On December 12, 2024, we’ll be hosting a webinar with our new partner Quil, who offer a time saving integrated note-taking AI for recruiting teams. Register now!

Quil

Date: December 12, 2024
Time: 1:00 PM Eastern
Registration: Zoom Signup Link

Recruiting is a people-first profession, but when talented recruiters find themselves buried under administrative work it can cut into their valuable communication time. Manual note-taking, data entry, and fragmented communication drains hours from each day — time that could be spent building relationships, understanding candidates, and driving strategic hiring decisions.

Introducing Quil: Your Recruiting Assistant

Imagine reclaiming three hours of your workday, every single day. Imagine consistent note taking, automatically, no matter who’s taken the call. Quil could revolutionize how your recruiting team operates.

Quil leverages advanced artificial intelligence to automatically transcribe interviews, capture nuanced meeting details, and seamlessly record them on the relevant record in PCRecruiter.

  • Automated Note-Taking: See how AI can capture every critical detail of interviews and meetings, eliminating the need for manual transcription.
  • Instant Candidate Summaries: Learn how Quil generates comprehensive candidate profiles in moments, not hours.
  • Seamless Integration: Explore how information flows effortlessly between Quil and your private database.

What To Expect in The Webinar

  • A live demo of Quil and how it works.
  • How Quil sends Notes directly back to your PCR.
  • Insights on automating your admin work.
  • Q & A with product experts.

Quil helps recruiting pros focus on what truly matters: connecting with talent and driving organizational success. Join us to see how Quil’s AI tech can amplify human potential, not replace it.

Limited Spots Available – Register Now


This webinar is one of several with our integration partners we have planned for the coming weeks. Stay tuned on our blog and LinkedIn. We are also now on Bluesky: @pcrecruiter.net.

In the ongoing battle for data security, recruiter communications can be on the front lines. Email — a tool so familiar its security can be taken for granted — can be a vulnerability or a fortress. What if the solution to secure, cost-effective communication isn’t a flashy new technology, but a proven, robust standard that’s been quietly safeguarding information for decades? Enter IMAP with SSL/TLS: the unsung hero of recruitment email security.

Confidential Communication

Secure communication and data storage are essential for any organization. As a recruiter, securing your client and candidate data as well as your private communications with them is a necessity. When your email app, such as Outlook, your smartphone, or your recruiting CRM, connects to your mail account provider, that data must be transmitted securely.

Sending Recruitment Email from PCR

Imagine sending a postcard with private details written on the back; anyone could read it along the way. Email encryption acts like a digital envelope, scrambling information so that only the intended recipient with the right key can understand it. The default IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) Port 143 is not secure, but fortunately most configurations use the secured Port 993 instead.

When using IMAP on Port 993, SLL (“Secure Sockets Layer”) is added, encrypting the content and keeping your info protected during transmission. However, this doesn’t account for your email login credentials also being encrypted, which is where TLS (“Transport Layer Security”) comes in. By using IMAP over SSL with TLS, both the email content and login vulnerabilities are mitigated.

New vs. Old Methods

Some major email providers have introduced dedicated mail APIs. These new methods allow developers to connect directly to the provider through code, leaving the actual mail sending to the provider. While this can be a plus, the use of IMAP with SSL/TLS retains some major advantages worth highlighting:

  • IMAPS/TLS is a platform-independent, standards-based architecture. This means it can be used with any email provider, whether that’s a ‘big tech’ provider like Gmail or an independent mail system. By supporting IMAPS/TLS, a software offers the widest range of email server support possible.
  • It is a “battle-tested” protocol, with an extensive history of security and reliability. Decades of testing and refinement mean minimal risk of exploits thanks to a mature codebase and continuous security updates and improvements.
  • Because this method is, unlike APIs, non-proprietary and unlikely to differ between email providers, it can offer reduced integration costs, lower maintenance overhead, and longer-term stability.

Prioritizing Security Beyond Email

PCRecruiter prioritizes the security of customer data by using IMAP with SSL/TLS encryption to ensure that all recruiting communications are protected from unauthorized access. In addition to encryption, PCRecruiter employs other important security measures:

  • OAuth 2.0 authentication framework
    This modern framework provides precise control over who can access your information, eliminating the need to store sensitive credentials and ensuring seamless integration with enterprise identity providers. Think of this as adding a security guard who verifies the identity of anyone trying to access your information.
  • Secure credential management
    PCRecruiter uses strong encryption for stored credentials and follows industry best practices for protecting sensitive data. This is like storing your valuable information in a vault with multiple layers of security.
  • SOC 2 Compliance
    PCRecruiter has successfully completed a comprehensive independent Service Organization Control (SOC 2) audit, which demonstrates our commitment to meeting industry security standards. The SOC 2 audit has confirmed that we have strong security controls in place to protect your sensitive information.
  • Regular Security Assessments and Updates
    Our internal security team continually tests and upgrades software, hardware, and systems to make sure our customers and their customers have the assurance of safety.

While absolute cybersecurity is impossible for any provider to guarantee, PCRecruiter’s use of IMAPS/TLS and SOC 2 compliance demonstrates their dedication to protecting customer data using industry-leading security measures and best practices. We strive to keep your information as secure as possible.

PCRecruiter has teamed up with Zoom Video Communications, Inc., to enhance our recruitment ATS and CRM with Zoom’s powerful telephony capabilities. This integration brings easy Zoom calling functionality directly into PCR, enabling recruiters to streamline their communication workflow and better connect with candidates and clients.

Streamlined Recruitment Communications

The integration between PCRecruiter and Zoom offers recruiting professionals a more efficient way to manage their voice communications.

Zoom Phone Logo

Users can now initiate Zoom Phone calls directly from within PCRecruiter, while automatically capturing all call activities in their private database. This combination delivers a more streamlined experience for recruiting teams looking to maximize their productivity and maintain detailed records of candidate interactions.

“Our integration with Zoom Phone represents our ongoing commitment to providing recruiters with the tools they need to work more efficiently,” says James Blair, Head of Product and Strategy at PCRecruiter. “By combining Zoom’s communication capabilities with PCRecruiter’s logging of the recruitment process, we’re helping executive search and contract staffing professionals focus entirely on their conversations and save valuable time with the confidence that interactions with their clients and jobseekers are properly documented.”

Key Features of the Zoom Phone Integration

a woman speaking on a headset
  • Easy Dialing
    Launch Zoom Phone calls directly from contact records within PCRecruiter
  • Automatic Call Logging
    Automatically log inbound and outbound dials from the Zoom app on the relevant PCR record
  • Comprehensive History
    View team-wide call activity or per-record logs for a complete view of your dialing efforts

Getting Started

The PCRecruiter integration with Zoom is available now to all PCRecruiter users who use Zoom as their VOIP solution. The integration can be activated by an administrative level user by accessing the User Record under System. See our Learning Center for instructions.

For more information, contact your PCRecruiter representative.

Being a great multitasker is often regarded as a key skill for recruiters. Between business development, candidate outreach, interviews, calls, emails, and beyond, there is pressure to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously. However, the research suggests that true multitaskers are as rare as the proverbial purple squirrel.

Many people will tell you they’re great multitaskers — who hasn’t seen that in a cover letter? However, the work of researchers like Victor M. González, Ph.D., Gloria Mark, Ph.D. and David Strayer, Ph.D. indicates otherwise.

A cartoon of a businesswoman attempting to multitask.

Their studies in the areas of attention span and time management show that most of us are actually engaged in rapid task-switching rather than actual multitasking. True “supertaskers,” capable of simultaneously and fully paying attention to many things, are rare. In fact, when Strayer and his team asked 200 people to drive a vehicle while talking on the phone, doing math problems, and remembering a list of words, 97% failed to keep up with all of it.

The consequences of dividing your attention as a recruiter can be significant. Perhaps not as serious as crashing a vehicle, but more impactful than you might expect! Fortunately, there are tools and techniques to help recruiters avoid the pitfalls of trying to do it all at once.

The Costs of Multitasking

Studies like Strayer’s show that most people’s brains are just not wired for true multitasking. What we perceive as multitasking is actually redirection of our attention from one task to another in quick succession. This illusion of efficiency comes with some clear drawbacks:

  • The Switch Cost
    Each time we shift our attention, there’s a cognitive price to pay – the “switch cost”. This refers to the time and mental effort required to disengage from one task, reorient ourselves to a new one, and resume focus. As Dr. Strayer pointed out in an interview with Freakonomics author / podcaster Stephen Dubner, these constant micro-shifts add up, consuming valuable time and energy throughout the workday.
  • Increased Errors and Reduced Quality
    When our attention is fragmented, we’re more prone to making mistakes, such as failing to call a candidate or email a prospect. A 2004 research paper by Drs. González and Mark shows that frequent interruptions and task-switching lead to decreased accuracy and attention to detail, even for highly demanding information work.
  • Stress and Cognitive Overload
    Perhaps the most significant cost of chronic multitasking is its impact on our well-being. There is a strong correlation between rapid task-switching and increased stress levels. When we constantly juggle tasks, our brains remain in a heightened state of alertness, never fully able to relax and recharge. This kind of continual mental load can lead to burnout, decreased job satisfaction, and even impact our physical health.

Getting into Focus: Tools for Control

Workflow management tools and strategies can be valuable allies in the recruiter’s battle against ‘simulated multitasking.’ The goal is to organize, prioritize, and track your work, while minimizing distractions and supporting a more focused approach. Here are some common tools and methods:

  • Task Management Apps
    Services like Todoist, Asana, or Trello enable you to build organized task lists, assign priorities, establish due dates, and monitor progress. This visual approach aids in maintaining concentration and prevents important tasks from being overlooked. Some of our larger PCRecruiter offices, who manage extensive projects and larger teams, have found that integrating Monday.com with their recruiting database can simplify this sort of planning and process oversight.
  • Concentration-Enhancement Apps
    Tools such as Freedom or Forest use website blocking and gamification to reduce digital interruptions during designated work session to promote focused work. You can further improve your ability to focus by silencing notifications, closing unnecessary tabs, and communicating to colleagues that you’re going off the radar for a while.
  • Productivity Trackers
    You can analyze how you actually spend your time on digital devices with tools like Toggl Track or RescueTime. Awareness is the first step toward killing your time-wasting habits and revealing areas in your workflow that could be improved.
  • Efficient Email Strategies
    Adopting methods like inbox zero, email batching, and smart use of email filters can make it easier to handle the constant stream of messages and avoid frequent interruptions to read messages.

The Power of Sequencing: One Task at a Time

An easy task-based interface makes recruiting automation simple.
The task-based Sequencing tool in PCRecruiter helps you focus on one thing at a time.

For recruiters, one particularly effective method of prioritizing and staying on task is to embrace the power of sequencing, which helps you dedicate attention to just one task at a time. This shift in approach can help you get through your calls, emails, LinkedIn outreach, and beyond with greater intentionality. It has the added bonus of making it much easier to onboard new recruiters to get started without having to be concerned with what to do next.

Here’s how to incorporate sequencing into your recruiting operation:

  1. Identify Steps: Start by making a list of the elements in your process. What emails do you typically send? What calls do you typically make? When you usually send a message or connection request on LinkedIn? Put it all down in a list. Make separate lists for your candidate development, business development, or any other recruitment processes.
  2. Put Steps in Order: Arrange the steps chronologically, taking note of the pauses you would include between them. If your process is more complex, with side branches or sub-workflows, you may want to employ a flowchart diagram tool to visualize the process. Remember to break any large tasks into manageable pieces that maintain a sense of momentum.
  3. Build a Sequence: Use PCR’s Sequencing tool to create a workflow that mirrors the flowchart you’ve built. If you need help, reach out to the support team.
  4. Execute the Sequence: Silencing notifications, close unnecessary tabs, and close your door. Dedicate 25-30 minutes (see the Pomodoro Technique) to getting the assigned tasks done. This creates a sense of urgency and helps maintain focus within the dedicated block.

Moving Beyond Multitasking: A Cultural Shift

While the above focuses on individual strategies, it’s essential to acknowledge the broader context. Truly combating the negative effects of multitasking also requires organizational and societal change. Workplace cultures that value constant availability, rapid response times, and an “always-on” mentality contribute to the problem.

By advocating for healthier work-life boundaries, promoting focused work practices, and implementing organizational policies that support these shifts, we can create a more sustainable and productive work environment for recruiters and the companies they serve.

Want to learn more about how PCRecruiter + Sequencing can help your recruiting operation achieve greater success? Get in touch!

G2’s Winter 2024 reports recognize PCR with ‘Users Most Likely to Recommend’ and ‘Best Support’ badges.

G2, the world’s largest and most trusted software marketplace, has released their Winter 2024 Reports. We are always honored to receive these awards, as they are based entirely on independent reviews submitted by real PCRecruiter users.

This quarter’s reports indicate PCRecruiter remains a Top #10 choice among staffing software options for recruiting agencies. We were awarded a badge as the staffing software Users are Most Likely to Recommend in mid-market, as well as the software with the Best Support — an accolade we’re especially proud of, as customer support is one of our key competitive advantages.

PCR also ranked as a High Performer in the the Candidate Relationship Management, Staffing, Recruitment Marketing and ATS listings, and as a Leader among Recruitment Platforms, Recruitment Marketing software and Applicant Tracking Systems.

We are thrilled to read your comments about our product and our team, and we look forward to even more software to love in the coming months. If you’re a PCRecruiter user, we would love to have your thoughts included in G2’s 2025 rankings. Click here to submit your own review now.

Recruiting Software Awards G2 Winter 2024 - PCR is the most recommended staffing software

“B2B software and services buyers are regularly turn to peer feedback from trusted sources like G2, to find the right solutions for their unique business needs,” said Sara Rossio, Chief Product Officer at G2. “PCRecruiter’s recognition isn’t subjective, as our ranking and scoring methodology is powered by the feedback of real customers. Software buyers turn to their peers to inform buying decisions more often than ever, and there’s not a voice more trusted and authentic than that of an actual customer.”

With great features like our recruiting AI, contact capture, and workflow automation, and a support team that’s knowledgeable and responsive, it’s clear why PCRecruiter comes so highly recommended.

About G2

G2 is the world’s largest and most trusted software marketplace. More than 60 million people annually — including employees at all of the FORTUNE 500 — use G2 to make smarter software decisions based on authentic peer reviews. Thousands of software and services companies of all sizes partner with G2 to build their reputation, manage their software spend, and grow their business. See www.g2.com or follow G2 on LinkedIn.

For many recruiters, spending a significant part of their day on calls is the norm. But it’s easy to miss key information when taking handwritten or unstructured notes. That’s where well-crafted web forms can make a difference.

Jared Abbot
Jared Abbot, Operations & Sales Coordinator —SnapDragon Associates

New Hampshire-based SnapDragon Associates specializes in executive recruiting for the building materials sector. Operations & Sales Coordinator, Jared Abbott, has worked both sides of the desk, so he knows firsthand the daily pressure to record, store, and share information. 

In his current role, Jared’s biggest focus is making recruiters’ day to day as smooth as possible. That’s why his firm makes innovative use of the PCRecruiter platform to streamline recruiters’ daily activities, leveraging features like custom Profile forms. Here’s how.

Share success

Every recruiting firm has its own way of doing things, usually shaped by the business model and industry. In executive recruiting for the building materials sector, SnapDragon Associates takes a team-orientated, collaborative approach. Information is shared amongst a 20-strong team because experience shows it leads to success. 

For example, with sales roles in the industry, recruiters need to understand that building companies sell in different ways, either direct to contractors or through architectural firms. Each one has a different sales process. Experience of different product mixes is also a huge factor. A candidate might be strong in lumber, but what’s their experience of roofing? 

Building materials is a niche industry, and one which niches down pretty quickly. Placing the right candidate in the right role takes precise knowledge. There’s a lot of overlap between niches. For SnapDragon’s full-service model to work, it’s crucial that everyone in the office has access to the most up-to-date information on candidates and clients.

I know a lot of other recruiters run into this as well… someone screens a candidate and the details stay in their personal notes and not where they need to be, which is in front of other recruiters in the office.

Jared Abbott, Operations & Sales Coordinator, SnapDragon Associates

Making and taking calls is one thing. Recording key information about candidates is another. In the distant past – before custom forms were tied to a record inside PCRecruiter – candidate information was haphazardly shared by word of mouth or in handwritten notes. This could lead to misunderstanding or confusion, resulting in diminished success in placing candidates.

Today, at SnapDragon Associates, the team uses PCRecruiter’s Profile feature to capture important details in searchable custom forms for consistency across all calls with candidates, and clients, regardless of which person is handling them.

Streamline screenings

At SnapDragon Associates, candidates aren’t pigeonholed into one or two roles, so second screenings are an important part of the process, and one that needs to be executed in the right way. Executives in the building materials business are busy people. Lengthy second screenings with repeated questions aren’t a good fit.

From a recruiter’s perspective, there’s nothing worse than having to talk someone who’s already been screened out into a second screening. It’s an awkward conversation, made all the more awkward if you don’t have the previous set of notes in front of you. This leads to repeat questions and unnecessary extra time on the call.

Forms help recruiters capture and store important and relevant information in a consistent format, and using the PCRecruiter Profile feature makes these notes shareable and searchable, which ultimately improves the screening process for recruiters.

A longer, more in-depth call followed by a couple of 5-minute conversations is a lot more tolerable for candidates as well. It can feel impersonal if the same questions get repeated again and again, so armed with data captured in the forms, recruiters can go into a second or third screening with all the relevant knowledge and numbers. All they need to do is add a few niche questions. 

Profile forms make screening faster and more efficient, alleviating the pressure on both candidates and clients while making the process as simple as possible. 

Save time and effort

Streamlining all aspects of the recruiting process – including the second screening – SnapDragon Associates has taken the Profile forms inside PCRecruiter to the next level. In fact, Jared and his team have carefully handcrafted forms for different types of roles and departments.

Forms are also great for starting new conversations – whether that’s a rookie recruiter or a new candidate screening. Since implementing forms at SnapDragon Associates, the time taken to complete a screening has dropped dramatically. That’s because with preset questions and answer options, recruiters never have to go off the top of their head, or even call back to ask missed questions. 

Drew and the team at PCRecruiter have done a great job. Time and time again, PCRecruiter has matched what we’re looking for in every area where we’ve needed to make improvements.

Jared Abbott, Operations Coordinator, SnapDragon Associates

One of the best things about forms is that recruiters are reminded to ask those all-important core questions around things like non-competes, relocation, and compensation. Delivering conversational prompts in a neat package gives recruiters the right phrases and saves time both when asking questions, and when extracting the answers to present to clients and hiring managers.

5 tips for setting up effective forms

Here are Jared’s top tips for setting up functional custom forms in PCRecruiter:

1. Get management buy-in

Like any new technology, implementing web forms for the first time needs buy-in from people in the organization – typically 25% at a senior level. The good news is that with Profiles in PCRecruiter, the set-up process is simple and well documented. That’s a great foundation.

2. Set mandatory fields

For SnapDragon Associates, Jared and his team wanted to customize the forms to suit their a recruitment niche. That includes choosing mandatory fields to bring a level of consistency to the screening process and retained data. As certain fields are required, expectations are clear to everyone across the organization, including new hires. 

3. Know what questions to ask

The key to any screening process is to ask the right questions. The beauty of forms is that this can be refined to optimize the screening process. Finding the flow of those questions is also important. It’s a good idea to group them into categories: icebreakers, basic information, core questions about their role, and closers. Hiring authorities want all the information to make a decision, and using forms can assure that the required info is always collected and put where its expected.

4. Design the questions to be a conversation

If we’re honest, the click-clack of a keyboard in the background of a screening call can be distracting and can even suggest that the other person isn’t listening. Still, the notes need to be taken. So if the form is designed to follow the flow of a conversation, with boxes to check where possible rather than long-form answers to type in, the candidate and the recruiter can focus on the talk rather than the data entry.

5. Reflect and refine questioning 

There’s nothing wrong with scripting per se, but natural sounding conversation is preferred when developing a relationship with a candidate. Questioning should encourage them to do the talking, and good frameworks can help new recruiters and old hands alike keep things flowing. That’s why if a set of questions isn’t working, it’s important to make adjustments as to how something’s asked or where it’s asked in the conversation to create a natural sounding flow. PCRecruiter Profiles allow the easy adjustment of existing forms without any data loss.


Want to learn more about how to Profiles in PCRecruiter can help you streamline your recruiting workflow? Book a demo with one of our consultants or, if you’re a current user, reach out to our support team.

No industry has been left untouched by the impact of AI. But its role in the world of work still leaves many questions unanswered. Where are we at with AI in the recruitment world? And where does it fit into future versions of PCRecruiter?

What Recruiters Need To Know About AI In PCRecruiter

People tend to regard AI with varying degrees of either trepidation or interest – or a combination of both. By this point, most people have some understanding of AI and what it can (or can’t) do. Many of us have dabbled with publicly available Large Language Models (LLM) like ChatGPT to explore ways to streamline our daily tasks or enhance our artistic creativity.

The challenges of implementing AI

One of the main challenges with AI in its current form is determining where and how to implement it. Large Language Models, trained on vast quantities of general data, often produce mixed results. Like a well-intentioned but inexperienced intern, they’re helpful for some tasks but less appropriate for others. For many recruiters and software vendors serving the recruitment industry, AI is still a tool seeking a clearly defined purpose.

AI has become a byword for “innovation,” and consequently both vendors and buyers feel they need it in order to stay in the game. This has led to a lot of big claims and accordingly big disappointment in the tech industry. So the important question is: what does the AI do for users? Or, from a recruiter’s perspective, how can AI tools actually help me make placements more easily or quickly?

The other big challenge is cost. AI-driven tools work by handling data in the latent space, relying on fast Graphics Processing Units. The rise of AI has played a part in the rise in prices for GPUs, which is wonderful for NVIDIA stockholders, but problematic for software vendors for whom building an enterprise-level GPU deployment would be cost prohibitive. That means nearly all companies touting AI features are, at least for the moment, relying on cloud infrastructure.

Relying on a third-party vendor for services adds an element of unpredictability into the cost. It might only be cents per query now, but if you build your entire software suite around someone else’s hardware and that vendor chooses to hike their prices, that could have a negative impact on customers. This is one of the reasons, along with privacy and security, why Main Sequence Technology has always hosted the PCRecruiter software and customer data on their our own hardware. The hardware requirements of AI pose fresh challenges, but as veterans of the software industry, stepping into new technological waters with care and forethought is something we’ve got plenty of experience with.

Decreasing drudgery, increasing productivity

At Main Sequence, we’ve chosen to take a measured approach to implementing the suite of recruiting AI features in PCRecruiter. Recruitment is still a “people industry,” so any AI tools need to support and enhance the work of people – not the other way around. AI isn’t going to do your job for you – at least not anytime soon.

The sweet spot for AI in recruitment is not having it do your job for you, but to decrease the drudgery of repetitive tasks, freeing you up for more productive work.

One human skill not yet mastered by AI is sourcing candidates who are a great fit for a role, but who aren’t actively looking to be found. Unearthing passive candidates is still very much a human activity. And the same could be said for many other aspects of recruitment, such as having phone conversations, assessing cultural fit, and developing client relationships. The sweet spot for AI in recruitment is not having it do your job for you, but to decrease the drudgery of repetitive tasks, freeing you up for more productive work.

This goal of steadiness ties into the philosophy of development Main Sequence was founded on. In fact, our name comes from the astronomical term for stars that are in the longest and most stable phase of their lives. PCRecruiter doesn’t often strive to blaze trails, but instead to be the safe, well-supported rock of the industry that recruiters can depend on. It’s why we’ve remained privately owned and privately hosted. For that reason, our approach to AI has been more measured than some of our competitors. 

Specialized models will be the game changer

In recruiting, AI is still in a ‘Wild West’ boom. Questions around ethics and data privacy still remain, along with concerns about giving over formerly human tasks like chatting with candidates to a bot. Content creation is one thing, but placing humans in the right job with the use of AI is a thorny issue. It might make aspects of the process easier or faster. But what about the jobseeker?

Your reputation as a recruiter is largely down to three things: your connections, your data, and the quality of your work. Having AI tools won’t help if you use them in a way that makes people feel like you don’t care.

The very existence of applicant tracking systems and screening technology have led some to feel that the tech must be outsmarted in order for them to progress. Candidates are increasingly afraid not only that AI might take job opportunities away from them, but that AI in the hiring process could potentially stand between them and an opportunity.

Using AI unchecked to simulate human interactions in the name of efficiency could lead to errors. For example, what if the candidate or client gets an automated email containing the wrong information? Or what if a chatbot error leaves the applicant stuck in a loop or unable to progress? It’s happened. Scenarios such as this also impact recruiters, whose reputations could be damaged by the use of biased data sources in automated screening models (just ask Workday or Amazon).

When it comes to AI, Pandora’s Box has already been opened and we have to figure out what to do with it. Like many other industries, the safest prediction for AI in recruitment is that it’s likely to have the biggest impact when trained on specialist data. By that, we mean training a private AI models on in-house data and recruiting workflows, as opposed to relying on a general model that isn’t built for anything specific other than to generate plausible-sounding language.

Specialized AI models trained on specific data will eventually help recruiters to work faster and more efficiently than ever before, drawing upon and enriching the data inside private talent pools, in the same way that Microsoft Copilot is starting to be deployed on organizational data.

These days, everyone has access to essentially the same recruiting tools. What sets firms apart from each other is reputation. Your reputation as a recruiter is largely down to three things: your connections, your data, and the quality of your work. Having AI tools won’t help if you use them in a way that makes people feel like you don’t care.

What AI in PCRecruiter will and won’t do

AI should make complex human tasks simpler, not try to replace the human. It can add value by introducing natural language search capabilities, or drafting boilerplate job descriptions to help recruiters get started faster. Summarizing documents and drafting communications are other areas where AI can assist humans without replacing them.

PCRecruiter’s AI is built around one of our core principles: Your data is your data.

The AI Suite inside PCRecruiter is there to enhance your workflows, not make decisions for you. In fact, it doesn’t make any assumptions or suggestions or take actions without being asked, nor get involved in any hiring decisions or qualitative ranking. Instead, it is focused on making search and content generation quicker and more powerful. Think of the AI in PCRecruiter as a helpful assistant that does what you ask, when you ask, not what it thinks you should do.

PCRecruiter’s AI is built around one of our core principles: Your data is your data. That means the AI is limited to working with your private database and never exposes your data to anyone else. It doesn’t train on your content nor search the open web. You are in charge at all times, and your data is safe and sound.

When you do want to perform an AI-enhanced search, you can toggle the feature on or off at will to enable natural language questions. For example, rather than using an advanced search to pick start and end dates and interview types for a certain position, you can simply ask something like: “who did I interview last week?” The AI knows what that question means and where to find the relevant answers, saving you time.

With the addition of the AI, PCR now has several handy search tools, each of which can be selected for the particular recruiting task you it is suited to:

  1. Basic field searching – find Name, Company, and Position records quickly by matching a specific value in up to three fields
  2. Advanced search – build complex combinations of field, list, and keyword filters
  3. Keyword search – find records by words or phrases in longform content such as resumes, notes, keyword tags, and questionnaires
  4. Quick search –  find records across multiple types and fields by entering one or two key terms
  5. AI search – use natural language to pose questions for intelligent results pulled from several areas of the database

The growing implementation of AI into PCRecruiter is being carried out with measured care. We are listening to user feedback and continuing to develop ways to make recruiting easier through AI, while assuring that it helps people place people without ever putting data or ethics at risk.

If you’re new to PCRecruiter and would like to learn more, book a no-pressure call with our team.

Recruitment and HR industry events, summits and conferences are a great way to learn best practices and grow your business network.

The PCRecruiter team has compiled a list of upcoming dates to look out for in the recruiting, HR, and staffing industry. We want to help you keep your calendar filled with professional development and networking opportunities. See our the conferences, shows, and events below, and let us know if any are missing.

August 2024

  • TechRecruit Dueling Sourcers, Aug 6 : Ashley Surratt and Martel Howard provide their tips for sourcing talent in this free, live webinar which repeats every month on the first Tuesday.
  • hireEZ RecruitCon, Aug 20 – 21 : A virtual event featuring insights and trends for the recruitment industry.
  • Sourcing Summit Australia, Aug 27 – 29 : The sharpest sourcing minds in the world and hear first-hand, the challenges, new trends and opportunities that are shaping the talent sourcing landscape in Australia.

September 2024

  • TechRecruit Deueling Sourcers, Sep 3 : Dueling Sourcers reveals that there is more than one way to source for talent. Every first Tuesday afternoon, watch two expert Sourcers provide their tips for sourcing talent in this free, live webinar.
  • RECFEST, Sep 12-13 : is the world’s largest Talent Acquisition event happening once a year in 2 iconic locations, London and Nashville!
  • NAPEO’s Annual Conference and Marketplace, Sep 16 – 18 : The National Association of Professional Employer Organizations will be hosting this annual event for the PEO industry in Orlando
  • SIA: Collaboration in the Gig Economy, Sep 17 – 19 : A one-of-a-kind event in Dallas where tech, talent solutions and suppliers converge to collaborate on strategies for the evolved workforce of tomorrow. 
  • SRA Conference, Sept 18 – 20 : Sanford Rose Associates will be holding their 2024 conference at the Omni in Ft. Worth
  • Hunt Scanlon ‘Executive Recruiting M&A Founders Forum’, Sep 19 : Examine how executive search firms are unlocking value, funding expansion, raising capital, seeking PE growth partners, merging, and acquiring rivals to stay competitive. Hosted in NYC.
  • HR Healthcare, Sep 23 – 24 : Boston will see WBR’s HR Healthcare forum for sharing, networking, and learning in the HR space.
  • HR Tech Conference, Sep 24 – 26 : HR Tech at Mandalay Bay in Vegas is your go-to destination to uncover emerging trends, gain powerful insights, build lasting relationships and experience firsthand the latest HR and work technologies.
  • TempNet Staffing Fall Conference, Sept 25-27 : This members-only Fall Conference takes place in Nashville.
  • NPAworldwide Connecting Asia, Sept 25 – 28 : NPA members will hold their Asia meetup in Bali, Indonesia this fall.

October 2024

  • TechRecruit Deueling Sourcers, Oct 1 : Dueling Sourcers reveals that there is more than one way to source for talent. Every first Tuesday afternoon, watch two expert Sourcers provide their tips for sourcing talent in this free, live webinar.
  • Talent Success Conference, Oct 2 : a virtual conference with industry-leading HR experts discussing trends, insights, and new methods for recruiting and retaining top talent for your business.
  • Swipeclock Summit, Oct 3 – 4 : a free event with hands-on education, workshops, and so forth for Swipeclock users
  • IHRE Summit, Oct 8 : The In House Recruitment Expo Summit will be attracting top UK and global recruiting pros to Edgbaston Stadium
  • Recruitment Agency Expo, Oct 9 – 10 : Industry leaders in the UK will converge on Birmingham for this big annual exposition.
  • Sourcing Summit Europe, Oct 9 -10 : Come to Amsterdam to hear from leaders first-hand about the challenges, new trends and opportunities shaping the tech talent sourcing landscape.
  • Social Recruiting Days, Oct 10 – 11 : Your recruiting journey begins at the Social Recruiting Days 2024 in Berlin, Germany.
  • Paylocity Elevate Conference, Oct 15 – 16
  • UNLEASH World, Oct 16 – 17 : Taking place in Paris, this show is billed as “where the HR world meets”
  • NMSDC Annual Conference, Oct 20 – 23 : Define new norms and collectively shape the landscape for MBEs and corporations alike at this event in Atlanta.
  • SOURCECON, Oct 22 – 23 : Become a sourcing rockstar at this event in the Hard Rock Hotel, San Diego.
  • Staffing World, Oct 22 – 24 : This year’s ASA event in Nashville, TN
  • NAPS Conference, Oct 27 – 29 : Litchfield Park, AZ will host the National Association of Personnel Services’ annual event this year
  • LinkedIn Talent Connect, Week of Oct 28 : Online and in-person (NYC) events.
  • Gartner ReimagineHR Conference, Oct 28 – 30 : This is event for CHROs and HR leadership teams with multiple tracks to choose from will be held at the Disney World Resort.
  • NVBDC National Veteran Matchmaking Conference, Oct 29-30
  • HRO Today’s Talent Acquisition Strategies & Technology Showcase, Oct 28 – 29 : A two day event with insights and best practices for HR in Houston, TX

November 2024

  • Michigan Recruiter’s Conference, Nov 2 : The only specifically designed Recruiter conference for corporate Talent Acquisition Pros and Leaders in Michigan!
  • TechRecruit Deueling Sourcers, Nov 5 : Dueling Sourcers reveals that there is more than one way to source for talent. Every first Tuesday afternoon, watch two expert Sourcers provide their tips for sourcing talent in this free, live webinar.
  • SIA: Healthcare Staffing Summit, Nov 6 – 8 : Staffing Industry Analysts will hold their summit targeted at the healthcare staffing market in Arlington, VA
  • SHRM Inclusion Conference, Nov 4 – 7 : To protect, prioritize and (em)power the workforce to create better workplaces where all employees act with civility, are made to feel as if they belong and have opportunities to thrive. Attend in Denver or virtually.
  • Dayforce Discover, Nov 11 – 14 : Catch visionary thought leaders, industry experts, and innovators at this Las Vegas event
  • ERE Recruiting Conference, Nov 12 – 14 : The ERE Recruiting Conference, where global talent acquisition leaders converge to tackle today’s most pressing challenges in staffing, talent attraction, and hiring, takes place at the Westin in Anaheim this year.
  • Silicon Valley TechRecruit Conference, Nov 14 : TRC is a one-day event at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View CA.
  • LEAP TA Healthcare, Nov 14 – 15 : Talent acquisition leaders in the healthcare space will meet in Houston for a free conference with action-orientated, strategic dialogue.
  • HCI Analytics Conference, Nov 15 : Human Capital Institute offers this event on Finding New Candidate Pools with Recruitment Analytics
  • Future of HR, Nov 15 – 16 : Join in HR.com’s FREE virtual event, “Future of AI and Recruitment Technologies”
  • TechServe Alliance Conference, Nov 18 – 24 : Scottsdate, AZ hosts the premier networking and educational gathering for the IT & Engineering Staffing and Solutions Industry.
  • NPAworldwide Momentum Melbourne, Nov 21 – 22 : NPA’s Australia/New Zealand Conference
  • Rethink! HR Tech, Nov 24 – 26 : Live in Berlin, the leading HR Tech event in Europe brings together more than 200 CHROs & senior HR decision-makers.

December 2024

  • TechRecruit Deueling Sourcers, Dec 3 : Dueling Sourcers reveals that there is more than one way to source for talent. Every first Tuesday afternoon, watch two expert Sourcers provide their tips for sourcing talent in this free, live webinar.
  • SIA: Executive Forum Europe, Dec 4 – 5 : An exclusive gathering of CEOs, owners and senior executives from staffing organisations in London, England.
  • Ultimate Sourcing Rumble, Dec 5 : 14 Sourcers enter the ring to reign champion of the Ultimate Sourcing Rumble. This annual event demos all the latest and best sourcing technologies sourcers actually use to find, engage and screen talent.

2025

Are you planning to attend any of the events above? Did you go to one already? Let us know in the comments below!

After a period of dedicated development and fine-tuning, taking time to ensure that we’ve implemented them with care, we’re now ready to offer PCR’s first AI-powered features.

AI-powered content generation and search.

Streamline your recruiting workflow with the PCRecruiter AI Suite, now available upon request to all PCRecruiter subscribers!

These new AI recruiting features are focused on helping you to compose content — recruiting emails, candidate summaries, and job descriptions — and on helping you more easily search within your private database.

Contact a PCR representative for account-specific pricing and activation details.

AI Content Generation

A new AI Generator icon has been added to the HTML editor in these key screens, helping you to create and summarize information faster through the power of GPT.

AI Email Generator

Craft professional emails more quickly using AI drafts. Improve engagement with clients and candidates with clear and error-free language, and use the AI to get started if you need suggestions for how to phrase your message.

AI Candidate Summary Generator

Generate concise name record summaries from Resumes, Work History and Name Record fields in your database. These are great for briefing a client about a candidate, or when you need a short write-up to show in your Candidate Presentations.

AI Job Description Generator

Use the AI to draft a brief job description based on the field information stored in the record. If you know the title, location, and other basics, this tool can save time by crafting a few sentences to get your description started.

AI Search (Beta)

Dive deeper into your recruitment database with PCRecruiter’s intelligent search capabilities. We’ve trained the AI to understand PCR’s data structure and common types of searches, making it a helpful assistant in your day-to-day recruitment tasks.

PCR AI Experience screenshot.

Through a combination of machine learning algorithms, linguistic analysis, and pattern recognition, the PCRecruiter AI will evaluate your queries, identify relevant information, and rank results based on their relevance to the query.

In short, the AI Search means you’re able to find what you’re looking for within your private database more intuitively and simply with natural language.

Talk to us about our AI recruiting tools.

If you’re ready to put these new features to work for you, contact your PCR representative for details on pricing and activation for your specific PCRecruiter account.

Customer insights have always propelled us forward and user feedback on these tools will be invaluable as we continue to refine and perfect them. We look forward to adding more exciting features to help make your recruitment process more efficient!

We’ve recently updated our PCR Capture plugin with a new version that introduces more flexibility and clarity into the process of updating and adding records to your recruitment database. In addition to some visual adjustments that maximize screen use and simplify labeling, we’ve also made a few improvements to the workflow.

PCR Capture is now pre-set to add any newly created Names to the database’s Default Company. This will speed the creation of new candidate records by adding them to your talent pool with minimal steps.

Capture offers additional new options for more control:

  • Capture a new Name and Company — Click the Back button in the Capture window and disable the Default Company toggle to add both Name and Company records for the new contact.
  • Capture a Name into an Existing Company — Click the Back button in the Capture window and use the Search form to locate the Company. Then, click the checkbox (new in this version) on your desired Company record to add the Name to that Company without altering that Company.
  • Capture and Update Name and Company — When presented with a list of potential duplicates for your captured data, click the desired card, which will mark it with a ‘1’. The Name will be added to that company, and the captured company info will be applied to that selected existing record. As with previous versions, numbering multiple Company or Name cards will trigger a merge (if your PCRecruiter user account has permission) enabling you to clean up duplicate records while capturing updated information.
  • Update Name without Altering Company — When updating a Name that’s already in your database, a new toggle labeled “Use ___’s Company” appears on the list of Company choices. Toggle this option to keep the Name’s existing Company association intact while updating the Name.

If you’ve already got the free PCR Capture Chrome Extension installed, it should update automatically.

Login Screen Changes

In addition to the Capture update, this PCRecruiter release includes a change to the main PCRecruiter Login page.

The Database selection dropdown is now the first field in the login form. The Username and Password fields will be visible only after a Database has been selected from the list. Once a database has been selected, the login page will remember your database choice on that browser until cookies are cleared.

This login screen revision is in preparation for an upcoming ‘single sign on’ feature now in testing. If you would like to know more, contact your PCRecruiter sales representative.

PCRecruiter Login Screen

Also…

This update to PCRecruiter adds a new ‘Last 7 days’ option in the “Sent Within” dropdown for mass-emails. This allowing you to limit emails to recipients who haven’t received that letter / any letter in the past 7 days. In earlier versions of PCRecruiter, the shortest range was a 30-day window.

There are risks and challenges associated with starting any new business, and setting up your own recruitment agency is no different. Whether you’re a seasoned recruiter striking out on your own, or an entrepreneur completely new to the industry, it’s important to take the right steps to minimize risk and successfully start your own recruitment agency. Here’s what you need to know, including tips for making it work. 

What is a recruitment agency?

A young entrepreneur ready to start her own recruiting agency.
Starting your own recruiting agency can be rewarding, but success depends on preparedness.

Before we get into the details, lets cover some basic definitions. If you’re already in the recruitment space, as a jobseeker, client, or recruiter, this may be old news. But for the uninitiated…

A recruitment agency is a firm that helps clients to source and hire suitable candidates for open job roles. Typically, agencies provide services to both employers and candidates, connecting companies with suitably qualified talent. They often help employers to fill difficult or specialized roles. 

Employer Services

  • Recruitment agencies assist employers in filling job vacancies by sourcing, screening, and presenting qualified candidates. This can often include finding suitable candidates who are not actively seeking a job but may be willing to move for the right opportunity.
  • Agencies build their own talent pool of pre-screened candidates, saving time and effort in the hiring process.
  • Some recruiters may also provide additional services such as background checks, skills assessments, and reference checks to ensure the quality of candidates.

Candidate Services

  • Recruitment agencies can offer employees better opportunities that match their skills, experience, and career goals. They may provide access to roles that aren’t being publicly posted or announced.
  • The recruiter is likely to have valuable insights into market trends, salary benchmarks, and industry dynamics that can help candidates make more informed decisions about their career.
  • Agencies often help a candidate with resume writing, interview preparation, and other resources. They may also check in post-hire to make sure onboarding is going smoothly.

Ultimately, the recruiter is working toward success for both the candidate and the client, as its in all three parties’ best interest that the placement is a good fit.

6 Key Considerations for Starting a Recruiting Agency

There are many things to consider when starting any new business, and recruiting is no different. The best advice will come from your fellow recruiters and mentors — the best way to start recruiting is by working with and learning from someone who already knows the ropes! But to help you get started, here are six key points to take into account: 

1. Business model

Your business model will largely depend on the type of recruitment you plan to do, and the industries or niches you will serve. Here’s a table of popular models to help you decide which one is most appropriate for your recruitment business:

Agency TypeDescription
Temporary Staffing Commonly used during peak seasons, special projects, or covering employee absences, these agencies provide temporary employees for short-term positions.
Direct-Hire Placement Focused on finding permanent employees for clients, these agencies assist employers in identifying and hiring candidates for full-time positions. They typically charge a fee per successful placement.
Temp-To-Hire Taking a hybrid approach, these recruiters find candidates who work temporarily or on a short-term contract with the possibility of permanent hire. This allows employers to assess performance and fit before making a long-term commitment.
Executive Search Specialists in recruiting high-level executives and senior managers in a particular industry or set of related industries. Often uses a retained search model with upfront client payment.
Industry-Specific Focusing on specific industries or sectors – like healthcare or technology – these agencies possess deep industry knowledge to source candidates with relevant experience.
Contingency Recruitment Working on a ‘no win, no fee’ basis, these agencies only receive payment only upon successful candidate placement. Agencies compete to fill client vacancies and typically prioritize volume.
Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) Offering comprehensive services, these providers cover all or part of the outsourced recruitment process, acting as an extension of the client’s HR department.

2. Niche and value proposition

For seasoned pros, the specific niche or industry where they have the most expertise is a good place to start. It’s not advisable to switch sectors while starting a new agency at the same time, especially if you have an existing network of contacts and talent pool to draw upon.

For newcomers, it’s important to pick an industry where you have relevant employment experience. If you previously worked in IT, you might specialize in helping companies to recruit software developers, for example. You might also spot an opportunity in a particular sector, job function, or geographic area. 

Alongside your chosen niche is your agency’s value proposition. What will set you apart from competitors? It could be many things: specialized knowledge, personalized service, or innovative recruitment techniques. Whatever it is, make sure potential clients understand why they should choose your agency over another.

3. Talent cultivation 

Irrespective of your recruiting experience, it’s imperative that you leverage your existing network of contacts in the industry. Reach out to former clients, colleagues, and industry professionals who can provide referrals or support. 

Attending networking events, industry conferences, and trade shows will help expand your network further. The strong relationships you build will be crucial for growing your client base, and building your private talent pool of passive candidates.

4. Recruiting roadmap

All businesses need a comprehensive business plan. It’s essential, especially when you’re applying for funding from a bank or investor. A well-defined plan will serve as a roadmap for your business, and help you stay focused on your objectives.

Ensure your business plan outlines your agency’s goals, target market, financial projections, and marketing strategies. Consider factors such as startup costs, revenue streams, pricing structure, and scalability.

Be realistic about your financial projections and budget accordingly. Recruiting may not be a steady income stream, especially at the start, so planning ahead and saving up for leaner times will be important.

5. Strong relationships

Recruitment is a people business. Building strong relationships with clients is essential for long-term success. Listen to their needs, provide personalized solutions, and deliver exceptional service. 

Clients will appreciate regular communication – whether by phone call, text, or email – to stay updated on candidate progress. You may want to keep an active profile on social media, a blog, or newsletter to illustrate your industry expertise.

Candidate experience is also important. A positive candidate experience not only reflects well on your agency, but also increases the likelihood of referrals and repeat business. Keep in mind that the person you place today may be the one who reaches out to you about filling a role next year.

6. Tech stack

Grow your business by embracing digital marketing strategies such as social media, email campaigns, and job description SEO to increase your agency’s visibility and attract clients and candidates.

Invest in recruitment software and tools to streamline your processes and improve efficiency. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), recruitment CRM software, and job boards can help you manage candidate pipelines, keep track of all your interactions, and help you fill and maintain your own private talent pool. 

The best recruitment agency software 

We’re biased, of course, but we recommend PCRecruiter for any new agency. Our hybrid of applicant tracking and candidate management tools have helped countless small recruiting firms. And with scalability and customization, the system will grow with you as your agency thrives.

From powerful sequencing to secure data storage, PCRecruiter makes your day-to-day easier, taking the repetitive off tasks off your mind so you can focus on the important things – like building a recruitment agency. 

Explore what PCRecruiter can do for your agency with a free demo from one of our experts. Book a demo

Recruiting CDL drivers is complex and time-consuming work. Getting it right takes time and industry know-how that a generalist recruiter or an HR team doesn’t always have. That’s where Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) and the right recruitment tech can help.

Trucking – and the transport infrastructure around it – keeps the wheels of the economy turning. Right now in the US, demand for Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) holders far outstrips supply. In fact, it’s estimated that by 2028 there could be a shortage of around 160,000 qualified drivers, according to the American Trucking Associations (ATA).  

Recruiting CDL drivers is complex and time-consuming work. Getting it right takes time and industry know-how that a generalist recruiter or an HR team doesn’t always have. That’s where Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) – outsourcing the recruiting process (or part of it) to a third-party specialist – can help.

We spoke with Peggy O’Donnell – owner of TransDirectUSA – to discover why transport and logistics firms are turning to RPO to fill roles in the industry.

It’s An Industry That’s Always Moving

Peggy O’Donnell started TransDirectUSA back in 2015. Since then, the company has grown to 10 recruiters, serving transport and logistics firms across the US with everything from high-profile executive searches to long-term partnerships for recruiting and onboarding. 

With more than 25 years combined experience of recruiting in the sector, Peggy and her team are specialists, sourcing and recruiting candidates for a variety of roles, including fleet managers, dispatchers, route planners, diesel mechanics, and drivers. 

It’s not necessarily that there’s a driver shortage – there’s a lack of drivers with the right level of experience – 1 to 2 years – for insurance purposes.

Peggy O’Donnell, President & Owner, TransDirectUSA

Right now, around 90% of the firm’s open roles are for CDL drivers. With 30 years in the industry plus her background in operations this comes as no surprise to Peggy. The reason? It’s not an easy industry to break into, and it’s a tough life out on the road in the early stages of a career – certainly for the first few years when gaining experience.

