What Tools are Strapped to your Recruiting Tool-Belt?

These days, there is an abundance of hype around what recruiting tools you should strap to your tool-belt and how they can change your recruiting tactics forever.
I don’t want to strap 100 tools on my tool-belt each morning and wonder, which ones will I use today? For me, it’s about analysing what tools are really relevant to my work, which means testing, reviewing and refining them until I’m confident they are not all hype and that they actually add value to my work.
So when you’re reading the latest post or featured article about this ‘new tool’ that will change your world, ask yourself these questions first:

1. Who is the author of the tool – a well known expert in the field or a crafty vendor promoting their product as a recruiting life changer?
2. Who is recommending the tool and discussing the benefits?
3. Who else is using the tool? Anyone I know?
4. Is the tool relevant in my domain e.g. industry, location etc.?
5. What problem(s) does it solve?
6. Does the tool easily integrate with the other tools I use?
7. Is it free or paid? What exactly do I get from a paid account? Is it value for money?

[bctt tweet=”With so many recruitment tools out there, how can you identify what is useful for you?” username=”ATCevent”]
Here are some tools I strap to my recruiting tool-belt every day which help me be more productive.

Pocket

Find here: Pocket
This is one of my favourite tools allowing me to save interesting articles, videos and more from the web for my enjoyment later. Once saved to Pocket, the list of content is visible on any device. You can also categorise all the content you have stored or event view offline, which means your scarce mobile data won’t get a workout. A must for my tool-belt, and a recommendation for others.

Email Hunter

Find here: Email Hunter
As the name suggests, Email Hunter hunts down email addresses, validates them against a list of email addresses within the tool and based on the domain used, returns a confidence score. It also works with LinkedIn and has a Google Chrome extension you can add to your browser. You get 200 free email searches per month. Another must have tool for my tool-belt.

Hubspot Sidekick (now known as Hubspot Sales)

Find here: Hubspot Sidekick aka Hubspot Sales
Ever wondered if your emails even get opened? Well this free tool from Hubspot is definitely something for your tool-belt. It’s an easy to use plugin for Chrome or Outlook that allows you to track if your emails are being opened. Great if you are emailing potential candidates or hiring managers as you can track when and what they do with your emails.

Facebook Search

Find here: Facebook Search
If Facebook is one of your sources for talent, then this tool is a must on your tool-belt. If you remember Facebook Graph Search, then you’ll know what a great tool this is for searching Facebook. This tool helps you search Facebook and find people by their name, job, location, age, gender, friends and groups they are members of. It has recently been upgraded to search Twitter and LinkedIn using the same concept as Facebook.

Keyword Typo Generator

Find here: Keyword Typo Generator
I think it’s important to remember that we all misspell words whilst searching. We don’t always correct them because we find what we are looking for anyway. If we want to find as many variations of misspellings, then Keyword Typo Generator is a great tool for you. For example, you can type in the word “Director” and you will see a list of all the common misspellings and this allows for a wider range of keywords to be used during your talent search process.

Prophet

Find here: Prophet
Have you ever found the perfect profile online, only to realise he or she did not list his or her contact details? Prophet scans profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook, and it finds you the user’s emails, phones numbers, other social profiles, blogs and much more, allowing you to uncover deeper information about the people you have been searching for.

Discoverly

Find here: Discoverly
If you have used Rapportive in the past, then you will understand the benefits of Discoverly. Discoverly uses Gmail and LinkedIn to help you find out more about all your contacts.

Google Custom Search Engine (CSE)

Find here: Google Custom Search Engine (CSE)
Google’s Custom Search Engine is a free platform provided by Google that allows you to create a customised search engine, based on a typical Google Search, but allows removal of many restrictions that Google generic search applies. I use CSE to automate searches that contains variables, thus allowing me to filter different results to get what I want. This is especially useful when I want to “x-ray” LinkedIn to search for candidates across different locations.

Google Alerts

Find here:  Google Alerts
If you’re like me, you monitor the web for interesting new content. Google Alerts allows you to define a search and Google will email the results to you. Great for monitoring what is happening in your industry, especially if you are time restricted.

Crystal (also known as Crystal Knows)

Find here: Crystal Knows
Crystal analyses public data to detect the personality of anyone with an online presence, allowing you to communicate with anyone based on their unique personality. Crystal is your communication coach for every conversation. Improve your emails, meetings, and relationships with personality insight, this powerful tool can tell you what to write and what not to write in an email, as if you had the recipient’s friend looking over your shoulder.
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Readability Score

Find here: Readability Score
Readability is a free online tool used by writers to improve their writing. It measures and improves the writing and the readability of your marketing content through their exclusive readability and keyword tools.

Textio

Find here: Textio
Textio shows you how your job listings and candidate emails will perform, before you’ve even posted them. You might ask yourself before sending or publishing content, will the role be popular among qualified job seekers? Will it fill quickly? How gender-biased is it? Textio gives you analytics and feedback right as you’re typing.
So there you go, this is the list of must-have tools for me when I search for candidates. What tools do you strap to your recruitment tool-belt to assist you in your day to day recruiting?
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