Resource Edge: Developing Innovative ATS Recruitment Solutions

TalentHook was recognized for its speed and for the ability to prevent duplicate records from being sourced from those expensive premium career subscriptions based websites: Phil Gonzalez, CEO & Founder Resource Edge

With the advent of the internet, social media and high-tech applicant tracking systems, a world that was once dominated by a reliance on prospective employees haphazardly finding your company, now requires employers to take a proactive approach to find and source candidates by pushing their brand, casting the net, and funnelling down the candidate pool to find the best and right candidates, not just for each individual job posting, but for the company as a whole. 

In light of the above mentioned, we are excited to present Resource Edge, a software development company that designs prospecting search and candidate management solutions. With a diverse professional team of developers, industry executives and team members with a broad range of experience in staffing, recruiting and strategic leadership, the Resource Edge team is committed to designing solutions that optimize and automate functions that lead to better business performance.

Interview Excerpt: Phil Gonzalez, CEO & Founder

Why was the company set up? How did you select the vertical and decide to be a part of the global platform?

Resource Edge was born from the desire to find ways to simplify and automate the front-end recruitment process. The company’s first product – TalentHook was a software application that automates resume search online with the automated Boolean logic that can quickly execute searches across premium career websites and the open web faster than virtually any other product on the market. The objective then was to have the largest search network of any automation tool without sacrificing speed, efficiency, and the ability to establish a large, clean database of prospective talent that could be exported to virtually any applicant tracking system.

As the company has evolved, Resource Edge has introduced an additional product – InsuraSeek, an Insurance and Financial Services front-end recruitment tool designed for that industry through our partnerships with some of the largest Insurance and Financial Service providers in North America.

Most recently, we have introduced a Contact Relationship Management (CRM) and Applicant Tracking System (ATS) platforms available for both TalentHook and InsuraSeek products – that allows our users to further automate and streamline their office management by managing all of the lifecycles that impact their business: hiring, sales, customer management and more.

How successful was your first project roll on? Share the experience?

When we brought TalentHook to the staffing and recruitment industry, it was a game changer for us. The power of the sourcing tool quickly generated a buzz in the industry and the staffing industry was booming in 2000-2003 so initially, we struggled to keep up with the business opportunities we were presented.

Our application was recognized for its speed and for the ability to prevent duplicate records from being sourced from those expensive premium career subscriptions based websites.

Along the way, we have worked hard to intuit the way people want to work so we can eliminate time-consuming tasks like scheduling events, managing communications and reminders and moving people through the recruitment pipeline. People responded well to those considerations. What clients have always liked us is our willingness to listen to their needs, and try to find solutions to the pain points they experience in their process.

What were the grounds on which you have expanded your company and its offerings over the years?

Initially, clients using TalentHook for several months began to reach out to us and ask for additional features, hoping we would build on that solid, automated foundation we introduced and transform it into an ATS – a full system that would handle end to end recruiting pipelines. We used that feedback to develop and test additional enhancements that have enriched our products today and prepared the foundation for the ATS we are releasing now. Features like text messaging, job postings, social media job sharing, custom reports and custom reports dashboard capability.

Our approach with our clients has always been – no request is too absurd. Talk to us about what you would like to be able to do using our products and we will explore the possibilities with you. Some enhancements can be complicated, but we don’t like to say no.

If you have to list five factors that have been/are the biggest asset to your organization, what would they be and why?

Being open to change – we are never 100 percent satisfied with our products. No product is ever done because the industries we serve are always evolving and expanding. We have to do that too. So we are never complacent with our technology. We are always looking for ways to be better.

Maintaining a tight team – we have always had a small company feel in that we are not just working here. This is a family. Our executive team has been working together now for over 10 years. We complement each other and challenge each other, coming from experiences and blending skill sets that help us to create better solutions.

Our internal talent – from our development team to our training and sales and support teams – one of our primary requirements from everyone is that remain passionate about what your role. We compete with many larger organizations because we are not afraid of hard work, or a good challenge.

Our obsession with automation – for every enhancement and feature we add to our products our goal is to solve a problem. If a manual process takes too much time – let’s streamline it. If a client has compliance issues, let’s find ways to create a solid process with permissions to eliminate user error and get everyone following the same flow. If there’s a step in a process lifecycle that is creating a bottleneck in your recruitment/sales/service process, let’s see what we can do to make that step simpler to complete. When systems work optimally, companies save money, improve their metrics and grow. Our goal is to be a direct contributor to that success.

Eliminating unnecessary fees – we don’t believe in charging for things like feature enhancements, updates, support and training resources. That sets us apart from many competitors. We think those things are the cost of doing business and we don’t believe in charging clients for that.

The Brain behind the Picture

Phil Gonzalez, CEO & Founder: Phil Gonzalez launched Resource Edge in 1999 after building and managing his own IT staffing firm in the Silicon Valley. Through his experience building high performing recruiting teams during a time when IT recruitment was explosive and still being defined, Phil identified the need for systems that would help recruiters manage high volume recruiting and streamline the online sourcing process.