At Recruiters Websites, we always strive to remain on the cusp of the industry, understanding and staying ahead of trends. Recently, we sat down with Tory Tucker, Sales Manager for Top Echelon, an applicant tracking system and recruiting CRM based in the U.S., to talk about his company, what they do and what they bring to your recruiting business. 

What is Top Echelon? 

Well, Top Echelon Software, we’ve been in business for a little over 35 years. In its inception, it was created as a split placement network, so if you had a candidate but not the job or vice versa, it was a great place to meet in the middle and split the fee. It was a great gig for both parties because sometimes “half a loaf of bread is better than no bread at all.”  

Our question has always been, in the world of recruiting, how can we accommodate our clients as fast and appropriately as possible? How can we put people to work as quickly as possible? Top Echelon has been a service in the industry for those 35 years. And through the course of the split placement network, we learned the recruiters suggested having an ATS created, so we built one to fulfill that need in addition to our existing services. 

So, you’ve already addressed this a little bit, but how did you get started? And I hear you used to be called Big Biller…? 

The ATS software's moniker was Big Biller, and the notion in its creation was that, in using the software, you would become a “big biller.” Hopeful and wishful thinking! 

At the end of the day, we cater to the recruiter’s best self. In an ideal world, you have a database at your disposal that can house all your candidate resumes, client information, job orders info, and it’s all secure and accessible so you can do the profit-earning tasks. It’s a business of people, and if I can store all my notes and have everything at my disposal, it’s going to make me much more efficient in the execution of my desk.  

We are slowly transitioning to just a “Top Echelon Recruiting Software” title, but yes, for years and years, Big Biller was the name we used for that software. 

What kind of benefits can a client expect from utilizing Top Echelon? 

Efficiency.  

At the end of the day, the only thing we truly have to spend is the time we’re given every day. If we can be much more efficient in spending that time appropriately, it will yield actual dollars or revenue. We can help execute more efficient searches in your data with our parsing technology that indexes candidate resumes. So, when I go and search for “left-handed sales guys in Northeast Ohio,” I’ll show up in that search. 

But again, we understand recruiters are resume hoarders, in a sense. They sit on a stack of resumes, but how can we make those resumes more accessible since this is a long-term career? Someone I talked to six months ago or six years ago, can I still help them find the right position? Something could come across my desk tomorrow that would be a perfect fit for them! Having historical data accessible is truly powerful. 

So, speaking of the client, what would the ideal client, the “perfect person to use Top Echelon,” look like? 

Well, anyone who hires!  

But our ideal customer profile is the small to medium-sized executive-level recruiter, typically where the owner works a desk. Those three to five users; the SMB space is really where we shine in terms of interaction with my own team and my personal interactions with them. 

What are you and the rest of the team over at Top Echelon excited about as we move into the second half of 2023 and beyond? 

Great question. We are always with our ‘eye on the prize’ with future updates and enhancements to our software. It’s no surprise there’s an oversaturation of recruiting ATS out there right now, and we are trying to stay relevant, top of mind, easy to use, and cost-effective. We are keeping up with emerging trends and the evolution of the desk of a recruiter. What did that desk look like five years ago, what does it look like now, and what will it evolve into five years from now? We’re trying to be nimble enough to make changes and enhancements as quickly as possible and understand what that looks like as the industry evolves.  

We’ve got such an interesting juxtaposition with our old-school recruiters and how they recruit versus this new wave of recruiters and how they consume information. Trying to find a single solution that accommodates everyone is a challenge we are rising to the occasion for. 

Is there anything you would like to add on behalf of Tory or Top Echelon as a whole? 

This is where I make a shameless plug, right? If there is something who is searching for an easy-to-use, not pull-your-hair-out ATS, there isn’t a better one on the market. We are so incredibly easy to consume.  

I joke because if I’m able to learn the software well enough to demonstrate it to someone, anyone can use it. I’ve paved the way forward by asking all the dumb questions, not understanding the features, and then learning how to use them. There’s a fine line between feature richness and cost-effectiveness. We’re trying to get the job done without breaking the bank. 

Awesome, thank you so much! I do have one “non-work-related question” for you. Currently, what’s your favorite podcast to listen to? 

I cycle through a few. I have some that are work-centric and others that are nonsensical. I’ve been listening to Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach Braff and Donald Faison from Scrubs, where they rewatch the episodes and share commentary about them. It’s so funny! If I want to turn my brain off and have a chuckle, that’s one I’ll head towards. Smartless is also another one of those fantastic podcasts where Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett interview a celebrity. Hilarious. 

More work-centric or catering to the ideal of idealism and how I can execute my job as best as I can, there’s an author named Simon Sinek who has a podcast called A Bit of Optimism. It’s very take a step back and look at life as a whole. I tell my team all the time that anything you put focus toward gets better. So, this podcast is about focusing on this ideal of an optimistic worldview. 

If you haven’t listened to Distinctly Digital, our podcast at Recruiters Websites, it’s time to add that to the list too! 

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