Blogs by tag - Sourcing · Barclay Jones

Why AI Might Not Fix Recruitment Productivity

Recruitment Leaders - are you looking to engage with tech to help you drive productivity? Are you needing significant RoI from your tech stack? Be careful you don't fall into the pit of "tech before process".In the 2 decades we've been working in recruitment, a persistent, cyclical problem is starting over again — and it's being amplified by the advent of new technology like AI.😔History Repeating Itself: Tech Before ProcessMy team has watched a trend unfold: the belief that simply "buying data and tech and throwing it at a problem" will magically fix it.Unfortunately, it rarely does, and I fear we are seeing this pattern play out again with Artificial Intelligence.The core issue is that the recruitment industry often engages with technology without truly engaging with the process the technology is supposed to fix.We get why. A LOT has happened in and to the recruitment sector in the last 2 decades - it's a big ask for leaders to stand back from the coal face and really invest time in the problem when it's been so disruptive...But, we've seen this cycle before:The CRM wave: A sophisticated recruitment system is bought, added to the recruitment business, and recruiters are told to use it, often without a fundamental change to the underlying workflow.The Automation trend: Tools are purchased to automate tasks, but the initial problem (unproductive activities) remains because the why and how of the automation weren't properly addressed.Now, AI: In the rush to purchase the latest AI tools, many recruitment firms are overlooking the essential step of asking: "What problem are we trying to solve, and how will this technology specifically help me do that?"🤔Purchase V ProblemI recently said to a client who was trying to get buy-in from his recruiters for the AI tools he's bought:Are you processing the AI, or AI-ing the process?One way is wrong, the other right. Food for thought...This focus on the purchase over the problem means we miss the fundamental goal:Fixing recruitment productivity. Empowering recruiters to do the right things at the right time.🙋 WIIFM? What’s In It For Me? The Missing LinkA healthy skepticism - or outright fear - exists among many average recruitment consultants about what AI and automation are really there to do for them.If you're an innovation leader, your mind is likely 20 steps ahead, focused on the competitive edge, efficiency metrics, future-proofing, and adding value to your business. But when introducing new technology, you must take it back to basics and think with the recruitment consultant / resourcer / manager in mind.You need to answer the crucial question for them: "What’s in it for me (the consultant)?" - WIIFM?Stop talking about backend efficiencies and start talking about the individual's tangible benefits:"This will help you make more money.""This will enable you to take a longer lunch break.""This will free you up to see your kids' school plays."Ultimately, this tech is meant to enable recruiters to spend less time on low-value, time-consuming tasks (often up to 80% of their day) and more time on high-impact, revenue-generating activities. Because right now, the stats clearly show they are incredibly busy... potentially doing the wrong stuff.If you want technology to succeed, you have to connect it directly to the recruiter’s personal and professional drivers.What are your thoughts?What is the biggest barrier to getting your recruiters to use new technology effectively?And how will you ensure that you get true value from your tech, data, and people in the next year, and beyond?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 MORE ABOUT OUR BULLHORN VISION SERVICEREAD ABOUT OUR AUTOMATION BUDDY SERVICEBOOK YOUR FREE CONSULTATION
Automation RoI Webinar Series: Unlock Bullhorn Part 6 ~ Data Wealth

Leaders and automators...Whether you want your data to be clean or healthy, you need it to make you wealthy!Recruitment can often be hard enough, let alone if you and your teams are constantly compensating for poor data.You're blowing profit on external systems and being held to ransom by LinkedIn / Job Boards / IndeedYour recruiters and resourcers are drowning in time-consuming sourcing and adminYour recruitment process is lagging and you're not able to really see the benefit of automation / analytics / AISo, Part 6 of our free Unlock Bullhorn webinar series will share tips on how to use Bullhorn Automation to make your data clean, healthy, and worth something!REGISTER NOW10 Stats to Ensure You Focus on Recruitment Data Health30% of CRM data becomes outdated each year 👉 For recruiters, that means almost a third of candidate and client records may be inaccurate if not maintained.Dirty data costs companies an average of 12% of revenue annually 👉 In recruitment, this translates to lost placements, wasted