At Heat, one of the main pillars of our business is investing in innovative technology that helps us stay ahead of the curve so that we can meet the needs of our candidates and clients more effectively and efficiently…
What this means in practice is ensuring we have the best possible technology stack in place to allow our consultants to focus on what they do best and see the best results possible as a result of their efforts. And, while the recruitment technology landscape can be complicated, with new solutions being added all the time, it’s crucial to cut through the noise and differentiate what will actually aid the business and what is simply a passing trend. Planning the right tech stack has allowed our consultants to boost their efficiency and gives them access to the data that will assist them in doing what they do best: building great relationships and long-standing partnerships.
After our Technical Operations Director Marcus Granville sat down with one of our experienced Legal recruiters Hayley Martin to run through our tech stack, we decided to sit down with them both to establish what exactly makes our tech offering stand out, and why this is a non-negotiable for recruiters who want to see real success from their input.
Hayley Martin, Senior Legal Consultant
“A lot of recruiters who are just starting out in their careers can underestimate how crucial the tech stack in an agency is: particularly in this day and age, when we rely so heavily on technology to help us recruit…
Recruitment is about finding the right people and the right roles as efficiently as possible, and in such a competitive market where time is of the essence this has never rung more true. Having the right tech in place to make that process more efficient and rapid is essential and gives you more of an ‘all-encompassing’ recruitment experience: you can be far more confident that you’ve left no stone unturned in your search when you have the right infrastructure in place.
Equally, everyone recruits differently; having the right tools allows you to fine-tune your skillset into what it is that makes you a better recruiter, because no two people recruit exactly the same way. There are obviously tried and tested methods, but even within my own team, you have examples of individuals who work within the same market but work very differently. Yet, both see a lot of success in what they’re doing. Of course, there are tried and tested methods, but in other agencies it can be so rigid, and it’ll almost be a case of ‘this is the way you do it, and this is the only way we’re going to support you doing it.’ I think not being type casted so early doors and forced into a singular method and approach to recruitment really allows people to find their niche. Having such an extensive tech stack allows us creative freedom and autonomy to try different ways of getting there.
I think when you’re operating in these niche markets, it’s important to have niche tools that account for this, and that’s something that is done well here for all of the divisions. For legal specifically, having access to specialist bespoke software designed for our industry is a huge benefit. LinkedIn Recruiter is great, and you can be as efficient and meticulous as possible, but you can still miss people even with the most accurate searches. Where you have such broad areas of law, it is so invaluable to be able to target your search within those areas at a more granular level; without this, you’d definitely miss people out. It gives you the ability to target your search by making them more specific and helps you find your niche.
I joined Heat with the view of building my market and niche within Litigation in London, but the market is huge; it’s the biggest market in London. So having a tech package that allows me to refine that search and get an idea of who hires from whom is invaluable. It means that I know for certain who to target and where, and then I can compile a hitlist and start head hunting almost immediately. Any recruiter will know how tedious market mapping from scratch can be; it’s a necessary evil of course, but a laborious process. But having the right tech in place makes you much more efficient, which you need in London.
It’s rare that you can give an example that so succinctly and conveniently sums up the significance of a great tech stack, but no word of a lie, the first message I sent on Recruiter was to a candidate whom I went on to secure interviews for at 4 different practices; I have now placed her in a great position at a brand new law firm. Because her specific profile is so niche, if I had just gone about it using regular LinkedIn and not utilising the specialist platforms that Heat have access to, I would never have found her. That’s the key difference.”
Marcus Granville, Technical Operations Director
“Our tech stack has definitely evolved a lot since Heat began…
One of the things that catapulted many businesses into cloud-based working was the onset of the pandemic, whereby the need for remote working necessitated digital transformation for the majority of office-based businesses in order to keep operations running as smoothly as possible. I’m pleased to say that this was actually something we were already working on prior to Covid due to our move to a market-leading CRM, so we were lucky in that it felt like we had a bit of a head start. Implementing new technology has been pivotal in our success as a business, and it’s always impressed me how willing and ready everyone in the business is to adapt to these changes.
Automation has been a real focus for us in enhancing our tech offering for our consultants. We have a lot of process-driven automation in place that allows us to categorise and find people with the right information at the right time, as well as those which take administrative tasks away from our consultants so that they are free to focus on the aspects of the role that only they can do.
The crucial element of an effective tech stack is ensuring that all of the systems and platforms you have in place are able to speak to one another; we’ve worked hard to ensure that there is a seamless integration of all of our systems, from our website and our database to our CV-parsing and social job-listing software. The real-time reporting and analytics capabilities of our systems are also pivotal in ensuring our consultants are able to keep themselves on track and measure their performance with ease.”
We’re proud to offer the right tools for our consultants to do their jobs to the best of their ability, whilst also allowing them the autonomy and creativity to find their individual style of recruitment. We operate within a variety of specialisms, and within each division there are clients who operate within very specific niches, and will therefore require a specialist search. By investing in tech and software on a division-by-division basis, we enable our teams to ensure peace of mind- for both themselves and their clients- that they have the right infrastructure in place to source the very best talent out there. This is what ensures our tech stack truly delivers on all that we are promising.