Once drivers have the necessary years of experience, it’s possible for them to get a much better work/life balance. On top of that, post-pandemic, the transportation sector has been catching up in terms of pay (with increases of up to 20%) making truck driving a more appealing career choice. After all, truck drivers are a vital part of the economy. Without them, deliveries aren’t made, and companies lose revenue. The challenge for transportation and logistics firms is how to recruit and retain the best CDL drivers. 

RPO Drives the Open Highway For Hiring

For HR departments and in-house recruiters, acquiring and retaining CDL drivers is uniquely challenging. Putting out job ads, using job boards – even paying for Google Ads – are all valid options. But more often than not, they have limited success.

In terms of the numbers, the TransDirectUSA team find that on average out of 100 potential candidates for a CDL driver role, around 4% will meet the criteria. Of those that are put forward for interview, 1% are placed. That makes recruiting CDL drivers expensive and labor-intensive.

Most companies in the industry spend more per hire on CDL drivers than any other roles. Bringing in a specialist can help companies place more drivers and keep down hiring costs.

Peggy O’Donnell, President & Owner, TransDirectUSA
Photo by Quintin Gellar: https://www.pexels.com/photo/white-volvo-semi-truck-on-side-of-road-2199293/
Outsourcing CDL driver recruitment to a professional agency can help HR managers focus their efforts on internal tasks and improve overall efficiency of workforce development.

In the past, Peggy and her team would deal directly with transportation managers — those people in charge of the drivers and usually the hiring manager. These days, this is typically done as part of HR. But HR teams have a lot on their plate (retaining good people, running training programs, and so on) beyond just looking after drivers. They’re considering every role in their organization, from the warehouse floor to the C-suite. 

RPO for CDL drivers is a cost-effective solution, enabling companies to streamline and improve their recruitment and hiring processes. By outsourcing one of the trickiest and most expensive pieces of the puzzle, HR teams reclaim valuable time spent on sourcing and calling candidates. In exchange, they can focus on other HR activities that add more value to their business.

Driving Candidates Down The Final Mile

Like any niche or sector where the best candidates are in high demand, recruiting CDL drivers is complicated by the fact that they’re usually already in a role. That’s where the benefit of RPO comes into play. Peggy calls it ‘organic sourcing’ – reaching out to passive candidates to alert them to better opportunities. To do that effectively takes time and expertise. It also takes the right recruitment tech.

In her own words, Peggy – like many recruiters – is not a tech person. It’s a people business, after all. But the backbone of her operations over the years has been PCRecruiter. It’s powerful enough to do the heavy lifting, yet simple for non-technical team members on a daily basis. 

When hiring drivers, there’s still what I call ‘the final mile’. When a driver’s talking to a recruiter, they want to talk to somebody, who knows their business. And to get them to that placement, you need expertise.

Peggy O’Donnell, President & Owner, TransDirectUSA

In fact, Peggy and her team only use PCRecruiter, so that everything happens from inside one system, from form letters to candidate tracking. Recruiters can also track their call goals, and Peggy runs a daily report. It’s also used in Business Development for recording conversations. 

Peggy’s first to admit she’s still discovering new ways to use PCRecruiter to streamline her workflows and processes. Right now she’s excited about growing her use of automation and integration between candidate applications and the pipeline. She’s leveraging online applications to save time on manual data entry and to reduce human errors.

To discover how PCRecruiter can support, strengthen, and streamline your recruitment activities. Contact us 

“X-ray search” has been a secret super-power to sourcing heroes for a while now. However, some recent changes have made it more challenging to use effectively. Today, let’s discuss what X-ray search is and what seems to be happening to it.

X-ray search (aka X-ray sourcing or X-ray recruiting) is a technique for surfacing potential candidates on specific websites by using outside search engines like Google. In this context, ‘X-ray’ refers to seeing information on profiles inside of a semi-closed platform. Earlier this year, LinkedIn started reducing what useful profile data public search indexers can see, as first revealed by global sourcing guru Marcel van der Meer. Those in the know didn’t need X-ray vision to see this one coming.

Sourcing superheroes use x-ray search.
Sourcing Superheroes have been using X-Ray Search for years, but LinkedIn may be adding some kryptonite to the mix.

So is X-ray search dead when it comes to LinkedIn? Not completely, as it can still turn up helpful information, but it does appear to be losing its depth. With hackles raised by GPT tools scraping data from places like Reddit and others, it seems likely that even more sites will begin limiting what can be reached without a login. This will impact recruitment sourcing more, as well as people-aggregation tools they use which rely on spidering data from outside.

As X-ray loses some of its effectiveness, it will likely require those who have relied on it heavily to start re-skilling to get more effective within LinkedIn’s native tools, as well as potentially budgeting for services that they were formerly able to source within for free from outside.

However, this is also a good opportunity to draw attention to the power and potential of X-ray search on those sites which it remains effective for, as many recruiters may still be unaware of it. Here’s what you need to know.

What is X-ray search anyway?

The internal search functions of platforms like LinkedIn and other professional networking sites can sometimes be less effective than external search engines like Google and Bing. They may lack the tools for granularity or nuance for those tough-to-find candidates by specific skills, experience, or qualifications. To counter this, X-ray searching applies advanced search operators (words and symbols that add instructions to search queries) to directly target specific websites and platforms

For example, the ‘site:’ or ‘inurl:’ operators can be used for finding results specifically on one domain or with a particular URL structure. i.e. “inurl:linkedin.com/in/ software engineer” to find pages with ‘software’ and ‘engineer’ within LinkedIn profiles. You can also use search queries to target resumes on job boards or portfolios on personal websites.

Why do recruiters use X-ray search?

X-ray search can be a powerful tool for sourcing candidates, identifying top talent, and building robust talent pipelines. Here’s what it can do for your recruiting efforts:

  • Access passive candidates: Many highly qualified candidates are not actively searching for jobs, but might consider a role if the right one came along. X-ray search allows you to find and reach out to these passive candidates by targeting specific websites where they have public profiles but which may not be ‘job boards’.
  • More targeted searches: X-ray search enables you to conduct highly targeted searches based on specific criteria such as skills, experience, location, and industry, beyond the filters a specific site’s tools might supply. For example, you may be unable to use wildcards, generate synonyms, search number ranges, and so forth within a site’s native search. This targeted approach helps find candidates who more closely match the requirements of the positions you are trying to fill.
  • Bypass platform limitations: Internal search functions on some sites can have result count limitations. X-ray search can sometimes allow recruiters to bypass these limitations and access a broader range of candidate profiles or resumes.
  • Gain competitive advantages: Recruiters who know how to search more effectively cab identify top talent that may not be easily found by competitors. When you turn up otherwise undiscovered prospects, you increase the likelihood of making successful placements and built your talent pool for future searches.

Boolean Basics for Recruiters

If you’re interested in using X-ray search to enhance your recruiting efforts, knowing how to use the basic Boolean operators is imperative. Of course, experts in the field will have more in-depth recommendations!

Boolean operatorHow to use itExample Use
ANDUse “AND” between keywords to narrow search results.“software engineer” AND “Python” will find candidates with both skills.
ORUse “OR” between keywords to broaden search results.“sales OR marketing” will find candidates with either sales or marketing experience.
NOTUse “NOT” to exclude specific keywords from results.“developer NOT manager” will exclude managerial candidates from developer roles.
BracketsUse brackets to group search terms and control the order of operations.“(sales OR marketing) AND (manager OR director)” will find managerial candidates with sales or marketing experience.
Quotation MarksUse quotation marks to search for an exact phrase.“full-stack developer” will find candidates with the exact phrase “full-stack developer” in their profiles.
site:Use “site:” to limit to results from a specific website.“software engineer site:linkedin.com” will include only LinkedIn pages in the search results.
inurl:Use “inurl:” to limit results to those containing a specific URL element.“software engineer site:linkedin.com/company/” will include only Company pages from LinkedIn.
Precede with a minus (-) to negate the term.“software engineer -site:linkedin.com” will exclude any pages found on linkedin.com from the results.

Once you’ve run a search and identified profiles matching your specified criteria and assessed their suitability, use a candidate profile capture tool (like PCR Capture!) to add them to your private database and add them to a recruitment Sequence to get a conversation started.

X-ray search & LinkedIn: What’s changed? 

Until recently, performing an X-ray search on LinkedIn was a great way to access a wider talent pool, especially for niche or specialized roles. But in early 2024, experts in the field of recruitment sourcing and Boolean search noticed things starting to change. It looked like LinkedIn was cutting back on search engine access to their profile data.

While it has been speculated that the goal is to push more recruiters toward using LinkedIn’s paid tools like Sales Navigator and Recruiter, it could also be part of plans to keep user data more privately held within the site. It could also be helpful in keeping AI-based search tools and other outside aggregators from using the data without permission or payment — especially now that Microsoft is deploying their own AI tools. While jobseekers on LinkedIn may want maximum exposure, those using it for B2B or other networking may not (although LinkedIn already has a “Your profile’s public visibility” toggle for that).

As of today, X-ray search on LinkedIn is still possible, but it’s increasingly limited. As sourcing guru Irina Shamaeva noted on the Boolean Strings blog, public searches of LinkedIn data have been stripped of key elements like Headline, About, Experience, and Education. When Ms. Shamaeva inquired directly about the loss of Google search capability within LinkedIn’s site, she got the following response:

Google is a tool for finding websites/pages and answers to questions. It isn’t a Recruiting tool, nor is Bing, or any other generalized search engine. Can it sometimes find people? Sure. … But at its core I don’t really follow the logic. If you know the thing you are looking for is on ‘X site,’ why would you look for it on a different site? If I knew the item I wanted was on Amazon, I wouldn’t type in to Google to find the perfect item. I’d look in Amazon. 

LinkedIn Engineering

Going forward, it sounds like LinkedIn expects all searches of their data to be done with their tools. While their search tools are improving, they may still lack what sourcers have been accustomed to with X-ray. That means recruiters now need to hone their skills on getting the best from LinkedIn’s built-in functionality, combining free tools with paid ones.

Ultimately, If your entire recruitment business rests on the walled garden of someone else’s data – like Indeed, LinkedIn – then you’re at the mercy of their search tools and pricing models. This is why we always recommend building your own talent pool as much as possible. When you do that, your data is your data, no matter where you’ve sourced it from. 

The PCRecruiter system has been updated today, and the most noticeable change you’ll find is the replacement of our ‘Quick Find’ feature with a new ‘Quick Search’. This search box appears in the upper right hand corner of the PCR screen.

To use the new search, just click into the box and enter any name, company, title, phone, email, or Job ID. Hit enter and you’ll be presented with a list of matches across all three of the major record types — Names, Companies, and Positions.

Each result in the list will include key details like the record’s status, latest activity, links to related jobs or applicants, and links to lists it appears on. Click on the item to go to that record, or use the menu icon at the right of the result for shortcuts to common actions like composing email, launching a call, adding a profile, entering notes and activities, sending a PCR Notification, and more.

The PCRecruiter Quick Search finds Names, Companies, and Positions in your database.
In this example, a Quick Search for “sales Jennifer” found three candidates named “Jennifer” with “Sales” titles, plus a company called “Jennifer Monroe Sales Associates” and a “Director of Outside Sales” position with a hiring contact named “Jennifer Stevens.”

After you’ve started using the Quick Search box, you will automatically be presented with your recently run quick searches when you click into it again. Select any of them to quickly re-run the same search for the latest results.

Watch this space…

The new Quick Search in PCR is in preparation for some very big news we’ll be revealing this month, so watch this blog, our social media, or your email inbox for announcements. We think you’ll like what we have in store!

When choosing a database or other data processing vendor, safeguarding your organization’s information and experiencing consistent application uptime are fundamental, but making informed decisions can be challenging.

Choosing Secure & Reliable Vendors

At PCRecruiter, we regard security and availability as our most important goals. This commitment extends beyond our internal operations. We understand the crucial role secure and reliable partners play in your organization’s success. But how can you, as a customer, effectively assess potential vendors in terms of their security and availability posture?

Here are some key considerations

Established Security Certifications

Seek SOC 2 Compliance. This widely recognized independent audit assesses a service organization’s security controls and measures to safeguard customer data. SOC stands for System and Organization Controls. It refers to a framework developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) for assessing the effectiveness of a service organization’s controls related to information security, privacy, and other operational risks.

Consider Additional Certifications. Depending on your industry and data sensitivity, additional certifications like ISO 27001 (Information Security Management) or PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) might be important factors.

Scrutinize Security Policies and Procedures

Request access to the vendor’s security policy outlining their approach to protecting your data, who can access it and under what controls, and what their incident response plans entail. It’s important to understand what their communication protocols are in the case of a potential security incident.

Inquire about third-party testing procedures they may be employing and learn how they address vulnerabilities found by these tests. It’s one thing for a vendor to claim security of their system, but without outside auditing and testing their claims may be hollow.

Evaluate Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Plans

Ensure documented disaster recovery plans exist. These plans should outline what the vendor’s backup systems include and how the vendor would restore critical systems and data in case of an outage. You’ll also want to inquire about redundancy measures that guarantee application uptime during unforeseen circumstances.

Your PCRecruiter account is always available to you in a warm standby (read-only) mode, operating on a completely independent and geographically separated infrastructure, and continuously backed up to our current Recovery Point Objective. We call this our ‘snapshot’ feature. In the event of a loss of access to our primary service, snapshot can quickly be switched out of read-only mode and be promoted to primary service, and then reverted to backup mode as required.

Transparency and Communication

A reputable vendor will openly discuss their security practices and be prepared to answer your questions concerning their security practices. Look for vendors who prioritize transparency and actively communicate.

Main Sequence Technology is pleased to provide PCRecruiter users and prospective customers with this information, including documentation of our SOC2 compliance. Your comfort level and ability to meet your own vendor assessment responsibilities to your customers and stakeholders are important parts of the value that working with our company provides.

Be Wary of Overpromising

Watch out for vendors who make big promises or seem overconfident. The fact is, absolute cybersecurity cannot be guaranteed by anyone for reasons such as:

  • Unforeseen Threats (Zero-Day Exploits): Cybercriminals constantly develop novel attack methods (zero-day exploits) that exploit previously unknown vulnerabilities. Even with robust security measures, these new threats can pose a temporary risk until patches or solutions are developed.
  • Shared Infrastructure (Internet): The internet, which forms the foundation of most communication and data exchange, inherently presents security challenges. Malicious actors can exploit vulnerabilities within this shared network, potentially impacting even well-secured systems.
  • Human Error: Accidental mistakes by employees or authorized users can introduce security vulnerabilities. Social engineering tactics can also manipulate individuals into compromising security protocols.
  • Determined Attackers: Highly motivated and well-resourced attackers may relentlessly target specific organizations, employing sophisticated techniques to overpower and defeat commercially realistic security measures.
  • External Dependencies: Software applications often rely on libraries, frameworks, and other components developed by third parties. Vulnerabilities in these external dependencies can introduce risks beyond a single vendor’s direct control.

While achieving absolute cybersecurity is an unreachable goal, carefully monitoring the threat landscape, deploying and effectively using reasonable controls, communicating transparently, and deploying skilled and objective third-party experts are what you should expect from your vendors, and what Main Sequence will provide as part of our service. Contact us with your questions.

Please note that this blog post is intended for informational purposes and should not be considered as expert security advice. Appropriate and commercially reasonable business operations regarding cybersecurity are highly dependent on conditions affecting each organization. Each organization should obtain professional services from accredited providers pertinent to their industry and the type of information processing being conducted. This blog post is not a warranty, representation of merchantability, or statement of fitness for any particular purpose regarding the service or other offerings of the company.

Candidate engagement is a critical piece of your recruiting process — particularly in a job market as competitive as we see in 2024. However, it’s important to remember that engaging with candidates isn’t just about ticking off boxes on a to-do list. It’s about building connections, fostering trust, and keeping candidates engaged throughout the recruitment process.

An effective candidate engagement process, especially one that leverages automation, not only helps candidates become more comfortable working with you, but has the added benefit of keeping your private talent pool more efficient overall.

Let’s look at some of the key factors that make up a candidate engagement experience:

The Power of Connection

Regular, meaningful communication is key for all relationships, and your relationship with candidates is no different. Whether it’s a quick email, a friendly phone call, or a personalized message on LinkedIn, staying connected keeps the relationship alive.

But it’s not just about talking; it’s about listening too. Keeping communication open with your candidates means more opportunity to learn what motivates them, what their strengths are, and what they’re looking for in a job. The more opportunities you create for candidates to connect with you, the better you can tailor your own communications with them and ultimately with the potential managers you’ll be recommending them to.

Securing Your Brand

Recruitment branding isn’t just for big corporations. Even a one-recruiter agency has a story to tell. By sharing your own story with candidates, you can help them understand who you are and what it’s like to work with you. Your reputation as a highly-attentive and engaged recruiter can lead to more referrals, better reviews, and ultimately the growth of your talent and client pools for future placements.

Keeping Them in the Loop

We’ve all been there—waiting anxiously for an update, refreshing our inbox every five minutes. Don’t leave your candidates hanging. Keeping them informed every step of the way shows you respect their time and effort. It’s not just about being professional; it’s about being human.

Furthermore, your continual engagement with candidates may reduce the likelihood of them ghosting you, which a survey by Indeed shows has become increasingly common. Even a simple email on a regular basis can show candidates that you’re still there and still interested in their career, which might mean the difference between making a placement or losing them entirely.

Embracing Automation with a Personal Touch

Recruitment automation can help reduce phone time while keeping candidates engaged.
Recruitment automation can help reduce phone time while keeping candidates engaged.

Automation is more important than ever, even for small-scale recruiting operations. When you streamline repetitive tasks you not only save time but you ensure a more consistent candidate experience.

Using sequencing tools with automated emails and time-based task reminders helps you check in with candidates more regularly, collect the most up-to-date candidate information, and generally stay on top of your process with less work. Giving candidates continual opportunities to update their information via simple forms means your database remains fresh and more useful for surfacing existing matches for new roles.

Your automation should also allow for manual involvement where appropriate, giving you the chance to include details about specific opportunities, personal anecdotes, or links to relevant resources. Recruitment automation should always enhance, not replace, human interaction.

Build Connections, Build Business

Growing and maintaining meaningful connections by sharing your story, keeping candidates informed, and embracing automation will help you create an experience that leaves a lasting impression. Remember that you’re not just filling a position or placing a candidate — you’re building relationships that can bear fruit years into the future. In a world where the recruiting process can feel increasingly impersonal, the frequency and quality of your candidate engagement can be the key to setting yourself apart from the competition.

Digital tools for recruiters are rapidly evolving. Used properly, new technology can enhance every aspect of the recruitment process, including sourcing. Automating the extraction of relevant candidate data from social platforms like LinkedIn or job sites like Indeed has become commonplace.

For recruiters, the right recruitment tech gives them a competitive advantage. However, the methods used to gather online data on potential candidates can raise legal and ethical questions around data ownership and fair recruitment practices.

In this blog post, we explain the difference between capture and scraping, and how recruiters can best navigate this online frontier.

Capture vs. Scraping 

There’s no doubt that automating the process of extracting data about potential candidates or clients is a time-saver for recruiters. It’s a process that would otherwise be done manually, by transposing information from the source to a recruitment CRM or other data store.

From a recruiter’s perspective, what’s important is how that process is automated. This starts with knowing that capture and scraping are two very different approaches with very different implications. 

  • A capture tool processes information displayed to an authorized user of a service after downloading to the memory of their device.   
  • A scraping tool automates the download of prospective web pages directly to a database without user intervention.

Legally, this is yet to be codified, but ethically, the distinction is clear. A capture tool is designed to extract authorized information about a candidate from a source already accessible to the recruiter. Importantly, although it is automated, it still requires human direction and intervention. Essentially, capture is simply speeding up the manual copy/paste job that the recruiter would otherwise be doing.

On the other hand, scraping uses a ‘bot’ to indiscriminately extract candidate data from a website, which it may or may not be authorized to access. Authorization is largely determined by a data provider’s terms of service.

Terms Of Service

Put simply, some third-party terms of service distinguish between the use of legitimately downloaded information and the automated collection of information while others do not. 

At the same time, some terms of service are so restrictive that they essentially disallow any use of information not explicitly approved by the vendor. It’s important to note that very few terms of service agreements are ever tested legally all the way to trial and damages.

Third-party vendors also have all kinds of enforcement mechanisms outside the legal system, which can influence customer behavior. Whether used systematically or on a whim, it’s possible for vendors to take a variety of actions to deter actual or perceived malpractice, including warnings, altering service privileges, suspending users, or even cutting them off entirely. They may also choose to engage with tool vendors.

Legal Cases

hiQ LABS v. LinkedIn (now owned by Microsoft) is one of the most high-profile cases on scraping to pass through the US legal system. 

In 2022, the appeals court ruled that under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, anti-hacking law does not apply to public websites. So far, LinkedIn has been unable to obtain an injunction to stop hiQ from scraping personal data from its professional networking platform. 

So far, the merits have not been decided. Although it outlines an interpretation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), the appeals court has suggested that the CFAA is not the correct law to regulate hiQ’s conduct.

So where does that leave recruiters? Automated methods for extracting candidate information are here to stay. It’s only a question of time before a court ruling sets the precedent for the legitimate and ethical use of these tools. For now, it’s up to recruiters to use capture tools in accordance with relevant data privacy laws — such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

PCR Capture

As the name suggests, PCR Capture is a capture tool, not a scraping tool. As a specialist software vendor, its creator (Main Sequence Technology), has no measurable influence over major third-party service providers.

For that reason, we’re not able to certify any activity or obtain any kind of consent or waiver on behalf of our customers in their use of PCRecruiter Capture. Neither can we assume liability for behaviors and contexts over which we have no control.

However, we do assert a good faith belief that information downloaded to the memory of a user’s device in the normal and authorized course of the usage is information that belongs to the user, and the vendor has exhausted their right to that information by providing it.

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, and because PCRecruiter users are our one true love, we’ve gotten you a little something: it’s a new software update!

Sure, we just got you that new version of PCR Capture and the updated Learning Center a couple of weeks ago, but we couldn’t let this holiday pass without a little something extra to show you how much we care. We should mention that, although they may not be as flashy as the changes described below, this assortment of bonbons also includes over 350 performance enhancements and issue resolutions to keep your system operating efficiently and reliably.

Let’s get dressed up

New Colors in Default / Light Theme

You’ll notice PCRecruiter wearing some fresh colors — most notably within the Default / Light Mode theme. These changes are a bit of foreshadowing for some very exciting developments in the works for the coming months.

The bigger style change you’ll find in this update is the completely revised look of Profile Forms. If you’re not familiar with Profiles already, these are PCR’s robust and adaptable web forms that can be completed by candidates and clients via emailed links, or by internal PCRecruiter users. They can be used as interview guides, skill sheets, candidate data sheets, applications, and so on. Practically any data collection requirement that needs a keyword-searchable attachment to store the response can be satisfied with a Profile. Our new update makes them not just powerful, but also more attractive.

Within the Profile editing area (System > Database Setup > Profile Setup > Edit) you’ll find new options under the Custom HTML panel. An expandable “Style” area has been added here, containing two options: “Legacy” and “Default”. The “Legacy” setting re-enables the original style code, which may be needed by those who already have custom code based on the original Profile formatting.

The new Default Style includes a host of improvements such as:

  • Larger and more legible default fonts
  • Cleaner, brighter default colors
  • Automatic ‘asterisks’ on required fields
  • Clearer indicators on required fields that have been skipped
  • Simplified code to make customization easier

Profiles are Red, Profiles are Blue

Why stop at perfume when we can give you jewels? In addition to Profiles looking great from the very first click, the new “Style” area also includes a link to our Profile Styler.

With this utility, you’ll not only be able to choose from alternate color and font schemes we’ve created for you, but you’ll also find easy tools for applying your company’s own logo and colors. You’ll be dressing your forms in brand identity from head to toe without needing to know any HTML or CSS code!

Once you’ve defined a style, you can paste it into the “HTML Layout” on as many forms as you please. Using the “Cascading Style Sheets” box under System can also help you apply consistent fonts and colors across all of your Profiles if you wish.

You’ll find complete information on creating PCRecruiter Profile Forms in the Learning Center.

As always, you can talk to PCRecruiter support about building Profiles and about options for fully-customized layouts and styles, or about how your own web designer (or ours) can create customized Profiles to suit your needs.

We have some even bigger new features on the way this spring, so keep your eyes on this blog and your login screen for more announcements.

Back in October, Google announced changes to their email handling policies designed to combat spam. These new changes will be fully in place by February 2024. Yahoo/AOL has announced similar policies and others will likely follow suit. While the changes should mostly have a positive effect — reducing the amount of junk and scams that get to inboxes — they could have a negative effect on your recruiting process if you rely heavily on cold email or aren’t using properly configured outgoing email systems.

Google’s new policies apply to emails received by any Google-hosted account, including Google Workspace and Gmail accounts. It is estimated that Google’s servers host roughly 1/3 of all email, so no matter what email provider you’re using to send your email, a significant number of your recipients are likely hosted by Google and will have their filters managed under these new rules. It’s important to understand these changes so you can stay on their good side.

Meet The Inbox’s bouncer

The inbox's bouncer

Spam filters exist to protect the recipient from unwanted and unsafe mail, and the rules about what is and is not allowed into the inbox are up to the email recipient’s provider and the email server administrator. This means there’s nothing that you can do to 100% guarantee your email won’t get routed to a recipient’s spam folder (if there was a surefire way to avoid every spam filter, the spammers would be using it.)

The email spam filter examines each incoming message for common hallmarks seen in previously reported spam, including text phrases, web addresses, sender domains, IP addresses, and underlying code contents. Each suspicious element found is used in a weighted calculation and mail that reaches a given threshold gets filtered out. The specifics of the formula are up to the email server, and some are beginning to apply GPT methods in addition to traditional tools. While Google Workspace Business edition admins can create whitelists and adjust spam settings for their own users, users of basic Gmail accounts get standard spam filter settings that are beyond their control.

These systems learn to identify spam based on which emails cause the user to hit the ‘spam’ button, as well as the emails that users choose to remove from their spam folders by hitting ‘not spam.’ They build up a reputation for your domain or IP that is continuously updated over time. Your objective as a sender should be to minimize the number of people who mark your messages as spam, as that can affect your deliverability overall.

6 Best Practices for Email Delivery

Whether you’re sending 10 emails or 10,000, there are established best practices that will go a long way toward keeping you deliverable. Several of them overlap with the CAN-SPAM Act, so adhering to them helps with your email getting delivered as well as your FTC legal compliance. The CAN-SPAM laws apply only to advertising email, so messages about an application process or other ‘transactional’ messages with existing candidates or clients are typically exempt from it. The laws in non-US jurisdictions may vary, so if you’re emailing people elsewhere, check the applicable laws.

  1. Be thoughtful about what you send and to whom — Sending the same email blast to everyone in your recruitment database is bound to hit people it doesn’t apply to, and the less relevant people find your email, the more likely they are to flag it as spam. If you’re building an email sequence or sending a single-mail campaign, make sure your content and your email list are well-matched, and that you’re not including anyone unnecessarily.
  2. Be transparent and authentic — Don’t fake your email address, use deceptive subject lines, or hide your contact information. Put your physical mailing address and phone number into the email. This not only legitimizes your business and helps to reassure the recipient that you’re not a scam, but it also gives them an alternate way to reach you if they want to do business.
  3. Be responsive to opt-outs and keep your lists clean — Don’t make it difficult for people to stop getting your emails if they don’t want them. Include an unsubscribe link and make it easy to find. Remember that losing an unwilling email recipient is better than getting marked as spam, because getting a spam reputation affects your ability to reach willing recipients in the future. If someone opts out, retires, or bounces, make sure they stop getting your emails. It’s also smart to remove addresses from your lists if they haven’t clicked or replied to anything in a long time — outdated addresses can turn into spam traps. Buying email lists is also very risky and can fill your database with recipients who are more likely to bounce or to spam-flag you for cold emailing them.
  4. Be clear and brief — A personal message from you to the recipient, particularly if you can mail-merge in their name or other unique info, is far likelier to make it past the inbox bouncer than a designed marketing piece with lots of ALL CAPS, common spam words, long subject lines, many colors and font sizes, or extraneous exclamation points. Avoid mixing advertising content and transactional content like offers or agreements in the same email. Believe it or not, some spam filters will even knock you for bad spelling or grammar, so proofread before sending! Before sending any mass email, send a test to yourself and see what it looks like in as many different email clients as you can manage. Unfortunately, there is no reliable HTML standard for formatted emails, and Outlook Classic for the desktop will often render margins and padding very differently than Gmail or Apple email, as well as blocking images. If your email doesn’t require fancy formatting and pictures, skip them for better consistency and deliverability.
  5. Be prepared and informed — You can send your email to one or more free email spam checkers, such as M@ilgenius or Mailmeteor to see how they rate its deliverability. While these can catch mistakes or make suggestions before you send something, treat them as a guideline and not a guarantee — every mail server’s spam filter settings are different and a ‘good’ mail can still be blocked or a ‘bad’ mail might get through. You can also check your email domain or your IP address to make sure it’s not on any RBLs (remote block lists) using a tester like MX Toolbox. If you’re on a mail hosting service where the same email server is shared by multiple businesses, someone else’s spam habit could impact your delivery.
  6. Be consistent — When an email server suddenly gets a lot of mail from a single source, particularly one that wasn’t already on their radar, it can appear suspicious and impact your deliverability. A mail server is less likely to filter out a regular newsletter than a sudden and singular blast of advertising. If you plan to send a large amount of email, ramp up slowly. Start with a small number of engaged recipients, and increase volume over time. The more email you’re planning to send, the slower you should take it as you’re ramping up. The same goes for email frequency — if you’re going to be sending emails daily, you’ll want to ramp up your quantities even more slowly than if you’re only going to send emails monthly.
Gmail Graphic (https://blog.google/products/gmail/gmail-security-authentication-spam-protection/)

What are Google’s new rules?

Google’s new changes are centered around sender authentication and stricter adherence to spam report thresholds. In response to rising scams and phishing emails, where someone impersonates a different sender by faking the “From” address on their email, Google is now changing “show our bouncer your ID at the door” from a recommendation to a requirement.

Their policies fall into two categories: rules that apply to everyone sending emails to Google accounts, and rules that apply specifically to bulk senders.

Google’s rules for everyone

Fortunately, most of the changes Google is making will not have much impact on you if you’re already using a properly configured email server and following the best practices above. We’ll outline the rules below and give some details on how they apply to PCRecruiter specifically.

Most of these items relate to technical settings that are handled by your DNS (domain registration) admin or your email provider. If you’re not sure who your configuration is through, you can perform a DNS lookup at MX Toolbox.

Here’s what Google requires for all senders:

  • Keep your ‘spam rate’ below 0.10% and avoid ever reaching 0.30% or above. This is a ratio of emails from your domain that Google’s users have marked as spam vs. the number of emails received from your domain overall in the same period. You can check the stats for your domain by getting access to Google’s Postmaster Tools.

If you’re used to importing candidate lists or sending larger Campaigns in PCRecruiter, you’ll need to be even more particular about where you get your data from, what messages you send, and how often. Before these updates, Google treated the 0.30% spam rate as a recommended maximum, but these changes mean they could be treated with more scrutiny. If you want to get to the inbox, being more granular and relevant will be increasingly important. The Postmaster Tools also show your Domain Reputation — keeping your Spam Rate low will help to keep your reputation High.

  • Authenticate your email domain with SPF or DKIM. These methods allow the recipient’s email system to verify that your email is really coming from the domain your ‘From’ address says it is from. Many public and private email servers already check these but Google will now be even more strict about them. 

You can verify your own SPF here. If you have a Gmail account, you can use the Show Original option in the More menu (three dots) on any email you’ve received to see if the sender’s SPF and DKIM passed or failed.

For PCRecruiter users who only send email directly from their own email account and server (i.e. you’ve linked PCR to your Google or Microsoft account), the authentication is already handled. However, if you’re using a dedicated bulk email service like SendGrid or using a self-managed email server, you’ll want to double-check that you’ve properly configured your DNS so that mail sent using your domain is showing up as authenticated, no matter what mail server it is sent from.

If you’ve got multiple Email Aliases in PCRecruiter, check SYSTEM > Email Setup > Email Alias List to review your outgoing settings. If the “SMTP Server:Port” box on any of them contains an IP address rather than a full email server domain, you may want to check with that provider about authentication options.

  • Have valid PTR records for your domain. These forward DNS and reverse DNS records allow the recipient’s email server to verify that your mail is being sent from an IP address that is associated with your domain name. You can check your PTR here.
  • Use TLS to secure your email communications. This is the modern standard for email connections. If you’re unsure whether you’re using TLS (you likely are), this can be checked by examining the email headers of a mail you’ve sent to yourself. You can sometimes tell by checking your outgoing mail settings in your email client as well.
  • Make sure your emails follow Internet Message Format standards. These are the basic rules for how email content and code should be transmitted. You don’t have to do anything special for this rule, as it’s almost guaranteed that your email client is taking care of these requirements automatically.
  • Don’t impersonate sending from a Gmail account. Sending email from a fake or mis-aligned email domain is bad practice, but faking Gmail’s own domain on a mail sent to Gmail would be a clear red flag.
  • If you forward a lot of emails, check that your email system is using ARC, which makes sure that the SPF or DKIM authentication from the original email gets passed along when forwarding.

Google’s additional rules for bulk senders

Google has a few more requirements for “bulk senders” in addition to those listed above. Google defines bulk senders as any domain sending 5000+ emails per day to Google-hosted accounts. Keep in mind that this is cumulative, meaning that Google considers your domain a “bulk sender” whether you’re sending a single mass mail to 5000 recipients or 100 people at your company are sending 50 personal emails daily.

  • Your emails must support a one-click unsubscribe header and include a clearly visible unsubscribe link in the message body. When an unsubscribe header is found in the email’s header code, Gmail will automatically add an “Unsubscribe” link to the top of the email near the sender’s info. They will also add an “Unsubscribe” button to the mail when mousing over it in the inbox list. Gmail will only add these two links for emails sent from addresses not found in the recipient’s Google Contacts.
Gmail Unsubscribe Header Implementation
Gmail automatically adds these Unsubscribe links if the required one-click unsubscribe header is found and the sender is not already in your Contacts.

PCRecruiter adds the required “one-click unsubscribe header” code to any outgoing Campaign or Bulk Mail that contains an unsubscribe link merge tag in the body automatically, so by using PCR’s opt-out features for your form letters you’re already compliant. When a recipient uses the ‘one-click’ unsubscribe, they’re instantly opted out of any future emails for that bulk mail category in your PCR database.

Hiding or omitting your unsubscribe link just makes it more likely that an unwilling recipient will mark you as spam, so making it easy to get off the list will improve your deliverability overall, whether you’re sending bulk emails to 5000 or 50. If you are not currently including an unsubscribe link in your bulk emails, review our documentation on setting up the opt-in/out features to get started. 

  • In addition to having an SPF and DKIM as noted above, bulk senders must also set up a DMARC policy for the domain. DMARC gives you control over whether the recipient’s server should quarantine, reject, or do nothing special with emails from your domain if the SPF / DKIM checks fail. The main advantage to having this is that you’ll get reports about the emails that didn’t authenticate, which can help you identify problems or potential fraudsters sending mail that claims to be from you. Once you reach a point where you’re absolutely certain that everything you’re sending is always going to pass SPF / DKIM checks, then you may want to set the DMARC policy it to ‘reject’ so that any mail that doesn’t appear to be truly from you gets blocked. Make sure the “From” address on the email matches the domain listed in the DKIM or SPF record.

Be smart and fear not.

The typical PCRecruiter user is sending mail from a Google or Microsoft 365 account, which means a lot of the nuts and bolts of setting up authentication are already taken care of. PCRecruiter also already generates properly formatted emails and headers, so you don’t need to change anything to comply with these rules either. Plus with PCR’s bounce handling, opt-out list, and Sequencing, you can send the right emails to the right people and keep your database clean.

So, in essence, Google’s new rules just enforce what you should be doing already: sending legitimate emails to people who want to receive them and using a properly configured email server to do it. With a double-check of your domain record and a bit of extra scrutiny of your large-scale email plans, you should have nothing to worry about.

New PCR Capture & Learning Center

A brand new version of our popular PCR Capture browser plugin is now available in the Chrome Web Store. Build and enhance your PCRecruiter contacts more easily than ever.

Since its initial release ten years ago, PCR Capture has proven invaluable for recruiters, who tell us that it is one of their most beloved PCRecruiter features. It has saved them countless hours of time in building their networks and refreshing their client and candidate details by easily transferring content from the web pages they view into their recruiting database.

PCR Capture has also helped users to interact with their existing records more quickly through its handy Match feature. Match will check the First/Last name combos found on pages in LinkedIn or Indeed against contacts in the PCRecruiter database, adding a handy context menu to these names for speedy action.

We are pleased to start 2024 with a completely new version of PCR Capture which will not only save recruitment professionals more time than ever, but will also help them to improve the overall data quality of their private talent pools. We’ve also released a revised and rebuilt documentation system to help you get more out of PCR Capture and PCRecruiter at large.

Chrome Web Store


What’s in the new PCR Capture?

Broader Configurability

Add custom fields, write activities, and more while capturing contacts. Choose your ideal order of fields and which ones are required.

User-accessible configuration options have always been a strong suit for PCR, and the new version of Capture comes through in spades. You’ll be able to choose which Standard Fields and, new to this update, Custom Fields you see on the screen while capturing Name or Company records, as well as the order in which the fields appear. Administrators can also choose which fields are required for the addition of any newly captured contact.

Greater Data Input 

PCR Capture now gives you the ability to augment records with Activities while adding them to the database (the option to add Keywords is coming shortly as well).

The new version of Capture also includes enhanced search capabilities to find the Rollup List or Position you want to attach the contact to more quickly than ever before. You can also set a default List or Position if you choose, and override it per-capture.

Intelligent Duplicate Identification

Identify and merge duplicates while Capturing
PCR Capture helps improve database hygiene by recognizing existing duplicate records with exact and ‘fuzzy’ matching, and allows field-by-field value selection for the final merged record.

While earlier versions of Capture could recognize existing Name or Company records with directly matching name, phone, email, or other fields, the updated PCR Capture applies our all-new duplicate detection algorithm, not only identifying exact matches, but also calling your attention to potential duplicates based on intelligent recognition of similarities across combinations of fields.

And for those cases where you know the contact is in your database but their existing record is too incomplete or out of date to be automatically identified, PCR Capture now offers a manual search to find the Name.

Multi-Record & Field Merging

PCR Capture now helps with the all-important task of reducing duplicates. In earlier versions, after identifying an existing match in the database, the user could choose to add the captured contact as a new record, or update the existing record with the newly captured data. With the new version of Capture, you’ll be able to take the one or more duplicates identified within your existing database, select the desired value for each field, and then merge all of them down to a single, updated contact.

Visual Improvements

We’ve redesigned the look and feel of Capture, including a new ‘Dark Mode’ option for a more subdued look. This is more than just a fresh coat of paint, though; the new release also includes revisions to icons, sizes, and more to create a clearer UI. We’ve also added the ability to drag the ‘Click to Add’ icon to your desired vertical position on the screen, keeping it clear of any content on the website you’re viewing.

Learn more in our updated Learning Center

To get started with the new version of PCR Capture, see the instructions in our newly rebuilt PCRecruiter Learning Center.

Our training and support experts have been hard at work to transfer our product documentation into a completely new and improved library. We also expect to start enhancing many of these articles with brief, clear video walkthroughs soon.

The PCRecruiter Learning Center

Find Help More Easily

We have restructured our product info into clearer and more logical groupings, making it easier to find what you’re looking for. Whether you want to learn about basics like setting up your email or adding a custom field, or more complex topics like Sequencing or PCR Analytics, you’ll find it clearly labeled. The new system also offers a more comprehensive search feature and a live-chat with our support team during business hours.

Updated Documentation

While migrating our Learning Center content, we have been revising and rewriting articles to make sure they are easily understood and current to the screens and functions of PCRecruiter’s current release. This is, of course, an ongoing process and there is still much to be done. If you should find any unclear or outdated information, use the “Is something unclear or incorrect in this page?” link at the bottom of that article to let our team know!

As of January 2024, Main Sequence Technology has certified to the EU-US Data Protection Framework, reconfirming PCRecruiter’s full commitment to EU data protection requirements.

The history of transatlantic data flows twists and turns with shifting regulations and legal pronouncements. From the sunken hopes of Safe Harbor to the EU Court of Justice’s (CJEU) pronouncements in Schrems I and Schrems II, EU businesses have sought reliable pathways for data being processed in the United States.

Today, the EU-US Data Protection Framework offers a new course, but responsible practices and reliable routes like the Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) remain available to Main Sequence Technology’s customers in the European Union.

From Safe Harbor to Privacy Shield

In its heyday, Safe Harbor was based on self-declared compliance. However, in 2015, the CJEU’s landmark Schrems I ruling effectively ended Safe Harbor as a viable path. The ruling expressed the court’s findings of inadequate US oversight and vulnerabilities in data access by US intelligence agencies, sending a shock through the data transfer landscape.

Privacy Shield, erected in response, attempted to correct course, but the CJEU’s 2020 Schrems II decision likewise foundered Privacy Shield, citing persistent concerns about US government surveillance programs. These rulings left EU businesses navigating transatlantic data flows in substantial uncertainty.

Throughout these developments, Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) have served as reliable tools to establish per se data protection adequacy, offering EU Executive pre-approved agreements that describe responsible data handling practices and define each party’s role in complying with legal requirements. At Main Sequence, we recognize the critical importance of legal compliance and per se adequacy for our EU Customers.

A Fresh Framework for EU-US Data Transfer

Following the CJEU’s judgments in Schrems I and Schrems II, the need for a durable framework governing data transfers between the EU and US became clear. From July 2023, The EU-US Data Protection Framework addresses this challenge by establishing enhanced safeguards for EU citizens’ personal data when processed in the US. Key elements of the new framework include:

  • Enhanced US government oversight: Stronger mechanisms ensure robust monitoring and oversight of data accessed by US intelligence agencies for national security purposes.
  • Multi-layered redressal mechanism: EU citizens now have a dedicated ombudsperson within the US Department of State to address concerns about potential data misuse.
  • Binding obligations for US companies: Participating US organizations must adhere to strict data protection principles and implement comprehensive security measures.

PCRecruiter is Certified to DPF

Main Sequence have approached this challenge by adopting industry-recognized best practices, continuously offering the SCCs, and participating in the available frameworks as they have evolved, but our commitment extends beyond basic compliance with available frameworks.

We regularly and realistically assess risks, invest in ongoing training, and conduct evaluations of our vendors and third-party audits of our own controls. By responding with agility to the regulatory landscape and employing a multi-layered approach to data security and availability, we seek to position Main Sequence as a trusted partner for organizations navigating the complexities of transatlantic data transfers.

Accordingly, Main Sequence is pleased to announce that as of January 2024, we have certified to the Data Protection Framework. We will continue to offer the SCC’s, but now our customers can be comfortable that their PCRecruiter accounts are managed in a per se adequate way for EU data protection requirements.

For more information about the DPF and the certification list, please see dataprivacyframework.gov.

To discuss your private recruiting database needs or for further details about EU data compliance, please contact your PCRecruiter representative.

It’s been quite a year! 2023 was the year that AI broke into mainstream recruiting tech, as firms went in search of new ways of doing things better and faster with the help of GPT. The good news is that AI won’t replacing human recruiters any time soon. As the best in the business know — it’s all about people.

On that note, this year we had the pleasure of getting to know our customers and their industries a little better. We’d like to extend a huge “thank you” to everyone who has contributed to the PCRecruiter blog. We’ve uncovered some fascinating insights into different challenges, approaches, and niches of the recruitment world.    

In the coming year, we’re looking forward to speaking with more of you, hearing your stories, and discovering how PCRecruiter helps you get the job done. For now, we’d like to leave you with a round-up of the top trends from 2023, and a look at what’s to come in 2024.

5 Ways ChatGPT Can Enhance Your Recruiting Workflow

5 Ways Chat GPT can enhance your recruiting workflow.

Although large language models and GPT AI tools are quickly becoming smart enough to help recruiters work more efficiently, they’re still not good enough to do the job better than humans. Still, cutting-edge recruiting firms are already taking advantage of emerging AI tools like ChatGPT. In this popular post, we uncovered 5 ways ChatGPT can enhance recruiting workflows.

Keeping It Real In Recruiting: When To Push Back On Clients

Keeping It Real In Recruiting: When To Push Back On Clients

Finding the right talent is tough — if it were easy, recruiters would be out of a job, after all! But sometimes the difficulty comes from the client rather than the jobseekers. The client may not understand the limitations of the market, especially when there’s a small pool of candidates for an open role. In this post, Dave Nerz of NPAworldwide shares his thoughts and expert insights on when to push back on clients.

How To Write Job Descriptions For Search Engines

How To Write Job Descriptions For Search Engines

SEO – Search Engine Optimization – techniques are primarily used by digital marketers to increase traffic to websites, generate leads, and increase revenue. The question is: how can inbound recruiters use SEO to improve the chances of job descriptions being discovered and shared online? We talked with Steve Gipson, Sales Manager at Recruiters Websites, about some of the best practices.

Secrets To Successful Recruiting In Engineering And Energy

Secrets To Successful Recruiting In Engineering And Energy

There have been a lot of changes in the energy industry over the last 30 years, particularly in the area of renewables and the reduction in fossil fuels. For this blog post, we spoke with the President of Natek, Mark Dillon, to uncover some of the secrets behind his sustained success in recruiting engineers for renewables and energy efficiency using PCRecruiter.

A Guide To Switching Recruiting Verticals

A Guide To Switching Recruiting Verticals

For recruiters working in a specific sector, switching verticals is a chance to grow their business and learn something new. But more often than not, recruiters find themselves moving in and around different industries out of economic necessity. Long-time PCR user and experienced executive recruiter David James shared his extensive knowledge on how to handle a switch in recruiting verticals with us.

Recruiting Franchise Tech That Drives Success

Recruiting Francise Tech That Drives Success

While many recruiting firms see great success as indepedent operations, there are valuable advantages to joining a wider operation. For this post, President and CEO of American Recruiters – Gino Scialdone – explained why the franchise model is a great fit for recruiters, and how choosing the right ATS and CRM (PCRecruiter) helps drive its success.

Why Leading Recruiters Build Their Own Talent Pool

Why Leading Recruiters Build Their Own Talent Pool

The danger of proliferating AI-driven sourcing tools and a sea of public profiles at your fingertips is that it can become easy to overlook the people you’ve already got in your history. There are remarkable benefits to building your own talent pool. In this post we discover why a private database of people in your industry is a valuable business asset.

Top Recruitment Firms Make A Success Of Internal Splits

Top Recruitment Firms Make A Success Of Internal Splits

Recognized by Forbes as one of America’s Best Executive Recruiting Firms – four years in a row – Bowerman Group is a boutique firm specializing in premiere and luxury consumer brands. They’re experts in all things retail, ecommerce, and marketing. Not only that, they’ve got the process of internal splits down to a fine art. We uncovered their insights on this method for this post.

What’s in store for PCRecruiter in 2024?

2024 is already shaping up to be a massive year for PCRecruiter. You can expect an all-new version of our flagship platform with more a more intuitive, modern, and easy-to-learn design that retains and builds on the high level of functionality and customization that our users have loved for 25 years. 

