What are your HR Software priorities in 2008

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What are customers asking for?
John Cassidy, conkers.net tells us simple & reliable job posting tools are a prerequisite. The customer expects the technology to be 100% reliable, and the customer & technical support to be unrivalled. Now that many recruiters are familiar with the principles of ATS & MJP, end user demands and requirements are increasing. The result of this increased knowledge transpires in more customer lead products and services, which is great for our business. Many of our clients are top 20 consultancies, so expectations are high; thankfully we are in a perfect position to meet these demands. As well as the services offered by ATS and job posting services providers such as ourselves, it has become increasingly important to our clients that conkers.net can integrate with their in-house HR software, such as Bond Adapt and RDB Pro.

Flexible systems that can be tailored to specific requirements are also highly desirable attributes at the moment. David Buchanan, Managing Director of Logical Innovations says they have found that corporate organisations donít simply want to be offered an out of the box, one size fits all recruitment solution: ìThey want a system that will meet their individual business needs exactly. Businesses are looking for their recruitment system supplier to have a real partnership approach to their business and deliver innovative added benefits that effectively attracts the right candidates. We have found with existing clients this partnership approach has led to an ongoing relationship to continually work together to enhance the recruitment system as their business needs change and new challenges arise. Above all, the online recruitment system must be robust, adaptable, fast, simple and intuitive and deliver tangible benefits to their business.î He says that typically their corporate clientsí requirements include:

ï An increase in the quantity of not only applications, but suitable candidates
ï A reduction in the time to recruit
ï A reduction in per candidate application costs
ï A scalable system that can manage high volume applications efficiently
ï A reduction in recruitment administration time
ï An improved level of service to candidates

David Buchanan says their systems have also provided corporate businesses added benefits such as a Rewards Calculator and a Recruitment Kit: ìThe Rewards Calculator allows potential candidates and employees to calculate the true value of a particular vacancy in a totally transparent way. This can communicate the added benefits of why a candidate should be working for your business and not a competitorís i.e. a host of benefits that could have otherwise been missed at this critical attraction stage. The Recruitment Kit is a separate online portal which allows authorised employees the ability to print or order recruitment advertising material. For example posters can be produced at a local level for a particular vacancy, tailored to specific hours and location, and fully complying with corporate branding guidelines.î

He says they have also found that medium size businesses are now looking for more extensive functionality in their online recruitment system to allow them to compete for candidates on a level playing field with multi-nationals. As a result they will be launching the new version of TalentTracker eRecruiter over the coming months. This system will provide a wealth of functionality without the high set up fees which are often a barrier for medium businesses.

What are recruitment consultants and corporates asking of suppliers?
John Cassidy says: ìAs recruitment consultants and HR professionals become more familiar with recruitment software and technology, the demand for new and improved products has increased, not just in the UK but internationally. Over the past 6 months, our clients have become more focused on CV related services and candidate matching software, this is something the conkers development team has been working on for some time, and will be able to offer clients in the very near future.î He says the suggestions from their clients and input have proved invaluable over the past 12 months, and will be put into practice in 2008. As well as a new look homepage, conkers.net will also launch the long awaited ëChestnutsí bulletin and update service in February. In addition, their newly formed Professional Services Division (conkers PSD) will be launched during 2008 to address the needs of the corporate recruiter & HR professional, with a raft of Multi Level Services.

Meetu Mirpuri, Client Services Director, 4MAT believes well researched website design and high search engine ranking are vital. She says: ìNew web technologies and web savvy clients have changed the dynamics of the online recruitment market. The web is no longer seen as a form of advertising but rather its own cost centre and an integral part of the recruitment process. In todayís candidate focussed market, clients are demanding more from their website design. The idea that the design is just a representation of the offline branding with a few animated images is no longer valid. Today a successful web design process involves in-depth market research to understand the userís behavioural pattern along with a good understanding of the clientís business objectives. A key objective for any presentation is to understand your audience first, and this applies equally to the web.

In building the web site another factor that is demanded is high search engine ranking. A beautiful website with all the correct calls to action but without any traffic is ineffective. A successful websites should be built with SEO in mind at every stage this is done to ensure that no development is carried out that will hinder the siteís performance of search engines. The major change in the market is the shift in business objectives. The employersí goal is no longer to just generate high volumes of registrations, but to capture the passive candidate. To reach this proportion of the working population the website needs to integrate with third party lifestyle sites with the aim is to temp the candidate before they start their job hunt.

In order to stay on the leading side of innovation and after 2 years of R&D, 4mat are proud to announce the launch of their new online recruitment software ñ dotVacancy v3. The software takes online recruitment to the next level providing a flexible, search engine optimised platform that provides clients with more control and visibility over their website and helps them identify the real return on investment.î

Yet again, we can see HR software will be continuing to refine and hone its many attributes this year, providing an even higher quality service for all its users. Those who have not yet seen the light will surely be converted.

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