Think of the best chef you know or have seen on TV. Now imagine giving them a box of unlabeled, expired, and mismatched ingredients. Even the best chef will struggle to make something edible.

This is not far off from what the industry is facing with the latest AI powered tech. Yes, the capabilities are incredible and the intelligence behind it is game changing. But giving it the outdated unstructured mess from their ATS, you're going to get the same quality back out.

At Toro, we've seen firsthand how dirty data can derail even the smartest AI tools. But we've also discovered how to fix it without burdening your recruiters. So, let's roll up our sleeves and explore how you can transform your messy ATS data into the high-quality ingredients your AI needs—automatically.

One Size Does Not Fit All: Healthcare Staffing's Unique Data Challenge

For those of you that have witnessed the digital transformation of staffing from filing cabinets, you saw firsthand the capabilities unlocked when resume parsers entered the space. Moving from the time intensive manually classifying every field from the candidate's application to most being filled out automatically. With that convenience came much more extensive fields being filled out.

While this digital transformation revolutionized general staffing, healthcare staffing faced unique challenges. As we are license and preference driven, resume parsers miss the key elements for match making… leaving the onus on recruiters to keep their talent up-to-date. Completing a profile from basics like location preferences to the nuanced such as vaccination status takes significant time from recruiters that they often don't have.

The Dirty Data Dilemma in Staffing

You're not alone if your ATS sometimes feels like a thrift store where valuable items are mixed in with years of accumulated odds and ends. Here are some of the most common offenders we've seen:

1. Incomplete Profiles
   Candidate preferences? Missing. Licensing info? Blank. Availability? Your guess is as good as ours. AI can't work with what it doesn't have.
2. Inconsistent Data
   Is it that they live in "New York", or is it that they want to work nearby, or they're licensed there? When the same fields are used differently across records, AI struggles to connect the dots.
3. Outdated Information
   That candidate who moved from Tampa to Toledo three years ago? Still listed as "Tampa-based" in your ATS. And they're not happy about it.
4. Trapped Conversational Data
   The real preferences, availability, and updates? They're buried in thousands of emails, texts, and notes. Your recruiters know the information, but it never makes it to the structured fields where AI can use it.

Messy data doesn't just frustrate recruiters—it actively limits what AI can do for you.

Clean data doesn't just make AI better—it makes your entire team better.

Our Journey to DataIQ

At Toro, we didn't set out to build a data cleaning tool. We were focused on making recruiters' lives easier with TalentIQ—a tool to instantly surface candidate preferences and licensure details right in their ATS. We knew from the start that this would be challenging: the data we needed simply wasn't there, or worse, it was scattered across thousands of conversations.

Then, while building StaffIQ to help managers identify coaching opportunities, we faced the same challenge again. How could we suggest improvements in candidate engagement when the crucial details about those candidates were buried in emails and text messages?

From Manual Updates to Automated Intelligence

For years, the industry's answer to dirty data has been simple: make recruiters work harder. Traditional approaches have relied heavily on human effort:

• Training recruiters to consistently enter data
• Running regular audits to catch issues
• Creating strict data entry requirements
• Manually updating fields before credentialing

Your recruiters' time is best spent connecting with candidates and making placements—not updating data fields. That's why at Toro, we took a radically different approach.

Meet DataIQ: Your ATS's Missing Intelligence Layer

Instead of adding more manual work, what if your data could maintain itself? That's exactly what DataIQ delivers:

1. Automatic Updates from Natural Conversations
   DataIQ silently monitors recruiter-candidate communications, identifying key information about preferences, availability, and licenses that would normally need manual entry. No extra steps, no additional forms—just clean data extracted from natural conversations.
2. Healthcare-Specific Understanding
   Unlike generic parsing tools, DataIQ understands the nuances of healthcare staffing. It knows the difference between "licensed in California," "willing to travel to California," and "not interested in California," and can distinguish between shift preferences and actual availability.
3. Real-Time Profile Enhancement
   As soon as DataIQ identifies new information—whether it's an updated license status, a change in shift preference, or new location interests—it automatically updates the corresponding ATS fields. Your database stays current without anyone lifting a finger.

The Impact of Clean Data

When your ATS data is clean, AI doesn't just work—it soars. Here's what you can expect:

1. Faster Candidate Matching
   Clean data helps AI identify the best-fit candidates for a role in seconds. Recruiters spend less time searching and more time engaging. This also helps recruiters identify and pitch multiple options, which candidates love.
2. Better Recruiter Efficiency
   With accurate data at their fingertips, recruiters can make faster decisions and avoid wasting time on dead ends. No more building a dozen tearsheets a week targeting slight variants of note text - just use the designated fields as they were intended now that they're actually accurate.
3. Enhanced Candidate Experience
   When your data is up-to-date and leveraged in your outreach, candidates feel seen and valued. No more pitching inappropriately skilled roles or asking if they'll travel to Fargo and getting told no thanks for the 37th time.

A Snapshot of Today's Challenge

One of Toro's early beta clients struggled with inconsistent ATS data. Abandoned entries, missing fields, and outdated information plagued their system.

When we audited their process, the results were startling: 98% of inbound leads were sitting in their ATS with incomplete profiles. Without structured data to power follow-up, 60% of these potential candidates were contacted once and never again. In today's healthcare staffing market, that's simply too many missed opportunities.

Beyond Clean Data: The Future of AI in Recruitment

Once your ATS is clean, the possibilities for AI in recruitment are endless. Here's a peek at what's coming:

1. Predictive Analytics
   AI can forecast workforce trends, helping you plan hiring strategies months in advance. Without talent being appropriately skilled and updated, your pool to draw from is largely unknown.
2. Personalized Candidate Engagement
   Imagine crafting customized communication for each candidate based on their preferences and history. You can only do this if 1) the data exists in a reliable location 2) the data is reliably accurate and up-to-date.
3. Real-Time Coaching Opportunities
   Tools like Toro's StaffIQ are already identifying coaching opportunities for staffing leaders. As AI evolves, these insights will only get sharper.

Closing Thoughts

Clean ATS data isn't just a nice-to-have anymore—it's the foundation that will determine whether AI transforms your healthcare staffing firm or becomes just another failed technology initiative. The difference between success and failure isn't in choosing fancier AI tools, it's in having clean, structured data they can actually use.

That's why we built DataIQ: to automatically transform the valuable information in your recruiters' everyday conversations into clean, structured data that powers better AI outcomes. No manual data entry, no changing recruiter workflows, no compromise on data quality.

The future of healthcare staffing belongs to firms that can harness AI effectively. Will your data be ready?

Ready to see how DataIQ can transform your ATS data?
Schedule a demo with Toro today and take the first step toward AI-driven recruitment success.