marketing spend, and poor ROI on tech.Recruiters lose an average of 4.3 hours per week fixing bad data 👉 That’s over 5 working weeks per recruiter, per year spent on admin instead of billable tasks.51% of firms say their CRM data isn’t accurate enough to use 👉 Meaning half of recruitment businesses risk making decisions based on poor-quality information.Clean data can increase sales productivity by up to 14.6% 👉 For recruiters, this means more effective BD, faster sourcing, and stronger candidate engagement.Only 30% of CRM records are fully complete 👉 Incomplete profiles = missed candidates, poor client intel, and wasted recruiter effort.74% of businesses say inaccurate data impacts customer trust 👉 For recruiters, that means weaker candidate experience and damaged client relationships.60% of businesses cite dirty data as the biggest barrier to successful CRM adoption 👉 Meaning even the best tech (Bullhorn, etc.) fails if the underlying data is poor.40% of business objectives fail due to poor data quality 👉 In recruitment, that could mean missed hiring targets, weak BD pipelines, and lost fees.Data decay is accelerating at 2–3% per month 👉 Recruiters working with out-of-date contacts are constantly chasing ghosts instead of live opportunities.(Sources: Bullhorn / Gartner / Sirius / Salesforce)Plus ask yourself...How much $£€ are you spending not using your own data, on LinkedIn / Job Boards / Indeed?How much time are you wasting by not being able to weaponise your automations / analytics / AI / and lovely human recruiters if your data is so poor?🧠What You’ll Learn in the Webinar - Starting and Stopping!"Join us for Part 6 of our Unlock Bullhorn with Automation Webinar Series, where we’ll show you:⛔ Three things to stop doing to your data🚀 Three things to start doing so your data is cleaner and makes you money, easier!Clean Up Your Data - Free Up Your Recruiters!Automation isn’t about replacing recruiters or making your recruitment business feel robotic. It’s about empowering them to focus on the conversations, and creating more time and space for relationships - the bit that AI can't replace (yet).👉Register now for our free Bullhorn Automation webinar and learn how to clean up your data - and keep it clean! 🗓️Wednesday 12 November 15:00 BSTREGISTER NOWPS. Want to go even further? Check out our "Unlock Bullhorn with Automation" series.🔍 Automate sourcing to find qualified candidates faster and with less effort. Watch the recording💬 Engage with candidates on autopilot and nurture relationships effectively. Watch the recording📈 Sell easier and faster. Watch the recording💡 Place easier and faster .Watch the recording🎯Easy BD ~ 15 October 2025 Register Now🧹Data health ~ 12 November 2025 Register NowAutomation 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 MORE ABOUT OUR BULLHORN VISION SERVICEREAD ABOUT OUR AUTOMATION BUDDY SERVICEBOOK YOUR FREE CONSULTATION
Recruiter Productivity Series: Optimise Bullhorn Part 6 ~ Easy Candidate Management

Recruiters – do you often think "life would be so much easier without candidates"? 🤔 Do you spend hours sourcing and qualifying talent, but too often lose candidates along the way?Drop outs, counter offers, tricky candidates, and a tough economy, can test even the most patient and organised of recruiters.Part 6 of our free Optimise Bullhorn webinar series will share crucial time-saving and data mining tips on how to manage your candidate data with ease, speed, and joy! REGISTER NOW8️⃣Reasons to Come to our Bullhorn for Candidate Management Webinar Yes, candidates can be tricky, but perhaps your candidate engagement isn’t consistent and you need to work on it.The data around candidate psychology and recruitment shows it clearly:⌚28% of candidates drop out because the process took too long. Delays hurt engagement and result in candidate drop-off. ⌛25% of candidates say they drop out for that same reason — the process is too long. 🚫30% of candidates drop out because the role did not match expectations. Misaligned expectations (role, salary, responsibilities) lead to disengagement. 🤔23% cite poor communication as a reason they disengaged. 💩49% of candidates have turned down a job offer because of a poor hiring experience. Even at the final stage, candidate engagement matters — a bad experience during hiring can sink an offer. 👻45% of candidates are ghosted by recruiters after an initial conversation. 😱27% of UK employers have been ghosted by new recruits on their first day.🙊72% of candidates say the smoothness of the interview process would affect their final decision on whether or not to take the job. (Sources: TotalJobs / HR Hire / CIPD)So, before lose even more candidates and have to work harder at sourcing more, let's get smart at candidate management. 