In addition to the fully reimagined user experience, PCRecruiter will also see the direct integration of GPT features in the new year. We’ll be implementing it in thoughtful ways that make the work of recruiters easier, such as powerful ‘natural language’ search, while avoiding the legal or ethical concerns that directly qualitative use may bring about.

The new year will also see the release of a wholly rebuilt version of our popular PCR Capture browser extension. This update will add more configurability and nuanced duplicate merging to help you add contacts quickly while also enhancing and cleaning up existing records.

At the same time as we roll out the new platform, PCR 9 users will be pleased to know that our documentation will be getting a major revision at the start of the year, making it easier than ever before to get the answers you need, when you need them the most.

Follow us on LinkedIn and watch this blog for more on the exciting news to come in the next few months, and contact a PCRecruiter consultant for a personal consultation or preview of things to come.

Happy New Year from PCRecruiter!

For the 25th year, PCRecruiter extends our holiday wishes to customers, team members, and the worldwide recruiting community.


Happy Holidays & Happy New Year, everyone!

It’s been a busy 2023 as we work toward a major platform update for PCRecruiter, with expanded capabilities across the company to support customers in meeting their goals in perm placement, staffing, and corporate hiring.

It can be said in any year, but especially this year: blessed are the peacemakers. To that we add: best of luck in ’24 to the dealmakers and to all people of goodwill, everywhere.

Sincerely,
The PCRecruiter Team

Recruiting might be a people business, but many firms are catching on to the business benefits of analytics. The metrics that matter – and the ones that make a difference to your recruiting efforts – depend on the size and scope of your firm.

Tracking the number of placements made and the dollar value of customers is important from the get-go, but as your team grows other metrics also come into play — like setting KPIs to monitor team performance. Here are our insights into recruitment analytics.

Trends in recruitment analytics 

There’s no doubt that getting recruiting analytics and dashboards in place helps you get clearer oversight and control over your recruiting business. It works at every level. In PCRecruiter you can set and track business objectives, whilst individual recruiters can take greater ownership of their personal goals and performance. 

Scaling firms and larger recruiters tend to pay closer attention to activities related to job placements. Tracking the outreach journey — such as marketing campaigns aimed at potential clients — is also valuable. You can see who’s clicking on those campaigns, and which organizations should be pulled into your list and monitored.

Once you start recruiting, you can easily monitor the progress of open roles, and how well your team is performing in terms of making placements. It’s here that KPI goals can be set around metrics like the number of candidates placed, the number of first interviews completed, the number of outreach emails, and the number of calls made. 

That data also becomes valuable when speaking with clients. You can use it to tell the story of your recruiting efforts, sharing useful data such as the percentage of roles filled, the number of calls made on their behalf, and so on. 

Measure quantity and leverage quality 

Alongside quantity, you can also measure quality. Take a job marketing campaign, for example. You can track where the best candidates originally came from, enabling you to focus efforts for future campaigns and increase your impact.

The same goes for recruiter communications via calls and emails. It’s possible to measure quantity, but you can also leverage the expertise of high-flying individuals by scripting sequences based on the work of an individual contributor. 

Using the available data — and PCRecruiter’s Sequencing Tool — you can identify your top recruiters, then design and build workflows around their best practices. This can then be used to guide and support new or less experienced team members.  

PCRecruiter’s partnership with CarbonWeb means analytics and reporting can be integrated with data from Monday.com to provide even deeper insights. Not only can you see how well you’re doing for particular clients based on a job description, you can take it one step further to analyze how well your workflow is performing. 

Is there a step in the process with a big drop-off? Perhaps you’re doing too many interviews or the interview questions aren’t effective? Maybe the candidates you’re finding aren’t a good fit? You can find all of this out and more through Business Intelligence (BI), visualizing valuable and relevant data in graphs and charts. 

Monitor each and every step of the process

Recruiting Analytics Pie Chart
Proper recruiting analytics should be insightful and informative, unlike the pie chart shown here, which is just for decoration.

Top recruiters have a competitive drive, which means there’s real value in having a personalized dashboard for monitoring and measuring performance. That could be KPIs benchmarked against the rest of the team, or it could be analysis of their end-to-end performance from the initial outreach to the final placement. 

Seeing a drop-off at the first interview with a hiring manager? Any activity performed using PCRecruiter — whether inside or outside the pipeline — can be monitored, so the answer to your question is only ever a few clicks away. Struggling to get candidates through a particular hiring authority? Maybe it’s time to make a call to that hiring manager and uncover how you can bring them candidates that are a better fit.

The important thing here is that you can only analyze and report on the data you collect. PCRecruiter is designed to automatically collect the relevant data you need. For example, connecting to RingCentral enables you to report on call data, times, connections, and so on. With email addresses held inside PCRecruiter tracked via IMAP sync, it’s possible to log every email that goes in and out — whether that’s through Apple, Microsoft, or Google. 

Invest in a culture of data analytics 

For smaller firms or professionals that have been doing recruitment for a long time, collecting and analyzing data can seem like an additional burden. In fact, simply by operating out of PCRecruiter and setting it up in the right way, the software does all the heavy lifting for you.

Be warned that you may not see immediate benefits. It takes patience and discipline because the real pay-off is further into the future when you can use historical data to visualize trends which can yield actionable insights about your recruiting efforts. 

PCRecruiter’s Sequencing Tool is more than just a way to set up and send out email campaigns. What’s unique about it is that it’s an entire workflow manager. It can prompt you to make connections on LinkedIn, launch phone calls or text messages, and then link the person to a position pipeline or route them to a separate sequence depending on the outcomes.

Sequencing, along with the pipeline, takes candidates from the very first contact to the final placement, and all of this journey can be tracked and analyzed. For smaller firms, setting sequences up from day one makes total sense. It allows them to shape and refine their workflows to optimize their success rate, so when the time is right to grow, new users have a tried and tested process to follow. This cuts down on the need for protracted and complicated onboarding to your entire ATS system. In PCRecruiter, new recruiters need to know three things: the capture tool, sequencing, and pipeline. 

More time for what you do best

Surfacing business insights using data and analytics can help recruitment firms do what they do, only better. Taking those insights, it’s possible to set up automations to take care of 90% of repetitive, repeatable daily activities – like sending out automated email responses. 

As with any automation, it’s important to include human activity and oversight into the process — like reading a reply and qualifying a response. PCRecruiter’s Sequencing Tool enables you to do all that and more. But analytics and automation don’t replace human interaction.

At the end of the day, a recruiter’s job is to talk to people, get a feeling for who they are, and build a relationship with them. Data and analytics can help enhance those conversations, adding all round value for recruitment professionals, clients, and candidates. 

Discover how data and analytics tools inside PCRecruiter can help improve your recruitment efforts. Book a demo.

With increasingly AI-driven sourcing tools and a sea of public profiles at your fingertips, it’s easy to overlook the benefits of building your own talent pool. But owning a database of people in your industry – potential passive candidates, who you already know and who you’ve already background checked – is a valuable business asset.

That’s because maintaining and nurturing a talent pool with clean and relevant data on people you know – who are likely to be interested and suitably qualified – can cut the time needed to source and sift. The time to hire is quicker, placements become more profitable, and your clients get high-quality candidates. 

Leading recruiters build their own talent pools. Here’s why and how.

Why build your own private talent pool?

There are recruiters out there who rely on live searches to fill their clients’ open roles. And that’s fine. But they’re missing out on a future goldmine — a keyword searchable database of historic candidate data. 

Building a private talent pool is essential to recruiting.
A private talent pool gives you a competitive advantage.

When clients come to you with an open role, you can immediately dip into your talent pool to find candidates that fit their needs. It’s also somewhere to store those candidates who didn’t make the cut last time around, as you never know when they might be needed.

Having your own talent pool makes you more valuable to your clients because it’s where you find passive candidates who are potentially unknown to (or forgotten about by) your competitors. It enables you to stay on their radar even if you don’t have an opportunity for them right now.

Sure, LinkedIn is great for sourcing active candidates, but what about that person you placed years ago? They’re now a passive candidate who may be open to taking on a new position and who’d be a great fit for this new role you’ve been given.

The truth is that often the person you need to fill a particular role is the person who’s not regularly updating and posting on LinkedIn because they’re not actively seeking a new position.

How to keep in touch with talent and the industry

Keep the message going that you’re in touch with both the industry and the best candidates out there, and you keep your pipeline full of new opportunities.

You might think keeping connections going with hundreds or even thousands of potential candidates is an impossible task. Even with the best motivation in the world, trying to maintain that many relationships over time — including many that don’t necessarily end with a placement — would take time and resources you simply don’t have.

But by setting up repeatable timed tasks through the Sequencing Tool inside PCRecruiter, you can regularly reach out to candidates through automated emails, text, or other scheduled activities. By segmenting candidates or clients, you can maintain a schedule of personalized messaging.

For example, you might segment candidates by a particular role, experience, and location and send them a regular message to see how they are and qualify their interest. You can also record their response for potential follow-up activity, such as a phone call or sending them a list of roles that might interest them. 

The pay-off may not be immediate, but it could be significant. Imagine one of those candidates becomes a hiring authority themselves further down the line. Suddenly, they’re coming to you with new placements to fill.

Sequencing can also be used on the client-side. They may not have any open roles right now, but what about in the future? Set up a sequence to send an automatic email after your most recent placement, seeing how it worked out, and inquiring about upcoming roles.  

Think of it this way. As a recruiter, you are your own brand. Like any good marketer, you need to keep your brand front and center in clients’ and candidates’ minds. Regular, relevant, and anticipated communication is a great way to do that. 

Keep the message going that you’re in touch with both the industry and the best candidates out there, and you keep your pipeline full of new opportunities.

Fill your talent pool with data from a job board

The easiest way to get new and updated candidate data into your talent pool and pipeline is through a job board. Even if you don’t currently have any open roles, it’s still a great channel for securely and compliantly collecting candidate data and resumes. 

PCRecruiter’s Job Board module offers a clear target where you can direct interested candidates or clients and have them voluntarily send you their details. It’s also much more efficient and streamlined than directing them to your inbox because the data can be directly imported into your database.

The advantage of capturing candidate data in this way is that you can draw a line on how much data to collect, striking a balance between the quantity and quality of your talent pool. And when the time comes to sell up or retire, you’ll also have a highly valuable business asset.   

Discover how to use PCRecruiter to build your talent pool and add value to your recruiting process. Book a demo

The energy industry has seen a lot of changes over the last 30 years. During that time, recruiting firm Natek has consistently placed top talent in energy efficiency and renewables – including engineers, sales, operations, management, and executive leadership – for some of the biggest names in the industry.

Mark Dillon, President of Natek
Mark Dillon, President of Natek
LinkedIn @ natekenergy

There’s no substitute for experience. Natek’s enduring success is built on long-term industry relationships. Hiring authorities and career professionals in the energy sector know Natek and the team at Natek knows them. This gives the firm a deep and unique talent pool that’s all their own.  

We spoke with President of Natek – Mark Dillon – to uncover some of the secrets behind his sustained success in recruiting for the energy space (including what makes PCRecruiter a great ATS software for engineering recruiters.)

Industry expertise from the outset

More than 35 years ago, Mark Dillon was working in the energy industry. Back then, it was known as the ‘power generation’ field. His clients were major multinational companies supplying the world’s ever-increasing demand for power. Mark spent most of his time either on the road or in front of clients.  

I’ve owned my own engineering firm. I’ve headed and led energy groups for Fortune 50 companies. I’ve also partnered with the Association Of Energy Engineers (AEE) and the World Energy Congress as a career counselor.

– Mark Dillon, President, Natek

When energy efficiency and renewable power initiatives started to come in, these companies and their energy customers were presented with new incentives to reduce costs and demand. This shift resulted in a trend for performance contracting, where energy providers guaranteed efficiencies to corporate customers by identifying and delivering savings. 

In 1990, Mark decided he needed a role that would allow him to be closer to home, giving him the chance to spend more time with a young family. Recruiting was an obvious choice because it enabled him to work from home. 

Having worked with some of the biggest brands in the industry, Mark had built up a network of trusted contacts. So he took the opportunity in front of him. He focused his recruiting efforts on delivering staffing solutions in the fields of energy efficiency and renewable power.

The impact of work-from-home on energy recruitment

PCRecruiter is Natek's chosen recruiting software for engineering roles
There remains a demand for on-site work in the office and in the field.

Fast-forward to 2020. Most of the world began working from home in response to COVID-19. This left a lasting impression on the recruiting landscape, including recruiting for engineering and energy. Today, some of Mark’s clients want everyone working from the office, some offer hybrid roles, and others are now fully remote. 

Office-based roles are still valued. They create a synergy between co-workers, especially for junior team members, that’s not easily replicated in a video call. But the biggest challenge for recruiters is to get companies — and people — to either embrace working from home or feel excited about getting back into the office. 

And what’s on offer can potentially make or break a potential placement. In Mark’s experience, he’s seen executives pass up a six-figure salary increase because they wanted to cut the commute and use that time for their kids and family. Alongside understanding where candidates want to work, the other important ingredient in making successful placements is understanding what companies are looking for in their candidates.

Recruiting in engineering means knowing what companies need

These days, energy companies increasingly need to do more with less. Like any industry, the top candidates for open roles are usually already taken or in high demand. 

Transferable skills are invaluable in the renewables sector. That’s partly because if all the best talent is taken within a particular geographic area, the next best thing is to bring in someone with related experience, say mechanical engineering or other relevant fields.

When energy companies are putting a team together, they want people who can develop a project and manage the risks of those projects – especially when it comes to performance contracts.

– Mark Dillon, President, Natek

Another important quality is the ability to manage risk. From the C-level through to engineers on the ground, responsibility for mitigating risk is everyone’s business. And that’s a big weight. Imagine a project with a performance contract worth between $10 million and $200 million. There’s a lot at stake and a lot that can go wrong.

Recruiting Software for Engineering - PCRecruiter
Successful placements in engineering recruitment often requires the right blend of technical and leadership skills.

From an engineering recruitment perspective, employers are often looking for candidates with a technical background who also have the leadership skills to develop and deliver projects to clients. Even when aspects of a project are contracted out — such as the design phase — they need someone to take ownership and provide oversight and control. 

That’s why the risks associated with recruiting the wrong person are huge. It also means industry expertise and experience are vital when it comes to finding the right candidates.

A private talent pool is the engineering recruiter’s best asset

PCRecruiter has been my recruiting software for engineering, energy, renewables, and related fields for over twenty years. It’s the heartbeat of how I do business, from logging individuals to prepping a candidate for a VP role.

– Mark Dillon, President, Natek

Recruiting is about building relationships, and Mark’s been in the business a long time. People he placed two or three decades ago now occupy C-level positions. The truth is, you just never know when these relationships could become valuable. That’s why building your own private talent pool over time is so important. Sometimes, data that could be decades old can unlock new opportunities for candidates and companies. 

Securely held inside PCRecruiter, Natek’s talent pool contains records stretching back to the early 2000s. It allows Mark and his team to look up individuals, pull up notes, and put candidates up for interviews in no time at all. For Mark, this database is the beating heart of his recruiting. Having PCRecruiter behind him enables Mark to focus on what really matters – communicating with people. 

I live and die by customer service! Kudos to PCRecruiter. Not only is it a great ATS software for engineering recruiters, but I know I can always reach out to somebody if I have a question and get a quick and useful response.

– Mark Dillon, President, Natek

Relationships are the cornerstone of Natek’s success. It’s a people business, and while AI and automations help make doing business faster and easier, Mark’s an advocate for picking up the phone and speaking to candidates, explaining the opportunity, and building rapport. With PCRecruiter as his recruiting software, Mark has instant access to the information he needs to have meaningful conversations with candidates and clients.  

Having their own private talent pool gives Mark and his team depth, breadth, and access to quality candidates who may not be visible on platforms such as LinkedIn. That built-in insight and expertise separates Natek from the rest of the field. It also means energy companies don’t just view them as a recruiting firm, but as a strategic partner helping to build their business. Energy companies know Mark and his team understand the bigger picture of the industry, and can lean into their know-how when identifying, qualifying, and placing high-quality candidates.

To discover more about Natek, visit their website natek.com

To learn more about how PCRecruiter works as a CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE (or any other recruitment vertical) contact us for a personal demonstration.

The PCRecruiter Team recently attended the Sanford Rose Associates Fall Conference in Dallas. We wanted to publicly thank them and recognize all the work that went into putting such a strong conference together.

The PCRecruiter Team recently attended the Sanford Rose Associates Fall Conference in Dallas. We wanted to publicly thank them and recognize all the work that went into putting such a strong conference together.

It was great to meet so many successful recruiters, partners (SourceWhale, ZoomInfo, HireEZ) and to take in presentations from pros like Jeff Kaye, Jon Bartos, Jordan Rayboy, Katie DeVries, Scott Rivers, Darren McDougal, Kent Burns, Tess Lepore, Brittany ValVerde, Mike Silverstein, Norm Volsky, Jacob Binke, Scott Chadbourne, Jess Tello, and Dan Charney (all of whom happen to be PCRecruiter users), among many talented others from NextLevel Exchange, Kaye/Bassman and beyond.

We look forward to the next event!

For recruiters working in a specific industry, switching verticals can be a chance to grow their business and learn something new. But more often than not, recruiters move in and around different verticals out of economic necessity.

David L. James - Executive Recruiter
David James, shown delivering his TED Talk “Why Resumes Do NOT Work” in Las Vegas (Jan. 2020)

The economy shapes the job market. Economic downturns can reduce demand in one sector and create a surge in another. In order to survive — and thrive — recruiters and recruitment firms sometimes need to reposition themselves to weather economic storms.

We spoke with seasoned executive recruiter (and ‘O.G. PCRecruiter user’) David James to gain his perspective on how to handle a switch in recruiting verticals.  

Potential pitfalls of switching verticals

Some people come to recruiting because they want to make money, and it’s an absolute grind to them. I’ve always felt like getting somebody a job has this form of valorization. If you don’t love people and love talking on the phone, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got the best vertical ever!

– David James, Executive Recruiter 

It’s possible that given the right timing and right connections, you could slide into a new sector and put together a couple of lucrative placements. The thing is, however, you’re now working outside your area of expertise. You’ve left your core competency, and its marketing, on your previous desk, and that desk has now closed. You’re in a new sector with no recyclable candidates — the talent pool of prospective placements who may not have fit one role but could potentially match your next one. 

Switching verticals creates a gap in your industry-specific knowledge and skills and puts you in unfamiliar territory. You’ll need to plug the holes in your knowledge, and fast. So be prepared to invest time and effort into upskilling. Without the established connections you had in your previous specialty, you’ll also need time to grow your network. Different industries come with different compensation structures, so also be prepared for variations in salaries, commissions, and bonus structures.

Change can be challenging. Clients may be skeptical about hiring a recruiter experienced in a different vertical. So you’ll need to earn their trust, demonstrating your transferable skills and commitment to excelling in this new market. Anticipate resistance from clients and candidates who may question your decision to switch. Some clients may even think you’re using the new vertical as a stepping stone rather than getting into it for the long term. Be clear about your intentions and how this move fits into your career trajectory.

The art of market mastery 

In any new vertical, you’ve got to have market mastery – you need to aggregate all the talent. That’s why you need a FILL statement – Function, Industry, Location, and Level.

– David James, Executive Recruiter 
David L. James on the "Bit About Crypto" podcast.
David James recording an episode of the ‘Bit About Crypto’ podcast.

A professional recruiter since 1988, David James loves what he does. He’s also switched verticals enough times — from internal auditing to cryptocurrency to casinos to construction, and back again — to know that market mastery is the key to success. That’s why, before jumping on the phone, it’s important to truly understand the roles you’re looking to fill and which types of candidates will offer the best fit.

F.I.L.L. (Function, Industry, Location, Level)

Here’s how a FILL statement breaks down…

  • Function: What are the core functions of the roles you’re trying to fill? Do they align with your candidates’ skills and interests? Do the day-to-day responsibilities resonate with their career aspirations?
  • Industry: Understanding the industry’s dynamics, key players, and prospects is key to long-term success. Ensure the industry not only interests you, but also has potential for growth. 
  • Location: Consider the geography of the roles in your new vertical. They could be local, national, or even international. Are potential candidates willing to travel or move for new career opportunities?
  • Level: Assess the level of responsibility and seniority of your open roles. Ensure that the roles align with candidates’ career goals and expectations. What are the opportunities for growth and advancement within the vertical?

Tips for making the switch to a niche

When it comes to changing verticals, David says “you need to find one thing that everybody wants. Not only do they want it, they need to have it. For them, it’s essential.” But, of course, that’s not easy to find. That’s why you need market mastery (FILL). 

Take this as an example: you’re a recruiter with a specialty in engineering, which is actually a very broad market. You need to take a deep dive into that market and pull out a niche. How about engineers who calibrate scales? Scales on the highway, scales at the meat counter, scales at the market. There’s your business model (and that’s a real example, by the way). 

It’s not how many calls you’ve made. It’s how many conversations you had.

– David James, Executive Recruiter

The big misconception is that you can conquer an entire market segment. Take the accounting sector, for example. Let’s say you need to source candidates for three roles: an internal auditor, a treasury manager, and a corporate controller.

Those are three separate searches. Why? Because the internal auditor can’t do the treasury job or the corporate controller job, and vice versa. Let’s say that you sourced three candidates for each one of those searches and it took a month to find them. What you effectively have is three different recruiting businesses. What you need is recyclable candidates.

Whatever candidates you need to find, they need to be recyclable. Think about nurses. Imagine you’ve found a nurse who is willing to travel and who has got the right certification. Suddenly, you can actually go to multiple hospital systems, and they’ll see that nurse whether they have a position or not.

Relying on the right recruiting tech

No matter what vertical you’re in, having the right recruitment tech behind you is essential. That means building out your own talent pool — a private store of candidates with your own enhanced details, activity, and history records. When you’re new to an industry, the very first thing you need to do is populate your database. 

The people behind CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE have made it one of the best partnerships of my recruiting career.

– David James, Executive Recruiter

But here’s the tip from David: don’t worry about the candidates right off the bat. You need to segment your hiring authorities. Find your hiring authorities first. Push that to between 1,000 and 2,000 hiring authorities, and then you’ve got a market. 

No matter what vertical (or verticals) you recruit in, PCRecruiter adapts to your needs. To request more information or book a demo, contact us.

Got a recruiting problem? David James is an executive recruiter and recruiting consultant  with years of industry experience. Reach out to him via email, dj@talstrats.com or LinkedIn @davidjames-iar

Recruitment and HR industry events, summits and conferences are a great way to learn best practices and grow your business network.

The PCRecruiter team has compiled this list of upcoming shows for the remainder of the year to help you keep your calendar filled with professional development opportunities.

October 2023

  • LinkedIn Talent Connect, Week of Oct 2 : Online and in-person (NYC) events.
  • HR Healthcare, Oct 2 – 3 : Austin, TX will see WBR’s HR Healthcare forum for sharing, networking, and learning in the HR space.
  • Ceridian INSIGHTS, Oct 2 – 5 : Catch visionary thought leaders, industry experts, and innovators at this Las Vegas event, including key speaker Kevin Bacon
  • Staffing World, Oct 3 – 5 : This year’s ASA event in Charlotte features keynotes from Mike Krzyzewski, Paul Zikopoulos, and Dominique Dawes
  • Paylocity Elevate Conference, Oct 3 -5 : a virtual event featuring keynote speakers Abby Wambach, Jenn Lim, and Elatia Abate
  • Talent Success Conference, Oct 4 : a virtual conference with industry-leading HR experts discussing trends, insights, and new methods for recruiting and retaining top talent for your business.
  • Recruitment Agency Expo, Oct 4 – 5 : Industry leaders in the UK will converge on Birmingham for this big annual exposition.
  • Swipeclock Summit, Oct 5 – 6 : a free event with hands-on education, workshops, and so forth for Swipeclock users
  • NAPEO’s Annual Conference and Marketplace, Oct 9 – 11 : The National Association of Professional Employer Organizations will be hosting this annual event for the PEO industry in Orlando
  • HR Tech Conference, Oct 10 – 13 : The huge annual show at Mandalay Bay in Vegas has been going for 25 years!
  • Sanford Rose Associates, Oct 11 – 13 : SRA members will convene in Dallas, TX to meet and learn
  • IHRE Summit, Oct 17 : The In House Recruitment Expo Summit will be attracting top UK and global recruiting pros to Coventry Arena
  • Hunt Scanlon ‘Optimizing Talent for Growth’, Oct 18 : This conference in San Francisco is on the topic of private equity and venture capital recruiting and talent management.
  • UNLEASH World, Oct 17 – 18 : Taking place in Paris, this show is billed as “where the HR world meets”
  • HRO Today’s Talent Acquisition Strategies & Technology Showcase, Oct 17 – 18 : A two day event with insights and best practices for HR in Houston, TX
  • Gartner ReimagineHR Conference, Oct 23 – 25 : This is an Orlando, FL event for CHROs and HR leadership teams with multiple tracks to choose from
  • Silicon Valley TechRecruit, Oct 25 – 26 : Head to San Francisco for workshops on recruitment operations, AI sourcing, and other talent acquisition topics

November 2023

  • SIA Healthcare Staffing Summit, Nov 1 – 3 : Staffing Industry Analysts will hold their summit targeted at the healthcare staffing market at Red Rock Resort in Vegas
  • Tech Recruitment Conference, Nov 2 : TRC is a one-day event in person in Amsterdam and virtually aimed specifically at technology recruiters
  • Michigan Recruiter’s Conference, Nov 2 : The only specifically designed Recruiter conference for corporate Talent Acquisition Pros and Leaders in Michigan!
  • NAPS Conference, Nov 5 – 7 : Jacksonville will host the National Association of Personnel Services’ annual event this year
  • HCI Analytics Conference, Nov 15 : Human Capital Institute offers this event on Finding New Candidate Pools with Recruitment Analytics
  • LEAP TA Healthcare, Nov 14 – 15 : Talent acquisition leaders in the healthcare space will meet in Houston for a free conference with action-orientated, strategic dialogue.
  • Future of HR, Nov 15 – 16 : Join in HR.com’s FREE virtual event, “Future of AI and Recruitment Technologies”

December 2023

  • Recruiting Daily “Talent Sleuths” Dec 7 : An immersive training event featuring HR sourcing leadings where you’ll hone your detective skills to unveil top talent and master the art of recruitment.

Are you planning to attend any of the events above? Did you go to one already? Let us know in the comments below!

Franchising – licensing a brand, business model, or product to a separate entity – is a popular way to run a business. And for good reason: some of the world’s best-known brands are built that way. Take American Recruiters, for example. They’re recognized by Forbes as one of America’s top professional and executive recruiting firms.

Gino Scialdone - President & CEO - recruiter franchising at American Recruiters
Gino Scialdone, President & CEO, American Recruiters

President and CEO of American RecruitersGino Scialdone – began his franchise program over 20 years ago. Since then, it’s grown from strength to strength.

We spoke to Gino to discover why his franchise model is a great fit for recruiters, and how the right ATS and CRM – in the shape of PCRecruiter – helps drive success. 

Why franchise?

Franchising is about systems and processes. The beauty of the franchise model is that it gives people the chance to run their own business for themselves, but not by themselves. 

We started franchising for one reason: to better serve our customers’ needs.

Gino Scialdone, President and CEO, American Recruiters

This is really important in an industry like recruiting, where being able to tap into networks of people and organizations is so vital. It also helps to mitigate some of the risks involved with starting a new business. So it’s no surprise that there are nearly 800,000 franchise establishments in the US alone.

American Recruiters serves a wide range of industries – including healthcare, IT, engineering, and manufacturing – with specialist recruiters. Whether our clients are large enterprises or small businesses, they have one thing in common: they need help to bring in the right talent for multiple roles. 

That’s where PCRecruiter comes in. American Recruiters uses a centralized database – a single source of truth – for all their franchisees so that people with the client relationships are clearly signposted and so “the right hand knows what the left hand is doing”.

This is similar to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) system used by Realtors, where property details are listed alongside the brokers. Like an MLS, American Recruiters’ database gives franchise owners access to a ready-made network and a customer-base with an ongoing need to fill open roles. 

The two sides of a recruiting franchise 

Building a database in a recruiting CRM like PCRecruiter creates the opportunity for cross-selling and upselling. Take the healthcare sector, for example. A hospital system needs to recruit nurses, but they might also need someone for their accounting department or IT department. 

The American Recruiters franchise model creates the opportunity to introduce other franchisees – experts from within the network – and get them in front of the right people. Using a single private database inside PCRecruiter, American Recruiters can look across the platform to see who their clients are, the openings they have, and then knock on some different doors within an organization.

Our franchise model does two things: it enables us to go wider and deeper with our customers, and it gives new franchisees the chance to compress the bell curve and get their business started.

Gino Scialdone, President and CEO, American Recruiters

Relationships with companies that fill permanent placements through American Recruiters present opportunities to offer contract staffing – staffing solutions for temporary positions on projects, maternity leave, and so on. At the same time, their franchise model gives new franchise owners the chance to ramp up business faster than if they were doing it on their own. 

The relationships between franchisees are also a strong mechanism for support – they help each other out, working on placements together and going to each other for advice. That’s important because around 60% of placements made by American Recruiters are internal splits between franchisees. Recruiting really is a team sport. 

The keys to success as a recruiting franchise

Recruitment is a people business. American Recruiters’ top franchisees use their previous relationships to garner business for their recruiting practice. They’re real go-getters; people who are always open for business, working across timezones and leading and influencing others. Alongside the ability to build relationships, successful franchisees have three things in common: energy, engagement, and ambition. 

It’s all about relationships. Either developing them with existing franchisees and their network, customers in the database, or with people outside our database.

Gino Scialdone, President and CEO, American Recruiters

Recruiting experience is an obvious feature of their resumes, but that’s not always a prerequisite. One tried and tested route to becoming a successful franchisee is for executives in transition. These individuals move from being the leader of an organization within a particular sector to becoming an executive search consultant. Seasoned executives know their business, know the people, and they know their industry. 

Specializing works because it’s difficult to be all things to all people. In the type of recruitment that American Recruiters does, franchisees need to be entrenched in a core practice. They may diversify their specialties over time, but specific knowledge of a niche is invaluable for executive search. Couple that knowledge with good experience of sales, and you have the recipe for recruiting franchise success.

Success built on synergy, security, people

In recruiting, collaboration is key. American Recruiters’ private database in PCRecruiter enables franchisees to work as a team rather than being siloed. Franchisees also benefit from exceptional brand resilience; they move forward with the power of the American Recruiters brand behind them.

Over the years, American Recruiters has weathered multiple financial storms, from Black Monday in 1987 to the Great Recession in 2008, and more recently the global pandemic that wiped out around 40% of recruiting firms. That’s just one reason why Forbes has recognized American Recruiters as one of the top 250 professional recruiting and staffing firms since 2016. 

No matter how stellar the recruitment tech, if you can’t get someone on the phone to walk you through something – like training or setting up a new feature – the shine quickly diminishes. With PCRecruiter there’s always someone there to help.

Gino Scialdone, President and CEO, American Recruiters

This endorsement makes the brand attractive to both companies seeking a high-performing recruiting firm and potential franchisees looking to grow their own business by being part of an established recruiting brand. They also get peace of mind from PCRecruiter’s robust security protocols, which ensure the database is protected from nefarious external parties. At the same time, they benefit from reliable, high-quality, and on-demand customer support. After all, successful recruiting – and recruiting tech – is all about people. 

To discover more about American Recruiters’ winning franchise model, visit their website at https://www.americanrecruiters.com/franchise-now/

Back in 2015, All-In-Staffing’s Account Executive, Mike Trent, was in sales and business development, helping the firm get off the ground. Today, he’s part of a thriving staffing service company operating out of three offices in the Cleveland, Ohio area. Their specialty is the manufacturing sector, placing candidates in a range of industrial and clerical roles.

Mike Trent, Account Executive for All-In-Staffing

Working in an increasingly digital world, and staffing a technology-driven sector like manufacturing, it made sense for Mike and his team to go paperless. He had two goals: make it easier to get the right candidates through the door, and make better use of data. They partnered with PCRecruiter, and we recently helped them finish the leap from paper-based to online recruiting. Here’s their story.

There’s a huge labor shortage in our area. The process we’re using now – thanks to PCRecruiter and our web-based platform – helps us extend our reach.

Mike Trent, Account Executive, All-In-Staffing 

Before going paperless, All-In-Staffing operated a recruiting model familiar to many firms. They stored their candidate records on paper files, including extensive handwritten notes on a front sheet. It was a flawed system, but it worked — to a point. After first signing on with PCRecruiter in 2016, the team began tracking their process in the ATS, which made the recruiters’ work much simpler. However, the recruiters still had to manage transferring paper application responses into the system by hand.

Attracting the right applicants

In 2023, All-In Staffing decided to pursue the complete digitization and optimization of their application process. They realized that this would improve the candidate experience, and consequently fill more roles for their clients.

Before pushing into online recruiting, applicants would physically come into the office and complete a 19-page paper application for the open positions. The form-filling cost everyone a lot of time, potentially up to an hour, and wasn’t great for the candidate experience. There was also no ‘job board’ as such, and applicants needed to make an in-person visit or call the office to find out what was available.

On paper, there’s just no connection. You can’t connect the data at all. You can reference it, but there’s a lot of back and forth. Going digital enabled us to put candidates in the right places, and set everyone up for success.

Mike Trent, Account Executive, All-In-Staffing 

As a staffing firm, improving the candidate experience has been key to staying competitive during an ongoing labor shortage. All-In-Staffing has worked to overcome applicants’ negative perceptions of staffing firms and the myth that they only give candidates access to temporary, short-term placements. Becoming more appealing to applicants and changing their perceptions required a new, more digital approach.

Applying from anywhere, anytime 

Marissa Delgado, Office Manager at All-In Staffing

All-In Staffing’s Office Manager, Marissa Delgado, helped oversee the changes, training all the recruiters in the transition from paper to digital. She was well-placed to see the impact. 

Before going digital, many candidates were reluctant to go into the office, unwilling to waste gas or time on a position that wasn’t guaranteed. Online applications were fast becoming the norm, so All-In Staffing needed to meet candidates where they were. 

Working with a PCRecruiter consultant, Marissa and Mike reviewed their old on-paper forms and revised their data collection for the online world. They cut down on the work required of candidates, collecting only the necessary information.

Our online application now takes 20 minutes. Tops. Now applicants can do it from anywhere, as opposed to coming into our office. It saves them — and us — a lot of time.

Marissa Delgado, Office Manager, All-In Staffing

Not only has online recruiting made it easier for applicants, it’s also improved things from the recruiters’ standpoint as well. They can screen more candidates, and screen them before meeting in person, which saves everyone time. 

Making use of online recruiting data across locations

All-In Staffing found great efficiency improvements by eliminating the need for manual filing and the back and forth between the screen and a manual filing system. Not only do digital candidate records take up far less space than paper records, they’re also much easier to reference and share.

That’s especially important for All-In Staffing, who are distributed over three office locations. Regardless of where they’re based, their recruiters can now access every file without putting in a request to another office. Records are secure and centralized, which means they’re accessible and easy to update by everyone who needs them, when they need them.

The All-In Staffing Team, now moving ahead with digital recruiting
The All-In Staffing team poses in front of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in their hometown of Cleveland

Make a plan, make the change

Every firm and every recruiter has their own unique way of doing things, and going digital means change, which can be daunting. However, re-contextualizing a legacy paper-based process for the digital realm can also be a great opportunity to decide what information is actually needed at what step in the process.

Unlike a paper application, where everything must be collected at once, while the candidate is in the office or holding the paper, a digital format makes it easy to collect the minimum to get rolling and to augment the record via emailed questionnaires or other follow-ups if and when the extra details are required.

Going paperless means reimagining your processes and workflows in a whole new context. When done with forethought, expert guidance, and the right recruitment CRM / ATS, it benefits clients, candidates, and recruiters alike.

Discover how PCRecruiter can help digitize and optimize your recruitment processes. Book a demo

Every sector comes with its own unique set of recruitment challenges. The medical space is no exception. Sourcing qualified candidates for a wide range of roles – from Pediatric Allergists to General Radiologists – is no easy feat, especially when there’s a shortage of new talent coming through.

Spencer Britt
Spencer Britt, President of Britt Medical Search

Britt Medical Search have been members of the National Association of Physician Recruiters (NAPR) since 2016. Their dedicated team has built up a network of nearly 500,000 physicians, helping to fill roles in critical access facilities, medical groups, and hospitals.

Co-founder and President, Spencer Britt, spoke to us about the challenges of recruiting in the medical space, his passion for serving the healthcare sector, and how the right recruitment tech helps support the process.

It’s a people business

For recruiters, healthcare is a complex industry to navigate. It takes knowledge, experience, and expertise to understand the needs of healthcare organizations and connect them with the best candidates for their open roles. That’s why Spencer’s background in the health industry and MBA in Healthcare Management are invaluable tools for getting the job done. He understands the needs of different healthcare settings, and the depth and breadth of roles and specialties. 

Like many recruiters in the medical space, Spencer and his team are dealing with high volumes. They have hundreds of thousands of physicians on their books, and around 4,000 open requisitions. That’s why they need recruitment software — an ATS with CRM functionality — that can handle high volumes of data. 

I’m all about simplicity, and I’m a relationships guy – someone who’s not getting worked up about Artificial Intelligence!

Spencer Britt, Co-founder And President, Britt Medical Search

The current talent shortage (partly caused by limited access to fellowship and residency programs) means qualified candidates can cherry-pick their roles. Recruiters need to work fast to get the best candidates in front of a hiring manager. For that reason, candidate databases need clean, up-to-date, and accurate records that are easily searchable.

When sourcing and placing candidates in the medical sector, there are additional factors to consider, from board certification and relevant qualifications to any record of malpractice. Having customizable fields makes sourcing and selecting suitable candidates much easier.

Britt Medical Search’s mission is to get the right medical expertise into healthcare organizations that need it. They do a lot of recruiting for critical access facilities — something Spencer is passionate about. After all, recruitment is a people business.

Balancing generality and specialty

Recruiting in Healthcare
The current talent shortage (partly caused by limited access to fellowship and residency programs) means qualified candidates can cherry-pick their roles.

Like any recruitment sector, there are different approaches to recruiting and retaining top talent in healthcare. Some firms niche-down on a specialty, whereas others — Britt Medical Search included — take a more generalist approach. A lot of that comes down to belief.

Spencer and his team have the relevant expertise and experience to provide a generalist service that covers the full range of candidates and clients. They’re confident in their ability to take on that responsibility and to deliver the best outcomes for all parties. They’ve been doing it now for over 6 years and counting, so they must be getting something right!

PCRecruiter is super simple and intuitive to use. The ability to create unlimited custom fields to hold our particular data points is really important for the work we do.

Spencer Britt, Co-founder & President, Britt Medical Search

One key factor is that healthcare is ever-evolving. Being a generalist enables Spencer and his team to provide recruitment support wherever it’s needed, from placing an orthopedic specialist in New York to filling open positions for a nurse practitioner and a pediatrician in Oregon. 

With an intuitive yet powerful and customizable ATS/CRM at the center of their tech stack, Britt Medical Search is empowered to serve a broad community of medical professionals. They’re able to strike the right balance between generality and specialty.

The value of human interaction

Spencer enjoys the diversity and variety of his role. Like most recruiters, he thrives on human interaction. At Britt Medical Search, he handles new and continuing client communications while other team members focus on key aspects of data management, and moving candidates along their uniquely configured pipeline toward a placement.

For Spencer, it’s important that recruitment tech is not overly engineered. It needs to support the process, not get in the way of it. That’s because collaboration is the key to success. Spencer’s team collaborate and communicate with each other, and clients, to achieve a simple end goal: to find a great healthcare provider who can support a local community.  

PCRecruiter offers all we need for all the volume we have, which says a lot. I can’t underscore that enough. It’s been a real cornerstone for our base of client customers.

Spencer Britt, Co-founder And President, Britt Medical Search

Human interaction lies at the core of Britt Medical Search. They believe in the fundamentals of human communication. They know their roles, and they know how all of their efforts can work synergistically toward their goals. 

For Spencer, taking a human-centric approach to recruiting boils down to one thing: be easy to reach. It’s that ability to be responsive and contactable in and around people’s busy schedules that make the difference in a high-volume recruitment sector like healthcare. That, together with the right recruitment tech.

No matter what space you recruit in – whether you’re in permanent placement, contracting, or HR sourcing – PCRecruiter makes it easier to do more of what matters most: interacting with people. 

Book a demo

It’s easy to see the appeal of a 360-degree recruitment cycle and the potential to earn big fees. But with recruiters focused on full-fee placements, firms can often miss out on the untapped value of internal splits. Sure, internal splits won’t suit every recruitment setup, but done right they can bring exceptional results. Just ask the Bowerman Group.

Rob Bowerman
Rob Bowerman, President — The Bowerman Group

For the fourth year in a row, the Bowerman Group has been recognized by Forbes as one of America’s Best Executive Recruiting Firms. They’ve been using PCRecruiter for five years.

As a boutique search firm specializing in premium and luxury consumer brands, they’re experts in all things retail, ecommerce, and marketing. Not only that, they’ve got the workflow of internal split-desk recruitment down to a fine art.

Michelle Catucci
Michelle Catucci, Executive Recruiter — The Bowerman Group

We recently discussed the topic of internal splits and their value to the recruitment business with President, Rob Bowerman, and Executive Recruiter, Michelle Catucci, to discover more about how they power their process with internal splits.

What is a split placement?

A split placement occurs when a job order is handled by two separate parties — typically the lead recruiter and the researcher. Each party takes charge of a different aspect of the placement. 

The lead recruiter handles the client’s job order while the researcher supplies the candidates. When the placement is made, each person involved takes their cut of the fee. This can happen within a firm or between firms. 

How do internal splits work?

While there’s definitely a place for inter-agency splits, the way Bowerman Group does it (and does so highly effectively) is through internal splits. Here’s how internal splits work:

When a search comes in to a recruiter, both the lead recruiter and the researcher are (ideally) part of the kick-off meeting. This is particularly important for the researcher, who needs to gather as much information as possible about the role before seeking potential candidates.

Bowerman Group begin their search inside PCRecruiter, having built up a private database of quality candidates over the years, but additional, high-caliber candidates are also sought out externally and added to the list. PCRecruiter’s PCR Capture is a great advantage here because it allows the researcher to quickly generate records for potential candidates from online sources such as LinkedIn. 

All notes are kept inside the system, so previous correspondence or engagement with a particular candidate is instantly available. This is a time-saving advantage, as recently placed candidates or those who aren’t the right fit are easily dismissed, allowing engagement with the right ones more quickly. 

“Copious notes go into PCRecruiter. So when I’m making a new search, if one of my colleagues has touched this area in the last year – it keeps me from wasting time with candidates who aren’t the right fit.”

– Michelle Catucci, Executive Recruiter, Bowerman Group

Once a successful match is made, the candidate is turned over to the lead recruiter with all the information they need to make their presentations. Throughout the process, candidates are tracked by the software, from first contact through to offers accepted.

When a placement is completed, the split is entered into PCRecruiter, identifying the lead recruiter and the researcher. At the Bowerman Group, it’s acknowledged that this is not always clear-cut, especially when someone else — often a research assistant or another recruiter — has made a contribution to the placement. So whenever necessary, they also credit a third person in the split when sharing with the accounting team. Users of the PCR Analytics can also log and report on these split calculations across time, reporting on team and team member contributions to KPIs.

Internal splits add all-round value

For the Bowerman Group and their clients, offering a single point of contact is essential. Within that client relationship, the firm will perform a variety of searches. They’ll cover a variety of open roles, from a training manager to an executive.

“Our number one tip for making splits a success? Have a really good process. That’s the key. Sometimes it feels like it’s patented because we now have it down to a science!”

–  Rob Bowerman, President, Bowerman Group

Internally, responsibility for the research and screening will go to the person with the most relevant expertise, while the single point of contact is someone who knows the client and has built a relationship with them, This is maintained at all times. It’s hugely valuable because it means clients don’t feel as though they’re being ping-ponged from one person to another.

At the same time, this internal split means the lead recruiter can give the client access to the best possible expertise for a particular type of role. This helps to strengthen and increase the value of their relationship.

The Bowerman Group attributes much of their success to their process — something they’re worked hard to refine over the years. That includes a second screening with the lead recruiter, so they can confidently explain why someone is being presented as a good fit.

Making internal splits work for you

“I really enjoy digging into PCRecruiter and reformatting how we present candidates using a key points page, and resume page. The client can always see everything — there’s a link, so they can forward that link to anyone in the company who wants to look at it.”

– Michelle Catucci, Executive Recruiter, Bowerman Group

Internal splits allow recruiters to play to their strengths. It’s a collaborative model that also helps with economies of scale. At Bowerman Group, this model has evolved organically over time, with specialisms emerging based on background experience and personal preference. Those recruiters who thrive in frontend roles are given room to thrive, and those who enjoy the sourcing side are able to focus on their research efforts. 


There are more formalized ways of working out there — such as the pod system — but ultimately it’s about finding a process that works for you and your clients. A simple-to-use ATS / Candidate Relationship Management system can help support your process so you can find the information you need when you need it the most. 

PCRecruiter offers a visual and easy-to-follow pipeline that indicates every step of your process. Book a demo

Whether your recruiters are in the office or at home, the safety of candidate and company data is a priority. A breach can be costly for your recruitment efforts, your finances, and your reputation. As with any remote role, recruitment comes with its own risks. But with the correct knowledge, clear policies, and the right recruitment software, you and your remote recruitment team can keep data safe.

Risks To Data In Remote Recruiting

More and more people are getting used to remote interactions as part of the recruitment process and efforts to attract the best talent with a view to hiring them. The risks to data privacy in recruitment are similar to many other professions.

Remote lawyers, accountants — even mobile engineers — need systems for keeping data safe. Hardware risks arise when users bring their own device as opposed to a company-issued one. This isn’t a major issue for large enterprises that supply employees with equipment, but it may be a concern for third-party recruiters and smaller recruiting firms.

A home workstation (photo by Elle Hughes)
Working from home can be as secure as working from the office with the proper protocols in place.

Another obvious risk to data is when remote third-party recruiters work for multiple clients and potentially use data from one client to benefit another. For employers, there’s the inherent risk that an unscrupulous remote third-party recruiter, working on their behalf, might attempt to entice talent away to another client. This ethical (and possibly legal) problem is part of a more general challenge around the performance management of remote workers. This is especially relevant in recruitment niches where the key candidates and hiring authorities are well-known to major players.

Legal Implications

Remote recruiting often, but not always, aligns with recruiting across multiple jurisdictions with different employment and contracting laws. This too can create issues around compliance with different data privacy regulations – such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) from the European Union (EU).

In the US, social security and financial account information are the only protected pieces of personal data. This is different in other parts of the world. At the same time, legal cases such as the commercial use of a subject’s data are constantly challenging what can and can’t be done with data. In short, recruiters need to be better informed about the candidates and companies they’re working with, and what the legal relationships are.   

The good news is that Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and CRM like CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE have always been suitable for remote work. That’s because users can be in different locations when they sign in, but the database is centrally and securely located in one place. 

