Recruiter
Databases
If there is one area that has shown itself to be of continuing interest to the Fordyce readership it has to be recruiter databases, or ATS’s (Applicant Tracking Systems), as they are commonly referred to. Long ago, most of the communication I saw from the readers was related to Internet recruiting techniques…no more. Most every call or email we get these days is regarding the painful, frustrating and confusing process of selecting the right recruiting software.
Does
this sound like you?
·
You use Act!, Goldmine or even Outlook as your main database and your
employees use their own copies of the above that are not networked.
·
You use an old DOS database because you have been using it for so long
but your employees’ use whatever they can.
·
You are using an older Windows database that is not supported by the
developer any longer.
·
Your existing software vendor wanted to increase your license fees
drastically.
·
Your existing software vendor is going 100% web based and your not
interested.
·
You use MS/Word and MS/Excel extensively for your tracking needs.
·
You don’t currently use any software for candidate/client tracking.
If
so, it probably is, as I have heard all of the above scenarios, and more, from
Fordyce readers. Although we have written many reviews for ATS’s over the last
several years, and plan to continue to do so, it is not the purpose of this
article to review, recommend or even mention any particular software, but more
to offer some of the more important items to look for when making your
selection.
Face
it…this is a big decision. Whatever you end up with you will have to live with
for a long time. For those of you (most I am sure) that are currently using some
type of recruiting software, a time-consuming (and potentially expensive)
conversion process awaits you. Your decision is made much more difficult by the
fact there are literally dozens and dozens of options for you to select from.
There
are now, for at least the last five to six years or so, two basic models to
choose from.
Local/Networked:
These systems have been around for many years, starting out as DOS databases and
evolving to very sophisticated Windows packages. This type of application
resides on your local hardware and may or may not require other specialized
software. Some systems use SQLServer as the database that requires WindowsNT or
Windows2000 Server to operate. These systems may also require dedicated
hardware, depending on the number of users. Many systems, however, can be used
and even networked, without any hardware upgrades, unless your systems are
unusually out of date. In this model, you would be responsible for the software
installations, maintenance, upgrades, etc. The safety of your data would also be
your responsibility. Regular backups and offsite storage are advised. In
addition to the purchase price, which normally increases depending on the number
of users, there may be annual support and / or upgrade fees.
Web-Based:
The newer of the models and a boon for many. In this model you are not
responsible for any software maintenance or upgrades. Some packages install
software on your pc but others are 100% web based. They either use a browser
interface (a customized Internet Explorer) or a programmed interface but in both
cases your data resides on a server on the Internet somewhere. Many people I
have spoken with are uncomfortable with their data on the Internet, for
security’s sake but I have never had a problem with that issue. I feel if your
data in on a large Internet server it is probably safer there than on any
machine you have in your office. Also, all your users in your office can share
the same data. Networking without all the networking hardware in your office.
This is an excellent model if you have employees working from outside your
office or from home a lot. You can access your data from anywhere you have an
Internet connection. Pricing here runs from a low of about $75 a month up to
over $100 a month for each user. The cost is recurring but there is no up front
purchase cost. In general, with exceptions, these systems are somewhat slower
than non-web systems.
In
both models you may be hit with a fee for converting your existing data to the
new format. There is normally some data loss here as your current database may
have more or fewer fields than the new database.
Let’s
talk about ACT!, Goldmine and Outlook for a minute. These products are in the
Contact Manager software category. ATS’s are great contact managers, but much
more. To this day many recruiters use these products, as they are quite
excellent in doing their job of keeping the recruiter in touch with both their
clients and candidates, however, unless you employ an expensive third party
solution or add-in, these products don’t do a very good job of keeping track
of job orders, resume submissions, client interview and placements…integral
parts of managing your desk or your business.
Still
using Word and Excel docs, so are many others. Before databases, I did as
well…had all my candidate submissions, interviews and placements recorded but
each document was an island. Had to type the same thing over and over. No big
picture here.
Be
wary of resume database software. These are inexpensive databases that store,
then let you search against your resumes. Not that they don’t have their place
for certain applications but speaking for myself, I do not have resumes for many
of my day-to-day contacts such as hiring managers and / or HR contacts. Probably
better for recruiting only.
Earlier
this year I was asked by the Top Echelon network to contribute to an article
they were writing about recruiter databases to run in their Network News
newsletter. They asked me my “must have” list of ATS features. I will
mention some of those and add a few as well.
