Talent acquisition has become a top strategic priority for leading organizations. With the global unemployment rate under pre-pandemic levels [1], the war for talent is fiercer than ever. Organizations that master recruiting will gain a sustained competitive advantage.
This makes recruitment software essential. Applicant tracking and hiring technology streamlines and optimizes talent acquisition, providing data-driven insights that enable smarter, faster hiring.
The Explosive Growth of Recruitment Tech
The recruitment software market has expanded rapidly in recent years. According to Statista, spending on talent acquisition solutions hit $6.3 billion in 2022, a 15% increase since 2020 [2].
Several factors are fueling adoption:
- Shortage of skilled talent
- Need to improve hiring metrics like time-to-fill
- Desire to remove unconscious bias
- Integration of advanced technologies like AI
By 2028, the applicant tracking system market alone could reach $4.7 billion [3]. Recruitment software is becoming indispensable.
AI and Automation – The Next Frontier
Artificial intelligence and automation are driving the next wave of innovation in recruitment technology.
According to a LinkedIn survey, nearly 40% of talent professionals are currently using AI, while 52% plan to adopt AI within the next five years [4].
Key developments include:
Intelligent Screening – AI analyzes candidate resumes, profiles, and submissions to automatically score skills, experience and assess fit. This allows recruiters to rapidly filter applicants.
Chatbots – Automated conversational agents engage candidates 24/7 via messaging apps, website chat windows, or text messages, answering common questions and scheduling interviews.
Automated Workflows – Recruitment tasks ranging from interview scheduling to offer letter delivery are automated based on pre-configured rules and conditions. This accelerates hiring velocity.
The automation of previously manual recruiting activities enables recruiters to focus on higher value strategic tasks. Meanwhile, machine learning powers insights and recommendations that enhance outcomes.
AI and ML will soon become standard in recruitment technology stacks as vendors race to productize the latest innovations.
While explosions in recruitment tech investment indicate its strategic value, research quantifies the tangible improvements hiring technology delivers across key talent acquisition results and metrics:
Time-to-Hire
| Without Recruitment Software | With Recruitment Software | Improvement |
|---|---|---|
| 42 days | 32 days | 24% faster |
Cost Per Hire
| Without Recruitment Software | With Recruitment Software | Savings |
|---|---|---|
| $1,308 | $377 | 71% lower |
Quality of Hire
| Without Recruitment Software | With Recruitment Software | Increase |
|---|---|---|
| 67% rated as high performers | 72% rated as high performers | 7.5% increase |
Table data compiled from Brandon Hall Group and HR.com [5]
The efficiency gains, cost savings, and performance lift recruitment software delivers are substantial. Further benefits like improved candidate experience through automation and streamlining are harder to quantify but equally impactful.
Advanced Analytics and Reporting
While acceleration of the nuts and bolts of hiring has clear hard dollar impacts, arguably the most valuable aspect recruitment software provides is data – insights that recruiters and hiring managers have never had access to before.
Platforms offer advanced analytics and interactive dashboards covering areas such as:
- Source of hire analysis
- Cost per source comparisons
- Pipeline stage velocity
- Candidate progression rates
- Offer acceptance metrics
- Time-to-fill by role/level/manager
- Automated diversity reporting
This was previously invisible performance data can drive strategic decisions and process optimization.
Top 10 Recruitment Software Solutions
The recruitment software landscape spans hundreds of applicant tracking, CRM, and specialized point solutions. Here we analyze the top all-in-one suites:
1. Greenhouse
[Image: Screenshot of Greenhouse ATS interface]Greenhouse is the Cadillac of talent acquisition platforms. It offers an incredibly robust and fully configurable enterprise-grade recruiting software solution.
Key Strengths
- Sophisticated AI for intelligent process automation
- Advanced analytics and reporting
- Deep third party integration ecosystem
- Available as standalone modules
Potential Weaknesses
- Complex administrative setup and learning curve
- Higher cost vendor
With industry-leading capabilities and capacity to handle hundreds of thousands of candidates, Greenhouse powers recruiting efforts for leading global enterprises like Airbnb, Twilio, and Dell.
2. Workday Recruiting
As a core module of Workday‘s immensely popular HRIS platform, Recruiting enables tenants to manage the entire worker lifecycle within a single system.
