New tools for recruiters

I am always beta testing new tools to make our lives easier.  I work  a high volume, niche contingency desk. I have tested many tools and thought it might be helpful for us to share our experiences when we come across an effective tool.

I have found Sane Box to be a life saver in organizing my overflowing Outlook mailbox.  It helps me to get to the important emails first.

What I am on the hunt for now, is a CRM (not ATS), that will allow me to organize my prospects (ie. LinkedIn contacts) and be able to segment them and mail them when I get an appropriate position. Also, to update the Company/position of my current candidates. (via a LinkedIn integration)

The issue here is that LinkedIn keeps taking away elements that allow us to do this, for instance, location.  You can only export your entire contacts and not by tag or location.  The only information you get is name and email. I had been using a great tool, Connectedhq, but LinkedIn bought them and this became the new LinkedIn contacts.

I have looked at Nimble, Contactually, Zoho CRM and Insightly.  They are all cumbersome and do not do the trick. Is anyone using these or another CRM (again NOT an ATS)

Have you found any other interesting, new tools that optimize your placements?

 

 

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Noel Cocca on June 27, 2013 at 8:10am

Hi Roni, we have a review here http://www.recruitingtools.com/10-of-the-best-ats-on-the-market-tod... that is titled ATS but really has CRM's also.  Worth a read.  Let me know your thoughts.  I might get a CRM only review going.  

Permalink Reply by Roni Zapin on June 27, 2013 at 10:19am

Thanks Noel, but these all seem to be ATS systems (most of which I researched or have used) when I was looking at ATS systems, but that is another story.

What I am looking for here is more of a Social CRM system..  somewhere I can load my candidates and also my LinkedIn contacts, and Twitter contacts.   I want to be able to segment them by location so I can email them when I have a suitable job.  I don't know if anything is out there that can do that...

Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on July 1, 2013 at 10:30am

Roni you seem like someone who might enjoy being a guest on The Recruiting Animal Show - Check out Animal Show Basics.com -- if you think it's for you, pick a date from the schedule and let me know. You can access some past shows from my blog on RecruitingBlogs.

Permalink Reply by Irina Shamaeva on July 9, 2013 at 3:19pm

It's good to know about the Connectedhq! It's rather odd how much they differ from other LI functions, sorting and searching specifically. You can see some "mysterious" screenshots here. 

Yes, LinkedIn is not the top tool regarding any export - to say the least! :) It's also interesting to find out exactly what  happens with the location if you upload contacts to LinkedIn from another source. There's some very odd "location merge" functionality in the new Contacts that I don't quite understand. (I guess if you would like to export, it is not the lace to go to anyway).

I don't have the greatest suggestion for you on CRMs. We are using the "less annoying CRM", but for very limited purposes.

If you consider using Talentbin, I believe that they have CRM functionality built in now.

If you are a fan of tools, please review my list at http://booleanstrings.com/tools/

Permalink Reply by Glenn Gutmacher on July 13, 2013 at 1:30pm

Roni, it's not exactly that LinkedIn "takes away elements" to do things, but they tend to migrate the really useful functionality to their paid platform.  For example, re: your wishlist item of being able to auto-update your ATS (and other) contacts when they change jobs, search them via location, etc., LinkedIn offers that at no extra charge via Talent Pipeline -- but it is functionality that's only available to those with a LinkedIn Recruiter seat (approx. $7K/year).  Besides the ones you mentioned and TalentBin mentioned by Irina, also look at Dice.com's OpenWeb, Entelo.com, Gild.com and HiringSolved.com.  They (and an increasing number of other vendors) are applying algorithms to consolidate proliferating social data into individual people profiles and then giving you personal folders where you can store and tag candidates, email capability, and other CRM functionality.  You'll see this topic discussed more and more in upcoming industry conferences, blogs and in forums like this.  I recommend you also follow people like John Turnberg (who will present on Big Data in recruiting at October 2013's www.RecruitingTrends.com conference and Dave Mendoza (who consults in this space - see www.sixdegreesfromdave.com).

Permalink Reply by Roni Zapin on July 13, 2013 at 2:09pm

Thanks Glen.

I actually pay for LinkedIn Talent whatever they call it now (it was called something else when I started and I have migrated over when they launched the new platform).  I also have a Basic LinkedIn personal account where I can connect to people.  You cannot merge the info between these..  so while I can get job change updates on my 1st level connections sent to me daily from my personal account; my notes, resumes and tags and ability to send inmails are on my Talent account...

 

Plus, even though I have and continue to upload data to the Talent account, you cannot export data from there, like a mailing list or your tagged candidates.

 

On the personal account, now, when you do an export, all you get is name and email, where in the past you had gotten location and tags.... 