9 Recruitment Data Security Considerations

If your team is going to be handling recruitment data remotely, here are nine key points you’ll want to bear in mind:

  1. Technology: Getting your technology stack in order has to be the number one priority for all recruiters — not just those working remotely. This includes everything from communication platforms right through to trust and verification technology for managing performance metrics.
  2. Legality: Alongside your tech stack, recruitment firms and in-house HR teams need to ensure clarity over legal requirements at local, national, and international levels. Ownership of the data is also important to fully understand — who owns it, who’s responsible for it, and which rules apply.
  3. Form management: Another key consideration arises when your recruitment processes involves the distribution, management, and processing of forms. You’ll need to be certain that the data is securely transmitted, securely held, and be aware of who’s responsible for it.
  4. Contractual obligations: Recruitment firms can also ensure that compensation for contractors or employees is dependent on their data compliance and classification. By making it a job requirement for data to be entered cleanly into the system, the sources and the audit trail are made transparent and complete.
  5. Virtual Private Network (VPN): A core piece in remote security is the ability to lock down recruitment software within your company’s VPN and to and not store data like social security numbers unencrypted on a local device.
  6. IP Restrictions: By imposing restrictions that only allow a specific range of IP addresses to access data, business owners can limit access. Using IP restrictions means that even a compromised password is cannot allow unauthorized users into the system. 
  7. Remote desktop: Running your work desktop remotely via another connected device is another option for controlling access to data and monitoring its use. This is less common today thanks to browser-based software, but tools like Chrome Remote Desktop have also made it more convenient.
  8. Control measures: Establishing what the appropriate permissions are for each user of your recruitment software — and each kind of remote worker — ensures recruiters only see what they need to see, and can only access data that’s relevant to their role. 
  9. Data disposal: Different regulations exist determining record retention and destruction. Recruitment firms, as well as in-house teams, need to know how to store and destroy data accordingly. One example is the I9 form in the US, which must be kept for 3 years.

Considerations such as these need to be addressed at the contact stage between the customer and the vendor. That’s especially important when the data held is aggregated over an extended time period. A further consideration is the difference between data held online and data physically kept in disconnected cold storage.

The Security Features Recruiters Need

PCRecruiter’s built-in security functionality makes it the safe choice for remote recruiting. Here’s a list of some of the most popular security features:

  • IP whitelisting, which means only trusted IP addresses can access your recruitment data.
  • Permissions and preferences that enable you to impose limitations on a recruiter’s views and access to particular functions.
  • IP-tagged action logs so you can monitor where and when users are accessing the system, as well as what major actions are being taken.
  • Two-factor authentication (2FA) helps provide assurance that the loss of a password doesn’t automatically compromise your recruiter’s account.
  • Multi-database functionality allows you to keep datasets separate and secure from cross-contamination.
  • Field-level encryption means you can protect sensitive data in particular fields.
  • The ability to host PCRecruiter locally allows it to run on a private ‘air-gapped’ network where required.  

When it comes to keeping data safe, remote recruiting is not substantially different from other forms of remote sales. In fact, the nature of remote recruiting encourages companies to more carefully consider the security of their recruitment practices. 

These practices include the processes used to build and validate trust in remote workers. Of course, it also helps to choose a CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE vendor with highly-configurable security and remote features.  

Managing remote recruiters? PCRecruiter can help keep data safe. Speak to our sales team. Contact us.

Today’s PCRecruiter software update includes a variety of issue corrections and performance enhancements, including subtle changes that are more important than they might seem at first glance.

A small change – an iceberg’s tip.

Previous PCRecruiter Buttons
Updated PCRecruiter Buttons

Eagle-eyed PCR users may notice the switch from rounded to more squared corners on buttons throughout the system in this update. While this may on it’s face appear to be a minor change, it’s actually one small piece of preparation for very big changes we’re working on for the future.

This alteration was a necessary part of code adjustments we’re doing on the system that help bring our PCR 9 code base in line with the newer frameworks we’re developing with for the eventual release of PCR 10. What looks like a simple button style change in this new release is actually a tiny piece of the groundwork we’re laying for some incredible new UX/UI improvements down the line!

Analytics Metrics Improvements

PCR Analytics users will note three new improvements when viewing the Metrics tables:

  • In earlier versions, Grand Totals appeared at the bottom of each column – for example, a total of ‘Email’ activities for all users. In our newest release, a Total for each row appears at the right side as well so that the total count of activities for each user is also present.
  • Column headings in the metrics can now be clicked on to sort the table by that selected column.
  • When using the ‘export’ feature, the data table output will be sorted in the same order as shown on the screen so that no re-sorting is required after opening the exported sheet.

Splits in the New Pipeline

Recruiters who have SplitDesk features enabled and configured can now enter and calculate splits in our newer Pipeline screens in the same fashion as the legacy Pipeline tools.

Add Splits on Each Step
Each Step can now have split percentages, giving the newer Pipeline similar capabilities to the legacy version in regards to calculations.

For most recruiters (and certainly HR), an Applicant Tracking System sits front and center in their recruitment tech stack. The ATS is much more than a repository of resumes and jobs. It’s a vital tool for streamlining day-to-day operations and optimizing the management of jobs, applicants, and employers.

Getting the best out of your ATS helps your recruiters make better hiring decisions and improve hiring efficiency. The trick is knowing how. Here are 5 tips for getting the best from your ATS. 

1. Configure your ATS to fit your unique process

Every recruitment firm and HR team has its own unique workflow. There might be shared best practices, but no two recruiters do things in exactly the same way. For that reason, a good ATS should be customizable to your specific needs. 

While ease of use is important, one common problem with out-of-the-box solutions is that they can be too streamlined and not flexible enough to match how you want to use them. At the same time, a solution that’s overly customizable can require time and effort to set up, which you may simply not have or which would be better spent making placements. 

For most recruiters, the sweet spot is an ATS that can be easily customized and configured around their existing recruitment workflows. They also need a level of out-of-the-box functionality to save time and improve efficiency in certain areas like job postings and candidate communication. 

2. Track recruitment metrics from day one

Recruitment is a data-rich industry. Whether you’re a new recruiter or you’ve been in the business a long time, data can give you a competitive advantage. In fact, there’s almost no end to the ways you can use it to enhance and refine what you do. It can show you where your successes are and give you a platform to build on.  

With built-in analytics and reporting tools, your ATS can give you insights into any activity or any step in your hiring pipeline. These numbers can help you streamline your processes and even enable you to remove pieces that aren’t working. For instance, you might want to track the number of communications with different clients or candidates to figure out whether you’re contacting them too much or not enough. You could also see which communication channels are getting the most responses. 

The PCR Analytics reporting system gives recruitment team leaders a graphic representation of KPIs.

Features like PCR Analytics help you go deeper into the details, surfacing insights from particular recruitment campaigns and showing you what’s successful so you can replicate it in the future. Not only can an ATS provide valuable data on your recruitment metrics, such as time-to-hire and cost-per-hire, but it can also be used to track the performance of certain teams or individuals to see where their strengths are. 

The metrics you decide to track really depend on your business. However, it’s always worth keeping an eye on these numbers:

  • The number of placements you’re making for specific clients
  • How many candidates you’re reviewing for specific positions
  • How many interviews you’re doing, who’s doing them, and the success rate

3. Define a workflow and make it uniform

Following a standardized sequence also helps create consistency. After all, if everyone’s doing something slightly different, you won’t know what’s working properly and what needs to be adjusted. Ultimately, a team that makes more effective use of your ATS will improve your overall recruitment efforts.

It’s not uncommon to have multiple roles within one sourcing and placement workflow, so sequencing is also useful when different team members are working on different parts of the process. It’s important that your tools keep everyone involved in the process on the same page.

With PCRecruiter’s Sequencing Tool, you can make it easy for recruiters to get going with both the software and your recruitment processes at the same time. This is great for onboarding new recruiters, as they can simply open up their Tasks for the day and follow the instructions. 

4. Keep your recruitment data updated 

Currently in beta, the latest PCR Capture will help keep your database clear of duplicates.

With so many name records, company records, and position records flying about, it doesn’t take long for your recruitment data to become cluttered and outdated. Dirty data can slow down the hiring process because recruiters aren’t able to find what they need when they need it. 

PCRecruiter has a number of tools for keeping your records updated – including reports which let you search for duplicate records and merge data fields quickly and easily. In fact, the upcoming version of PCR Capture slated for June 2023 identifies possible duplicates when candidate data is captured from an online source and allows users to select the most up-to-date data before merging them into a single record.

When it comes to recruitment data, the best practice is to schedule regular clean-ups of your data every few months or so, as incremental and regular cleanups are far easier than large and infrequent ones.

5. Train your recruiting team to use your ATS

With all of the functionality at their fingertips, training your recruitment team on the essentials is an important first step. Recruiters will be working in your ATS on a daily basis — in some cases never stepping outside of it — so it’s important to ensure that your team is trained on how to use it effectively. This includes how best to search for candidates, screen resumes, and schedule interviews. 

No matter what ATS you use, take advantage of the support, documentation, and user training options available to you. Ask for best practices and tips on making your job easier. The software’s support team can often suggest methods that may not be immediately obvious, or help devise ways of achieving your goals more quickly.

A final word of ATS advice  

It sounds obvious, but when you’re paying for an ATS, the best thing you can do is use it!

With so many features and options for enhancing the recruitment process, there will always be opportunities to optimize what you do and how you do it in order to improve the efficiency of your recruiting efforts. 

Chances are if a part of your recruiting process is repetitive, there’s a way to automate it.  The great thing about PCRecruiter is that our training and support team is always on hand to help simplify your day-to-day workflow with the simple click of a button. 

See how to get the best from your ATS. Book a demo

From a recruiting industry standpoint, it’s often assumed that increased labor mobility equates with increased job change velocity, which is a positive factor for recruiting activity. However, this trend may be starting to shift.

A man leaving a business.

In recent years, the United States has seen an increase in workers leaving and changing jobs — a phenomenon known as “The Great Resignation.” The reasons behind this trend are not yet entirely clear. Possible explanations include health and safety concerns, workers reevaluating their work-life balance, and the effects of remote work.

Some argue that “The Great Resignation” is merely a result of fluctuations in the business cycle. This trend is a reversal of the long-term decline in labor mobility that began in the 1980s and was reflected in various data, including the job-to-job transition rate and the number of hirings and separations. The ‘quits’ rate, which measures the proportion of jobs that workers quit in a given month, provides insight into labor mobility.

The Rising Rate of Quits

Until roughly 2017, the quits rate reflected the overall decline in labor mobility during this period, particularly during the Great Recession. The more recent pandemic-induced recession caused a sharp decline in job mobility, particularly in voluntary job changes. However, the quits rate has grown since that time, peaking at 3% and remaining comfortably above any pre-pandemic level.

The reasons for this sudden increase in labor mobility are disputed, with some arguing that it is temporary and others seeing it as a long-term trend. The potential benefits of increased mobility are significant, especially for young workers, but there are also concerns about increased uncertainty and inefficiency in the labor market.

Nobody knows what is currently driving or inhibiting labor mobility.

Ultimately, economists will need to develop models and test them empirically to gain a rigorous and thoughtful understanding of what the current trend in labor mobility means for American workers. In other words, nobody knows what is currently driving or inhibiting labor mobility.

The Rising Rate of Mortgage Interest

Another wrinkle is the rise in interest rates over the past 18 months, leading to an increase in housing mortgage finance rates. This has resulted in homeowners being effectively locked into their mortgages.

A new paper by Professors Julia Fonseca and Lu Liu reveals that homeowners with mortgages in the US can only move to a different home after paying off their existing mortgage and then refinancing their home with a new mortgage. Those caught in a mortgage lock-in can only relocate by buying a cheaper home or increasing their earnings, in addition to covering the costs of moving and refinancing.

The paper’s authors build their case around the metric of the mortgage rate differential, which is the difference between the mortgage rate locked in at purchase and the current market rate. The paper found that a decline in mortgage rate differentials reduces moving rates, which could explain a decline in moving by around 25% between 2018 and the next 10 years.

Household-specific mortgage rate deltas (Δr), measured as the difference between the mortgage rate that the household locked in at the time of mortgage origination and the current average 30-year fixed mortgage rate.
Household-specific mortgage rate deltas (Δr), measured as the difference between the mortgage rate that the household locked in at the time of mortgage origination and the current average 30-year fixed mortgage rate. (Fonseca / Liu)

Additionally, the study found that mortgage lock-in discourages labor mobility. Interestingly, the U.K. and Canada have a different mortgage market, where many more home loans are assumable and portable —i.e. the loan can follow an owner to a different dwelling. Such reforms in US practice could have a material effect on labor mobility.

The Rise of Remote Work

In our opinion at Main Sequence Technology, the ‘X factor’ in this situation is remote work and the increasing digitization of any business processes that’s amenable to virtual performance.

Recently released Census data shows that remote work has increased unevenly across the United States, with the highest rate of remote work being in Washington, DC, followed by San Francisco, CA, and Austin, TX. Remote work is clustered along coastal areas and mega-growth cities, but is also prevalent in a variety of other places.

The remote work share has rocketed from 5.6% in 2019 to 17.9% in 2021 to an estimated 33.5% for 2023 at the national level, meaning more than a third of all workers are able to do their jobs away from a fixed office at least part of the time. Remote work is related to occupation mix, higher education levels, longer commute times, and more expensive housing markets.

We assume that remote work will accelerate labor mobility velocity, while higher interest rates may inhibit labor mobility. It remains unknown, and unknowable, what effect future policy or social changes may have on labor mobility, as the pandemic emphatically demonstrated. Recruiting looks to benefit from current trends, as there is no sign of remote work or digitization slowing, even in the face of potential recession and already-felt rises in the real costs of borrowing.


Martin Snyder is a co-founder and Principal at Main Sequence Technology, Inc.

What started out as a good intention – using legacy hiring data to streamline the candidate screening process – had the unintended consequence of perpetuating hiring bias. In the case of one online retail giant, recruitment AI learned to exclude particular groups of people from certain roles.

As of 2023, New York has legislated against ‘automated employment decision rules’. Other states are sure to follow. Clearly, the use of AI in recruitment isn’t quite there – yet. (When it comes to artificial intelligence (AI) in recruitment, you probably already know the story so far. If you don’t, then we highly recommend that you check out our blog post about the potential and the pitfalls.)

However, what these developments have done is help highlight how technology could be used to support diversity and inclusivity in recruitment. Let’s take a closer look.

Overcoming Historical Bias 

When recruitment AI takes historical hiring data, let’s say for software developers, it discovers a historical trend. In this example, the hiring trend leans towards white males of a certain age. So when the AI uses this data to potentially screen candidates for a software developer position – guess what? It screens out candidates who don’t fit the criteria. Therein lies the problem with using ‘automated employment decision rules’ – they’re susceptible to historical bias.

If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get the same result.

What recruitment AI has exposed is an inherent structural issue within the employment market where groups of people were not getting shortlisted, not getting interviewed, and not getting hired because of who they were as opposed to what they could do. What we’re seeing today is an adjustment to that inequality through a confluence of history and technology which enables recruiters to not only create a more inclusive workforce, but to proactively recruit talent from more diverse backgrounds. 

Offering distance-based roles is just one example of how employers and their recruiters can reach a wider and more diverse talent pool by looking beyond their city limits or state lines into previously overlooked communities or social groups. Similarly, ATS and CRM software can help recruiters specifically target a wider demographic of candidates, which simultaneously improves their chances of acquiring the right talent for the right role.

Facilitating Diversity Of Thought

As organizations actively seek to increase the diversity of their workforce and create more inclusive environments, it falls to recruiters to increase the appeal of open roles to a broader audience. That means positioning the company’s employer brand and job postings in a way that appeals to many different types of individuals, irrespective of their age, skin color, sexual orientation, or gender. Through their recruiting efforts, employers need to ensure that underrepresented groups become an integral part of their organization. Groups of people who have been overlooked in the past will need greater opportunity to not only get hired, but also progress into leadership roles.

Diversity comes in many different forms.

One of the great things about increasing workforce diversity is that it brings in new ideas and perspectives. It’s healthy for organizations to encourage diversity of thought, and to openly welcome and facilitate a range of viewpoints, which can ultimately help to drive business forward. Instead of speaking with one voice, companies can embrace a range of different voices and therefore increase their appeal to people from different backgrounds.

The other benefit of having a diverse and inclusive workforce is that it makes everyone feel more welcome. In turn, this increases employee happiness. A happier workforce is usually a more productive one. A more productive workforce creates better business success and increased revenues. 

Technology As A Force For Good

Diversity and Inclusion in the work environment is highest in stock photos.
Studies show that workplace diversity is at it’s peak among employees depicted in stock photography.

Unfortunately, some employers might look at a stack of resumes and discount potential candidates based on their name alone. If the name didn’t sound “right,” if it wasn’t the sort of name that was perceived to traditionally fit with a certain role, it ended up in the ‘no’ pile. Studies as recent as 2021 have shown that name discrimination is still having an impact. This means some of the best, well-qualified talent may be out of the running even before the race has even begun.

These days, recruitment technology allows recruiters to proactively search for a more diverse range of candidates based on factors beyond their name. This needs to be carefully aligned with the recruiter’s fundamental purpose, which is to bring in the best talent for the role, whoever they may be. 

Ultimately, organizations need recruiting practices that ensure their workforce reflects the totality of the population they serve; while getting the best available talent. To that end, recruiters need an ATS with the ability to search for candidates based on a range of quantifiable skill sets. 

At the same time, the way in which recruiters source, track, and recruit individuals needs to be transparent and compliant with the laws of a city, state, or country. The right ATS and CRM platform can help recruiters ensure that a more diverse range of candidates make the cut, helping the organizations they serve to become more inclusive. 

PCRecruiter is a powerful recruitment platform which partners with a range of systems and services that provide cutting-edge recruitment tools. View our integrations and partners.

Search engine optimization (SEO) helps websites improve their web page visibility on search engines like Google. SEO is primarily used by digital marketers to increase traffic to websites, generate leads, and increase revenue.

In the world of inbound recruiting and staffing, your job descriptions are your primary content, and writing them should be done with search engines in mind. How can recruiters use SEO techniques to improve the chances of their job descriptions being discovered and shared online? 

We spoke to Steve Gipson, Sales Manager at Recruiters Websites, and to PCRecruiter job board implementation guru Andrew Rothman, to find out more. 

What is a search engine optimized job description?

A search engine optimized job description is one which has been created using SEO best practices in order to increase its visibility on search results. This can help drive potential candidates to a recruiter’s website.

SEO is the practice of improving the visibility of websites and web pages in organic search engine results pages (SERP). While this can involve optimizing various aspects of the back-end, like the page title, meta title and meta description, the goal for the content on the front end is to provide the most relevant content for the user’s intent. 

User intent can be broken into three categories: informational, navigational and transactional. Put simply: know, go and do. It determines what sort of content users are looking for. Here are three common examples of user intent in recruitment content: 

Informational

The user is seeking information about a particular job role, career path or potential employer within a certain industry. Their search terms might include phrases like ‘what is’ or ‘how do I become’ or ‘where can I find’.

Navigational

The user is looking for job postings from a particular company where they would ideally like to work. They’re likely to search using terms like the company name, their location and the word ‘careers’. 

Transactional

The user knows they want to apply for a specific job role and is seeking a way to begin that process. Their search terms might include words like ‘apply’ or ‘job application form’.

A search engine optimized job description will incorporate SEO fundamentals, relevant on-page content, and specific keywords to make it more visible to prospective candidates searching for a specific role within a specific industry, and in a specific location.

The job description itself is informational content, but when it forms part of a job posting that sits on a company website it also needs to meet the needs of navigational users looking for that specific role, as well as transactional users who already know they want to apply for it. 

That’s why it’s important to include clear information with relevant industry and role keywords.

Why ‘search engine optimize’ a job description?

Studies show that 75% of people don’t go beyond the first page of the SERP. In other words, the majority of people won’t scroll past the first eight organic search results on Google. For job seekers, this means they largely end up on major sites like LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter, or Indeed. No matter how good your SEO practices are, an independent company or recruiting firm’s job listings are unlikely to out-rank the big guys because Google knows those sites are the most-clicked results. However, you can still help to raise your jobs above others for more granular searches.

And that’s where search engine optimized job descriptions come in. If your job posting lives on a web page on a company or recruitment website, and it’s been correctly optimized, it stands a much better chance of getting picked up through organic search.

While it’s good recruitment practice to combine SEO with paid advertising, organic search is the equivalent of free advertising.

Even if the role advertised is not exactly what the candidate was looking for, this might be the first time a speculative jobseeker has stumbled across your organization and/or the first time they’ve visited your website. This gives you a chance to really showcase your brand, and start to build a relationship with them.   

Techniques for optimizing job descriptions

There are many tried and tested techniques for SEO. With almost 86% of the search market, Google is the go-to source for most web searchers. Google’s algorithms determine which organic content ranks highest (beneath paid ads), so it’s important to follow the best practices to maximize the visibility of your job descriptions. 

Here are nine techniques to help you optimize your job descriptions:

➀ Keep job titles clear and simple 

Putting the job title in the page title, and meta title of your page when possible, will help it get picked up by Google and give it a clear title when the page is shared. If you can, include the company name as well. The key here is to be clear and simple using common, unabbreviated industry terminology.  Use the title phrasing that your jobseekers are likely to use.

➁ Incorporate keywords and phrases

When describing a specific role, you’re naturally going to include keywords associated with that particular role and industry. If you want to be more precise with what to include, take a look at a competitor’s top ranking job description from the search results and scan it for relevant words.  Remember to use the phrases a job seeker might use when searching.

➂ Avoid ‘keyword stuffing’

Repetition of a keyword phrase is important, to a point, but Google is increasingly good at prioritizing natural-sounding content. After all, a search engine’s success relies on the quality of results it returns, and nobody wants to be taken to a page they can’t make sense of. Simply repeating the same keyword or phrase over and over again can be detrimental. At most, aim for three mentions for every 400-500 words. And never employ trickery like hiding keywords in white text on a white background.

➃ Use smaller chunks of text

Like most human readers, Google finds it easier to read easily-digestible chunks of text. So it’s essential to break up your text using clear headings (H2s and H3s in SEO-speak) and bullet points. Your HTML editor will have tools for adding Headings. Try to keep your job description text clear and concise. Use bullet points for things like required experience or workplace benefits, but keep them short and sweet. Five bullets at a time is ideal. If you’re approaching double figures, you’ve gone too far. 

➄ Avoid duplicate content

A search engine that returns link after link to the exact same content is not going to be very useful! Job descriptions are no different. When Google finds the same job on multiple sites, their algorithm has to decide which one is the ‘most important’ – that’s likely the direct-hire employer’s own website, or a major job board site. By making sure that your job description isn’t too similar to any other, you increase the chances of it being found. This also applies to jobs within your own job board! If you have multiple job postings that are identical aside from the title or location, search engines are apt to ignore them, and may even down-rank your entire job board as a source of low-quality content.

➅ Include geographical information 

Your prospective candidates are almost certainly using geographical location in their searches. By ensuring your job description contains relevant keywords such as the state, city, or county together with the job title, you’re in a much stronger position to be seen by candidates with a specific destination in mind. If you’re advertising a confidential opening, give as much location information as you can manage, or list the job with the nearest major city to get regional searchers.

➆ Use internal and external links

Making connections is as important to SEO as it is to recruitment. A search engine cannot index what it cannot find, so more connections to and between jobs is beneficial. If you can, include relevant links to other parts of your website or to other jobs in your job descriptions, and use job boards and social media shares to make your links discoverable outside of your site.

➇ Include relevant visual media

A job description is a job description, but by simply embedding a short relevant video — either about your company or the role — you not only enhance your SEO, but also provide more appealing and engaging content to potential candidates. If you are using the PCRecruiter Job Board, talk to a rep about adding YouTube or Vimeo links to custom fields for display on your postings.

Final thoughts on SEO optimized job descriptions

Ultimately, job postings are web content like any other page. When you think about it, a job description that’s been optimized for search engines is actually a job description optimized to properly engage potential hires. If you want your content to be appealing to Google, make it sure that it meets the user’s search intent.


PCRecruiter offers a flexible job board that you can use to easily frame your own positions inside of your website and to collect candidates directly into your talent pool. For larger volume job boards or more specific SEO requirements, talk to us about options for more advanced configurations.

Here’s the conundrum. Employers want to reward loyalty. So they value tenure and they value experience. At the same time, many workers are looking to increase their remuneration. So they move companies more frequently, each time with the expectation of moving forward financially.

Jeff Kaye
Jeff Kaye, Co-CEO of Kaye/Bassman International and Next Level Exchange

Consequently, employers are faced with the challenges of conflicting motivations.

On the one hand, they need to reward loyalty. On the other hand, they need to attract the best talent. It’s a balancing act between making the right offer to secure the best talent today, and retaining top talent in the long term.

For this blog post, we once again spoke with industry expert Jeff Kaye, Co-CEO of Kaye / Bassman, to share his insights into the main factors impacting pay today.

Geographic Location 

Are you paying people based on the role that they’re providing, or paying them based on the context of their cost-of-living situation?

Jeff Kaye, Co-CEO, Kaye / Bassman

The pandemic was a catalyst for distance-based working. In sectors where it’s been successful, it’s created trends for greater flexibility in terms of working location. Remote-only and hybrid roles have become increasingly common. Due to regional differences in the cost of living, this has created a push-pull effect. 

A man working remotely from the mountains.

When a company is based in an area with a high cost of living, and the work can be done remotely, employees can still command premium wages. They can also decide to relocate to an area with lower living costs.

At the same, by opening up distance-based roles, companies searching for the right hires can take their pick from a broader talent pool, searching beyond their city or state. If hiring locally is more expensive, they can acquire talent from an area with a lower cost of living and, in theory, pay them less. 

Of course, regardless of where a company’s headquarters are located, some organizations have to compete against each other irrespective of localized differences in the cost of living. In talent-driven markets, some companies are willing to do whatever it takes to bring the best talent on board. Likewise, local businesses which offer products or services within a particular city or state, need to pay their employees in line with the local cost of living to attract and retain the right talent, almost by default.

Company Cost Structures

Organizations based in areas with a higher cost of living either have lower margins or lower cost structures. One way to lower cost structure is through a geographically dispersed workforce.

Jeff Kaye, Co-CEO, Kaye / Bassman

Companies in certain fast-moving industries — particularly those in the technology sector — are changing their approach to office space. Where hybrid or distanced-based working is viable, companies can strategically cut down on square footage. One trend is for companies to open up smaller satellite offices, which provide smaller, more flexible working spaces. From decreasing the size of physical office space to becoming an entirely remote organization, some companies are leveraging distance-based working to cut costs.

A CFO speaking with one of her coworkers.

There are other economic factors which impact overall company cost structures. In industries which are heavily backed by venture capitalists – such as technology – some companies have been given incredibly high valuations. To kick-start and sustain growth, they’ve invested heavily in recruitment, attracting talent with extremely competitive remuneration packages. But that can only continue for so long.*

Already we’re starting to see a plateau and normalization of wages in the face of potential economic downturn. But pay is impacted by multiple factors. Alongside macroeconomics, there’s where the talent is located, and above all else — supply and demand.

Hand It To Hiring Managers

What are companies doing to create an environment which attracts and retains the best talent, one that goes beyond where you can work and the benefits to you?

Jeff Kaye, Co-CEO, Kaye / Bassman

Regardless of the company location, the availability of talent, the compensation, or the opportunity for distance-based working – a great hiring manager can make the difference in getting the right talent through the door at the right price for both the employee and the company. 

The hiring manager is the coach. They create a culture that makes working for an organization desirable – and raise the level of engagement. Interestingly, some of the best companies to work for are also the most profitable. That’s because employees want to work for them, and so location and financial benefits are not the only determining factors.  

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again – recruitment is a people business. See how PCRecruiter helps to keep it that way. Discover our tech.

* As a side note, Main Sequence Technology, the company behind PCRecruiter, has always been self-capitalized and owned/operated by its founders. This has led to a quarter-century of growth and stability.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the world of work. That much is certain. For most industries, the big question is how it will change the way people work. With all the noise around AI tools – like ChatGPT – and what they can and can’t do (or what they should and shouldn’t do) it’s easy to forget one thing: AI can make social recruiting easier and more effective.

Any digital tools – AI or not – that enable recruiters to spend less time on repetitive and time-consuming tasks and more time engaging with clients and candidates have got to be a good thing.

Darren Westall, CEO of Paiger
Darren Westall, CEO of Paiger

Social recruiting is great, but building an engaging personal brand and consistency at every touchpoint can make serious demands on your time. This is where an AI assistant really comes into its own.

To discover how easy it is to enhance social recruiting with AI, we spoke to Darren Westall, CEO of Paiger, the AI marketing assistant built for recruiters and salespeople.

Build A Better Network 

People buy from people. LinkedIn has moved away from being a headhunting tool to being a social network for professionals.

– Darren Westall, CEO, Paiger

Let’s face it, posting job ads across multiple social media channels and job boards is a time-consuming task. Especially when you want to maintain consistency, avoid unintentional bias, and present a cohesive and appealing employer brand. There’s a lot of extra work involved. From manually entering details about a company and a role to setting up the correct metadata and choosing a captivating and on-brand image – it’s all time taken away from core activities. But it’s also a social recruiting essential. 

For professional platforms such as LinkedIn, in the last 5 years or so, the balance has started to shift. They’re no longer just another space to headhunt or be headhunted; they’re somewhere to grow a professional social network and develop a personal brand for both businesses and people. They’re also a space where companies can build their brand as an employer to increase their appeal to ideal candidates.

And yet, 95% of people and businesses don’t actually share content on LinkedIn. This represents a huge missed opportunity. For employers and their recruiters, putting together engaging social content can help tease out passive candidates. Get social recruiting right, and it can surface hidden talent. The challenge, as always, is the time and cost it takes to create this content.

Cut Through The Noise

I don’t expect a recruiter in the software development space to understand Python. I do expect them to know the average salary for a Python developer with machine learning experience, based in London.

– Darren Westall, CEO, Paiger

Getting the attention of passive talent across different sectors from healthcare to software development takes carefully crafted content posted in the right places. A good starting point is to think about where your potential candidates are, who they are, and which social networks they’re likely to spend time on. That information then determines where to invest in terms of social recruiting. 

Social media platforms are busy places. Standing out from the crowd is no easy feat and, according to the statistics, only 5% of people and businesses are posting. The effort it takes to cut through the noise requires creativity and confidence. Sadly, many brands feel they don’t have the right to occupy a particular space. They question their own authority: are they really the expert? 

Recruitment is one of those industries which can quickly become very niche. For that reason, there’s sometimes a lack of belief in recruiters who need to niche down further on their market. Often, all it takes is to remove writer’s block to enable recruiters to get posting. That’s where AI comes on. 

Inside The AI Toolkit

A job being shared on LinkedIn

Paiger is an AI assistant. Not only can it be used in social selling and business development, it’s also helping tech-savvy recruiters to streamline their social recruiting processes. From CV writing prompts to tips for starting a new career, with Paiger’s AI assistant, recruiters and marketers can instantly get content-writing suggestions. 

Not only that, but Paiger’s Ghost Writing tool automatically puts together content, leaving space around it for users to customize different aspects such as the company’s tone of voice, and the call to action. In this way, Paiger enables recruiters and businesses to build their personal brand by sharing relevant content to attract candidates or new clients. 

Of course, recruiters’ networks are also another great place to share employer value proposition (EVP) content – anything from downloadable white papers to blog posts. Whether it’s the results of an employment survey or recent employer news, sharing company content across these networks is a surefire way to boost visibility and engagement with a recruiter’s or employer’s brand. 

Positioning job postings within a wider package of engaging value-added content helps to build trust, authority, and engagement with prospects. The difficulty is that recruiters have enough to do without concerning themselves with brand guidelines. With Paiger, any content shared on behalf of a company goes out with the right assets and follows brand guidelines.

Integration With PCRecruiter

For social recruiters using PCRecruiter, integrating Paiger enables them to automatically feed it with their new job roles, ready for posting across social media. All it takes is the PCR Job Board and a request to our technical team for your database’s Paiger XML feed. The AI then combines this information with a marketing approved-image, the relevant hashtags, and the correct brand guidelines before sharing it out to their social media channels – whether that’s LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram – all or just one. Job done!  

AI is making social recruiters more efficient by supporting them with automated content creation, so they can get on with more important tasks – like talking to candidates. Find out more about combining PCRecruiter with powerful integrations like Paiger. 

Book a FREE PCRecruiter demo

No matter what type of recruitment you’re working in, there are always going to be market trends. In the fallout from the pandemic and the ‘Great Resignation’, remote working not only became a viable option for some workers, but the preferred choice for many. This possibility has created new opportunities – and challenges – for those hiring.

Jeff Kaye
Jeff Kaye, Co-CEO of Kaye/Bassman International and Next Level Exchange

Jeff Kaye helped grow Kaye/Bassman to become one of the largest single-site search firms in the US. With over 30 years experience in the recruitment industry, Jeff’s seen just about every recruitment trend there is come and go.

For this blog post, we spoke to Jeff about the challenges of recruiting in a remote-first world and how companies and recruiters can adapt to ensure they’re getting the best talent available.

Supply And Demand

“Recruiters have to go where the talent lies. In the last few years, there’s been a low unemployment rate in the US, with candidates in feverish demand. On top of that, the pandemic created the possibility of a distance-based workforce.”

Jeff Kaye, Co-CEO, Kaye / Bassman

In recent years, many sectors in the employment market have seen increasingly fierce competition for the best talent. In fields such as software development and digital marketing, demand has been on the rise, leaving local talent in short supply. 

With the global pandemic opening up more opportunities for remote working, recruiters started to meet the talent where it is — whether that’s in a different state or another part of the world. The trend we’ve become accustomed to seeing is a less homogenized workforce from both the perspective of diversity and economics.

However, with most of the world now fully emerged from the pandemic and many countries facing up to economic uncertainty, there’s a sense that the hiring frenzy is poised to slow down. And it’s this supply and demand curve which correlates with what companies are willing to do to secure the best talent.

For many companies, there’s an increasing expectation that employees will return to the workplace in some capacity, either for a certain number of days a week or on a daily basis. For recruiters, the challenge comes in selling a company’s best offer in order to secure the right candidate. 

Earning The Right

“We’re likely to find less receptivity to remote-first positions except in cases where people have earned the right – by their background, their skills or qualifications, or their time at a company to demonstrate their suitability for a remote role.”

Jeff Kaye, Co-CEO, Kaye / Bassman
Working Remote

There’s no question that where people work has an impact on their effectiveness and productivity. Some people are more effective when they work from home, others perform better in the office, whilst others do better in a hybrid environment. 

Instead of falling back on a universal, blanket policy around where employees work, we’re starting to see companies evaluate the effectiveness of employees in a distance-based environment. In short, workers need to earn the right to distanced-based employment. 

At the same time, companies also need flexibility when there is a shortage of the right talent locally. In this scenario, recruiters need to expand the talent pool by county, state, or even country to secure the right candidates with the offer of remote working.  

Widening Recruitment Practice

Search professionals working in specific industries, such as medtech and pharmaceuticals, are already used to a national practice. On the other hand, there are more general recruitment firms who specialize by state or city.

To align with clients looking to fill open roles with national or even international talent, local recruiters will need to widen their capabilities, so they can quickly attract the right candidates for open roles. One approach is to push the possibilities of distance-based working. Another is to form partnerships with other recruiters within a larger network.

Access to a wider network of trusted advisors, means the recruiter maintains the client relationship but works with another recruiter to source potential candidates

The advantage of partnership is that a recruiter with local knowledge and talent in one city or state, can collaborate with another firm working with a company in a different location. This helps them extend their reach — especially when it comes to surfacing passive candidates.

Partnership is also beneficial to industry-specific recruiters who have a client looking for talent outside their specialism. For example, a recruiter working for medical and healthcare clients might have a talent pool of doctors and nurses. But what if a client needs to fill an open role in finance? 

Access to a wider network of trusted advisors, means the recruiter maintains the client relationship but works with another recruiter to source potential candidates.

The Software Needed

“The better the content inside your ATS, the better you’re going to be in targeting the right individuals.”

Jeff Kaye, Co-CEO, Kaye / Bassman

The quality and freshness of data on the best candidates can go a long way in giving recruiters a competitive edge over their rivals searching for the same talent. As does the reliability of the search function to surface candidates from your talent pool. 

Another important part of any ATS is the integration with your CRM. In the past, an ATS was simply a home for the data recruiters needed to put to use on a phone call. Now, an ATS has to integrate with a range of communication channels – social media, text, voicemail, and email – which are all used for candidate outreach. Deeper integrations between an ATS and CRM – even email sequencing functionality – offer competitive advantages to recruiters within the current employment landscape and beyond.

Every day, PCRecruiter’s hybrid blend of ATS and CRM functionality helps thousands of recruiters like those at Kaye / Bassman make the right hires. See what PCRecruiter can do for you. Discover our tech.

On February 21, 2023, Main Sequence Technology, Inc was awarded a patent by the United States Patent Office. US Patent No. 11,586,760 B2, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ASSOCIATING MULTIPLE LOGINS TO A SINGLE RECORD IN A DATABASE,” relates to PCRecruiter’s unique method for handling the multiple ways through which the same jobseeker might access the job board.

On February 21, 2023, Main Sequence Technology, Inc was awarded a patent by the United States Patent Office. US Patent No. 11,586,760 B2, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ASSOCIATING MULTIPLE LOGINS TO A SINGLE RECORD IN A DATABASE,” relates to PCRecruiter’s unique method for handling the multiple ways through which the same jobseeker might access the job board.

Diagram from US Patent No. 11,586,760 B2

The patented method allows for one consolidated applicant record in PCRecruiter while reducing the chance of a duplicate. It also prevents anyone from seeing information in the record that wasn’t provided using that login.

The PCRecruiter Job Board has been leveraging this technology for over two years to great success. The typical use case for this solution is to handle the problem of people applying for jobs and using a different log-in on a subsequent visit.

For example, let’s say Joanne Jackson arrives at the job board and uses her LinkedIn account credentials as a password in creating her account. She enters her resume, contact info, and other details. Now suppose Joanne returns to the same job board a year later, but this time, forgetting that she had used LinkedIn on the same recruitment agency’s job board in the past, she uses her Facebook account as her signup authorization.

Candidate Flow Diagram
A diagram used during the development of this feature, describing how it affects applicant data flow.

Although PCRecruiter is able to identify her as the same person based on her name and email address, it would be a security risk to display the old information to a new visitor using different account credentials. After all, if her Facebook login were to become compromised, she wouldn’t want someone to be able to log into the job board with that account and see potentially sensitive information she had entered while using her LinkedIn account.

Instead, PCRecruiter’s patented tech allows both the new and old login details to be associated with the same record, while only allowing the applicant to view and update the information that was entered while using the same credentials they have logged in with.

Furthermore, this prevents scenarios where a candidate who exists in the database but did not self-register on the job board might be stopped or delayed during their apply process by a ‘password reset’ or login operation. Even if the email, name, or resume is already on file, PCRecruiter will allow them to apply without losing or compromising any of the stored data in their record.

On this day in 1998, Main Sequence Technology was incorporated, setting off on a path to bring better tools to recruiting, staffing, and HR pros everywhere. Since then, we’ve served thousands of customers globally, with billions of dollars in placements made.

PCRecruiter in 1998…

In “the before times,” in Northeast Ohio, four people were doing their own things at the dawn of the Internet age. Martin and Mike Snyder were doing logistics software for small trucking businesses, and Bill and Gretchen Kubicek were running one of the first ISP’s in the region.

An early logo for PCRecruiter
The original PCRecruiter logo.

As oft-told in these stories, the four had been friends since their school days. One day, Bill called Mike to see if Mike (the brains of the trucking outfit) could help one of his Internet access customers with a networking issue. That customer happened to be an executive search firm, and their troubles happened to be with their recruiting software application (and not, as suspected, with Bill’s ISP.)

Martin, not knowing anything about recruiting, but knowing enough about the trucking business, sniffed an opportunity. He told the recruiting firm owner that Mike could do a better application in a weekend. One long weekend later, what once was a logistics application had been refactored into a recruiting application.

Bill Kubicek and Michael Snyder
Co-founders Bill Kubicek and Michael Snyder at work on PCRecruiter, late 2000

The application that would eventually become PCRecruiter was born, and so the Snyder brothers took to finding recruiters to use it. After securing launch customers in different forms of recruiting, including staffing, third-party search, corporate, and a college career office, it became clear just how well suited the underlying data structure was to organizing organizations, people, and open roles in all kinds of recruiting situations. In those early days, the app was called Executive Bob, after that very first recruiter whose underperforming previous software had inspired its creation.

Meanwhile the Kubiceks, with Bill selling and Gretchen managing, made a rapid success of their ISP and made an nice early exit, selling to a major Japanese telecom. Bill had always taken as self-evident that the Internet was only good for two things: pornography, and finding a job. The former was out of the question, but with PCRecruiter, the opportunity seemed ripe.

The original Main Sequence office location.
The original Main Sequence office location – a converted Century Home.

On February 23, 1998 the Snyders and the Kubiceks incorporated as Main Sequence Technology Inc. First starting in the Kubiceks’ basement, amid piles of laundry and baby stuff (young Maggie Kubicek sat through software demos before she could walk), the company soon moved into its first office, a converted two-story Italianate home in downtown Willoughby, Ohio.

What is the main sequence you might ask? It’s an astronomical term relating to a distinctive band of stars, charted for mass and luminosity, which include the majority of all the stars in the universe. And like it’s parent company namesake, PCRecruiter was always intended to work for the vast majority of recruiters who would encounter it.

The original PCRecruiter desktop application for Windows.
The PCRecruiter application for Windows desktop received its final software update in 2008.

Using a Microsoft Access database engine, or the then-exotic Microsoft SQL Server RDBMS as its back-end, the original desktop software allowed recruiters to track contacts, resumes, and jobs, as well as perform basic CRM functions like activity logging and email generation in a time when many were still relying on file cabinets of paper resumes.

As the user base and the company grew, the software gained more advanced features like contact info parsing, bulk resume import, and the ability to dial phone numbers via Windows Dialer and early VOIP.

From the desktop to the web…

Early versions of PCRecruiter’s browser interface, known at the time as the ‘thin client’, featured a left-side menu, as CRT monitors of the time had a more television-like 4:3 aspect ratio.

With the growth of job boards like Monster (b. 1999) recruiters began to seek more direct connection to the internet for their candidates and clients and more ‘anywhere access’ to their own contacts. Main Sequence responded with the first version of its web interface in 2001, and even a simplified interface for early mobile devices like the Palm Pilot and Blackberry.

In 2002, enabled by Mike Snyder’s engineering skills and the Kubiceks’ knowledge of Internetworking, the company began offering PCRecruiter as on online service — one of the very first SaaS products available.

The PCRecruiter / Main Sequence home office.

By 2005 PCRecruiter was serving customers in over fifty countries. The software and the company continued to pick up steam, moving to larger headquarters in 2006 and adding a Hawaii office for support in the western US and Asia/Pacific time zones.

Throughout the early years of the millennium, PCRecruiter expanded with major capabilities like PCR for MS Outlook in 2010, the first iteration of the Open API in 2012, the PCRecruiter 9 redesign, and PCR Capture. Year by year, the capabilities of the company and the successes of the worldwide customer base continued to grow.

PCRecruiter in 2023…

Main Sequence has always been driven by continuous improvement. The ongoing challenge of building a better product to meet the changing needs of business owners, system administrators, recruiters, and candidates keeps us innovating and iterating our offerings . And it shows. By the end of 2022, we picked up a slew of accolades in the G2 Winter 2023 rankings.

The newest PCR Capture extension, available in Spring 2023.

Throughout our history, we’ve stood alongside recruiters in good times- and bad. When tested – during the dot com bust of 2000, the turmoil of 2001, the financial crisis in 2008, and the pandemic in 2020 – we responded flexibly to our customers and employees needs, always with eventual recovery in-mind.

If fact, the past year or two have been ones of incredible progress for PCRecruiter. We released the newest Pipeline, PCR Analytics, and our industry-leading Sequencing project.

On Feb 21, 2023 Main Sequence was issued US Patent # 11,586,760, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ASSOCIATING MULTIPLE LOGINS TO A SINGLE RECORD IN A DATABASE.

This patented method addresses a common problem with Applicant Tracking Systems; when applicants apply for multiple jobs or the same job multiple times, duplicate records are created in a database, which recruiters hate for obvious reasons. The patented method allows PCRecruiter to present a unified record to the recruiter without the risk of erroneous duplicate-checking revealing information to applicants that they did not enter. It’s clever and it works well — another example of PCRecruiter meeting the real-world needs of our customers with industry-leading innovation.

Most exciting, we are currently building toward the tenth major platform iteration of PCRecruiter. The beta program and release to production will be the biggest redesign of PCRecruiter in our history.

The new version of PCRecruiter will offer more flexibility, more efficient workflows, broader device support, clearer data visualization, and greater growth and integration possibilities than anything that preceded it. We’re looking forward to sharing it with you.

An in-development prototype of PCRecruiter 10, going into beta testing in 2023.

Service by dedicated people, for dedicated people.

Data is the modern currency. While data enhancement is a key feature of PCRecruiter, there are many other important pieces in a winning ATS and CRM implementation, the biggest being people.

The people who create and service PCRecruiter include an award-winning support team and an enthusiastic team of developers. The other key players are the frontline recruiting professionals who make our software a critical part of their business and provide us with ideas and communications about how to make it better.

The value of independence.

Every business is different, yet time and time again, we meet business owners with the same priorities around their digital recruiting tools: the lowest lifecycle costs, the most reliable and respectful vendor relationship, and happy end-users. On each of those, PCRecruiter is tough to beat.

Main Sequence has never required outside investors: the founders remain at the helm and directly involved in the day-to-day operations. Consequently, the company operates exclusively on free cash flow. That means we make decisions for the long-term, rather than chasing short-lived trends. Our costs to operate the service are among the lowest in the industry.

Main Sequence makes business and design choices that bring value. Things could change — someday it may be in the best interest of the company and our customers to revise our structure or use outside funding — but what will never change is the absolute customer focus and dedication to offering THE most versatile recruiting application in the world.

Those have been the central drivers for these 25 years.

The value of flexibility.

System admins appreciate PCRecruiter’s vast array of configuration options. From screen layouts, process and pipeline modeling, and analytics design, through to data operations and user record management – PCRecruiter provides the flexibility needed to configure the best solution for their business.

Put simply, system admins can tailor almost everything to suit the end-user: views, terminology, workflows, sequences, integrations, and reporting – bringing functionality in line with user needs. The result? Happy recruiters!

Our open API and integrations also afford flexibility. From custom code and close vendor relationships to arms-length, third-party code entirely managed by our customers, PCR is often praised by developers as one of the easiest to connect with. Key integrations include:

  • Phone and text messaging via RingCentral
  • Email connections through Office365, Gmail, and SendGrid 
  • Data enhancement via ZoomInfo and HireEZ
  • Data import and export via Zapier and others

The value of serving our customers’ customers.

For public users like applicants and contractors, the best recruiting system is an invisible one. Interfaces are like governments: the best ones are the least ones that still get the job done.

Our Job Board integration and configuration options are enterprise quality, which means public users on the front end, get a seamless user-experience, regardless of your organization’s size.

For applicants and contractors – anyone inside your ATS and CRM – we firmly believe in the principle that your data is your data. So we keep it secure. For recruiters, data may start out as public information, but overlaid with their efforts it becomes a private asset. So PCRecruiter treats it that way – your data isn’t shared with competitors or aggregated with the data of other users.

