In this article, we explain how to create a talent pool in Personio. We cover how to add candidates to the talent pool and suggest ways to manage them.

Before you start

To set up a talent pool, you need permissions for your company’s Recruiting settings.

Note that Personio doesn't offer an in-built talent pool feature. The process outlined in this article is only a suggestion.
 

Step 1: Set up a talent pool category

To set up your talent pool, you need to design a specific recruiting pipeline for it. 

• Follow the steps to create a recruiting category. Give the category the name "Talent Pool."
• When adding recruiting stages to the category, we recommend adding a "Waiting" stage. You can create this as a custom recruiting stage. You can also add any other stages that may be relevant. If you want to organize your talent pool candidates by date, you can create stages named after a time period.

Select an autoresponder

When you create a new category, you can set up an automated confirmation email. The following two options are available:

• For applications via the online application module: Candidates who apply via the Personio career page receive an automatic confirmation receipt via email. This isn’t relevant if you keep your job “Talent Pool” internal and unpublished.
• For email applications: This is useful if candidates send unsolicited applications to your Personio email address. They receive an email response when you create an application and assign it to the job “Talent Pool.” 

Step 2: Set up your talent pool as a job

You now have to create a talent pool job to store all relevant applications. Follow these steps:

1. Go to Recruiting > Jobs > Create job.
2. Give the job the name “Talent Pool” and click Next.
3. In Job details, fill in all the mandatory job details. (If you don’t intend to publish the job, then you don't need to enter accurate data.) Click Next.
4. In Hiring plan > Hiring team, enter the employees who might use the talent pool for their recruiting needs.
5. Under Hiring process, assign the job to the category "Talent Pool." 
6. You can now either:
   • Save the job as a draft: With this option, you don’t publish the job. Instead, you use it as a place to store interesting candidates.
   • Publish the job: With this option, candidates can send unsolicited applications for your talent pool directly from your Personio career page. You might name the job "Stay in contact" or "Interested in working with us?" When using this option, remember to activate the autoresponder.

Sometimes you might want to split your candidates into different jobs or talent pools. For example, you could organize them by department or location. How you do this depends on the setup of your organization.
 

Step 3: Add candidates to the talent pool

Move candidates from your Unassigned messages to the talent pool

When you receive an email application in your Unassigned messages that doesn't fit any of your open jobs, you have two options:

If the email is from an existing candidate:

1. Click Assign.
2. Select the candidate's name to link the email to their candidate profile.

If the email is from a new candidate:

1. Click Create Application.
2. Fill in the candidate's details.
3. Select the talent pool job.

If you’ve set up the autoresponder, the candidate receives an automated confirmation email after you assign their application to a job.

Add candidates from another job to the talent pool

You need to inform candidates that you want to add them to your talent pool. Follow these steps:

1. Create an email template under Settings > Recruiting > Email templates. In the email, ask permission to add the candidate to your talent pool. Explain what this means: storing data, anonymizing personal data on request, sending occasional email updates about open jobs, etc.
2. Go to the Messages tab of the candidate’s profile and email them using the template.
3. Move the candidate to an interim recruiting stage, for example, “Waiting.”
4. After the candidate accepts being added to the talent pool, go to their candidate profile. Click the three-dots icon and select Assign to another job. Select your “Talent Pool” job.

Note the following:

• If you move a candidate from a recruiting stage that doesn't exist in your talent pool, they automatically appear in the stage Unassigned. 
• If you move a candidate from a regular category to your talent pool, Personio moves them to the stage that’s equivalent to the original stage. This helps you understand what stages they already completed.

Organize talent pool candidates by date

To keep your talent pool organized, set it up so you can filter candidates. There are two ways to see how long someone has been in your talent pool.

1. Use application tags

Use tags to label candidates. For example, add a tag like “Q1 2026” to show when you moved their application to the talent pool. You can then filter by tags in the Application list.

Learn how to create application tags.

2. Use stages

You can also sort candidates by putting them into recruiting stages named after a time period. Create stages via Settings > Recruiting > Stages.

For example, your talent pool pipeline could have stages named Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4.

Note the following:

• If you want to track quarters in one talent pool, you need 4 stages per year.
• Another option is to create one talent pool per year and reuse the same stages each year.

View and manage candidates in your talent pool

After you set up your talent pool, you can see all talent pool candidates in the Application list. 

1. Go to Recruiting > Applications.
2. Filter by Job or Category to show all the applications in your talent pool. If you’re using tags, you can also filter by them.
3. You can use the Application list to perform tasks in bulk. For example, you might anonymize multiple applications at once.