Recruitment CRM · a guide for UK agencies

Recruitment CRM for UK agencies: clients, vacancies, candidates and placements in one place

What a recruitment CRM should run on an agency desk, how it differs from an ATS, what to automate, how to handle candidate data under UK GDPR, and when GoHighLevel is, or is not, the right kind of tool.

See how GoHighLevel works for recruiters

Start with CRM vs ATS

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Client

Logistics group, Midlands

Terms agreed

Next call Thursday

Vacancy

Transport planner

Type permanent

Shortlist due Friday

Candidate

Candidate A · CV on file

Notice 4 weeks

Privacy notice sent

Interview

Second stage, Tuesday

Briefing sent

Feedback chase in 2 days

Placement

Offer accepted

Start date recorded

Rebate ends recorded

Follow-up

Call candidate, week one

Then call the client

Illustration of a recruitment desk: client, vacancy, candidate, interview, placement, follow-up. A drawing, not a screenshot of any software.

Tray 1 The problem

Where an agency loses candidates, clients and fees

A recruitment agency sells two relationships at once: the client who has a vacancy and the candidate who might fill it. Most of what goes wrong on a recruitment desk is a follow-up that nobody owned. Before choosing software, it is worth naming the leaks precisely, because a CRM closes some of them and does nothing for others.

What a consultant’s week actually looks like

Four or five tools, two sets of relationships, and no single place that says who is waiting for whom.

Ask a consultant at a small or mid-sized UK agency how their week runs and the answer is rarely about strategy. It is about tabs. A job board inbox for applications, a professional network for sourcing, an ATS or a spreadsheet for the shortlist, a mailbox for client conversations, a calendar for interviews, and often a messaging group the manager set up for “quick updates”. Each tool holds part of the picture. None of them knows what the others know.

The work itself is relational. A candidate chooses which agency to trust with their job search partly on how informed they feel. A hiring manager chooses which agency to call first partly on who came back quickly with a credible shortlist last time. Both judgements are made on follow-up, and follow-up is exactly what scattered tools make unreliable.

This is not a problem of effort. A consultant who carries 40 live conversations in their head will drop some of them, however good they are. The question a recruitment CRM answers is narrower and more practical: where is the next action for each candidate, each client and each vacancy written down, and who owns it?

The leaks, one by one

Each leak is labelled candidate side or client side, with what a CRM changes and what it leaves to you.

The list below is the checklist this site uses throughout. When you read about a feature, a workflow or a platform later on the page, it is worth asking which of these leaks it closes in your agency.

Candidate side

A candidate goes quiet after an interview

What happens
Feedback from the client takes days, nobody tells the candidate anything, and they accept another offer through a faster agency.

What a CRM changes
An interview stage with a due date and a task for the consultant; a reminder if the stage has not moved; a short holding message the consultant can send in one click.

What stays manual
Getting real feedback from the hiring manager. No system can chase a client who does not want to answer.
Client side

A client follow-up is forgotten

What happens
A hiring manager mentioned a second role “maybe next quarter”. Nobody wrote it down with a date, and a competitor called at the right moment.

What a CRM changes
A business development pipeline with a next-contact date on the client record, and a task that appears on that date.

What stays manual
Judging when to call and what to say. The CRM only makes sure the date is not lost.
Both sides

The data is scattered

What happens
The CV is in an inbox, the notes are in a notebook, the salary expectation is in a message thread, and the client’s feedback is in someone else’s email.

What a CRM changes
One record per candidate and per client contact, with notes, files and the message history attached.

What stays manual
The discipline to log calls. A CRM that nobody updates is a more expensive spreadsheet.
Candidate side

Nobody knows where a candidate stands

What happens
Two consultants call the same candidate about different roles in one afternoon, or nobody calls them at all.

What a CRM changes
A visible stage per candidate per vacancy, an owner, and a shared history so the second consultant sees the first call.

What stays manual
Agreeing the house rule on who owns a candidate. Software can enforce ownership; it cannot decide it.
Client side

Vacancies are tracked in heads

What happens
The manager asks how many live roles are at shortlist stage and someone spends an afternoon building a report that is out of date by Friday.

What a CRM changes
A pipeline per vacancy or one pipeline for all vacancies, filtered by consultant, client or stage.

What stays manual
Closing stale vacancies. A pipeline full of roles the client has quietly filled elsewhere is worse than none.
Candidate side

Good candidates are never contacted again

What happens
A strong runner-up from last spring is never called back, because nobody can find them by skill, location and availability.

What a CRM changes
Saved searches on fields you actually maintain (sector, notice period, day rate, location), and a planned check-in when their availability date approaches.

What stays manual
A lawful reason to keep and contact them, told to them in advance (see how long you can keep candidate data).
Both sides

Interviews are arranged by email tennis

What happens
Three candidates, two interviewers and a panel room: two days of messages, and one candidate loses interest while waiting.

What a CRM changes
Booking links for screening calls; confirmation and reminder messages sent from the record.

What stays manual
Client-side interview slots, which usually live in the client’s own calendar, not yours.
Client side

Placements are not followed up

What happens
The candidate starts, the invoice goes out, and nobody checks in during the first weeks, when a placement is most likely to fall through or a new role could be discussed.

What a CRM changes
Tasks and messages dated from the start date: a call in week one, a check-in with the client later, a reminder before any rebate period ends.

What stays manual
The conversation itself, and the commercial terms, which belong in your contract, not in a workflow.

Four situations recruiters will recognise

Labelled illustrations, each with a way to check it against your own numbers.

The spreadsheet that runs the desk

Illustrative scenario. A shared spreadsheet has a tab per consultant, colour codes nobody remembers agreeing and a filter that broke months ago. Half the team updates it daily, half weekly. Nobody is sure which copy is current.

What it costs you: Time spent reconciling, and candidates double-contacted or missed.
What a CRM changes: One shared record, with stages and owners that cannot drift between copies.
Check it in your own numbers: Count how often in a month two people contacted the same candidate, or a candidate chased you for news.

The candidate who went silent

Illustrative scenario. Your strongest candidate for a finance role loved the brief and interviewed well. You waited for the client’s feedback before calling back. By the time you did, they had accepted elsewhere.

What it costs you: A placement fee that was close, and a candidate who may not register with you again.
What a CRM changes: A task when an interview stage has not moved for a set number of days, with a holding message ready to send.
Check it in your own numbers: Look at your last ten candidates who withdrew after interview. How many heard nothing from you in the week before?

Interview coordination as a second job

Illustrative scenario. A hiring manager wants to see five people. Each has constraints; so do the two interviewers. The consultant becomes a human calendar and spends two days on confirmations and changes.

What it costs you: Consultant hours, and candidate drop-out during the wait.
What a CRM changes: Booking links for the steps you control (screening calls, briefings), automatic confirmations and reminders.
Check it in your own numbers: Time the next interview round you arrange from first request to last confirmation.

Five tools, no shared memory

Illustrative scenario. Sourcing on a professional network, tracking in an ATS, outreach from personal mailboxes, scheduling in a separate tool, updates in a chat group. None of them talk to each other.

What it costs you: Context lost at every hand-over, and no single history when a client asks what happened.
What a CRM changes: A single contact history for messages, calls and notes, even if sourcing and job posting stay in other tools.
Check it in your own numbers: Pick one recent placement and try to reconstruct its full history. How many systems do you open?

Do you actually need a recruitment CRM?

Not every desk does. A sole trader with a handful of retained clients can run well on a spreadsheet and a calendar.

There is no headcount above which a CRM becomes compulsory. The better test is how many open loops your team carries and how costly a dropped one is. Use the two lists below honestly.

Signs a CRM would help

More than one person talks to the same candidates or clients.
You regularly discover that a candidate was contacted twice, or not at all.
You cannot say, without asking around, how many vacancies are at shortlist or offer stage.
Business development relies on each consultant’s memory of who to call back.
Good candidates from past campaigns are never contacted again.
You send the same kinds of messages (registration, interview confirmation, feedback) by hand every week.