PCRecruiter into the future…

While it’s fun to look back at where we’ve come from, Main Sequence is most excited about the path we’re on. We are building our best product ever, and we see ever-increasing importance in the wider economy of the industry we serve. Talent has never been more important than it is today, and will be tomorrow.

Like other markets which are rapidly moving with AI and other innovations, the recruitment professionals who can navigate the challenges will be doing more business than ever before. We expect they’ll still need a high-performance ATS and CRM solution at their core.

Our track record has shown us to be a survivor and a champion. Where will PCRecruiter go next? Look for more chapters of this story in years to come!

It’s an important question facing tech buyers everywhere: open architecture or closed? Over the last decade or so, many software companies have seen the advantages of open standards. In that time, we’ve seen vendor APIs mature and compatibility increase between open systems. That said, there’s still ongoing demand – and a market – for proprietary software.

Key decision-making in this area is largely influenced by industry and application. For recruiters, there are pros and cons to both types of solution. However, when it comes to recruitment tech, open architecture is a practical and beneficial choice in a highly competitive industry.

In this blog post, we shine a light on the differences between open architecture vs closed. With this information, tech buyers in the recruitment space can make informed choices around bringing the best solution to their business.

What Is Open Architecture?

Open architecture is based on a set of open, publicly available technical standards. This makes it much easier for different software applications to exchange data, and work together.  

Open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) make it possible for vendors to work outside proprietary restrictions. This openness creates a broader and deeper community of vendors and therefore a wider range of options for upgrading, expanding, and maintaining systems. 

For recruiters, the decision to purchase a customer relationship management (CRM) platform and Applicant Tracking System (ATS) which uses open architecture has a number of advantages. 

Why Choose Open Architecture?

The real draw of software with an open architecture is that third-party developers can easily create add-ons to enhance the product. This means companies are not locked into a single vendor, and the software is much easier to scale and upgrade.  

There are benefits both ways: developers gain access to a much wider market, and companies are not beholden to a single vendor. With so many third-party enhancements on offer, they can also enjoy greater choice, selecting from the best of what’s around to create the ideal solution for their needs.

With an open-architecture ATS and recruitment CRM systems, companies are able to choose their enhancement vendor(s) and the data is manipulated via API and automation processes. Due to much broader compatibility, this gives companies the flexibility to switch to a new vendor in the future if they want to. Furthermore, users of open-architecture systems are leveraging the major capital investments and development teams of multiple vendors at the same time, providing greater benefits at lower costs.

An image of an open door, evoking the "Open architecture vs Closed" subject matter.

What Is Closed Architecture?

As the name suggests, software with a closed architecture has tight restrictions imposed by the developer or vendor. Typically, any third-party add-ons or enhancements need official approval. In terms of integrations, these tend to be restricted to other software with similar architecture. In recruitment, a closed system is often one where the ATS vendor is also the enhancer or aggregator of the data. 

Why Choose Closed Architecture?

It’s fair to say that, despite restrictions in compatibility with other software, an exceptional piece of proprietary ATS and CRM software might well be able to meet your recruitment needs. Because it’s a ready-made and out-of-the-box solution, the initial setup tends to be more straightforward when compared with configuring open-architecture software to make use of various third-party integrations. 

By its very nature, closed architecture creates vendor lock-in. That might not be a problem if you’re willing to accept long-term contracts and potentially unpredictable rises in costs. You could view it as the price you have to pay for ongoing and long term security updates and ongoing support from a single vendor. You’ll also benefit from their product updates and security enhancements.  

However, do be aware of the time and cost implications should you choose to switch providers in the future. Using systems with a closed architecture often means reduced compatibility. Consequently, there can be significant headaches around extracting your data and continuing with business-as-usual during a future switchover.

Open Architecture vs Closed Architecture

So what’s best for buyers of recruitment tech, and how can they make the right choice? 

The truth is, the choice between open architecture vs closed is always considered in relative terms. Both these terms can also refer to the whole solution or just certain important domains. A truly open system is somewhat aspirational. At the same time, it’s possible to have a closed system that has integrations – albeit tightly controlled and usually less numerous.

In the recruitment sector, the trend toward open-architecture software has been partly driven by the increased demand for data enhancement. The data enhancement domain – or the ability to enrich name and entity records with updated, more accurate, and expanded information – relies on information sharing between online platforms. 

PCRecruiter’s Enhanced API is highly developed. It’s also well-documented, with a long track record of successful third-party developer projects. In fact, our own internal products such as PCR Capture, Portal for Outlook, and our upcoming PCR 10 version rely on it. On top of that, it also has a number of powerful integrations with the likes of outbound recruiting platform hireEZ and the world’s most comprehensive B2B database Zoominfo.

Making the choice between open and closed architecture is an important consideration for recruitment tech buyers in the market for a new ATS and recruitment CRM system. Learn more about PCRecruiter’s Developer API.

It’s Valentine’s Day! A perfect time to talk about making new connections. Whether it’s for strengthening old bonds or hooking up with new partners, we’ve gotten you the perfect gift: brand-new API documentation.

Updated PCRecruiter API documentation.
The updated API portal has new search features and code samples.

The PCRecruiter Application Programming Interface (API) is the set definitions and protocols that allow outside developers to build and integrate applications that connect to the PCRecruiter database.

The API is used by our partner vendors, such as job boards, background check services, and phone systems, to securely connect to the recruitment databases on our servers. It also allows PCRecruiter users to custom-develop solutions specific to their unique needs.

In an effort to communicate more easily and effectively with our current and future partners, as well as our clients’ own hired programmers, we have fully updated our API documentation.

The new documentation is built on Stoplight, a global API platform that offers a number of enhancements for developers connecting to PCRecruiter.

New Tools for Easier Connections

With the updated API docs, we’re making it easier than ever for developers to connect to our services and to expand the marketplace of tools available to PCRecruiter users. The new platform has many improvements, including:

  • A more standardized interface that will be familiar to users of other API tools.
  • New Code Samples in multiple popular languages, including Shell, JavaScript, Node, Python, Go, C, Obj-C, OCaml, C#, Java, Http, Clojure, Kotlin, PHP, Powershell, R, Ruby, and Swift.
  • A new search feature to help locate the information you need more quickly.
  • Revised content to make it easier understand and contextualize the API and its endpoints.

The public PCRecruiter REST API is available for free to all customers and vendors. See https://www.pcrecruiter.net/site/features/api/ to get started, and find the newly updated documentation at https://www.pcrecruiter.net/apidocs_v2

As any proper Luddite will tell you, the machines are absolutely coming for our jobs. At times it seems practically inevitable. For the moment, we’re fortunately in that sweet spot where most AI is just smart enough to help us work more efficiently but not quite good enough to do the job better than we can. Recruiters are already taking notice of emerging AI tools like ChatGPT and finding ways to use them to their advantage.

I’ve been watching the rise of publicly-accessible AI tech for a few years now. I’ve experimented with each new toy as it comes along… Replika, Dall-E, Stable Diffusion… and now ChatGPT. I continue to be amazed at just how ‘human-like’, practical, and comprehensive the results can be. The speed at which these technologies are advancing is whiplash-inducing. In fact, I’ve had to revise this very blog post several times while writing it because of changing details and new enhancements. In the words of ‘fellow scholar’ Dr. Károly Zsolnai-Fehér, “What a time to be alive!”

What is a GPT?

PROMPT: "cinematic photograph, a seated humanoid robot holding a paper document in front of its face, wearing a business suit, sitting at a desk in casual office setting, robot eye is scanning the paper with a blue light beam, coffee mug, lens flares, movie still" (Generated with mage.space)
PROMPT: “cinematic photograph, a seated humanoid robot holding a paper document in front of its face, wearing a business suit, sitting at a desk in casual office setting, robot eye is scanning the paper with a blue light beam, coffee mug, lens flares, movie still” (Generated with mage.space)

Generative pre-trained transformers, or “GPTs”, are neural network models that have been trained on vast amounts of data. Over time, a model is constructed that can relate concepts and properties of those concepts to each other. Eventually, the tool can make original inferences based on the knowledge in its model. Neural networks are made to ‘learn’ in the same way that humans do, gleaning new connections from observations and experience.

It’s important to understand that the model doesn’t contain or copy any of the original information that it was trained on – its output isn’t a collage or a rearrangement of the source material. Instead, it stores the complex matrix it has built to explain how the different words, phrases, and combinations of words and phrases in the training data related to each other. In the same way that a human doesn’t need to memorize every individual car they have seen in order to describe a hypothetical new car in great detail, a GPT model doesn’t need to store the articles or websites it examines in order to compose new text based on the concepts they contained.

With great power comes great limitations…

Unlike a search engine, which stores and retrieves information, an AI model generates wholly new content from scratch based on a prompt from the user. This offers incredible possibilities, but it also creates some limitations. For example, the AI cannot provide information about anything that wasn’t relevant to the content it was trained on. ChatGPT, for example, was trained on data collected up to 2021, so it can’t write about anything happening in 2023.

PROMPT: "award-winning photograph, a seated humanoid robot wearing a business suit, the robot is holding an iPhone, the robot is holding a piece of white paper, sitting at a desk in casual office setting, chrome accents, coffee mug, photo by J.J. Abrams" (Generated with mage.space)
PROMPT: “award-winning photograph, a seated humanoid robot wearing a business suit, the robot is holding an iPhone, the robot is holding a piece of white paper, sitting at a desk in casual office setting, chrome accents, coffee mug, photo by J.J. Abrams” (Generated with mage.space)

The current big-name AI tools are also “generalists,” trained on vast but not highly specific troves of text. As more purpose-built models are trained on curated data sets such as resumes, job descriptions, interview questions, trade-specific documents, etc. they will become far more powerful in their application to niche recruitment tasks.

You’ll also want to be wary of false information – after all, the model cannot generally fact-check the original statements if makes. The AI is designed to give humans the output they asked for, and whether or not the output is factually accurate or logically sound is not isn’t part of its instructions (for now, at least).

As with any algorithm, the ‘garbage in, garbage out’ adage holds true. Low-quality prompts will yield low-quality results from the AI. Learning to craft a good prompt can take time and practice. It will also vary depending on the chat tool you’re using and may even change over a brief period. One thing I’ve learned in working on this post is that, as the technology rapidly evolves, what worked last week may not work this week.

Fortunately, dedicated professionals like Irina Shamaeva, Jacco Valkenburg, Jim Stroud, and others in the space are continually pushing on the tech and suggesting new methods and use cases.

ChatGPT: Not the only player in the game

The name making the most headlines in AI right now is ChatGPT, a project of OpenAI, which recently extended its partnership with Microsoft. (Given Microsoft’s ownership of LinkedIn, the effect of Microsoft leveraging ChatGPT in the recruiting and business networking sectors could be huge.) Other new players, like Perplexity (which combines AI chat with search engine citations) and Chatsonic have entered the field, while pre-existing services like our partners at Paiger are beginning to offer GPT-based tools as part of their feature set.

OpenAI

ChatGPT is still learning, both in terms of its AI model and in terms of its business model. Unlike some other AI tools, such as Google’s LaMDA and DeepMind’s forthcoming Sparrow, ChatGPT has been made free during its beta testing phase. It still goes offline often enough to be considered somewhat unreliable for day-to-day reliance, but when it is up and running it can be a powerful time saver for sourcing, recruiting, and hiring professionals. Let’s see how.

Streamlining Recruitment Tasks with AI

1. Drafting Emails

One of the things chat AI systems excel at is quickly writing original content. You can save loads of time drafting email follow-ups, cover letters, and other business correspondence by asking the AI to start it for you.

PROMPT: "cinematic photograph, rear view, the back of a seated humanoid robot wearing a business suit, typing on a laptop, sitting at a desk in casual office setting, lens flares, movie still aesthetic"  (Generated with mage.space)
PROMPT: “cinematic photograph, rear view, the back of a seated humanoid robot wearing a business suit, typing on a laptop, sitting at a desk in casual office setting, lens flares, movie still aesthetic” (Generated with mage.space)

For example, you might give a prompt such as “compose an email that would be perfect for a wind farm mechanic, asking them about their interest in work opportunities in Texas, using a polite tone.” With a brief overview of the job and key points like the position name, requirements, and one or two interesting facts about the company, AI can draft a very professional sounding email in seconds.

You can also use it in a similar way for marketing a candidate. You might copy/paste the professional experience section of a resume into the chat and ask the AI to compose an email describing why, based on this experience, the candidate would be suitable for the role.

As always, it’s important to think of the AI as a well-informed but very inexperienced young assistant. It can be prone to uninspired and rote sounding content creation. Treat these emails as drafts for you, the experienced human recruitment professional, to refine and build upon.

2. Suggesting Searches

With its vast understanding of word and concept relationships, ChatGPT may be able to come up with strings for candidate sourcing that you hadn’t considered. You might try asking the bot to “Create a boolean search string that finds LinkedIn profiles of US-based wind farm engineers. The search should focus on senior level hiring prospects. The search should include various ways these engineers might describe their work or title, and include Spanish alternatives.”

In my experiments with ChatGPT, the output of this prompt was:

(“wind farm engineer” OR “wind turbine engineer” OR “wind energy engineer” OR “ingeniero de parques eólicos” OR “ingeniero de turbinas eólicas” OR “ingeniero de energía eólica”) AND (“senior” OR “lead” OR “principal” OR “nivel senior” OR “líder” OR “principal”) AND (“United States” OR “USA” OR “US” OR “Estados Unidos”) AND (title:(senior OR lead OR principal OR nivel senior OR líder OR principal) AND location:(United States OR USA OR US OR Estados Unidos))

Again, it’s important to double-check the bot’s work. Do you know if the Spanish phrases it selected are appropriate to the type of candidate you’re after? Did it put the parentheses and colons in the right places? If not, you could end up sourcing the wrong people.

3. Composing Interview Questions

The chatbot’s wide ranging training data means it can often help craft role-specific questions for candidates. ChatGPT is quite adept at answering a prompt like this:

“give me a list of interview questions for a wind farm engineer with three years of experience who is being considered for a management position”

PROMPT: "wide cinematic photo, standing female humanoid talking to a human business man, office meeting room, lens flares, sorayama robot, cinematic movie aesthetic, bokeh" (Generated with mage.space)
PROMPT: “wide cinematic photo, standing female humanoid talking to a human business man, office meeting room, lens flares, sorayama robot, cinematic movie aesthetic, bokeh” (Generated with mage.space)

The resulting answers are liable to be somewhat generic… “How do you ensure safety and compliance in your work?” If you just need the basics, this can save you a lot of time.

To go a bit deeper, you may want to try providing the AI with the details from the specific job description, then prompt with something like:

“given this list of responsibilities for a wind turbine engineer job, please craft five job-specific interview questions to help assess a candidate’s fit for the role”.

Following on that, you might then ask it to provide general ideas of what a good answer to each question may look like.

4. Drafting a Candidate Summaries

While PCRecruiter’s Candidate Presentations feature makes it easy to send resumes and information to clients and to receive and store their feedback, you might try using an AI chatbot to shortcut the composition of a candidate summary. Asking the AI to condense the resume into an introductory brief, saves both your time and your client’s.

Generating a usable summary is as simple as pasting the candidate’s resume text into the chat, along with a prompt like:

“summarize the following resume in two paragraphs, using a professional tone, and suggesting why this may be a good job candidate for an engineering management role.”

5. Simplifying and Rewriting Job Descriptions

In addition to writing completely original content, AI can be useful in rewriting content that already exists. This can be valuable for internal and external uses.

If you’re a recruiter just starting out, or one moving into a new and unfamiliar market, you may try pasting the client’s complex technical description into ChatGPT and prompting it with “rewrite this job description to make it suitable for a high school level reader.” Having the description without the technical jargon may make it easier to discuss with colleagues.

PROMPT: "cinematic photograph, a seated humanoid robot holding a paper document, wearing a business suit, sitting at a desk in casual office setting, robot eye is scanning the paper with a blue light beam, coffee mug, lens flares, movie still" (Generated with mage.space)
PROMPT: “cinematic photograph, a seated humanoid robot holding a paper document, wearing a business suit, sitting at a desk in casual office setting, robot eye is scanning the paper with a blue light beam, coffee mug, lens flares, movie still” (Generated with mage.space)

You may also find it helpful to give the AI your client’s job description and then ask it to create multiple variations of it for job advertisements and recruitment emails. You can then choose the most suitable version or put multiple versions into use and test which is the most effective. 

For confidential searches, using the description provided by the client can not only reveal their identity, but can also pose issues for search engines detecting it as duplicate content. Rather than spending valuable time custom-writing your own descriptions, paste the client’s version into the AI and prompt it to “write a new version of the following job description that does not reveal the name or location of the employer, adding in alternate phrases where possible.”

Concluding in ChatGPT’s own words…

Rather than writing my own concluding statement here, I thought it would be more appropriate to ask ChatGPT to write one for me.

PROMPT: Compose a first-person conclusion for a blog post entitled “5 ways ChatGPT can enhance your recruiting workflow”, using a conversational but professional tone. Describe in a sentence or two why using ChatGPT and similar tools is a smart idea for recruiters, and express excitement at the future of artificial intelligence in the recruitment space.

“In conclusion, using ChatGPT to enhance your recruiting workflow can bring a multitude of benefits to the recruitment process. From automating repetitive tasks to generating personalized communication, ChatGPT can save recruiters time and help them focus on higher-level tasks like building relationships with candidates and hiring managers. 

The future of artificial intelligence in the recruitment space is very exciting and I believe that utilizing ChatGPT is a smart idea for recruiters. It allows them to be more efficient and effective in their recruitment efforts, ultimately leading to better hires and a more successful business. I can’t wait to see what advancements will come in the future and how they will continue to transform the recruiting landscape.”

Not too shabby for a machine…


Andrew Rothman has been with PCRecruiter for 25 years, managing a variety of projects, including web and media design, video production, and vendor partnerships. He has a background in music, multimedia, and theater.

Addendum:

A few added suggestions from recruiter Thomas Alascio — Try using ChatGPT for suggesting Boolean strings, getting a list of a company’s competitors, getting a short and sweet explanation of a job title or industry, and extracting important info from a job description. Thanks Thomas!

The last couple of years have seen sweeping changes in the job market. Call it the Great Resignation, the Great Change-Up, the Great Reshuffle – or the great something else – thousands of people have chosen to change career paths.

Dave Nerz - President of NPAworldwide
Dave Nerz – President of NPAworldwide

What’s not so great for recruiters right now is that previously passive candidates – people not actively seeking new roles – are now super-passive. That’s because they’ve found a role that they’re comfortable with and there’s risk associated with making a change. 

Finding the right talent is tougher than ever before. Sometimes clients need to know the reality, especially when there’s a limited pool of candidates for an open role. So how can recruiters keep it real and push back on clients for a win-win outcome? 

PCRecruiter got some thoughts on the matter from Dave Nerz, President of NPAworldwide, a global network of 550 specialist and generalist recruiters in multiple sectors operating in 42 countries. (We also spoke with Dave about Working From Home for another blog post last year.)

The Great Challenge

The opportunities to recruit someone who’s chosen to move outside the city to work remotely are reduced. The pool of talent is getting smaller.

Dave Nerz, President, NPAworldwide

A few years ago, sourcing and attracting the best and brightest passive talent was a struggle. As it stands, the job of a recruiter is even tougher. 

The pandemic made tens of thousands of workers reevaluate their choices. For many different reasons – be it the chance to work from home, a change of lifestyle, or cost-cutting by no longer commuting – many people settled into new ways of living and working.

This increased satisfaction has decreased the size of the available talent pool. People are more risk-averse. Extracting passive talent from roles in which they’re now highly comfortable requires employers to up their offering. Recruiters need more resources – improved leverage – to attract the best talent and make the right hires. 

To get it, recruiters sometimes have to push back on clients. 

A Reality Check

The hiring managers and leadership of some mid-sized companies are not always in tune with what the current job market is all about.

Dave Nerz, President, NPAworldwide

Companies with in-house recruiters will have some awareness of the current employment market. Those relying on agencies tend to be less informed. Until it comes to the numbers. When recruiters surface ten prospective candidates for a role that in the past might have had a hundred, questions get asked. It’s a reality check. At this point, recruiters have to turn around and start educating employers. Their role becomes increasingly consultative. 

The reality is that it’s taking recruiters longer to find the right talent, and there’s less of it to go around. They might find a dead-on hit, and extract them from their current position, only to be told by the hiring manager that they’d like to see a couple more candidates as well. In an ideal world, it would be great to have a group of potential applicants. In reality, time is of the essence. If employers don’t seize the talent when it’s available – someone else will. If recruiters focus on sourcing additional candidates, they stand to lose the one or two that they’ve already found.  

It’s About Time

If they’re that good, they’ll be gone.

Dave Nerz, President, NPAworldwide

Competition for the best candidates in a shrinking talent pool means recruiters need to work smarter to get up to speed. Gone are the days of meetings over coffee or lunch. To extract the right candidates from their current roles and bring them in takes money, resources, and time. What used to be a window of three months to make the hire, is now more like three weeks. 

A man on the phone. Photo by 
Andrea Piacquadio

Employers also have to fiercely compete on their offers. Whether that’s a bigger signing bonus, more time off, the option to work from home, or something else – it all has to be negotiated within a limited timeframe. This is where speed is of the essence. It’s also when recruiters need to push back on clients to ensure they’re educated about the reality.

Some companies who reflect on the hiring process realize they need to take a more consultative approach to recruiting, knowing it will get them better long-term results. Others look at the problem and blame recruiters. To try to solve the issue, these companies hire multiple contingent recruiters to simultaneously source talent for a single role. 

The trouble is, there’s only a limited talent pool. So having multiple recruiters set against each other in a race to find the best candidates doesn’t necessarily yield more prospects. All it does is make recruiters consider the value of their own time – and how it might be more productively spent working exclusively for other clients.  

The Power Of Pushback

Pushing back on clients can pull some recruiters out of their comfort zone. But the benefits are clear. Being totally transparent and giving employers who get it a true picture of the job market means recruiters get the resources they need to get the job done, and make the right hires. In situations where recruiters get blamed for the lack of available talent, employers end up getting second-rate candidates – or worse – no candidates at all. 

Catching the best candidates before they opt to go elsewhere requires close collaboration and fast-thinking. The right ATS and CRM can also help to speed up the hiring process. That doesn’t mean cutting corners. It means streamlining workflows – even automating some aspects of it – so that recruiters can get the job done faster and more efficiently.  

PCRecruiter is an all-in-one ATS and CRM which saves recruiters time, so they can make the right hires faster. Discover our tech.

In the G2 Winter 2023 rankings, PCRecruiter appeared in seventeen new reports, achieving twelve new ranking badges and Top 10 slots in twenty-five different reports.

G2, the world’s largest and most trusted software marketplace, releases quarterly reports for a variety of software categories. Their rankings and awards are based entirely on independent reviews submitted by real users. PCRecruiter is ranked in the Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), Candidate Relationship Management, Staffing, and Recruitment Marketing categories. PCRecruiter has appeared as a Top 10 recruiting software in the past, and the Winter 2023 reports continue the trend and then some!

PCRecruiter hits #1 in Recruitment Marketing Software Ranking

G2 Winter 2023 Badges - PCRecruiter is a Top 10 Recruiting Software Option

G2 considers a “Small Business” to be any company with 50 or fewer employees. According to IBISWorld, this encompasses most recruiting agencies, making G2’s “Small Business” grouping the most important one for PCRecruiter. Here’s how we fared in the 2023 Winter Report based on independent PCRecruiter reviews:

Recruitment Marketing – High Performer

  • Best ‘Usability’ (Ranked #1)
  • Best ‘Meets Requirements’ (Ranked #1)
  • Highest User Adoption
  • Top 5 in Customer Relationship
  • Top 10 in Implementation

Applicant Tracking Systems – Leader

  • Top 5 in Results Index
  • Top 5 in Customer Relationship
  • Top 10 in Usability

Staffing – High Performer

  • Top 10 in Usability
  • Top 10 in Results Index
  • Top 10 in Customer Relationship

Candidate Relationship Management – Leader

  • Top 5 in Customer Relationship
  • Top 5 in Results Index
  • Top 10 in Usability
  • Top 10 in Implementation

Top 10 Recruiting Software in Overall Rankings

When looking at the rankings for businesses of all sizes, PCRecruiter also appeared in several Top 10 ranks, including the results Indexes for Applicant Tracking Systems and Staffing software, and the Customer Relationship Indexes for Applicant Tracking Systems, Candidate Relationship Management, and Staffing software.

We are always particularly happy to see PCRecruiter reaching the top of the list for Customer Relationship, as we pride ourselves on how easy our customers say we are to do business with!

If you’re a PCRecruiter user, we would love to have your thoughts included in G2’s Spring 2023 rankings, particularly in light of new features like Sequencing and the many other exciting updates we’ve got planned for the new year. We invite you to submit your own review here.

About G2

G2 is the world’s largest and most trusted software marketplace. More than 60 million people annually — including employees at all of the FORTUNE 500 — use G2 to make smarter software decisions based on authentic peer reviews. Thousands of software and services companies of all sizes partner with G2 to build their reputation, manage their software spend, and grow their business – including Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoom, and Adobe. To learn more about where you go for software, visit www.g2.com and follow on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Everyone seems to be saying the same thing: where did 2022 go? It was the year in which the world of work slowly came to terms with the after effects of the global pandemic. Organizations relaunched in recovery mode, and recruiters faced up to new challenges from remote working to the so-called ‘Great Resignation’. A lot has changed – maybe more than at any other point in living memory. The recruitment landscape is a very different shape and size to what it was 3 years ago.

You may remember that back in the fall, we compiled a list of key hiring and recruitment trends for 2022. The truth is that with so much going on this year, there’s plenty more where that came from. So we’ve decided to welcome in 2023 by looking back – and gazing ahead – at 5 recruiting trends you might have missed.

2022 In Review

1 Recruitment Podcasts

Staying up to date with the latest recruitment industry insight, topics, and trends is no easy feat – especially right now. The great thing about podcasts is that you can listen on the fly, in the car, on the way to work, or on your lunch break. The trouble is, if you can think of it, someone’s probably already made a podcast about it. With so many shows available, it can be difficult to find what you’re looking for. To help you get started, earlier in 2022 we put together a list of our top 6 recruitment podcasts

2 Data Security 

Recruiters handle high volumes of personal data every day. In fact, your data is probably your organization’s most valuable asset. Think about it. All that candidate and company data sitting in your ATS and CRM is a goldmine – not only for your competitors – but for hackers looking to extract personal information. The last thing any recruiter wants is a data breach, which can be costly for your company – particularly your reputation. As data privacy regulations around the world continue to tighten, data security becomes ever more critical to client and candidate trust. Find out what you need to know by reading our article on data security in recruitment.

3 Social Recruiting 

Let’s be clear. The fundamentals of recruiting haven’t changed all that much over the years. But the ways in which candidates engage with potential employers, and employers reach out to candidates, have evolved. As a digital-first generation enters the job market, companies need to find the right spaces to engage with potential candidates. And that means social hiring – using social media platforms to connect with prospective candidates. However, recruiters need to be increasingly strategic about which social platforms they use to source the right candidates. Learn more by reading our guide on how to use social media in recruiting

4 Automations 

It’s not the most obvious move for a people business like recruitment, but introducing automations into the hiring process can help you hire faster. By making effective use of today’s technology, recruiters can free-up more time to focus on their core business. For example, in PCRecruiter, it’s possible to automate things like form letters to candidates, emails to clients to schedule interviews, and notifications that prompt administrators to take certain actions. The key to this is knowing what’s possible, and how to set up automatons which actually benefit recruiters in their daily work. Not sure where to start? Take a look at our blog post on 5 ways to use automation in recruitment

5 Artificial Intelligence  

Let’s be honest, in 2022 AI in recruitment was headline news, so you probably didn’t miss this one! But, we feel it’s an important one to keep on your radar. The reality is that AI is here, it’s been used by recruiters, and it’s not going away anytime soon. It’s fair to say that many of us are willing to welcome AI into certain aspects of our lives, from customer service chatbots to film recommendations. But when it comes to determining our suitability for an open role – that’s a different story. New York’s new regulation on the use of ‘Automated Employment Decision Tools’ comes into effect from 1st January 2023. It will be interesting to see the impact of this on the recruitment industry. Read our blog to learn more about the pitfalls and potential of using AI in recruitment.

Looking Ahead To 2023

As people, technology, and the global economies continue to pull in different directions, companies will continue to adopt and embrace technology-driven recruitment practices to compete for the best candidates, and ensure they get the right people into the right roles. 

At PCRecruiter, we’re excited to discover where our sequencing tool will take recruiters who’ll be able to accelerate recruiting workflows, speed up the onboarding of new team members, and increase efficiency for current users.

Stay on top of your hiring game in 2023 and beyond with PCRecruiter’s Sequencing feature. Watch this short video to learn more:

Season’s Greetings from PCRecruiter

Main Sequence Technology wishes you a happy holiday and a bright and successful 2023!

2022 marked PCRecruiter’s 24th year of service to the recruiting and staffing industry.

It’s been another year of growth and innovation. With all new features like Sequencing Automations, refreshed core features like Pipeline and Notifications, and our always-improving public API, PCRecruiter is better than ever and charging into 2023 with engaged high-end partners like HireEZ, ZoomInfo, and RingCentral.

2022 was also a year of growth for our development and support teams. Their always customer-focused performance encouraged so many positive independent reviews by enthusiastic customers that PCRecruiter ranked in G2‘s Top 10 on twenty-four different indexes for staffing, ATS, and recruitment software.

2023 will bring a major UI update and the continuous improvement across the board that PCRecruiter customers have enjoyed for decades.

To the entire PCRecruiter community of end-users, customers, partners, team members, and suppliers: Main Sequence Technology wishes you the finest holiday season and the most prosperous new year!

The work from home phenomenon divides opinion. Nowhere is that more keenly felt than in recruitment. Some employers and employees see it as a performance enhancing perk, whilst others view it as a barrier to productivity and career progression. So how can recruiters use it to their best advantage?

Dave Nerz - President of NPAworldwide
Dave Nerz – President of NPAworldwide

NPAworldwide is a global recruitment network of 550 members operating in 42 countries. It spans multiple sectors, and includes specialist and generalist recruiters.

For this blog post, PCRecruiter spoke to the President of NPAworldwide, Dave Nerz, to get his inside perspective on the work from home (WFH) trend.

WFH Wednesday

WFH provides two different working environments. Places to get different kinds of work done. It makes the day go faster – and it’s really helpful for me.

Dave Nerz, President, NPAworldwide

WFH was around long before the pandemic, but lockdowns and social distancing meant more people experienced it than ever before. At that time, WFH became a necessity rather than a ‘nice to have’ option. But like many forward-thinking organizations, NPAworldwide was already testing the water with WFH. They employed remote staff, and Dave Nerz had introduced WFH Wednesday. So when the pandemic hit, they were ready. 

Employees were already set up at home. They had a space to work, and the right tools to get their work done, like a telephone, Internet services, office stationery, and computers. In fact, as a leader, Dave had been doing his own version of WFH for years. Every Wednesday afternoon, he’d set up in the local library to get things done without interruption. He’d switch off his phone and create a situation where he could focus on longer tasks like writing reports. 

Right now, Dave splits his working day between the office in the morning and home in the afternoon. He gets the best of both worlds. Face-to-face meetings and in-person work happens in the office. At home, he can schedule longer video calls, and focus on more complicated time-consuming tasks. His team also benefits. For example, parents can work around their childcare duties, and still get the job done to the benefit of the organization.  

Hybrid Working Arrangements 

As an industry, we’re going to have to figure out how to make more people available to us that would otherwise not be able to fill the roles.

Dave Nerz, President, NPAworldwide

It’s fair to say that certain jobs don’t currently work in a hybrid or remote model. For example, there are roles in manufacturing and engineering which have to be done on site — although with new technology, even that is slowly changing. When roles can be done remotely or hybrid, it opens up a much broader talent pool. That’s important on a global scale. Why? Many sectors are facing a demographic drought. In terms of age, their demographic looks like an inverted pyramid: many people are retiring and there’s not enough young talent coming through. 

An image of a man working at his laptop from home. Photo by Yasmina H.

Specifying a geographic location for roles which could be done remotely immediately shrinks the talent pool. Conversely, widening the search to a particular state — or even the entire country — adds depth and breadth. Hiring on home soil makes things like onboarding and communication easier. But there’s no doubt that in certain industries, such as software development, offshore is sometimes the only answer.

Timezones are also playing an increasingly important role. In the future, we’re likely to see a trend for employers searching for people who work on a certain slice of time, as opposed to being based in a particular city. In that respect, remote and hybrid working will help to close the skills gap.

Training For Success

WFH and remote working is going to help the industry solve some problems in the short term, while we figure out the long term.

Dave Nerz, President, NPAworldwide

As the boomer generation continues to retire, the skills gap widens. In the past, corporations had training programs which would give graduates the right skill sets to go out into an industry and launch their careers. 

Today, a lot of that has gone. Post 9/11 and financial crises, many companies cut costs by axing their training programs, instead searching for ready-made talent. The problem is there’s often not enough of it to go around. 

Bringing in talent from overseas can help. For recruiters and employers, geographic borders make relocating people — physical immigration — a complicated and time-consuming process. Virtual immigration opens up new possibilities. You can have trained talent from abroad work remotely in no time at all.  

The key challenge for employers taking on remote talent is how to ensure new recruits can be successfully onboarded and work effectively without stepping into an office. In the physical environment, you have managers and peers to support their training and development. With WFH, those opportunities don’t arise naturally. They have to be scheduled in. This might make it more challenging for those people who are purely remote. 

It also impacts career development. When someone’s remote-only, managers can see the end results, but they don’t necessarily have visibility over the process including the wins and the mistakes. Without seeing it, managers have to take a leap of faith based on results, which could affect an employee’s promotability. Remote working can also limit opportunities to discuss career advancement because there aren’t those live, face-to-face moments that you get from working in an office. 

Recruitment In A Remote-First World

We’re going to have to select people on the basis of how they demand to work. In some cases, as opposed to an option, WFH becomes a demand.

Dave Nerz, President, NPAworldwide

There’s no question that some work is better done in-person. Remote-first isn’t suitable to every sector. Take automotive engineers, for example. They need to be inside the company to see what’s being done, how it’s done, and what their impact is likely to be.

Even with roles that can potentially be done remotely — such as marketing or recruitment — in-person meetings are still important. People need to get together. Whether that’s casual interaction, or scheduled crossover with other workers and teams, companies need to figure out new ways of working. And recruiters have to be on board with that in order to sell it to prospective candidates. 

A woman working at home. Photo by Kelly Sikkema

At the same time, remote and hybrid working is a matter of taste. Different people work best in different ways. We all have different styles. This is something that employers and recruiters can tap into. The question is: what can they do to attract and retain the right talent as well as optimize their performance? The answer is to offer flexibility that benefits both parties. 

Different demographics will have different demands. Couples with young children will have different needs than people approaching retirement. What it comes down to can be any number of factors, whether that’s style, convenience, or economics. 

Being Effective From Anywhere

I don’t see work in the office as going away. For many businesses and industries, it’s not feasible. It doesn’t make sense.

Dave Nerz, President, NPAworldwide

The bottom line is simple. Employers need the best talent to fill their open roles. Where and how the work gets done most effectively comes down to personal choice. Whether working from home or in the office, it’s personal situations which determine effectiveness. This means managers have to think much more creatively about how things get done.

Recruiters also need to go beyond simply listing WFH, remote, or hybrid as part of a job posting, and consider the wider implications for their target audience. Being able to offer more flexible working arrangements which work in both company and the candidate’s interest can be a win-win — if you get it right. 

Whether you’re a WFH, hybrid, or office-based recruiter, and no matter what type of recruitment you work in, the right ATS and CRM can streamline your day to day and help you make the right hires. Learn more about PCRecruiter

In any industry, bringing on new starters is never a straightforward process – and recruitment is no different. You’ve sourced potential candidates. You’ve gone through the recruitment process. And you’ve made the hire. Now it’s time to onboard, train, and integrate your new recruiter.

Whether they’re new to recruiting or they’ve been doing it for years, your newly hired recruiters need to get up to speed with your firm’s ways of doing things. That includes workflows and software. Most specifically, they need ‘new recruiter’ training on your applicant tracking and candidate relationship management tools.

In this blog post, PCRecruiter’s Drew Rothman looks at key strategies for successful new recruiter training, whether they’re learning the software, the job, or even both things at the same time.  

Give Them A Process

Each recruiter and every recruitment firm has their own unique way of doing things. Sure, they might use similar methods, but as part of your organization, new recruiters need to do things your way, at least in the beginning. If, further down the line, someone wants to adapt or improve on the processes, that should be welcomed.

When tackling new recruiter training you need to ensure they understand your business goals, the key performance indicators (KPIs), and the expectations for getting the job done. Standardized workflows allow you to easily track both candidate and recruiter progress. So when it comes to using a central repository of client and candidate data, you’ve got to ensure that everyone’s doing it the same way. 

A sequencing tool can help new hires to learn both the software and the job of recruiting. Giving new recruiters a process to follow, combined with automations such as follow-up emails and text messages, makes it so much easier to get up and running in no time at all. Without a process, recruiters essentially have an open box of tools, but no guidance on how to use them properly.

Provide A Mentor

In some respects, recruitment has a lot in common with sales. The key difference is that instead of pushing a product, you’re selling candidates to companies with open roles, and open roles at companies to prospective candidates. 

Mentoring a New Recruiter
Assigning a mentor to a new recruiter can help them get up to speed on both the market and the technology.

Knowing the niche is vital in establishing a recruiter’s credibility with both candidates and clients. It’s also essential when handling common pushbacks and comments from candidates in a specific area. Mentoring can help a new recruiter to learn the market they’ll be working in.

When it comes to mentoring, there are different schools of thought. It’s common to assign a buddy to provide support, help them in the right direction, and answer any questions. That said, some firms prefer to throw new recruiters in at the deep end and get them straight on the phone.

Teach them the Tools 

There was a time when the two most valuable items in a recruiters tool kit were a phone and a list of telephone numbers. Today, there are still some sectors where this rings true. However, with the rise of online social media platforms, and messaging in all its forms, recruiters have to go where the candidates are. This might mean communicating across a variety of channels, like email or Twitter.

Recruiters who’ve been in the industry a long time, are more likely to be comfortable making calls and sending emails. On the other hand, younger generations who’ve grown up with text messaging and social media are likely to be less comfortable picking up the phone and talking to someone. In fact, recent graduates might never have cold-called anyone, ever. 

That’s why training should be personalized to fill the skills gap, and support new recruiters in adapting to your ways of working. Scripting calls and shadowing experienced recruiters is one approach for phone-based recruiters. Meanwhile, video tutorials or face-to-face training on how to use other communication tools can help level-up skills.

The tools you use depend on the industry you’re recruiting in, and the type of candidates you’re hiring. These days, a phone call can feel intrusive to some, whereas a brief message, whether sent by text or on social media, can be read and responded to at the recipient’s leisure. A phone call demands a response right away. Video calls need scheduling and have become the norm in the wake of the global pandemic. 

Whichever communication channel your recruiters are using, it’s fair to say that getting hold of candidates can be a challenge.

How Sequencing Helps with New Recruiter Training

With a sequencing tool, you can create a customizable workflow which prompts recruiters to take specific actions in a specific order. For example, say a candidate doesn’t respond to a phone call. After a certain amount of time, they might be prompted to send a text message notifying the candidate of the call. Sequencing can also include automations – like sending an acknowledgement email after a specific task is completed. 

Sequencing helps new and existing recruiters follow a pre-defined process with little or no training. They can essentially work out of one screen with a clear, task-based workflow. This puts everything recruiters need to do to make a placement in one convenient spot.

With PCRecruiter’s sequencing tool, you can create a clear task-based workflow that your recruiters can step through effortlessly.

An easy task-based interface makes recruiting automation simple.
Using a tool like PCRecruiter’s Sequencing can make it easier for a new recruiter to get started by providing them with a clear, step-by-step approach to the day’s tasks.

You want people, not software, to run your recruiting business. Finding the right software can be a challenge. You’re going to have questions, but are you asking the right ones?

Whether your chosen vendor requires a one-off transaction or a subscription service, recruiting CRM software is a significant outlay for your firm. It’s also the beating heart of your business. Your chosen software needs to perform well every day, and allow recruiters to get on with what they do best. 

Balancing the cost of your investment with the business value it brings is no easy task. There are multiple variables to consider, including your firm’s preferred workflows and unique approach to making hiring decisions. After all, you want people, not your software, to run your recruiting.

PCRecruiter’s Jim Lombardo and Chris Cyrus have over 30 years of recruitment solution sales and consulting experience between them. In this post, they’ll share their tips for what to ask your staffing or recruiting CRM software vendor to ensure you get the right solution for your business. 

For those new to the business, let’s start with what recruitment software has to offer. 

What Is a Recruiting CRM / ATS?

Recruitment software is used by placement firms and executive search pros to handle the administrative side of the recruiting process. It helps them to source, track, and manage talent from prospect to placement. 

An end-to-end solution typically combines aspects of an applicant tracking system (ATS) with candidate and client relationship management (CRM) tools to support the entire recruitment lifecycle. 

Recruiting software also provides related functionality that can help to speed up the process, such as:

  • Job postings
  • Workflow automation
  • Reusable forms 
  • Boolean CV / resume search
  • Multi-function lists
  • Configurable reports
  • Recruitment analytics 
  • Email and voice integrations

The Benefits of a Recruitment CRM / ATS

The right software can unlock significant business benefits. If you’re not already using an ATS/CRM at your recruiting agency, here are five ways it can add value:

  1. Automation: Automate routine and repeatable administrative tasks, like sending notifications and communications. 
  2. Information Retention: Build a pool of current and past roles, candidates, and clients for instant access and faster future searches.
  3. Communication: A single repository for logging all email, voice, and text activity makes it easier to track history and communicate more effectively.
  4. Error Reduction: Ensure candidate and client information is correct and up to date with a single source of truth, reducing duplication and related mistakes.
  5. Analytics: Use the available data to gain competitive insights into both candidate and recruiter performance. Easily identify areas for improvement. 
Questions to ask your potential recruitment CRM vendor

Whether you’re just starting up your recruiting firm or considering a change of recruitment CRM, it’s important to ask the right questions to get the right solution and the best deal from your vendor. 

Here are some key questions that Jim and Chris recommend:

What’s the pricing model, and how much will it cost?

Every recruitment firm has a unique budgets and unique needs. Paying for unused licenses or unnecessary functionality is not cost-effective. Ask how your potential vendor defines ‘users’, how they handle adding or dropping users, and what costs are involved in setup and training. As most software as a service (SaaS) software is offered on a subscription model, it’s important to know whether future updates are part of the package or an additional cost.

If you’re considering self-hosting, there’s also cost of hardware and maintenance to consider.

What kind of support do you offer?

With the implementation of any new software, there is always going to be a learning curve. The flatter this curve, the quicker recruiters can get back to the job of recruiting. With a training and support package from the get-go, it’s much easier to get up and running, and get back to business without a lengthy introduction.

Ask who your point of contact will be. Do you get an experienced trainer to help guide you through using the software and offer advice regarding best practices? It’s also useful to know what post-setup options are available, like a learning management system (LMS), videos, or documentation to help you further down the line. Ongoing personal support can also be invaluable. Don’t forget to ask what the hours for support are, where the support team is based, and whether support comes with additional fees.

How can I post and update jobs?

With all the heavy lifting going on within your software, it’s important that job postings can be easily shared with job boards and other external platforms, without having to copy and paste information from one location to another. This is especially important when you want job postings to be consistent across different locations, or you want to allow candidates to flow in from multiple places. How does the potential vendor put jobs out to the world?

Am I able to extract data to generate reports and analytics?

Forward-thinking recruiters are using data to speed up sourcing and selection, and accelerate the time to fill open roles. Data can also be useful for analyzing candidate and recruiter performance. To get the best value from your dataset, it’s vital that your recruiting software offers reports to reveal useful business insights, and enables you to continuously improve as an organization. Ask what reports and analytics they provide and whether you can generate your own or export to common formats.

How do I get legacy data in or out?

A woman on the phone
When shopping for staffing or recruiting software, have your questions ready and take plenty of notes on the demo.

If you’re moving from one staffing and recruiting software to another, another important consideration is the successful migration of your existing data. This process can take time to get right. Data from a spreadsheet can typically be imported by you as an end-user, but a full data migration of jobs, resumes, and record history can potentially take weeks. How does your prospective vendor ensure a smooth transition without impacting day-to-day business or creating costly downtime? What fees are involved in migrating the data? And if you decide to leave, what’s involved in getting your data out?

Is this going to work with my existing email?

Bringing in new software shouldn’t involve redefining your entire software stack (unless you want it to.) When it comes to email, altering email habits to accommodate a new system is both time-consuming and unnecessary. Whether you use Gmail, Outlook, or any other major email client and provider, make sure the software you choose can easily work with your existing account. Ask about integrations that would help you sync contacts, calendars, attachments, and forms between your email and recruitment CRM.

How does it track voice and SMS communications?

Recruiters spend a lot of time on the phone. Ideally, you want your staffing software to offer a single pane of glass over the entire recruitment process. That includes SMS and voice communications. So it’s a reasonable expectation that the system should allow you to sync with services for dialing out or sending a text messages easily. Find out what systems your vendor works with and to what degree, and ask about tracking of activity in general.

Does it enable me to enhance my existing talent pool?

The right staffing software will elevate your hiring game, and building your own private database of candidates and clients will pay dividends on future searches. To that end, what functionality does it have to enable you to broaden, and deepen, your existing talent pool? These days, there are a wealth of clever services out there to help you uncover best-fit passive talent. Does the software easily integrate with services such as seamless.AI, HireEz, or ZoomInfo’s TalentOS?

Will my data be secure?

It’s imperative to pay attention to the security of your private database. With plenty of high-profile cases of data breaches, there can be lasting reputational and financial damage if something goes wrong. Ask the vendor who can access your data, and what security protocols they have in place. Find out how frequently the data is backed up and how easily it can be retrieved if something goes wrong.

You’ll also want to verify whether the vendor themselves intend to makes use of your data. Will your data be used research, aggregation, or even resale? Is it comingled with data from other users?

PCRecruiter is ready to give you answers.

PCRecruiter has been helping recruiters source, track, and hire since 1998. Over the years, our offering has evolved alongside recruiters’ needs and advances in technology. We understand the wide range of business models and service requirements that recruiting pros need.

We’re proud to have served over tens of thousands of recruiters around the world through our ATS / CRM. We are both happy and qualified to answer the questions above and more.

Let us answer your questions and show you around our recruiting tech. Book a free demo today.

For some recruiters, self-hosting is still the most cost-effective and efficient way to manage their ATS and CRM. For others, SaaS makes the most sense. So how do you know what’s right for your recruitment firm? And is there a vendor who can offer you both? (Yes. PCRecruiter).

Whether you’ve been in recruitment for decades, or you’re just getting started, your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) sit front and center of your business. Their value to your day-to-day activities is unquestionable. 

If your current software license is due for renewal, you’re about to heavily invest in new hardware, or you’re building a recruiting business from the ground up, it’s a good time to reevaluate your options. But should you choose self-hosted or SaaS?

