Cleaning up the data in your CRM can feel overwhelming - here are our easy tips to help you get started.

Easy tips for spring cleaning your Bullhorn database

March 2, 2022

Spring is upon us and with that comes the annual ‘spring clean’, something that can bring a huge amount of satisfaction and takes care of things that might be neglected as part of your regular cleaning routine!

This year, why not extend your spring cleaning to your Bullhorn database? Like the drawer or cupboard where you hide everything, tackling the data in your CRM can feel overwhelming, so read on to learn how you can clean it up with ease!

Why is cleaning my Bullhorn database important?

Have you ever been told you need to do something but not why, so you lose traction as soon as something else important comes up? Knowing why you want to clean your Bullhorn CRM up before you get started is essential, otherwise, you’re just going through the motions!

Some reasons why cleaning up your Bullhorn database is important...

There are lots of reasons why you might want to clean up your database – find the ‘why’ that fits your company and keep that in mind so you have a focus.

Wasted time and lost revenue

Inaccurate data makes it harder to find and be confident about the information that you want. This results in poor search results that don’t match your client’s requirements, and longer communication time with suitable candidates which in turn increases the potential for lost revenue.

Decisions based on inaccurate reporting

To make better business decisions that are right for your company you need to have a good understanding of where your business is. To be able to get accurate reporting that you can take valuable insights from, you need a solid foundation of reliable data.

Automations that ‘don’t work’

We’re seeing significant investment into automation within the recruiting and staffing industry, but companies are often disappointed with the outputs. The problem usually stems not from the automations themselves, but the data that these are based on. By removing duplicates and cleaning up inaccuracies, you’re giving your automations a better chance at success.

What data should I clean up in my Bullhorn CRM?

The answer to this is unique to each company. There really is no ‘one size fits all’, but once you know the answer to why you want to clean up your database you can start to unpick the key pieces of data that are letting you down.

Duplicate records are one of the main culprits of dirty data

We often speak to recruiting and staffing companies who think they have at least double the amount of records than they really do, because half of them are duplicates. This results in wasting time looking through multiple records to find the most up to date one. Identifying these and merging them can also give you more accurate reporting and set you up for automation success.

Candidate records with no contact information or CV

Are your Bullhorn searches returning results that are missing key information, effectively making them useless? Or maybe you’re fed up with getting results crammed with people that you haven’t connected with for a while? They are bringing you no value - it’s time to identify them and start to update them, or eliminate them from your searches!

Data that you use to create reporting or base automations on

Imagine you want to run a report on your job pipeline to show jobs that have a certain status, or an automation to engage passive candidates… The data in the fields that you’re basing these reports or automations on need to be standardised, or they’re going to fall over straight away! Identify the key data that you need for these reports and automations to work, and focus your clean up efforts on those.

How can I clean up my Bullhorn database?

You have three main options when it comes to cleaning up your database.

Manual update – this can be extremely time-consuming and carries a risk of manual effort, but if you have someone at your company that has time to spare, then a manual update might be a viable option for you.
Custom project – you may want to consider a custom update carried out by a third party. This can be a quicker option than a manual update, but the cost investment is also often higher – if you need a one-off update and have.
A data management tool – for a less cost and time-effective way of improving your data on an ongoing basis, a product that integrates with your Bullhorn CRM is the best option. Kyloe DataTools combines our years of expertise with an easy-to-use interface, resulting in a powerful data management product built with Bullhorn users in mind. It gives you everything you need to dedupe, identify gaps, and make mass data updates at your fingertips.

The worst thing to do when cleaning your Bullhorn data? Absolutely nothing!

One of the worst things you can do is nothing! Data can become duplicated, inaccurate and inconsistent if you don’t keep a regular eye on it - it's inevitable. Follow the steps above to figure out your why, what and how, and start to clean up your data. If you don’t make changes then you won’t see any difference.

For more information on how Kyloe can help you reach your data goals, check out our custom data updates, or learn more about Kyloe DataTools.