Bullhorn 8.5
This month we have the
honor of reviewing the venerable ATS provider, Bullhorn, one of the industry
leaders and one we have written about in this column before. Bullhorn just
released their latest and greatest, version 8.5 which I am going to write about
today. They provide a fully integrated, Web-native front office solution,
comprising integrated email, calendaring, applicant tracking, customer
relationship management, and job order management…meeting the needs of all
sized of staffing and recruitment firms, including temporary and permanent
placement.
The focus of this
column will be on the Applicant Tracking System (ATS). This is the staffing and
front office solution that you leave open on your desktop all day long and can
also be accessed from a wireless device. As a result, they refer to it as the
“virtual office that drives your company’s growth”.
Since
it is a web-based product there is nothing to install on your local PC and
all you need to get started is an Internet connection and your web browser.
After entering
your user name and password, Bullhorn opens up to an integrated email client,
similar to Outlook, with your folders on the left and your messages and preview
pane on the right. Its functionality is similar to Outlook and other email
programs, and is designed for you to start working with it immediately.
I jumped right
into the Candidates area, which is feature rich. Other than adding a new
candidate (either manually or with the Resume Wizard), you can view your
complete Candidate List, which is searchable. From the Candidate List view you
have many options. I started by clicking on a link to view a candidate. The next
screen opens to your candidates’ overview, which is laid out nicely and easily
configurable with the admin layout toolkit. You have a quick and easy view of
pertinent data including the resume, status, notes (the last 10), salary
information, contact information, category (title), location preferences, and
other information as well. There are an unlimited number of “tabs” of data
per candidate (the demo account showed 14) including attachments, education,
notes, references, matches, edit (for updates to record), test scores, work
history, and others. You may not need each tab for every candidate but they are
there if you do and can be hidden if you don’t.
I’ll take this
opportunity to mention a nice feature. One of the tabs is a “login” tab. You
can assign your candidate a user name and password, and then they can log into a
candidate portal and update their own record, which then becomes part of the
permanent record. The Resume Wizard (resume data parsing feature) seems to work
well. I parsed a couple of resumes and the new records appeared with no errors,
including skills, which is impressive.
Searching your
candidate records is easy and intuitive. Nicely done is a Quick Search feature
accessible directly from the candidate List View where you can run a search for
data from any field in the candidate record simply by typing in a word or two
and then clicking the Find button. There are also both a Search and a Custom
Search feature enabling a much more comprehensive search of your database
including attachments and notes. If you run the same types of searches over and
over again, there are Saved Queries you can access and run with one click.
Overall, a great suite of searching features guaranteed to allow you to access
any candidate that you are looking for.
I won’t spend
a lot of time on the Clients screen as it has many of the same views, data and
features of the Candidates screen. I do like the Activity tab, where you can
view all of the activity with this client, including current or previous
interviews and placements. Interestingly, they have this one area for both
hiring contacts and companies, which I think is well thought out design. Many
database products have separate screens for this feature, separating the two but
since they are so closely associated, I appreciate the consolidation of
information. The Job List (job orders) is also similar to the other screens
mentioned above. You can have only the Open jobs listed if you wish or look at
job orders by type (temp, temp-perm, perm, contract, project, search, etc.).
Let me also
mention that as I have been working in various screens I have noticed that if
you open a screen and don’t close it, it remains open while you are able to
open while you are able to open and view other screens. There is a list on the
left side of your screen of all of your open pages and you are able to bounce
from one to another and really get some work done when you need to.
Their placement
form is very simple, as it should be, with a total of thirteen fields, not all
of which are mandatory. I should also mention that all records (candidate,
client, contact, job, placement) are easily configurable. Placements can be as
simply as salary and fee percentage or more complex depending on the user’s
needs. The placement form can also be filled out automatically directly from the
Candidates’ screen. Invoicing is then handled directly from the placement form
information. I also like the fact that if you split fees it has an area for 3rd
party referral fee payments.
Integration is a
cornerstone component of this product. Not only is the email client and
candidate communication integrated with the database but they also offer fax
integration with eFax, online timecards for those who support staffing services,
and integrated invoicing and payments.
Reporting is one
of the strong points. I noticed at least a couple of dozen reports available
including activity, mail merge, mailing labels, job listings, placements, sales,
etc. I also want to mention they have an excellent Help feature that I used
several times in the course of this review, and is very thorough and easy to
navigate.
Bullhorn
subscription pricing is based on enabled users, and entitlement - Full Users,
Admin Users, Email Users and other roles – and costs approximately $135 per
user, per month. Discounts are available for larger firms based on user
commitments. Implementation costs
vary with the complexity of your business needs but typically vary between 15
and 30 percent of the annual lease cost.
