subject: Applicant tracking software – Decision Time [print this page] Applicant tracking software Decision Time
Marketing for any enterprise level technology tends to follow a common formula. The product sales team will generally stress "powerful" features, showcase high-profile clients and emphasize simple integration. While these sales principles ring true for many industries, they are often more stringently applied to enterprise software products. Recently, I attended a group sales presentation from several vendors in the applicant tracking software industry. During the event each company presented their product using PowerPoint slides to walk through their products. As I closed my eyes and listened to the speakers, each presentation ran together into an amorphous cloud of hollow marketing lingo and statements worn out by years of repeated use during sales calls. During the event a sinking feeling began to set in. How are potential customers supposed to differentiate between these products and formulate a purchasing preference? Fortunately, I was seated next to a corporate recruiter who was in the final stages of the decision process. Here is some insider anecdotal research he offered up during the networking event that followed.
Litmus Test the Features that peak your interest
When it came to examining product features, our test recruiter had some invaluable information. During the course of several sales presentations he put together a select list of the features that peaked his interest. One vendor mentioned recruiting analytics to help analyze inefficiencies in the recruiting process. While the recruiter was familiar with status reports, the visual analytics seemed to offer a new dimension to examining the recruiting funnel. In order to test the value of the analytics feature, he decided to place a quick phone call to some of the company's clients to see if they had positive feedback on the product and more specifically the recruiting analytics feature. Sure enough, one user was quick to report that the analytics feature had helped them improve their recruiting funnel by providing visual information about a process bottleneck involving a hiring manager. Once the HR team was able to show the hiring manager a visual graph of the unnecessary time he was adding to the recruiting process, the hiring manager improved his response time dramatically. This testimonial evidence helped convince our test recruiter that the feature did in fact add value to the process and was not merely an extra set of bling to help sell the product.
Find Features that you know will make you more efficient
The point of buying applicant tracking software is to make your recruiting staff more efficient at recruiting. Our test recruiter went into the buying process looking for specific features that experience showed would make recruiting easier. One of the biggest headaches he had faced during his career was closing the loop with candidates. His company required high volume searches and his personal standards dictated that he would have to send thank you letters to each candidate in the pipeline. This conundrum had led to a significant amount of time being applied to emails not directly related to finding the best candidate for each position. In the purchasing process he intentionally targeted vendors that offered a solution to his longtime problem. One of the applicant tracking software vendors offered push button automated emails that insured he could still professionally close the loop with candidate while spending more time on higher level prospects.
Look for features that open your eyes
Our recruiter's biggest piece of advice was perhaps his most obvious; keep your eyes open for useful feature that you may have never thought about. One applicant tracking software vendor highlighted their automated equal employment opportunity compliance feature. The system basically captured reasons for each time they decided to pass on a candidate and it also generated an automatic report matching the EEOC standards. While my new recruiting friend had experience with spreadsheet tracking for EEO compliance, he was the first to admit that the in-house records were not very organized or up to date. The EEO Tracking feature offered a benefit to a problem that he had never faced, an EEOC audit. While his team had never been audited in the past, the feature would provide some serious peace of mind in the event that the EEOC came knocking at his door.
Walking away from the event I learned that often times industry experience is the best weapon for selecting the proper applicant tracking system. During a long career in the hiring industry you learn certain truths about the process. Look for products that address the need of a corporate recruiter. If the software is made by recruiters, even better. Either way, bounce your choices off of someone with experience and you are sure to come out on top.