🧠What You’ll Learn in our Bullhorn for Candidate Management Webinar Part 6 of our free "Optimise Bullhorn" webinar series is packed with tips you can use immediately to proactively manage your precious candidates and make your desk, targets, and home-life balance easier! ✅Manage expectations ~ stay in control and protect your pipeline.✅Prevent drop outs / counter offers / ghosting.✅Strengthen your relationships - place quicker, get referrals.✅Move them through the recruitment cycle speedily and with ease.✅An automation to help you manage your candidates whilst you sleep.🤚 Stop wasting time and money sourcing, screening and interviewing, just to lose the candidate down the line (and likely annoy your clients in the process!) 👉 Join our free Bullhorn for Candidate Management webinar and learn how to turn your CRM into a true revenue machine. 🗓️Wednesday 05 November: 13:30 BST REGISTER NOWPS. Want to go even further? Check out our full "Optimise Bullhorn" webinar series.🔍 Engage, nurture, place, and re-place. Watch the recording💬 Source faster and easier. Watch the recording📈 Sell faster and easier. Watch the recording💡 Place faster and easier. Watch the recording🎯 Easy BD. Watch the recording💪 Easy Candidate Management ~ 05 November. Register NowRecruitment 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 HEREBOOK YOUR FREE CONSULTATION
Bullhorn Tip - Source (and KIT) with Advanced Notes

We've got a simple Bullhorn1-minute tip to help you source quicker and stay in touch with your candidates and clients. One of our favourite Bullhorn features is its Advanced Notes search.(If you haven't got this feature ask your Bullhorn admin to add it for you...) ❓Why Use Advanced Notes for Sourcing and KIT Activities?Staying organised and keeping your candidates and clients engaged is key... Why?📉57% of candidates say they lose interest when communication drops off. That’s over half your shortlist potentially ghosting you.⏳ The best candidates are off the market in just 10 days—meaning delayed client feedback or disjointed processes can kill your placement before it even starts.💼80% of placements come from just 20% of your Bullhorn database—so if you’re only looking outward and not reactivating past candidates, you’re leaving money on the table.🧠60% of clients say they want better communication from their recruiter. Not more CVs—more value.💑 Only 29% of customers are fully engaged.So, it's key that you use Bullhorn to easily find and manage your candidate and client data.We love how Bullhorn's Advanced Note search helps recruiters and resourcers source, but also how it helps find candidates (and clients) that have not been spoken to in a while and need to be kept in touch with (KIT).Simple! Watch our 1-minute Bullhorn tip - then log in to Bullhorn and try it. Who can you find? Who do you need to KIT (keep in touch) with? Watch My Bullhorn Tip on How to Use Advanced Notes to Source and KITNeed more LinkedIn / Bullhorn / Automation / Recruitment Tips?Try our 1-minute tips.Be sure to sign up for (or watch the recordings of) our regular free Bullhorn and Automation webinars.CHECK OUT OUR WEBINARSBullhorn ROI + Trained Happy Recruiters = More SalesWe pride ourselves on helping recruitment leaders achieve Bullhorn ROI. We create a Bullhorn1st vision, reduce the need for other tech, optimise Bullhorn, automate their sales-prevention processes and data, and train recruiters to trust it and use it.ARRANGE A FREE CONSULTATION NOWTry our Recruitment Training platform for free, for the best Recruitment, Bullhorn, Analytics, LinkedIn, MS Teams, and Automation tips.TRY HIIT FREE HERE
Why Recruitment Data Health is Critical, 3 Ways to Long-Term Data Wealth

Recruitment and it's tech is moving faster than ever. But if your ATS/CRM is full of duplicates, outdated records, or incomplete contact details, you’re not just losing time—you’re losing revenue.Plus, Lisa recently attended Bullhorn's Automation and AI summit and the key "disabler" for engaging effectively with automation and AI was data health (or lack of!)Data Stealth or Data Wealth?As a recruitment leader, you rely on your CRM to power your recruiters' productivity, candidate/client experience, and bottom-line performance. But how confident are you in the health / quality of your data?Why does data health matter?