Candidate shortlist
A candidate shortlist is the small set of screened candidates an agency presents to a client for a role, usually three to five, each chosen against the brief and backed by the consultant's notes. It is the agency's main piece of work product, and the thing a client judges it on.
A shortlist differs from a longlist in one way that matters: every name on it has been spoken to. The consultant has confirmed interest, salary expectations, notice period and the reasons they would move, and can say why each person fits and where the risks are. A longlist is research; a shortlist is a recommendation.
Size is a judgement call. Too few and the client has no comparison; too many and it looks like the consultant could not decide. Three to five is common for perm roles. On retained work the shortlist is often a formal milestone with a fee instalment attached, so what counts as a delivered shortlist is worth defining in the terms.
How the shortlist reaches the client shapes how fast it comes back. Four CVs attached to an email with a paragraph about who is who invites the client to open one, forget the rest and reply next week. A single page where the client can compare candidates side by side, read the consultant's view on each and say yes or no per person gets decisions rather than silence. Anonymised shortlists, with names and employers removed until the client engages, are used where terms are not yet agreed or the search is confidential.
The shortlist is also the moment to manage expectations. If the market is thinner than the client hoped, or the salary will not attract the people the brief describes, the shortlist and the note that goes with it are where the consultant says so, with evidence from the search. A client told early that the band is £10,000 short can move; a client told after six weeks usually just changes agency.
Where it goes wrong: shortlisting on keyword match rather than conversation; sending a shortlist the client cannot act on because salary expectations were never checked; and never recording why the rejected candidates were rejected, which is exactly the information needed the next time a similar role opens.
How Vayora handles it
Candidates moved to the shortlisted stage appear on the role's Shortlist tab, from the same data as the pipeline board. From there you can share several submissions as one shortlist link, branded as your agency and valid for 14 days by default, where the client compares candidates, opens each CV and marks each person interested, pass or more info, without an account. The client can also ask Kit questions about a candidate on that shortlist, limited to the candidates the link covers. A submission can be anonymised so the client sees a redacted brief until they choose to reveal it, and each decision is written back onto the submission.
Shortlists