Signs it can wait

You work alone, on a small number of retained searches, and already keep one tidy record per search.
Your ATS already covers candidates, clients and follow-up tasks and your team actually uses it.
The real bottleneck is candidate supply or client demand, not follow-up.
Nobody on the team would maintain the records. Fix that first; software will not.

If three or more of the left-hand signals apply, test whether a CRM pipeline and task list close those leaks for your desk.

See how GoHighLevel handles follow-up

Tray 2 CRM vs ATS

Recruitment CRM vs ATS: two jobs, sometimes one system

The two terms are used loosely, and vendors blur them on purpose. The distinction matters because buying the wrong category is the most expensive mistake an agency can make with software: you pay for a year of a tool that is good at the job you did not have.

The terms, defined plainly

Seven labels you will meet when shopping. They overlap, but they are not interchangeable.

CRM (customer relationship management)

Software for managing relationships over time: contacts, companies, conversations, pipelines of opportunities, tasks and follow-ups, usually with email and messaging built in. A general CRM knows nothing about recruitment. It knows that a contact exists, what was said to them, and what should happen next.

Recruitment CRM

A CRM set up, or built, around the two relationships of an agency: candidates (talent pools, nurturing, re-engagement) and clients (business development, account management, vacancy intake). Some products are sold under this name and include recruitment objects out of the box; others are general CRMs that an agency configures. Both are called “recruitment CRM” in practice, which is why you need to ask what is built in and what you would build.

ATS (applicant tracking system)

Software built around a vacancy and the applications it receives: posting the job, receiving and often parsing CVs, screening, moving applicants through interview stages, recording decisions and keeping the audit trail. An ATS is organised around the process of filling one role. Many ATSs used by agencies also store clients and placements; many used by employers do not need to.

Recruitment software, staffing software and agency management software

Umbrella terms. “Recruitment software” can mean anything from a job board plug-in to a full platform. “Staffing software” usually points at agencies that supply temporary or contract workers, where the system also has to handle shifts, timesheets, pay and bill rates. “Recruitment agency management software” (sometimes described as front, middle and back office) tries to run the whole agency: CRM, ATS, compliance checks, timesheets, invoicing and sometimes payroll.

HR software (HRIS)

Software for managing an organisation’s own employees after they are hired: records, contracts, absence, performance, sometimes payroll. An agency uses an HRIS for its own consultants. It is not where candidates you place with clients belong.

Side by side: what each is built to do

Read across a row, not down a column: the question is which job you need done, not which product wins.

Recruitment CRM and ATS compared by the job each is built for
Question	Recruitment CRM	ATS
Organised around	People and relationships over time	A vacancy and its applicants
Starts when	You first meet a candidate or a client, whether or not a role exists	A role is opened and applications arrive
Typical records	Candidate, client contact, client company, opportunity, task, conversation	Job, application, applicant, interview, offer, decision
Strong at	Follow-up, nurturing, messaging, business development, reminders	Job posting, CV intake and parsing, screening stages, hiring decisions
Client side	Business development pipeline, account history, next-contact dates	Often limited to the client name on a job, depending on the product
Candidate side	Talent pools, re-engagement, long-term contact	The applicant’s progress through one or more jobs
Communication	Usually built in: email, SMS, sometimes WhatsApp, with sequences	Varies: templated emails are common, multichannel less so
Compliance trail	Depends on setup; generic CRMs keep activity history	Usually designed for it: who saw what, when, and why a decision was made
Weak at, typically	CV parsing, job board posting, structured hiring decisions, unless built in	Relationships between roles: the candidate you liked but did not place

Two lines deserve emphasis. First, a CRM does not become an ATS because you name a pipeline “Applicants”: parsing, posting and structured decisions still have to exist somewhere. Second, an ATS is not a CRM with a different screen: an ATS that only knows applicants for open jobs has nowhere natural to keep the client you should call next month or the candidate who is not looking yet.

When an ATS is enough, when a CRM helps, when you need both

Five common set-ups. Find the one closest to your agency before reading any product page.

Common agency set-ups and the software category each points to
Your situation	What it points to	Why
High application volume from job boards, mostly contingent roles	An ATS first, with CRM features or a CRM alongside	Parsing and screening volume is the bottleneck; relationships come second.
Specialist or boutique desk, candidates found mostly by headhunting	A recruitment CRM, with simple job tracking	Few applications arrive; the value is in the network and the follow-up.
Executive search on retainer	A CRM or a search-focused platform with strong notes and confidentiality	Long relationships and discreet contact matter more than application volume.
Temporary or contract staffing	Staffing or agency management software, possibly with a CRM for sales	Timesheets, pay and bill rates and compliance checks are core, and a CRM does not do them.
Growing agency whose ATS is fine but business development is ad hoc	Keep the ATS; add a CRM for the client side and candidate nurturing	The gap is on the relationship side, not in applicant tracking.

GoHighLevel is a CRM with automation, not an ATS: explore it for the relationship side of your agency.

Explore CRM and automation features

Tray 3 Tool map

The rest of the recruitment stack: what each tool is for

A recruitment CRM sits among other tools, and most agencies keep several of them. Knowing what each one is for stops you paying twice for the same job, or expecting a CRM to do something that belongs elsewhere.

Eleven categories, and where they meet a CRM

For each: its job, what it is not for, and where it overlaps with a recruitment CRM.

Recruitment CRM

Its job
Relationships with candidates and clients over time: records, history, pipelines, tasks, messaging, nurturing, business development.

Not its job
Parsing CVs at volume, posting to job boards, running pay and timesheets, unless those are explicitly built in.

Where it meets a CRM
The centre of this page.
ATS (applicant tracking system)

Its job
Vacancies and applications: posting, CV intake, screening stages, interview decisions, audit trail.

Not its job
Long-term relationships outside a live vacancy; client business development.

Where it meets a CRM
Both store candidates and stages. Decide which one is the master record for candidate data, or you will keep two versions.
Agency management software (front, middle and back office)

Its job
Running an agency end to end: CRM, ATS, compliance checks, timesheets, invoicing, sometimes payroll.

Not its job
Being cheap or quick to set up for a small desk.

Where it meets a CRM
Includes a CRM. If you buy one, a separate CRM may be redundant.
HRIS (HR software)

Its job
Your own employees: contracts, absence, performance, sometimes payroll.

Not its job
Candidates you place with clients, or client relationships.

Where it meets a CRM
Little. Keep your consultants’ HR records out of the CRM.
Payroll software

Its job
Paying people correctly, including tax and deductions, for your staff or for temporary workers you pay.

Not its job
Sourcing, placing or following up anyone.

Where it meets a CRM
For temporary staffing, placement data (rates, dates) must reach payroll; that is an integration question, not a CRM feature.
Job boards

Its job
Reaching jobseekers who are actively looking, and receiving their applications.

Not its job
Storing or nurturing candidates after the campaign.

Where it meets a CRM
Applications should land in your ATS or CRM. Ask how: native posting, email parsing, or an integration tool.
Sourcing tools

Its job
Finding people who are not applying: searches on professional networks, databases, contact finding.

Not its job
Keeping the relationship afterwards.

Where it meets a CRM
Sourced people often end up in the CRM. The ICO expects them to receive your privacy information within a month (see the data chapter).
Email marketing

Its job
Newsletters and bulk campaigns with unsubscribe handling and deliverability tools.

Not its job
One-to-one follow-up tied to a candidate’s stage.

Where it meets a CRM
Many CRMs include bulk email. One list, one consent record, is safer than two.
Marketing automation

Its job
Sequences triggered by behaviour: forms, clicks, bookings, replies.

Not its job
Recruitment judgement.

Where it meets a CRM
Often built into modern CRMs, including GoHighLevel; that is its strongest ground for agencies.
Sales CRM

Its job
Selling to companies: leads, deals, forecasts.

