Recruiting tools are meant to make your life easier, but if you aren’t using the right tools, you may be at a disadvantage. And, if your company is on a tight budget, finding the right tools to use creates a bigger challenge.
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Fortunately, Michael “Batman” Cohen—Founder of Wayne Technologies and RecruitCon 2019 Nashville emcee and speaker—has provided us with a list of his favorite FREE recruiting tools and Google Chrome extensions so you don’t have to scour the Internet to find them yourself.
A small disclaimer before we begin: Batman wants to make it absolutely clear that he does NOT get paid by any of these companies for any referrals, kickbacks, sales or business development work, marketing and recommendations, articles, videos, webinars, presentations, etc.
“I get ZERO dollars from ANY of these companies for talking about them and introducing them to people (and vice-versa). These are COMPLETELY unbiased opinions,” he says. So, let’s proceed with Batman’s favorite tools!
1. LastPass
LastPass is a freemium password manager that stores encrypted passwords online. The standard version of LastPass comes with a Web interface but also includes plug-ins for various Web browsers and apps for many smartphones. Batman says he uses this tool because it “remembers passwords for all your sites,” and we’re sure you have many, many passwords (hopefully not the same one for every website) to remember.
2. Todoist
If you’ve got a lot of things on your plate and you’re having a hard time keeping track of what you need to do next, this is where Todoist comes into play. Batman describes Todoist as a “to-do” list app that allows you to keep track of what needs to be done and stay organized. Batman says this tool is great because you can sync it with other people on your team, assign tasks, create projects, etc.
3. Save to Pocket
Save to Pocket is a Google Chrome extension that is the easiest, fastest way to capture articles, videos, and anything else you find on the Web. With one click, the content you’ve collected appears across all your devices in a clean, distraction-free space.
Batman says that this extension allows you to save a website to your “pocket” and tag it so you can find it later. He adds that you can create projects of Web pages, all in one spot, so you don’t have to search for them again later.
“Ever go down a sourcing or research rabbit hole and wish you could take those 8 tabs and just group them together so you can come back to them later, search for them, etc.?” asks Batman. He says that this tool can help with that issue.
4. Tab Snooze
Tab Snooze is another Chrome extension that allows you to save your open tabs for later—similar to Save to Pocket. Batman says, “You can snooze the tab you’re on to come back at a certain time and/or day, which is super useful if you’re in the middle of reading or researching something and need to step out for a bit, reset your computer, etc.”
5. Gmelius
Gmelius is a real-time collaborative work space that seamlessly integrates inside Gmail. Designed for teams to communicate, collaborate, and automate their workflows, Gmelius transforms Gmail into a help desk, project management, and unique collaborative sales automation solution.
Batman says that this app is a good Gmail management tool, and “it has two features I can’t live without: follow up, and notes.” Having a “follow up” feature is a must-have for every busy recruiter because as you know … sometimes you just forget to follow up! With Gmelius, if your recipient doesn’t answer your message, the program will bring the e-mail back to your inbox to remind you that you need to follow up.
6. The Great Suspender
The Great Suspender is another Chrome extension that lets you “suspend your inactive tabs after ‘x’ amount of time so it doesn’t suck up your RAM in Chrome,” says Batman. This is a vital extension to have, especially if you’re guilty of keeping too many tabs open at one time. Having many tabs open slows down your computer, which is the last thing you need.
7. Extensity
There are many pros to having Chrome extensions enabled on your browser, but one of the cons is that if you get tired of having all of these extensions enabled, you have to manually disable each one. But not so fast!
This is where Extensity—a Chrome extension—comes into play. Extensity allows for lightning-fast enabling and disabling of all your Chrome extensions. Just enable the extension when you want to use it and disable when you want to get rid of it for a little while.
8. Google Mail Checker
Yes, another Chrome extension! But Google Mail Checker is perfect if you have multiple Gmail accounts or you just don’t want to keep a tab open for Gmail. “Gmail sucks up a TON of memory/processing power,” says Batman. “This Chrome extension will keep a tally of your mail, allow you to read it, and even respond without having to open gmail.com.”
9. Start.me
“Start.me is a really, really awesome new tab tool where you can organize all your sites (and/or tools) that you use all in one place,” says Batman. “So, when you open a new tab your tools and sites all pop up and you can pick them right from there. You can also share your start.me pages with people on your team.”
The nice part about Start.me is that everything you use, view, or interact with on a daily basis lives in one central location, so you’ll spend less time hunting for saved URLs, candidate profiles, and more. There are different priced plans available, but the free version works well enough.
10. Connectifier Social Links
If you’ve heard of the LinkedIn tool Connectifier, Connectifier Social Links is the Chrome extension you’ll want to download to help make your life a little easier. Batman says the tool works best with LinkedIn and is great for researching people.
Connectifier is a messaging tool that allows you to reach out directly to candidates on LinkedIn. Connectifier Social Links takes this one step further by finding other social media profiles for those candidates. The Connectifier Social Links browser extension provides instant access to a candidate’s social media footprint, enabling you to gain deeper insights about the candidate so you know how to personalize your messages.
So, you’ve made it through Batman’s favorite tools and extensions; are you hungry for more? Well, good news! We’ve got two bonus tools Batman swears by, as outlined below.
Bonus Tool #1: Franz
Franz is a multimessaging platform that combines chat and messaging services into one application. Franz currently supports Slack, WhatsApp, WeChat, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Google Hangouts, GroupMe, Skype, and many more.
“Ever feel like you have so many different messaging tools you need to track?” asks Batman. “I sure do—Google Hangouts, Facebook Messenger, Microsoft Teams, Slack, LinkedIn Messages, etc. Franz is a tool that puts all of them in one place. I have four Slack workspaces that I’m apart of, two different Google Hangout groups, two Microsoft Teams groups, Facebook Messenger, and LinkedIn messages … and they all sit in this one app.”
Bonus Tool #2: Mute Notifications
Mute Notifications is another Chrome extension that does exactly what it says: It mutes your notifications. “It’s a great tool to silence all Chrome notifications so you can really focus and dig in when you need to,” says Batman.
This extension adds a button to Chrome that turns off desktop notifications for all Web pages. When the button is clicked again, the original notification settings are restored.
So there you have it—Batman’s preferred tool list! Think of these browser extensions and digital apps as his utility belt—and although these tools can’t save Gotham, they can help you source great talent, prioritize your daily tasks, and solve the talent crisis at the company you’re recruiting for.
Now that you know about Batman’s preferred recruiting tools, join him to learn how you can become a master of your applicant tracking system (ATS) data—Batman will be presenting the RecruitCon 2019 Nashville recruiting hack: How To Become an ATS Power-User of Data and Automation, and he’ll also be emceeing the entire event! RecruitCon 2019 Nashville will be held November 14–15, 2019, in Nashville, Tennessee. Click here to learn more or to register today!
 Mike “Batman” Cohen is the founder of Wayne Technologies, a recruitment training and search firm with expertise in: contract recruiting, RPO, contingent recruiting, and retained search models. He also is the founder of Paired Talent, the industry leader in candidate screening automation.
Batman is considered an industry thought leader in the areas of emotionally intelligent recruiting, recruitment workflow best practices, process automation, and tooling and regularly speaks at recruiting industry events. |