💩 30% of CRM data becomes outdated each year🐌 Recruiters lose 4.3 hours/week to manual data issues📉 Dirty data can slash revenue by 12%😱 51% of UK firms say their CRM data isn't accurate enough to use🤒 Only 30% of CRM records are fully up to date🥳 Clean data boosts productivity by 14.6%(Sources: IBM / Experian / Bullhorn)In short: Bad data = missed placements, wasted time, lost revenue.If your Recruitment CRM has incomplete profiles, inconsistent job titles, or duplicate records, it’s not just frustrating—it’s slowing your team down.And if your candidate and client pools aren’t engaged, you're working blindfolded, hands tied behind your back, in a storm. (Metaphors galore!)1 Word to Describe Your DataWe asked recruiters to give us one word to describe their Bullhorn data and they said... Oh dear...Pointless Strategies to Clean Your Recruitment DataSome "popular" (but pointless) strategies include:Handing it to a temp / admin with zero sector knowledgeAsking recruiters to do it in their "free time"Ignoring it and piling in more dataThese are great strategies if you have money and time to burn, and data accuracy is not a goal.Our Winning 3-Step TLC Strategy for Data Health and WealthCleaning up your recruitment data involves more than simply giving it a spring clean every now and again. Your data needs to feed today's, tomorrow's, and next year's pipeline.We help recruitment businesses turn messy Bullhorn CRMs into clean, revenue-generating machines with a simple framework:Train recruiters on the “What’s in it for me?” angle so they take ownership of their data.Legacy cleanse: deduplicate, delete, or reactivate cold records.Campaign: engage and enrich new data automatically.No expensive tools. No time-zapping system overhauls. Just smart fixes that work with what you already have.📍 Book a Free Recruitment Data Health ConsultationI’d love to hear how you’re tackling data challenges—and pay it forward with a free 30-minute call to share ideas and insights from the 1000s of recruiters we've work with.Identify quick-win cleanup opportunitiesShare smart tools and automation optionsWhether your recruiters and resourcers struggle with poor candidate matches, too many duplicate records, or “ghost” contacts no one has touched in over a year, we can help you build a practical, recruiter-friendly fix.Ready to clean up your data, reduce costs, and speed up your placements?BOOK YOUR FREE DATA HEALTH CONSULTATION🚀 Why Now?Because recruitment is too competitive to be slowed down by bad data. The difference between making a placement and missing out is often just how quickly and accurately you can find and reach the right person.If your consultants / resourcers are wasting time cleaning up data manually—or worse, avoiding your Bullhorn CRM altogether—this is your chance to fix it for good.Clean recruitment data isn’t a “nice to have”—it’s a competitive advantage. Let’s get yours working the way it should.
3 Ways Recruitment Automation Can Help Your 4Cs

Recruiters need more warm calls, cleaner and compliant data, candidate management, aftercare to manage accounts, reconversions, sustainable sales and more happiness. (Phew...)Recruitment leaders need to grow a sustainable team of productive recruiters, and generate less of a need to hire.How can automation can make this happen?Effective recruitment technology like Bullhorn Automation can do some serious heavy lifting to free up time for your recruiters to focus on the “good stuff” – more phone time, more billing time, more fees. Recruitment automation should solve a pain in your recruitment business. Plus, it's rapidly helping some of our clients get ready for AI. (Read about our thoughts on AI in recruitment.)Clean Data, Speedier Processes, Happier Recruiters, Less Need for HiringThe recruiters we’ve worked with have had some mind blowing results as a result of using Bullhorn and Bullhorn Automation! For example for 1 client in just 4 weeks, we saved 3770 hours, and created a fantastic email open rate of 62% (which is 38% above the average).More time on the phone, speaking to the right candidates and clients. Less time and money wasted prospecting / hoping.But recruitment Automation isn't just for big recruiters. We're finding that whether our clients are a 5 or 50 person recruiter, they are needing to do more with less, build back stronger, and be more sustainable. But with the massive amount that automation can actually do, yes - you need be be strategic, but you also can tackle some serious "pains" in your recruitment business.What’s in it for you? Here are some automation ideas to help you improve your critical 4Cs – candidates, clients, colleagues, cash.3 Ways Bullhorn Automation Can Help You With Candidates Think better job applications, warm calls, onboarding:Distribute your jobs to get better quality applications. Track how people are engaging with your content – this will help you decide who to call – massive time saver! Onboard candidates professionally to give a consistent and better experience – happier candidates turn to contacts, which turns into more business! 3 Ways Bullhorn Automation Can Improve Your Clients (Sales) Think warm calls, reconverting old clients, keeping existing ones:Converting prospect clients into warm callsTracking lapsed and at-risk clients – to get recruiters to call and re-convert Client satisfaction surveys – to help you improve service levels – plus IDing issues before they become problems. 