 

I guess what I am saying here, is I continue to import info and can't get anything out (from linkedin) and pay for the privilege of doing so... Unless I am not seeing something here, and please if I am wrong someone let me know...

 

Glenn, I will look at the others you mention, as I have not yet.. 

One vendor told me their "get around" the linkedin API is to send a  note (from the person signing up for their system) to each of their contacts asking them to give permission for their service to get updates from linkedin.. 

Glenn Gutmacher said:

Roni, it's not exactly that LinkedIn "takes away elements" to do things, but they tend to migrate the really useful functionality to their paid platform.  For example, re: your wishlist item of being able to auto-update your ATS (and other) contacts when they change jobs, search them via location, etc., LinkedIn offers that at no extra charge via Talent Pipeline -- but it is functionality that's only available to those with a LinkedIn Recruiter seat (approx. $7K/year).  Besides the ones you mentioned and TalentBin mentioned by Irina, also look at Dice.com's OpenWeb, Entelo.com, Gild.com and HiringSolved.com.  They (and an increasing number of other vendors) are applying algorithms to consolidate proliferating social data into individual people profiles and then giving you personal folders where you can store and tag candidates, email capability, and other CRM functionality.  You'll see this topic discussed more and more in upcoming industry conferences, blogs and in forums like this.  I recommend you also follow people like John Turnberg (who will present on Big Data in recruiting at October 2013's www.RecruitingTrends.com conference and Dave Mendoza (who consults in this space - see www.sixdegreesfromdave.com).

Permalink Reply by Irina Shamaeva on July 13, 2013 at 2:41pm

@Roni,

Take a close look at the new LinkedIn Contacts. They are free for all and provide this desired functionality (similar to the expensive Talent Pipeline), big time. It's just a well kept secret at this time that they do.

Here are some details http://booleanstrings.com/2013/06/11/5102/

Roni Zapin said:

Thanks Glen.

I actually pay for LinkedIn Talent whatever they call it now (it was called something else when I started and I have migrated over when they launched the new platform).  I also have a Basic LinkedIn personal account where I can connect to people.  You cannot merge the info between these..  so while I can get job change updates on my 1st level connections sent to me daily from my personal account; my notes, resumes and tags and ability to send inmails are on my Talent account...

 

Plus, even though I have and continue to upload data to the Talent account, you cannot export data from there, like a mailing list or your tagged candidates.

 

On the personal account, now, when you do an export, all you get is name and email, where in the past you had gotten location and tags.... 

 

I guess what I am saying here, is I continue to import info and can't get anything out (from linkedin) and pay for the privilege of doing so... Unless I am not seeing something here, and please if I am wrong someone let me know...

 

Glenn, I will look at the others you mention, as I have not yet.. 

One vendor told me their "get around" the linkedin API is to send a  note (from the person signing up for their system) to each of their contacts asking them to give permission for their service to get updates from linkedin.. 

Glenn Gutmacher said:

Roni, it's not exactly that LinkedIn "takes away elements" to do things, but they tend to migrate the really useful functionality to their paid platform.  For example, re: your wishlist item of being able to auto-update your ATS (and other) contacts when they change jobs, search them via location, etc., LinkedIn offers that at no extra charge via Talent Pipeline -- but it is functionality that's only available to those with a LinkedIn Recruiter seat (approx. $7K/year).  Besides the ones you mentioned and TalentBin mentioned by Irina, also look at Dice.com's OpenWeb, Entelo.com, Gild.com and HiringSolved.com.  They (and an increasing number of other vendors) are applying algorithms to consolidate proliferating social data into individual people profiles and then giving you personal folders where you can store and tag candidates, email capability, and other CRM functionality.  You'll see this topic discussed more and more in upcoming industry conferences, blogs and in forums like this.  I recommend you also follow people like John Turnberg (who will present on Big Data in recruiting at October 2013's www.RecruitingTrends.com conference and Dave Mendoza (who consults in this space - see www.sixdegreesfromdave.com).

Permalink Reply by Roni Zapin on July 13, 2013 at 2:57pm

Thanks Irina. As I stated in my first post, I was using the predecessor to the LinkedIn Contacts which was ConnectedHQ.  This service allowed you to import all of your contacts from everywhere, and then update them with LinkedIn information. You could then, tag them and export them with tags, location, company name and title. You could mail them using Mailchimp or Constant contact..  Then, LinkedIn bought them, and it became the NEW LinkedIn contacts and now you have no integration with email vendors and when you export you can only get all of your contacts (not segmented) nor with tags, location, company or title (even though you probably imported most of that information to begin with!!)...

This has been one of my pet peeves for the better part of a year now...  and I have yet to find a solution to this....  If anyone can help me here, please let me know...