Not its job
Candidates, talent pools, placements, unless you model them.

Where it meets a CRM
Covers the client side of an agency well. The candidate side has to be built.
Scheduling tools

Its job
Booking links, availability, reminders.

Not its job
Knowing what the meeting was about or what happens next.

Where it meets a CRM
Many CRMs include booking calendars, which keeps the booking on the candidate’s record.

A small agency can run well on three of these: a CRM that includes messaging and booking, a job board subscription, and accounting software. A temporary staffing business rarely can, because pay, timesheets and compliance checks are the core of its operations.

Tray 4 What it manages

What a recruitment CRM should manage, from client to follow-up

An agency’s work moves in a loop: a client relationship produces a vacancy, the vacancy needs candidates, candidates go to interview, one becomes a placement, and the follow-up leads back to the client. A recruitment CRM earns its keep by holding the next action at every point of that loop.

The placement flow

Six stages. For each: what the system should hold, the action that most often gets lost, and where it lives.

Client to follow-up, in six stages. Diagram of an agency process, not a software screen.

01 Client

The CRM holds
- Company and hiring managers
- Terms of business sent and agreed
- Last and next contact
Most often lost

The call back promised for “next quarter”.

Lives on: Company and contact records, business development pipeline
02 Vacancy

The CRM holds
- Brief, salary or day rate, location, fee basis
- Permanent, contract or temporary
- Status: live, on hold, filled, lost
Most often lost

A role the client filled elsewhere, still marked live.

Lives on: A vacancy object or a pipeline record linked to the client
03 Candidate

The CRM holds
- CV and notes, source, availability, notice period
- Consent or other lawful basis, and when they were told
- Which vacancies they are in, and at what stage
Most often lost

The runner-up nobody calls about the next role.

Lives on: Contact record with custom fields and files
04 Interview

The CRM holds
- Date, format, interviewers
- Candidate briefing sent
- Feedback from both sides
Most often lost

The candidate waiting days for feedback.

Lives on: Pipeline stage with dates, calendar event, tasks
05 Placement

The CRM holds
- Offer accepted, start date
- Fee or margin, invoice date
- Rebate or guarantee period end
Most often lost

The start date that passes without a call.

Lives on: A placement record, or a won stage with date fields
06 Follow-up

The CRM holds
- Week-one check-in with the candidate
- Client satisfaction call
- Next roles, referrals, re-engagement date
Most often lost

The next vacancy at the same client.

Lives on: Tasks and date-based workflows, back to the client record

Follow-up leads back to the client: the next vacancy usually comes from a placement that went well.

Two things about this loop are specific to agencies, and they are where generic CRMs and in-house ATSs both need adapting. First, there are two pipelines, not one: the client side (from first contact to agreed terms to vacancy) and the candidate side (from sourcing to interview to offer). A placement is the moment the two meet. Second, the loop does not end at the placement: the start date, the rebate period and the follow-up call are where the next vacancy usually comes from.

Fifteen features, each with a test

Ask each vendor to show the test in a demo or a trial account. Where GoHighLevel stands is marked from its help articles.

Status key for GoHighLevel: documented means a help article describes the function; build it means the parts exist and you assemble them (fields, objects, workflows); not found means the help articles read for this site do not describe it, so check before assuming. This is a reading of documentation, not a hands-on test.

Candidates

Candidate records

One place for CV, notes, availability, source and history.

Test: Create a candidate with a CV file, a notice period and a day rate, then find them by those fields.

GoHighLevel: Build it Contacts with custom fields and a file field for the CV^[1].
Candidates

CV parsing

Turns a CV into searchable fields without retyping.

Test: Upload three real CVs in different layouts. What ends up in fields?

GoHighLevel: Not found Not described in the help articles read^[1]. Use an ATS or a parsing tool if you need it.
Vacancies

Vacancy records linked to clients

A role belongs to a client and has many candidates.

Test: Link one vacancy to a client company and to four candidates at different stages.

GoHighLevel: Build it Custom Objects linked to Contacts and Companies^[2].
Pipelines

Recruitment pipelines

Every candidate’s stage visible at a glance.

Test: Build stages that match your process and move a candidate through them.

GoHighLevel: Documented Pipelines with stages you define^[3].
Pipelines

Business development pipeline

The client side of the agency: prospects, terms, first vacancy.

Test: Track five target companies from first call to agreed terms.

GoHighLevel: Documented A second pipeline, same mechanism^[3].
Scheduling

Interview and call scheduling

Removes email tennis for the steps you control.

Test: Send a candidate a booking link for a screening call and check the confirmation and reminder.

GoHighLevel: Documented Booking calendars with Google Calendar sync^[4].
Automation

Automated follow-ups

Nobody is left without news for too long.

Test: Trigger a task when a candidate has sat in one stage for five days.

GoHighLevel: Documented Workflows: a trigger, then actions^[5].
Communication

SMS

Candidates often answer a text faster than an email.

Test: Send and receive a text from a candidate record; check the UK sender number and the cost per message.

GoHighLevel: Documented SMS in the shared conversation history, usage charged^[6]^[7].
Communication

Email campaigns

Job alerts and updates to segments of your talent pool.

Test: Send to a segment built on sector and availability; check the unsubscribe handling.

GoHighLevel: Documented Self-updating segments with Smart Lists^[8]; email sending is charged by usage^[7]; consent rules apply^[9].
Insight

Reporting

Where vacancies stall and where candidates come from.

Test: Produce a count of candidates by stage and by source for last month.

GoHighLevel: Build it Source attribution on every contact^[10]; recruitment metrics must be built from your own stage dates.
Automation

Workflow automation

Consistent steps whoever owns the candidate.

Test: Build one workflow from a form submission to a task for the right consultant.

GoHighLevel: Documented Form, booking and reply triggers among others^[5]^[11].
Productivity

Task management

The next action per candidate and client, with an owner.

Test: Filter all overdue tasks for one consultant.

GoHighLevel: Documented Tasks on contacts and pipeline records, filtered by assignee^[12].
Engagement

Candidate nurturing

Stay in touch with people who are not looking yet.

Test: Schedule a check-in three months before a contractor’s contract end date.

GoHighLevel: Documented Date-based workflow triggers on your own fields^[13].
Team

Permissions and ownership

Consultants see what they should; ownership is clear.

Test: Log in as a second user restricted to their own records and try to open a colleague’s candidate.

GoHighLevel: Documented Roles and an “Only Assigned Data” setting^[14].
Integrations

Job boards and ATS connection

Applications and placements should not be retyped.

Test: Get one application from your main job board into the system without manual entry.

GoHighLevel: Build it Inbound webhooks can receive data from other systems^[15]; no named job board or ATS connector found.

Take the test column into the trial and tick off what works for your desk.

Test these features in a trial account

Tray 5 Automation

Recruitment automation: what to automate and what to keep human

Automation in a recruitment agency is at its best when it handles the predictable messages and reminders around a decision, and at its worst when it pretends to make the decision. The rule of thumb on this page: automate the “we have received it”, the “here is your slot” and the “it has been five days”, never the “you have not been selected”.

Automate this, not that

A two-column rule you can apply to any workflow a vendor shows you.

Good candidates for automation

Acknowledging a registration or an application, with what happens next and your privacy information.
Booking confirmations and reminders for calls you run.
Tasks for the consultant when a stage has not moved for a set time.
A check-in before a contractor’s end date or a candidate’s stated availability.
Internal alerts: a new vacancy from a key client, a reply from a shortlisted candidate.
Retention reviews: a task when a candidate record reaches the end of the period you told them about.

Keep a person in charge

Rejections after interview, and any feedback on performance.
Offers, counter-offers and salary conversations.
Anything that sends a candidate’s CV to a client. Consent to be put forward for a specific role should be explicit.
Messages to a client about a candidate’s personal circumstances.
Deciding who is suitable. Filtering by keywords can exclude good people and create discrimination risks.
Bulk job alerts to people who never asked for them (see the rules on marketing messages).