3 Ways Bullhorn Automation Can Improve Your Colleague Experience and ProductivityThink cleaner data, speedier sourcing, being organised, reducing admin, happier recruiters, less stressed managers, less need to recruit… Removing time consuming and morale draining admin tasks Archiving old data to improve sourcing and reconversionsOrganising to ensure critical candidate and client tasks are delivered on time Plus - overall more time to be awesome, and for personal development and training - our Recruitment HIIT training can help you nail this critical task.3 Ways Bullhorn Automation Can Improve Your CASH Think speed – time to hire improved, contractors speedily recycled. Easier to make more money.Think data – your asset being clean and compliant, creating less risk, more time - data is monetised! Less need for LinkedIn and job boards.Think productivity – less recruiters needed, and the ones you have working smarter. Recruitment automation is not about replacing recruiters or admin, although it can mean you don’t need to hire as many people as you think. It’s about: Cleaner data Speedier sales Reduced admin Cleaner, compliant data Happier, productive recruiters Effective marketing and marketers Your recruitment process needs to be about speed, pipeline, and sustainability. Look at your data, people, process – where could you do with automation doing your heavy lifting?Think about how automation can help you with your 4Cs, not just how it can help you send more messages to candidates.READ ABOUT RECRUITMENT AUTOMATIONBOOK A CALL TO DISCUSS BULLHORN AND BULLHORN AUTOMATIONTRY RECRUITMENT HIIT FOR FREE
3 Ways to Help Recruiters Who Use Bullhorn to Get Back on the Phone

Recruiters need more phone time. In fact, “Why can’t they just get on the phone?” is the common mantra of many of the recruitment leaders that we work with. World events, a deluge of data and systems, and holes in recruitment sales pipelines, means that picking up the phone has never been more important.The recruitment process has become unfit. Too much data and too many systems makes the recruitment process sluggish at best…In fact 72% of placements made last year were with data you already had on your Bullhorn Recruitment CRM before you sourced it elsewhere. 13 hours a week spent sourcing candidates you already have… crazy! (Source: Bullhorn / LinkedIn)We have some cool Bullhorn Tips and Training on our recruitment training platform, Recruitment HIIT. Our goal is to help recruiters improve their time management, sales and sourcing “fitness”. Let’s take some measurements first, Recruiters!5 Vital Stats to Focus You On Recruitment Sales FitnessImproving your sales pipeline can be time consuming… But the data says a lot about where you need to focus your recruitment training, and time.It takes on average 18 calls to engage a new client.50% of your leads are likely to be a poor fit for you.80% of leads need at least 5 follow ups before conversion.The probability of selling to existing customers = 60-70%. Whereas new clients = 5%!Recruiters who use their CRM (Bullhorn) effectively can improve productivity by 34% and sales by 29%Recruiters Need to Get Fit for Phone Calls and Sales!Our Recruitment HIIT on demand Recruitment training is designed for time-starved recruiters to take control of their sourcing and sales effectiveness and make small but effective changes to their workflows in 5-10minute videos. To get you started, here are three 1-minute tips you can use to help you get sales-fit and make more of those critical phone calls!1. Bullhorn Tip - Start-up Screens to Start Your Day with Speed Try our super easy 1-minute Bullhorn tip to help you save time and stay focused so that you can spend more time on the phone, managing your candidates and clients, and placing faster. CLICK TO WATCH2. Bullhorn Tip - Sell What Your Contacts DesireTry our desirable Bullhorn 1-minute tip to help you easily sell more candidates to your clients. CLICK TO WATCH3. Bullhorn Tip - Silver Medal Recruitment - Easy PlacementsTry our sterling silver Bullhorn 1-minute tip to help you easily place more candidates. Winner! CLICK TO WATCHRecruitment HIIT - The Best Recruitment and RecTec TrainingAlong with a wealth of the best recruitment (perm and temp) training, our Bullhorn HIIT series helps recruiters and resourcers to:Navigate around your Bullhorn CRM speedily to save time.Turbo boost your candidate sourcing strategies.Improve BD, account management, and your client relationshipsEffectively and speedily manage your jobs and placement process.And all the while focussing on using Bullhorn first to improve the way you source, engage, nurture, and place your candidates.If you're an existing HIIT client login and complete the workouts.Want a free trial to see how HIIT can help improve speed and pipeline?CLICK HERE FOR YOUR FREE TRIALRecruitment TrainingThis video is part of a series of recruitment trainings in Recruitment HIIT, our online recruitment training platform.Our training helps new and experienced recruiters qualify their jobs, speedily source and advertise, and improve their screening. It boosts CV to interview ratios, whilst giving great tips to prevent counter offers, and secure the placement and beyond.Plus, if you have Analytics, Automation, SourceBreaker, LinkedIn, Calendly, Teams, Daxtra, Broadbean, idibu, Hinterview, Paiger, we train on those too!TRY HIIT FREE HERE
