“Data quality problems currently cost U.S. business in excess of $600 billion per year, according to interviews with industry experts, customers, and survey data” – Garvroshe

Few people want to have a conversation about data. It’s not that exciting, until you put a number like $600 billion on it. Then they stop and take notice. Because, sure, $600 billion is just an estimate, but the truth is, there is a big price tag on maintaining and handling data. How you store your contacts, resumes, cover letters, and other data has a significant impact on how costly it will be to restore your data if your desktop system crashes.

As a recruitment and staffing firm, your data is one of your biggest assets. It represents the contacts you’ve made, the candidates you’ve placed, and the vendors you trust. Your data helps leverage your business for future opportunities. But if you had to put your data in the hands of a stranger, would it be a powerful tool, or a holy terror of a mess?

3 ways dirty data can cost you

1. Data Cleansing Fees. If your data is clean and well-formatted, it should be relatively easy for a data specialist to read your data and render it in a manner that best suits your firm. If it is a hodge-podge of missing fields and ill-placed characters, you’re looking at a $75.00 per hour (or more) fee to fill in the blanks.
2. Lost Candidates. Maybe you have a great candidate, but her resume is lost in a dark dungeon of inappropriately named folders on Sam’s desktop. Well-organized data means the best candidate is always at your fingertips – not lost to the competition.
3. Misuse of Time. You’re a recruiter. You need to be on the phones, hitting the pavement, sending emails. You don’t have time to be Googling “Jennifer Anderson” because someone neglected to fill out the “phone” field and emails are bouncing back from her email address.

Whether you’re using your Microsoft Outlook contacts or have invested in an ATS, keeping your data well-formatted will save you money in the long run. Perhaps you’re a small to medium firm working with ACT or Goldmine – you may want to upgrade to a sophisticated ATS as your firm grows. Or maybe you already use an ATS, and have decided to switch the software you use. Maybe you’re a one-man firm and just want to sync your outlook contacts to your iTouch. Either way, your firm will absolutely benefit from clean, organized data in the event of data transfer, as well as in your day to day operations.

“According to Gartner Inc., more than 25 percent of critical data in Fortune 1000 companies is flawed.” – Swartz, Nikki

For large recruiting and staffing firms, dirty data can be quite costly.  Inaccurate, incomplete, and duplicate data compromises the quality of candidate matches, diminishes placement opportunities, and increases the expense of communicating with candidates and clients.  Eradicating data errors and standardizing the way data is entered at enterprise-level firms can significantly boost assets and productivity.

Large recruitment firms can add to their bottom line by:

1. Regarding data as a corporate asset
2. Entering data that is relevant and meets overall business goals
3. Maintaining consistency in how data is entered
4. Approaching clean data as an ongoing objective, and creating a company culture that recognizes the value of clean data

So, how do you keep your data well-groomed and happily maintained?

In the next post, Sendouts’ own data specialist, John Born, shares the lessons he has learned as a data conversion specialist that recruiters can keep in mind as they keep track of their candidates and clients.

Tucked away in my marketing hole I rarely get a chance to use Sendouts as it’s intended. Mostly it’s shooting video, understanding how we’re solving recruiting firm’s problems, understanding how our clients use it etc…but rarely am I using it to manage my own recruiting workflow.

Not too long ago I started hunting for a marketing coordinator (job description here) that focused on copy and the social side of things. One advantage of working at Sendouts is that I have a slew of tools at my disposal to find and manage the applicant process. I started by parsing in the job description I’d written and added the location, salary etc… Once the meta info had been added I posted the job to sendouts.com which fed the job to our twitter acct, Facebook wall, Indeed and Simplyhired. It was really great to see all this happen without copy and pasting the link or job descriptions multiple places and it gave me a new appreciation for our job broadcasting features.

Within a few days I had 41 candidates in the St. Louis area that had applied via the website. Each CN record indicated the referral source so I know where they originated from along with a completely parsed resume. One thing I found helpful was the skill parsing with the years of experience listed; this made it easy to run through the records and filter by skillset. I eventually boiled the list down to 9 candidates and now it was time for phone screens. I have a fairly busy schedule so I wanted to get everything on the calendar quickly. For this I used email and our new text messaging feature. Both activities were tracked and when candidates responded a note was added to their record – real quick, real simple.

Out of the 9 candidates, 5 responded and the phone screens began. I kept notes during the phone screens in Sendouts for later review and eventually boiled it down to 2 candidates. Face-to-face interviews soon followed with a Q/A and an interesting writing exercise. After some deliberation we had made our decision – Jessica. Jessica made the cut because of her demonstrated work, her awesome attitude and desire to succeed. I’m excited about working side-by-side with her and am already impressed with her work and how fast she’s jumped in.

I’m sure that some of my recruiting friends will cringe at my recruiting workflow, but it fit best for me and my needs. The good news is, Sendouts is flexible enough to follow a very complex workflow or a very simple one (like mine) and helped keep my process organized.