A candidate-side workflow

From registration to start date, with every judgement left to a person.

From registration to start date

On registration

Email

Thank you, what happens next, how long you keep their details and how to ask for deletion.

Triggered by your registration form, which creates the contact^[11].
Same day

Task

Consultant reviews the CV and decides whether to call.

A person decides. The workflow only assigns the task^[12].
After the call

Email or SMS

A booking link for a follow-up call, or a short note that there is nothing suitable right now.

Sent by the consultant, from a template.
Interview booked

Email and SMS

Confirmation with address or video link, who they will meet and how to prepare.

Triggered by the stage change or the booking^[5].
Day before

SMS

Reminder with the time and a number to call if something changes.
Five days without movement

Task

Consultant chases the client and updates the candidate, even if the update is “no news yet”.

A person writes the message. The workflow only makes sure it happens.
Offer accepted

Task

Record start date, fee and rebate period end on the placement.

Offers are negotiated by people, never sent by a workflow.
Week one after start

Call task

Check-in with the candidate.

Date-based trigger on the start date field^[13].

A client-side workflow

Business development and account care, the half of the loop most CRMs sold to agencies underplay.

From first conversation to repeat business

After a first call

Email

A short summary of what you discussed, sent by the consultant.

Written by hand; a template only for the structure.
Terms agreed

Task

Record the terms of business and the date they were agreed on the company record.
Vacancy received

Internal alert

Notify the owning consultant and create the vacancy record linked to the client.

A client vacancy form can create the record^[11].
Shortlist due

Task

Reminder of the date promised to the client.
Placement start + a few weeks

Call task

Client satisfaction call before the rebate period ends.

Date-based trigger on your rebate end field^[13].
Quarterly

Task

Account review: open roles, upcoming projects, new hiring managers.

Both timelines use documented triggers: forms, bookings, stage changes and date fields.

Build this workflow in a trial account

Tray 6 Candidates and clients

Managing candidate and client relationships

An in-house recruiter has one client: their employer. An agency has many clients and a pool of candidates who may work with several agencies at once. The CRM has to support both relationships without mixing them up.

The candidate side: pools, nurturing and re-engagement

Keep in touch with people who are not looking yet, on a lawful basis you have told them about.

Most placements in specialist recruitment come from people you already know. The CRM’s job is to make that network searchable and to remind you when someone is likely to be open to a conversation.

Fields you will actually maintain. Sector, role type, permanent or contract, location, salary or day rate, notice period, availability date. Five well-kept fields beat thirty empty ones.
Availability dates, not vague tags. A contractor’s end date or a candidate’s “open to offers from spring” becomes a dated check-in rather than a hope.
Talent pools as saved segments. “Contract finance, North West, available within six weeks” as a segment that updates itself^[8].
Useful contact, not noise. A relevant role or a market update when it is relevant. A weekly blast to the whole database is how candidates learn to ignore you.
A reason to keep each record. The date they last engaged, what they agreed to, and when you will review the record (see retention).

Candidates you place are also future clients: today’s senior hire is next year’s hiring manager. Keeping the relationship after placement is part of business development, not an extra.

The client side: business development and account growth

The half of recruitment that decides next quarter’s vacancies.

A company record with several contacts. The hiring manager, the HR partner who signs the terms, the finance contact for invoices. Each relationship is different.
A business development pipeline. Target company, first conversation, terms sent, terms agreed, first vacancy, repeat client. Stages you can count.
Next-contact dates on every active client. The simplest and most valuable field in an agency CRM.
Vacancy history per client. Roles you filled, lost or withdrew from, and why. It is the best preparation for the next call.
Terms of business as data. The date agreed and the fee basis recorded on the company record, not buried in an email thread.

How the balance changes by agency type

Not personas: five common shapes of agency and what their CRM needs to do first.

Independent recruiter

One person, a specialist niche, a few clients at a time.

Needs first: A clean record per candidate and client, next-contact dates, booking links.

Start with: One candidate pipeline, one business development pipeline, three workflows.
Boutique specialist agency

Two to ten consultants in one sector, mostly headhunting.

Needs first: Shared history, clear ownership, re-engagement of past candidates.

Start with: Ownership rules and permissions before any automation.
Generalist agency

Several desks, job board volume, many clients.

Needs first: Application intake and screening at volume, alongside follow-up.

Start with: Check ATS features first; add CRM automation for the relationship side.
Executive search firm

Retained assignments, long cycles, senior and confidential.

Needs first: Discreet notes, restricted access, long-term relationship tracking.

Start with: Permissions and confidentiality tests before anything else.
Temporary and contract staffing

Workers supplied by the shift, day or contract.

Needs first: Compliance checks, timesheets, pay and bill rates, redeployment.

Start with: Staffing software first. A CRM may help sales, not operations.

It is most relevant to the first two shapes and to the relationship side of the others; temporary staffing needs staffing software for operations.

See whether GoHighLevel fits your recruitment workflow

Tray 8 Comparing

How to compare recruitment CRM platforms

This site is funded by a partner programme, so it does not score or rank products: any score from us would be worth what you paid for it. Instead, here are the criteria that matter to agencies, how to test each one, and what six commonly compared platforms are built for, according to their own published material.

Fourteen criteria and how to test them

Ask for a demo on your own data, or run the test in a trial. A criterion you cannot test is a promise.

Comparison criteria for a recruitment CRM, with a practical test for each
Criterion	What to check	Test it by
Candidate management	Fields, files, search, duplicates	Importing 50 real (anonymised) candidates and finding three by skill and availability
Client management	Companies with several contacts, terms, history	Recording one client with three contacts and a vacancy history
Pipelines	Separate candidate and business development pipelines	Building both and moving records through each
Automation	Triggers, delays, conditions, tasks	Building the “five days without movement” task
Communication	Email, SMS, WhatsApp, shared history, UK numbers	Sending and receiving an SMS from a record, and checking the cost
Scheduling	Booking links, calendar sync, reminders	Booking a screening call from a candidate’s phone
Reporting	Stage counts, sources, activity per consultant	Producing last month’s candidates by stage and source
Integrations	Job boards, ATS, email, calendar, accounting	Getting one application in from your main job board without retyping
Customisation	Custom fields, objects, stages, templates	Creating a vacancy object linked to a client
ATS functionality	Job posting, CV parsing, screening, decisions	Posting one job and parsing three CVs
Recruitment-specific features	Placements, fees, rebate periods, compliance checks	Recording a placement with fee and rebate end date
Ease of use	What a new consultant can do on day one	Asking a colleague to log a call and move a candidate without help
Scalability	Pricing per user or per account, limits	Pricing your team today and at twice its size
Data management	Permissions, export, deletion, retention, location	Exporting and deleting one candidate everywhere

Most of these tests take minutes each in a trial account.

Run the fourteen tests on GoHighLevel

Six platforms UK agencies often compare

What each is built for, when it fits, when it fits less. No scores, no winner.

These descriptions come from each vendor’s own published pages, read on the dates shown in the sources. They are not hands-on reviews. Claims we could not verify from those pages (such as “poor SMS” or “dated interface”) are left out.