I looked at Glenn's suggestions and while they are great systems, they seem to be geared more towards medium to enterprise companies....  Looking for something reasonably priced for the small shops.  I have spoken with a number of small shops that are looking for the same thing...  Again, not an ATS, but a CRM - passives/contacts combined with your candidates that you can stay updated on their current company/title/location and be able to sort/search and contact them when you have a suitable opportunity...    Thanks!!!!

Irina Shamaeva said:

@Roni,

Take a close look at the new LinkedIn Contacts. They are free for all and provide this desired functionality (similar to the expensive Talent Pipeline), big time. It's just a well kept secret at this time that they do.

Here are some details http://booleanstrings.com/2013/06/11/5102/

Roni Zapin said:

Thanks Glen.

I actually pay for LinkedIn Talent whatever they call it now (it was called something else when I started and I have migrated over when they launched the new platform).  I also have a Basic LinkedIn personal account where I can connect to people.  You cannot merge the info between these..  so while I can get job change updates on my 1st level connections sent to me daily from my personal account; my notes, resumes and tags and ability to send inmails are on my Talent account...

 

Plus, even though I have and continue to upload data to the Talent account, you cannot export data from there, like a mailing list or your tagged candidates.

 

On the personal account, now, when you do an export, all you get is name and email, where in the past you had gotten location and tags.... 

 

I guess what I am saying here, is I continue to import info and can't get anything out (from linkedin) and pay for the privilege of doing so... Unless I am not seeing something here, and please if I am wrong someone let me know...

 

Glenn, I will look at the others you mention, as I have not yet.. 

One vendor told me their "get around" the linkedin API is to send a  note (from the person signing up for their system) to each of their contacts asking them to give permission for their service to get updates from linkedin.. 

Glenn Gutmacher said:

Roni, it's not exactly that LinkedIn "takes away elements" to do things, but they tend to migrate the really useful functionality to their paid platform.  For example, re: your wishlist item of being able to auto-update your ATS (and other) contacts when they change jobs, search them via location, etc., LinkedIn offers that at no extra charge via Talent Pipeline -- but it is functionality that's only available to those with a LinkedIn Recruiter seat (approx. $7K/year).  Besides the ones you mentioned and TalentBin mentioned by Irina, also look at Dice.com's OpenWeb, Entelo.com, Gild.com and HiringSolved.com.  They (and an increasing number of other vendors) are applying algorithms to consolidate proliferating social data into individual people profiles and then giving you personal folders where you can store and tag candidates, email capability, and other CRM functionality.  You'll see this topic discussed more and more in upcoming industry conferences, blogs and in forums like this.  I recommend you also follow people like John Turnberg (who will present on Big Data in recruiting at October 2013's www.RecruitingTrends.com conference and Dave Mendoza (who consults in this space - see www.sixdegreesfromdave.com).

Permalink Reply by Irina Shamaeva on July 13, 2013 at 6:15pm

Oh, OK, sorry if I misunderstood you. Correct, there's no export capacity in the Contacts (except for very limited data) and there's no decent export capacity in the most expensive LinkedIn solutions either.

The new Contacts, do have integration with other channels. - which is what makes them a fantastic tool. You can upload your gmail contacts, yahoo, etc. Some people have integration with FB and Twitter. There are tags, locations, etc.  - it just sounds you to see them on your screen?

There's search as well:

Also, there's no need to pay for auto-updating, since each "source" has a "refresh" data which will trigger updating.


If you really want so export, you could use a tool like Outwit Hub and get some data parsing and export (a junior software engineer should be able to write some javascript code to do that).

The absolutely amazing thing is that we can search across this data, integrated into linkedin by the new "contacts"  by bringing in gmail and other contacts. These searches will get find lots of LI data that we couldn't find before.

Systems like TalentBin, Dice.com's OpenWeb, Entelo.com, Gild.com and HiringSolved.com are not able to do anything of this caliber. The main reason is that LinkedIn will get unhappy as soon as its data is mass-scraped and is used in other businesses. All of these systems try to include "some" linkedin data - but the truth is, the best they can do is dynamically lookup using a name. They may be also trying to accumulate some public profile data through Google's index data, but they all know it's dangerous.

Roni Zapin said:

Thanks Irina. As I stated in my first post, I was using the predecessor to the LinkedIn Contacts which was ConnectedHQ.  This service allowed you to import all of your contacts from everywhere, and then update them with LinkedIn information. You could then, tag them and export them with tags, location, company name and title. You could mail them using Mailchimp or Constant contact..  Then, LinkedIn bought them, and it became the NEW LinkedIn contacts and now you have no integration with email vendors and when you export you can only get all of your contacts (not segmented) nor with tags, location, company or title (even though you probably imported most of that information to begin with!!)...

This has been one of my pet peeves for the better part of a year now...  and I have yet to find a solution to this....  If anyone can help me here, please let me know...