Is Recruitment Ready for AI? Why this Year Should Be Your Year of Preparation

There’s no doubt that AI is reshaping recruitment—but is the recruitment industry truly ready for it?In a recent battle planning chat with a client, I raised concerns about the readiness of most recruitment businesses to adopt AI meaningfully. While AI is already being used for tasks like note-taking, blog writing, research, creating prompts to help with screening and sales, I think that real transformation requires much more thought and time.For most recruitment firms, poor data quality and fragmented recruitment processes remain major barriers. If 2024 was the year of AI curiosity, 2025 needs to be the year of AI readiness.Get Your Recruitment House in Order FirstI think that recruitment leaders need to use the next 6–12 months to improve internal systems, particularly focusing on data hygiene (data wealth) and process automation. Too many firms are chasing shiny AI tools before ensuring their candidate and client data is clean, current, and usable. In fact, many recruitment CRMs are disorganised—polls show that messy and unstable databases are the norm, not the exception.You could start by booking a free 30-minute Bullhorn RoI consult with my team - Bullhorn adoption ideas / automation strategies / data health insight etc..BOOK YOUR FREE DATA HEALTH CONSULTATIONAutomation StrugglesEven the biggest players are feeling the pinch. I often hear of large enterprises struggling to get automation really driving performance due to internal resistance and territorial "leave my data alone" behaviour. Siloed departments, and change-averse individuals can inadvertently block progress, making it difficult to implement even basic automations and change.Plus, as much as the industry is keen to adopt efficiencies and tech, it's often not driving change through continuous, engaging, recruitment training.Automation and AI needs to be "sold" to recruiters with a WIIFM (What's in it for me?) approach. Even the best-intentioned recruiter may find it hard to step into the space that automation and AI creates for them.Have you been hired, or been the one doing the hiring, in the last 5 years? The turbulence, blind-siding, speed of change, means that stopping to take a breath and ensure best practice is a big ask!AI Can’t Replace Relationships (Yet!)My client gave a compelling example of AI not really driving the best outcome when their client was trying to use AI instead of their recruitment business.Luckily my client had the time and knowledge to step in and prevent their client from making a mistake.AI had failed to select the right candidate for a role, missing vital nuances only a seasoned recruitment consultant would catch. They campaigned for the candidate that AI had rejected. The client interviewed and offered!It’s a strong reminder that recruitment remains a relationship-driven business. AI can support consultants, but it can’t replace their ability to read people, understand market subtleties, or build long-term trust. (Yet...)Getting Back to Being Recruitment CONSULTANTSI encourage recruitment leaders to rethink traditional recruiting models—especially the classic 360 / 180 recruitment role.With automation and AI streamlining admin and sourcing, do you really need consultants to do everything? This could be the moment to specialise, refocus roles, and hire people who are better suited to today’s more tech-enabled recruitment landscape.There are way too many recruitment consultants who are actually recruitment co-ordinators / administrators. Large, dirty data sets, managed by untrained recruiters makes for a very transactional process, and this is at a time when recruiters really need to get back to consulting. (The clue is in the job title...)From Vicious to VirtuousThe recruitment industry’s heavy reliance on LinkedIn— which I think is one of the dirtiest databases—is another sign that recruiting firms aren’t maximising their own data or opportunity. The irony? Many of the best candidates are already sitting in your CRMs, but are overlooked in favour of job boards and external sourcing. This results in a vicious cycle of wasted time, rising costs, and lost opportunities.A recent poll confirmed this.Instead, recruitment businesses must create a virtuous cycle: invest in clean data, automate wisely, and help consultants to focus on consulting. With proper engagement, re-engaged candidates and clients can convert faster and generate more revenue than cold leads.The Road Ahead for RecruitersMy client summed it up well: their goals for the next six months are about efficiency, pushing back against unfair client demands, and focusing on higher-value deals.Yes! This is the mindset the industry needs.AI isn’t magic—but with smart preparation, clean data, and clear processes, it can be a game-changer for recruitment. Let 2025 be the year your recruitment business gets truly AI-ready.You could start by booking a free 30-minute Bullhorn RoI consult with my team - Bullhorn adoption ideas / automation strategies / data health insight etc..BOOK YOUR FREE CONSULTATIONAutomation 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 SERVICEBOOK A FREE BULLHORN ROI CONSULTATION