Bullhorn

Recruitment platform: ATS and CRM for agencies
Fits when
- Agencies that want one system built for recruitment, from client wins to placement
- Teams that need ATS features and agency workflows out of the box
Fits less when
- Very small desks sensitive to per-user pricing
- Teams that mainly want marketing-style automation
Published price: Starter £80 and Core £120 per user per month; higher editions quote-based ^[22]
Greenhouse

Hiring software for in-house talent acquisition teams
Fits when
- Employers running structured hiring with their own teams
Fits less when
- Agencies placing candidates with many external clients
- Buyers who want a published price
Published price: Not published: “customized based on your company’s hiring needs” ^[23]
Zoho Recruit

ATS with editions for staffing agencies and for corporate HR
Fits when
- Small agencies moving from spreadsheets to an ATS
- Teams already using other Zoho products
Fits less when
- Agencies whose main gap is multichannel follow-up; check what is included in each edition
Published price: Free edition for 1 active job; paid editions tiered by active jobs; amounts not readable on the page read ^[24]
HubSpot Sales Hub

General sales CRM with marketing tools
Fits when
- Agencies that treat business development as their main CRM job
- Teams already using HubSpot for marketing
Fits less when
- The candidate side, which has to be modelled
- Budgets sensitive to per-seat pricing and onboarding fees
Published price: Professional $100 per seat per month on monthly billing, $1,500 onboarding ^[25]
Salesforce Sales Cloud

General sales CRM, highly customisable
Fits when
- Larger firms already running on Salesforce
- Agencies with budget for a partner to build recruitment objects
Fits less when
- Small agencies without technical help
Published price: Starter Suite £20, Pro Suite £80 per user per month; higher editions £156 to £440 ^[26]
GoHighLevel

CRM with marketing automation and messaging, not an ATS
Fits when
- Small and specialist agencies whose gap is follow-up, nurturing and business development
- Teams that want messaging, booking and workflows in one account, priced per account
Fits less when
- High-volume application processing that needs CV parsing and job posting
- Temporary staffing operations (timesheets, pay, compliance checks)
Published price: Starter $97, Unlimited $297 per account per month, usage extra ^[7]

What the list prices add up to

Monthly list prices by team size, in each vendor’s own currency. Before VAT, usage and set-up.

Annual cost estimates are easy to print and hard to check. The table below shows its workings: published list price times team size where the vendor charges per user, and the flat price where it charges per account. Nothing is converted between pounds and dollars, because an exchange rate would be one more unchecked number.

Monthly list price by team size, before VAT, usage and set-up, in the vendor’s currency
Plan	Charged per	1 user	3 users	5 users	10 users
GoHighLevel Starter ^[7]CRM and automation. Unlimited users; SMS, email and call usage extra.	account	$97	$97	$97	$97
GoHighLevel Unlimited ^[7]CRM and automation. As Starter, unlimited sub-accounts.	account	$297	$297	$297	$297
Bullhorn Starter ^[22]Recruitment ATS and CRM. Entry price on the vendor’s UK page.	user	£80	£240	£400	£800
Bullhorn Core ^[22]Recruitment ATS and CRM. Pro and Max are quote-based.	user	£120	£360	£600	£1,200
Salesforce Starter Suite ^[26]General sales CRM. No recruitment objects.	user	£20	£60	£100	£200
Salesforce Pro Suite ^[26]General sales CRM. Billed annually.	user	£80	£240	£400	£800
HubSpot Sales Hub Professional ^[25]General sales CRM. Monthly billing; $1,500 onboarding fee.	user	$100	$300	$500	$1,000

Not included: VAT, set-up or implementation, training, add-ons, and usage (SMS, calls, email sending, WhatsApp at $10 a month per sub-account plus per-message charges for GoHighLevel^[27]).
Not like for like: Bullhorn is a recruitment ATS and CRM; Salesforce and HubSpot are general sales CRMs; GoHighLevel is a CRM with automation and messaging. A cheaper line may simply do less of the job you need.
Not in the table: Greenhouse (no published price) and Zoho Recruit (amounts not readable on the page read).

Prices change: the vendor’s pricing page is the reference, not this table.

Explore GoHighLevel for your agency

Tray 9 GoHighLevel

GoHighLevel for recruitment agencies: where it fits and where it does not

GoHighLevel is a CRM and marketing automation platform: contacts, companies, pipelines, conversations across email, SMS and other channels, booking calendars, forms and workflows. It is not an applicant tracking system, and it was not built for recruitment. For agencies whose problem is follow-up and relationships rather than application volume, that can still make it a good fit, once you have built the recruitment structure yourself.

What it does that matters to an agency

Documented in HighLevel’s help articles, read for this site.

One conversation history per contact across email, SMS, WhatsApp and social messages, with internal comments and a team inbox^[6].
Pipelines with your own stages, so a candidate pipeline and a business development pipeline can run side by side^[3].
Custom Objects linked to contacts and companies: a Vacancy or Placement object is something you can model^[2].
Workflows started by forms, bookings, replies, stage changes or dates stored on a record^[5]^[13].
Booking calendars with Google Calendar sync for screening calls and briefings^[4].
Forms that create a contact on submission: candidate registration, client vacancy request^[11].
Tasks, roles and permissions, including a setting that limits a consultant to assigned records^[12]^[14].
Snapshots to copy a finished configuration to another account, without contact data^[28].
Pricing per account, not per user, with unlimited users and contacts on every plan, plus usage charges^[7].

What it is not

Read this before the trial, not after.

Not an ATS. No CV parsing and no job board multiposting are described in the help articles read for this site^[1]. If you process large volumes of applications, you need an ATS or a parsing service alongside it.
Not a recruitment database out of the box. Candidate fields, vacancy objects, placement records and stages are yours to design.
Not staffing software. No timesheets, pay and bill rates, or right-to-work and compliance check workflows specific to temporary staffing are described.
Not payroll or HR software.
No named connector to a UK job board or to LinkedIn was found in the documentation read. Inbound webhooks can receive data from other systems, which usually means an integration tool in between^[15].
Not hosted in the UK. The vendor states its infrastructure is in the United States^[16]; see transfers and processors.

A recruitment data model you can build in it

Four records, two pipelines, a handful of workflows. This is what the trial is for.

A suggested structure for running an agency desk in GoHighLevel
Element	Built with	Key fields
Candidates	Contacts, tagged as candidate	CV file, sector, role type, perm or contract, rate, notice period, availability date, source, privacy notice sent date, retention review date
Client contacts	Contacts, tagged as client	Role (hiring manager, HR, finance), next-contact date
Client companies	Companies	Terms agreed date, fee basis, account owner
Vacancies	A Custom Object linked to the company and to candidate contacts	Title, type, salary or rate, location, status, date opened, shortlist due
Candidate pipeline	A pipeline	Stages: shortlisted, submitted with consent, interview, offer, placed, not progressed
Business development pipeline	A second pipeline	Stages: target, conversation, terms sent, terms agreed, first vacancy, repeat client
Placements	The won stage with date fields, or a Custom Object	Start date, fee, invoice date, rebate period end

Sources: Custom Objects^[2], file fields^[1], pipelines^[3]. Keep fields few at first; add a field only when a workflow or a search needs it.

A seven-step test plan for the trial

Decide with evidence from your own desk rather than from a sales demo.

Write down three leaks
Pick three from the list at the top of the page and how you will know they are closed.
Build the structure
The candidate fields, a vacancy object, the two pipelines. Nothing else yet.
Import a small, anonymised sample
Twenty candidates and five clients with invented names. No real personal data until the processing agreement and your privacy notice are in place.
Build three workflows
Registration acknowledgement, the “five days without movement” task, and a date-based check-in.
Test permissions
Create a second user limited to assigned data and try to open records they should not see.
Price it honestly
Your plan, plus SMS and email usage at your expected volume, plus WhatsApp if you need it, plus any integration tool.
Decide what stays elsewhere
ATS, parsing, job boards, timesheets, payroll. If the list is long, a specialist platform may be simpler.

30 days through this site’s partner link, with the HighLevel Bootcamp; the public pricing page lists 14 days^[7].

Try GoHighLevel with this test plan

Tray 10 FAQ

Recruitment CRM questions, answered

The questions UK recruiters ask most often before choosing a CRM, with answers that point back to the detail above.

Fifteen questions

Short answers, with links to the section that explains each one properly.

What is the best CRM for recruitment agencies in the UK?

There is no single answer, and this site, which earns a commission on one product, is not in a position to crown one. The right choice depends on your main gap: applications (look at ATS features), follow-up and business development (look at CRM and automation), or temporary staffing operations (look at staffing software).

