While both staffing software and a regular Applicant Tracking System (ATS) are used to manage the hiring process, they are designed for two fundamentally different business models: the internal, corporate recruiter, and the external, agency recruiter.
The core difference lies in their scope and focus. A corporate ATS is a tool to manage the internal hiring process, while staffing software is a comprehensive business management platform for a service-oriented company.
Here’s a look at the top staffing software vendors in today’s market. There are more but this is a good place to start.
1. Bullhorn
Bullhorn is the gold standard for staffing and recruiting agencies. It’s an all-in-one platform that combines applicant tracking, a CRM, and operational tools. Its extensive features, automation, and robust integrations make it a go-to choice for agencies of all sizes, from small firms to large enterprises.
- Link: Bullhorn
2. Zoho Recruit
Zoho Recruit is a great option for both in-house HR teams and staffing agencies. It offers an easy-to-use applicant tracking system (ATS) and a recruiting CRM. Its major benefit is its seamless integration with the larger Zoho suite of business tools, making it a cost-effective choice for businesses already using their ecosystem.
- Link: Zoho Recruit
3. PCRecruiter
PCRecruiter is a flexible and comprehensive ATS and CRM solution that caters to a wide range of clients, from individual recruiters to large staffing firms. It’s known for its powerful database, customizable workflows, and a suite of tools for sourcing, tracking, and managing candidates. PCRecruiter offers a full-featured system at a competitive price point, with plans starting around $85/user per month.
- Link: PCRecruiter
4. Crelate
Crelate is a modern and intuitive platform designed specifically for recruiting and staffing firms. It seamlessly blends an ATS and CRM to help agencies manage both candidates and clients. Crelate is praised for its powerful search capabilities, automation, and a strong focus on building and nurturing talent relationships. It has a tiered pricing structure, with plans starting at $99 per user per month.
- Link: Crelate
5. JobDiva
JobDiva is a robust, cloud-based platform that offers a complete solution for staffing firms. It’s particularly known for its powerful search engine, which can crawl both internal and external databases to find the best candidates. JobDiva provides tools for everything from applicant tracking and client management to timesheets and billing.
- Link: JobDiva
6. CEIPAL
CEIPAL is an AI-driven talent acquisition platform that’s popular with staffing firms. It features a robust ATS and is designed to streamline the entire recruitment lifecycle. Its AI-powered candidate sourcing and resume parsing help recruiters find and manage a high volume of applicants efficiently.
- Link: CEIPAL
7. Vincere
Vincere is an all-in-one tech solution for recruitment agencies. It combines an ATS, a CRM for business development, and a comprehensive sales dashboard to give recruiters a single source of truth. Vincere is known for its focus on data and analytics, helping agencies make more informed decisions.
- Link: Vincere
8. Recruit CRM
Recruit CRM is a modern, user-friendly platform designed for recruitment and staffing agencies. It combines a powerful ATS with a CRM, focusing on automating repetitive tasks and streamlining workflows. It’s an excellent choice for agencies looking for a clean, intuitive interface and strong customer support.
- Link: Recruit CRM
9. Adapt
Adapt, by Access Recruitment, is a long-standing recruitment software platform that provides a full suite of features for staffing agencies. It offers tools for candidate and client management, job posting, and reporting, with a strong focus on compliance and security. It’s a scalable solution suitable for agencies of various sizes.
- Link: Adapt
10. Loxo
Loxo is a recruiting CRM and talent engagement platform designed to help recruiters build and maintain a talent pipeline. It uses AI to automate many sourcing and outreach tasks, allowing recruiters to focus on building relationships. While it has ATS features, its strength is in its proactive talent-sourcing capabilities.
- Link: Loxo
Staffing firms and corporate employers both want to find great talent, but the way they go about it is fundamentally different. The unique pressures, goals, and business models of a staffing firm dictate a completely different recruiting approach than that of a corporate employer.
Here’s a breakdown of what makes a staffing firm’s recruiting strategy unique:
1. Speed and Urgency are King
- Staffing Firm: The business model is directly tied to making placements. For a staffing firm, a job opening is a potential revenue source, and time-to-fill is a critical performance metric. They often compete with other staffing agencies for the same job order, so the recruiter who finds a qualified candidate first wins the placement and the commission. This creates a high-pressure, fast-paced environment where speed is paramount.
- Corporate Employer: While a quick hire is always good, corporate recruiters are typically not under the same level of immediate financial pressure. They are often salaried employees and are more focused on finding the absolute best long-term fit for the company’s culture and strategic goals, even if it means the process takes longer.
2. A Focus on Building a “Talent Pipeline” vs. “Hiring for the Role”
- Staffing Firm: A staffing firm is constantly recruiting, even when they don’t have an open job order. Their core asset is their database of candidates. They are always building a talent pipeline of “passive candidates”—people who are currently employed but might be open to a new opportunity. Their goal is to have a pool of qualified, vetted candidates ready to go the moment a client calls with a new job order.
- Corporate Employer: Corporate recruiters generally focus on filling specific, open positions. While they may engage in some passive candidate sourcing, their primary effort is directed at finding and vetting candidates for current openings. The “recruiting” process often stops when a position is filled, and doesn’t necessarily involve the constant “relationship building” of an agency recruiter.
3. Sales is a Core Part of the Job
- Staffing Firm: For many agency recruiters, recruiting is as much a sales role as it is a talent acquisition role. They have to “sell” a client on their services, “sell” a job to a candidate, and “sell” a candidate to a client. This requires strong negotiation skills and the ability to manage relationships with multiple stakeholders at once. Compensation is often heavily commission-based, further reinforcing this sales-driven approach.
- Corporate Employer: A corporate recruiter’s role is more internal and focused on “in-house” hiring. While they need to be good at selling their company to candidates, their primary focus is on internal collaboration with hiring managers and HR to ensure a smooth, compliant hiring process. They are paid a salary, with bonuses being less common than the commission-based pay structure of a staffing agency.
4. Broader and More Adaptable Skillsets
- Staffing Firm: Agency recruiters typically work across multiple industries, companies, and job types. This means they must be highly adaptable and capable of quickly learning the nuances of different company cultures and job requirements. They need to be generalists with deep expertise in sourcing and networking.
- Corporate Employer: A corporate recruiter often becomes a specialist in their company’s industry and a few specific job families (e.g., engineering, marketing, sales). They have a deep, firsthand understanding of their own company’s culture and needs, but may not have the same breadth of knowledge across different industries as an agency recruiter.
5. Leveraging Their Network and Database
- Staffing Firm: A staffing firm’s greatest tool is its proprietary database and network. They’ve spent years building relationships with candidates and clients. They use this network to proactively identify and place candidates, often before the job opening even becomes public.
- Corporate Employer: A corporate recruiter’s primary recruiting tools are often the company’s career page, job boards, and employee referral programs. While they have access to a network, it is often not as vast or as actively cultivated as a staffing firm’s, which is a key part of the agency’s competitive advantage.
A core component of staffing software is a robust CRM. Recruiters at a staffing firm are also salespeople; they need to manage their relationships with both candidates and clients. The software must track client communication, job orders, and sales pipelines. It’s a dual-purpose tool that manages the “front office” (sales) and “back office” (recruiting) functions of the business.