. No London location on the profile."). They stay in the pool either way. A new CV, or an edited description, checks them again. Score floors are not checked for hand adds, since there is no assessment to read.
It opens on the overview, one sentence such as "Sam matches all 3 rules. Their answer is getting old.", with "Add to <the best open job>" and "Ask if still looking". An answer 23 or more days old counts as getting old, a week before the next monthly check-in.
Still looking: "Ask now" sends the pool's check-in email straight away, as you, with the same safety walls as the monthly send (no work-only addresses, no client contacts, no unsubscribed or bounced addresses). It works even when Keep in touch is off, but not when the check-in email template is switched off. "Mark as not looking" or "Mark as still looking" records an answer they gave you on a call or by text, exactly as if they had clicked the email. Someone who said not looking is never asked again.
Sent to jobs lists the jobs this pool sent them to, with where each one stands, then the open jobs that fit and are not yet added, each with "Add <First>".
The tabs are "Why <First> fits" (each rule with why they meet it, the open jobs that share their skills, and a link to the full person record), CV (their own CV, word for word), and Timeline with a note box. Clicking their name also opens the full person record.

Sharing

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.

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, 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.
Jobs that came in with your data import are not checked on their own. An import brings years of old jobs still marked Active, and nobody is working most of them. Reopen an imported job, or change its status to Active, and Lovelio checks its pools on its own from then on. "Check pools again" works on any job at any time. The job page says "This job came in with your import, so Lovelio does not check your talent pools for it on its own."
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." Before the first check has run it reads "Your talent pools have not been checked for this job yet." and the button says "Check pools now"; the line never promises a check "shortly". A scheduled check whose date has passed reads "Checking again by tomorrow", because the nightly sweep picks it up. 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 people ask to join a pool? No. Pools fill through AI matching and by hand, and you can remove anyone the AI adds.
Do pool members need to renew their consent? No.
Can I check in with one member now instead of waiting a month? Yes: open their pool file and hit "Ask if still looking" (or "Ask now" on Still looking).
Can Ask Lovelio manage pools? Yes: it can list members, add or remove a member, ask a member if they are still looking, record a member's answer, create a pool, and delete a pool, each write behind a confirmation.