Database utilisation
Compare the number of candidates in your ATS or CRM with the number who have shown meaningful activity in the last 12 months.
Is your candidate database actually reducing sourcing pressure?
Most recruitment agencies accumulate candidate records much faster than they build repeatable ways to reuse them. Database size alone says very little. The useful question is whether the database helps recruiters fill roles faster, source less from scratch and re-engage known candidates consistently.
Run the free database health auditNo signup. No CV upload. About 3 minutes.
Re-engagement maturity
Assess whether past candidates are rediscovered and contacted through a repeatable process rather than only when an individual recruiter remembers them.
Sourcing dependency
Look at how many new candidates you need to source for each placement. A growing database should eventually reduce repeated external sourcing.
Recruiter capacity
Estimate how much recruiter time is still consumed by sourcing activity that could potentially be reduced through better reuse of existing data.
What candidate database health actually means
A healthy database is not simply large or recently cleaned. It is operationally useful. Recruiters can find relevant candidates, understand prior interactions, re-engage suitable people and reuse existing relationships before starting from zero.
The audit focuses on operating signals rather than vanity metrics. It does not assign a financial value to individual candidate records, and it does not claim that one utilisation percentage is universally correct for every agency.
Common signs of an underused recruitment database
- Recruiters source externally for roles even when similar candidates already exist in the ATS.
- Past applicants are rarely contacted again after the original vacancy closes.
- Candidate rediscovery depends heavily on individual recruiter memory.
- The ATS contains many records but search quality or data quality makes reuse difficult.
- Sourcing spend continues to rise despite years of candidate accumulation.
- Recruiters spend a large share of their week identifying new names instead of progressing known candidates.
How the free audit works
The Candidate Database Health module asks for aggregate operating numbers only: total candidates, candidates active in the last 12 months, new candidates sourced per month, recruiters, placements, sourcing spend, sourcing hours and the maturity of automated re-engagement.
Your answers stay in your browser. The tool produces a directional score across utilisation, re-engagement, sourcing dependency and recruiter capacity. It is a diagnostic starting point, not an industry benchmark or formal valuation.
What to do with the result
A low score should not automatically trigger an ATS migration or a new software purchase. First identify the bottleneck. Poor searchability, weak data hygiene, low recruiter adoption, limited automation and poor workflow design require different fixes.
The wider Recruitment Operations Audit separates database health from ATS/CRM fit so software recommendations do not determine the score.
Measure your candidate database health
Use your own agency operating numbers. No candidate data or CVs are required.