You’re a tech-savvy, multi-tasking machine, and that’s why I commend you for deciding to sit in on a training session with your ATS account manager.  You’re smart, because even though you know pretty much everything about your ATS, a little refresher course can’t hurt, right?

Ok, you’re probably groaning inside that you don’t have enough time to finishing going through your call list, much less sit through an hour of training.  But you bit the bullet and listened to that tiny voice in the back of your mind.  You know, the one telling you that maybe you could be working more efficiently.  Don’t worry.  You can be confident that your ATS trainer wants to help you.  They don’t want to waste your time, or theirs.  Taking a few minutes to prepare for your ATS training will help you get the most out of your time.

3 Ways to Prepare for ATS Training

1.  Be aware of your level of expertise. Decide if you’re a newbie, a seasoned veteran, or somewhere in between.  This can help you determine what you want to get out of training.  Do you want to immerse yourself in the software just to get the feel, or have you been using the program for a while and have specific questions?

2.  Evaluate your use. Where are there disconnects in your work process?  What features do you neglect to use, and why?  Is it a matter of changing an old habit, or is it because your software doesn’t have the functionality you’re looking for?  Bring these issues to your trainer’s attention.  She can help you connect the dots and show you how you can use the software to its full potential.

3.  Get a fresh perspective. If you’ve had training with Sarah, consider scheduling training with Bill.  Everyone has their own cache of unique experiences, and no two trainers will present material in the exact same way.  Soliciting a new view is a great way to discover updated features or to learn a few short-cuts that will help you work more efficiently.

Take ownership of your training session.  Prepare to engage with your trainer and lead the conversation in a direction that will be the most beneficial to you.  Training is definitely worth your time when it results in a smarter, more efficient way to work.

You gotta love technology.  It can make life so simple.  Skype with a candidate in another region, reply to an email while you’re away from your desk, then come home and watch last week’s episode of The Voice on your dvr.  Sometimes, though, technology can be purely frustrating.  A malicious virus infects your hard drive, the internet is down for no apparent reason, and you just plain forget to plug in the toaster.  When technology works for you, it’s amazing.  When it doesn’t, it makes you want to stab your eye out with a plastic fork.

The same goes for your ATS.   So you have this fancy software that’s supposed to help you be a better recruiter.  But is it working for you, or just causing frustration?  Have you taken time to get really acquainted with your ATS?

You know your ATS can be an amazing tool to help you stay on task, contact people with speed, and document the paths of your candidates and clients.  But if you haven’t learned to use the system to its full potential, it can feel cumbersome – like peddling your Schwinn through mud instead of zipping along sleek and sexy blacktop.  If your ATS is lacking in the sleek and sexy department, you could probably benefit from in-depth training.

It’s time to get in-tune and become one with your ATS.  Roll out your yoga mat, salute the sun, then dial into some one-on-one training.  Or if you’re not into the mind/body thing, pour yourself a cup of joe, and email your account manager to sign up for a training session.

Maybe you never received one-on-one training, and have just been winging it for a while.  Or maybe the introductory training course you took is only a distant memory.  Software updates and new features are rolling out all the time.  A new mobile app, an updated tool bar, more functional sourcing tools – if you haven't kept up with changes, you could be missing out on a world of opportunity.  Even if you think you know everything about your ATS, you can always benefit from speaking with a trainer – especially when you come prepared (click here for part 2).

Day one on the job at Sendouts, and I’ve been greeted by smiling faces and welcoming “So glad you’re here”s.  The first day at a new job is always somewhat nerve-wrecking, but so far the transition has been smooth.  It’s friendly around here, and I can already see how the atmosphere in the office translates to the phenomenal customer service Sendouts is known for.

Who Am I?

I’ve come on board as the new Sendouts Marketing Coordinator, which is a fairly ambiguous title.  In my case, it means I’m here as a writer to produce content and keep the conversation going on the social media front.  I’ve always loved to write, but it didn’t take long for me to learn that being a writer and getting paid to write are not the same thing.  My first paid writing gigs were creating search engine optimized articles for the big content mills – you know, the $5.00 per 350 to 500 word article grind.  I quickly realized that my time was much more valuable than $5.00 per article, and branched out to find clients on my own.

Luckily, writing for the content mills wasn’t a total waste of time.  What I really took away from the experience was the idea that you can connect your brand to your target prospects by creating stellar content.  Pique their curiosity, answer a burning question, or give a new angle to an old debate – people are hungry to digest new content.

Can’t Hardly Wait

I’m excited to keep a steady stream of content going for Sendouts in print and online.  I’m looking forward to interacting with prospective clients as well as the internal Sendouts team via social media.  As a previous freelancer, I am psyched about having one client and seeing marketing plans and schemes through from inception to fruition.  I know there’s going to be a bit of a learning curve as I am new to the recruiting industry.  But, because I am new, I also offer a unique perspective.  I can’t wait to hit “post,” “publish,” “tweet,” and “send” and learn with every piece I produce.