Applicant Tracking Systems: do you DIY or get the experts in?

Strong in-house IT and software development skills and/or a handy knowledge of Excel spreadsheets may have made it seemingly very simple to capture and manage information using the Internet. With this in mind, you could be thinking of developing applicant tracking systems in-house.

So what are the pros and cons of DIY e-recruitment, and what advantages could a ‘best of breed’ Applicant Tracking System offer over an in-house system?

Look at the team who will be developing the system, you will need to know:

• How much experience of delivering in-house applicant tracking systems they have;
• How long the recruitment solution will take to develop, test, train , deploy and support (candidates, managers as well as the recruiters)
• The level of commitment that the in-house development team make towards continual enhancement and improvement after the original candidate management system has been delivered
• As your needs and demands on the system change, how quickly will the development team respond to and deliver the features you need?

We spoke with GILES HECKSTALL-SMITH, Commercial Director of online recruitment software company, Jobtrain.

He explained:

“Ideally, applicant tracking systems should be shaped by a team of experienced HR and recruitment professionals and not developers. The features offered should be delivered in response to real-world recruitment needs, and generally be delivered within 4 to 6 weeks from sign-off.”

Ease of use, features and integration is another area to highlight:

1. Are you convinced that the online recruitment solution is intuitive and easy to use for the team and candidates?
2. How could this affect your ability to compete and retain the strongest candidates?
3. Will it truly provide all the features you need to maximise the efficiencies you need?
4. Will the solution integrate with other tools such as online psychometrics, multi-posting tools, SMS etc?

Keeping up to date and support:

1. Is it likely that your in-house solution (and its performance) could fall behind that of your competitors’ that use specialist candidate management system providers?
2. How can you ensure that you remain up to date on all the latest trends, developments and innovations available in the e-recruitment market?
3. How is the system going to be supported? Will the IT team make a support line available to me for candidate, line-manager and recruitment team queries?

HR Business Manager at JD Williams has seen both sides of the coin for applicant tracking software. He said: “We had developed a recruitment system in-house, but our business and requirements moved on and the system wasn’t able to provide the flexibility that we needed to deliver across both our head office and contact centre areas of the business.

“Our business is growing all the time and we now have a candidate management system that is effective and flexible to grow with us,” he continued.

Giles Heckstall-Smith has been a specialist in advising on direct sourcing and implementing effective applicant tracking systems with Jobtrain for over 15 years and is an expert in his field.

For more information, contact Jobtrain via 0161 8502004 or email: enquiries@jobtrain.co.uk