Ranked shortlists, ready before you sit down to it.
The moment a role goes active, Signals ranks people against the brief, using what was said as well as what was written.
What ranked shortlists means
Ranked shortlists means candidates are ranked against a role as soon as it becomes active, without anyone starting a search. Signals ranks against the full brief, including what the client said on calls, rather than only the written description, and it uses what candidates have said as well as what is on their CV. Every person shows where they came from and why they ranked.
What it is
Matching a CV to a job description compares two documents that are both incomplete. The description was written to be posted, not to be accurate. The CV was written to get interviews. What the client actually needs came out on the intake call, and what a candidate can actually do came out when your team spoke to them. Signals ranks against the brief as it really exists, which is everything on a role, and against the whole record of a person. A ranking built only on the documents ranks the wrong things.
How it works
The role goes active and sourcing starts
Nobody opens a search. The moment a job moves into Active searches, Signals begins ranking against it.
It ranks against the brief, not the job description
The written description, the intake call, the follow up emails, and the history your team already has with that client. All of it counts, not just the document.
It ranks people, not CVs
What a candidate said about what they want, where they will move, and what they have actually done. A conversation from four months ago carries the same weight as a line on a CV.
Everyone shows their source and their reasoning
Where each person came from, your own records or a source you have connected, and the specific reasons they ranked where they did.
How results are banded
Results are grouped rather than scored. One scale, five bands, and the label is what you see: very strong match, strong match, moderate match, weak match, very weak match. The number that does the sorting is never displayed, because a figure implies a precision that does not exist.
Most recruiters work the top two bands and never scroll further, which is the point. The bands are there to let you stop reading, not to rank every person in your database against every role. Anything a client sees carries the full label, and the bottom band stays out of client-facing views.
What it looks like
Grouped by strength, with the reason each person is there.
What it means on the desk
You start the day talking to candidates rather than searching for them.
A client who calls at four has a shortlist to discuss, not a promise of one.
The person who ranked second is there for a reason you can read.
Where it fits
Search in plain English
For when you
want to go looking yourself rather than work the ranked list.
Everything on a role
Where the brief that the
ranking runs against actually comes from.
Client-ready CVs
What happens to the
people you choose to put forward.
Common questions
Yes, because it shows itself. Every person on the shortlist carries the specific reasons they ranked where they did, drawn from the brief, the calls and your own records. You can read the reasoning and disagree with it in seconds rather than taking it on faith. Nothing sits behind a number you cannot interrogate.
Your own records first. Everyone your team has spoken to, alongside the sources you have connected to Signals, which are listed and maintained on the Integrations page. Each person on the shortlist shows where they came from, so you always know whether you are looking at a relationship the agency owns or someone new to it.
You overrule it. Remove anyone, reorder anyone, and tell Signals what was wrong about the ranking, which changes how the role is ranked from then on. The recruiter decides what goes to the client. Signals does not put a person in front of anyone, and it does not hold a position you have already disagreed with.
The whole record. The CV is one input beside call notes, emails, and what a candidate has said about money, notice, location and the work they actually want. A conversation from four months ago carries the same weight as a line on a document, which is the difference between ranking a person and ranking a file.
Scope decides that. The ranking runs across the records the person searching is entitled to see, so the shortlist is correct for them rather than for the database. Where an agency shares records across offices, those candidates rank alongside your own and show which office holds the relationship. See Many offices, one system.
Yes, all three. The brief drives the ranking, so rate, availability and start date carry weight on contract roles, and depth of track record carries it on executive work. Executive searches lean hardest on conversation history and referrals, which is where ranking on the whole record rather than the document matters most.