Business Email for a Recruiting Agency: Candidates, Clients and Data Rules

A recruiter runs two relationships at once, and the worst thing that can happen is mixing them: a candidate's salary expectations sent to the wrong client, or a client's shortlist feedback sent to the candidate. The address map below keeps the sides apart, keeps the CVs in one place, and makes the data-protection side manageable for a firm with no compliance department.

Quick answer

Create jobs@, candidates@, clients@ and hello@ on your own domain, plus name@ for each recruiter. Applications go to jobs@, everything after the first screen happens from the recruiter's own name@, and clients only ever see clients@ and the recruiter. Write down how long you keep CVs and stick to it. The free plan covers a firm of up to fifteen people.

The addresses to create

• jobs@youragency.com for applications from job boards and the website. A group with every recruiter who screens; the subject line carries the role, so each recruiter picks up their own.
• candidates@youragency.com for candidates who are already registered: availability updates, interview confirmations, right-to-work documents. A group with the recruiters and the office.
• clients@youragency.com for vacancies, terms of business, shortlists and invoices. A group with the owner and the account managers. Nothing from candidates@ is ever forwarded here with the candidate's contact details on it.
• hello@youragency.com as the public address on the website and on job adverts that want a general contact.
• name@youragency.com for each recruiter. Candidates and clients both deal with a person; the person's signature carries the agency's name and registration.

Keeping the two sides apart

Make it a rule, not a hope. A CV goes to a client only after the candidate has agreed to that client, and it goes as a fresh email from the recruiter's name@ to the client contact, with clients@ in copy, with the candidate's phone number and email removed unless the client has agreed terms. Never forward the candidate's original email; it carries their address, the job board's tracking and often their current employer's name in the signature. Interview feedback from the client is paraphrased to the candidate, never forwarded. A recruiter who follows this never sends the email that loses both relationships at once.

CVs and data protection

A CV is personal data and in Europe, the UK and a growing number of other countries you need a lawful basis to keep it and a stated period after which you delete it. For a small agency the workable version is: tell candidates on the registration form how long you keep their details (two years is common), keep CVs in your candidate database rather than in a dozen mailboxes, delete the attachments from jobs@ threads once they are in the database, and have one privacy@ address that handles deletion requests. The privacy address guide explains the addresses regulators expect to find.

The emails you send every week

• Application acknowledged, from jobs@, within a day of every application, even the hopeless ones. The applicant templates have the three-line version.
• Interview confirmation, from the recruiter, with date, time, format, who they will meet, and what to bring.
• Shortlist to client, from the recruiter with clients@ in copy: a summary per candidate and the CVs attached with contact details removed.
• Rejection after interview, from the recruiter, with something true and useful in it.
• Placement confirmed and invoice, from clients@, with the terms of business attached.
• Keep-warm to candidates who were close, from the recruiter, every few months; the follow-up sequence adapts.

Set it up in an afternoon

1. Add your domain in OquMail and paste the MX, SPF and DKIM records at your registrar. The DNS checklist has the exact values.
2. Create jobs@ and each recruiter's name@ first, then a name@ mailbox for each person who writes to clients.
3. Create the shared addresses as groups and add the right people as members. Each member gets a copy in their own mailbox, so nothing waits on one person.
4. Set a signature on every mailbox in webmail: name, role, phone, and any licence or registration number your field requires.
5. Put the new addresses on the website, the booking or contact page, the social profiles and the email signatures, then stop giving out the personal ones.
6. Turn on two-factor authentication for every mailbox, not just the owner's. Client data is what makes your inbox worth stealing.

Mistakes specific to the trade

• Recruiters working from personal addresses. The candidate database walks out with them.
• Sending a shortlist with several candidates' CVs and all their contact details to a client who has not signed terms. It happens weekly in this industry and it is both a data breach and a lost fee.
• No acknowledgement to applicants. Half of the people you ignored this year will be hiring managers in five.
• Keeping every CV ever received in jobs@. Delete the attachments from the mailbox once they are in the database; a mailbox is not a candidate database.

Common questions

Can the job boards deliver to jobs@?

Yes; put jobs@youragency.com as the application address on each board. Because jobs@ is a group, every recruiter sees every application, and the role name in the subject line sorts them.

Should each client have a dedicated address?

No. Addresses are for flows. Put the client name and the role in the subject line and search on it; a year of clients@ is searchable by company name in a second.

What goes in the signature?

Name, role, direct phone, the agency's name and website, and the registration or licence number where your country requires agencies to hold one. No motivational quote, no "sent from my iPhone".