In this blog post from PCRecruiter, company co-founder Martin Snyder looks at the key differences between self-hosted and SaaS, and the advantages of each type of setup. Why? Because unlike other vendors, PCRecruiter still offers both options to ensure we can provide the best fit for a wide range of needs.

What Is Self-Hosting?

A self-hosted solution run by the user’s company on their own IT systems and servers or from a data center which is not owned by their software vendor. This is also known as an ‘on-premise’. In a self-hosted set-up, the software is purchased outright via a license, typically renewed on an regular basis. 

Self-hosting works well for companies who already own or pay for the services required to facilitate it. So if you’ve already got a web and database server, storage infrastructure, technical and administrative support, and software maintenance services in place and working well, then all you need is the software. In this set-up, the software is a capital expense – a one-time purchase.      

What Is SaaS?

Networking Image

Software as a Service (SaaS) is the more popular alternative to self-hosting. SaaS is delivered over the Internet and does not require the same level of installation or maintenance. It eliminates the need for you to self-manage complicated software and hardware installations. SaaS is sometimes referred to as on-demand software or web-based software. It’s also sometimes referred to as “hosted software” because SaaS is hosted by the vendor who manages updates, security, access, and availability. SaaS uses a subscription model, so you pay on a recurring basis, often monthly.

SaaS doesn’t require the expensive IT infrastructure needed to self-host. In most cases, SaaS can run from any device with a browser or sometimes via a dedicated app. SaaS eliminates the need to buy and maintain your own hardware and networking infrastructure. In this way, SaaS helps to keep the capital costs down for IT hardware and equipment. It also means that your software becomes an operating expense (OpEx).

Self-Hosted or SaaS

In many ways, recruiting is a very narrow economic process. But the definition of a ‘recruiter’ is very broad – from an independent headhunter working at home to the HR sourcer at an international corporation. The one thing they all have in common is that recruiters tend to be ‘people’ people, not ‘tech’ people. They need a solution that fits their day-to-day needs without adding an unnecessary layer of complexity. 

In the distant past, the only option was for businesses to use a self-hosted or on-premise solution to meet their IT needs. It’s still the traditional way of setting up major IT infrastructure – and there’s nothing wrong with that. But as the saying goes: do what you’ve always done, and you’ll always get the same results. For some recruitment firms, this approach still works and they get great results. For others – particularly recruitment start-ups – SaaS offers a better solution.

Here are some key points to consider when comparing self-hosting with SaaS:

Continuous Delivery

There are many reasons to choose SaaS. If you lack the IT infrastructure to self-host, or if you’ve got any concerns whatsoever about the stability of your database, a SaaS vendor can take care of that for you. The other considerations are uptime and availability. If you’re not able to guarantee the stable and continuous delivery of your recruiters’ every day software tools and network, then SaaS is also a good option.

IT Resources

While major recruiting agencies may have lots of IT assets, smaller firms often have fewer resources. SaaS gives these companies access to a much more powerful software stack than they would otherwise manage themselves.

Smaller organizations also benefit from only needing a handful of user subscriptions. On the other hand, large enterprises can sometimes find self-hosting a more cost-effective way to add tens or hundreds of users (see Economic Models). 

Data Security

Most recruiters would agree that their most prized asset is their database. 

Self-hosting gives recruiters the reassurance that, with proper security in place, only they will have access to their data. There’s no need to be concerned about the vendor relationship and what could potentially happen with their data when it’s hosted by a third-party provider. Fears over a data breach, cyber threats, or even the sale of data are common concerns. Some less reputable ATS providers may even stipulate that if you import data into their SaaS, they own or can make use of the data. If you’re looking into any SaaS option, always ask the vendor for the specifics about who has access to and ownership of the database!

Networking Image

For every company around the world, there are ever-tightening regulations around data privacy. Recruitment is no exception. A data breach or cyberattack can be costly in terms of reputation and financial damage. Self-hosting gives you complete control over where the data is stored, who can connect to it, and even direct database access to the contents if needed.

Conversely, self-hosting means the entire security of your database rests upon your own network and IT capabilities, which could make you more vulnerable to issues rather than less. A reputable SaaS provider should have a highly secured hosting setup and regular security audits to ensure safety of the system, as well as be compliant with any applicable data protection regulations. This may offer you more peace of mind than managing things yourself.

Updates & New Features

With self-hosting, updating and getting new features can potentially be a time-consuming and costly process. It may impact business functionality, and generate downtime. SaaS is hosted by the vendor, so any updates and new features are handled centrally and automatically, and are therefore much quicker and easier to roll out. 

The other aspect to consider is timing. With SaaS, updates and new features are rolled out on a continuous basis. With self-hosting, it’s more typical to receive less frequent updates because of the complexity and disruption to services. Digital SaaS updates put the control in the hands of the vendor. Self-hosting updates tend to happen on-demand, putting control in the hands of the owner.

Another factor of increasing importance is how well the software can connect to other tools in your recruitment software stack. While a SaaS vendor may be able to offer software integrations through their own application programming interfaces (API), technical or contractual requirements often limit these to the SaaS provider’s own domain or infrastructure. Choosing to self-host may mean giving up some of the more robust features that rely on specific hardware and software behind the scenes. If you are currently self-hosting and have pre-existing integrations that you want to continue using when making a switch, it’s vitally important to ensure you can keep those connections.

Economic Models

As with most business decisions, cost is a make-or-break factor. Your decision to self-host or subscribe to a SaaS depends on your preferred economic model. When you self-host, the software is purchased as a single product. It’s owned. In countries like the US, for tax purposes, the value of this asset is said to depreciate in value over time. SaaS, however, is handled like a rental or lease. This means it there’s no depreciation. It’s an expense, and it gets taken as you spend it. 

Most SaaS vendors have three distinct fees: setup, user fees, and workload. For recruitment software vendors, workload equates with storage, updates, and data maintenance. The more storage you need, the higher the cost. SaaS user fees are generally per-user/per-month, whereas self-hosted configurations generally involve an initial startup fee, plus an update fee. This means that as the number of users increases, the cost per user decreases. There is a level where self-hosting can represent a huge saving when compared with SaaS user fees, but that tipping point tends to be at much larger organization sizes.

Which One Is Right For You?

Despite the increasing popularity and advantages of SaaS – it’s still not for everyone. For every recruitment firm, what’s most important is to balance innovation with necessity and cost with functionality.

Thankfully, with PCRecruiter you can take your pick. While the vast majority of our users go with the SaaS model, we still offer a self-hosted solution for those who require one. The software is substantially identical, with the exception of some of the more advanced features, making it possible to move your data from one model to the other if your business requirements change in the future.

If you’re not sure which makes sense for your company, our sales consultants are trained to help you compare the various options, and determine the right one for you. Get in touch with us today.

Post pandemic – and in response to the ‘Great Resignation’ – some recruiters quickly turned to innovative methods, in order to speed up the hiring process and fill open positions. Bringing in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to handle some of the key decision-making might have initially helped to streamline workflows, but it’s also had some unintentional consequences.

While many people might be happy to have AI make suggestions around which film to watch next, or to recommend other music they may enjoy, handing it responsibility for the selection process in their next job application can raise understandable concerns.

In this blog post, we take a closer look at the pitfalls and the potential of using AI in recruitment, and where it might add value rather than systemized bias.

Current Applications 

There’s no denying that in the modern world, AI has a lot of great uses. Across a range of industries, it’s being increasingly used to streamline workflows and cut costs. In fact, in the recruitment world, AI — and more specifically machine learning — has been used in various forms for some time now. 

Common applications include automated interviews, resume (or CV) screening, as well as administrative duties, such as identifying duplicate candidate records. But the truth is, there’s a lot we don’t know about how AI is being used in recruitment. And that’s a concern. 

Potential Benefits 

For the recruitment business, where AI can really shine is in crawling talent pools for potential candidates based on specific job criteria such as qualifications and experience. It can also learn broadly what kind of candidate is a good fit for a particular role. However, its real potential benefits come from automating some of the repetitive and time-consuming work which goes along with screening, assessing, and scheduling.

Even as far back as 2017, studies showed that hiring decision-makers saw the cost and time saving potential of AI, alongside its ability to deliver better candidate matches. Interestingly, 43% of decision makers also believed that it would remove human bias. And that’s exactly where AI has come unstuck: when it’s been used to replace human decision-making in an effort to speed up the hiring process.

Knowing The Pitfalls of AI in Recruitment

When we talk about AI in recruitment, we really mean machine learning — computer systems which can learn from statistical models and data sets. As Amazon discovered in 2015, using historical human data to inform AI decision models can come at a cost to both potential candidates and their future employers. Their experimental hiring tool which made use of machine learning was informed by ten years of resumes submitted to the company.

This illustration of a robot recruiter was generated entirely by AI.
This illustration of a robot recruiter was generated entirely by AI.

The issue was that the computer system was essentially given a decade of data revealing male dominance in the tech industry and adapted its algorithms accordingly. The result? Resumes containing the word ‘women’ were automatically downgraded. When this ‘algorithmic bias’ was discovered, interventions were made to ensure the system became gender-neutral, but it left lingering concerns that future unintended discrimination might occur, raising important questions around how to ensure that recruitment AI is transparent and fair. 

In fact, transparency over the use of AI in recruitment is one of the biggest challenges currently facing the industry. That’s where new legislation is playing a crucial role.

New Employment Laws

A game changer in terms of the use of AI in recruitment, New York City’s AI employment law restricts the use of ‘automated employment decision tools’ and requires recruiters to undergo an annual bias audit to alleviate potential bias in their systems. 

Recruiters will also have to be transparent about where AI has been used in the recruitment process, and to even provide candidates with alternative options for processing their applications. Undisclosed or biased use of AI in the hiring process will also be subjected to penalty fines. 

Taking effect from January, 1 2023, New York’s new law blazes the trail for further legislation to tackle the inherent bias and potential discrimination generated by machine learning algorithms.

Similar conversations are taking place in the European Union, where the AI Act is set to institute self-certification programs and government oversight. This law will create transparency requirements for AI systems that interact with people, and will attempt to ban a few “unacceptable” qualities of AI systems. Individuals or companies located within the European Union, placing an AI system on the market in the European Union, or using an AI system within the European Union would be subject to the regulation.

Future Possibilities

It’s easy to be dismissive of AI in recruitment. After all, it’s a people business. But there are some clear use cases where it can make trustworthy and time-saving improvements to the placement process. AI can also be trained to trawl records and match specific criteria. For more common roles requiring limited experience or technical skills there is perhaps wider scope for AI to assist with search and selection. The real danger arises when AI trained on imperfect data, and therefore inherently biased, is used for key decision-making.

Conceivably, AI could be used to handle the entire recruitment process — which perhaps less scrupulous recruiters might find appealing. But for most recruiters there’s a sense of professional pride, and a human aspect to hiring — building relationships with employers and candidates — which AI simply can’t replace. 

As an example, there could be three equally well-qualified candidates in the running for an open position. Their education, qualifications and experience all fit the bill, but what about their cultural fit? A good recruiter understands the importance of aligning the employer’s value proposition with the right candidates. AI can easily miss the subtle verbal and non-verbal nuances which influence human-decision making. Humans can also see beyond the data. Especially when you’re looking for someone with transferable skills from outside a particular industry. Good recruiters know that instinct, as much as anything else, comes into play when making the right hire.  

There’s also the candidate’s perspective to consider. They may have a (sometimes valid) suspicion of any technology used to influence the hiring process. For example, even though Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) have been around for decades, you can still find plenty of blog posts and guides for ‘how to beat the ATS’. Fears run even deeper with undisclosed uses of AI, particularly when it comes to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. As the Amazon experiment revealed, machine learning opens up the potential for discriminatory algorithms, and runs the inherent risk of excluding candidates you really wanted, over the ones it thinks you want.

Accelerate Hiring Without AI

Although there are some tasks and activities which can be comfortably replaced by AI, when it comes to key decision-making, sourcing the right talent and identifying the best-fit candidate is best left in the hands of humans. But how can you speed up the time to hire without using AI?

Recruitment automations can take care of repetitive, and repeatable everyday tasks, and give recruiters more time to spend time with candidates and employers. It’s particularly helpful for keeping all parties updated through emails, form letters, and notifications, cutting down the time needed to manually create correspondence.

PCRecruiter is an ATS / CRM hybrid which offers recruiters a huge range of opportunities to automate certain aspects of their recruitment process, making workflows more streamlined and cost-effective. Tailored to specific workflows, it’s a seamless, customizable and powerful tool for handling your end-to-end talent sourcing and. 

Want to learn more about the benefits of using automation in recruitment? Read our blog post 5 Ways To Use Automation In Recruitment.

On October 26th, learn about background screening trends, the importance of screening, and how to get started with the Verified First background screening integration in PCRecruiter.

Over 80% of organizations use background screening, yet 39% of organizations do not screen for every job (Aptitude Research).

Verified First

That’s why we’re hosting a FREE webinar with our friends at Verified First, Why & How: The Importance of Background Screening. On October 26th, we’ll explore background screening trends, the importance of screening, and how to get started with the Verified First background screening integration.

We’ll also explore:

  • Why you should run background checks on staff
  • What can happen when background checks aren’t properly run
  • How Verified First’s solution saves time, requires less paperwork, and simplifies the process

When: October 26th at 1:00 PM EDT

PCRecruiter is proud to include Verified First in our roster of PCRecruiter integrations and partners.

G2’s Fall 2022 report recognizes PCRecruiter with 7 new badges and multiple Top 10 Rankings in the ATS, Staffing, Recruiting, and Candidate Relationship software categories.

G2, the world’s largest and most trusted software marketplace, has released their Fall 2022 Reports today. In the latest report, PCRecruiter received four new Leader badges, three new High Performer badges, and was ranked Top 10 in ten reports. These recognitions are based entirely on independent reviews submitted by real PCRecruiter users.

We were particularly pleased to receive a Top 3 slot in the Small-Business Relationship Index for Applicant Tracking Systems, indicating that when it comes to ease of doing business with, quality of support, and likeliness to recommend, PCRecruiter is one of the best ATS software options for companies of 1-50 employees.

G2 Fall 2022 Badges
G2’s Fall Reports show why PCRecruiter is ranked as one of the Top 50 HR Software options on the site.

“Rankings on G2 reports are based on data provided to us by real software buyers,” said Sara Rossio, Chief Product Officer at G2. “Potential buyers know they can trust these insights when researching and selecting software because they’re rooted in vetted, verified, and authentic reviews.” 

We are deeply appreciative of your kind words about our software and we look forward to continuing to build on this success. If you’re a PCRecruiter user, we would love to have your thoughts included in G2’s Winter 2023 rankings. Click here to submit your own review now.

About G2

G2 is the world’s largest and most trusted software marketplace. More than 60 million people annually — including employees at all of the FORTUNE 500 — use G2 to make smarter software decisions based on authentic peer reviews. Thousands of software and services companies of all sizes partner with G2 to build their reputation, manage their software spend, and grow their business – including Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoom, and Adobe. To learn more about where you go for software, visit www.g2.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Recruitment is most definitely a people business, so introducing automation into your recruiting process might not seem like an obvious move. That is, until you realize that by adding automation at various points in their workflow, recruiters can actually free up more time to focus on their core business – making placements.

In this post, we explore ways that forward-thinking recruiters use automations to drive efficiency in their recruitment workflows. We’ll see how the right applicant tracking system (ATS) can help you hire faster. 

What is recruitment automation?

Recruitment automation is the use of technology to automate specific tasks within the recruitment process. It helps minimize the time to fill open roles, and reduces costs. This delivers a better overall experience for candidates, employers, and recruiters.

Automation covers both external and internal tasks. These can include things like notifications sent at specific stages of the hiring process or emails to candidates. Ultimately, the less time a recruiter spends logging information, the more time they have to spend working with clients and candidates. 

Recruitment automation can also include more strategic tasks, such as email campaigns, which help keep clients and candidates informed and engaged. Examples of time-saving automations include:

  • Form letters to candidates 
  • Notification prompts to administrators 
  • Emails to clients regarding scheduled interviews

PCRecruiter’s own system for recruitment automation is essentially an open box. Wherever a communication is both repeated and repeatable, the opportunities for automations are endless. As recruiters spot more opportunities to refine workflows, there is less need for them to manually create and send correspondence. 

The great thing about automating via the ATS is that recruiters don’t need to spend time jumping between multiple tools. Doing more things from a single hub reduces friction, speeding up the placement and hiring processes.

The automation building tool is part of recruitment automation in PCRecruiter.
PCRecruiter’s Automations make event-triggered recruitment automations easy for users to implement.

How to use automation in recruitment 

Think more strategically about your own recruiting workflows. You’ll see almost any recruitment process presents potential for automation. Everything from the initial job posting to interview scheduling to following up post-hire is an opportunity to streamline.

For most recruiters, their bane is technology that interferes with their work or slows them down. That being so, the best approach to implementing automations is to identify opportunities in existing processes. Look for points where automation might help recruiters to be more efficient and productive. By automating repetitive and repeatable tasks, recruiters free-up more time to focus on their core activities.

Here are five ways to use automation in recruitment: 

Applicant Tracking 

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Applicant tracking is the backbone of any recruiter’s day-to-day. A whiteboard or spreadsheet solution might cut it in the early days. However, when you start handling multiple placements and hundreds of candidates these tools become inefficient and unwieldy.

No matter how many candidates in your database, or how many employers you’re dealing with, an applicant tracking system (ATS) like PCRecruiter scales with you. Because the software tracks candidates from end to end, you’ll never lose track of potential hires along the way. Candidates you couldn’t place remain ready for next time a suitable role opens up.

PCRecruiter users can modify fields and forms to suit existing workflows — this includes adding custom automations. For example, triggering behaviors when records containing specific information, such as a location or industry, are entered. 

Job Postings

2

When it comes to job postings, there’s an administrative burden on recruiters to make the information visible. Whether on recruitment websites or your own company’s careers page, it can become complicated to track and manage multiple postings. Automation can help you create once and publish anywhere.

The great thing about PCRecruiter’s integrated job board is that it can be implemented into practically any website. This saves duplication of effort and potential errors that come from managing a website’s job board separately. In addition, leveraging job feeds and integrations helps to advertise the opening on other sites, saving time and effort.

Social Recruiting 

3

In a world where 70% of the workforce consists of passive talent and 82% of Americans have a social media profile, it makes sense to reach potential candidates via their favorite social hangouts. Recruiters can leverage the potential reach of both personal and professional networks via social recruiting. This is accomplished through a combination of posting links to new job postings, and strategic employer branding.

What if every time you published a new position, your marketing team received a notification with all the relevant details? What if the job could be posted to social networks automatically? This could then be easily incorporated in and around other content promoting your employer brand and its values. PCRecruiter’s built-in automation features as well as integrations with services like Paiger and Zapier make these workflows easy to implement.

Process Sequencing 

4

Process sequencing plays a vital role in helping support reps respond to customer inquiries quickly and efficiently. It provides standardized workflows and even scripting. 

The same approach can be applied to recruitment. Sequences provide the recruiter with a clear and standardized series of tasks. These can be customized to suit different roles or industries. This creates the potential to create and apply automations at specific stages of the process. 

PCRecruiter’s own sequencing tool enables recruiters to create their own workflows, with manual or automatic tasks. Tasks can include phone calls, prompts to connect on LinkedIn, or an automatic email confirming review of a resume. More quickly completing tasks and leveraging automating steps means recruiters can make more placements with less effort.

An easy task-based interface makes recruiting automation simple.
The task-based Sequencing interface allows users to work through their queue with minimal friction.

When it comes to onboarding new recruiters (or helping to keep current ones more effective), sequencing simplifies training. Making every step a clear and straightforward task guides users and informs them what the result of each action will be.

For example, after marking a completing a call, a contact is moved to the next step. The prebuilt sequence defines what that step is. For instance, if you have to leave a voicemail, the next step could be an automatic SMS confirming the message. If the call was connected, the next step may be a follow-up email with a form to complete.

Personalized Communication 

5

In most competitive industries, there’s an increasing customer expectation of regular, relevant, and anticipated communication. People want more personalized and hassle-free experiences, and they expect regular notifications and updates as a matter of course. Just think of all the notifications you received the last time you placed an online order; you’re told when it’s been received, when it’s shipped, that it’s with the carrier, and so on.  

Automations don’t just streamline existing processes. They can also help recruiters to do more than they would have been able to otherwise. Leveraging relevant data makes communication with candidates and clients can more personal. You’ll improve engagement by using their name, roles applied for, and even other roles they might be interested in. This creates a closer relationship, even if the placement is unsuccessful, that can return value in future placement efforts. This kind of personalized communication could take many forms. PCRecruiter can handle a variety of notifications:

  • Text messages (SMS) 
  • Email notifications
  • Pop-up notifications within PCR
  • Push notifications (via the mobile app)

Making strategic use of recruitment automations

Any attempt to save time and cost through automation works best when it adds value and efficiency to existing processes. Look to automate aspects of your recruitment process with that in mind.

At the end of the day, most recruiters are people people, not tech people. That’s why it’s important to make workflows as streamlined and intuitive as possible. The software solution needs to fit their way of working and not the other way around.

PCRecruiter’s training team on-boards users by taking time to understand their daily flow. They get to know what your process looks like and how it works. By mapping out the process, they can identify where the software can solve pain points. Recruiting is already a challenging role — why add another layer of unnecessary complexity? 

Once set up, automations in PCRecruiter enable you to do what you would do without it, only much faster. To learn how you can make placements with less administrative hassle, book a free consultation today. 

There’s no question that recent years have been uncertain times for almost every type of business. Even those employers who managed to successfully ride out the global pandemic are feeling the effects of an ever-changing recruitment market. In a number of sectors, there’s also a widening gap between the skills needed and the skills candidates can offer.

As we move into the latter part of 2022, what are some of the key hiring recruitment trends for the staffing industry, permanent placement recruiters, and HR professionals?

Working Remotely Is Here To Stay

A man working at home
“Candidates now expect remote or hybrid working models as the norm.”

We live in a world where flexible working – greater freedom in when and where we work – is now an integral part of the employment landscape, particularly in knowledge-based industries. In fact, 80% of people are likely to recommend remote working to a friend. To that end, potential hires expect absolute clarity around remote and hybrid practices within companies. And for recruiters, remote working has advantages on both sides of the hiring process. 

On one hand, candidates now expect remote or hybrid working models as the norm. With proven benefits in terms of employee job satisfaction and morale, the best candidates can demand their ideal working conditions. Many people prefer remote working to cut travel costs, reduce their carbon footprint, and the time they spend commuting. For that reason, putting together a personalized package of flexible working arrangements can help to differentiate your offer – and even become a deal-closer – when the right candidate has multiple offers on the table. 

On the other side of the coin, remote recruitment practices are enabling recruiters to make the right hire faster. From access to a deeper and wider talent pool to streamlining the early stages of the recruitment process, through to things like online interviews or screening, remote hiring offers recruiters a competitive advantage in terms of time-saved and reduced costs. Find more strategies for reducing your time to hire, by reading our blog post on 10 tips to help you hire faster

It’s Still A Jobseekers Market

Artificial intelligence is growing stronger, as shown in this “photo of a recruiter talking to a candidate” generated by DALL•E

Never mind artificial intelligence (AI) and robots taking human jobs, according to a recent study by Korn Ferry, the biggest threat facing recruiters will actually be a shortage of suitably skilled humans. In fact, it’s predicted that by 2030 there will be a global talent shortage of around 85 million people. The competition for recruiting and retaining top talent is heating up.

With more open positions than candidates, the best talent has the most power in the current job market. As the demand for talent continues to outstrip supply, companies are adopting evermore proactive hiring strategies in an effort to optimize their talent pipelines. Developing an appealing employer brand, deploying proven marketing tactics, and engaging with potential candidates via social media are fast-becoming a necessity in many sectors. 

For instance, being present on the right social media platform for your target audience is a way to build relationships with potential candidates, especially as a growing number of digital natives begin filling up the talent pool. Learn more about social recruiting, and how to implement it, with our blog post on how to use social media in recruiting.

Employer Branding Is A Key Differentiator 

Employer Branding Stats
There’s ample evidence that a great
employer brand makes it easier to recruit
and it also impacts the business’ bottom
line in more than one way.

Whether you choose to leverage it or not, the second an employer makes a hire, they have an employer brand. Like a company’s “traditional” brand, it embodies your mission, vision, and core values. For many organizations, an effective employer brand helps them to connect with the right candidates, attract the best talent, and retain that talent once they’re inside the organization. 

As with a company brand, you need consistency across every touchpoint, creating a candidate experience which leads to positive word of mouth, and clearly sets out your value proposition as an employer or recruiter. In addition, the right employer brand and candidate experience will continue to make your company an attractive proposition to potential candidates who didn’t quite make it this time around. The other benefit of employer branding is its impact on retention, with one study indicating that it could lead to a 28% reduction in staff turnover. Take a more in-depth look at employer branding with our blog post on the topic. 

Hard-To-Fill Roles In Tech And Marketing

In part, the talent shortage is due to demographics, with the majority of the boomer generation expected to exit the global workforce by 2030. As work becomes increasingly tech-based, many businesses are facing up to the reality of a deficit of the right talent. According to a study by Korn Ferry, without an influx of skilled, high-tech workers, the US could potentially miss out on $162 billion worth of annual revenues. 

Contrary to what you might think, despite the global reach of digital recruitment channels, from job posting sites and careers pages to social media, filling roles in tech and digital marketing is becoming increasingly challenging. This is largely due to the uptake of digital technologies in the wake of the global pandemic, and the trend for digital transformation – the adoption of new technologies to drive efficiencies. Put simply, technology is moving at such a fast pace, when it comes to front-end developers and software architects, there just isn’t enough expertise to go around.

The “MarTech Map”, courtesy of https://martechmap.com/

This shortage of talent is especially true of digital marketing and the expert use of ‘martech’ (marketing technology). Comparing Scott Brinker’s MarTech Map from 2011 and 2022 shows an increase from 150 solutions to over 9,000 in 2022. That’s 6,521% growth in just 11 years. No one can be expert in every digital marketing tool, and this illustrates the challenge facing recruiters looking to hire the finest and most up-to-date marketing minds. Whether they’re looking for a marketing automation specialist or a search engine optimization (SEO) strategist, it can be difficult to find the right talent because the technology is so new. Smart recruiters are even employing SEO techniques to improve the online visibility of their job postings.

Recruitment Trends Round-Up

Whether you’re competing for the best candidate in a shallow talent pool, exploring new channels for networking with potential hires, improving your overall candidate experience, or trying to fill open roles in a highly-specialized market, the right applicant tracking software (ATS) can help. 

PCRecruiter has been helping people hire since 1998. The technology might have changed, but our dedication to providing intuitive and time-saving solutions for sourcing, tracking, and recruiting candidates remains the same. 

Find out how PCRecruiter can help streamline your recruitment efforts, by booking a demo.

The latest PCRecruiter update adds Email Categories, letting recipients opt in or out of specific types of mass-email for more control over your email marketing.

A new update has been released on the PCRecruiter hosting servers this morning. In addition to the standard issue corrections and performance enhancements, this update also includes changes in preparation for the release of our Sequencing feature, which will be officially available in September. While most of the changes will go unseen for those not using Sequencing, there are some important changes that will affect those who are using our current Email Campaigns or legacy Bulk Mail feature.

Subscription Statuses

In earlier versions of PCRecruiter, an email address could have one of four statuses:

  • No Status – No opt-in or opt-out request has been recorded, therefore this address can be sent single or mass-email until otherwise specified.
  • Opt-Out Bulk – PCRecruiter can send email to this address on an individual basis, but the email will be skipped when sending any multi-recipient email, such as a Campaign or legacy Bulk Mail.
  • Opt-Out All – PCRecruiter cannot send email to this address.
  • Opt-In – This address has explicitly given permission to receive all email.

It’s important to note that the subscription status is linked to the email address itself and not to the Name record, as you might have multiple records with the same email address, or you may remove a name from the system and re-add it at a later date.

New: Subscription Categories

Because the Opt-Out/Opt-In feature in previous versions was either “all-in” or “all-out”, it could limit the ability to manage more nuanced marketing and communication.

The new update includes an Email Category designation that applies to the email’s opt-in/out status, as well as to the mass email sends, thereby allowing recipients to receive only the kinds of email they wish to receive.

For example, someone may wish to receive Billing emails, but opt out of Newsletters. By giving recipients the option to choose by category, they are less inclined to opt out of all email just to avoid receiving some email.

The pre-defined list of Email Categories consists of the following options:

Announcements, Appointments, Benefits, Billing, Business Development, Compliance, Corrections Recalls, Education Training, Follow Ups, Holiday Greetings, Marketing, Networking, Newsletters, Operations, Opportunities, Referrals, Requests, Shareholders, Surveys, Updates, and Other

By default, ALL Categories will be visible. To hide the Categories that you don’t intend to use, any administrator-level user in your database can navigate to SYSTEM > Email Setup > Bulk Email Categories. From there, they can uncheck the extraneous choices. This will hide that Category both for users sending email and for recipients editing their subscription options.

What does this change for PCR users?

The new Email Category dropdown supporting email subscriptions.
The new “Email Category” dropdown is required when sending email to a search result or Rollup list of recipients.

When users are sending any Campaign or Bulk Email, they will now be presented with an “Email Category” dropdown. The user must select the appropriate category based on the content of the email, so that the email is only sent to those who have not otherwise opted out of such communications.

Note that in the Campaigns email feature, the new “Email Category” dropdown is different from the existing “Category” field. The “Email Category” is based on the content of the letter and is used for opt-in/out purposes, whereas the “Category” field designates how that Campaign will be grouped when reviewing the Email area of the PCR Analytics.

What does this change for email recipients?

Any Form Letters which you are using for mass-email should have the [[Email Opt Out Link]] merge tag included in the footer, as well as your full contact information (see the Email Opt-in/Opt-out article in our Learning Center for complete setup instructions).

Subscription Checklist
Visit SYSTEM > Email Setup > Bulk Mail Categories to adjust which options are available.

With the new update, the “Update Subscription Preferences” popup includes a new “Subscription Preferences” link which will allow the recipient to check or uncheck the categories they’re interested in.

Clicking “Confirm” from the initial popup will only opt them out of the particular Category of email that they clicked the link from, but the “Subscription Preferences” panel includes an Unsubscribe All option.

For the moment, the option to add/remove an address from specific Email Categories is limited to this recipient-facing popup window, but we will be adding the option for system admins to add or remove emails from particular Categories in an upcoming version.

What does this change for PCRecruiter Administrators?

Admin-level users will see changes to the SYSTEM > Email Setup >Email Opt-In/Opt-Out List screen. There is a new “Categories Opted-In” column adjacent to the “Status” column.

SYSTEM > Email Setup >Email Opt-In/Opt-Out List
  • Emails that have been opted into specific categories will have “Opt-In” in the Status column, and will show their selected Categories in the “Categories Opted-In” column.
  • Emails that have been opted out of all BULK mail will have “Opt-In” in the Status column, but will show no categories in the “Categories Opted-In” column.
  • Emails that have been opted out of ALL mail, bulk or otherwise, will have “Opt-Out” in the Status column and nothing in the “Categories Opted-In”.
  • If you are using our GDPR features, any existing emails that have been opted-in will appear with “Opt-In” in the Status column and will have ALL Categories opted-in by default.

Whichever type of recruitment you’re involved with, and whatever sector or niche you specialize in, having the right tools to handle your recruitment process can give you a competitive advantage and ensure you fill your open roles with top talent.

For any type of recruiter, from permanent placement through to internal HR departments, the right applicant tracking system / software (ATS) can help you manage large quantities of applicants and candidates and make your recruitment process more efficient and effective. 

In this blog post, Stacy Racutt, PCRecruiter Training Manager, explores the basics behind applicant tracking software, and how the right solution can streamline workflows to enable you to make the right hires, faster. 

Isometric cartoon of man holding an ATS (applicant tracking system) sign

What is an applicant tracking system (ATS)?

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a type of software which enables recruiters and employers to track applicants and candidates through the recruiting and hiring process.

Functionality is typically broad, covering everything from a candidate database to email and SMS integrations which help to streamline and automate communication between candidates, employers, and recruitment professionals.

The right ATS can facilitate the standardization and improvement of processes and workflows to achieve the bottom line: finding the best candidate for the role.

How an ATS works

Once a company’s job descriptions have been created, they’re typically posted on a job board on a website. This gives active candidates a window into what’s available, allowing them to view open positions, and apply for suitable roles. 

After completing and submitting an online application, often uploading their resume or curriculum vitae (CV), applicant information is then captured and added to a database on the ATS. Once a candidate is in the system, recruiters can then interact with, and track, the progress of candidates throughout the recruitment process.

With PCRecruiter (PCR), any activity around a specific candidate can be tracked across the full range of communication channels including emails, SMS, and calls. This helps recruiters build a clear history of their relationship with a candidate. With every communication in a single, centralized record, it’s easily accessible, and highly visible to recruiters and their managers.

Passive candidates take a slightly different path into the ATS. These people are not actively seeking a specific position, but may be open to the right opportunity. The PCR Capture tool enables employers and recruiters to parse candidate contact information from popular social media and professional websites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Indeed to create a record for them. 

Why use an Applicant Tracking System?

From a candidate application on a job board through to the final interview, some system to track the sourcing and placement process is a recruiting necessity. However, for many smaller-scale search firms, or recruiters who are just starting out, it’s not uncommon for workflows to include manual processes, which are inefficient and vulnerable to human errors. 

Over time, and with an ever-growing talent pool, it can become increasingly challenging to keep track of top talent and MPCs. They may lose out to competitors, have to settle for second best, or not make a placement at all. While sticky notes on a whiteboard or a series of Excel sheets might be a workable solution in the early days, the need for applicant tracking software quickly becomes obvious. 

Digitally transformed recruitment

Isometric illustration of someone looking at a large resume on a screen

Digitization of manual recruitment processes usually leads to the use of spreadsheets to track candidate progress. If you’re dealing with a very small data set and a narrow set of needs, a spreadsheet can do the job, up to a point. There may be nothing inherently wrong with a spreadsheet, but it wasn’t designed with recruitment in mind, and it’s not a searchable database of resumes or CVs, or a convenient way to track a process over specific dates and times. 

A spreadsheet was built for numbers and data, and there comes a point when it’s not the right tool for getting the job of recruitment done. On the other hand, digitalization represents a step on from simply transferring an existing paper-based system to a digital one. Digitalization of your recruitment process requires the use of cutting edge recruitment technology to add value and drive efficiencies to your day-to-day operations. Digitalization gives you the opportunity to improve your existing workflows by leveraging the potential of digital tools and their functionality. 

For newer, scaling recruiters, the next logical step is to track and monitor candidates through an online recruitment platform. This acts like an ATS, but the information isn’t unique to them. Essentially, it grants access to a shared talent pool, which is being mined by multiple firms. It isn’t a private bank of contacts and resumes/CVs with a communication history that’s ready and waiting when it’s next needed for a potential hire.

History Matters

This history is really important. Why? If you have multiple recruiters in the same office, working in the same industry, it’s important they’re aware of each candidate’s history with your organization. Has anyone else interviewed them previously? Is someone else currently trying to place them elsewhere? 

Without a reliable ATS, it can be hard to tell. 

Having a complete history of a person, even including feedback from a client, on file and at hand, immediately provides a head start and avoids crossover with other recruiters going after the same talent.

Furthermore, all of your own notes and actions regarding a candidate can make them easier to identify for future searches. Searching across the open web or paid candidate sources may only turn up those who are actively on the market, or may only provide partial information, whereas your private talent pool may contain that perfect candidate that has been in your roster all along, and who may not be accessible to anyone else.

And this is to say nothing of the benefits of keeping your job openings and client information on file in the same database with your candidates, allowing you to efficiently cross-reference, promote, and communicate.

How an ATS benefits recruiters and employers

There’s no question that in a highly competitive job market, making effective use of the right ATS can give employers and recruiters the edge on their rivals when trying to acquire the best candidates. Here are five reasons to invest in an ATS: 

  1. Speed-up search by building a pool of talent which contains historical data, and personal details, which can come into play at any given moment in a future placement.  
  1. Centralize all communication, including calls, SMS, and email in one repository so that everything you know about a candidate is available with a just few clicks.
  1. Greater visibility over your processes can help you refine and evolve workflows by creating automations, finding spots where you can drive efficiencies by eliminating repetitive, routine tasks.
  1. Save time by creating re-usable templates for things like resumes, forms, and questionnaires. Upload online job postings quickly and efficiently to multiple sites.
  1. Quickly identify passive candidates through your ever-growing, searchable library of candidate records, including all your previous interactions with them. 

Choosing the right ATS

When a spreadsheet of contact information is no longer meeting your recruitment needs, and is actually slowing you down, an ATS gives you a lot more capability, versatility, and functionality. The right ATS allows you to do more with your data.

PCRecruiter is a fully customizable ATS and CRM designed to meet your specific recruitment needs, and works with your existing processes, evolving as you do. Pick the core and premium functionality that’s right for you, and discover new ways to speed up your placement process, from scheduling call plans to capturing data from online sources.

See PCRecruiter in action. Book a demo today.

Top talent tends not to stick around too long, so when it comes to securing the right person for the right role, the best recruiters need to be quick off the mark. As a recruitment professional, how can you hire faster without dropping your hiring standards? In the latest blog from PCRecruiter, we share ten tips for faster, more efficient recruiting.

When it’s time to hire, time is always of the essence. Not only is faster hiring an effective way to reduce your cost-per-hire, it can give you a better chance of securing top talent before they get snapped up by a competitor. No matter which industry you’re recruiting for, the time-to-hire metric is likely to be one of your most valuable performance indicators.

So how can you reduce the friction and increases the velocity of your hiring process, without working at twice the speed and suffering from recruiter burning out in the process? Like a professional athlete, making minor adjustments in your training and approach can make all the difference when you hit the field of play. 

Why hire faster?

The plain and simple reason why you should hire faster is that the best candidates have a short shelf life. Once you’ve uncovered a promising individual, there’s only limited time to act, and even then you may already be too late. The reason? Many employers and recruiters are using ever more inventive and time-efficient tactics to get the right candidates quicker through the door. 

The so-called ‘The Great Resignation’ – where millions of US workers voluntarily left their jobs – means that when it comes to the job market, the supply of vacant positions is now outweighed by demand. In addition, there’s also a notable trend amongst millennials (those born between roughly 1980 and 1996) to change jobs more frequently than other generations. A recent Gallup poll revealed that 60% of millennials are open to a new job opportunity.

The last 10 months of 2021—since March—saw the largest exodus of employees on record.
The last 10 months of 2021 saw the largest exodus of employees on record. The orange line in this chart represents job quit numbers in 2021.

How can you hire faster?

With the terrain of the general recruitment landscape mapped out, what can you do as a recruiter to navigate it quicker and more effectively? Here are our top ten tips for hiring faster.

  1. Select the right Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and CRM

    It pays to invest in the right ATS and CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE. After all, they’re the most important tools in your day-to-day and the key to structuring your hiring process more effectively. With the right, configurable solution in place for managing talent and applicant flow, you can continuously optimize every stage of the recruiting process.
  1. Refine, standardize, and automate your recruiting process

    When you need to take a quicker route somewhere, things  like maps, traffic reports, satellite navigation, and local knowledge can all come into play. And the candidate journey is no different. By taking the time to analyze their journey, it’s possible to identify and remove bottlenecks, find places where automations can save you valuable time. 
  1. Choose the right tools for your recruitment tech stack

    With so many integrations and point solutions out there, your recruitment tech stack can quickly become unwieldy. Jumping between tools, tabs, or apps, often creates unnecessary friction which slows down the entire process. Whilst it might not yet be possible to use a single tool for every aspect of the hiring workflow, some integrated solutions come pretty close to minimizing the need for multiple tools (which may nor may not work effectively together). 
  1. Take a data-driven approach

    In a world where almost every industry is harnessing the business benefits of ‘Big Data’, the right analytics can improve and accelerate recruitment decision-making at every level. Leveraging insights around the time it takes to fill a specific type of role or complete a particular stage of the recruitment process will help you to identity potential time-saving alternatives. 
  1. Fill a talent pool in advance

    The beauty of deploying the right ATS is that you can create a talent pool in anticipation of the future recruitment. Based on business needs and goals, this database is vital for smoothing and streamlining your search when it’s the right time to hire. It’s a ready-made source of candidates to whom you can reach out at the appropriate time.
  1. Hire faster by sourcing faster

    One way to accelerate your time to hire is by improving your sourcing efforts before the hiring begins. There are a range of strategies you can deploy, including utilizing social media, referrals, talent databases, and monitoring internal talent. Research by LinkedIn revealed that referrals are the number one way people discover a new job. 
  1. Deliver a better candidate experience

    As with your company brand, you need to ensure potential candidates have a consistent and positive experience at every touchpoint. That means everything from your careers page to your communication during the recruitment process needs to be aligned with your brand voice, and appealing to your audience, to reduce the likelihood of candidates dropping off. 
  1. Improve job postings

    Another absolutely critical candidate touchpoint is your job posting itself. If you’re going to get the best match for the role, you need to make sure it’s honest, engaging, and targeted at your ideal candidate. Focus on what the role offers first, before you go into the details. 

    Providing lists of essential and desirable qualifications and experience helps you to slightly broaden the net. Focusing on your target talent, you might get fewer people interested, but those candidates are more likely to be a better match – reducing the number of applications to sift.
  1. Streamline assessment

    Whatever kind of assessment you use to screen candidates, bear in mind that it can add on days to your hiring process. Be selective about which ones you actually need to use in order to make the hire. An ATS system with the ability to create customized filters might be another way to speed up the selection process.    
  1. Shorten the interview process

    Do you really need three rounds of interviews? One simple way to reduce the time to hire is to optimize the interview process and automate interview scheduling. By conducting fewer interviews or reducing the time between them, you can dramatically accelerate your talent acquisition.

Hire faster but don’t rush it

Hire slow, fire fast. That’s how it goes, right? The temptation to rush through a hire without going through the proper process and due diligence can easily lead to you selecting the wrong candidate: someone who’s not a good fit for a company’s culture; a person who’s going to onboard and then up and away after weeks or months.  

All that time and money wasted on sourcing, interviewing, and onboarding the wrong person (or people) could have been better spent on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of your hiring process, ensuring your efforts to secure a placement are rewarded with the right person for the role. 

Hiring faster shouldn’t equate to a drop in your hiring standards. In fact, a faster, more efficient hiring process should lead to better hiring results. PCRecruiter has been helping recruiters secure the best talent since 1998. Find out how our software streamlines the hiring process from end-to-end, bringing automations and configurations that can ramp-up your speed and efficiency. Discover our tech.

Over 50% of recruitment leaders are investing in employer branding. What’s the appeal, and how can it benefit your business? In the latest blog post from PCRecruiter, we explore the importance of employer branding and how it can make your hiring more effective, and benefit your bottom line. 

An image of a woman happy about her employer brandingWhatever business you’re in, your brand is your reputation – not just to your customers or clients, investors and other stakeholders, but to the people who make up your organization. Without them, there is no business.

That’s why getting the right talent through the door to fill the right roles in your organization is so vital for your business success. After all, you don’t want to waste time and money on acquiring and onboarding the wrong people for your organization.

However, in a competitive job market where you need to be quick on the hire to secure the best people for your business, attracting the right talent is easier said than done. That’s where employer branding can help. In this blog post, we explore the importance of employer branding and how it can make a difference to the effectiveness of your hiring process.

What is employer branding?

Employer branding is the perception of your business amongst your prospective workforce and your current employees.

Like your business brand, which defines your value proposition of your products or services within a particular market, your employer brand defines your value proposition as a place to work, develop a career, and grow as a person within the employment market.

Your employer brand embodies the essence of your enterprise, representing your people, policies, and values. In the same way that a consumer brand is designed to create attract customers, create familiarity, earn trust, and build loyalty, your employer brand is more than just your approach to managing people and business, it runs much deeper. Employer branding helps define and communicate your organization’s unique cultural and ethical standpoint, as reflected by your employees and your business actions.

Whether you’re looking to hire a part-time cleaner, or an experienced CEO, it may seem counterintuitive to focus on your offering, rather than theirs. But those prospective hires not only need to know that their skills, experience, and talent are a good fit for the role and your business, but also what they’re getting in exchange by becoming an employee.

Why is employer branding important?

Your employer brand is important because it helps to communicate what kind of employment experience you offer prospective candidates, what kind of experience they can expect when they come to work for you, and why they should consider working for you in the long term.

Effective employer branding communicates a positive message about working for your organization, encourages engagement, and creates a buzz around your company as a desirable place to work. Think of it as marketing for your role as an employer to existing and future employees.

If that sounds like an additional layer of complication over what your HR department or recruitment team does, it’s worth remembering that you already have an employer brand. It’s up to you to shape perceptions and the way it works best for your hiring efforts.

A recent study by LinkedIn revealed that the number one obstacle for candidates looking for a job is not knowing what it’s like to work at the company. So guess what 75% of those candidates look for before they put in an application? Employer brands. 

How can employer branding benefit your business?

The bottom line of effective employer branding is that it boosts your bottom line. So let’s dive a little deeper into that.

First impressions count. So getting employer branding right brings the right candidates knocking on the door, and if you’ve been actively pursuing the right hire, it welcomes them inside. That’s important because candidates have a world of openings to choose from.

To make your organization stand out in a competitive market, you need to make your offering more appealing to them. With over 50% of recruitment leaders investing in and deploying a proactive employer branding strategy, the competition for the best candidates is heating up. Standing by and doing nothing isn’t an option unless you want to get lost in the pack.

By more closely aligning your employer brand with prospective hires, it can significantly boost your recruitment efforts. LinkedIn’s study revealed that an effective employer brand results in:

  • 28% reduction in turnover
  • 50% more qualified candidates
  • 50% reduction in your cost per hire
  • 1-2 times faster hires.

There’s also a positive impact on engagement and retention. An effective employer brand makes it easier for recruiters to introduce your organization to prospects. And it’s only as good as the people that work for you. In fact, it’s the message that they put out about your organization that does the most employer branding work for you.

With the right organizational culture in place, you can begin to grow that positive messaging and become a trusted employer, someone that people enjoy working for, and one that they’re happy to champion to others.

How the right recruitment software can help

The right CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE won’t do your employer branding for you, but it can be a valuable tool for delivering the right message at the right time to prospective candidates.

Communication is a key to acquiring the right talent. You need to ensure a cohesive experience of your employer brand at every touchpoint of the hiring process, and you also need clear oversight and control over the entire recruitment process.

PCRecruiter provides scalable CRM and ATS functionality with a host of features designed to make communication with candidates quicker and easier, from seamless integrations for SMS and Email campaigns to automations for identifying the best candidates.

See what PCRecruiter can do for your recruitment.

Every day, recruitment organizations handle huge volumes of sensitive data in file types that are common targets for ransomware. Data security may not be at the forefront of what you do, but it’s critical for maintaining client and customer trust and your business reputation. Find out how the right applicant tracking software can handle your data security needs.

When it comes to data security, all recruiters need the right level of training and awareness. But the right applicant tracking system (ATS) should be able to handle data security, freeing up recruitment professionals to focus on their core business.

Your applicant tracking system (ATS) is the gateway to a goldmine of personal and enterprise data. And with recent and ongoing developments in data privacy regulations, such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a data breach can be costly, inflicting irreparable damage to your client’s and candidate’s trust and your company’s reputation. 

