Bullhorn
Staffing is a 100% Internet based applicant tracking ASP we have written about
in this column before. A strong continuing interest in this software category
from the Fordyce readers and a lot of new and useful updates to this package,
including substantial upgrades to flexibility and integrations features,
warrants another look.
This
software system seems to do a good job in integrating sales, recruiting,
marketing, data mining, management reporting, and back office integration. At
first glance it seems to be laid out in an intuitive manner and is very easy to
use. I also wanted to mention the entire user interface is
customizable according to the way you do business.
I
wanted to mention first how they had integrated a complete email system into
their software. This is a boon to anyone, like me, who uses email extensively.
There are other systems that allow you to attach email messages to a record but
you have to save the message first and then attach it to the record. Here the
entire email program is integrated so all your communications with each
candidate or contact automatically becomes part of the database record.
On
logging in you get the Bullhorn desktop, which has an integrated calendar with
all your tasks for the day in plain view. Your hot candidates, client contacts
and job orders are also highlighted in the desktop view, as are notifications of
any new emails in your inbox.
New
candidates are easy to add manually but nothing will beat the ease of simply
emailing a new candidate’s resume to Bullhorn and have it automatically parsed
for contact info and skills and then added to the candidate database
immediately. Their search engine offers an extensive array of search parameters
mirroring the information on the candidate entry form, which, surprisingly, not
all of the ATS search engines allow. From the Candidate’s menu you can also
access all of your saved queries, which when run, generate updated results each
time or, you can access a group of candidate lists, in which the entire list of
names is saved as a permanent record for future reference. Another candidate
related feature I like is their distinction between a “lead” and a
“candidate”. There is a separate area for website resumes, unsolicited
emailed resumes, extra ad responses and stashed resumes of passive candidates
that have not been “processed” so can’t actually be called a
“candidate” yet. These leads are searchable as well and can be added to the
candidates’ database at any time.
As
always, the clients tab is fairly simple and is related to your marketing / job
order contacts. You can easily view a list of all your clients then click each
individually for a menu offering activity, contacts, and other client related
activity. You can also add new contacts from this view.
The
jobs menu items pull everything together. Outside of adding new jobs to your
database and viewing a list of your open jobs and searching them, you keep track
of all the resumes that have come up on searches against a job order and also
keep track of all the resumes you have submitted to clients for each job order.
I like how they have related the placements activity into the jobs area, as that
is how it should be.
In
this upgrade they have continued with their “tearsheet” concept that allows
a user to easily create a group of resumes to be sent to a client site, as part
of a presentation or to another recruiter.
The
service also comes with a great reports feature, including job order, activity,
and placement reports, mailing label reports, timecard reports for contractors,
business analysis reports and others as well. You can also create and print your
invoices from within the product.
Pricing
is customized based on users, usage and level of customization but can range
anywhere from $90
per user per month and $200 per user to install up to $150 per user per month
and $500 per user to install. I am told that most
customers successfully implement Bullhorn in less than 30 days including
training, data migration, and any desired configurations.
I
want to thank Greg Hanson, CEO of BullhornSTAFFING, Inc. for his assistance in
writing this review. Any subscriber seeking this type of service is encouraged
to visit the Bullhorn website at www.bullhorn.com or you can reach Greg via voice
at 617-464-2440 or via email at greg@bullhorn.com
with any questions or comments.
I
was happy to review this somewhat unique Internet-based service of potential
interest to the recruiter community. CardBrowser (www.cardbrowser.com)
is an online searchable database containing the business cards for thousands of
attendees of major technology events throughout the country. The people in
charge at CardBrowser attend these major conferences weekly, collect all the
business cards available from each conference and then the cards are scanned,
converted to text, verified for accuracy, then uploaded to their database. As
you might imagine the types of people that have booths at technology conferences
run the gamut from sales and sales support personnel all the way up to the
executive level. For this reason I believe this service is going to be of most
interest to a sales/marketing or perhaps an executive level recruiting service.
A
couple of plusses for recruiters in dealing with this type of data. One is that
you have access to a database of what you might call passive candidates (in the
sense that everyone is a candidate) that may not even have their resume anywhere
on the Internet. You do have a name, direct dial info, mobile numbers, email
address, job title and employer name at your fingertips. Another plus is that
you have de facto permission to call this person. A lot of credibility is
garnered by calling and stating you got his or her card from a conference. Why
wouldn’t they call you back…that is why they went to the conference in the
first place. They also have an event calendar showing the upcoming events they
will be attending.
The
service itself is the simplest interface I have seen to date. You log into the
service then select the conference that you would like to see the contacts from.
I picked the Computer Security Conference and Expo. Although I left all other
criteria blank you can also screen for job titles, companies, states, countries
and area codes if you wish. There were 154 business cards from that conference
and as I perused them I noted CEO’s, VP’s, Product Managers, Architects,
Sales and everything in between. Your results are presented in a list format and
a button gives you access to full contact information for each person. A good
starting point for any search assignment for a computer security professional.
The
service is not for everyone at $2495 per year but could be a bargain for the
right type of recruiting service. My contact for this article, Steven C. Morgan
is CEO of CardBrowser and can be reached via voice at 631-262-9100 x100 or via
email at stevenm@salesrecruits.com.
XtremeRecruiting.org
For
those who don’t already know I wanted to mention that Bill Vick, former founder and CEO of Recruiters OnLine Network (RON),
has launched a new website…”a resource and community site for Recruiters,
HeadHunters and employment professionals.”
For
now, Bill has amassed an extensive library of audio interviews with many
industry leaders including nationally renowned trainers, publishers (including
our own), association executives, authors and big billers all having their own
slant on the past, present and future of our industry and probably worth
reviewing.
On the short term…online training. They already offer weekly live and
real-time workshops and an ongoing Tuesday evening teleconferences conducted by
industry leaders.
They
also have a very active discussion group on Yahoo that list members can
participate in.
Visit
his website at http://www.xtremerecruiting.org/
or anyone can contact Bill Vick directly via email at bill@xtremerecruiting.org
or voice at 800-364-8425.
They
claim to be the largest on-line source of executive level candidates in the US
who are earning $75,000 to $1,000,000, and seeking new positions. They say they
attract executives from virtually every industry and every country in the world.
The majority of their candidates elect not to post their credentials to the
larger "job boards" in the industry.
I
haven’t tried the service myself but wanted to mention it, as their service is
free to recruiters. From their email:
For
more information, or to sign up for their service, visit their website at www.executiveresumes.com.
Google.com,
one of the largest and most widely used Internet search engine, not to mention
the search engine with the largest index of passive candidate resumes, has an
Advanced Search tips page enabling you to get the most out of your searches. Go
to http://www.google.com/help/refinesearch.html
and you will find tips and techniques for including a specific word, excluding a
specific word, phrase and OR searches, domain inclusion / restriction, language
restrictions, date and word occurrence restrictions and other hints as well. If
a recruiter uses just one engine for custom passive candidate searches it should
be Google.