Look
for a simple, intuitive interface. My favorites are those that present a
candidate or job order on one or two pages. Any more than that and there is too
much clicking going on and too much time is necessary to add a new contact. You
need a name and contact information, maybe skills, education and notes right up
front. Many software developers don’t understand this.
Although
I have reviewed a high quality product or two that did not offer data parsing,
you probably shouldn’t consider any product or service not offering this
feature. What a boon for recruiters. For the most part it gets you out of most
data entry. Normally, you would paste the text of a resume into a text box in a
new record in your database, click the parsing engine button, then see the
prospects name and all his contact information magically appear in a new record.
Fill in the skills, education and whatever else you need for that persons record
and you are done. I couldn’t live without it.
What
good is putting data in a database if you can’t get it back out again? Look
for a comprehensive search interface at the very minimum. One that allows you to
search on any field in any record. Keep in mind your not just looking for phone
numbers. You are searching for people working for a target company…maybe those
that graduated from a particular college. Need a candidate with specialized IT,
accounting and/or engineering skills…you need to be able to search for those
as well. That’s at a minimum. A quick search feature is handy as is a feature
that allows you to perform text searches against the resumes in each contacts
record.
You
absolutely, positively must be able to attach files to a record. An unlimited
amount of attachments is nice but certainly several at a minimum. You might
attach a person’s original resume, plus his newly formatted resume. Fields for
attaching faxes, text files, email messages, web pages should also be available.
You
need a solid support team. Nothing is more frustrating that being out of
business due to a software problem and not being able to get your vendor’s
technical support personnel on the telephone. You need a commitment from your
vendor that they will provide ongoing support for your product. Check references
here.
The
preceding paragraphs offer a start to your selection process. Also keep in mind
other possible features including a calendar / planner, email integration, mail
/ merge, web site integration, remote access, management reporting, and
scalability.
Nothing
I can write here today will make your selection process an easy one but the best
advice I can give you is to determine what your basic needs are…then go from
there.
TopJobSites.com
A
site that could be of interest to anyone thinking about running an Internet
recruitment ad. TopJobSites.com is where you can go to find the rankings of
Internet job sites. They have sections for General sites, and many other sites
for College, Executive, Niche, Diversity and International specializations. For
example, by clicking on Niche sites, you can locate the number one job sites for
the IT, Finance/Accounting, Health Care, Retail, Logistics, Sciences,
Securities, Bio-Pharm, Engineering, Human Resources, Legal, Post-Military,
Sales/Marketing and Telecom industries. This site is free and supported by
advertisers. If you could use a service like this you can check them out at www.TopJobSites.com.
TIP
Again
for this month another tip from Barbara Ling. She mentions a great tool that
could be extremely useful in locating those candidates your client’s can’t.
We thank her profusely.
“I’m
sure you’re aware of company sites like http://www.att.com
and http://www.merck.com
and http://www.microsoft.com
and....
But
were you aware those URLs represent only 1
server in the entire corporate domain? For example, while there’s http://www.microsoft.com
, there’s also http://research.microsoft.com.
And http://broadcast.microsoft.com/.
And http://cuai97.microsoft.com/
. And....
Get
the idea?
Now.
Think for a sec. Quite often, developers will set aside ‘sandboxes’ -
places where they can test out different apps on the Internet. Sometimes these are accessible by the public as well! This
can be a great boon for your advanced sleuthing needs. One site that will help
you find this info out is http://www.netcraft.com
. This site will reveal to you all
the sites that exist under a particular domain!
If you search on Microsoft, for example, you’ll see over 490 sites - http://www.netcraft.com/?host=.microsoft.
The search functionality is at http://www.netcraft.com/?host
.
How
can you use this? Well, quite often
developers will host their own playgrounds (or sandboxes, as I mentioned above)
in various and sundry areas on a corporate network.
Netcraft provides a neat way to uncover some quality recruiting
resources.
Here’s
an example. Perhaps you want to
recruit from a large company such as the Jet Propulsion Labs at http://www.jpl.gov
. Searching for jpl will show you:
http://www.netcraft.com/?host=.jpl.&last=tmot.jpl.nasa.gov&from=151&restriction=site
contains&position=limited
Click
on http://www-aig.jpl.nasa.gov
You’ll
be brought to http://www-aig.jpl.nasa.gov/
that has a nice link to current personnel at http://www-aig.jpl.nasa.gov/public/planning/personnel.html
- complete with phone numbers and email addresses. :-)”