Find past job applicants who fit the role you're hiring for now and invite them back: AI agent prompt
Most businesses already have strong runner-up candidates sitting in old applications, but nobody has time to dig through them when a new role opens. An AI assistant can compare your new job description against past applicants, shortlist the best matches with reasons, and draft a friendly re-engagement message for you to review. Paylocity launched Recruiting Optimizer on Oct 22, 2026, including a Talent Rediscovery Agent that identifies previous applicants who match current hiring needs, with recruiters setting the criteria and reviewing every output.
HR & PeopleTalent rediscoverybeginnerThe prompt
Help me rediscover past applicants for a role I'm hiring for now. New role: [paste the job description, location, pay range and must-have skills]. Past applicants: [paste or upload a list or spreadsheet with name, role applied for, date, key skills, notes from earlier interviews, and why they weren't hired]. Do this: 1) List the must-haves and nice-to-haves from the new role. 2) Score each past applicant against them (strong / possible / no fit) and give a one-line reason based only on what's in their record. 3) Skip anyone marked "do not contact" or who was let go for conduct. 4) Show the top [5-10] as a table: name, original role, date applied, fit score, reason, anything to check. 5) For each strong match, draft a short, warm message that mentions their earlier application and invites them to apply or chat. Don't guess at skills that aren't in the record, and don't use age, gender, race or other protected traits in any ranking.
How to use it
- Copy the prompt above.
- Replace every [bracket] with your own details (or fill in the blanks on AgentPlaybook Real Estate, which remembers your answers for the next prompt).
- Paste it into Paylocity, ChatGPT, Claude and review the answer before you use it.
Works with: Paylocity, ChatGPT, Claude, Google Sheets, Gemini
Real-world example: stocktitan.net/news/PCTY/paylocity-launches-ai-powered-recruiting-opti
Featured in: Free AI agent prompts for small business (beginner-friendly) · AI prompts for Google Sheets and Excel work · AI prompts for writing SOPs, reports, policies and checklists
Before you use it: what to check
Already built into this prompt
- Don't guess at skills that aren't in the record, and don't use age, gender, race or other protected traits in any ranking.
Check yourself
- Don't let AI make the final call on hiring, pay, performance or discipline. Use it to organise information, and have a person decide using criteria you can explain.
- Remove names, contact details, account numbers and other personal data the task doesn't need before you paste, and check your AI tool's data and training settings.
- Check names, dates, numbers and any claim against your own source material before you use the answer. AI can misread or invent details.
Using an AI agent? Download this prompt as a SKILL.md agent skill with these checks built in, or get the .zip for Claude.ai. How to install skills.
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