The recruitment agency CV template: sections, branding and rules

A recruitment agency CV template is the standard layout your agency uses to present candidates to clients. It has your branding, a fixed set of sections in a fixed order, a labelled recruiter summary or coversheet, and rules for length, privacy and file names. The best templates are deliberately plain. They make candidates easy to compare, they work in any client's copy of Word, and they make it obvious which words are the candidate's and which are yours. This guide covers the sections to include, how to brand without clutter, when to use a coversheet, the rules to attach, and three sector examples.

What a recruitment agency CV template is for

A good agency template does five jobs at once:

• Consistency. Hiring managers compare candidates side by side, and the same structure makes that quick.
• Brand. Your name is on every page, so the client remembers who sent the candidate.
• Protection. There's no place for personal contact details, so they don't creep back in.
• Clarity of authorship. The candidate's facts and your assessment are visibly separate.
• Speed. Recruiters fill a known structure instead of designing a document each time.

The core sections, in a sensible default order

What to leave out by default: photos, date of birth, marital status, full home address, referees' details, salary history and personal social links. Add something only when a client has a legitimate reason to ask for it and the candidate has agreed.

Branding without clutter

Agency branding should be recognisable and quiet:

• One logo, small. Top left or top right, roughly the height of two lines of text.
• One accent colour for headings and rules. Body text stays dark grey or black.
• Fonts every client has. Arial, Calibri or similar at 10 to 11 points. An unusual font gets swapped out on the client's machine and the page breaks move.
• No text boxes or columns for content. They look tidy in your copy, but they break when clients edit the file, and some ATS parsers read them in the wrong order.
• Generous margins. Clients print shortlists and write on them more often than you'd think.

The coversheet: when to use one

A coversheet is a single page in front of the CV that answers the client's first questions before they read the detail. Use one when:

• The client reviews many candidates per role and wants a quick screen.
• The role has hard requirements, such as a certification, clearance or registration, that you want to show up front.
• You're submitting a contractor and need to state rate, availability and working arrangement.

A typical coversheet covers role and candidate reference, recruiter contact, a five-line fit summary with each point traced to the CV or your screening call, availability, notice, rate or salary expectation (with the candidate's agreement), and interview availability. Our candidate profile template has a full structure you can copy.

Some clients dislike coversheets and only want the CV. That's a per-client rule, not an agency-wide one.

Per-client variants: what changes and what doesn't

Decide what is fixed across your agency and what each client can vary.

Three examples, described

IT contract recruitment

The client is a delivery manager who needs to know quickly whether the contractor can do the job and start soon. The header shows the client and role. A coversheet lists day rate, availability, notice and working arrangement (for UK contracts, whether the candidate works through their own limited company or an umbrella company). Security clearance goes on the coversheet exactly as the candidate described it, with a note on whether you've confirmed it. "Key skills" comes before experience and lists only technologies the CV shows being used. Each contract is its own entry with the client sector, duration and the candidate's bullets. There's no page limit, because a ten-year contractor history needs room. See IT recruitment agencies.

Executive search

Here the document is closer to a candidate report than a CV. The client is often a board or a CEO. The order is: a consultant's summary, then career history with scope for each role (P&L, headcount, geography, reporting line, all as stated by the candidate), then board and committee roles, education and selected achievements. Compensation and motivation usually go in a separate confidential section or document rather than the CV itself. Branding is minimal, and the consultant's name and direct line sit in the footer. See executive search.

Healthcare staffing

Clinical managers want registration, specialism and recent clinical settings first. The template leads with professional registration body and status as stated by the candidate (and whether you've checked it), then specialisms, recent placements with ward or department type and dates, then mandatory training and qualifications. Compliance documents, such as identity, right to work and background checks, usually travel through the client's or framework's own process rather than inside the CV. Keep them out of the submission document. See healthcare staffing.

Rules that belong with the template

A template is more than a layout. Attach these rules to each client variant:

• Page limit, if the client has one.
• Required sections, so a missing certifications section is caught before sending, not after.
• Required recruiter fields, such as notice period or rate, so they're never left blank.
• Privacy preset: contact details removed, or the name replaced with a reference.
• File-name pattern built from the reference and role, never from the candidate's personal details.
• Version: when the client changes its format, create a new version rather than editing the old one, so past submissions still match what was sent.

The step-by-step guide to formatting a CV for a client shows how these rules apply to each submission.

Template checklist

• Logo, one accent colour and widely available fonts.
• Header with client, role and candidate name or reference.
• A recruiter summary labelled as the recruiter's.
• Sections in a fixed order with consistent heading names.
• Experience entries with employer, title, dates and employment type.
• Education with status kept ("withdrawn", "in progress").
• No photo, date of birth, home address or referees by default.
• Footer with agency contact, page numbers and introduction wording.
• No content in text boxes or multi-column layouts.
• A documented page limit, required sections, privacy preset and file-name pattern.

Building it in Word or in formatting software

You can build a solid template in Word. Use proper heading styles, restrict editing to the content areas and keep a master copy read-only. The weak point isn't the template. It's the copying into it, and the slow drift as each recruiter saves "a slightly better version".

In CVPitch, each client gets a variant built from controlled options: one of five layouts and five fonts, agency name and logo, client label, accent colour, section order and heading names, required sections, page limit, privacy preset, optional coversheet and file-name pattern. Variants are versioned, so a change creates a new version and earlier approvals stay accurate. If you would rather keep your own Word template, add simple placeholder tags such as {{name}} and a repeating {{#experience}} block, then upload it; CVPitch checks it and fills it from the approved facts. See the full feature list.

Frequently asked questions

What should a recruitment agency CV template include?

A branded header, a labelled recruiter summary, the candidate's profile, key skills, experience, education, certifications, languages and a footer with your agency details. Leave out photos, dates of birth, home addresses and referees unless a client has a legitimate need and the candidate agrees.

Should an agency CV template include a photo?

Generally no. Photos add little to a skills-based decision and can invite bias. Include one only where the client has a specific, legitimate reason and the candidate has agreed.

Should every client get its own template?

Every client with a distinct format should get its own variant, built on one agency base. Clients without special requirements can share a plain agency variant.

Can I keep using my existing Word template?

Yes. If you move to formatting software, check how it handles templates. Some tools rebuild your Word file for you, some recreate the layout from controlled options, and some, including CVPitch, also let you add placeholder tags to your own Word file and fill it automatically.

Bottom line

Keep the template plain, fix the order of sections, label your own words and attach the client's rules to it. A template that's easy to fill correctly does more for your shortlist than a beautiful one that breaks in the client's copy of Word.