Bringing an Employer Database Back Into Use
Outdated employers, changed roles and duplicate records were making business development harder. We researched the database, refreshed the contacts and returned a cleaner source of employer data for the recruitment team.
Delivered for Hobson Associates
At a glance
- Industry
- Recruitment & Staffing
- Scope
- 25,000 employer and contact records
- Turnaround
- 4 working days
01The challenge
What the client was actually up against
The starting point
The recruitment team already had a substantial employer database.
The issue was that parts of the database no longer represented the market accurately. Some contacts had moved to different companies. Others were still employed by the same organisation but had moved into different roles. Company records appeared more than once under different naming formats.
There were also employers where the old contact was no longer the person the consultants needed to approach. The client did not need another separate list. It needed the existing database researched and brought back into a usable condition.
02The approach
The sequence we actually worked through
Project focus
Database review and contact refresh
Scope of work
- Database review
- Employer research
- Contact refresh
- Replacement contact research
- Deduplication
- Verification
- Data standardisation
How we solved it
8 stages, in order
- 01
We reviewed the employer records and standardised company information.
- 02
Duplicate and overlapping employer records were identified and cleaned.
- 03
Our team researched the existing contacts to confirm whether they were still with the organisation and whether their current responsibility matched the client’s requirement.
- 04
Where the existing person was no longer suitable, we researched a relevant current contact.
- 05
Business contact information was enriched and verified.
- 06
Standard valid emails were passed through final QA.
- 07
Catch all records received additional review before being retained.
- 08
Records without usable verified contact information were not treated as confirmed contact delivery.
03The result
What the client received
Scope delivered
25,000
employer and contact records
Turnaround
4
working days
The dataset
The client received 25,000 reviewed and refreshed employer and contact records.
- The final database included cleaner company information, relevant current contacts, replacement contacts where required, consistent role information and verified business contact data.
- The structure was also easier to maintain for future refresh work.
What changed in the data
Before
- Ageing employer records
- People who had changed roles
- Contacts who had moved companies
- Duplicate employers
- Inconsistent company names
- Repeated manual checking
After
- Refreshed employer records
- Current relevant contacts
- Replacement contacts where required
- Cleaner company records
- Consistent fields
- A database that was easier to use
04The impact
What it changed day to day
Result
The client received 25,000 reviewed and refreshed employer and contact records within 4 working days.
The result was not simply a cleaner file. The recruitment team had a database that better reflected the employers and people they were currently trying to reach.
Existing records were researched, unsuitable contacts were replaced where required, duplicates were cleaned and the final data was returned in a more consistent structure.
In the client’s words
The database wasn’t just cleaned. It became usable again. Our consultants stopped wasting time on contacts who had already left, and that was the difference that mattered to us.
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