Free and Fab - Gratis tools every recruiter needs to bag

Let’s face it, it’s a jungle out there. Finding, bagging and retaining top talent is no easy feat in these tricky, turbulent times. Yep, never has the saying ‘You are only as good as your tools’ been so true. As you’d imagine, there’s a million and one paid and free tools designed to help recruiters steer these stormy talent waters. Any good recruiter's toolbox is a savvy cocktail of paid and free tools. We don’t all need or even value the premium upgrades out there, it’s all about finding the right tool for the job.

Gone are the days when being free was enough to merit use. Modern professionals search for value, and they expect free tools to really impact their day-to-day lives. So when faced with testing recruitment tasks and troubles, what free tools are out there to make our lives a bit easier? What freebies really make a difference to our everyday? Well, here’s our rundown for all your Search, Social, Culture and Communication needs.

The Great and Good (and the Free).

First off, these groups of free tools cover the spectrum of all things recruitment. Some tools can be used for social as well as search, and in turn for communication and culture. In short, they’re good all-rounders. Secondly, there are paid versions of these gratis goodies available too. Remember, it’s all about using the right tools for the right jobs so if the value is there, pay up!

Search.

There’s a crazy amount of free search tools, software and systems out there. This little collection is just a few effective ones to tap into, outlining a few different approaches.

• WhoWorks.At - (Site not longer active)

What’s it for? This is essentially a talent all-star. Uncover existing connections, scope out new ones and go in for the talent kill. You can identify references, check out new hires and promotions as well as keep updated on changing job titles. Whether you take action or not, staying in the loop with hires, recruitment language and company changes is pretty invaluable.

• Followerwonk - https://followerwonk.com/

What’s it for? It’s a trusted tool of many recruiters and for good reason. It’s essentially a Twitter Analytics powerhouse. It offers a flurry of benefits from getting to grips with your followers and competitors to searching for talent via their bio details. If you use Twitter, you should be using this. End of.

• Meetup - http://www.meetup.com/

What’s it for? - Good old fashioned, hands-on networking. We all get too bogged down in the tech and digital demands of connecting with talent. Meetup is a great tool for scouring and creating casual meetups with like-minded folks. Why not host a talent meetup? Maybe you’re looking for the next best developer? There’s probably a meetup group of them meeting sometime soon, explore and head along.

Social (Twitter).

Yes these are mostly Twitter-related. Of course Facebook, LinkedIn and such like have ample apps for recruitment but the free tools out there for Twitter really are a class above.

• TweetDeck - https://tweetdeck.twitter.com/

What’s it for? If you don’t have TD, get it NOW! Keeping on top of interactions is recruitment 101 and there’s nothing quite like TDeck for monitoring your hashtags and topics in one place. Be warned, you can lose hours in real-time watching so be smart in scheduling Twitter time everyday to watch over all aspects of your empire.

• Hootsuite - https://hootsuite.com/

What’s it for? This tool caters to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram (around 35 channels actually). This social media management tool is a scheduling lifesaver. Ensuring you post regularly and engage with your social communities, Hoot takes the mess and stress out of your social shenanigans. The free plan is just brilliant.

• Tweriod - http://www.tweriod.com/

What’s it for? In a nutshell, Tweriod helps you tweet at the optimal times for your community. By analysing yours, and your follower’s tweets, this clever clogs tool makes reaching your followers a breeze. It’s handy to know you can keep on top of reach and data simultaneously.

Communication & Culture.

• Rapportive - https://rapportive.com/

What’s it for? This Gmail product is an email tool for recruiters, and boy is it a keeper! It handily links all social profiles to any mail sent so you can scope out your recipients from your inbox. If you’re not using Gmail yet, it’s worth the switch just for this.

• Recruit Loop - http://recruitloop.com.au/video-interviews

What’s it for? In short, to record interviews and make recruitment so much easier. Yes the likes of Skype are free and just fine for interviews but sharing candidate feedback via something like RL is invaluable. In modern recruitment, a tool like this needs to be a staple.

• Yammer - https://www.yammer.com/

What’s it for? Yammer is all about connecting all departments and locations of your company via a nifty social network. It brilliantly breeds better communication between your team and yep, you can sign up to a free account.

Well it looks like the best things in life are indeed free. Recruiters can’t afford to be left behind tool-wise, they need to be open-minded and ready to roll. Be an advocate for exploring all options, free or otherwise, and remember the wonders of a free trial. On that note, check out ours! http://logicmelon.com/free-trial sorry shameless promotion.

These are just my thoughts on ‘tools every recruiter needs to bag’, but I’d love to hear yours. Find me on LinkedIn or just drop me an email here! Darren Brown.

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Twitter snippets.                            

• (Click to tweet) Any good recruiter's toolbox is a savvy cocktail of paid and free tools.
• (Click to tweet) It’s all about finding the right tool for the job.
• (Click to tweet) We all get too bogged down in the digital demands of connecting with talent.
• (Click to tweet) You can lose hours in real-time watching so be smart and schedule.