Standout Capabilities:
- Two-way integration with Workday HCM and Talent applications
- Consumer-like candidate experience
- Internal mobility and talent pooling
Watchouts:
- Premium pricing
- Better suited to Workday customers
Global powerhouses like Netflix, Amazon, and Walmart leverage Workday Recruiting to unify and advance hiring efforts.
3. SmartRecruiters
Known for its beautiful, consumer-centric hiring experience, SmartRecruits makes engaging and managing candidates delightful while still providing complete recruiting capabilities.
Why Customers Love It:
- Highest rated user experience
- Intuitive interface with little training needed
- Easy to launch career site
Limitations:
- Mid-market customer sweet spot
- Third party integration requires add-ons
By blending candidate marketing with applicant tracking software (ATS), SmartRecruits drives efficiency while differentiating talent brand. Brands like Visa, Skechers, and Equinox use it to recruit.
4. Jobvite
Acquired by Atrieve in 2021, Jobvite stands out by combining best-of breed ATS, CRM and talent intelligence functionality.
Noteworthy Features:
- Robust CRM and recruiting automation
- Real time talent analytics dashboard
- Built-in video interviewing
Weak Spots
- Interface due for modernization
- Steeper learning curve than competitors
Jobvite brings sought after marketing capabilities helping TAB bank and other leading mid-market companies engage and nurture talent.
5. Lever
Favored by tech innovators, Lever takes a sleek modern approach to both candidate and recruiter experience.
What Sets Lever Apart:
- Visually compelling graphics-driven UI
- Standout talent intelligence capabilities
- Encourages collaboration across hiring teams
Limiting Factors:
- Nascent video interviewing and assessment functionality
- Reporting needs more depth vs. competitors
Lever‘s cutting edge design has attracted disruptive brands like Netflix, Shopify, and Reddit that value candidate WOW.
6. iCIMS
The veteran player in the space, iCIMS leads with breadth and scalability, offering a vast array of interconnected talent modules.
Why Leaders Rely on iCIMS:
- More extensive feature set than any competitor
- Highly adaptable platform
- Support for the largest hiring volumes
Inhibitors:
- Can be complex to onboard and learn
- UI is cluttered in places
With 20+ years perfecting enterprise software, iCIMS now runs one in every four Fortune 100 hiring departments.
7. Workable
The mid-market leader, Workable makes hiring simple and affordable for lean recruiters.
Workable Wins With:
- Intuitive self-service admin and easy learning
- Impressively developed mobile experience
- Constant platform innovations
Watchouts:
- Less sophisticated enterprise functionality
- Limited reporting compared to competitors
Workable allows growing companies like Canva, Trainline, and Glitch to adopt applicant tracking capabilities that scale from single users up to 200+ recruiters.
8. IBM Kenexa Brassring
Another long tenured veteran, Kenexa Brassring offers robust features yet trailing Edge UX.
Signature Strengths
- Strong hourly and high volume hiring capabilities
- Impressive global talent network
- Powerful integration engine
Weaknesses
- Dated interface with clunky user experience
- Complex implementations
The legacy pedigree and back-end strengths keep Brassring the choice for leaders like Walgreens, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Citi that value backend power.
9. SAP SuccessFactors
The HR transformation platform pioneer, SuccessFactors recruiting capabilities bridge core HR and talent management.
Best Suited For
- SAP customers
- Companies that value having a unified HR stack
- Large, complex global enterprises
Watchouts:
- Very heavy administrator involvement required
- Steep learning curve
With leading HR analytics and a broad feature set, SuccessFactors recruiting engages the likes of Hersheys, RBI, and Novartis searching for connected talent management.
10. Oracle Taleo
The applicant tracking pillar within Oracle‘s huge cloud HR footprint.
Pluses
- Significant tracking and high volume scalability
- Impressive third party integration library
- Available as standalone or via larger HCM suite
Minuses
- Clunky user interface
- Complex implementations
Part of a full featured cloud solution, Taleo recruiting handles high volume hiring for customers like Southwest Airlines that leverage multiple Oracle HR modules.
While the top tier vendors featured provide a breadth of capabilities, comparing strengths around AI and automation reveals some leaders:
Most Advanced AI:
- Greenhouse
- Jobvite
- SmartRecruiters
Deepest Automation
- Greenhouse
- SmartRecruiters
- Jobvite
Consumer Grade Interface
- SmartRecruiters
- Lever
- Greenhouse
When evaluating recruitment software, narrowing down priorities around the hiring experience, analytics, efficiency via automation and other factors helps determine what solution(s) align to specific needs.
