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Data, a recruiter's best friend (and worst nightmare), is one of their most precious assets. But are you missing a trick in making it super-valuable and easy to make money from?
Clean data, coupled with time, and a robust process, boosted by systems, makes for a slick and repeatable pipeline of work.
But, uncoded recruitment data may be holding you back.
To Code or Not to Code... That Is the Question
A client who enquired about our Bullhorn1st journeys asked me:
Why should I code my Bullhorn data?
So-and-so says I should just use Boolean for sourcing.
This prompted me to respond to him with a list outlining that he should indeed code his data... I'm fixated on working with recruiters who want a Bullhorn 1st culture so I hope you find my reasons to code your data useful.
Automation needs to work with structured data. i.e. coded fields. It doesn’t currently work with Boolean.
True: Coded data is more reliable as it's the Recruiter's qualification of a candidate, not just the candidate's own, often aspirational, opinion of themselves.
False: A significant issue with “Boolean Only” is that you can search for something specific (Service Engineer) and get back hundreds of results of mentioning this phrase, but they are not the candidates you're looking for. These false positives drive “let’s not use Bullhorn” behaviours. LinkedIn and job boards do very well from that mentality.
Wasted cash: When you don't code your data, your recruiters trust it less, and you then may have to waste money (and time) on job boards, advertising and LinkedIn.
Easier to keep clean: With structured coded data and automation, you can ask candidates to update their codes and use this search criteria to quickly match to jobs.
Match to jobs: Bullhorn's Semantic Match needs coded data to work effectively. (Semantic match finds candidates to match your jobs... nice!)
Call lists - "speccing out": An often underutilised feature of Bullhorn is to match the code of what the client is looking for to your candidate database. You can create call lists from this feature.
Sell your business: If you're looking to sell your recruitment business, your data set will be valued. Coded, quantifiable data is more valuable than a larger unquantifiable data dump.
USP! Warm Makes You Hot!
And finally, my 9th reason recruiters need to code their data.
When a client hires you to recruit, they aren't hiring you to do what they can (theoretically) do for themselves (i.e. post on job boards, advertise, etc.). They are hiring you for your USP, which is your talent pool. You need to speedily access it. You need to keep it warm. You need to:
Own it
Work it
Make it desirable
Charge for it
The accuracy of your data, and the speed at which you can find it, nurture it, and work it is the real value you add, and what will differentiate you from your competitors. It will make it easier for your recruiters to recruit, and salespeople to sell.
Boolean only just won't cut it.
Get coding!
(Oh, and if you have Automation, call us! We can help you code up your data with our Automation Turbo offering. Don't turn your recruiters into administrators and get them manually coding. Let them recruit.)
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Bullhorn1st
We're fixated on helping recruiters be Bullhorn1st. First for sourcing and selling. We help recruitment leaders save money on expensive external systems, get Bullhorn ROI, and speed up their time to hire.
Do you need to save money, improve your recruitment process, and sell more? (Of course you do!)
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Lisa Jones
Blog
Recruiters! 10 Reasons Why Candidate Engagement is Critical
Recruiters and their leaders who want to spend less time and money sourcing, and more time placing, need to read this blog and think about why they need to create a virtuous circle of talent.On our recent Bullhorn Tips webinar, where we focused on candidate management tips, we asked the attendees about their current candidate management strategy.The results were unsurprising, but also disappointing.They told us that their candidate database was...And that their candidate management strategy was...In other words, not future proof or focussed on creating a robust, easy to deliver pipeline. It's mainly focussed on live, active candidates who are imminently placeable... and Linkedin / Job Boards continue to win at the expense of the recruiter and their profits.Recruitment Data Wealth💵💶💷If we've learned anything (at least since 2008) we need a clean, warm databases to see us through easy and tough times.We need engaged, loyal, happy candidates who are easy to find, happy to recommend, refer, and show up!Some recruiters call this "Data Health" - I call it "Data Wealth".I've seen a lot of tech and data hitting the recruitment market, but still do not see enough process improvements to capitalise on it. We just keep buying more, rather than exploring how we actually need less, but need to work it better.It's Time to Move from Vicious to Virtuous!Recruiters still waste crazy amounts of time sourcing and advertising, but not enough time engaging and managing.And ironically, by not engaging, and letting hot data cool off, the industry creates silos of "cold" data. Hence sourcing is key and reliance on external systems is high, costs increase, placements take longer... Vicious cycle!What if, though, we take a moment? Let the stats below sink in, and engage with our systems and data in a proactive way. Could recruiters create a virtuous circle of engaged candidates staying loyal and placeable, meaning less need for job adverts, Linkedin, sourcing, and insanity?Yes!🔢Candidate Management Stats Every Recruiter Should Know78% of placed candidates are already in your CRM. – Yet many recruiters go straight to LinkedIn or job boards before checking their own database.Only 30% of CRM records are typically up to date. – That means 70% of your candidate data might be incomplete, inaccurate, or out of date.60% of recruiters admit to rarely revisiting past candidates. – This leads to missed opportunities and duplicated effort.It costs 6x more to source a new candidate than to re-engage an existing one. – Save budget and time by starting with your CRM.43% of recruiters say poor data quality negatively impacts their ability to place quickly. – Dirty data slows down sourcing, shortlisting, and matching.48% of candidates who apply to a role never hear back. – Proper candidate management helps ensure consistent communication and better candidate experience.80% of candidates say they’d reapply to a company with a good hiring experience. – Engagement doesn’t stop at “not selected”—it builds your future pipeline.Recruiters spend up to 1/3 of their time on admin. – Automation and smart candidate management free up time for relationship-building and placements.Re-engaged candidates are 2x more likely to be placed than cold-sourced ones. – Prior placements and silver medalists are often your hottest leads.Companies that nurture candidates improve quality of hire by 20%. – Keeping in touch with passive talent builds a stronger, more prepared pipeline.The stats above are from a variety of sources, including IBM, TalentBoard, Bullhorn, and LinkedIn.Even just one of the stats above should be enough to make you stop and think "how can I create a virtuous circle of happy, engaged, and placed candidates?"