The dormant candidate prompt surfaces who to call. This guide turns it into a system that runs every week without you touching it.
What You're Building
A three-step workflow:
- Claude surfaces 10 dormant candidates every Friday afternoon, with the role they fit and the angle to use
- Claude drafts a re-engagement message for each one, in your voice, ready for you to review
- Claude tracks who replied, who didn't, and who needs a follow-up the week after
Set up time: 30 minutes. Time saved per week: at least 2 hours, probably more.
Step 1: Connect the Tools You Need
Three connectors need to be live for this to work properly.
Gmail or Outlook so Claude can read your previous conversations with each candidate and track replies.
Google Drive (or wherever your CRM exports live) so Claude can see your candidate database.
Google Calendar so Claude knows what roles you're currently working, based on your scheduled client calls and interviews.
Where to find them: Settings → Customize → Connectors
Step 2: Build the Surfacing Task
Use the dormant candidate prompt as your foundation.
Set it as a Scheduled Task to run every Friday at 4pm. The output saves to your Desktop as 'Dormant Candidates - [date]'.
Where to find it: Claude Desktop app → Cowork → Schedule a task
Step 3: Build the Drafting Task
This is where most consultants stop. Don't. The list is only useful if the messages are ready to send.
Set a second Scheduled Task to run Friday at 4:30pm, 30 minutes after the first one:
Open the file 'Dormant Candidates - [date]' on my Desktop. > For each candidate on the list, draft a re-engagement message that: 1. References the last conversation we had naturally, without sounding like I'm reading from notes 2. Mentions the role they're a fit for, but doesn't pitch it hard 3. Sounds like me, not like a template 4. Ends with a soft call to action, not a hard one > Save the drafts as 'Re-engagement Drafts - [date]' on my Desktop. Keep each message under 100 words.
The "sounds like me" line only works if you've set up your About-Me properly. If you haven't, do that first.
Where to find it: Settings → Customize → Global Instructions / About Me
Step 4: Build the Tracking Task
Set a third Scheduled Task to run the following Friday at 9am:
Check the file 'Re-engagement Drafts - [last Friday's date]' against my Gmail/Outlook sent folder and inbox. > Tell me: 1. Which candidates I sent the message to (vs which ones I skipped) 2. Who replied and what they said 3. Who didn't reply and is worth a follow-up 4. Anyone whose reply suggests they're actively looking right now > Save the report as 'Re-engagement Report - [date]' on my Desktop.
Now you've got a closed loop. Surface, draft, send, track, follow up.
Step 5: Refine Over Time
After 4 to 6 weeks of running this, ask Claude:
Look at the last 6 weeks of 'Re-engagement Report' files. Which types of messages got the highest reply rate? What did the high-performing ones have in common?
This is where the system starts compounding. You're not just running the workflow, you're learning what works and feeding that back into the drafting task.
The Point
Most recruiters know they should be re-engaging dormant candidates. Almost none of them do it consistently. This workflow makes consistency the default. Set it up once, refine it monthly, and your dormant database stops being a list of names and starts being a pipeline.