What Is Speccing in Recruitment? Spec CVs, MPCs and the Rules Most Agencies Skip

Speccing meaning: what the word actually covers

Speccing is short for speculative. In agency recruitment it describes any approach where you present a candidate to a hiring company before that company has asked you to fill a role. "Speccing out" a candidate is the same thing used as a verb: you spec them out to five firms in the same sector and see who bites.

It is usually done with one of two goals. The first is placing a specific person who is unusually marketable: scarce skills, available quickly, a sensible salary expectation. The second is business development: the candidate is the reason for the call, but the real aim is a first conversation with a hiring manager who does not yet use your agency.

Most desks do some of both. The distinction matters because it changes what you send. If you are trying to place the person, the client needs enough to judge them. If you are trying to open a door, the client needs enough to be curious, and no more.

• Spec CV: a candidate profile sent to a company with no registered vacancy
• MPC: most placeable candidate, the person an agency chooses to spec because they are likely to be wanted
• Speccing out: sending that profile to several target companies
• Reverse marketing: an older name for the same practice

How a spec CV differs from a normal client submission

A normal submission answers a brief. The client has told you the role, the salary band and the must-haves, and your CV and cover note show how the candidate meets them. A spec CV has no brief to answer. It has to make its own case in the time a busy manager gives an unsolicited email, which is seconds.

That changes the document. A spec profile is usually shorter, usually anonymised, and leads with the two or three facts that make the person worth a call: what they do, at what level, with what result, and when they could start. The full career history can wait until the client asks for it.

The second difference is that the client owes you nothing. There are no agreed terms yet, so the profile you send is also the first evidence of how your agency works. A tidy, consistent, branded spec profile says that the full submissions will look the same. A forwarded PDF with the candidate's home address in the header says the opposite. Our guide to how recruitment agencies present candidates to clients covers the full submission pack that a spec is the trailer for.

The consent question: what the rules actually say

This is the part speccing guides tend to skip, and it is the part that can cost an agency a candidate and a reputation at once.

The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003, regulation 28, says an agency may not disclose information about a work-seeker without that person's prior consent, except to provide work-finding services to them, for legal proceedings, or to their professional body. It then goes further: an agency must not disclose a work-seeker's information to their current employer without consent that has not been withdrawn (checked on legislation.gov.uk, October 2026).

Read those together and the practical rule is simple. Before you spec a candidate, tell them you intend to, agree which companies or which kind of companies, and agree what will be shared. Speccing someone to their own employer, or to a company that turns out to be a subsidiary of it, is the classic failure, and it is exactly the case the regulation singles out.

UK GDPR applies as well. A CV is personal data, so you need a lawful basis for sharing it (most agencies rely on legitimate interests, which needs a documented balancing test) and the candidate must be told who their data goes to. Our guide to GDPR and candidate CVs covers that in detail. This is general information, not legal advice.

• Ask the candidate before every spec campaign, and record the answer
• Agree the target list, or at least the exclusions (current employer, group companies, former employers they would not return to)
• Agree whether the profile goes out named or anonymised
• Stop when the candidate says stop: consent can be withdrawn

PECR: the email itself is marketing

A spec email to a company that has never dealt with you is direct marketing, so the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations apply alongside data protection law.

The ICO's business-to-business guidance draws the line by the type of recipient. Limited companies, LLPs and some government bodies are corporate subscribers: you do not need their prior consent to email them, but you must say who you are and give a working way to opt out, and the ICO says you should honour an opt-out. Sole traders and most partnerships are treated as individuals, so the stricter consent rules apply. The ICO also warns that you cannot tell from an email address alone which kind of business you are writing to (ICO business-to-business marketing guidance, checked October 2026).

Where the recipient is a named person, their name and email are personal data too, so UK GDPR applies to your prospect list as well as to the candidate.

Anonymise the spec profile by default

There are two good reasons to send a spec profile blind. The first is consent: an anonymised profile limits what is disclosed until the client shows interest and the candidate agrees to go further. The second is fee protection: a named CV with contact details invites the client to approach the candidate directly, and on a speculative send there are no terms in place yet to rely on.

Anonymising a spec profile properly takes more than deleting the name. Identity leaks through the prose ("as Sarah's deputy"), through a very small current employer, through graduation years and through the file name itself. Generalise the employer to sector and size ("a 40-person regional practice") rather than removing it, because the client still needs context to be interested. Our blind CV anonymisation guide lists the fields that most often survive a manual redaction.

• Name replaced with a reference, in the body and the header
• Current employer generalised to sector and size
• Contact details, address, photo and date of birth removed
• Graduation years removed if they reveal age
• File name that does not contain the candidate's name
• A clear line on how to request the full profile

What a good spec profile contains

Think of the spec profile as a one-page summary that earns a call, not a CV that answers every question. It should be built from the candidate's real CV, with the facts exactly as they gave them: a spec that oversells is worse than one that undersells, because the client will check at interview.