Use the fourteen criteria and the five common set-ups to narrow it down, then test two candidates on your own data.

Why do recruiters use CRM systems?

To keep the next action for every candidate and client written down, owned and dated. Without one, follow-up depends on memory, spreadsheets and personal inboxes, and the leaks described at the top of this page follow.

There is no candidate count above which a CRM becomes compulsory. The better test is how many people share relationships and how costly a dropped follow-up is.

Can GoHighLevel be used for recruitment agencies?

Yes, for the relationship side: candidate and client records, pipelines, messaging, booking and follow-up workflows. You build the recruitment structure yourself, using contacts, companies, pipelines and Custom Objects^[2].

It is not an ATS: CV parsing and job board posting are not described in its help articles^[1]. See what it is not.

How does a CRM improve recruitment efficiency?

By removing hand-offs that depend on memory: stages everyone can see, tasks with owners and dates, templates and automatic confirmations for routine messages, and one shared history per person.

Whether that makes your agency faster is something to measure: stage durations, drop-out after interview and client call-backs kept, before and after.

Is GoHighLevel better than Bullhorn for recruitment?

They are different categories. Bullhorn describes itself as a recruitment platform including ATS and CRM, priced per user^[22]. GoHighLevel is a CRM with marketing automation and messaging, priced per account^[7].

If you need ATS features and agency workflows ready-made, Bullhorn’s category fits more naturally. If your gap is follow-up and nurturing and you are willing to build the structure, GoHighLevel may cost less per head. Test both against the same criteria.

What CRM features are most important for staffing firms?

For permanent recruitment: candidate and client records, pipelines, tasks, messaging and scheduling. For temporary and contract staffing, add what a CRM usually does not do: compliance checks, timesheets, pay and bill rates and redeployment. See the fifteen features and the tool map.

How much does recruitment CRM software cost in the UK?

Published list prices range from per-account pricing (GoHighLevel from $97 a month, users unlimited^[7]) to per-user pricing (Bullhorn from £80 per user per month^[22]), with some vendors publishing no price at all^[23]. VAT, usage, set-up and integrations come on top. See the cost table.

Can a CRM automate candidate follow-ups?

Yes, for routine messages and reminders: acknowledgements, booking confirmations, and tasks when a stage has not moved. Keep people in charge of rejections, feedback and offers. See automate this, not that.

What is the best CRM for executive search firms?

Executive search needs long-term relationship tracking, discreet notes and tight access control more than application processing. A CRM or a search-focused platform can both work; test confidentiality first, with a restricted user who should not see a sensitive assignment^[14].

How does CRM software help with candidate pipeline management?

It makes each candidate’s stage visible for each vacancy, with an owner and a date, and lets a stage change start actions such as a task or a confirmation^[3]^[5]. See the placement flow.

Which CRM is best for managing high-volume recruitment?

High volume usually means an ATS: CV intake and parsing, screening stages and bulk status updates. A CRM helps alongside it for acknowledgements and for re-engaging good applicants later. GoHighLevel on its own is not designed for application processing at volume.

Does CRM software integrate with LinkedIn Recruiter?

It depends on the product and on LinkedIn’s own partner programmes, which change. For GoHighLevel, no named LinkedIn connector was found in the documentation read for this site; inbound webhooks can receive data from other tools^[15]. Ask any vendor for a live demonstration rather than a logo on a page.

What is the difference between an ATS and a CRM for recruitment?

An ATS is organised around vacancies and applications: posting, CV intake, screening and decisions. A CRM is organised around relationships over time: candidates and clients, follow-up, nurturing and business development. Some platforms do both. See the side-by-side table.

How long does it take to set up a recruitment CRM?

It depends on how much has to be built and how clean your data is. A specialist platform comes with a structure; a general CRM needs one designed. The seven-step test plan is a realistic first scope. Budget time for data cleaning before import: it is usually the longest part.

Can GoHighLevel send SMS to candidates in the UK?

SMS is part of its conversations feature, in the same history as email^[6], and is charged by usage^[7]. Check UK sender options and per-message rates in the trial account. Bulk texts that promote your services are marketing under PECR^[9].

Conclusion

Name your leaks, choose the category, then test the product.

A recruitment CRM is worth having when your agency loses candidates, clients or fees to follow-ups that nobody owned. It is the wrong purchase when your real gap is application processing (an ATS) or temporary staffing operations (staffing software).

GoHighLevel is a reasonable candidate for small and specialist UK agencies whose gap is on the relationship side: messaging, booking, pipelines and workflows in one account, priced per account. It asks you to build the recruitment structure yourself and to handle CVs, job posting and compliance elsewhere. The honest way to find out whether that trade suits your desk is the test plan above, on anonymised data, before any real candidate is imported.

30 days through this site with the HighLevel Bootcamp; 14 days on the public pricing page. The terms shown at sign-up apply.

Explore the platform

Ready to test it on your own desk?

Take three leaks, the fifteen feature tests and the seven-step plan into a trial account. Use anonymised data until your processing agreement and privacy notice are in place.

Start the GoHighLevel trial

Sources

Every factual claim on this page rests on one of these, read on the date shown. Addresses are printed as text, not linked. Each entry says what the source supports and what it does not.

[1] HighLevel: Adding Files to Contacts using a Custom Field

HighLevel Support · https://help.gohighlevel.com/support/solutions/articles/48001171922-adding-files-to-contacts-using-a-custom-field · read 22 September 2026

“To upload a file within a contact's Custom Fields section, you must first create a custom field using the File Upload field type.” “Supported document and image formats include PDF, DOCX, PNG, JPG, CSV, PPTX, and XLSX.” “Each file can be up to 250 MB.”

Supports: A CV can be stored as a file on a candidate record, through a file field you create.

Does not support: No CV parsing. Automatic extraction of a CV into fields is not described in the help articles read for this site; check it in a trial account or with the vendor.
[2] HighLevel: Getting Started with Custom Objects

HighLevel Support · https://help.gohighlevel.com/support/solutions/articles/155000003896-getting-started-with-custom-objects · read 22 September 2026

“Custom Objects let you model anything your business tracks that doesn't fit neatly into Contacts, Companies, or Opportunities.” “Custom Objects can be linked to Contacts, Companies, Opportunities, and even other Custom Objects”.

Supports: An object such as “Vacancy” or “Placement” can be created and linked to candidates and client contacts (Contacts) and client firms (Companies).

Does not support: No limits per plan in this article, and no ready-made agency data model: you design it.
[3] HighLevel: Understanding Pipelines

HighLevel Support · https://help.gohighlevel.com/support/solutions/articles/155000001982-understanding-pipelines · read 21 September 2026

“Pipelines are visual workflow tools that show the progress of leads, deals, or customers from start to finish.” “A pipeline is made up of stages, with each stage representing a step in your sales or customer journey.”

Supports: You define the stages yourself, so a vacancy pipeline or a business development pipeline can be built.

Does not support: No ready-made recruitment pipeline, and nothing about placement rates.
[4] HighLevel: Integrating Google with HighLevel Calendars

HighLevel Support · https://help.gohighlevel.com/support/solutions/articles/155000002369-integrating-google-with-highlevel-calendars · read 21 September 2026

“Google Calendar integration with HighLevel enables real-time scheduling, streamlined availability management, and seamless syncing across platforms.” From “Getting Started: Setup a Booking Calendar”: “Share the calendar link to start booking appointments!”

Supports: Booking links that candidates or clients can use, with Google Calendar sync.

Does not support: Nothing about other calendar systems in detail, and no effect on no-shows is claimed.
[5] HighLevel: Introduction to Workflows and Automations

HighLevel Support · https://help.gohighlevel.com/support/solutions/articles/155000002445-introduction-to-workflows-and-automations · read 21 September 2026

“A trigger is an event that sets your workflow into motion.” “An action is the task performed in response to a trigger.” Triggers named as examples include an appointment booking, a form submission and a reply to a message.

