Assignments (Headhunt) Module

Overview

The Influence professional software has the ability to run Assignments.

The Assignment is essentially a Research List and can comprise of a mixture of Companies and Contacts you wish to approach (as well as existing candidates) with a view to obtaining a CV and converting the Contacts into Candidates. Any notes or conversations can be recorded and once a candidate record exists it can be Matched to the Vacancy. Once the Match record exists it can be progressed in the normal way right through to Placement.

The Assignment module also allows users to setup Stages and record financial details of payments received throughout the process.
e.g. You might receive a 20% fee on production of a "Long List", a further 30% on production of a "Short List" and the final 50% of the fee upon Placement of a suitable applicant.

It is possible to use the assignment module to export of a "Long List" and "Short List" into MS Excel from the Research page.

 

Assignment Workbench

At the left of the system is the [Assignment] workbench.
On this workbench you can find assignments using the filter criteria at the top of the screen, such as Company, Vacancy Type (Perm/Contract) or Role Code.

Creating a New Assignment

Clicking [New] will allow the user to enter/create a new Assignment. You will be shown a simple screen to select a company.Having selected a company the Entry screen will be displayed.

Enter the basic details of the assignment such as Type, Role and Description, then click [OK] to create the assignment.
Creating an Assignment will create a Vacancy linked to the assignment.
(In effect all Assignments are Vacancies, but not all Vacancies are assignments.)

NOTE: It is also possible to convert an existing vacancy into an Assignment.
Go into the vacancy and click the [Assignment] button at the bottom left. (On older systems this button may be labelled as Headhunt or Research)

 

How to use Assignments

Once an assignment has been created you can open the assignment record and create your Research List.
Initially the screen will be <blank> and you can use the buttons at the bottom of the screen to add Candidates, Contacts or Companies to your Research List.

At the top right of the screen are fields listing the number of Candidates linked to the assignment and the Total number of records considered on the Research List.

 

 

Adding Records

Records can be added to the assignment using the buttons at the bottom of the screen, which are divided into 3 sections; Search, New, and Existing.

Search [Candidates]  - Clicking this will open the normal candidate search and allow you to search for candidate records.
Search [Contacts] - This will open the Contact Search let you search the CONTACTS on the system and link them to the assignment.

New [Company] - This allows users to add a new COMPANY to the database, and link the company to the Assignment.
New [Candidate] - Click this to create a new candidate record in the database and simultaneously link them to this Assignment.

Existing [Contact] - this opens a simple Forename/Surname search to allow you to quickly find and add an existing Contact.
Existing [Comp] - this opens a simple Name/Address search to allow you to quickly find and add an existing Company to the List.

[+] Clicking the + button on a row for a Company will allow you to ADD a new contact from that company to the Assignment List.
Adding a contact in this way will add them to the Research List but also add them as a contact at the company in the database.

It is also possible to add records from GROUPS.
At the bottom right of the screen is a drop-down to select the type of Group (Companies/Contacts/Candidates)

Having selected the group type you may then use the drop-down to the left to select one of these groups, and press the
[Add] button to create these entries on the Research List.     (To find out more about Groups, click HERE)

Records can be removed from the research list using the Trash Can icon at the right hand side.

Importing Contacts

The Assignment module also allows you to IMPORT a list of contacts from an Excel spreadsheet.
Imported contacts will be added to the same way as using the Client/Contact Import from Excel option but will also be linked to the
Assignment as well as being added to the database.

To find out more about importing contacts please see the article HERE

 

Recording Notes & Journals

Once records have been added to the Research List it is very easy to record Journals and communication with the people or organizations.
Simply click the relevant icon (Telephone, Mobile, Email or File Note*) to record a Journal in the normal way.
(The File Note* Journals can be recorded using the Pad&Pencil icon at the right-hand end.)

The journal is recorded against the relevant record and is also listed chronologically in the Notes section.
Clicking on the Notes column or notepad icon will open the chronological summary.
If you hover your mouse over the Notes column the system will display the contents of the notes in a floating window.

 

Amending the Status of an Assignment Line

When initially created Assignment Lines default to the Status of Pitch. As conversations progress the record may go through several other status such as Interested, Not Interested, Short Listed, etc.

The status of a line can be set using the Click To drop-down above the assignment lines then clicking on the actual STATUS column of the Line.

 

Converting a Contact to a Candidate

Having spoke to various contacts it is possible that they decide they are interested in the position and would like to apply. In this case you will want to convert the contact into a Candidate. This is easily achieve by ticking the Cand column at the left hand side of the assignment line.

When prompted if you wish to Convert the Contact to a Candidate select YES.
The system will then open a candidate record onto which you can drag/Drop a CV, record Attributes (Skills), etc.

 

Exporting Long List/Short List

Having put together a Research List it is possible to export the entries from this list directly into MS Excel.
It is possible to export a Long List or a Short List.

You may choose Longlist/Shortlist using the radio buttons at the top right.

The system determines which records are exported on the Long list/Shortlist based upon the STATUS of the Assignment Line.
All lines will be exported on a Long List, and it is possible to specify which statuses will be included on a shortlist Export.
(This is defined within the MATCH STATUS [905] Code table via Code Table Maintenance)

Having selected the type of list, the information can be exported into MS Excel using the [Excel] button at the bottom left.

 Information for Long List/shortlists can be exported to an excel template, which can include your company logo if you desire.
The location for the excel templates is held within the system parameters, and templates should be of the 97-2003 (*.xlt) type.
(The template file names are defined within the PROJECT(Text) parameter set.)

Creating a Group from an Assignment

Having put together your Research List and spoken to various individuals, it may be useful or desirable to create a Group of either contacts, companies or candidates based upon this Research List

To do this simply click the Groups icon in the toolbar to open the 'fast search' screen.

 

Within this screen use the drop-down at the right hand side to select the Mode (either Candidate, Contact or Company)
Having chosen the relevant mode, click on the Groups icon in this screen and use the Group Manager to add the selected objects to an existing group or create a new group.

 

Creating MATCHES

Once an assignment line is linked to a Candidate record it is possible to convert the line to a MATCH record.
Match record can be seen on the [Candidate Matches] tab of the assignment, and can be progressed through the various stages (CV Sent, Followed-Up, Interview Booked, etc.) in exactly the same way as a Match created on a standard Vacancy.

Ticking the [WF] column at the right-hand side of the assignment line will convert the assignment Line to a MATCH.
Matches are seen on the [Candidate Matches] tab within the assignment (Or the [MATCHES] page if viewing the vacancy directly)

Note: It is possible to get the system to Automatically create a MATCH record as soon as an assignment line is of the Candidate type
(This is controlled with PROJECT parameter, flag(9) )

It is possible to open the Vacancy record itself from within the Assignment by clicking the [Vacancy] button at the bottom left of the screen. Once the vacancy is open, you can see items such as the Job Description or any supporting documents from the [Docs] tab of the vacancy.

 

Stage Details

The [Stage Details] page of the Assignment record allows you to specify a total Fee for this assignment, and then split this fee across several stages. By default the we ship the system with 3 stages, but it is possible to define up-to 20 stages which an assignment has.
(This setting is global and applies to all assignments, not just one specific assignment).

 (The number of stages are controlled using the PROJECT(Glossary) and PROJECT(Real) parameter sets.)

 Having defined a total Fee, this fee can then be split across the defined number of stages, and must come to 100% in total.
e.g. You may charge a £5,000 fee for an assignment and receive 20% on submission of shortlist, 30% on interview, and the final 50% on placement. (i.e. £1000, £1500 and £2500 respectively)

The dates and values of these invoice stages can be recorded on this page.