Taming the Beast: Get a hold on your recruiting software

In today’s age of human resources enterprise technology, everything seems to revolve around utilizing software to get ahead in the business world.  Whether it  be making work flow more efficient, cutting costs, or organizing team collaboration- there are a myriad of functions that enterprise recruiting software and applicant management systems can serve.  However, with the number of options for software out there and the number of features per piece of software, it can often be a daunting and confusing process to pick and set up the perfect solution for your company.

We need to remember that the technology is there to serve us– not the other way around.  So the question is, how can we create a work environment where our recruiting software is serving us, making us more efficient, and boosting the collaboration our company requires?

The first step is to find recruiting software that is dead simple to set up. The setup is often telling of how smooth the whole process will go- so make sure your recruiting and hiring solution fulfills the requirement of simplicity first.  No matter how many bells and whistles the software touts, if the process is too complicated for your hiring managers and recruiters to utilize, nothing else matters.

In today’s technological age, software that you need to install directly to your hard drive (the type that comes as a CD installation disk) is an artifact of the past.  Utilizing HR software that lives in the cloud (or online) will save you a ton of hassles and will work to keep your company’s applicant management process simpler.  There are a number of reasons that working online can save your company time and money.  It is as simple as your employees logging in and accessing data from any computer that has internet access.   Greater access to your applicant management system means greater efficiency- whether a hiring manager is working from home and needs to collaborate with a recruiter downtown, or a manager is away on vacation and needs to deliver urgent data.

Collaboration is king in the recruiting software field, I cannot stress this enough.  No matter how fast a piece of software runs, or how many bells and whistles it has, its primary function needs to be a conduit that your employees can communicate through.

Sometimes it helps to look at your recruiting software like any other nifty online applications or social networks that people utilize on an everyday basis for communication.  Imagine if Facebook or Myspace lacked the functionality to make it super-easy to communicate, message, post and browse.   No matter how many other bells and whistles the social network had (video uploading features, location based technology, etc.) it wouldn’t matter- the application would not get any users.

Recruiting and Applicant Management software should not differ from your everyday social networking site in this manner.  It needs to fulfill its basic needs before it can offer anything beyond that.  When you are shopping for an enterprise HR software vendor, make sure you keep this in mind as you demo and preview their product.

Five Commandments for Picking your Company’s Applicant Management Software

An efficient and easy to use Applicant Management Solution for your company can often be the difference between countless hours of unnecessary work and smooth sailing. This is why picking the right software solution for your applicant management and recruiting needs is a very big deal.  Because there are so many options out there, I decided to create a top ‘Five Commandments’ to help you pick out the right solution for your company. Enjoy.

1. Thou shalt pick an applicant management solution that is completely online.

Many software solutions require lengthy and large downloads that can bog down your computer system and time efficiency. Welcome to the age of the internet. Unless you are flying a satellite, you shouldn’t have to download software to your computer, or worst, use a CD-ROM installation disk.

Your applicant management solution will be far easier to manage across multiple hiring managers and recruiters if it lives online. It will also boost productivity. Recruiters can log in at work, at home, on the road, at the airport or on vacation (if they are really devoted). Pretty much anywhere they have internet access, which today consists of a large portion of the modernized world.

2. Thou shalt pick applicant management software with good features, not more features.

Many applicant management solutions tout the endless amounts of bells and whistles which makes their product better than the next guys’. Realize that this is just a marketing ploy. More features are not better. In fact, too many useless features can hinder an efficient hiring process by distracting your hiring managers.

Look out for the important features that will make it cheaper and easier for end goal of hiring people. Tools that let people collaborate, inform, and recruit.

3.   3. Thy applicant management software must be easy to set up.

This one is a no brainer. The initial stages of using a product usually speak to what the entire process will be like. If the software is easy to access and set up, it probably will be easy to use throughout.

4.   4.  Thou shalt find applicant management software that provides human support

Very often the help and support you will receive for a piece of recruiting software will be limited to a readme.txt file located on the CD-Rom you purchase. Make sure you find a solution that provides real, live human beings to back you up when the going gets tough. Whether it is email, chat or phone support, it will be helpful to have someone on the other line.

5.   5. Thy software shall possess the ability to track history

One overlooked feature is the ability to look back and see what’s worked and what hasn’t. This is an important addition to your hiring software solution. How organized and efficiently does it lay it all out there? Just by looking at the history overview you should be able to make informed decision on who and what is making the right moves.