Getting the Most Out of Recruitment Software
Successfully rolling out an applicant tracking or recruitment software system requires forethought and discipline to maximize the likelihood of adoption success. Here are best practices to follow:
Conduct In-Depth Requirements Gathering
Recruiters, hiring managers and other stakeholders should be interviewed to benchmark existing processes and identify pain points. This allows clearly defining must-have capabilities and nice-to-haves.
Map and Redesign Processes
Determine how work will change after introducing new recruiting technology. Will candidate handoffs go away? What tasks can be automated? Preemptively optimizing processes accelerates ROI.
Clean Your Data
Eliminate duplicate contacts, job codes without titles – any issue that could break system functionality or prevent transferring historical records.
Start with Change Management
Proactively getting ahead of fears that technology aims to replace recruiters builds enthusiasm for efficiency gains and taking on more strategic projects.
Phase Based on Hiring Volume
Rolling out system modules, integrations and advanced features over time allows familiarity to build progressively as opposed to overwhelming users.
Prioritize Automation
Taking a crawl, walk then run approach gives stakeholders a visual on early wins automation delivers so momentum builds towards expansion.
Following protocols like the above will smooth implementations and accelerate recruiting tech adoption.
The Future of Recruitment Software
Just as AI, machine learning and automation continue to transform broader HR technology, ongoing waves of innovation will further optimize talent acquisition technology:
Intelligent Screening
Expanded use of AI for functions like resume ranking, skills extraction, and candidate scoring will eliminate large swaths of manual screening tasks.
Automated Workflows
As recruiting tasks become increasingly systematized, the percentage flowing through structured workflows without human intervention will grow significantly.
Video Interviewing
Live and asynchronous video screening will become the norm for early stage evaluations as natural language processing facilitates analysis and scoring.
Talent Intelligence
Predictive analytics will benchmark potential candidates against existing high performers while prescriptive algorithms suggest engagement tactics.
Chatbots
Self-service bots will be able to handle the end-to-end candidate application process and simple scheduling tasks completely autonomously.
Talent Marketplaces
Pools of pre-validated candidates will be created based on advanced skills, performance potential and culture add identifiers that feed predictive hiring algorithms.
Diversity Analytics
Recruitment software will increasingly track funnel progression across demographics and suggest areas for improvement like personalized nurturing cadences.
While AI and ML are already impacting recruitment software, continued adoption is inevitable as capabilities become more robust and proven in delivering results.
Here are the critical themes any organization evaluating recruitment software should recognize:
It Provides the Data Foundation
Recruitment analytics spotlight candidate quality, source efficacy, bottlenecks and other unseen insights that radically improve strategic decision making.
It Develops Your Talent Brand
Beyond improving hiring outcomes, recruiting technology enhances candidate experience – elevating employment brand.
It Optimizes Hiring Velocity
Structuring workflows, centralizing data and automating tasks accelerates recruiting cycle times.
It Frees Up Strategic Cycles
Automating repetitive tasks allows recruiters to focus on value-add relationship building with candidates and hiring managers.
It Flexes to Scale
Configurability supports organizational growth, onboarding more hiring managers and locations with ease.
It Evolves Continuously
Cloud delivery means the latest innovations in AI, automation and more update seamlessly in the background.
Equipped with the recommendations in this guide including top solution analysis, implementation best practices and a view to the future of recruitment technology, talent acquisition leaders can make informed decisions on adopting solutions to propel their hiring forward.
The war for talent shows no signs of slowing down. As top candidates become even more scarce,recruitment software and strategies provide the edge needed to continually fine tune and optimize talent acquisition.
References
- Trading Economics, Unemployment Rate https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/unemployment-rate?continent=g20
- Statista, Talent Acquisition Spend https://www.statista.com/statistics/1245970/talent-acquisition-spend-worldwide/
- Mordor Intelligence, Applicant Tracking Systems Market https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/applicant-tracking-systems-market
- LinkedIn, Global Talent Trends https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/business/en-us/talent-solutions/resources/pdfs/global_talent_trends_2019_apac.pdf
- Brandon Hall Group and HR.com, The True Cost of Recruiting https://resources.workable.com/stories-and-insights/reports-guides/report-the-true-cost-of-recruiting