I looked at Glenn's suggestions and while they are great systems, they seem to be geared more towards medium to enterprise companies....  Looking for something reasonably priced for the small shops.  I have spoken with a number of small shops that are looking for the same thing...  Again, not an ATS, but a CRM - passives/contacts combined with your candidates that you can stay updated on their current company/title/location and be able to sort/search and contact them when you have a suitable opportunity...    Thanks!!!!

Irina Shamaeva said:

@Roni,

Take a close look at the new LinkedIn Contacts. They are free for all and provide this desired functionality (similar to the expensive Talent Pipeline), big time. It's just a well kept secret at this time that they do.

Here are some details http://booleanstrings.com/2013/06/11/5102/

Roni Zapin said:

Thanks Glen.

I actually pay for LinkedIn Talent whatever they call it now (it was called something else when I started and I have migrated over when they launched the new platform).  I also have a Basic LinkedIn personal account where I can connect to people.  You cannot merge the info between these..  so while I can get job change updates on my 1st level connections sent to me daily from my personal account; my notes, resumes and tags and ability to send inmails are on my Talent account...

 

Plus, even though I have and continue to upload data to the Talent account, you cannot export data from there, like a mailing list or your tagged candidates.

 

On the personal account, now, when you do an export, all you get is name and email, where in the past you had gotten location and tags.... 

 

I guess what I am saying here, is I continue to import info and can't get anything out (from linkedin) and pay for the privilege of doing so... Unless I am not seeing something here, and please if I am wrong someone let me know...

 

Glenn, I will look at the others you mention, as I have not yet.. 

One vendor told me their "get around" the linkedin API is to send a  note (from the person signing up for their system) to each of their contacts asking them to give permission for their service to get updates from linkedin.. 

Glenn Gutmacher said:

Roni, it's not exactly that LinkedIn "takes away elements" to do things, but they tend to migrate the really useful functionality to their paid platform.  For example, re: your wishlist item of being able to auto-update your ATS (and other) contacts when they change jobs, search them via location, etc., LinkedIn offers that at no extra charge via Talent Pipeline -- but it is functionality that's only available to those with a LinkedIn Recruiter seat (approx. $7K/year).  Besides the ones you mentioned and TalentBin mentioned by Irina, also look at Dice.com's OpenWeb, Entelo.com, Gild.com and HiringSolved.com.  They (and an increasing number of other vendors) are applying algorithms to consolidate proliferating social data into individual people profiles and then giving you personal folders where you can store and tag candidates, email capability, and other CRM functionality.  You'll see this topic discussed more and more in upcoming industry conferences, blogs and in forums like this.  I recommend you also follow people like John Turnberg (who will present on Big Data in recruiting at October 2013's www.RecruitingTrends.com conference and Dave Mendoza (who consults in this space - see www.sixdegreesfromdave.com).

Permalink Reply by Roni Zapin on July 13, 2013 at 6:29pm

Thanks Irina. I am not denying it is great to be able to add all this data to your contacts.. I even went as far as to add a file of my candidates to the old system..  I seem to see a bug now with uploading files so I have loaded them into my outlook address book and trying to sync from there.. But, now that we have all this data... how can we use it?  again, as a recruiter, I want to be able to segment all of these folks and email them appropriate messages... this is where linkedin is lacking..  

I shouldn't have to hire my own programmer.. I am suggesting that of all these vendors that are out there, a couple should realize this gold mine and develop something we all can  use...   

Permalink Reply by Irina Shamaeva on July 13, 2013 at 7:01pm

Roni:

This sure is buggy. LinkedIn is a very buggy system. It's still great though.

Syncing doesn't happen instantly but it does happen (I first thought that importing contacts wasn't working any more).You can now search across all of this data. Let me give you an example.

*** Example of using the new Contacts for Sourcing. ***

I am currently sourcing for Wastewater Project Managers for a company in Toronto, CA. I have found lists of people who are "project managers" at competitor companies. (I collected the info from the web, Zoominfo, Jigsaw, etc, and I have names, company names, and email addresses).

Great. I have a list of project managers from competing companies. But here's a problem. Most of these companies do many other things, not just wastewater: they do construction, etc. How I can filter the project managers from this list that do work with water?

I use a temporary gmail account to upload the list and then add (merge) it to my LinkedIn contacts. NOW I can search across these people's LinkedIn profile data, and for those who left enough info on their profiles I can figure out who deals with water and who is not. I will also double-check where these people are located (even for those who said very little on their profiles).

Am I making sense?

Regarding the Gold Mine. As I had mentioned in the previous reply, this is not quite a gold mine because it is very dangerous to even show up near-by. LinkedIn claims that it "owns" its data. Ever heard of ca company called Pealk? It was shut down. Many companies digging LinkedIn's data have been getting "cease and desist". 

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