Softscape, a recruiting software and applicant tracking provider, recently announced that it has been nominated for this year's Best Enterprise HR Software by the UK Software Satisfaction Awards. Instead of basing the winner on the decisions of a judge’s panel, the Software Satisfaction Awards are awarded based on the views of actual buyers and end-users of the business software applicants that have been nominated.
Since this award is rewarded in such away, many companies in the market to purchase HR software use the results to help reach their decision on which program will be most beneficial to their company.
"We are very pleased to be nominated for this prestigious award, and especially coming from the actual end users of our software," said David Watkins, Softscape's CEO. "This is further testimony to our unmatched focus on our customers' achievement. Softscape maintains some of the industry's highest customer satisfaction and retention rates (98%). We remain the vendor of choice because we offer customers the most comprehensive product offering, more flexibility and choices to support their long-term strategy, deep domain expertise, and superior service delivery."
Softscape focuses on providing their users with integrated human capital management (HCM) software. This enables the companies that have invested in their programs to mange their employees in a more effective manner, which in turn makes business run more smoothly. Those in the running for the various Software Satisfaction Awards will find out whether or not they won on Thursday, October 30th, when the winners will be announced. The event is scheduled to take place in London at The Brewery.
Recruiting Software Provider Recognized for Exponential Growth
Recruiting software provider iCIMS recently announced that the company was named as part of the 2008 Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing North American companies. iCIMS acknowledged for its exponential growth over the last three years and was ranked 1,150, according to the list for it’s three year growth rate of 325 percent.
Every year Inc. magazine and Inc.com recognize the most innovative, dynamic and successful companies throughout the country with their 5000 list. Overall, the businesses making the list this year reported aggregate revenue of $185 billion and had a median three year growth of 147 percent.
iCIMS found itself amongst the top 23 percent of the list. The successful recruiting software provider had a median three year growth rate that is more than double the median found on the list. On top of this, Inc.com placed the company as number 83 on its list of Top Software companies.
"The Inc. 5000 gives an unrivalled portrait of young, underreported companies across all industries doing fascinating things with cutting-edge business models, as well as older companies that are still showing impressive growth," said Jim Melloan, who is the Inc. 5000 Project Manager.
"iCIMS is proud to have made the Inc. 5000 list for the third consecutive year," said the company's CEO and President, Colin Day. "While our corporate vision has expanded over time to encompass new functional capabilities within our platform, iCIMS' dedication to customer service and satisfaction has always been at the forefront of out mission. Our recognition by Inc. illustrates tremendous new customer adoption of our Talent Platform as well as iCIMS' ability to successfully support our growing client base year after year. We look forward to earning a spot on the Inc. 5000 next year as we continue to surpass previous growth records."
iCIMS began offering clients flexible, scalable recruiting and applicant tracking solutions in 1999. The company now offers services that assist employers with both their pre-and-post hire needs. Some of the companies that use iCIMS include Continental Airlines, Whole Foods Market and Tyco Electronics.
To view all of the companies that made Inc.'s 5000 list visit http://www.inc5000.com/. Results can be sorted by industry and region to make the information more easily viewed by the user.
When designing software for the employment industry, functionality and usability are two of the most important considerations. Recruiters and hiring managers known that time is money, therefore, if a software option takes too long to master, they are losing money. Because of this, recruiting software must be designed in a way that encourages easy use. In hopes of increasing the ease of locating new clients, applicant tracking software company Catch the Best has recently announced the addition of a new keyword search feature.
This feature enables users to type in various keywords that summarize what they are looking for in a new employee. Their system them electronically skims their resume database and locates the job seekers who are fit the criteria the best. This enables hiring managers and recruiters to decrease the amount of time they spent locating potential employers.
"We are always striving to enhance the hiring process for our current and future customers by incorporating requested functionality that aligns with out vision of a simple, effective applicant tracking and resume management solution," said Mike Wagner, who is the company's Vice President of Marketing & Business Development.
Since the best employees are often in high demand it is important for an employer to be able to locate them quickly. This enables a company to snatch these individuals up before another workplace can. Because a business is only as good as its workers, this ability can make or break a company.
The addition of keyword search to the company's service goes along with the their pre-existing tagging search capabilities.
"Now users have tools to quickly search through their repository of applicants. One by keywords and the other by tagging the resume for a more abstracted search," said Wagner.
Catch the Best was founded in 2007 and is located in Seattle Washington. It serves both recruiting and non-recruiting professionals who are involved in the hiring process for their companies.