A useful order is: a one-line headline (role, level, sector), three to five evidence bullets with the candidate's own figures, availability and notice, salary or rate expectation if the candidate agreed to share it, location and working pattern, and the line telling the client how to ask for more.

A spec email template you can adapt

Keep the email shorter than the profile. The profile does the selling; the email gives a reason to open it.

Subject: Senior payroll manager, available in four weeks (Leeds, hybrid)

Hi [name], I am working with a senior payroll manager who has run payroll for 1,200 staff across three UK sites and moved it onto a new system last year without a missed pay run. They are looking for a move within the next two months and asked me to approach a short list of firms in [sector], including yours. An anonymised profile is attached. If it is relevant now or in the next quarter, I can share the full CV with their permission and set up a call. If you would rather not hear from me, reply and I will take you off my list. [Your name, agency, phone]

The figures in that example must come from the candidate's CV, word for word. If the CV says "helped migrate payroll", the email cannot say "moved it onto a new system".

Why speccing fails, and how to make it work

Most spec campaigns fail for predictable reasons: the candidate is good but not unusual, the list is too broad, the profile is a forwarded CV, or the same person is specced by three agencies in the same week and the client stops reading.

What works is narrower and faster: one strong candidate, ten carefully chosen companies with a plausible need, a profile that looks like your agency made it, and a follow-up call within two days. The candidate should know exactly where they have been sent, so that if a client contacts them directly they can tell you.

• Spec a genuinely scarce profile, not whoever registered last
• Target companies with a visible trigger: growth, a new site, a leaver
• Send a branded, anonymised one-page profile, not the raw CV
• Keep a log of every spec: candidate, company, date, consent
• Follow up by phone, once

Building spec profiles in ConnectIQ

ConnectIQ was built for client-facing candidate documents, and a spec profile is one of them. You upload the candidate's CV (PDF or DOCX), every extracted field links back to where it came from in the original so you can check the facts, and the profile renders in your agency's template with your logo. Anonymisation is a set of switches applied at render time (name, contact details, employer names, age and references), and a check lists anything that still looks identifying before you send. It is checked redaction rather than a compliance guarantee, so read the result as a stranger would.

Because the blind version is a rendering choice, the identified CV is still there when the client asks for it, with no second document to keep in step. Anonymisation, your logo and share links start on the Starter plan at £15 a month; the first conversion is free (stock templates, without anonymisation or your logo), so you can check the parse and the rewrite on a real CV before paying. Speccing needs a decent template more than most submissions, and our template gallery shows every layout as a real render. ConnectIQ does not send the email or keep your spec log; that stays in your CRM, as covered in our guide to recruitment agency software.

Frequently asked questions

What does speccing mean in recruitment?

Speccing means sending a candidate's profile to a company that has not registered a vacancy with you, on the speculative bet that they will want to meet that person. It is used both to place a highly marketable candidate and to open a relationship with a new client.

What is a spec CV?

A spec CV is the candidate profile you send on a speculative approach. It is usually shorter than a full submission, usually anonymised, and leads with the two or three facts that make the candidate worth a call: role and level, evidence of results, and availability.

What does speccing out a candidate mean?

Speccing out a candidate means sending their spec profile to several target companies at once. Agree the target list with the candidate first, and exclude their current employer and its group companies.

What is an MPC in recruitment?

MPC stands for most placeable candidate: the person on your books you judge most likely to be wanted by clients, because of scarce skills, quick availability or a sensible salary expectation. MPCs are the usual subject of a spec campaign.

Do I need the candidate's permission to spec their CV?

In practice, yes. Regulation 28 of the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 restricts disclosing a work-seeker's information without prior consent, and specifically prohibits disclosing it to their current employer without consent. UK GDPR also requires that the candidate knows who their data is shared with. Ask before every campaign and record the answer. This is general information, not legal advice.

Can I email a spec CV to a company I have never worked with?

Under PECR you can email corporate subscribers such as limited companies without prior consent, provided you identify yourself and offer a working opt-out, which the ICO says you should honour. Sole traders and most partnerships are treated as individuals and need consent. If the contact is a named person, UK GDPR applies to their details too.

Should a spec CV be anonymised?

Usually. An anonymised profile limits what is disclosed until the client shows interest and protects your fee while no terms are agreed. Generalise the employer to sector and size rather than deleting it, so the client still has context.

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Related guides

• Name-Blind CVs: What Anonymisation Removes, and What It Misses
• CV Cover Note: What It Is, Templates That Work, and the Version Recruiters Send Clients
• CV GDPR: What Recruitment Agencies Need to Get Right With Candidate CVs