Recruiting and Technology: Session 3

There was a recent discussion on ERE and LinkedIn about what a “modern” applicant tracking software (ATS) tool should include and the ROI for your business. Many of my consulting clients in the staffing or executive search business ask my opinion on, or are seeking, a new tool as the current tool they have is not being used or does not have the latest bells and whistles. Below is my response to this question, which has generated a lot of interest and discussion.

It seems people are looking to buy or enhance current ATS systems as technology continues to advance. I have done a lot of work with various ATS tools over the years through my exposure with sitting in technology positions / chairs within industry and HR associations. While I do have favorites and have gone as far as to be a SME and / or reference for 2-3 tools, I would say “it depends.” A true ATS tool used in the staffing / recruitment arena is very robust and not just a tracking and on-boarding tool utilized by HR. A true staffing / recruitment ATS tool not only tracks applicants, but is intuitive to the job order(s), client(s), and end user(s) for the candidate so one note in the system follows all points. The top tools on the market right now even go as far as to incorporate the following:

1. Web based
2. Integrated email which auto-tracks to all records
3. Third-party tool friendly (i.e. able to utilize some of the hot tools like Contact Capture and Diver)*
4. VoIP / Network phone integration for auto-dialing and call tracking
5. Can produce reports easily with NO extra costs
6. Integrates with your website
7. Email or at least sendouts tracking (are they being looked at, if so how often and by whom)
8. Applicant tracking back to the specific job (auto-parsing)

The reverse should be true as the ATS should also be able to act as the CRM tool for client management so recruiters are not trying to track down notes, a sales rep or looking through other systems to get valuable information about a client or manager. The best tools are based on a CRM platform where both the client and the candidate are treated as a potential lead and everything has a time stamped tracking (this way you can meet various employment standards and regulations by clients and the government). Bad tools make you work for it on the client side. Worse, bad tools require more tools to manage clients in say salesforce.com* or ACT.*

One should look through all the activity for your company to see just how robust of a tool you need and use this as the benchmark for making a decision. Far too many recruiters and firms jump into a tool based on costs or the friendly rep and it cost them 10 times to get out of it! If it is not easy and intuitive for the staff, it will not be used…hands down from experience!

Feel free to connect with me off-line and I can share what my top 5 ATS tools are…

*Contact Capture, Diver, salesforce.com and ACT are all trademarked products.

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Chris Wellington “The Recruiting Guy”, President, The Wellington Group

Released just over three hours ago and already a lot of web-chatter, news announcements, emails and calls to my office about the latest job numbers from the US Department of Labor. The summary report can be found at Department of Labor New Release.

So what is all the hype about? 331,000 reported job losses for the month of July. Now that may seem like a very high number but its more “normal” than the losses from November 08 to April of this year, which averaged almost twice as many at 645,000 job losses per month. Total unemployment was down by.1 percent to 9.4%, not a significant change. The sector which had job gains continues to be Health Care with an increase of 20,000 jobs.

Since my ear is constantly to the ground for the staffing and recruiting industry, I had to take notice and point out the impact of the past 10 months. The temporary help market has lost 844,000 jobs while the entire business services sector has been impacted by 1.5 million jobs lost. The release notes this decline has lessened Substantially over the past three months. These numbers reflect the contract, contract to hire and consultant employment areas and not so much the direct hire or executive search services.

While this appears to be good news, the job losses we are still seeing in the staffing and recruitment industry to me is a key indicator that the US is yet to hit the “bottom” of the job loss portion of this economic turndown. In studying trending data for the last 25 years, until we begin to see a rise in staffing numbers we have yet to make a full turn in the positive. With staffing companies (IT, Engineering, Administrative, Day Labor, Etc) still laying off internal staff I don’t see a lot of confidence or stability in overall employment for the US.  

So, is it good news that perhaps the US is slowing on the job loss front? Unemployment seems to have stabilized for now right at 9.5%, not at the 10% plus which so many news media and talk show host predicated. Unfortunately I foresee these numbers rising again for a short period of time this fall as government and state budgets get approved, many of which will call for job cuts.

Chris