This service is so
packed with features that I knew that I was not going be able to cover them all
in this article. Some features of note that I do not have the space for include
an excellent integrated Calendaring/Task List feature, wireless connectivity,
ticklers, activity tracking, customization, and many others.
I would encourage
anyone seeking a first-class front office solution to consider and investigate
Bullhorn. They can be reached toll-free at 866-538-7795 or you can visit them on
the web at www.bullhorn.com.
AIRS
2006 Job Board & Recruiting Technology Guide
AIRS, one of the
leaders in recruitment training and technology, recently announced the
availability of their new 2006 Job Board & Recruitment Technology Guide as
of October 31st. I downloaded and took a look at the guide and can
attest to the fact it is a comprehensive listing of general, niche and specialty
job boards. It has a “yellow pages” design style and is organized into two
sections: job board listings and recruiting technology, including applicant
tracking systems, career site hosting services, and job order cross posting
services. Best new yet is that the guide is provided free of charge by visiting
the AIRS website – www.airsdirectory.com
and signing up for the download. Anyone seeking a career site or niche job
board, or maybe a geographically oriented service, should definitely check this
out.
ClearanceJobs.com
Update
We wrote a
review earlier this year for an excellent career portal for resumes and job
order postings for individuals with government issued security clearances,
ClearanceJobs.com. This is an excellent service for this type of recruiting
specialty that I have used personally with very good results. I heard from the
recently noting some updated information about their service.
They have
experienced enormous growth this year, nearly tripling the number of registered
cleared job seekers to almost 60,000. They have the largest database of
security-cleared candidates anywhere.
Look for more
improvements to their service in 2006. They will be improving the Resume Search
Engine, plan on increasing the number of registered Job Seekers and also plan on
improving their Job Posting performance.
If you place
people that require security clearances check out this service at www.clearancejobs.com.
Press
Release
TalentHook Teams up with SmartSearch Online ATS
San Diego,
December 1, 2005 - TalentHook, the resume search tool, announced today its
partnership and integration with popular applicant tracking system SmartSearch.
Users of the two products will take advantage of a streamlined process with
TalentHook finding the resumes and exporting them directly into their back-end
database and tracking system SmartSearch.
'Our
customers want tools that enable them to find and connect with qualified
candidates,' said Doug Coull, CEO of APS - SmartSearch Online. 'Our partnership
with TalentHook means our customers have access to one of the leading online
recruiting resources; they can now easily transfer candidates found using
TalentHook into their SmartSearch Online database. This integration maximizes
recruiter productivity and improves the quality of hires by opening up a wider
candidate pool.'
"TalentHook
is always looking for ways to improve the process and save recruiters valuable
time," adds Phil Gonzalez, CEO of TalentHook. "Our integration with
SmartSearch is just another example of how we are improving things for
recruiters every day. When two great software products like TalentHook and
SmartSearch work together in tandem, everybody wins."
APS has been in
the business of developing and implementing large-scale recruitment management
systems since 1985 and has successfully provided systems to thousands of users.
Having pioneered the field of resume-scanning-based recruiting solutions, APS
remains the leader in developing innovative approaches to recruitment data
management. An example of this leadership is SmartSearch Online - its
browser-based staffing management system now in its 9th release, with more than
200 current customers worldwide. Learn more about SmartSearch Online by visiting
www.smartsearchonline.
Tip
– Search Engines
Everyone knows
(or should) about retrieving free resumes from Google. Also, I had just written
a tip recently about the Yahoo search engine. Keep in mind there are many others
that can produce results for you. Below is a list of search engines that you can
try. Go into the help section for each one as the operators for each one are
similar but not exactly the same. For example, some use spaces for AND’s, some
use plus signs (+), and others use the word AND. Same with other operators as
well. There is also a shorter list of “meta” search engines. These make your
life easier as you can type in your search string once, then they search
multiple search engines for you. A lot less tedious, however, the downside is
that they are less flexible than going into each search engine individually. If
you have the time and inclination to take a run and locating free resumes on the
Internet for your next search, give some of these a try. Good Luck!
Search
Engines
Google
– www.google.com
Ask
Jeeves – www.askjeeves.com
AllTheWeb.com
–www.alltheweb.com
AOL Search – search.aol.com
HotBot
– www.hotbot.com
Teoma
– www.teoma.com
AltaVista
– www.altavista.com
Gigablast
– www.gigablast.com
LookSmart
– www.looksmart.com
Lycos
– www.lycos.com
MSN
Search – search.msn.com
Netscape
Search – search.netscape.com
Open Directory – dmoz.org/
Meta
Search Engines
Dogpile
– www.dogpile.com
Vivisimo
– www.vivisimo.com/
Kartoo
– www.kartoo.com
Mamma
– www.mamma.com
SurfWax
– www.surfwax.com