You can build a free recruitment database by signing up for a free recruitment CRM, importing or parsing your candidates in, and tagging every record with the skills and details you’ll search on later. On Giig that takes a few minutes to start and costs nothing, with no cap on how many candidates you store.
A recruitment database (also called a candidate database or hiring database) is the place you keep every candidate, client, contact and job your agency works with. It’s the lifeblood of a recruitment business. Get it right and you fill roles from people you already know. Get it wrong and you start from scratch every time a new job lands.
A recruitment database turns you from a reactive recruiter into a proactive one: when a new role comes in, you already have a shortlist. Without one, every job starts with a blank page and a job board.
It pays off in five ways:
Recruitment is relationship building. Most candidates you speak to won’t move today. A good database means that when they’re ready, they call you, not the recruiter who spammed them last week.
Excel is fine for a list, but it can’t be a recruitment database because you can’t search CVs, log conversations or see who’s at which stage. Trying to find “Java developers in Leeds, available now” in a spreadsheet is close to impossible.
Spreadsheets also go stale fast, get duplicated across laptops, and don’t play nicely with GDPR. If your “database” is three tabs and a folder of CVs called “Final_v3”, it’s time.
Here’s how to set up a free recruitment database on Giig, from sign-up to a searchable database.
Giig’s free database gives one user unlimited candidates, CVs, jobs and clients, forever. Here’s the full free plan:
| Included free | Detail |
|---|---|
| Candidates, CVs, jobs, companies, contacts | Unlimited |
| Pipelines | Jobs, business development and interview, drag and drop |
| Workflows | Perm and temp |
| Custom tagging and search | Unlimited tags |
| Email integration | Yes |
| CV parsing | 10 credits a month |
| Website and careers page | Free landing page, careers page for up to 3 jobs |
| Users | 1 |
When you need more, Starter adds team members, CSV import, mass CV parsing and file storage, and Plus adds custom fields, candidate and contact lists, bulk email and reporting. Every paid plan is monthly, no contract, cancel anytime. See pricing.
A database is only useful if the data’s right, so tag every record when you add it and update it every time you speak to someone.
Sign up for a free recruitment CRM like Giig, add your company, plan your tags, then add or parse your candidates in. Giig’s Free Forever plan stores unlimited candidates, CVs, jobs and clients for one user, with no trial period and no credit card.
Yes. Giig is built in the UK and its Free Forever plan gives UK recruiters a free recruitment database with unlimited candidates and clients. It’s your own database of people you’ve added, not a paid CV search database of strangers.
A recruitment database is your own record of candidates, clients and jobs, built up from your work. A CV database, like a job board’s CV search, is a pool of other people’s candidates you pay to search. Most agencies use both, then save the good ones into their own database.
Yes. On Giig Starter and above you can import candidates and contacts from a CSV or Excel export, and bulk-parse a folder of CVs. If you’re moving from another CRM, we can restore a full database backup as a paid service. Email support@giighire.com.
You should. On Giig your data is yours, even on the free plan, and you can export your client and contact lists whenever you like. Be wary of any free tool that makes it hard to get your data out.
On Giig, as many as you like. The Free Forever plan has no limit on candidates, CVs, jobs, companies or contacts. The limits are one user and 10 CV parse credits a month.
Your database is the one asset in your agency that grows in value every single day you use it. Start it properly, tag everything, and it’ll keep paying you back for years.
Start your free recruitment database on Giig today. It takes a couple of minutes and there’s no card needed.
