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Every recruitment leader I speak to wants stronger pipelines, speedier placements, accountable recruiters, and more sales!
But often at least one of these 4 elements is a struggle. Here are my thoughts to help recruitment leaders connect their tech, people, data, and process to drive revenue.
Running a Recruitment Business Is a Struggle?
I often see recruitment businesses suffering:
Too much data, not enough information.
Too many applicants, not enough candidates.
Too many jobs, not enough placements.
Too many systems, not enough process.
This creates unnecessary lag, enables your competitors to win, and limits sales.
Now is the time to seriously accelerate effective tech adoption and improve recruiter performance.
But with world events, economic frustrations, tech evolving at an accelerated rate, and "new normal" changing every day, how do you do this?
1. Recruitment Tech: All the Gear, No Idea?
Technology can and should free up your recruiters and drive your business, but perhaps due to:
Massively distracting market conditions and world events.
WFH, hybrid, remote working.
... you're investing in tech which delivers little ROI, and may even be seen by your team as sales-prevention technology? Adoption is poor, and if you have 20 staff, you have 20 different ways of delivery.
For example, as part of one of our Bullhorn ROI projects my team reviewed a 25-person recruitment business with a tech stack costing £150k+.) The business wanted to be more effective at attracting, sourcing, engaging, converting, and retaining. They had some great tech, lots of data, and passionate recruiters… but poor adoption and no "way".
Tech has a job to do. Be clear on what that is and work to realise your expectations. But be careful not to spite yourself by turning tech off that hasn't been adopted correctly.
2. People: The Problem in Between the Chair and the Keyboard?
Are you suffering from PIBKAC?
Are your recruiters engaging with tech, driving sales, consulting in their space, or simply administrating?
Is your culture geared up to get the best from your people? Or does it drive PIBCAK?
Ask yourself - Is your recruitment training:
Induction and "off you go" (high failure rate).
Designed for robots - "they've been told once and need to remember" (hope is not a strategy).
Continuous and part of your culture - they are only human and need constant development.
Hint - point 3 is the most successful antidote to PIBKAC. If you're struggling to adopt tech and drive sales, think about what you need to do to eradicate PIBCAK. Continuous training is way cheaper than very little training resulting in lots of missed opportunities and high attrition.
3. Data: Everything, Everywhere, All at Once
What state is your data in?
Do you make money from it, or do you need to spend money finding it?
Do you have to advertise your jobs and waste cash on LinkedIn Recruiter to find candidates that you likely already have?
Are your recruiters data / community managers or just data collectors and hoarders? Is FOMO driving poor trust / data health / ROI?
Or is your Bullhorn system "1st" for sourcing and sales? Have you automated the administration and dirty data out of your business so your recruiters can thrive?
4. Process: Develop and Drive Your "Way"
What is your process? What is your "way"?
If you have 20 staff, do you have 20 ways?
If someone new joins do they find it easy to deliver your way, or is it not clear enough?
Does your tech and training drive your way, or contradict it?
Are you using automation to enable your way?
Is your process aligned with how tech has evolved and how the recruitment market has changed? Or is your recruitment and sales process reliant on the good will and skills of a few naturally gifted high performers?
Recruitment Leaders! Within a Year You Could...
Now's the time to review your tech, people, data, and process.
Perhaps take one workflow at a time and tighten it up, or even innovate it. (My team can help you do this via a Bullhorn ROI project.)
Take each workflow and spend a couple of months driving it. How much more could you bill if you are smarter with your sourcing, BD, account management, and candidate management?
Start now, and within a year you could have it nailed!
Imagine what your business would be like now if you'd started this a year ago.
Imagine how you'll feel in a year if you don't do anything...
Bullhorn ROI + Trained Happy Recruiters = More Sales
We help recruitment leaders achieve Bullhorn ROI. We create a Bullhorn1st vision, reduce the need for other tech, optimise Bullhorn, and train recruiters to trust it and use it.
Arrange a Free Consultation Now
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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?"And then ask - "I wonder how Barclay Jones can help with me Bullhorn RoI, Training, and Automation to help me engage my candidates more, and reduce reliance and time/money wasted on Linkedin and Job Boards?"Then arrange a chat with us😇ARRANGE A CALL BACK Watch Our Candidate Engagement WebinarRecruitment 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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Recruiters and leaders — ready to do less admin and make more placements?Do you need to be less reliant on LinkedIn and Job Boards, and have a more engaged, valuable database of candidates?Then Part 2 of our "Unlock Bullhorn with Automation" webinar series is for you. We'll fixate on candidate management and engagement.REGISTER NOW💡 Why Candidate Management and Engagement MattersIn our recent Bullhorn Tips Webinar, we asked recruiters about their candidate management strategies.The results?🙈Most recruiters said their CRM was out of date.🙉Even more admitted their candidate engagement was reactive at best.🙊And LinkedIn and job boards still dominate, draining time and budget.AKA vicious cycle. You source externally, internal data gets colder and becomes irrelevant, sourcing becomes slower and costlier. And the cycle repeats.📊 Candidate Management by the Numbers:70%+ of placed candidates already exist in your CRM.It costs 6x more to source a new candidate than to re-engage.Recruiters spend up to 1/3 of their time on admin.Re-engaged candidates are 2x more likely to be placed.Now ask yourself: What if that cycle could be flipped?💥 From Vicious to Virtuous: Using Automation to Flip the Recruitment ScriptInstead, imagine a virtuous circle where:✅ Your CRM is rich with warm, engaged talent.✅ Your pipeline is always ready, without needing a new job ad.✅ Candidates actually reply to your emails.✅ Admin drops, and placements rise.That’s the power of Bullhorn Automation.Join us for this free webinar and learn how to use Bullhorn Automation and smart workflows to build—and sustain—a thriving talent pipeline.This is part of our "Unlock Bullhorn" Automation webinar series.📅 Webinar Highlights🛠️ Real-Life Automation Tips to Drive Recruitment Workflows:Automate outreach to dormant candidates (without sounding robotic).Keep silver medalists engaged for future roles.Trigger real-time updates when candidates change jobs or locations.Build loyalty with consistent communication at every stage of the journey.Drastically reduce sourcing times and costs.💸 Turn Data Health into Data WealthThis Webinar is for you if:You’re tired of LinkedIn / Job Board over-reliance.You want to scale your placements—not your sourcing costs.You want a Bullhorn CRM to be a database and not simply be a data dump.📍 Save Your Spot!When? 21 May 2025: 15:00 BSTREGISTER NOWPS. Want to go even further? Check out our "Unlock Bullhorn with Automation" series.🔍 24 April 2025: Automate sourcing to find qualified candidates faster and with less effort.Watch the recording💬 21 May 2025: Engage with candidates on autopilot and nurture relationships effectively.Register Now📈 Date TBC: Boost lead generation using automation to improve conversion rates.💡 Date TBC: Streamline your recruitment processes for maximum efficiency and profitability.Automation Buddy / Bullhorn RoIWe are Automation Buddies set on helping ambitious recruitment businesses who want to increase speed and sales.We coach to inspire, and build your automations so you can recruit and sell!Plus, through our Bullhorn Vision service we help generate serious ROI from your Bullhorn, data, and people.READ ABOUT OUR AUTOMATION BUDDY SERVICECONTACT US ABOUT BULLHORN ROI
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