Whether your sensitive data is held in a public cloud, private cloud, or on premises, recruitment firms and HR professionals have an obligation to ensure data security and compliance with data privacy law and regulations. So how can you protect company, client, and candidate data from the threat of cyberattacks, unauthorized access, or even accidental exposure? 

Let’s take a closer look at data security in recruitment, and how you can mitigate the risk by taking the right preventative measures. 

What is data security?

Data security involves protecting digital information from corruption and unauthorized access wherever it resides, in transit, at rest, or at the end of its lifecycle when it’s no longer required. Digital data security can be enacted in a number of ways, including encryption, masking, and tokenization. It also requires additional measures to mitigate data breaches, including backup copies and secure storage.

Why is data security important?

Research shows that in 2020 there were nearly 30,000 cybersecurity incidents worldwide, with 3,236 in the public sector and 2,935 in the  information industry. In the same year, there were over 300 million reported ransomware attacks – where attackers threaten to permanently prevent access to a victim’s data unless a ransom is paid. 

Unsurprisingly, two of the most targeted file types are database file extensions (like .db) and SQL (Structured Query Language) which is the standard language for manipulating database, and relational database management systems. Both of these file types are commonly used by every type of recruitment professional, from recruitment agencies to HR departments.  But with the right ATS in place, there’s no undue cause for alarm.

What are the different types of data security?

Organizations of every size have a raft of data security measures at their disposal. The right security solution, as part of a wider internal security strategy, will take account of the risk, compliance regulations, and sensitivity of specific datasets to deploy the right level of security control. This helps to mitigate the risks in data handling and storage.

Recruitment is one example of an industry that deals with a constant flow of incoming and outgoing flow of personal and organizational data. And like other industries, there are common data security measures that can be put in place for reducing risk and avoiding a breach. These include:

  • Encryption 
  • Backups and recovery
  • Secure storage
  • Authentication
  • Access controls

An ATS that’s compliant and secure

As a provider of recruitment CRM / ATS hybrid, CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE handles large volumes of sensitive data every day – between 8,000 and 9,000 separate databases ranging from 100MB to 7TB in size. So for us, data security is business critical and a core part of what we do.

Our ISO certified data center has a rigorous security process for entry, 24/7 staffing and caged equipment. Whilst we can offer bespoke levels of security encryption (including asymmetrical encryption for organizations who wish to encrypt their own data) all of our data undergoes industry standard encryption. And anything leaving one of our data centers is automatically encrypted, such as quarterly backups, which are removed and stored securely in a vault. Plus, we back up to two separate geographic locations in case of a natural disaster or security incident in one location. 

Our software is regularly scheduled for pen testing (ethical hacking) to evaluate the robustness of its security features. In addition, developers go through extensive training in data security. For third-party developers wishing to utilize our application programming interface (API), we provide access tokens which restrict access to specific functionality. 

Alongside these security measures, we offer opt-in security settings for recruiters. These include the following Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) settings:

  • Invalid password lock out
  • Email authentication
  • TOPTP (time-based one-time password)

Peace of mind with PCRecruiter

Since 1997, Main Sequence – the company behind PCRecruiter – has built a strong reputation for being one of the world’s most trusted and successful developers of recruitment, sourcing, and applicant tracking software. PCRecruiter is a software as a service (SaaS) built on its own operating system and platform with cybersecurity baked in. It provides thousands of recruiters around the world with data security they both need and trust. 

Find out more about our commitment to the highest standards in data protection and adherence to compliance regulations in our blog post PCRecruiter is ready for the GDPR.

PCRecruiter announces integration with hireEZ

PCRecruiter is now integrated directly with hireEZ, the #1 AI-powered outbound recruiting platform. In addition to making outbound recruiting easy, hireEZ helps PCRecruiter users keep their own private talent pool updated with the latest information about their candidates.

PCRecruiter is now integrated directly with hireEZ, the #1 AI-powered outbound recruiting platform. In addition to making outbound recruiting easy, this partnership helps PCRecruiter users keep their own private talent pool updated with the latest information about their candidates.

Unleash access to 800M+ candidates from 45+ open web platforms, get market insights and DE&I information to build data-driven recruiting strategies and maximize the value of your existing PCRecruiter database.

hireEZ Sourcing
hireEZ Sourcing gives you the talent market visibility you need to proactively target the right candidates at the right time and build a scalable, data-driven recruiting approach.

Keep your database fresh and growing.

  • Use the new ‘Enrich with hireEZ’ option in the Action menu on your Name records in PCRecruiter with your API key from hireEZ to quickly turn your aging data into actionable data.
  • Export candidates from your hireEZ projects directly to your PCRecruiter database.
  • Allow hireEZ to source your PCRecruiter data for target candidates, and to offer metrics and insights on your talent pool.

Ready to get started?
Visit https://hireez.com

For more information on using this new integration, see the hireEZ page in our Learning Center.


Review PCRecruiter – Get a Gift Card!

Read PCRecruiter reviews on TrustRadiusCLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE was recently awarded a “Top Rated” badge in the Recruitment Agency software category on TrustRadius. We also made top-billing this year on G2 and other review sites, ranking as one of the Top 10 Staffing software options based on independent reviews from our users.

You can share your opinion of PCRecruiter and, in many cases, you’ll receive a gift card from the review site for your time. These gift card incentives are in limited supply, so we invite you to post your review of PCRecruiter by following any of these links soon: Capterra, G2, TrustRadius, and SoftwareReviews.

Sequencing will let you create automated workflows for all sorts of purposes in PCRecruiter. Sign up for this free bi-weekly Tuesday webinar series to learn more.

The new Sequencing tool is coming to PCRecruiter in 2022. Our webinar series on this powerful upcoming feature begins this week and continues bi-weekly on Tuesdays at 2 EST through July 12. PCRecruiter’s Training Manager and Associate Software Designer, Stacy Racutt, will show off what this feature is capable of.

  • Session 1 – June 14
    In this high-level overview, you’ll learn what the Sequencing tool is and what it can do.
  • Session 2 – June 28
    In the second session, Stacy will show you how to set up a Sequence for Business Development.
  • Session 3 – July 12
    In the third session, you’ll learn how to create a Sequence to use for sourcing Candidates.
  • Session 4 – July 19
    In the final session, you’ll see how to complete Tasks and view results of the Sequences shown in the previous sessions.

NOTE: A recording of this webinar series can be found here.

What is Sequencing?

Sequenced Tasks
Sequencing will allow you to create automated workflows for easier recruiting and user on-boarding.

With Sequencing, you’ll be able to define automated workflows for all sorts of purposes, helping you to more easily manage your day and make on-boarding new recruiters easier than ever. Sequencing will make it possible for users to execute ‘drip campaigns,’ call plans, and much more.

Sequences are user-defined chains of sequential or branching event plans that can include:

  • Calls
  • Emails
  • LinkedIn interactions
  • Text messages
  • and more…

Once a Sequence is created, timed and triggered tasks like email sends will happen automatically. For user-interaction tasks, PCRecruiter automatically presents the next work item to be completed, and makes it a breeze to log each step along the way.

Decades of working alongside top firms around the world has given PCRecruiter insight into what recruiting technology works and what doesn’t.

Every recruitment organization is different, with its own style, strategy, and approach to making hires happen. Whilst there’s no magic formula for success, there are some common traits which help recruitment firms gain a competitive edge.

Decades of working along side top recruitment firms from around the world, across a wide range of industries and markets, has given PCRecruiter a clear insight into what works and what doesn’t. It comes down to the right investment, recruiting technology, and autonomy.

Many traits are common sense and largely controllable: owners who are engaged and work hard, choosing markets that are hot, and making sufficient investment into their businesses.

Some are not as intuitive or controllable: personal charisma of key players, odd-couple leadership teams, and generalization versus specialization in key markets and roles.

So what sets top-performing recruitment organizations apart from their competitors?

➀ The right investment

Investment is not just about spending money, especially as spending money in itself doesn’t automatically result in success. Cultural investment is crucial for any organization to be effective. From investing in the right leadership team to sourcing people who are the best fit for both the position advertised and your company values, successful organizations are built on a solid workforce culture. But that doesn’t necessarily mean focusing entirely on employee contentment. Research by Gallup suggests a key driver in employee retention and business success is to create high levels of engagement, where employees are treated as stakeholders in the company’s future.

No matter the size of your business, success is dependent on a number of moving parts, all of which have a powerful role to play in delivering your core business. And like any complex organization, good performance depends on many variables. Yet a strong pattern does emerge: recruitment firms that continuously optimize and refine their workflows, and who make training and development a central activity, seem to perform better. This is true even across large businesses with many sets of tools and team members.

Sometimes the right solution might involve throwing dollars at vendors of technology and professional services, but without the involvement of leadership and effective non-dollar cultural and educational investments, no technology or technique on its own will automatically provide a competitive edge.

➁ The right recruiting technology

Technology is increasingly becoming a key differentiator for recruitment firms looking to take the edge on their competitors. As organizations seek to drive efficiency and cost-savings through programs of digital transformation, they look to cutting-edge recruiting technology to provide their teams with ways of working smarter and more effectively. In a world of ‘Big Data’, recruiters are faced with ever-growing volumes of data and databases. At the same time, services and industries are niching down, catering to very specific market audiences with very defined knowledge, expertise, and skills.

While a growing number of CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE provide increased levels of automation for repetitive or easily automated tasks, this doesn’t signal a need for fewer recruiters. What it does is free-up recruiters to focus more on their core business: recruiting.  For that reason, recruiters wholly dependent on manual processes are likely to experience a growing and inevitable disadvantage, even as the middle of the pack dramatically thins out.

➂ The right autonomy

We’re heading into the era of Autonomous Business Processes (ABP):

  • In the early stages, this includes auto-generation of repeatable documents, such as fee agreements, offer letters, and onboarding/contracting pieces.
  • In more mature stages, it includes servicing tasks and supports within the organization, including the routing, visualization, and reporting of task and disposition items to department entities, managers, and team-members.

These developments are now rapidly pairing with voice, email, text, and virtual meeting spaces. COVID massively accelerated virtual workplaces, and those changes will not unwind.  The result is a tendency toward socialized and digitalized networking, less risky experimentation and creativity, and more ‘work as a lifestyle’ as teams put themselves and their tools together.

Autonomous organizations can be highly effective because their business processes tend to run without the day-to-day or hour-to-hour involvement at C-suite level. This frees up business owners and leaders to spend more time on strategic decision-making because the workflows in the organization are fine-tuned to deliver and repeat key performances needed for its economic model and to handle exceptions however they occur.

Final thoughts

In terms of technological choices, recruiters who have proven their ability to adapt and continuously improve are the likely to outperform their competitors, for the simple reason that they’re able to operate more efficiently and cost-effectively.

Successful solutions can come from global recruitment giants or single-person startups. What matters is education and iteration to continuously grow and drive results. Top-performing firms recognize that investing in the right recruitment software solutions is essential in the tooth and claw evolutionary battle of business competition.


Martin Snyder - President & Co-Founder of Main Sequence Technology, Inc., developers of PCRecruiter recruitment technology
Martin Snyder leads regulatory and organizational compliance for Main Sequence Technology. As a co-founder and principal of Main Sequence, he helps provide executive and policy leadership as an active manager of the business. Mr. Snyder has a background in sales, recruiting technology design/implementation, SMB tech, and consumer finance.

Podcasts are a great way to get the latest recruitment industry insights, topics, and trends. Listen anywhere, on-the-go for actionable tips you can take with you the next time you step into the office. Need help getting started? Read PCRecruiter’s list of six top recruitment podcasts.

There’s no better way to stay up to date with the latest recruitment industry trends, than by listening to your favorite recruitment podcast. On your daily commute or whilst relaxing at home, listen whenever, wherever to get your daily dose of insight into the recruitment industry. 

Whether you’re looking for an in-depth interview with a recruitment industry leader, tips and tricks you can take into the office with you the next day, or a beginner’s guide to the fundamentals of recruitment, the right podcast can take you deep inside the world of hiring. 

But if you’re new to podcasts, new to recruitment, or searching for something that fits your recruitment niche, it can be difficult to know where to start. So, here at CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE, we’ve compiled our shortlist of top recruitment podcasts.

Read on to get listening! 

Recruitment Podcasts


Talk Talent To Me

Recruitment Podcasts: Talk Talent To Me

https://talktalenttome.com/

Drawing on a deep talent pool of recruitment leadership, Talk Talent To Me takes listeners on a rollercoaster ride through talent acquisition. Covering everything from strategies, metrics, and techniques through to current industry trends, it features top talent leaders on the front line of modern recruitment. The show is hosted, produced, and edited by Hired’s Content Marketing Manager, Rob Stevenson. We like the depth and breadth of talent interviewed, from VP’s of Global Talent, to CHROs.


The Recruiter Startup Podcast

Recruitment Podcasts: The Recruiter Startup Podcast

https://anchor.fm/recruiter-startup-school

With over a decade in the industry, Dualta Doherty has a hands-on approach to setting up and successfully running a recruitment business. Each episode, the founder of Dualta Doherty & Partners and this very podcast, is joined by recruitment agency leaders from around the world to talk about what it takes to start up, scale up, and operate at the highest level of recruitment. We enjoy hearing about the successes and challenges of recruitment industry leaders, and the valuable insights into setting up on your own.


Recruitment On The Go

Recruitment Podcast: Recruitment On The Go

https://soundcloud.com/recruitmentonthego

Everything you ever wanted to know about recruitment in daily, bite size pieces. Hosts Caitie and Mingus give you the latest lowdown on recruitment trends, top tips and tricks, plus all the tools and resources you need to maintain a competitive edge in the recruitment industry. Ideal for recruiters, HR specialists, and talent acquisition managers alike, each episode offers inspiration and insight, wherever you happen to be. We listen out for the actionable recruitment tips provided in each episode.


Recruiting Future

Recruitment Podcast: Recruiting Future

https://recruitingfuture.com/purpose/

The self-styled ‘calm voice of recruitment continuity’ offers insight, inspiration, and inclusivity in the fast-paced, ever-evolving world of recruitment. With a particular focus on the future of talent acquisition, each episode covers a different aspect of the industry, from technology, and automation to diversity and inclusion. With an eye on the future of work, guests are typically recruitment thought leaders and pioneers from the wider business world, who share ideas and experiences designed to inspire listeners and drive change. We like the focus on giving a platform to new and diverse voices in recruitment.


The RecruitingDaily Podcast

Recruitment Podcast: The RecruitingDaily Podcast

https://recruitingdaily.com/podcasts/recruitingdaily-podcast/

Going behind the scenes of the world’s most influential talent acquisition teams, the RecruitingDaily podcast is a one-stop shop for the latest insights into recruiting, sourcing, and talent acquisition. Each episode drills down deep into a complicated topic, breaking it down into understandable chunks in order to help recruiters take their game to the next level. We enjoy the sheer variety of content, from equity audits to using virtual meetings to streamline recruitment processes.


The Elite Recruiter Podcast

Recruitment Podcast: The Elite Recruiter Podcast

https://pod.co/the-elite-recruiter-podcast

Benjamin Mena’s show covers a broad range of recruitment-related content, taking listeners on a journey through money, marketing, sales, leadership, and placement. Along the way, you’ll pick up tips, tools, and tricks from some of the best in the business. Hear the stories of top recruitment professionals, how they got to where they are now and the mindset that got them there. We like the Elite Recruiter Podcast for its vibrant and insightful look at the industry.


So you’ve reached the end of our list, only to find your favorite recruitment podcast is missing? Get in touch with PCRecruiter and let us know why we should give it a listen! And for even more podcasts, check out our Top 5 HR Podcasts blog post as well!

App Specific Passwords for Gmail

Changes to Google’s security policies at the end of May could affect your ability to send/receive @Gmail address mail from PCRecruiter. Setting up an app specific password will help to keeps your Google account login secure and in sync with PCRecruiter.

Creating App Specific Passwords for your Gmail account improves your security and may be imperative for CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE users who have an @gmail.com account linked to the database for incoming or outgoing mail.

Secure your Gmail with app specific passwordsAs of June 2022, Google no longer supports the use of your primary Gmail username and password when connecting from third-party apps and devices. These changes imposed by Google are part of a strategy to strengthen account and application security.

One of Google’s alternative options is App Specific Passwords, which are additional passwords for your Gmail account that you designate for use by one specific site or app. Creating separate passwords, rather than using your main Google password across multiple apps and sites, isolates any security risks to one site or service. If that App Specific Password should ever be compromised, it can be disabled without interrupting or exposing any other services associated with your Gmail login.

How does this affect PCRecruiter users?

This new policy will only affect users of @gmail.com addresses. It is not currently being applied to Google Workspace or Google Cloud Identity accounts. If you are using Google’s email servers but have your own domain name associated with the account, you may continue to use your existing password, but we do recommend switching to a more secure method for security’s sake.

In regards to our CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE, PCRecruiter, this policy change should only impact your ability to send or receive email within PCRecruiter if you are using an @gmail address with a standard Google password.

Example Sign in with Google Button
Google Sign In Button Example

You will find Sign in with Google buttons on PCR’s Outgoing Mail (SMTP) screens. These are the preferred method of connecting your Gmail account to PCRecruiter. If you see a button like the one shown here and use it to authenticate with your Google Account, an App Specific Password is not necessary.

Setting up the App Specific password option is a viable method of upgrading your security with PCRecruiter or any other services you may be using your plain Gmail password on when no Sign in with Google method is available. For those using IMAP to read or write activities for incoming mail, App Specific passwords are required at this time. See Google’s info on creating these app-specific passwords here.

If you need further assistance, contact PCRecruiter Support.

We love podcasts – they make commutes and grocery shopping fun. There are so many great HR podcasts available, covering every topic under the sun, so we’ve compiled a list of a few favorites which will keep you inspired.

We’re really keen on podcasts here at CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE. Why? Because they can make boring commutes or grocery shopping much more interesting!

There are a variety of HR podcasts available – covering topics from employee perks to corporate branding, and everything in between. We’ve prepared a list of some of our favorites and hopefully these shows will help you stay on top of changes in the industry and gain a little inspiration from those leading those changes. Here they are in no particular order:

HR Podcasts


Emotion At Work

HR Podcasts: Emotion @ Work

https://emotionatwork.co.uk/podcast/

Started in 2017, the Emotion at Work podcast is led by Phil Willcox and dives into the full spectrum of professional emotions that people experience at work. Phil’s belief is that emotions should be at the center of everything we do as they are so impactful throughout our lives – especially in our jobs. The episodes are released monthly and are a true deep dive into the chosen topic.

Phil speaks with industry professionals about a variety of themes, including emotion control, emotion expression, digital body language, shame, and other pressing social issues in the workplace. Phil and his guests share their personal stories and aim to build a greater knowledge of emotion among the listenership. The podcast, and its themes, are built on the vision of Phil’s company and look to educate and train people in emotion in any organization.


Talent Magnet

HR Podcasts: Talent Magnet Leadership Podcast

https://www.talentmagnet.com/podcast

Every week, Mike Sipple, the co-founder and CEO of Talent Magnet Institute, has discussions with thought leaders, industry executives, and a variety of HR professionals to better understand the sector. The topics they cover include business, relationships, community, and life in general. It’s a brilliantly varied podcast that taps into each guest’s personal experiences and how those have shaped their successes as well as their failures.

Founded in 2001, Talent Magnet was built with the objective of transforming business leaders and their organizations into ‘talent magnets’. They’ve become a trusted name in talent and aim to develop the skills of their clients, making them better leaders, and making their teams better because of it. With that goal in mind, they want the culture of quality leadership to work as a ‘talent magnet’ so that businesses that commit to improvement attract the talent they need.


#WorkTrends

HR Podcast: #WorkTrends

https://talentculture.com/worktrends-podcast/

#WorkTrends, hosted by Meghan M. Biro of Talent Culture, is a podcast series and Twitter chat that revolves around current HR news and features experts from around the industry. With over 400 total episodes, there is a serious back catalog for new listeners to tap into.

Some of #WorkTrends’ most recent episodes show just how varied the topics can be so matter what part of HR you’re interested in they’ll be something that grabs your attention. Seriously, check out their last few installments:

  • The Everywhere Workplace – Prioritizing Employee Experience
  • The Urgency Epidemic – Prioritization & Productivity
  • Building a Courageous Work Culture: Why it Matters
  • Myth Busting Common Video Interview Concerns
  • Military Hiring – Diversity, Inclusion & Business Success

The Recruitment Hackers

HR Podcast: The Recruitment Hackers

https://www.therecruitmenthackers.com/podcast

The Recruitment Hackers is a community of talent acquisition professionals whose mission is to promote best practices, tools, and industry trends. They’ve grown into a network of experts and a part of that connectivity is through The Recruitment Hackers podcast.

The weekly content deals with a wide range of themes, including recruitment automation, optimizing the candidate experience, and harnessing culture to attract the appropriate kind of people. The podcast prides itself on offering real-life examples of companies that are recruiting successfully as well as proven strategies to grow your talent pool. Best of all, they don’t get caught up in trends and make an effort to point out the gimmicks that are springing up in the recruitment space.


Chad and Cheese

HR Podcast: Chad & Cheese

https://www.chadcheese.com/

Of all the podcasts on this list, we think it’s safe to say that this one has the best name. Branding themselves as the snarkiest industry experts out there Chad Sowash and friend-of-PCRecruiter Joel Cheesman have built a platform with a number of different podcasts that cover European HR trends, HR startup critiques, and interviews with other recruitment pros to name a few.

Their particular style might not be for everyone’s taste but they definitely aren’t afraid to be open and honest about their views. It’s clear that whether you like them or not, they have a genuine wealth of knowledge and experience, over 40 years between them, and that makes this podcast well worth listening to – just get used to their lack of filter(!).


These podcasts are just a small selection of a huge range of available insight that is out there in audio form. We hope you check the suggestions out, and get as much from them as we have.

Do you have any HR podcasts or recruitment industry podcast favorites? Comment below and let us know what they are.

Feedback & Notifications (Update 9.8.9)

PCRecruiter’s new update, v. 9.8.9, comes with new Feedback organization and in-app Notifications features that will help keep you and your team informed and in touch. Plus, we have added brand new free webinars to our schedule for Spring/Summer 2022.

PCRecruiter’s new update, v. 9.8.9, comes with two major upgrades that will help keep you and your team informed and in touch. As always, this update also includes dozens of behind-the-scenes fixes and enhancements. Plus, we have added brand new free webinars to our schedule for Spring/Summer 2022.

What’s New in PCRecruiter 9.8.9

PCR Notifications

PCR Notifications
Notifications that aren’t clicked on will appear in the sidebar for 7 days. Look for the numbered badge at the corner of your screen.

The brand new PCR Notifications give you configurable real-time alerts that you can use to communicate with your team and monitor key events in your recruitment process. These notifications appear at the bottom right corner of your PCRecruiter screen, where they remain visible for 5 seconds if none of the links contained in them are clicked on. If no action is taken on a notification, it is moved to the PCR Notifications sidebar, accessed via a numbered badge on your user icon at the top right corner of the screen. Notifications remain in the sidebar for up to seven days, or until the links in them are clicked on.

Send PCR Notifications to Co-Workers

A new Send PCR Notification option appears in the Action menu at the top of all Name, Company, and Position records in your database. By clicking on this option, you can send a PCR Notification including a live link to the current record, plus a brief message you define, to one or more users in your database. You’ll find this feature helpful for coordinating with other PCR users and calling their attention to important records instantly.

Trigger PCR Notifications via Automations

PCR Notifications can also be sent using Automations, whether triggered by specific Pipeline step or Rollup stage changes, Candidate Presentations being viewed or responded to, or from the general Automations feature released in late 2021. When building any Automation that previously included Email, Text, or PCRecruiter mobile app Push notifications, you’ll now find a PCR Notification option as well.

To support more useful PCR Notifications, this update comes with new date-based Automation triggers to use:

  • Start Date: You can now trigger Automations based on the Start Date from your contract or permanent placements. You can set the PCR Notification or other Action to occur on the Start Date, or a chosen number of days before or after the date. This can be useful in reminding users that their placed candidate is starting their job the next day, or prompting the user to make a check-in call seven days after the job has begun.
  • Activity Date: Like the Start Date, you can now trigger a PCR Notification or other action a number of days after a specific type of Activity has been written. This can be great for follow-up call reminders. In fact, you can now trigger Automations based on Activities with a specific Result as well – e.g. sending a PCR Notification based on phone call Activities where a voicemail was left, but not for those where there was no answer.
  • Field Date: You can also trigger Automations based on the date in practically any Standard or Custom field. For example, trigger a PCR Notification when a candidate’s License is expiring, or remind the user to review each open Position 30 days after the ‘Date Posted’.

These Automation triggers aren’t exclusive to PCR Notifications. For example, you could use the Field Date trigger with a ‘Date of Birth’ field to send automatic birthday greetings to clients and candidates, automatically add Names to a calling Rollup List a year after they’ve completed a specific form, or automatically send a Form Letter to a candidate the day before their interview.

There was one other minor addition to the Automations in this update. The ‘When an applicant applies to a Position, send Notification to Someone’ canned automation included the option to send an SMS (via our RingCentral integration), but lacked the option to target the Candidate’s phone number. We’ve added this into the new version, so that you can automatically prompt candidates to opt in to bulk texts or simply thank them for applying.

The possibilities for automating your process with PCRecruiter are growing all the time. We look forward to hearing about your own creative uses for Automations and PCR Notifications!

For more details and instructions, see https://learning.pcrecruiter.net/site/pcr-notifications

Feedback

The other major change in this update is the brand new Feedback area, which you’ll find in the Navigation menu at the top of all Names, Companies, Positions, as well as in the Detail panel on the updated Pipeline (currently in final beta – ask your PCRecruiter representative for details).

The new Feedback screen consolidates and organizes feedback from users and external contacts into an easily viewed list, with filter and search options to help you find exactly what you’re looking for.

Feedback can be entered by internal users from the ‘Add Feedback’ panel on the left side of the Feedback screen, collected via Candidate Presentations, or via emailed links using the brand new ‘Feedback Form Letters.’

Note that any existing feedback collected using Candidate Presentations as well as feedback formerly located in the Interview Feedback on your Pipeline steps or interview records will now appear in the Feedback screen.

Feedback Panel
Look for the new “Feedback” menu item on all Name, Company, and Position records.

We have a ton of great updates on the way in 2022! Watch your own PCR Notifications for announcements of new features and more.

For more details and instructions, see https://learning.pcrecruiter.net/site/feedback


New Webinars Announced

These brand new sessions planned for Spring / Summer 2022 will all be taking place at 2 PM Eastern on Tuesdays.

PCRecruiter Job Board Overview – April 19
REGISTER NOW
PCRecruiter’s Drew Rothman will walk through how the PCR Job Board is set up and what its capabilities are. This will be a useful session for those who aren’t currently using the Job Board and want to know more, or who are using the older ‘Candidate Web Extensions’ and considering an upgrade.

Contractor Features – May 3
REGISTER NOW
In this session, you’ll learn more about how PCRecruiter facilitates your contract or contract-to-perm process. In this session we’ll discuss expense tracking with the ability to upload receipts and clock-in/out via the PCRecruiter mobile app. We’ll also discuss hours approval and reporting.

Searching in PCRecruiter – May 17
REGISTER NOW
In this session, some of PCR’s top trainers will discuss different methods of searching for names, companies, and jobs within your database.

New PCRecruiter Pipeline – May 31
REGISTER NOW
This session will cover the all-new PCRecruiter pipeline (coming soon) and how to set up and navigate all of the great features it has to offer. A great orientation for those moving from the older version or for those new to PCRecruiter in general.

PCRecruiter Sequencing Features
Part 1 – June 14
REGISTER NOW
Part 2 – June 28
REGISTER NOW
Part 3 – July 12 REGISTER NOW
The brand new sequencing features (coming soon) in PCRecruiter will help you automate marketing, communication, and other processes. Learn all about what they can do in this session, to be presented in a three part series.

PCRecruiter Customer Demo – July 26
REGISTER NOW
How do PCRecruiter users work in the system? In this session, we’ll be talking with a PCRecruiter user about their particular configuration and how they’ve made PCRecruiter work for them.


Review PCRecruiter – Get a Gift Card!

PCRecruiter is a leader in Recruitment Platforms on G2PCRecruiter continues to receive top-billing on G2 and other review sites, ranking as one of the Top 10 Staffing software options based on independent reviews from users. The Spring 2022 reports from G2 rank us once again as a Leader and High Performer across multiple categories.

We want your voice to be heard when the next round reports come out, so we encourage you to post a review of PCRecruiter at this link. You’ll be eligible to receive a gift card from G2 in thanks for your thoughts. If you’d prefer to put your review incentive towards a charitable cause, we’ve also partnered with G2 in support of Girls Who Code. If you visit this link to submit your review, G2 will donate $10 to help close the gender gap in technology.

And if you’ve already posted a review on G2, you are welcome to review us on Capterra, SoftwareReviews, or TrustRadius! We appreciate all of the kind words and helpful feedback we read on these sites.

PCRecruiter is honored to be one very few recruiting software options to place on TrustRadius’ 2022 “Most Loved Awards”. This is a particularly special Valentine’s Day present, as we know our award is based solely on the glowing comments from verified, independent reviews written by professionals in recruitment, staffing, and human resources.

TrustRadius 2022 Most Loved Software

TrustRadius serves over 1 million B2B technology buyers per month with verified reviews and ratings to make informed purchasing decisions. Each year, TrustRadius analyzes every review collected on tens of thousands of products across hundreds of categories, looking for how often users mentioned something they absolutely love about these products. By comparing love-related keywords against the total number of reviews for each product, they come up with a listing of the top 100 “Most Loved Software” offerings on their site.

PCRecruiter is honored to be one very few recruiting software options to place on TrustRadius’ 2022 Most Loved Awards. This is a particularly special Valentine’s Day present, as we know our award is based solely on the glowing comments from verified, independent reviews written by professionals in recruitment, staffing, and human resources.

“Buyers have many options to choose from when it comes to recruitment agency software. Recruiting in today’s employment market can be a headache, but the right software can help ease that pain. PCRecruiter is one of the most loved software products of 2022,” said Megan Headley, VP of Research at TrustRadius. “PCRecruiter earned a Most Loved award based directly on feedback from their customers. Reviewers highlighted the time savings the product provided, the simple integrations with other software products, and the reporting features offered.”

Some of the comments have included:

“PCRecruiter always seems to be ahead of the game, innovative and talks with the customers on how to improve the logic and workflow and adapting it to the entire recruiting, hiring and placement process.”

“The technical support is terrific and frankly the main reason I won’t even consider switching to another platform. I love that if I have a question and can’t find the answer quickly within their learning management system, I can call or chat with them and get an immediate response.”

“For presenting candidates to clients, PCRecruiter has had rave reviews from my clients. It’s easy to look through a candidate’s profile and provide feedback.”

“PCR has been instrumental in our growth and success and all 14 of our offices use it. The system is deep with solutions to keeping track of candidates, clients, business opportunities, jobs and so much more. It also integrates with a number of other applications that we use daily. We would not be able to function without PCR as the backbone of our recruiting systems.”

This announcement comes on the heels of PCRecruiter making the Top 50 HR Software list on G2 for 2022.

PCRecruiter has been named to G2’s Top 50 HR Software List in the annual ‘Best Software Awards’. This PCRecruiter’s first time appearing on one of G2’s Best Software lists, earning its place this year thanks to high marks for customer service and adaptability in the recruiting, staffing, and HR space.

PCRecruiter has been consistently highly-rated on G2, the world’s largest and most trusted software marketplace. G2 helps more than 60 million people every year make smarter software decisions based on authentic peer reviews, and is the definitive online destination to discover, review and manage the technology that businesses need to reach their potential.

This year, PCRecruiter has been named to G2’s Top 50 HR Software List.  The annual Best Software List ranks the world’s best software companies and products based on authentic, timely reviews from real users.

This PCRecruiter’s first time appearing on one of G2’s Best Software lists, earning its place this year thanks to high marks for customer service and adaptability in the recruiting, staffing, and HR space.

“G2 has been a great partner in spreading the word about PCRecruiter,” said Bill Kubicek, PCRecruiter co-founder and VP of Sales and Marketing. “We’re honored to have been included in the ‘Best’ this year, particularly because we know that standing is based on the reviews of satisfied recruiting and staffing pros.”

“As we continue to accelerate rapid growth, our online marketplace boasts 100,000+ software and services companies in 2,000+ categories and over 1.5 million trusted user reviews. Simply put, G2 is where you go for software,” said Godard Abel, co-founder and CEO, G2. “Our annual Best Software List aims to guide buyers on their purchasing decisions, knowing they can trust in the credibility and objectivity of our scoring algorithms. We applaud those companies named to our  2022 list, as they’ve earned the satisfaction among their customers as well as an impressive market presence.”

The top 100 software sellers are ranked based on a combination of Satisfaction and Market Presence scores for each seller, and the top 100 products are ranked based on reviews across all categories they are a part of. To be included in one of G2’s Software Sellers or Software Products “Best Of” lists, a software seller or product must receive at least 50 approved and published reviews during the 2021 calendar year. Scores reflect only data from reviews submitted during this evaluation period.

To learn more, view G2’s 2022 Best Software List and read more about G2’s methodology. To schedule a demonstration, contact us today.

Our free series of bi-weekly Thursday afternoon webinars continues into February and March 2022! Stay up to date on PCRecruiter’s latest features and plans.

The bi-weekly series of free PCRecruiter webinars continues into February and March, 2022. If you missed any of the previous sessions on topics including Profile Forms, Contractor Features, and our Open API, check out our webinar archive.

The five upcoming sessions below are already on the calendar and we are continuing to plan more for the spring and beyond. If you can’t make it to the live session, don’t worry – a recording will be sent to all registrants afterward.

What’s next for PCRecruiter?

Thursday, February 10 at 1:00 PM EST / 10:00 AM PST

PCRecruiter is constantly moving forward, and 2022 is going to be a *big* year for updates and changes. Want to know where the roadmap will be taking us? Join this session with our Manager of Professional Services and one of our lead developers to get the inside scoop. Register now.

PCRecruiter Globalised Features

Thursday, February 24 at 8:00 AM EST / 1:00 PM GMT

PCRecruiter’s ability to support alternate languages, currencies, and compliance requirements like GDPR allows it to be used in dozens of countries. In this session, we’ll be discussing the functions of PCRecruiter that are of specific interest to our non-US clientele. Register now.

PCRecruiter Orientation

Thursday, March 10 @ 1:00 PM Eastern

Whether you’re a new PCRecruiter user or a potential user interested in understanding the system, this session with one of our consultants will show you the basics. You’ll learn the underlying concepts of PCRecruiter’s data organization and how to perform simple tasks like creating and viewing records Register Now

PCRecruiter Partners

Thursday, March 24 @ 1:00 PM Eastern

One of PCRecruiter’s great strengths is the roster of vendors and services that it can interact with. In this session, you’ll get a high-level review of the various partnerships, job posting services, and other technologies that work with your PCRecruiter database. Register Now

“Money” Automations

Thursday, April 7 @ 1:00 PM Eastern

PCRecruiter’s automated tasks give you time saving, money-saving shortcuts. Our training team will show you tips to optimize your workflow and to receive notifications when “big money” moves like placements or other specific events occur in your database. Register Now

Our series of bi-weekly Thursday afternoon webinars continues in 2022! Stay up to date on PCRecruiter’s latest features and plans.

The PCRecruiter team is continuing the series of bi-weekly webinars that began in 2021. If you missed any of those sessions, check out our webinar archive. The currently scheduled sessions can be found below, and more are on the way for March and beyond. Stay tuned!

Meet an Owner

Thursday, January 13 at 1:00 PM EST / 10:00 AM PST

PCRecruiter is unique in the ATS/CRM market given that the original founders still directly own and operate the company on a day-to-day basis. In this open session, you’ll get an opportunity to hear directly from the folks in charge. Register now.

Introduction to the PCRecruiter API

Thursday, January 27 at 1:00 PM EST / 10:00 AM PST

The API (application programming interface) allows external software to ‘talk’ to the PCRecruiter database securely. It facilitates many of our integrations with outside vendors, as well as our own systems like PCR Capture and PCR for Outlook/Gmail. In this session, our technical experts will talk about the basics of the API and how it functions. This session will be valuable to anyone considering their own custom development projects with PCRecruiter. Register now.

What’s next for PCRecruiter?

Thursday, February 10 at 1:00 PM EST / 10:00 AM PST

PCRecruiter is constantly moving forward, and 2022 is going to be a *big* year for updates and changes. Want to know where the roadmap will be taking us? Join this session with our Manager of Professional Services and one of our lead developers to get the inside scoop. Register now.

PCRecruiter Globalised Features

Thursday, February 24 at 8:00 AM EST / 1:00 PM GMT

PCRecruiter’s ability to support alternate languages, currencies, and compliance requirements like GDPR allows it to be used in dozens of countries. In this session, we’ll be discussing the functions of PCRecruiter that are of specific interest to our non-US clientele. Register now.

Happy New Year 2022

Wishing all of you a happy, healthy, and successful 2022 from the entire PCRecruiter team. Happy New Year!

In commemorating our 23rd full year of service to the recruiting and staffing industry, innovating private databases for recruitment pros around the world, we hope that you too are reflecting on a strong year with anticipation that next year will be even stronger.

PCRecruiter is rolling, with major new capabilities deploying in 2022. We look forward to doing our part in helping you to reach for your best year ever.

Happy New Year from PCRecruiter!

G2, the largest software marketplace and review platform, has published its Winter 2021 reports. PCRecruiter was again ranked #1 in Customer Relationship and a Leader in multiple categories. G2 publishes these quarterly reports ranking applicant tracking software, staffing software, and recruiting agency software based on data from multiple sources.

PCRecruiter G2 Winter Awards 2022

Users love PCRecruiter on G2The Winter 2022 reports from G2, the largest software marketplace and review platform, are in! These quarterly reports are based on independent user reviews and satisfaction scores, as well as other data sources and indicators of market leadership. PCRecruiter has once again been revealed as one of the applicant tracking, staffing, and recruiting agency software industry’s top choices.

Still the Best in Customer Relationship

Among businesses from 1-50 employees, PCRecruiter has once again been ranked the #1 Applicant Tracking System in regards to quality of support, earning the ‘Best Relationship’ badge. In the mid-market range (companies with 51,000 -100,000 employees) PCRecruiter was ranked in the Easiest To Do Business With. Our team always works hard toward customer satisfaction, and we’re always glad to see the reviews that tell us we’re achieving that goal.

PCRecruiter Remains a Leader

G2 ranks software as a Leader based on substantial Satisfaction scores and Market Presence. PCR has once again placed in this group, both for the 1-50 employee range ATS market  for the ATS and the among Candidate Relationship Management categories overall. We also ranked as a High Performer in both the Staffing and Recruitment Marketing categories.

And, as with the Fall 2021 reports, PCRecruiter remained the vendor with Highest User Adoption for the Recruitment Marketing category.

Post Your Review!

We want your voice to be included in G2’s Spring 2022 reports! You can post a review of PCRecruiter at this link to be eligible for a gift card from G2 in thanks, or you can post via this link to donate $10 to “Girls Who Code”, helping to close the gender gap in tech.

Times change and recruiters can’t just rely on a spreadsheet of contacts, quick thinking, or a ‘roll-up list’ in LinkedIn to get ahead in an industry which never slows down. An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) offers recruiters a custom built technology that can support them in their work to deliver great candidates to great employers. To show how that pairing is made easy by an ATS we want to show you 5 key benefits of the software.

Times change and recruiters can’t just rely on a spreadsheet of contacts, quick thinking, or a ‘roll-up list’ in LinkedIn to get ahead in an industry which never slows down. 

An Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) offers recruiters a custom built technology that can support them in their work to deliver great candidates to great employers. To show how that pairing is made easy by an ATS we want to show you 5 key benefits of the software.

Repeatability

What do you do with the other candidates that you didn’t put forward for your latest role? 

You’ve cultivated 10 of the brightest marketers for a recent commercial role and you’ve placed 1 of them straight into the job (nice work by the way!) But now you’re left with 9 additional shining stars… So what do you do with them? 

Well, with an ATS you can easily transpose your broader inventory of existing candidates into new roles. Simply put, an ATS helps you put the right people in the right places – so you have them all, ready to go, as soon as a new opportunity lands (or you go out and create it!)

Richer Data

We all love to drop in on LinkedIn and check out candidate history. But all too often, the details given barely scratch the surface. What about everything they don’t write about – things like their ambitions, their home life, their lifelong, unflinching love of the Chicago Cubs –? 

With an Applicant Tracking System you can save all that rich, personal data on your candidates in one place – to give you a true, more three-dimensional profile to take forward.

Specialist Database

Feel like pursuing a niche? As you build up multiple candidates for a new position you’ll realize you’ve actually farmed up a good herd of industry specific talent. You can make and save great contacts within that industry and then propel your dedicated flock toward them in a move that’s guaranteed to land in the right spot.

Success Support

Customer service and success support are absolutely critical when implementing any kind of software. After all, if you can’t use it, what’s the point in having it? 

An ATS is only going to deliver the benefits you need if it’s configured to your requirements. We only come to understand that by listening to what you really need. We’ve been in business for over 20 years and have adapted our levels of service over time; while understanding that every recruiter is different.

Automation & Efficiency

We’ve grouped these two together because automation feeds into and supports efficiency. A lot of recruiters are still using databases and pulling out information themselves. A properly configured ATS can scan your emails, set reminders, notify contractors – and much more besides. 

On top of that, call recording and dialing history features help to automatically fill out the CRM component of your system. No-one likes having to backfill an activity log, and with an ATS you don’t need to.

The bottom line is that recruiters want to save time by increasing speed. They have to compete to get the best employers and candidates on their books and Applicant Tracking Systems support that goal to a tee. 

At PCR we support everyone – from one user offices up to massive multinationals – in exactly  the same way; with expert support at every step.

 

Want to go bigger and better in recruitment? Contact PCRecruiter today.

Reports & Profiles (Update 9.8.7)

This week’s update to PCRecruiter comes jam-packed with improvements to Profile Forms and Reports, as well as improvements to Quick Find and Candidate Presentations. We’ve also got new webinars and other announcements to share.

This week’s update includes big upgrades to PCRecruiter’s Standard and Custom Reports, as well as over twenty improvements to Profile Forms. We’ve also updated the Quick Find, Candidate Presentations, and Opt-Out/In features with helpful new capabilities.

What’s New in PCRecruiter 9.8.7

Improved Reports

Sample PDF ReportWe’ve revised our Standard and Custom Reports with new styling, charts, and other improvements to help you analyze and present your data more effectively.

  • View your reports in PDF form for easy printing and downloading direct from the browser.
  • Export all standard and custom reports to .XLS, Google Sheets, and Microsoft Office 365.
    NOTE: Access to the new Export features are governed by the “Export Reports” permission on the Security section of the User Record. If you do not see an Export option following this update, your database administrator will need to open SYSTEM > Users > Manage Users and give your username access to them in the Security area under Reports.
  • A new ‘Share’ option opens a blank email with an .XLS file of the current report already attached, making it faster than ever to send your metrics to others.
  • Exported spreadsheets now include pie and bar charts for most standard reports. These charts are automatically inserted on additional tabs in the exported report.
  • The Report Options, found in the Action menu on the main Reports menu screen, now includes options to select portrait/landscape layout, to hide empty columns on PDF exports, and to replace the PCRecruiter logos with your own branding.
  • A new ‘Generated Reports’ option has been added to the Auditing Reports section. This report gives database administrators a security audit that lists which reports have been run by which users in a selected time period.

Profile Form Enhancements

Profiles — PCR’s searchable, configurable, multipurpose form utility — have received a over two dozen improvements, big and small, in this update, including the ability to automatically link candidates to jobs using emailed forms, separately control views for printing and emailing forms, and so much more.

If you’re not already familiar with these flexible custom forms, sign up for the All About Profiles webinar on Thursday, December 2. Here are the key improvements you’ll find in this release:

Viewing / Editing Profiles

  • The Action dropdown on profiles in the Attachments screen includes a new ‘Copy’ option. This will make a duplicate of the selected form under the same record, which can be helpful if you want to use the existing content in a form as a starting point for an alternate version.
  • When a completed profile is opened in Edit mode from the Attachments area on a record, a new icon and label in the upper right corner will indicate who completed form. This can be an internal PCRecruiter user, or an external contact that the form was emailed to. Note that this addition does not appear on the form when printed or emailed and is only for the user’s reference.
  • All ‘Electronic Signature’ answers in profiles will be embedded with a UTC date-time stamp, giving you an unalterable visual record of when the form was signed.
  • Users of the optional PCRecruiter Analytics will find a new “Saves” stat in the Details on their Email Campaigns. If the emailed form contains profile links, the Analytics will indicate which recipients completed the form and will provide a link to view the resulting attachment.

Sending Profiles

  • If a profile is emailed from a Pipeline or from a Position Form Letter, PCRecruiter will attach that person to the Pipeline for that position. This allows you to invite people to apply to positions by emailing them a profile. If the profile has any Knockout / Success automation plans associated with it, they will be triggered just as if the candidate were applying via the PCRecruiter Job Board, making emailed profiles useable as self-qualification questionnaires within the Pipeline.
  • If a profile is emailed from a Pipeline or from a Position Form Letter, PCRecruiter will list that job’s title along with the form in the Attachments on the name record.
  • The ‘Attach’ profile feature found under Send Options on the Compose Email screen has been changed from a dropdown to a search popup, making it easier to find your desired form.
  • When sending a profile link from a non-form letter, the automatically prepended link to the form has been restyled to appear more cleanly on modern email clients and mobile screens. In addition, if the profile has “Form Letter Clickable Text” defined on its Settings screen, this text will be used in place of the default link text on these emails.
  • Profiles can now be time-limited using the ‘Expiration’ panel on the profile setup screen. This new option lets you prevent a recipient from submitting or re-submitting a form within a specific number of days from the sending of the email.
  • The ‘Automations’ panel on the profile setup screen now includes options to receive notification emails when the form is edited (previous versions only allowed for notifications for newly submitted forms).
  • The ‘Automations’ panel on the profile setup screen now includes the option to email the name to whom the profile is attached. These ‘receipt’ emails can include a PDF of the completed form.
  • You may now send any Form Letter in place of the default notification email when a profile is added or edited. When creating the form letter, you can add the merge tag [[Profile Action]] which will insert the word “Added” or “Updated” into the text depending on whether the profile was a fresh submission or an edit to an existing form.

Designing & Configuring Profiles

  • A new ‘After Submit Display Message’ box appears on the ‘Automations’ panel when creating a profile. This box allows you to specify the text that appears on the screen after the profile has been saved. This box accepts HTML or plain text.
  • When linking a profile answer to a database field, PCR will now automatically limit the length of the answer to the available field length, preventing the form from putting in more information into the answer than the associated field will be able to store.
  • There are now three separate HTML templates in the ‘Custom HTML’ panel on the profile setup screen. The ‘Default HTML Layout’ will be used for all purposes if no other layouts are entered. If an Internal Layout is created, it will be visible to the PCRecruiter User while the Default Layout will be visible to any external recipients of an emailed profile link. If a Print Layout is created, it will be applied to the read-only “View” link for the profile and for any PDF version of the form. With this new function, a web designer can create separate views for the PCRecruiter user, the form recipient, and the printed final version, including different styling, answer displays, scripting, and images.
  • In addition to configuring custom HTML Layouts by placing each question and answer with [[Q1]] or [[A1]] etc. tags, the new update allows for inserting [[Profile]] as a tag. This gives the ability to use the standard PCRecruiter table-based profile form, but to easily apply CSS, HTML, and Javascript around it for branding purposes.
  • The profile editing screen now returns to the same editing panel (Settings, Automations, Expiration, Questions, Custom HTML) after saving.

