Recruitment agencies source new candidates every day, while their own database is full of people ready to go.

Dutch scale-up Selection Lab launches a tool that enables organisations to automatically re-engage thousands of untapped candidates via WhatsApp or Webchat.
‍
Recruitment and selection agencies manage databases full of candidates they have spoken to, tested and assessed. But once a placement is made, the rest of those candidates fade into the background. Meanwhile, the labour market in sectors such as healthcare, technology and IT remains structurally tight, and clients need qualified staff faster than ever. Selection Lab, a Dutch scale-up in recruitment technology, introduces the Re-engagement Tool: a solution that enables agencies to turn their dormant candidate database into live, qualified conversations within two minutes via WhatsApp or Webchat.

Plenty of candidates in the database, but nobody knows if they're available
Recruitment and selection agencies have a unique advantage over individual employers: they hold a broad database of candidates they already know. People they have spoken to, whose motivation they understand, whom they have assessed for suitability. That is a valuable head start, but only when that database is actively used.
‍
In practice, that rarely happens. Candidates are contacted only when a matching vacancy happens to come in. But the labour market moves fast. Someone who was unavailable six months ago may well be open to opportunities now. Someone who had just found a job at the time may already be looking again. Agencies that don't know this are missing opportunities that are right within reach.
‍
Research by Bullhorn shows that on average more than 85% of candidates in an ATS have not been contacted by their agency in the past twelve months. Those candidates have not disappeared. They simply have never been contacted again. And in a market where clients in healthcare, technology and IT wait months for the right candidate, that is a missed opportunity agencies can increasingly ill afford.

Repeatedly advertising to the same shallow pool solves nothing
The default response to a new assignment is always the same: post a vacancy, advertise, and hope for fresh applications. That costs time and money, and in tight sectors it typically produces the same limited pool of candidates already on the radar of ten other agencies. In the healthcare sector alone, a new hire via a recruitment marketing agency costs on average between €4,500 and €8,000 per hire. With Selection Lab’s Re-engagement Tool, agencies pay on average €100 per qualified conversation.
‍
Selection Lab’s Re-engagement Tool offers agencies a smarter alternative. Recruiters upload a list of candidates from their existing system or ATS, choose an automated flow and send personalised messages via WhatsApp or Webchat within minutes. The candidate completes a short questionnaire about availability, preferences and expectations, and books a conversation directly with the right recruiter. The entire process takes two minutes for the candidate and requires no manual effort from the recruiter.
‍
If a candidate does not meet the criteria, the tool closes the conversation in a friendly way. No awkward silences, no mismatched expectations.

Part of a broader recruitment platform
The Re-engagement Tool is part of Selection Lab’s broader platform, which is already used by organisations such as Carrefour, KPN, RGF Staffing, TMI and Aethon. Selection Lab offers one integrated platform for all types of assessments, all scientifically validated, for both white-collar and blue-collar roles (from traditional to short, interactive and game-based). The platform integrates directly with existing ATS systems and is complemented by conversational AI that supports recruiters wherever and whenever needed.

Selection Lab won the Global People’s Choice Award at the KPMG Global Tech Innovator Competition at Web Summit in Lisbon in 2025.

Press contact
‍Isabel van Kouwen
Senior Content Marketer, Selection Lab
press@selectionlab.com
+31 6 24 12 83 07
‍www.selectionlab.com