Supports: The documented model (a trigger, then actions) and the examples the vendor gives.

Does not support: Not a complete list of triggers, and no time saving.
[6] HighLevel: Getting Started with the New Conversations Experience

HighLevel Support · https://help.gohighlevel.com/support/solutions/articles/155000006610-getting-started-with-the-new-conversations-experience · read 21 September 2026

“Read the full history across Email, SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook/Instagram messages, and Internal Comments.” · “Team Inbox: All conversations within the account (requires full data access).”

Supports: One history per contact across email, SMS, WhatsApp and social messages, plus a team inbox and internal comments.

Does not support: No per-channel costs (WhatsApp is a paid add-on) and no response rates.
[7] HighLevel: Pricing

HighLevel · https://www.gohighlevel.com/pricing · read 22 September 2026

Starter “$97” a month with “3 Sub-Accounts”, “Unlimited Contacts” and “Unlimited Users” · Unlimited “$297” with “Unlimited Sub-Accounts” · Agency Pro “$497” · Enterprise on request. “14 Day Free Trial”. Usage charges for calls, SMS and email sending are added (read on 2026-09-21: “*Usage based charges apply.”).

Supports: Plan names and list prices in US dollars per account per month, unlimited users and contacts on every plan, the publicly listed 14-day trial, and usage charges on top.

Does not support: No sterling prices, no UK VAT treatment, no UK SMS rates. Terms that apply through this site’s partner link are not on this page.
[8] HighLevel: Getting Started With Smart Lists

HighLevel Support · https://help.gohighlevel.com/support/solutions/articles/48001062094-how-to-create-manage-smart-lists · read 21 September 2026

A Smart List is “a dynamic contact list in HighLevel that updates automatically based on predefined filters and conditions.”

Supports: Saved segments (for example contract candidates available next month) that update as records change.

Does not support: The fields you filter on have to exist and be kept current by your team.
[9] Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, regulation 22

legislation.gov.uk · https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2003/2426/regulation/22 · read 21 September 2026

22(2): no unsolicited direct marketing by electronic mail “unless the recipient of the electronic mail has previously notified the sender that he consents for the time being to such communications being sent”. 22(3) allows it where details were obtained in a sale or negotiation, the marketing is for similar products or services, and the recipient was given a simple means to refuse at collection and in every message.

Supports: Marketing emails and texts to individuals need consent or the narrow “soft opt-in”, with an opt-out in every message. “Electronic mail” in PECR includes SMS.

Does not support: The regulation does not classify a given message. Whether a job alert or a newsletter to a candidate is direct marketing depends on its content and context; take advice if in doubt.
[10] HighLevel: Understanding Attribution Source

HighLevel Support · https://help.gohighlevel.com/support/solutions/articles/48001219997-understanding-attribution-source · read 21 September 2026

“Attribution provides a breakdown of which channels or sources a contact came from.” · “Both are always stored on every single contact.” (first and latest attribution)

Supports: Each contact stores its first and latest source, usable for candidate sources if forms and links are tagged.

Does not support: No recruitment metrics such as time to fill or fill rate; you would derive them from stage dates you record.
[11] HighLevel: How to Create and Manage a Contact Form

HighLevel Support · https://help.gohighlevel.com/support/solutions/articles/155000004549-how-to-create-and-manage-a-contact-form-in-highlevel · read 21 September 2026

“When a new lead submits a HighLevel form, a contact record is automatically created so the information can be managed inside the CRM.”

Supports: A submitted form creates a contact, for example a candidate registration or a client vacancy request.

Does not support: Nothing about the privacy wording on the form; you write it.
[12] HighLevel: Unified Task Management Across Contacts and Opportunities

HighLevel Support · https://help.gohighlevel.com/support/solutions/articles/155000005529-unified-task-management-across-contacts-and-opportunities · read 21 September 2026

“Unified Task Management in HighLevel allows you to create and manage tasks from both the Contacts and Opportunities modules using the same interface.” · “You can filter tasks by assignee or task status”.

Supports: Tasks on contacts and on pipeline records, filtered by consultant and status.

Does not support: No timesheets and no time tracking.
[13] HighLevel: Workflow Trigger, Custom Date Reminder

HighLevel Support · https://help.gohighlevel.com/support/solutions/articles/155000002674-workflow-trigger-custom-date-remimder · read 21 September 2026

“The Custom Date Reminder Workflow Trigger starts a workflow before, on, or after a date field you select.”

Supports: A workflow can start before or after a date stored on a record, such as a contract end date, an availability date or a retention review date.

Does not support: You create and maintain the date fields. Nothing here about recruitment outcomes.
[14] HighLevel: Manage Sub-Account User Roles & Permissions

HighLevel Support · https://help.gohighlevel.com/support/solutions/articles/155000002544-user-roles-permissions-and-assigned-data-subaccount · read 21 September 2026

“Admin: full access to all modules and settings in the sub-account” · “User: restricted access; granular permissions apply.” · “Toggle Only Assigned Data to restrict a user's visibility to only the leads, opportunities, and data explicitly assigned to them.”

Supports: Two roles, finer permissions, and a setting that limits a user to the records assigned to them.

Does not support: Whether the setting covers every module the same way is something to test with a second user in a trial account.
[15] HighLevel: Workflow Trigger, Inbound Webhook

HighLevel Support · https://help.gohighlevel.com/support/solutions/articles/155000003147-workflow-trigger-inbound-webhook · read 22 September 2026

“The Inbound Webhook Trigger captures incoming POST/GET/PUT requests sent to a HighLevel Webhook URL (unique for each trigger).” “This enables the system to react to events from external applications […]”.

Supports: A workflow can be started by another system, such as an ATS or an integration tool.

Does not support: No ready-made connector to any named ATS or job board. The help centre also lists a separate premium webhook trigger; whether it costs extra is to be checked in the account.
[16] HighLevel: Security and Compliance Overview

HighLevel Support · https://help.gohighlevel.com/support/solutions/articles/155000000574-highlevel-security-and-compliance-overview · read 21 September 2026

“Our product infrastructure resides in the United States.” · “While HighLevel seeks to enable your GDPR compliance efforts, use of the HighLevel product alone does not make you GDPR compliant.”

Supports: The vendor states that its infrastructure is in the United States, and that using the product does not by itself make anyone GDPR compliant.

Does not support: No choice of UK or EU data location is described. These are the vendor’s own statements.
[17] Employment practices and data protection: recruitment and selection, “Finding candidates”

Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) · https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/employment/recruitment-and-selection/finding-candidates/ · read 22 September 2026

“It may be reasonable to manually search for information using recruitment-based social media platforms, as candidates are reasonably likely to expect their information to be used in this way.” · “You should not search for candidates on their personal social media profiles, even when these are public-facing.” · “This includes providing candidates with your privacy information as soon as possible, and by no later than one month of obtaining it.”

Supports: Sourcing from recruitment-focused networks can be within expectations; personal social profiles are off limits; people you source must receive your privacy information within one month at the latest.

Does not support: The guidance does not assess any software, and applying it to a specific sourcing practice is a judgement for your organisation and its advisers.
[18] Overview of the Conduct Regulations 2003 (guidance for employment agencies and employment businesses)

GOV.UK · https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/conduct-regulations-2003-guidance-for-employment-agencies-and-employment-businesses/overview-of-the-conduct-regulations-2003 · read 22 September 2026

“You must keep information about: work-seekers you provide work-finding services to, hirers you introduce or supply work-seekers to. These records must be kept for at least 12 months after their creation and retained for at least 12 months following the date that you last provided work-finding services to either a work-seeker or hirer.” · “an employment agency or employment business must not charge a work-seeker a fee for finding them work, unless you’re an employment agency operating in the entertainment and modelling sectors.”

Supports: Agencies in Great Britain must keep records on candidates and clients for a minimum period, and cannot charge candidates for finding them work (with a sector exception).

