Yes, iCIMS supports talent pools, and most of that capability lives in its recruiting CRM, iCIMS Candidate Experience Management (CXM), not in the core applicant tracking system. iCIMS recommends managing talent pools in a CRM, because CRMs handle large candidate volumes better and keep engaging people when no requisition is open. Teams run into the same split between an ATS and an AI Talent CRM.
Talent pools in the iCIMS CRM
- Adding candidates: review candidate information in the CRM, add people to pools for future engagement, and invite them to apply for open roles.
- Custom pools: iCIMS describes pools you can segment by location, department, role, skills, and credentials. That helps most in healthcare, where licences matter.
- Dynamic pools: iCIMS also describes dynamic pools that surface qualified candidates based on criteria, rather than lists someone maintains by hand.
- Campaigns: engage pools with email and text campaigns, including behaviour-based campaigns triggered by a candidate's interests.
- Rediscovery: an integration with the iCIMS ATS automates rediscovery and remarketing to past applicants and alumni.
Talent pools without the CRM
If your organisation licenses only the iCIMS ATS, past applicants still sit in a searchable candidate database. Recruiters can search for previous applicants who match a new role, but without the CRM there are no pool campaigns, engagement scoring, or automated rediscovery. The pool stays searchable data, with no programme around it.
What to check in your setup
- Licence: is the CRM (CXM, CRM, or the legacy Connect product) in your contract?
- Ownership: who builds and maintains pools, recruiters or a recruitment marketing team?
- Criteria: are pool rules based on fields your recruiters actually fill in, such as skills and credentials?
- Measurement: can you report hires that came from pools, so the effort is visible?
Making pools pay off
Large pools go stale quickly. Teams that get value from them keep segments narrow, re-engage on a schedule rather than only when a role opens, and remove people who no longer fit. iCIMS also suggests inviting passive and silver-medalist candidates to recruiting events, which gives pool members a reason to stay in touch.