Recruiting is a fast-paced business. Every day, recruiters juggle multiple job orders, candidates, and client relationships—all while racing against the clock to fill roles before competitors do. But the real challenge isn’t finding people; it’s keeping track of them. Spreadsheets get messy, sticky notes disappear, and even the most organized recruiter can feel overwhelmed when their “system” is scattered across multiple tools.

That’s why Hotlists in TE Recruit® are such a powerful ally. They give recruiters a way to simplify chaos, track relationships, and take control of their pipeline like never before. In fact, nearly 80% of TE Recruit customers already use Hotlists, and for good reason—they’re one of the most versatile, practical tools in the platform.

If you’ve ever felt like you were drowning in data, missing opportunities, or struggling to stay on top of your candidates and clients, Hotlists might just be the answer you’ve been waiting for.

What Exactly Is a Hotlist?

Think of Hotlists as your digital filing cabinet inside TE Recruit™—but smarter, faster, and far more customizable. A Hotlist is a place where you can group, categorize, and organize people, companies, and job orders.

Unlike static spreadsheets, Hotlists are dynamic. You can move records between categories, search across lists, and even use them as workflows. Want to track business development prospects through different stages? Done. Need to build a list of “most placeable candidates” (MPCs) for quick access? Easy. Want to create a list of prospects for your next email campaign? Hotlists have you covered.

And here’s the best part: Hotlists are only limited by your imagination. Whether you run a one-person desk or a 50-recruiter agency, you can tailor them to match your exact process.

Why Recruiters Love Hotlists

Let’s look at some real-world numbers from TE Recruit:

• 79% of agencies use at least one people Hotlist.

• The median agency uses 36 people Hotlists, plus several company and job Hotlists.

• Hotlists are most often used for people records, making them the “workhorse” of the recruiting process.

Why so popular? Because Hotlists give recruiters:

1. Focus – Instead of scrolling through endless search results, you can zero in on the exact people or companies you’re targeting.

2. Clarity – With categories, you always know where someone stands in your process.

3. Speed – Add people on the fly, move them between stages, and act quickly.

4. Collaboration – Share Hotlists across your team so everyone is aligned and working efficiently.

In short: Hotlists make you faster, sharper, and more effective.

Creating Your First Hotlist

Hotlists are easy to create in TE Recruit. You can start one in two ways:

1. From the Sidebar – Click the flame icon, hit “New Hotlist,” give it a name, choose if it’s for people, companies, or jobs, and assign ownership. You can keep it private, share it with everyone, or restrict it to certain groups (perfect if you have specialized divisions like healthcare or engineering).

2. On the Fly – Maybe you’re running a search and spot a group of promising candidates. Instead of losing them, you can immediately create a new Hotlist and drop them in. This flexibility is a lifesaver when you’re working in the fast lane of recruiting.

Using Categories to Supercharge Your Hotlists

Here’s where Hotlists go from “useful” to “transformational.” Each Hotlist can have its own set of categories, which act like stages in a pipeline or steps in a workflow.

For example, in a Business Development Hotlist, your categories might be:

• New Prospect

• Warm Lead

• Scheduled Presentation

• Pending Agreement

• Active Client

• Not Interested

This simple structure gives you instant visibility into your pipeline. At a glance, you can see how many prospects you have in each stage, what actions are needed, and where your energy should go.

And the best part? Categories are unique to each Hotlist. That means your Business Development Hotlist can look totally different from your Candidate Marketing Hotlist. Flexibility is built in.

Adding People to Hotlists

You can add records one at a time—or in bulk.

• One-at-a-time: Maybe you just spoke to a candidate who’s highly placeable. You can open their record, assign them to a Hotlist, and drop them into the right category instantly.

• Bulk: Run a search for “PLC Engineers,” select all results, and add them to your Hotlist in one shot. Perfect for building out campaigns or filling niche roles fast.

This dual approach ensures you can act quickly whether you’re adding one person or 100.

Practical Ways Recruiters Use Hotlists

Hotlists are versatile, but let’s look at three of the most common use cases agencies rely on every day.

1. Business Development

Recruiting is about relationships—and Hotlists make it easy to track prospects through your BD pipeline. You can import lists from sources like ReferenceUSA (free via many libraries), categorize prospects, and move them closer to becoming clients with every touchpoint.

Imagine calling a prospect, moving them from “New Prospect” to “Warm Lead” in real time, and having a clear visual of your progress. That’s the power of Hotlists.

2. Candidate Marketing

Every recruiter dreams of having a bench of “hot and ready” candidates they can market at a moment’s notice. With Hotlists, you can create segmented lists of MPCs by skill set, location, or industry.

When a new job order comes in, you’re no longer starting from scratch—you already have a curated pool of top talent you can pitch immediately.

3. Email Campaigns & Engagement

Want to stay top of mind with candidates and clients? Use Hotlists as custom email lists. For example:

• Candidates who’ve agreed to receive job updates.

• Clients who want to hear about your latest talent pool.

With categories like “Send” and “Do Not Send,” you can manage preferences easily and avoid spamming the wrong audience.

Power Users: Automations with Hotlists (Pro Tier)

If you’re on the Pro Tier of TE Recruit™, Hotlists become even more powerful thanks to Automations.

Automations let you trigger actions when someone is added to a Hotlist category:

• Send an email (automatically or with approval).

• Send a text message (if texting is enabled).

• Schedule an activity (like a follow-up call or meeting).

• Log an activity (like “Connected on LinkedIn”).

For example, moving a prospect to “New Prospect” could trigger an intro email with your Calendly link. Moving them to “Warm Lead” could send a polite text reminder. Moving them to “Pending Agreement” could fire off your fee agreement template with an attachment.

With Automations, Hotlists don’t just organize your work—they do the work for you.

Why Hotlists Are the Secret Weapon of Top Recruiters

Here’s the truth: The difference between average recruiters and great recruiters isn’t always talent. It’s systems.

Recruiters who consistently win are those who:

• Know exactly where every candidate and client stands.

• Have repeatable processes that don’t rely on memory.

• Use tools that maximize their efficiency.

Hotlists give you all three. They bring clarity, focus, and scalability to your recruiting process—without adding complexity.

And because TE Recruit™ is an all-in-one ATS and CRM, Hotlists seamlessly integrate into everything else you do: sourcing, communication, reporting, and placement.

Final Thoughts: Your Next Step

If you’re tired of juggling spreadsheets, sticky notes, and endless searches… if you want to bring order to the chaos of recruiting… if you want to be faster, smarter, and more effective than your competition…

It’s time to start using Hotlists in TE Recruit™.

They’re simple. They’re powerful. And when paired with Automations, they can transform how your agency operates.

Ready to See Hotlists in Action?

Hotlists are just one of the many powerful features inside TE Recruit™, the top-rated all-in-one ATS and CRM for recruiting agencies.

Request a demo of TE Recruit today and see how Hotlists—and the entire platform—can help you win more clients, place more candidates, and grow your agency with confidence.