To help you identify the most crucial factors in evaluating new recruiting software, we asked HR managers and business leaders for their best insights. From enhancing candidate experience to leveraging analytics and reporting, here are the top seven factors these leaders considered and how they impacted their decision-making process.
- Enhance Candidate Experience
- Focus on Competency Assessments
- Ensure Comprehensive Training
- Automate Communication
- Support Multi-Area Management
- Integrate Security and Platforms
- Leverage Analytics and Reporting
Enhance Candidate Experience
As an HR professional, candidate experience has been one of the essential factors in choosing the right recruiting software for our company. A seamless, positive experience for applicants is important in the recruitment process to achieve desired outcomes.
For instance, we specifically looked for user-friendly software coupled with robust communication and engagement tools. Our previous system had a cumbersome application process, often leading to candidate drop-offs. So, switching to a more intuitive platform with automated status updates, email templates, list segmentation, and more has been a successful step in improving the candidate journey.
With this switch, compared to last year, we noticed a 25% increase in completed applications and a 20% improvement in candidate satisfaction scores. The automated-communication features helped us to keep candidates informed about their application status, enhancing their perception of our company.
Bonus Tip: in the recruitment process, we kindly ask candidates to share their experience with our software. Their feedback helps us identify areas for improvement, ensuring the software remains effective and aligned with candidate expectations.
Yulia Pavlova, HR Professional, Key Partnerships Manager, aqua cloud
Focus on Competency Assessments
One crucial factor I considered when evaluating new recruiting software for our organization was its ability to provide a detailed and nuanced assessment of candidates. This was important to me because I believe hiring should focus on human potential rather than just traditional metrics like education or experience. A big part of this was the software’s competency-assessment feature.
Competency assessments let us evaluate candidates based on the specific skills and behaviors needed for success in the role. By measuring these competencies, we can identify strengths and areas for growth, ensuring that candidates not only have the technical skills required but also the soft skills necessary for teamwork and leadership. This approach helps us align our hiring practices with our company’s goals and culture. This had a huge impact on our decision-making process.
We needed software that could dig deeper than surface-level evaluations and give us real insights into candidates’ personalities, cognitive styles, and problem-solving abilities. This focus on competency-based hiring ensures we’re choosing individuals who are a perfect fit for both the job and our company culture. Ultimately, picking software with these advanced assessment capabilities made our hiring decisions more informed and confident. It streamlined our process, saved us valuable time, and helped us build a team ready for success.
Linda Scorzo, CEO, Hiring Indicators
Ensure Comprehensive Training
The level of training that is provided out-of-the-box to our team is important. Whether that’s bespoke training via the platform or easy-to-digest walkthroughs of the software, it’s crucial that any new software or tool has the training requirements to send as part of the onboarding process (and that they don’t assume prior software knowledge from the outset).
Wendy Makinson, HR Manager, Joloda Hydraroll
Automate Communication
Automated and scheduled communication must be a part of recruiting software. Maintaining a clear recruitment funnel is paramount in building your company’s reputation as an employer, even a potential one. I can’t possibly keep up with tracking when to send a follow-up email, so being able to create human or AI emails for candidates that are sent on a scheduled basis is crucial.
Jarir Mallah, Human Resources Manager, Ling
Support Multi-Area Management
Definitely manage several areas at the same time, where the recruitment team can carry out a fluid process, and where internal and external clients can put their input and notes in the profiles. Important: this software should have evaluations by roles, and we can send them to the candidates easily, while ensuring that these results are easy to read and understand by the client.
Guillermo Ceballos, Managing Director, Talentika
Integrate Security and Platforms
I will say that two essential factors to consider when evaluating recruiting software are its security features and its integration with other software or platforms. I’d say that security is paramount in safeguarding sensitive candidate information and maintaining compliance with data protection regulations. You want to ensure that the software employs robust encryption, access controls, and regular security updates to protect your organization from breaches.
Moreover, integrations and add-ons can definitely enhance the functionality of recruiting software. For instance, integrating with a background screening provider can automate the background check process, which saves recruiters valuable time and ensures consistency. Similarly, connections with job boards and social media platforms like LinkedIn streamline posting job openings across multiple channels effortlessly, expanding your reach to potential candidates. Add-ons like applicant tracking systems, interview scheduling tools, and video interviewing platforms can also further streamline recruitment processes and improve overall efficiency.
Vikrant Bhalodia, Head of Marketing & People Ops, WeblineIndia
Leverage Analytics and Reporting
Good recruiting software needs to have powerful analytics and reporting tools. We believe that data-based decisions are critical, and our recruiting software is at the center of this approach.
We are now able to capture detailed metrics on which channels and job postings are producing the best candidates, as well as which sourcing methods work the best and have the highest return on investment. For instance, we saw an opportunity to reallocate our recruitment spend after noticing that LinkedIn produced the best candidates for instructor roles.
Additionally, analytics help us understand the behavior of candidates as well as time-to-hire metrics. We used analytics to understand the reasons why candidates were dropping out of the application process and where in the process they were dropping out and addressed issues by shortening the length of the application form and improving the communication flow throughout the recruitment journey. Analytics has helped us decrease time-to-hire by 20% and improve the candidate experience.
With recruitment software that provides all the analytics we need, we can make informed decisions, optimize our recruiting strategy, and hire the best talent.
Derek Bruce, HR | Operations Director, First Aid at Work Course