Creating Profile Questions

  • The ‘Required / Not Required’ dropdown now includes new options for making a field required only for external or internal use. This can be helpful if the same form is being completed by users and by external contacts, but the list of required answers would be different for the two respondents.
  • When using the ‘Link To Field’ feature to connect a profile answer to a database record field, you’ll now be able to create Read Only or Write Only links. Read Only fields are useful for showing the recipient the value from their record without allowing it to be changed, while Write Only fields are useful for getting updated information without revealing the old value from the record.
  • The optional ‘Placeholder’ option lets you put text inside of inputs and text box answers that appears prior to the user typing in their answer. This can be used for providing instructional text or labeling.
  • Answers for multiple-choice questions can now be dynamically loaded based on a database query rather than only a directly-entered list of options. This is accomplished by entering an SQL SELECT statement into the answer box. For assistance with this feature, contact PCRecruiter support.

Candidate Write-Ups in Candidate Presentations

Candidate Write-UpThe Candidate Presentations feature has a new ‘Candidate Write-Up’ section that can be added to your presentation templates. This feature lets you add a formatted custom introduction or summary about the candidate to the presentation in addition to the other fields and documents. If the Name record already has any text stored in the ‘Summary’ area, you can use the ‘Insert Candidate Summary’ button in the editing toolbar to import that text into the Write-Up to save time.

We’ve also added a CC: field to the outgoing email screen for Presentations so that other contacts, in or out of the database, can be included on the email.

Quick Find Enhancements

The Quick Find is located at the top right corner of the PCRecruiter screen. Terms entered into this box are searched against the name, email, title, company name, and phone fields on Name, Company, and Position records, making it easy to locate any of the main record types with a few keystrokes without going to the full search form.

In version 9.8.7, we’ve updated the Quick Find to return results based on similar terms to those you’ve entered. This can be helpful if you’re not exactly sure of the spelling that was used on the record or if the record you’re seeking contains a spelling error. The Quick Find will bring back additional results that would match the keyword if any two characters were changed. For example, a search for “Len Jackman” may also return “Helen Jackson”, “Ben Jacks”, and “Lenja Manfred” or names associated with the “Allen Jackman Inc.” company.

The Quick Find also has been revised to display up to 30 matching Names, Companies, and Positions for each search. You can scroll through the results with the paging arrows at the left or right sides of the row.

Email Subscription Status Icons

The PCRecruiter Opt-In/Out feature logs which email addresses should be skipped when sending a bulk email and which should be blocked from email entirely. While the list of records to be opted in/out is stored under the SYSTEM > Email Setup area, it is possible to give the users the ability to manage subscription status directly from the Name records.

The ‘Allow Users to Edit Candidate Email Subscriptions’ switch can currently be changed from the SYSTEM > Region > International Settings panel. In previous editions, this added a link below the ‘Email Address’ label on the record. As of PCRecruiter  v9.8.7, the subscription status appears as an icon inside of the email field, next to the Email and Form Letter buttons. The icons are as follows:

No Subscription Status = No Status Opt In = Opted In Opt Out All = Opted Out Opt Out Bulk = Opted Out of Bulk Email Only

Clicking on the icon will allow the user to change that email address’s status on the opt in/out list.


PCRecruiter Webinars

We’ve announced a fresh series of bi-weekly Thursday webinars on a variety of topics including Profiles, recent updates, Contractor Features, the API, and beyond. You can sign up for these free sessions at https://learning.pcrecruiter.net/site/webinars. More sessions are expected throughout 2022.


Review PCRecruiter – Get a Gift Card!

Users love PCRecruiter on G2In case you missed it, PCRecruiter was ranked the #1 ATS in customer relationship and had the highest user adoption in the recruitment marketing space according to the Fall 2021 report from G2. We want your voice to be heard when the next round reports come out, so we encourage you to post a review of PCRecruiter at this link. You’ll be eligible to receive a gift card from G2 in thanks for your thoughts.

We’ve also partnered with G2 in support of Girls Who Code. If you visit this link to submit your review, G2 will donate $10 to help close the gender gap in technology.

And if you’ve already posted a review on G2, you are welcome to review us on Capterra, SoftwareReviews, or TrustRadius! We appreciate all of the kind words and helpful feedback we read on these sites.

We’re launching a series of Thursday afternoon webinars to help you stay up to date on PCRecruiter’s latest features.

As a busy recruitment professional, we understand that staying on top of the latest changes or digging deeper into the features of your CRM/ATS can sometimes take a back seat to other business priorities.

To make sure you’re getting the most out of your software investment, our training and technical experts are offering a free series of webinars covering a variety of capabilities and integrations.

The first few sessions are listed below. Whether these tools are new to PCRecruiter, or just new to you, you’ll find these sessions informative.

Watch for an update to the PCRecruiter ASP shortly after the Thanksgiving holiday, featuring improvements to reports, profiles, and candidate presentations!

Verified First

Thursday, November 18th at 12:00 PM EST / 9:00 AM PST

REGISTER FOR VERIFIED FIRST SESSION

Long-time PCR partner Verified First is North America’s premiere background and drug screening company. Verified First streamlines the hiring process for organizations of all sizes, helping you to easily validate and verify potential hires without leaving PCRecruiter. This ‘demo/webinar’ with Verified First’s Dakota Bruneau covers how this integration improves your time-to-hire when screening candidates, while complying with FCRA and EEOC laws.

All About Profile Forms

Thursday, December 2  at 1:00 PM EST / 10:00 AM PST

REGISTER FOR PROFILES SESSION

Go in-depth on Profile Forms, PCR’s flexible, customizable, keyword-searchable forms. We’ll cover the basics and all of the latest features. A great session for Profile novices and experts alike.

Recent PCRecruiter Updates

Thursday, December 16  at 1:00 PM EST / 10:00 AM PST

REGISTER FOR UPDATES SESSION

With new features and improvements being added all the time, it can be tough to keep up! This session covers recent PCRecruiter updates including automations, mapping, and more.

Contractor Features

Thursday, December 30 at 1:00 PM EST / 10:00 AM PST

REGISTER FOR CONTRACTOR SESSION

Learn about how PCRecruiter facilitates your contract or contract-to-perm process. This session covers time sheet collection, including the PCR app, as well as hours approval and reporting.

More webinars are planned for early 2022. See https://learning.pcrecruiter.net/site/webinars for complete details on our upcoming sessions.

Announcing two webinar/demos with PCRecruiter partner vendors: marketing automation system Interseller on Wednesday, October 27 and background screening service Verified First on Thursday, November 18.

One of the greatest strengths of PCRecruiter is its easy interoperability with other leading vendors. We are constantly adding new integrations, thanks to PCR’s easily-used Open API and our desire to be the central hub of your recruitment operation.

In the next few weeks, we invite you to join us for two free webinar/demo sessions. On October 27, we’ll be introducing our brand new partner Interseller. On November 11, we’ll be reconnecting with Verified First, a valued partner since 2017. These sessions will be recorded, so even if you can’t make it, please register to receive a recording afterward!

Interseller: Automation, Workflows, and More

Wednesday, October 27th at 2PM EST / 11AM PST

REGISTER FOR INTERSELLER SESSION HERE

Interseller WebinarInterseller is a recruitment marketing automation tool. This system helps you source prospect email addresses and create email sequences to send to them. Once they’ve responded, you can instantly syncing their contact details back to your PCRecruiter database. This connection helps internal and external recruiting teams save time on searching for accurate contact information, doing manual follow ups, and updating their PCR records.

PCRecruiter’s Michael Werner will be co-hosting a webinar with Dan Mochel from Interseller to see what the platform is capable of and how it can make you a more effective recruiter.

To schedule your own private demo of Interseller, click here.

Verified First: Fast & Thorough Background Screening

Thursday, November 18th at 12PM EST / 11AM PST

REGISTER FOR VERIFIED FIRST SESSION HERE

Verified First Nov. 18 2021PCRecruiter is offering a webinar with our long-time partner, Verified First. As North America’s premiere background and drug screening company, Verified First streamlines the hiring process for organizations of all sizes. This partnership helps you easily validate and verify potential hires without leaving PCRecruiter, and as a result you’ll improve your time-to-hire when screening candidates, while complying with FCRA and EEOC laws.

On November 18, Verified First will be hosting a “deminar” that will highlight best practices for background screening. Experts from Verified First will show you just how easy it is to screen candidates right from your PCRecruiter screen.

Key takeaways:

  • Learn how background screening with the right company truly does optimize the cost per hire.
  • Get an exclusive, behind the scenes look into the best background screening company around.
  • Discover how to make the best recruiting and hiring decisions — and how to avoid the bad ones.
  • Explore the PCRecruiter platform with an expert.

Automation, ZoomInfo, & Dialing (Update 9.8.6)

A substantial update is coming to all PCRecruiter SaaS customers this week, featuring some powerful new recruitment Automation capabilities, a time-saving new connection between PCR web and the PCR apps for iOS and Android, and strong new integration with ZoomInfo. We’ve also got an October 27 webinar planned with our new partner Interseller which you can register for today.

A substantial update is coming to all PCRecruiter SaaS customers this week, featuring some powerful new recruitment Automation capabilities, a time-saving new connection between PCR web and the PCR apps for iOS and Android, and strong new integration with ZoomInfo.

New Automation Builder

Recruitment Automation BuilderPCRecruiter has long offered productivity-enhancing automation features for Rollup Lists, Pipelines, Profiles, and the Job Board. With the features released in this update, the possibilities for recruitment workflow automation are expanded to include a new range of triggers, actions, and sequences.

With new trigger/action configuration panel now found under SYSTEM > Database Setup, any PCRecruiter admin user has the power to build endless custom behaviors with no code knowledge required.

Action triggers include common tasks like creating a new job nd making a placement. You can also trigger automations when a contractor is coming off of an assignment or has not submitted their hours. You can trigger based on active applicants or passive candidates applying on your Job Board, or trigger actions based on practically any changes to fields or the entry of a new Activity.

When one of these events has occurred, PCR can automatically send a form letter, trigger a notification popup in the free PCRecruiter app (iOS / Android), or add and remove records from Rollup Lists. If you have RingCentral, PCR can send a text message for you.

You can start from any of the canned automations included or build your own from scratch to help keep your team informed and your database organized. We are looking forward to lots of creativity from our customers when putting these new recruitment automation tools to work!

Visit the Learning Center for Automations instructions.

ZoomInfo Integration

ZoomInfo IntegrationWe’ve partnered with ZoomInfo, the world’s most comprehensive B2B database, to allow anyone with ZoomInfo Elite or ZoomInfo Recruiter account to enhance their PCRecruiter records with the latest contact details from ZoomInfo’s constantly updating database.

You’ll find a shortcut to ZoomInfo Recruiter in the menu above the Name search, allowing you to jump directly into your ZoomInfo account to research and source contacts, and also an ‘Update with ZoomInfo’ option in the Action menu on your Name records.  This will open a sidebar that will feel familiar to users of our free PCR Capture plugin. In just a couple of clicks, your PCRecruiter records can be augmented and maintained. This is an excellent way to connect to the large array of data sources that feed ZoomInfo.

For more about this integration, see the ZoomInfo article in our Learning Center.

PCRecruiter App Dialing & SMS

We’ve created a new interaction between the PCRecruiter browser interface and the free PCRecruiter app (iOS / Android). With this new update, you’ll be able to pass outbound phone dials or text messages to your mobile device from the PCR screen. Not only does this save time, but more importantly it makes it easier and more automatic to log Activity records about your communications as you make them. Many of our customers use their mobile devices as their primary business communication channel, and this feature is designed to make that choice easier than ever!

For more detail on setting up this dialing connection, see the Learning Center.

G2, the largest software marketplace and review platform, has published its Fall 2021 report. PCRecruiter was ranked #1 in Customer Relationship and a Leader in multiple categories. G2 publishes these quarterly reports ranking applicant tracking software, staffing software, and recruiting agency software based on data from multiple sources.

Users love PCRecruiter on G2G2, the largest software marketplace and review platform, publishes quarterly reports that rank applicant tracking software, staffing software, and recruiting agency software. These reports are based on multiple data sources, including perceived market presence, satisfaction scores from independent user reviews, and indicators of market leadership.

With G2’s newest detailed breakdowns just released for Fall 2021, PCRecruiter has once again been revealed as one of the recruitment software industry’s top options for recruiting and staffing professionals in organizations of all sizes.

PCRecruiter is #1 ATS in Customer Relationship

The Fall 2021 reports indicate that, for businesses from 1-50 employees, PCRecruiter is a Leader among Staffing and ATS solutions. In fact, PCRecruiter is the #1 ranked Applicant Tracking System in this market in regards to quality of support, ease of doing business with, and likeliness to recommend.

Even among larger companies (51-1k employees), PCRecruiter ranked in the Top 10 easiest vendors to do business with. We know we go the extra mile to make our customers happy and successful, but it’s always nice to see it supported by the data!

PCRecruiter is a leader in Small-Business Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) on G2

PCRecruiter is a leader in Small-Business Staffing on G2
PCRecruiter is a leader in Mid-Market Staffing on G2

PCR is Leading The Way

PCRecruiter received high marks across the industry, ranking as a Leader among Candidate Relationship Management and Applicant Tracking vendors, and as a High Performer in both the Staffing and Recruitment Marketing categories for businesses of all sizes.

In the Recruitment Marketing category, PCRecruiter earned the Highest User Adoption badge. This is perhaps one of the most important metrics we’re proud of — after all, even the greatest features and highest quality data can’t be of any value if your team isn’t using the software. The time and personal attention we put into getting new customers up to speed, and the system’s incredible configurability have put it at the top of the category in G2’s Implementation Index.

PCRecruiter is a leader in Candidate Relationship Management on G2
PCRecruiter is a leader in Recruitment Marketing on G2
PCRecruiter is a leader in Staffing on G2

We want your voice to be heard!

We appreciate the kind words and accolades from our users that went into these rankings. If you’d like to have your opinion counted in the Winter 2021 report from G2, we encourage you to post a review of PCRecruiter at this link. Not only will this help people learn about PCRecruiter, but you’ll also be eligible for a gift card from G2 in thanks.

We have released a patch on our SaaS PCRecruiter network which includes a necessary update to our PCRecruiter Launcher. The Launcher is a small desktop app that allows PCRecruiter to connect with your computer’s local OS for interactions like alarm popups, attachment handling, and so on. When you log into PCRecruiter you should be prompted to install the latest version.

We have released a patch on our SaaS PCRecruiter network which includes a necessary update to our PCRecruiter Launcher. The Launcher is a small desktop app that allows PCRecruiter to connect with your computer’s local OS for interactions like alarm popups, attachment handling, and so on.

When you log into PCRecruiter you should be prompted to install the latest version. If you are not prompted, you may download the Windows installer here or download the Mac installer here. If the installation is skipped, some features may not perform as expected.

Here is what you can expect to see:

There is a newer version of the PCRecruiter Launcher
Click “Yes” on the PCRecruiter Loader

Update Launcher
Click “Yes” to begin the PCRecruiter Launcher Setup.

PCRecruiter Launcher Setup
Click “Next” to begin the installation.

PCRecruiter Launcher EULA
Check the “I accept” box and click “Next”.

Ready to Install
Click “Install” to proceed.

Launcher Setup Type
Choose the “Typical” installation option.

User Account Control
You may see a message like this. If so, select “Yes”.

Finish
After the installer has completed, which should take only a moment or two, click “Finish”

Following this installation, you may continue to use PCRecruiter as usual.

PCRecruiter + Zapier plus 2FA

PCRecruiter is now connected with the Zapier integration platform, enabling connections with hundreds of third-party apps. In addition, PCRecruiter is also introducing optional 2FA login security.

PCRecruiter + Zapier

Sample Zapier ZapsWe are thrilled to announce PCRecruiter’s integration with Zapier, the leading Integration Platform (IPaaS). Integrating with Zapier means that recruiting and staffing professionals can seamlessly automate tasks and customize workflows between PCRecruiter and other systems without the need for deep technical knowledge or custom code development. This integration allows users to create links between PCRecruiter and the thousands of applications in the Zapier catalog with just a few clicks.

With the Zapier integration, you’ll be able to:

  • Trigger actions in another app when a new Placement is made.
  • Trigger actions in another app when a Name or Position is added to a particular Rollup list.
  • Signal PCRecruiter to create a Name, Company, or Position when triggered by another app.
  • Signal PCRecruiter to update a Name when triggered by another app.
  • Signal PCRecruiter to write a Name or Position activity when triggered by another app.

With the Zapier integration enabled, you’ll be able to do things like copy Names to Google Sheets, turn Placements into Monday items, or post job info to your social networks – there are virtually endless possibilities.

This integration is offered at no extra cost from PCRecruiter. See https://learning.pcrecruiter.net/site/zapier/ to get started.

Two-Factor Authentication

Adding a second layer of security to your private recruitment database can give you peace of mind. To that end, we now offer two-factor authentication in our SaaS platform, the PCRecruiter mobile app, PCRecruiter for Outlook, and PCRecruiter for Gmail. Once this feature has been configured for any login, the user will be prompted to supply a numeric code after entering their username and password. The code can be received via their registered email, a push notification to the PCRecruiter mobile app, or via a compatible Authenticator App such as those by Google and LastPass.

To get started, see the Learning Center document at https://learning.pcrecruiter.net/site/two-factor-authentication/


Review PCRecruiter — Get a Gift Card

PCRecruiter is a leader in Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) on G2 Thanks to reviewers like you, PCRecruiter continues be ranked as one of the top recruiting software, recruitment CRM, and ATS solutions on the market. The Summer 2021 reports from G2 have PCRecruiter once again in the ‘Leader’ quadrant and showing some of the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the industry. We appreciate your kudos and we look forward to continuing to satisfy your needs.

If you’d like to have your voice included, and get rewarded with a gift card for your time, you may do so at Software Reviews, G2, and Capterra.

Notes & Analytics Updates (Update 9.8.5)

PCRecruiter 9.8.5 includes workflow enhancements in the Notes area and new charts for PCR Analytics, as well as a ‘Last Modified’ field for Company and Position records.

The latest update to PCRecruiter arrives on our SaaS recruitment platform this week, with user-requested adjustments to the Notes area, fresh charts in the PCR Analytics, and an additional field for Positions and Companies. In addition to the visible changes to PCRecruiter, extensive platform and API changes to support upcoming interface and automation improvements are included with this update.

Notes Updates

In our April 2021 update we revealed a new Notes Widget with a grid view, bookmarking feature, and keyword search. With valuable feedback from our users, we’ve further refined this interface with:

Expandable Notes Panel
  • The ‘Add Note’ panel is now collapsed by default to allow more viewing area.
  • Once expanded, the Add panel can be resized by dragging the edge to create more entry space. The width you set will be remembered even after the panel is collapsed and re-opened later.
  • A new Expand All button allows all Notes boxes on the record to be viewed at their full-length in a single click. The Collapse button does the reverse.
  • Editing notes is now accomplished by simply clicking on the note. When you click outside of that note it will automatically save.
  • A right-click menu gives you quick access to Delete and Copy functions.

Analytics Details & Drill-Downs

The PCR Analytics, our optional graphic tool for analyzing and reporting on KPIs and other metrics, has been updated with a new ‘Detailed Goals’ chart with a breakdown of data by user. There is also a new drill-down available for the Key Metrics and Metrics sections that displays the individual records that make up your reported stats. The records associated with these items can be easily added to a Rollup List for further reporting, searching, emailing, and organizing.

Last Modified Field

Although Name records have long had a ‘Last Modified’ field, showing the date when the record had last been re-saved, this field was not available for Company and Position records. This update adds the same functionality to the other two primary record types.


Review PCRecruiter — Get a Gift Card

PCRecruiter is a leader in Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) on G2 Thanks to reviewers like you, PCRecruiter continues be ranked as one of the top recruiting software, recruitment CRM, and ATS solutions on the market. The Summer 2021 reports from G2 have PCRecruiter once again in the ‘Leader’ quadrant and showing some of the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the industry. We appreciate your kudos and we look forward to continuing to satisfy your needs.

If you’d like to have your voice included, and get rewarded with a gift card for your time, you may do so at Software Reviews, G2, and Capterra.

Enhanced Notes & Maps (Update 9.8.4)

In our latest update, we’ve added a new feature for placing candidate addresses on an interactive map, as well as completely redesigned the Notes screen for Name, Company, and Position records.

PCRecruiter will be updated this Wednesday to version 9.8.4, which contains a brand new Map feature as well as a major redesign to our Notes screen and widget. These updates are a precursor to some very exciting new improvements you’ll be seeing in PCRecruiter over the next few months. Keep your eyes out for the quick guide popups when you log into the system for the latest info, and watch our blog and social networks for posts like this one.

Contact Mapping

Contact Map for RecruitingA new ‘Map Results’ icon has been added to the Name Search Results screen. After selecting one or more contacts returned by any name search, clicking this icon will plot their home addresses on an interactive map. This can be very useful for those who do contract recruiting and want to easily identify candidates located near the job site.

Clicking on any pin in the map displays the record’s contact card for access to the resume, email, phone, and other interactions.

Although this feature is offered at no additional cost, it may require an update to your database to activate and is therefore currently ‘off’ by default for current clients. If you would like to have the Map function enabled on your database, contact your PCRecruiter consultant.

Note: The Maps are currently US only, but will be expanding to international clients in an upcoming release.

Notes Redesigned

Notes are keyword-searchable candidate, client, or position information that doesn’t correspond to an event with a particular date or time (those would be Activities.) This update includes a major improvement to the way you’ll enter and view Notes that offers better visibility and organization. The new interface also saves time by putting the ability to edit Notes directly into the primary record view rather than only via the full Notes panel.

The new Notes Widget includes an open area for entering and editing Notes on the left, and individual boxes for each exist Note to the right. Your notes are viewable in a grid or list layout, depending on your screen space needs. The notes are sorted by date, but you can bookmark your key information to keep it always at the top of the list. There’s even a keyword search box for quickly finding the notes you’re after in any record.

New PCRecruiter Notes

This change in the Notes screen applies to both the widget in your custom record layout and the full Notes panel on your records. In addition, this new change has been extended to Notes on your Company and Position records, creating a consistent experience across all three record types.

Review PCRecruiter — Get a Gift Card

G2 LeaderThanks to reviewers like you, PCRecruiter continues be ranked as one of the top recruiting software, recruitment CRM, and ATS solutions on the market. The Spring 2021 reports from G2 have PCRecruiter once again in the ‘Leader’ quadrant and showing some of the highest customer satisfaction ratings in the industry. We appreciate your kudos and we look forward to continuing to satisfy your needs.

If you’d like to have your voice included, and get rewarded with a gift card for your time, you may do so at Software Reviews, G2, and Capterra.

Happy Holidays & Happy New Year from PCRecruiter

Happy Holidays and New Year from PCRecruiter! This message goes out from us to you, with our best wishes for a successful 2021.

We are grateful for your friendship and partnership throughout what has been, to say the least, an unusual year. Despite the challenges of 2020, the PCRecruiter team has remained steadfast in our commitment to our clients and uninterrupted in our efforts to bring you higher value.

Consequently, PCRecruiter has continued to rank as a leader on recruiting software recommendation and review sites like G2Capterra, and SoftwareReviews. We deeply appreciate it.

This year we made many great improvements to PCRecruiter, including a redesigned look with multiple color choices, a time-saving new Gmail integration, the addition of contractor hours collection into our mobile app, and updates to our Candidate Presentations and automation plans.

In addition to making PCRecruiter a more reliable and flexible recruitment CRM than ever through enhanced design, development, and delivery, we also made it easier than ever to master with the launch of our Learning Management System.

2021 is already shaping up to be a landmark year for PCR, featuring some of the most exciting improvements and advanced functionality we’ve ever released. You’ll be seeing bold new interfaces, powerful new integrations, and continued enhancement of the key features you rely on.

To the PCRecruiter community around the globe, we extend our best wishes for a bright, healthy, and successful new year filled with peace, strength, and abundant prosperity!

Sincerely,
The PCRecruiter Team

Mobile Timesheets

PCRecruiter’s newly updated mobile app adds contractor hours submission features for standardized, comprehensive, accurate records of your contractors’ time and expenses while on the job.

Mobile Timesheets in PCRecruiterCollecting Contractor Hours Just Got Easier

Version 2.0 of the PCRecruiter app for iOS and Android is out this week. In addition to giving recruiters convenient mobile access to contacts and positions, the new version adds brand new time tracking tools for contractors, giving you standardized, comprehensive, accurate records of your contractors’ time spent on the job.

With the new version, your contract placements get a secure and simple way to clock in and clock out, including logging their breaks and tracking their expenses with integrated receipt scanning. Convenient push notifications in the app let you send a nudge to those contractors who need a reminder to submit their hours, and location services integration helps you verify their workplaces.

More Time Making Placements; Less Time Chasing Timesheets

The PCRecruiter app helps you not only collect more accurate and prompt timesheet data from the contractors you place, but it also makes it easier to approve and report on those submitted work hours without worrying about lost or late submissions.

As always, PCRecruiter users can check the status of timesheets for contractors currently on assignment. You’ll know whose timesheets have been submitted, whose are ready for approval, and which ones have been approved. You can also remind contractors and managers of hours that need to be approved via templated emails or text messages. After approval, PCRecruiter’s exports to PayChex, QuickBooks, or Excel make invoicing easier.

With these new updates, PCRecruiter helps you spend less time and effort on managing timesheets while offering your contractors a convenient, easily understood way to submit their hours. Talk to one of our consultants about version 2.0 of our mobile app and all of our contractor timesheet features today.

To make sure you’re getting the most out of PCRecruiter, our training and technical experts are offering a new series of free webinars in November.

PCRecruiter Tutors WebinarsThe PCRecruiter team wants to help you build more productive relationships with your clients and MPCs (Most Placeable Candidates) while effectively tracking performance for your team. To make sure you’re getting the most out of PCRecruiter, our training and technical experts are following up the release of our new Learning Management System with a new series of free webinars.

The PCRecruiter Tutors series will cover helpful topics and new developments that can make you a more successful recruitment, staffing, or HR professional.

As always, personal training sessions with our team can be scheduled by emailing support@mainsequence.net

Upcoming Sessions

ALL SESSIONS on TUESDAYS at 1:00 PM Eastern
Recordings of all sessions will be available to all registrants.

NOVEMBER 3
“PCRecruiter for Gmail”

Learn about all that the PCRecruiter add-on for G Suite has to offer. If you’re a Gmail user and haven’t taken advantage of this free utility yet, this session is for you!

NOVEMBER 10
“Configuring & Sending Candidate Presentations”

Learn about the most powerful tool for submitting Candidates to Clients. We will dive into the available settings as well as the easy sending process for users. We will then take a look at it from the Client side, how the Resume will look to them, and how they can easily submit feedback.

NOVEMBER 17
“Configuring & Viewing the Analytics”

This webinar will focus on configuring the PCRecruiter Analytics and viewing them. Please note that the Analytics is an add-on feature which may not be available on your particular account. The Analytics are highly configurable and dependent on your specific use of Activities and Pipeline records.

NOVEMBER 24
“PCRecruiter Database Cleanup”

Join the team to learn the most effective ways to clean up your PCRecruiter database and rid yourself of old or incomplete data. We will discuss merging duplicates, running an inactive candidate report and more!

DECEMBER 1
“Using Rollup Lists”

Attend this PCRecruiter webinar to master working with Rollup Lists. We will cover setting up and using Rollup Stages, Quick Comments, Ranking, Planning and more!

PCRecruiter Tutors Sessions

Previous sessions in this series can be viewed at https://learning.pcrecruiter.net/site/webinars, including topics like:

  • Adding and Managing Records
  • Activities, Scheduling, and Tracking User Activity
  • Bulk Emailing and Email Campaigns
  • Customizing Layouts and Copying Settings
  • Importing Spreadsheets
  • PCR Capture
  • Reporting
  • Searching and Creating Rollup Lists
  • Setting Up and Using RingCentral
  • Using the Pipeline
  • Using the PCR Portal for MS Outlook
  • Working with Resumes

The PCRecruiter LMS

The award-winning PCRecruiter service team announces a new addition to our portfolio of training services and resources: The PCRecruiter Learning Management System. The PCRecruiter LMS will connect our users with the educational tools they need to get the best results out of the system. Now available to all users.

The award-winning PCRecruiter service team is always ready to help customers meet their goals in recruiting and staffing.  Recognizing that even the most well-honed tools require well-honed skills, this week we’re excited to add a brand new element to our portfolio of training services and resources: The PCRecruiter Learning Management System.

The PCRecruiter LMS connects our users with the educational tools they need to get the best results out of the system and helps managers achieve learning goals for their teams.  The courses offered in the LMS will help you advance your skills and your career through more effective understanding and use of PCRecruiter.

  • The LMS platform covers basic, advanced, and admin-level skills.
  • The growing list of topics range from “new user” fundamentals to more advanced courses in searching, reporting, and database management.
  • Most lessons include instructional videos and interactive step-by-step tutorials that let the user walk through the procedures as they learn.
  • Courses include regular checkpoints and conclude with short assessments to help measure mastery of the material.
  • Passing assessments leads to digital certificates that recognize achievements along the way.

The PCRecruiter LMS is now available to all current users at no added charge! Watch your inbox for an invitation email in the coming week. Our support team will be adding new courses and updating existing ones continually, and we also plan to offer a webinar on using the LMS in the near future.

We hope the PCRecruiter LMS will become a regular part of your team’s professional development and that it will contribute to your continued success.

If you have any questions, contact lms@mainsequence.net

PCRecruiter is pleased to announce “The Recovery is ON! Here’s What to Do NOW!” – a free webinar from Mike Gionta of The Recruiter U. This event will take place via Zoom on Wednesday, October 7 @ 12:00 PM Eastern. Reserve your space now to hear about taking advantage of a re-opening economy.

PCRecruiter is pleased to announce The Recovery is ON! Here’s What to Do NOW! – a free webinar from our partner The Recruiter U. This event will take place via Zoom on Wednesday, October 7 @ 12:00 PM Eastern.  Reserve your space in advance.

Are you positioned for the recovery?

Mike Gionta
Mike Gionta, Founder of The Recruiter U

The Recruiter U has been measuring effort and results with over fifty clients for nearly five months. They’re confident that the recovery is well underway, based on predictive indicators that are all positive. Curious about what those key metrics are? Learn about them in this complimentary webinar presented by Mike Gionta, founder of The Recruiter U, and sponsored by PCRecruiter.

Mike has been in the trenches with clients the past few weeks and knows what is working. The Recruiter U’s clients are getting retainers, making placements and even hiring new recruiters right now. Why? They’re seeing results and preparing for “the bounce!”

“We are clear on what a path out looks like for recruiters,” says Mike. “Our coaching team has been through a combined eight recessions in this industry and, yes, this one is different… actually they are all different! Getting out follows similar actions.”

In this complimentary training he’ll share:

  • A 90-day Path Forward to be positioned to thrive as the virus continues to subside.
  • 3 Specific Strategies you can you use to get business now.
  • What you can do now to take advantage as we re-open the economy.
  • How to Manage & Motivate your recruiting team.
  • Planning Strategies for a historic 2021.

Take some time out of your afternoon on October 7 at 12:00 Eastern for this informative session.


Get $10 – Review PCRecruiter before October

SourceForge wants to hear what you think of PCRecruiter. They are offering a $10 gift card to the first ten users who submit a review of PCRecruiter by October! Use this link to submit your brief review of PCRecruiter before the month ends. We appreciate you telling the world about PCR!

Announcing PCRecruiter for Gmail

Announcing PCRecruiter for Gmail, which joins PCRecruiter for Outlook in the arsenal of tools to help you access and enter data more quickly and accurately. Whether you’re a solo recruiter or part of a team, you’ll work more effectively without wasting a second on switching screens or running searches. You’ll create contacts more quickly, without errors or duplications, and be ready to respond more promptly to any email you receive.

We know how important it is for executive search and placement professionals to maintain efficient communication and record keeping. This week we’re giving you a new way to combine the most versatile staffing and recruitment software on the market with your inbox.
PCRecruiter for Gmail
Announcing PCRecruiter for Gmail, which joins PCRecruiter for Outlook in the arsenal of tools to help you access and enter data more quickly and accurately.

Whether you’re a solo recruiter or part of a team, you’ll work more effectively without wasting a second on switching screens or running searches. You’ll create contacts more quickly, without errors or duplications, and be ready to respond more promptly to any email you receive.

Making Gmail a robust recruitment CRM

With PCRecruiter for Gmail, you’ll be able to:

  • Automatically see contact details, activities, notes, and attachments for your email correspondents along side their email.
  • Create new records to your database, quickly parsing contact info from the resume header or email signature.
  • Update existing records with a fresh resume or contact info.
  • Add correspondents to Rollup Lists.
  • Associate correspondents with Position Pipelines.
  • Launch a phone call with your dialer of choice, such as RingCentral or PCR for Google Voice.
  • Add email attachments to contact records.
  • Write new Notes and Activities.
  • Search for Contacts in PCRecruiter.

PCRecruiter for Gmail makes it easy to take action, whether you need to enhance information, import an attachment, add contacts to lists for an email campaign, or pipelining candidates for trackable presentation and feedback from your clients.

Ready to get started? Install the G Suite Add-On and read the setup instructions in our Learning Center.


Review PCRecruiter, Get a $20 Gift Card

Review PCRecruiter on G2 We hope you are as excited about this new Gmail integration as we are! We have so many more new features to reveal in the coming months! If updates like these are helping you be more successful, please take a minute to share your opinion with G2 or Capterra. Both of these sites are offering gift card incentives for your review right now, but it’s is a first-come-first-serve limited offer so please write yours soon!

G2, the largest software marketplace and review platform, has published its Summer 2020 report. Once again, PCRecruiter received high marks. G2 publishes these quarterly reports ranking applicant tracking software, staffing software, and recruiting agency software based on data from multiple sources.

Users love PCRecruiter on G2G2, the largest software marketplace and review platform, has published its Summer 2020 report. Once again, PCRecruiter received high marks.

G2 publishes these quarterly reports ranking applicant tracking software, staffing software, and recruiting agency software based on data from multiple sources. They use factors such as perceived market presence, satisfaction scores from independent user reviews, and indicators of market leadership to create detailed breakdowns.

PCRecruiter is a Leader & High Performer

The Summer 2020 reports show PCRecruiter as a Leader among ATS options in both the overall and small-business (50 or fewer employees) categories. Leaders have both high ratings on G2 as well as a substantial market presence score.

PCRecruiter was also ranked a High Performer in the overall and small-business Staffing categories. This is based on our high customer satisfaction scores, which remain consistently high. We ranked particularly well in areas of customer support and ease of doing business with. In fact, PCRecruiter was ranked top-of-the-list for Easiest to Do Business With among all Staffing vendors for mid-market (51 – 1k employees) companies.

PCRecruiter is a leader in Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) on G2 PCRecruiter is a leader in Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) on G2 PCRecruiter is a leader in Staffing on G2 PCRecruiter is a leader in Candidate Relationship Management on G2 PCRecruiter is a leader in Staffing on G2

Add Your Opinions

We appreciate the kind words and accolades from our users that went into these rankings. If you’d like to have your opinion counted in the Fall 2020 report from G2, we encourage you to post a review of PCRecruiter at this link. Not only will this help people learn about PCRecruiter, we’ve partnered with G2 Gives to donate $10 on your behalf to Direct Relief. This highly-regarded non-profit provides humanitarian aid to people affected by poverty or emergencies.

PCRecruiter update v.9.7.38, released today on our hosting servers, includes new time-saving functions such as improved email notification options for our Candidate Presentations, an Export option for Auditing Metrics, and auto-copying of the street address from company records to the new jobs you create for them. Also in this blog post, find out how you can get a gift card or support a charity just by reviewing PCRecruiter.

Today we’ve released PCRecruiter 9.7.38 on our hosting servers. This update resolves a variety of customer-reported issues and also contains a few new enhancements. Here are the changes you’ll find in this version:

Notifications for Candidate PresentationsCandidate Presentation Notifications

When you’re setting up a new template for Candidate Presentations, you’ll now have the ability to designate conditional email contacts for the notifications, including:

  • The email address of the user sending the presentation.
  • The email address of the user (if any) who is associated with the candidate being presented.
  • The email address of the user who owns the relevant position (if any).

In previous versions of PCRecruiter, any email addresses to be notified were explicitly entered as part of the template setup and did not change based on the parties involved in the individual presentation. If you’d like more information about using this feature to present candidates to your clients and hiring authorities, contact one of our support representatives.

Export Auditing Metrics

The Metrics report, which is found under Reports > Auditing, can now be exported as a CSV file for sharing or further analysis in Excel. This report allows administrators to view a count of Activities completed per User in the selected date range. More advanced metrics analysis tools for individual recruiters or recruitment teams are available via our PCRecruiter Analytics feature.

Address Copies into Position from Company

When a user adds a new position to any company or organization in PCRecruiter, the city, state/province, postal code, and country are automatically copied from that company into the job record. Starting with PCRecruiter 9.7.38, the street address (Address 1, Address 2 fields) will also be copied. These fields will be filled in even if they are not visible on your position record layout. If you’d like to add them to your screen, you can customize your position record layout.


Share your opinion, get a reward!

PCRecruiter is a leader in Small-Business Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) on G2PCRecruiter is a leader in Candidate Relationship Management on G2PCRecruiter is a leader in Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) on G2PCRecruiter is a leader in Staffing on G2

The Spring reports from G2 (the world’s largest tech marketplace) have come out, and based on your reviews PCRecruiter proudly stands as a Leader among Staffing software options for small businesses and as a High Performer for the overall Staffing category. We’re also were placed in the Leader group in the Candidate Relationship Management category based on our high level of user-adoption, and as a Leader among ATS packages. We sincerely appreciate your praise and we look forward to sharing some exciting new features with you in the coming weeks.

Independent review websites like G2 want to know what you think of PCRecruiter and some of them are offering limited-time incentives for your opinions.

  • The folks at Capterra are offering a $10 gift card to the first 100 reviewers who use this link to submit a review of PCRecruiter.
  • Software Suggest is also offering a $10 gift card for reviews submitted to their website via this link.
  • Our partnership G2 Gives continues on! G2 is donating $10 on your behalf to our selected charity, Direct Relief, a highly-regarded non-profit that provides humanitarian aid to people affected by poverty or emergencies. All you need to do is post a review of PCRecruiter at this link to help us reach our $1k goal.

PCRecruiter 9.7.37 – Presentations & Themes Updates

PCRecruiter’s latest update includes two brand new color themes, an option for larger fonts, plus time-saving improvements to our Candidate Presentations and automation plan features.

Our development team is working diligently on a number of projects, and in the PCRecruiter update released this morning we’ve added some new features and made improvements both on the face of the software and behind the scenes. Here’s what you’ll find…

Candidate Presentations

Our Candidate Presentations feature, which you’ll find in the overview video above, allows you to send convenient, branded candidate data packages to hiring authorities. Not only do these Presentations help you communicate more efficiently, but with instant email notifications when your client has opened a Presentation or given Feedback, you’ll always be ready to reach out the moment you’re needed.

This update includes several workflow enhancements requested by our Candidate Presentations users, making it an even faster way to get feedback from your hiring authorities. As always, we invite your suggestions on this and other areas of PCRecruiter in our Ideas & Requests forum.

  • The Feedback box can now be moved, minimized, and re-sized so that recipients can more easily reference resumes and other presented data while entering their feedback.
  • When a Candidate Presentation contains multiple candidates, the recipient’s name and email will be retained across all Feedback boxes once it’s been entered, saving data entry time.
  • The Star Rating feature can be made optional or hidden entirely when a Presentation is being sent.
  • A new toggle has been added to the menu of candidate names when sending a Presentation which allows the user to Show or Hide the names in the list.
  • Candidate Presentations are now auto-labeled with the first and Last name of the candidate and a ### placeholder. The ### will be converted to a sequential number when the Presentation is sent, simplifying the process of sending of Presentations while making it easy to tell them apart within a single candidate record.
  • The Theme selection dropdown now displays the Primary and Secondary colors of the Presentation Themes for easier identification.
  • The ‘Action’ button on Presentation lists now includes options to review the sent email and to delete the Presentation entirely.
  • The Candidate Presentation creation and editing screens have been updated to match the users’ currently selected PCRecruiter Theme.
  • A ‘Preview’ button has been added to the Template editing screen, making it possible to preview changes using placeholder data.

Large Font Dropdown and New ThemesThemes Updates

We’ve added two new brand Theme options to the ‘Change My Theme’ panel, accessible from the small gear icon at the top right corner of your PCRecruiter screen. The new Light Blue theme offers a bright alternative to our default Light Mode, while the Victoria theme brings lavender and mauve into the mix just in time for Spring.

In addition, this panel now contains a Default Font Size / Large Font Size dropdown menu, which increases the type size for any of the selected themes.

Automation Plan Scheduled Actions

Scheduled AutomationsPCRecruiter’s Automation Plans are a time-saving way to trigger emails, write Activities, add records to Rollup Lists and perform other tasks based on movements in the Pipeline, changes in Rollup Stage, Job Board applications, and Profile completions. In our latest update, a new Scheduled Action option appears on each item. This new feature makes Automations more flexible and useful than ever.

By default, checked tasks are performed immediately when the trigger occurs.  With Scheduled Actions you may now add a delay into the process. For example, if you often sorting through candidates on Friday afternoons you may want to defer the associated automated emails until the next Monday, or you may wish to trigger a Status change after 7 days from a particular event.

The options include Number of Days (wait X days before running the automation), Day of the Week (run the automation on the next occurring Tuesday), and Hour of Day (run the automation at next 8 AM). You may combine these for more complex selections, such as “wait five days and then send this email at 7:00 AM on the soonest Monday.”

Merging Placed Candidates

One other minor change you may encounter is in the Merge screen. On occasion, a candidate that is already in your database as a Placed record may get re-added to the database with a new resume or email address via the Job Board or an import. If you attempt to merge a duplicate Name record that has a Placement with a non-placed record, you’ll see a new checkbox: “Retain Company Association and Status value from non-master record.” This checkbox allows you to keep all of the data from the newly added record as the ‘Master,’ without losing the older record’s connection to the Company or its ‘Placed’ value in the Status field.


Review PCRecruiter and Support Direct Relief

We have partnered with G2 Gives, who will be donating $10 on your behalf to our selected charity, Direct Relief. All you need to do is post a review of PCRecruiter at this link. It costs you nothing but a moment or two of your day.

Direct Relief is a venerable US-based non-profit that provides humanitarian aid in all 50 states and more than 80 countries for people affected by poverty or emergencies. They do so without regard to politics, religion, or ability to pay, and they get exceedingly high marks for how efficiently they use donations and how transparent their organization is.

By reviewing PCR at the provided link, you’ll not only help people researching recruiting and staffing software find out about more about PCR, but you’ll help us reach our $1000 donation goal. That money will go to Direct Relief’s services for outbreaks, disasters, and emergencies, plus support for community health and medicine around the world.

We hope you’ll help us in supporting this critically needed organization as we all look forward to better days ahead.

In addition to G2 Gives, we always appreciate receiving your reviews on Capterra.

Join us for a series of complimentary Tuesday/Thursday webinars at 1 PM EDT. Now is the time to sharpen your PCRecruiter skills!

PCRecruiter Tutors WebinarsAs any craftsman knows, it’s important to keep your skills as sharp as your tools. Sharpen your PCRecruiter skills with these complimentary half-hour sessions!

Our training and technical experts will cover popular topics so you can build relationships with your clients and MPCs (Most Placeable Candidates) more efficiently and track performance more effectively.

As always, personal training sessions with our team can be scheduled by emailing support@mainsequence.net

PCRecruiter Tutors Sessions

You missed the live sessions, but a recording can be viewed in our Learning Center via the links below!

PCRecruiter 9.7.36 – New Styling & Themes

A bold re-imagining of the PCRecruiter UI begins with this week’s update. The refreshed styling, alternate color themes, and nav enhancements are just the beginning of a faster, more efficient, modernized PCR.

Headings, highlights, and nav changesThis week’s update, releasing on Wednesday, brings design revisions to PCRecruiter that improve the look, feel, and function of the system. The interface modernization you’ll find in this update is merely the first step toward a completely revised PCRecruiter UI that will be rolled out through 2020.

New Styling

You’ll see new styling that helps put the focus on your data, with clearer headings, new color highlights, revised MyPCR graphics, and fewer icons.

We’ve also taken the existing Name, Company, and Position highlight colors and extended them into Rollups, Search Results, and navigation menus. These highlights help users make more focused clicks and ease learning of the system.

Nav Improvements

The new update includes a new option to snap your Action menus to the left or right of the screen, reducing ‘mouse travel’ and making your navigation more efficient. We’ve also clarified the top/bottom frame-scaling controls, making it easier to adjust the window heights to your needs on the fly.

Color Themes

By popular demand, this release also includes user-selectable color themes. The initial round of themes include Dark Mode, Grey, and Ocean Blue, plus an alternate ‘Condensed’ Dark Mode that uses a narrower font for maximizing space on smaller screens.

More light and dark color palettes are in development and scheduled for release later this year.

We look forward to sharing even bigger changes with you! Watch for future announcement banners when you log into PCRecruiter and follow us on our social networks linked below. As always, we want to hear our users’ ideas on future updates to PCRecruiter, so please visit the Ideas and Requests Forum in our helpdesk to comment or to upvote the ideas that you like best.


Reminder: Webinar with Verified First on April 8

PCRecruiter is proud to partner with a variety of top-tier vendors, including LogicMelon, Resume Library, SenseHQ, and more. One of our long-time partners, Verified First, will be hosting a webinar on February 18 at 11 Eastern to show how their background and drug screening system works with PCR. We invite you to sign up for this informative session at https://verifiedfirst.com/2020webinar-pcrecruiter/


Review PCR and get a $10 gift card.

Get a $10 gift card for sharing your review of PCRecruiter with Capterra! Click here to get started. Limited to the first 100 reviews only!

Verified First, a provider of custom background and drug screening solutions, will host a webinar about its partnership with PCRecruiter on Feb. 18, 2020 at 11 EST. Details at verifiedfirst.com/2020webinar-pcrecruiter/

Verified First

PCRecruiter’s ongoing partnership with Verified First, the premier background and drug screening company in North America, streamlines the hiring process for organizations of all sizes with the ability to validate and verify potential hires right from PCRecruiter. The interface is intuitive and designed to encourage users to comply with FCRA and EEOC laws that govern background screenings, significantly improving time-to-hire when screening candidates.

On April 8 at 11 AM ET, Verified First will be hosting a webinar to highlight best practices for background screening and to show exactly how easy it is to screen candidates.

Join this webinar to learn about:

  • Why your organization needs to run background checks
  • What can happen when background checks aren’t properly run
  • How the partnership saves time, requires less paperwork, and simplifies the process

To sign up for this webinar, visit https://verifiedfirst.com/2020webinar-pcrecruiter/