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Selecting
Recruiting Software If you are in the recruiting industry I do not
need to tell you how competitive it is. Choosing the right staffing
software
may provide the competitive edge you need. A decade ago executive
search systems were virtually non-existent, today there are over
100 vendors providing recruitment software ranging in price from
$125,000 to $500. How do you choose the one that’s right for you?
1. Your first step
is to have a good idea on how you do and want to do, your
recruiting. I know this statement seems strange but after listening
to our clients for over twelve years describing their business and
how they use our product, ‘Gopher for Recruiters’, I am convinced that
no two recruiting business’s operate or use the software in the same
way. In fact I am convinced that if you took 10 of our customers put
them in a room and requested that they describe their business and applicant
tracking or resume database software without mentioning ‘Gopher for
Recruiters’ many of them would
not realize they are using the same recruiter software.
2. Decide on the
staffing software before you buy the hardware. So many times I have seen
someone buy an expensive piece of computer hardware and then start
looking for software to run the business with and find that his
choices are limited because of the hardware.
3. Determine the
prospects of your vendor being there for you five years from now.
Once you have converted or entered your recruiting data into a
recruiting system you are dependent on being able to get at it or at
least convert it. If your vendor goes out of business you may have
serious problems in getting to your resume database. You will want to research
how long they have been in business, client references and credit
checks.
4. Determine what
software tools were used to build the recruiting system i.e.,
computer language, database engines and other software tools. What
you’re looking for here is to make sure that your recruiting
software is not dependent on some specialized software tool or
vendor that may not be able to or may not want to keep up with the
rapid changes in the computing industry. For my customers protection
I like to put my money on Microsoft’s flagship products i.e. MS
WORD, MS ACCESS, EXCEL, VISUAL BASIC, SQL SERVER, WINDOWS and XP.
5. Determine the
quality of the product with some bellwether questions; does the
product have a demo, will the demo un-install from your computer?
where and what is the size of the customer support staff? Evaluate
the quality of the documentation.
6. Finally perform
some simple bench marks relating to the amount of work required to
perform basic recruiting tasks. Remember basic recruiting steps are performed
many times a day and the time consumed mounts
rapidly if the task is just a few keystrokes or clicks more:
- From the
point of entry to the system, how long, how many keystrokes and/or
clicks does it take me to find a person picked at random based on
skills, name, salary and or geography?
- How long,
how many keystrokes and/or clicks does it take me to get a phone
number of a person from various points in the database?
- How
quickly can I find out the latest conversation with a client or
applicant that has just called, while I am performing other
tracking tasks?
- From any
point in the database what steps do I have to perform to search for
information? Are my searches restricted to certain areas or can
every field that displays or accepts data be queried? When I do
search for information and the results are displayed, can the
displayed information be changed or updated or is another task or
screen required for updating?
- Is there
ownership responsibility for the data entered into the database? Can
you tell who entered a note, job order, calendar or resume?
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© Copyright 2009, BlackDog Recruiting Software Inc.
