Setting Up a Talent Community with Ashby
Setting Up a Talent Community with Ashby
Setting Up a Talent Community with Ashby
A practical guide to capturing candidate interest early, organizing talent pools efficiently, and building the pipeline you need — before the hiring need arises\.
How to navigate this Playbook
Use this playbook as a step\-by\-step guide to set up and scale your talent community in Ashby\.
Follow the lessons in order, or click directly into the step that matches where your team is today using the navigation panel on the left\.
#### Who this playbook is for:
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- Talent leaders and recruiters who want to build pipeline ahead of active roles
- Recruiting ops and admin owners setting up and managing Sourcing Forms
- Teams responsible for organizing, segmenting, and maintaining candidate pools
What you'll learn
- Define your talent community strategy What to consider before building it
- Build your sourcing form *Step\-by\-step guidance
- Add the form to your Careers page How to set the form live
- Nurture your talent pool Ways to keep candidates engaged after setup
What is a talent community?
Card BackA pool of candidates who have expressed interest in your company before a role opens\.
A well\-structured talent community lets you capture that interest early, keep candidates organized, and ensure you're never starting from scratch when a hiring need arises\.
Card FrontWhat is a Sourcing Form?
Card BackAshby's tool for collecting and organizing candidate information\. It automatically routes prospects into the right talent pools based on the criteria you set\.
Before you dive in
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Step 1: Define Your Talent Community Strategy
Define Your Talent Community Strategy
Step 1
Before building your Sourcing Form in Ashby, take time to align on goals, key fields, and automation setup\. A well\-thought\-out plan ensures your form collects valuable, actionable data without overwhelming candidates\.
Before You Build
Key questions to ask before you build
By answering these questions before building your Sourcing Form, you ensure it's strategic, streamlined, and easy to use\.
What is the goal of this talent community?
Define your goal before you build\. Consider:
- Are you targeting specific roles \(e\.g\., engineers, marketers\) or keeping it broad?
- Will it be an ongoing database or tied to short\-term hiring goals?
Who should be involved in building the form?
Align on ownership before you start\. Consider:
- Who decides what data to collect? \(e\.g\., Recruiting lead, hiring managers\)
- Who will build and maintain the form in Ashby? \(e\.g\., Recruiting Ops, Systems Admin\)
- Who ensures the form aligns with broader company goals? \(e\.g\., Marketing, DEI team\)
What information do we need from candidates?
Only ask for what you'll actually use\. Consider:
- Role or department preferences
- Location
- Availability
- How they heard about the company
- Areas of expertise or top skills
- Willingness to relocate
- Portfolio links \(for designers, engineers, etc\.\)
How will we organize candidates after they sign up?
Plan your structure before candidates start coming in\. Consider:
- Will they be added to general talent pools or assigned to specific pipelines \(e\.g\., engineering, sales, DEI initiatives\)?
- Do we need automated workflows to categorize candidates based on role, location, or seniority level?
What happens after a candidate submits the form?
Set expectations for the candidate experience\. Consider:
- Do we want to send a confirmation email immediately?
- Will we set up automated follow\-up actions \(e\.g\., adding candidates to projects, tagging them for future outreach\)?
- How will we let candidates know what to expect after submitting — and how often they'll hear from us?
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Step 2: Build Your Sourcing Form
Build Your Sourcing Form
Step 2
With your goals and fields defined, you're ready to build in Ashby\. The steps below walk you through the key configuration points\.
If you want the full details at any stage, review Setting up Sourcing Forms in the Ashby Knowledge Base\.
Build and Configure Your Form
Slide 1
Build your Sourcing Form
Follow these four steps to create and configure your Sourcing Form in Ashby\.
How to Build Your Sourcing Form
Slide 2
Create your form
Start here to create a new Sourcing Form in Ashby\.
Slide 3
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Configure your form
Set up your fields, branding, and candidate\-facing content\.
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Common fields include:- Contact details — name, email, and LinkedIn URL Description
- Interests — departments, areas of expertise, or both
- Preferences — location, source, and what excites them about your company
🛑 Before proceeding to the next step, ensure you have created the necessary Projects in Ashby\.
This will allow you to seamlessly route respondents based on their form submissions, ensuring candidates are categorized correctly from the start\.
Slide 4
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Enable Automation
Route candidates automatically into the right talent pools\.
🛑 Before proceeding to the next step, set up two things in Ashby:
- Create a Source to properly attribute form respondents and improve reporting accuracy
- Create a Confirmation Email Template so candidates automatically receive a response after submitting
Slide 5
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Complete Form Settings
Review and finalize before your form goes live\.
Before publishing your form, complete the remaining settings to ensure a consistent candidate experience:
- Review the form's look and feel from the candidate's perspective\.
- Confirm your Source is set in the Additional Info section to help you track, analyze respondents, and measure the success of your talent community\.
- Set your Confirmation Email Template\.
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Step 3: Add the Form to Your Careers Page
Add the Form to Your Careers Page
Step 3
Get Your Form in Front of Candidates
With your form configured, the next step is making it visible to candidates\.
Two ways to publish your form
Ashby gives you two options: embed the form directly on your job board with no coding required, or add it as a standalone page on your careers site for greater visibility and brand control\.
Choose the approach that fits your setup\.
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Self-Service via Ashby's Job Board Messaging
Many teams choose to add their sourcing form link using Ashby's built\-in Job Board Messaging\. This method allows you to update your careers page without needing external support\.
Steps to add your sourcing form linkTest different placements to see where your link generates the most sign\-ups\.
Custom Placement with Marketing or Web Admin
For a more strategic and branded approach, you may want to collaborate with your Marketing or Website team to integrate the sourcing form in high\-visibility areas\.
Share the sourcing form link and its purpose, suggest placements based on hiring priorities and candidate traffic, and confirm the form is mobile\-friendly before it goes live\.
Partnering with your Marketing team ensures your branding, messaging, and candidate experience remain consistent across all touchpoints\.
Common custom placement options[Button: Continue →]
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Step 4: Nurture Your Talent Pool
Nurture Your Talent Pool
Step 4
Building your talent community is just the start\. The real value comes from staying visible and relevant to candidates over time — so that when a role opens, your outreach lands with people who already know and want to work with you\.
From Pipeline to Relationship
Ways to engage your talent community
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Thoughtful, occasional touchpoints outperform frequent emails every time\. Focus on relevance over volume\.
Card FrontSend a welcome email
Card BackAcknowledge new sign\-ups immediately and set expectations for what's ahead\.
Card FrontShare regular updates
Card BackKeep candidates informed with monthly or quarterly newsletters featuring open roles, company news, or career content\.
Ashby's Newsletter feature makes this straightforward to manage\.
Card FrontHost events
Card BackInvite talent to virtual or in\-person sessions like networking events or AMAs with hiring managers\.
Card FrontSend personalized alerts
Card BackNotify candidates directly when a role opens that matches their stated interests\.
A talent community built on a well\-planned sourcing form, strategic placement, and consistent engagement means fewer cold searches, faster hiring, and candidates who already know your company\.
A few things to carry forward:*Key Takeaways
Plan first
Build your foundation
Placement matters
Stay engaged
Your goals and fields shape everything downstream
Form configuration determines how candidates are routed and tracked
Getting the form in front of candidates is as important as building it
A talent community only delivers value if candidates stay warm
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