Build the tech stack that grows your agency

Most staffing agencies don’t have a technology problem. They have a fragmentation problem. They’ve got a CRM here, an analytics tool there, maybe an AI product they’re trialling, and a handful of point solutions stitched together with good intentions and manual workarounds. The result? Data that doesn’t talk to itself, consultants switching between platforms, and leaders making decisions without the full picture.

Junaid Bokhari (known as JB) has been in recruitment for over 20 years. As CEO of Pioneer Selection, a UK-based maintenance engineering recruitment firm, he’s built a Bullhorn tech stack that runs from foundational CRM all the way through automation, analytics, and now AI with Bullhorn Amplify. We sat down with him to find out what that journey actually looks like, and what other agency leaders can learn from it.

Key takeaways

• A unified tech stack consistently outperforms a collection of siloed point solutions
• Clean data is the foundation, automation and AI are only as good as the data they run on
• AI tools like Bullhorn Amplify don’t replace recruiters; they free them to focus on higher-value, higher-impact work

Why your CRM is the foundation of everything

Before Pioneer Selection moved to Bullhorn in 2016, the business ran on a bespoke system built by a single developer. It did the basics, but it wasn’t built to scale. Data lived in different places. Client and candidate outreach was inconsistent. There was no common system of record.

“In 2015, 2016, our outreach to clients or candidates – we didn’t do any,” recalls Junaid Bokhari, CEO, Pioneer Selection. “By having a unified system, it allows us to now do that. Within a few clicks, you can send out an outreach to customers or candidates.”

That shift, from fragmented data to a centralised CRM, is the starting point for everything else. You can’t automate processes you can’t track. You can’t analyse performance you haven’t captured. And you can’t scale outreach that doesn’t exist. Getting your CRM right isn’t just an operational decision; it’s a strategic one.

For JB, the choice came down to simplicity. A system consultants actually want to use is worth more than a system that does everything but confuses everyone who touches it. Adoption drives data quality, and data quality drives results.

Automation: giving time back to your consultants

Once Pioneer Selection had a solid CRM foundation, the next step was Bullhorn Automation. JB and his team were early adopters, and they’ve built out an extensive set of workflows that handle the repetitive tasks consultants would otherwise do manually.

Post-placement candidate check-ins, Invoice triggers, Cadenced client outreach campaigns, these are all now automated, all running in the background so consultants can focus on what matters most. 

“What it helps you do is take the tasks you’re going to do on a repetitive basis, eliminate them, and do it for you,” says JB. “You have to physically show consultants that the automation has done, say, seven or eight emails for them that they would have had to do manually, and it’s already done it, and it doesn’t stop doing it.”

The ROI here isn’t always measured in pounds saved. It’s measured in time returned, and that time flows directly into relationship-building, progressing roles, and closing placements. For agency owners, that’s where the real return shows up.

Analytics: turning data into decisions

Automation and analytics aren’t separate tools at Pioneer Selection, they work in tandem. Bullhorn Analytics gives JB and his team a real-time view of performance at every level: individual consultant, team, division, and business-wide.

“Before, you’d have to sit down with a consultant, go through a process, collect that information, it could take a bit of time. Now, with three clicks, you’ve got that information ready,” says JB. “You can go into a meeting with a consultant more prepared than you’ve ever been, with factual data.”

The same applies to client conversations. Pioneer Selection can pull up exactly how many CVs they’ve sent a client, how many interviews were arranged, and what the outcomes were in seconds. That’s a different kind of credibility in a client meeting.

JB’s team also uses analytics to identify where automation can fill gaps. If a metric is underperforming, the question becomes: is this a people issue, a process issue, or something we can automate? Often, it’s the latter. Analytics surfaces the problem; automation addresses it.

AI with Bullhorn Amplify: the next layer of growth

JB didn’t rush into AI. He spent four months testing Bullhorn Amplify in an isolated environment before rolling it out across Pioneer Selection. His goal: understand what it actually does, find its limits, and make sure it earns its place in the workflow.

“I tried to break it,” he says. “I didn’t really get that far.”

Amplify brings several capabilities that are already changing how Pioneer Selection operates. The screening agent conducts structured candidate interviews autonomously, with all responses stored directly in Bullhorn. Auto-matching surfaces relevant candidates faster. The CV formatting tool standardises presentations across the team. Multilingual support, JB cites French as an example, opens doors to international placements that would have previously required a separate platform or significant manual effort.

The ability to query the platform’s data in natural language is a standout for JB as a leader. Need a client snapshot before a meeting, CVs sent, interviews arranged, rejection reasons? Amplify pulls that from your analytics in seconds. 

“There’s a lot of noise around AI,” JB says. “But the early signs were positive. The screening alone saves us a lot of time. And as an agency owner, speed is ultimately what you’re trying to achieve.”

JB is already seeing ROI, and Pioneer Selection is still in the rollout phase.

Why keeping it all under one roof matters

Data integrity, cost control, and consultant adoption all depend on how well your tools talk to each other. Every additional platform your team has to navigate is another place for data to go missing, another login to manage, and another potential point of failure.

“If you have everything under one roof, it’s better, from a workflow perspective, from a consultant’s perspective, just generally as a whole ecosystem,” says JB. “We’ve had experiences where we’ve used external partners and had to go outside our ecosystem, and it just doesn’t flow. You get glitches across the system.”

A unified stack means one source of truth, and that matters when you’re making fast, confident decisions. It also matters commercially. The more capability you access within your existing platform, the less you spend on external subscriptions, and the more your existing investment compounds in value.

Three tips for building a tech stack that actually lands

JB has made his share of mistakes along the way, bought tools that didn’t get used, rolled out tech that didn’t land with the team. Here’s what he’d tell any agency leader thinking about growing their stack.

Start with data hygiene. Automation and AI are only as powerful as the data they’re working with. If your contact database has outdated email addresses or incomplete records, you’re automating noise. Clean your data first. Bullhorn Amplify’s enrichment features can help, but the discipline has to come from the top.

Define your goal before you buy. Every agency is at a different stage of its lifecycle, and the right tech stack looks different depending on where you’re trying to go. Don’t buy technology because there’s noise around it. Buy it because it delivers against a specific goal you’ve already defined.

Manage the change properly. Tech that doesn’t land with your staff doesn’t deliver ROI. Once a consultant decides a new tool isn’t useful, it’s very hard to change that perception. Bring your team along with you, show them what the technology is doing for them, not just to them.

“People don’t see the value of tech until they understand it,” says JB. “Trying to make people understand tech is quite difficult. But it’s part of the recruiting journey now.”

The agencies embracing this now will have the advantage

JB is clear-eyed about where the industry is heading. AI isn’t a threat to recruiters, it’s an opportunity to do the job better. The heavy lifting that’s traditionally consumed consultant time is increasingly something technology can handle. That frees people to focus on the parts of recruitment that still require human judgment, relationships, and expertise.

“This is the moment for our industry to understand that AI is not a threat to our business,” he says. “There is a lot of upside that we can use in our businesses to make the role of a consultant more efficient. You can put your head in the sand, but AI is not going away. It’s going to get deeper into our businesses.”

The agencies building connected, intelligent tech stacks today aren’t just keeping up. They’re pulling ahead.

Watch the full webinar to hear JB’s story in his own words: How to Use Your Tech to Amplify Your Agency’s Growth

Ready to see what Bullhorn Amplify can do for your agency? Explore Amplify →