💻Watch our Bullhorn Tips Webinar and use Bullhorn to manage and engage your candidates.Click to WatchRecruitment and Bullhorn TrainingWe deliver the best live Bullhorn ROI webinar training, and you'll find other tips and tricks in Recruitment HIIT, our online recruitment training platform.Plus, through our Bullhorn Vision service we help generate serious ROI from your Bullhorn, data, and people.TRY HIIT FREE HERECONTACT US ABOUT BULLHORN ROI
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Wayne Barclay
Blog
Advertise Jobs: The Recruitment Automation That Transforms Your Database
Recruiters should always be looking for ways to move beyond traditional sourcing methods like job boards and LinkedIn. But often, a "hand to mouth" strategy and little time to think outside of the box means that they need to stick to these platforms.Time and money is wasted.Tech doesn't actually give you the edge.Opportunities are missed, and even lost.Job boards and LinkedIn are saturated with supposedly active candidates. Plus clients, competitors, and increasingly, AI all use them, too.So, how can recruiters create a competitive edge and build a unique (and valuable) candidate database so that they can place easier and faster?Enter Advertise Jobs, an automation designed to engage, leverage, and weaponise your existing database of candidates.🔐Unlocking the Potential of Your Recruitment DatabaseOne of the most common frustrations we hear from recruiters is this: “I can’t find the candidates I need on our database.” Yet, many of these databases contain thousands (if not millions) of candidate records. The problem isn’t the lack of candidates—it’s the lack of engaged candidates.The Advertise Jobs automation changes the game by making your database the first stop for every job.Instead of relying on external platforms, it trains recruiters to source candidates directly from the database. This approach triggers an automated campaign to engage those candidates in the background while recruiters focus on other tasks. Over time, this process proves faster, more efficient, and far less frustrating than traditional sourcing methods.❓Why Start with Your Own Recruitment Data?Here are some compelling stats to consider:72% of Candidates Are Already on Your Database: Many recruiters waste time and money downloading CVs from job boards, only to discover they already have these candidates in their system. Advertise Jobs ensures your database stays up-to-date and prevents duplicate efforts. (Source: Daxtra)Database Sourcing Is Faster: On average, it takes 40 days to place a candidate sourced from your database, compared to 60 days when sourced externally through job boards, LinkedIn, or social media. (Source: Bullhorn)By focusing on your database first AKA "Bullhorn 1st", you save time, reduce costs, and maximise the value of your existing resources.🤖How the Advertise Jobs Automation WorksAdvertise Jobs is built to make sourcing smarter and more streamlined. Here’s how it works:Automated Campaigns: When a new job comes in, recruiters start by shortlisting candidates from the database. This triggers an automated campaign that engages those candidates through multiple touchpoints.Engagement at Scale: Over days, candidates receive a number of touchpoints—a mix of automated and human interactions. This ensures consistent communication and keeps candidates engaged without overwhelming recruiters.Enhanced Productivity: Recruiters can focus on speaking with the engaged candidates and other tasks while the automation runs in the background, delivering a faster, more seamless sourcing experience. Nice!Think about a model such as the “10 touchpoints” model: three human interactions and seven automated ones. This balanced strategy ensures meaningful engagement, delivered in a suitable timeframe, without overburdening your recruiters.💗Automate to Humanise!Candidates want to hear from you about relevant opportunities, but they’re often overlooked because your database isn’t being fully utilised and recruiters are too busy to do the right thing at the right time. Advertise Jobs changes that by:Automating engagement.Reducing time speaking to irrelevant and uninterested candidatesCreating a better experience for both recruiters and candidates,And enriching your candidate data.It’s time to stop wasting resources on external platforms and start maximising the potential of your own database. With Advertise Jobs, you’ll transform your sourcing process, boost productivity, and gain a competitive edge in the recruitment market.Arrange a chat with our team of expert automation builders to discuss this automation (and other awesome automations) which can help you monetise your Bullhorn data and pipeline.Arrange a callbackAutomation and Bullhorn1stWe are Automation Buddies and Bullhorn Experts set on helping ambitious recruitment businesses who want to increase speed and sales.Automation: We coach to inspire, and build your automations so you can recruit and sell!Bullhorn: We optimise, train, and improve RoI from your key recruitment system.READ ABOUT OUR AUTOMATION BUDDY SERVICERead about our Bullhorn 1st Service
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Your Recruitment Training Playbook
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Matt Edwards
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Rose Megson
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Recruiter Productivity Series: Optimise Bullhorn Part 1 ~ Engage, Nurture, Place, and Re-Place
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Wayne Barclay
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Automation RoI Webinar Series: Unlock Bullhorn Part 1 ~ Source Faster and Easier
