Week zero
Analysis and database cleanup
We read your database and clean up what is in there: gaps, duplicates, missing fields. You get your own data back, complete.
Daniel Morgan
Contact since 2021
EmployerNorthbay MarineLeft 6 months ago
RoleHead of OperationsTwo roles ago
SectorMaritime & offshoreIn energy now
RegionNorthbay areaNow in Eastport
In your list view this record still looks fine.
The situation
Your records did not change, everyone in them did.
Thousands of contacts, and not one of them tells you when something changes.
You find out when someone else has already called.
20,000
3,340
changed employer this year.
20,000 × 16.7%
1,900
also changed sector, so your filters miss them entirely.
20,000 × 9.5%
DNB analysis of CBS microdata, 2011 to 2025
16.7 per cent of employees change employer each year, and 57 per cent of those also change sector. That is a national average across all employees. In flex and secondment the rate runs higher, so treat your number as the floor.
Data enrichment and cleanup
Every record ages. Not every record has to.
Your database keeps itself current, so a signal is worth the call.
Corrected, then completed
Aged values get corrected, empty fields get filled, and what checks out is left alone. It comes from outside your system: the public profiles where candidates keep their own work up to date.
Simulate on a selection first, then the whole database
Choose which fields a run may fill, and which it may overwrite
Seniority follows your definition, not ours
Live in your own ATS in weeks, not a migration project
Agent · EnrichmentRun complete
100% up to date
| Candidate | Sector | Seniority | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
NDNoah de Wit | Industrial tech | Senior | Field EngineerOperations Lead |
MJMila Janssen | Healthcare tech | Medior | Service Technician |
LBLiam Bakker | Energy | Medior | Project EngineerProject Manager |
SBSofie de Boer | Retail logistics | Junior | Planner |
EVEmma Vermeer | Infrastructure | Senior | Site ManagerContract Manager |
Sourcing
Candidates update their LinkedIn before they apply. You call before they do.
You already knew this candidate. You just missed the signal.
Timing beats volume
All his work experience expanded. A new bio. A new profile photo. Three changes in one week, while nothing about his job changes. That may point to someone quietly getting ready to move.
You get a notification and a task on the record, right where you already work
You call someone whose profile is changing right now, not a list from last year
Only candidates you already know: in your own system, never a cold list
Profile activity3 changes in 7 days
Frank Jones
Engineer · Kestrel IndustriesEngineer · Kestrel Industries
Mechanical engineeringDutch, English & German
Work historyAll experience expanded
Up to 2019Up to 2019Up to today
BioNew bio
No bioNo bioAdded
Profile photoNew profile photo
From 2019From 2019Last week
Same role · same employer
Same job, updated profile. That's often the pattern that comes before the first application.
New business
Spot new business first.
A contact moves. Their new company starts hiring. You see both.
1The contact record
A contact you know walks into a company you don't have.
The record updates itself, and the relationship travels with it.
Rick Barlow
Job
Hiring Manager
Company
Mersey Technical
DalewoodRelation
Warm · you placed 3 people for him
2The organisation record
Their roles appear before anyone calls you.
Every role lands on the record, routed to the right recruiter.
Dalewood
Contact
None on fileRick Barlow
Owner
UnassignedFiona Whitmore · follows Rick
Roles this week
Maintenance Engineer
Just now
Routed to
Jim Dawson
Project Engineer
8 min ago
Routed to
Sarah Vance
Agents
Make your own agents.
These three among the other usecases come with your account. Make your agents after.
For who it coverswhen what it reacts tothen what it does
Agent · Intake
A CV lands in the inbox
Forall candidateswhena CV arrives by emailthencreate a CV in your own template
Runs automatically · lands in your ATS
Agent · Job change
Someone changes jobs
Forall contactswhentheir social media profile changesthenpost the new title and company to your team feed
Runs on every change · your team sees it first
Agent · Hiring signal
A client starts hiring
Forall companieswhena new vacancy appearsthenadd the parsed vacancy to the account
Runs daily · lands as a task
Onboarding
You'll be live on Spadework in two weeks.
No migration, no downtime, no new system for your team to learn. Your database stays where it is. We only add what it was not telling you yet.
Week one
Set up your agents
Together we pick the signals worth your attention. You set how much each agent decides on its own, and where the opportunity lands.
Week two
Spadework is up and running
The first opportunities arrive in the system your team already works in. You spot them in time and decide what happens next.
Questions, answered
The questions we get asked most.
What agencies want to know before they connect their database. Short answers, no small print.
It watches the people and companies already in your database and flags it the moment something moves. A contact switches jobs, a client starts hiring again, a candidate takes a step. You get the movement with the context attached, and you decide what it is worth.
We call that opportunity intelligence. In practice it means those opportunities were already yours, you just did not see them in time.
Agents do that work. New business, database enrichment and sourcing are the agents you start with, and you shape each one to the way you work. It does not stop at those three either: for the work your team repeats every week, you build your own.
Your own database. Spadework works with the people and companies you already have a relationship with, and completes those records from public sources. No purchased contact lists, no cold external data.
Yes. Spadework works within your own database, on people who are there with consent, and it is built and hosted in the EU. Nobody outside your own network enters the system.
Nothing is pooled either. One agency's data never ends up with another.
As much as you allow, and no more. Every agent has two separate switches and you set both. Start runs decides whether the agent may begin on its own when something comes in. Apply changes decides whether it may write its outcome back itself. Each switch is either require approval or automatic, per agent, and you can turn it back any time.
Next to the switches sits a maturity ladder that shows how far an agent has been trained in: test it on one event, then on a few, then let it reach for its own tools, then run it on as many events as you like. You keep running events until you trust the agent's judgement. Nothing is applied that you have not approved, unless you switched that on yourself.
No, not on its own. You get the alert with the context attached, and what happens next is yours to decide. The relationship you built stays yours.
If you would rather automate it, you can. You give the agent the instruction to send the message itself. So it is a choice, not a default: nothing goes out that you did not switch on.
No. Spadework has formal partnerships with OTYS, Carerix, Byner and Mysolution, and integrates with others including Bullhorn, Teamtailor and Yellowyard. If yours is not on the list, we look at it with you and get the integration built.
Without an ATS you upload your contacts and receive your opportunities by email. Spadework doesn't replace your ATS, it adds to it.
No, only admins. Usually a manager, or whoever handles IT. They build the agents and set the preferences, which is also where they decide how opportunities arrive and who gets them.
The rest of your team never enters Spadework and keeps working in your own ATS. A note on the record, a task assigned to the owner of that account, or one mail in the morning holding only their own opportunities. Nobody has to learn a new tool, so it fits the way your team already works.
Sourcing tools find you people you do not know yet. Spadework tells you when the people you already know start moving. The relationship is already there, which is why the call lands differently.
Yes, that is the point. The agents you start with cover the movement most agencies care about, and after that you build your own: what it listens to, what part of your database it watches, which tools it may use, and how much it may do without asking.
If your team has a piece of work it repeats every week, that is usually the first agent you build.
Within 2 weeks, not a migration project. For the systems we already connect to, the integration is there, so nothing needs building. You see it on your own data first, then you decide what you switch on.
Something we did not answer here? We reply faster than you would expect, usually within 24 hours.
Ask us anything