By Michael Brandt – BrightMove Recruiting Software

I want to start this series on selecting recruiting software by just saying “I love recruiting”. Recruiting is one of the fastest growing, moving and evolving industries I could ever imagine working in and I have had the privilege of seeing some of the most amazing companies, tools and strategies put to work over my 18+ years in the industry. That being said, I am going to be doing a series of blog posts discussing some critical things I think companies should consider when evaluating and making a software move or selection.
The first topic is going to be about knowing your users. One of the most common mistakes I have seen companies make when selecting their applicant tracking platform is that they don’t know there users enough before building their functional or business requirements. It is sort of like giving a pair of children’s scissors to a surgeon and saying “Go do heart surgery!”. If your talent acquisition software doesn’t match your user, then you have the wrong software and/or you will be missing out on some great applicants.

Buying Based On “The Cool Factor”
Now this term is not an industry term but it is the most common occurrence that I have seen in the HR and Recruiting Software industry. Every year or two, a new buzz word, theme or trend becomes the cool factor in the industry and quite honestly, we as vendors know this and will sell our version of this the cool factor of the day. Right now “Social Media Recruiting” is the cool factor being sold by just about every vendor out there including BrightMove. A few years ago, it was employer branding. A few years before that, it was concept based searching. You probably have seen the vendor specific cool factor functionality that vendors use to differentiate in demos or collateral but my point is simple. Cool Factor is what has traditionally sold software once the baseline requirements are ticked off in the evaluation process.

Ask yourself these questions:

Have you ever validated every item in an RFP?
What is the key thing you remember about the vendors you have seen?
If you selected a vendor, do you use the functionality you thought was so cool from the demo?

Rest of Article:
http://www.brightmove.com/selecting_recruiting_software_know_your_applicants/