Does not support: The guidance sets a minimum, not a maximum: how long you keep candidate data beyond it is a data protection decision. It says nothing about which software to use, and Northern Ireland has its own regulations.
[19] Employment practices and data protection: recruitment and selection, “Keeping recruitment records”

Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) · https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/employment/recruitment-and-selection/keeping-recruitment-records/ · read 22 September 2026

“you must not keep information for longer than you need to” · “you should not keep information beyond the statutory period in which a legal claim can potentially be brought” · a worked example in which an employer “informs candidates on the application form that it intends to retain the recruitment information for the top 10 scoring candidates for a period of six months, in case further vacancies arise”.

Supports: Retention must be justified and limited; keeping candidates for future vacancies is possible when people are told, for a stated period.

Does not support: No single retention period for agencies. The six months in the ICO example belongs to that example, not to a rule.
[20] HighLevel: Audit Logs

HighLevel Support · https://help.gohighlevel.com/support/solutions/articles/155000006667-audit-logs · read 21 September 2026

“Audit Logs are the source of truth for who did what and when across your HighLevel account.” “Audit Log entries are retained for 60 days and then purged.”

Supports: A change log with user and time, kept for 60 days.

Does not support: No record beyond 60 days, for example of when a candidate was deleted. Keep your own log for that.
[21] HighLevel: Data Processing Agreement

HighLevel · https://www.gohighlevel.com/data-processing-agreement · read 21 September 2026

“HighLevel will act as a Processor of Customer Personal Data. Customer will act as the Controller of Customer Personal Data.” · “HighLevel is certified to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework […]”.

Supports: A processing agreement exists; your agency remains the controller of candidate and client data.

Does not support: Whether the UK Extension to the Data Privacy Framework covers your transfer on the day you sign is for you to check in the official list. The agreement does not replace your own lawful basis, privacy information or retention policy.
[22] Bullhorn: UK home page and pricing

Bullhorn · https://www.bullhorn.com/uk/ · read 22 September 2026

“An AI recruitment platform that runs an entire recruitment agency in one system, from winning clients to sourcing, placing, and redeploying candidates.” · “Much more than an ATS & CRM. It’s a full recruitment platform that includes both and much more.” · Starter “£80 per user per month”, Core “£120 per user per month”; Pro, Max and other modules “Quote-based”.

Supports: Bullhorn describes itself as an ATS and CRM built for recruitment agencies, and publishes sterling entry prices per user.

Does not support: No implementation costs, minimum term or VAT. Features are the vendor’s description, not tested here.
[23] Greenhouse: Pricing

Greenhouse · https://www.greenhouse.com/pricing · read 22 September 2026

“Greenhouse pricing is customized based on your company’s hiring needs” · “The cost of Greenhouse is influenced by the plan you choose (Core, Plus or Pro), your hiring volume and organizational complexity.”

Supports: Greenhouse publishes no prices; plans are Core, Plus and Pro, and it presents itself as hiring software for companies’ own hiring teams.

Does not support: No figures. The original site’s “£6k to £30k a year” had no source and is not repeated.
[24] Zoho Recruit: Pricing

Zoho · https://www.zoho.com/recruit/pricing.html · read 22 September 2026

Separate editions for staffing agencies and for corporate HR. For staffing agencies: a “Forever Free” edition limited to “1 active job”, then Standard, Professional and Enterprise. A “15-day free trial” is offered. (German-language version read on the same day: Standard “100” active jobs, Professional “250”, Enterprise “750”.)

Supports: Zoho Recruit has editions aimed at agencies and tiers them by the number of active jobs.

Does not support: No amounts: prices were loaded by script and were not in the text read. The original’s “£25 per user” is not repeated.
[25] HubSpot Sales Hub: Pricing

HubSpot · https://www.hubspot.com/pricing/sales · read 21 September 2026

Free $0 (up to 2 users) · Starter $20/seat monthly ($7 annual) · Professional $100/seat monthly ($90 annual), one-time onboarding fee $1,500 · Enterprise $150/seat annual, onboarding $3,500.

Supports: Per-seat prices and onboarding fees as shown in US dollars.

Does not support: A general sales CRM: no recruitment objects. UK visitors may be shown sterling prices.
[26] Salesforce Sales Cloud: Pricing (UK)

Salesforce · https://www.salesforce.com/uk/sales/pricing/ · read 22 September 2026

Starter Suite “£ 20 GBP/User/Month (Billed monthly or annually)” · Pro Suite “£ 80 GBP/User/Month (Billed annually)” · Core “£ 156” · Advanced “£ 316” · Max “£ 440”, per user per month, billed annually.

Supports: Published sterling prices per user for the Sales Cloud editions.

Does not support: Sales Cloud is a general sales CRM: no recruitment objects, no implementation costs.
[27] HighLevel: WhatsApp Pricing, Billing and Rebilling Guide

HighLevel Support · https://help.gohighlevel.com/support/solutions/articles/155000001428-whatsapp-pricing-billing-and-rebilling-guide · read 21 September 2026

“Agency Charge $10 / month per sub-account” · “WhatsApp in HighLevel now uses a per-message pricing model, charging businesses for each delivered message”.

Supports: WhatsApp costs $10 a month per sub-account where enabled, plus a charge per delivered message.

Does not support: No UK per-message prices in this summary.
[28] HighLevel: Snapshots Overview

HighLevel Support · https://help.gohighlevel.com/support/solutions/articles/48000982511-snapshots-overview · read 21 September 2026

“Snapshots can copy many configuration assets from a source sub-account.” · “Snapshots are designed to transfer configuration and selected reusable assets, not live account activity or customer records.”

Supports: A configuration built once (pipelines, fields, workflows, forms) can be copied to another account, without contact data.

Does not support: No official recruitment template, and no promise that every setting transfers without rework.

Recruitment CRM for UK agencies: clients, vacancies, candidates and placements in one place

What a consultant’s week actually looks like

The leaks, one by one

A candidate goes quiet after an interview

A client follow-up is forgotten

The data is scattered

Nobody knows where a candidate stands

Vacancies are tracked in heads

Good candidates are never contacted again

Interviews are arranged by email tennis

Placements are not followed up

Four situations recruiters will recognise

The spreadsheet that runs the desk

The candidate who went silent

Interview coordination as a second job

Five tools, no shared memory

Do you actually need a recruitment CRM?

The terms, defined plainly

CRM (customer relationship management)

Recruitment CRM

ATS (applicant tracking system)

Recruitment software, staffing software and agency management software

HR software (HRIS)

Side by side: what each is built to do

When an ATS is enough, when a CRM helps, when you need both

Eleven categories, and where they meet a CRM

Recruitment CRM

ATS (applicant tracking system)

Agency management software (front, middle and back office)

HRIS (HR software)

Payroll software

Job boards

Sourcing tools

Email marketing

Marketing automation

Sales CRM

Scheduling tools

The placement flow

Fifteen features, each with a test

Candidate records

CV parsing

Vacancy records linked to clients

Recruitment pipelines

Business development pipeline

Interview and call scheduling

Automated follow-ups

SMS

Email campaigns

Reporting

Workflow automation

Task management

Candidate nurturing

Permissions and ownership

Job boards and ATS connection

Automate this, not that

A candidate-side workflow

A client-side workflow

The candidate side: pools, nurturing and re-engagement

The client side: business development and account growth

How the balance changes by agency type

Independent recruiter

Boutique specialist agency

Generalist agency

Executive search firm

Temporary and contract staffing

What software can and cannot do for compliance

Sourcing: telling people you hold their data

How long you can keep candidate data

Job alerts, newsletters and PECR

Access control, processors and where the data lives

Fourteen criteria and how to test them

Six platforms UK agencies often compare

Bullhorn

Greenhouse

Zoho Recruit

HubSpot Sales Hub

Salesforce Sales Cloud

GoHighLevel

What the list prices add up to

What it does that matters to an agency