Oh no! This is the worst decision a recruiting firm
(Contingency or Retained) can make.
I can make countless analogies
here. Would a
surgeon operate on himself or make his own instruments? Do pianists build
their own pianos?
Does a pilot build his own plane? Why would a recruiting
firm build their own recruiting software? It does not make
sense, unless the recruiting firm is global with thousands of
employees. Even
then I would question the wisdom of this decision. Yet there is not one
week that has gone by in my 15 years of giving recruiting
software demos where I find a firm seriously considering such
a decision!
I believe buying the worst recruiting
software application is better than building your own even if
the custom software does work well and does exactly what you
want. Although
you will soon find out that it never
will.
The worst that can come of building your own recruiting
software is that you are actually successful and have it
working pretty well. Then the money pit and resource drain starts. Every time computers
and/or software evolve to new heights your spiffy recruiting
software stays where it was, or you invest in yet another
round of upgrades and retrofitting. Better hope those
computer geniuses are still around to make the changes or else
your new computer genius may say “this is spaghetti code and
we need to start all over”. J
So, why do some recruiting firms do
it or even consider it?
I don’t really know, but here are some of my best
guesses from most to least
likely.
A successful recruiting firm has a
business model that does not quite fit their current software
or anything they have looked at. Of all the reasons for
rolling your own, this is probably the best. But, it is still
wrong. The
development will cause lack of focus on recruiting. The long range effects
are still just as devastating because the recruiting software
monster once created will have to be fed and cared for. Similar to your
children coming to you with tears in their eyes for the
adorable puppy and you say yes. After about a year,
guess who ends up feeding it, walking it and taking the now
full grown dog to the vet. Does your custom
recruiting software pay its way by contributing more to
revenues than other commercial software? I doubt it! A pot of gold does not
exist at the end of the custom recruiting software
rainbow.
Another reason may be that the
recruiting firm is a start up and doesn’t see anything that
fits its perceived business model. The watch word here is
“perceived”. The
firm has no idea how it will actually be functioning a year
from now if it survives.
Why in the world would you be writing a recruiting tool
for a recruiting method that has not proven
itself?
And finally the worst reason for
rolling your own!
The owner or a partner prides him/her self on their own
technical prowess and possibly has even written a program or
two. I cannot
think of a better way to assure failure for either the
software or the recruiting company. Ah, the pride of
authorship and believing “I can do everything better than
anyone”; tsk, tsk glad I never worked with you as a
recruiter.
Ok, so what do you do if you have
looked and looked and can’t find anything you like but you
absolutely need some kind of recruiting software? Find the one that is
the closest fit, make it work, stop worrying about technique
and get on with the business of
recruiting.
Almost all software of any kind at
best answers about 80% of what you want to do with it.
S ome tips on selecting
recruiting software
.