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?"And then sourcing is simple!REGISTER FOR OUR SOURCING TIPS WEBINARAnd 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
Automation RoI Webinar Series: Unlock Bullhorn Part 2 ~ Create a Virtuous Circle of Candidates

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.Scroll down to watch💡 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.Watch 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.Watch: Unlock Bullhorn Part 2 ~ Create a Virtuous Circle of CandidatesPS. Want to go even further? Check out our "Unlock Bullhorn with Automation" series.🔍 Automate sourcing to find qualified candidates faster and with less effort. Watch the recording💬 Engage with candidates on autopilot and nurture relationships effectively. Watch the recording📈 Sell easier and faster. Watch the recording💡 Place easier and faster .Watch the recording🎯Easy BD ~ 15 October 2025 Register Now🧹Data health ~ 12 November 2025 Register NowAutomation 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 MORE ABOUT OUR BULLHORN VISION SERVICEREAD ABOUT OUR AUTOMATION BUDDY SERVICEBOOK YOUR FREE CONSULTATION
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
Recruiter Productivity Series: Optimise Bullhorn Part 2 ~ Source Faster and Easier

Recruiters – let’s cut to the chase. You're wasting time and money! Every day...It's likely that 80% of your placements are already hiding in your Bullhorn CRM. So, before you throw time and money at job boards or LinkedIn, it’s time to rediscover the goldmine you're sitting on.Part 2 of our "Optimise Bullhorn" webinar series is for busy recruiters who want to get smart! We'll fixate on how you can use Bullhorn to improve your sourcing time and results.Scroll down to watch...💡 Why You Should Be Sourcing From Bullhorn FirstIn a previous Bullhorn Tips Webinar, we asked recruiters about where they source from first. And surprise! Linkedin and Job Boards were the usual suspects, followed by Bullhorn / Email inboxes etc...But this just doesn't add up when you consider the stats below...🔍70–80% of placed candidates are already in your ATS/CRMMany recruiters overlook their existing talent pool and jump straight to job boards or LinkedIn. That’s time and money wasted on sourcing externally. Source: Bullhorn⏳Recruiters spend an average of 13 hours per week sourcing candidates for a single roleThat’s nearly ⅓ of the average workweek just finding people, before any outreach or interviewing begins. Source: Entelo💸It costs up to 6x more to source a new candidate than to re-engage an existing oneReaching out to warm candidates already in your system isn’t just faster—it’s smarter for your bottom line. Source: Beamery / Lever💥Don't Source Everywhere - Get Smart!Linkedin and Job Boards are full of really dirty data, and it takes longer to engage and place a candidate sourced from them than if you sourced direct from your own database.Don't create "busyness" with ineffective sourcing, dirty data, disengaged candidates, and thus a lack of RoE (return on effort).Get off of the sourcing hamster wheel, and spend more time on the real work of recruitment - consulting!📅 Webinar Highlights🛠️ Real-Life Bullhorn Tips to Drive Stronger Sourcing from your Bullhorn Database:✅Speedy Sourcing: Find candidates in Bullhorn faster than it takes to open a new tab.✅Search Like a Pro: Master smart search tricks to surface high-quality, ready-to-move candidates already in your CRM.✅Automate Your Edge: Learn how to use automation to clean, enrich, and activate your data so you never miss a top candidate again.✅Get Back to Placing: Stop wasting hours on manual tasks and focus on what you do best—placing great people in great roles.Watch Our Bullhorn Sourcing Tips BelowPS. Want to go even further? Check out our full "Optimise Bullhorn" webinar series.🔍 Engage, nurture, place, and re-place. Watch the recording💬 Source faster and easier. Watch the recording📈 Sell faster and easier. Watch the recording💡 Place faster and easier. Watch the recording🎯 Easy BD. Watch the recording💪 Easy Candidate Management ~ 05 November. Register NowRecruitment 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