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Ideal Communication Stack for Recruitment & EdTech Industry

Identifying and implementing the best communication stack is crucial for organizations to succeed in the long run. Moreover, it is a challenge for C-level to find the “perfect” communication stack that would fit in seamlessly with the organization’s current structure & future plans.

What exactly is a Communication Stack?

It does not matter which industry you are working with, every organization needs a communication model in place for a smooth flow of information, internally and externally. Some of the organizations might have strict protocols about what tools to use and when to use, while others might be more flexible. The tool belt used is the Communication Stack of your organization. The communication stack ensures smooth operation within departments to help attain business objectives in the long run.

Why should you care what Communication Stack you use?

Different departments in your organization might be using different a set of tools to communicate internally and externally. Making a common protocol for communication also makes sense, but that would restrict the flexibility of finding the right tool for every job in the organization. The communication policy/protocol must be updated every year and should be a part of yearly planning.

To give you a better idea, this is how an outdated communication system works. Say, for example, your senior sales manager left the job because of unprecedented circumstances and the new manager hired is greeted with an empty inbox. He/She would have to meet people, ask people to send him/her the files or emails for all the projects. Even then, it would take the person a while to get all the nuances related to the project, and more work for others. A lot of man-hours wasted just to get the information across.

If only there had been an easier solution or a tool that would do this for you. Sounds easy to integrate all the capabilities in one tool, but a tool set would work better because of the flexibility that it would provide. We have met numerous clients facing these challenges, just because of that we have identified and compiled some useful communication stacks for different industries – recruitment & ed-tech.   

Recruitment Industry

One of the challenges for recruitment industry is the external communication. Communication with the resource or the client with a defined set of communication protocol might not always work. After working on WebRTC solutions for many of our recruitment industry clients, we found a common communication stack that you can use.

Stack Influencing Recruitment Industry Leaders

Slack – Slack is a fantastic cloud-based collaboration product which allows different teams within an organization to communicate at one place. Recruitment industry survives on communities for resources. With an option to create different channels for different segments served, Slack channels can have a life of their own. Not only that you can manage your team within Slack keeping everything at one place.

Slack does not replace email, but it lets you find everything searchable like files, conversations, and people. Slack integrates with 280 platforms & all other tools that are generally used to manage the workflow. With Slack’s steep learning curve, you would just need to tap the potential to get this right.

Dropbox & Google Drive – File sharing and real-time collaboration can be a major roadblock for recruitment agencies. With the help of Google Drive Apps, one can easily collaborate in real time on a report or a test with multiple people.  

If you want to share and store all the details at one place and seek multiple access then – Dropbox and Google Drive fits your criteria. Dropbox is typically used in recruitment industry to store internal confidential files because it is considered to be the most secure way to share sensitive information.

MailChimp – MailChimp is a perfect tool for recruiters, you can use it to build brand awareness, demonstrate expertise, generate inquiries and build your talent network. Email Marketing plays a crucial role in the recruitment industry. Sending out a newsletter to keep the prospect resources apprised of the latest updates requires consistency. 

You would want to put all the elements of the stack at one place to get it to work seamlessly.

Trello, Asana, Jira & Confluence –

Asana helps with the onboarding of new hires. It stores all the stuff in one easy-to-find place which updates in real-time. You can also plan, schedule interviews & assign questions to each interviewer to make sure nobody is repeating questions or coming up with the questions on the spot.

Jira allows tracking employee referrals so that team members can easily recommend excellent candidates, then see where they are in the process. Both Trello and Confluence are used to organize tasks or manage projects. Trello is efficient for small, medium-sized organizations or if you are a big fan of KANBAN process. With the new update release of Asana Boards, larger teams can use the KANBAN style to manage their workflow processes.

Careerleaf – It is native Applicant Tracking System (ATS) tool built for recruiters, featuring a screening and shortlisting tools, and the ability to group candidates to job orders. While there are lot many tools used for recruiting, Careerleaf has been prevalent in the recruitment industry because it markets to the right talent, and maintains the privacy of your database.

Edtech Industry

Edtech has been one of the most aggressive adopters to new communication stack because of the high engagement rate among all the elements in the organization. After working with the likes of WSJ & Columbia University and helping them build their custom solutions, we have identified tools that help with the communication at different levels of an Edtech organization.

Stack Influencing Edtech Industry Leaders

Slack – Slack is like the swiss army knife when it comes to real-time communication. The utility of Slack is tremendous in Edtech industry. With Slack’s flexible API, you can build bots to engage in a fun and easy way. You can connect directly with students and groups, often leaving feedback on assignments, pin important conversation to the overall channel. The hashtag feature can help you segment specific “channels” dedicated to topics, but each channel operates like its own chat room. Slack can manage one-to-one as well one-to-few communication.

Google Drive – A Real-time collaboration between the instructors and students help increase the efficiency of the system. With Google Drive Apps, the instructor can comment, observe in real time the status of each task assigned to the students. No more to & fro of files via emails, no more font downloads & hassle-free collaboration. Google has been testing and improving their product with the introduction of their new program of free Chromebooks to schools in some parts of US. With Google updating their products for real-time file collaboration, there is almost no one in this segment that does better. And with the introduction of Google App Script, Google Apps are on steroids.

MailChimp – To facilitate constant learning it is important that the instructor should keep on sharing relevant news or updates with students asynchronously. Notifications are recommended used when the information is time-sensitive so the best way to share information without notification bombardment is via Email newsletters. With an easier learning curve, it is one of the most used email newsletter tool in EdTech. And because MailChimp’s brand voice is cooler than its competitors. It is free up to 2000 contacts and has decent ready-to-use templates, contact management & sign-up forms.

Trello – With its easy to use Trello Board, Trello helps run project-based classrooms. You can also use it to plan projects & lessons. With all the lessons organized in a clean board system, along with your to-do list, you keep yourself highly organized. Trello is much like a big digital board where you can create and pin & move around your notes to get the best out of it. Apart from lesson management, instructors have been known to use it as a platform to brainstorm ideas.

There are a lot many internal & external communication tools which are commonly used in every industry, like Salesforce for Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Intercom and Zendesk for customer service, LinkedIn for recruitment and Buffer for social media management. It is always good to keep an eye on the next robust platform that you can use in your communication stack.

Would love to know, what is one of the major problems with your communication stack? Leave it in the comments