Meet Karen Risse
With over 20 years in the recruiting industry, Karen Risse has worked with some of the biggest names in staffing—including a five-year stint at Randstad, covering the Atlanta market. Later, she was recruited by Dan Campbell, founder of Hire Dynamics, to launch their presence in Charlotte.
Karen Risse Managing Partner at The Recruiting Pros
Today, she's the owner of a boutique firm. “Starting my own company had always been in the back of my mind," she says. "When Dan unexpectedly sold the business, that was the nudge I needed. Soon after, I launched The Recruiting Pros.”
“We’ve always focused on long-term partnerships—acting as an extension of our client’s HR teams, not just a one-and-done placement agency,” Karen explains.
Manufacturing talent
From day one, The Recruiting Pros carved out a niche in industrial manufacturing recruitment, working across automotive, home goods, consumer goods, pharma, and tooling/component manufacturers.
Finding the right ATS
Karen’s tech-savvy nature meant she was deeply involved in selecting and optimizing ATS and CRM platforms throughout her career. So, when launching her firm, she knew exactly what she needed: a customizable, scalable ATS with CRM capabilities.
“I had never heard of Zoho Recruit at the time—but it kept bubbling up," she says. "I evaluated it against two other platforms, and honestly, there was no question. Zoho Recruit was the one. ”
Why Zoho Recruit?
Custom fields and flexibilty
“We created fields to help us pinpoint niche fits. The ability to customize the platform to match how we recruit has been a game-changer.”
Proactive sourcing and integrations
“We use LinkMatch to source proactively, pull candidates into Zoho Recruit, and manage everything there. That integration is a huge win.”
Scalability that matches the company's growth
“As we grew, Zoho Recruit grew with us. We don’t need every feature—but it’s amazing to know the system has that depth when we need it.”
Daily efficiency
“Every morning, we go straight to a custom search: ‘Candidates to Be Processed.’ It helps us stay sharp and organized.”
Favorite feature?
"One of the things we do regularly is skill matching," says Karen. "So if we come across two, three, maybe even five candidates in a week who really impress us, and we know they’d be a perfect fit for a specific company or a very niche sector, we can tag and track that precisely inside Zoho. We've built out custom fields that help us target those opportunities super specifically."
She adds, “Genuinely, it's the email integration. It saves us so much time. That and our custom dashboards—Zoho does a lot of the heavy lifting in the background.”
Pro tip from Karen
“Don’t be afraid to customize it. Zoho Recruit gives you the tools—but you have to take the time to shape it around your business. That’s where the magic is.