Recruitment Software Company Does Better Than Expected
Office staffing and recruiting software firm Bullhorn recently announced that it experienced high adoption rates during the last year among key market segments. The company's services were particularly popular among staffing firms that deal primarily with locating employees for businesses in engineering and design, finance and accounting, healthcare and IT. These firms have invested in Bullhorn at a rate up to fifteen times greater than revenue growth in such segments so far this year, according to a recent press release.
"Strategic, growth-driven staffing and recruiting firms recognize that investing in the industry's most powerful staffing and recruiting software is critical, irrespective of the economic climate," said president and co-founder of Bullhorn Barry Hinckley. "Bullhorn's On Demand, integrated front office solution drives every aspect of the life cycle of a job order or requisition from sourcing to placement. In any economy, Bullhorn accelerates the development of new business and orders while delivering the fastest placements possible."
Staffing Industry Analysts predicted in its June 2008 update that the staffing industry will experienced modest growth for the year. According to this source, staffing firms that service the engineering and design market will grow by 7.5 percent while IT staffing firms will experience a 4.5 percent increase in business. Despite this, Bullhorn has had an adoption rate of 130 percent and 53 percent, respectively. It's annual growth with firms that service the IT and healthcare industry has increased by 25 percent and 31 percent. Staffing Industry Analysts predicted these two areas to grow by 5 percent.
In addition to this, Bullhorn has experienced an adoption rate of 62 percent in the segment of staffing agencies that deal with permanent placement. This includes direct hire and retained candidate search services.
Bullhorn currently serves more than 1,000 staffing firms and 14,000 users across the globe.
With the nation experiencing a shortage in qualified medical workers, the popularity of healthcare recruitment agencies is growing. Although there are computer programs available for purchase that can be used by any company in the business of locating talent, healthcare-specific recruiting software is available and may be better geared toward dealing with the particular issues faced by the industry.
Texas-based General Life Care, Inc.’s Agency Staffing Assistant(ASA) is more than just a piece of recruitment software. This web-based medical staffing application also helps with scheduling, time management, and assists in taking inventory of the skills possessed by different applicants. In addition to these features, ASA also handles credential monitoring, payroll summaries, customer billing and maintains a variety of different documents needed for e-mail and on-line verification.
Created specifically for medical staffing agencies, General Life Care’s newest applicant tracking software is extremely flexible. This application can be used by any size businesses from a start-up to a multi-location agency. Designed to be flexible, ASA is customizable for all medical disciplines and can handle any specialization the user may have from nursing, physician, pharmacist, or dentistry recruitment. Smaller agencies will also find that this recruiting software also them to respond to their clients needs with the same efficiency as a large firm would provide.
One of the positive elements of ASA that many recruitment agencies will appreciate is the fact that there is no contract to sign. If the program does not meet a company’s expectations, then they are able to terminate use without losing money. Since there is no long-term commitment, agencies will find that this system works on a “pay for what you use” basis.
Although web-based, ASA is up and running 24 hours a day, enabling users to access information whenever they may require it. Because of this the program can continue to run while users are out of the office, whether for the day or an extended period of time. By simply remaining logged in and allowing the computer to continue to run, the user enables ASA to handle a variety of issues they would otherwise have be taken care of manually.
In the high paced world of business the old cliché is true: time is money. The less time an employer takes to find a qualified individual to fill a position, the sooner they can begin to reap the benefits from that person's productivity. Recruiting software can assist hiring managers in this process, making it a valuable resource to most companies. With several different features, such software will make it much easier to find the best candidates for a job based on skills, experience, and geographical location.
Recruiting software eliminates to needless hours spent shifting through resumes. Highly skilled employees are always in demand and, therefore, the sooner a hiring manager is able to locate such an individual, the less likely it is that the talented person has already been snapped up by another company, maybe even a competitor.
The auto-matching feature found in recruitment software takes a company's expectations of the employee they are searching for and cross references applications to yield only those employees who seem a likely fit. Some of the categories that the resumes of potential employees are searched for are: salary expectations, job location, title(s), years of experience in the industry, education, time spent on previous jobs, responsibilities, accomplishments, technical skills, and managerial experience (if applicable).
Other major features include resume parsing, scheduling tools to keep interviews and tasks straight, remote access, keyword searches, the ability to save one's job search results, e-mail, and the ability to promote job openings.
With plenty of options, it can often be difficult for a company to decide which software program to go with. Contemplating the choices in regards to several key questions can help eliminate unworthy software. As the goal to find new candidates or manage ones that have already been located? Would an ASP (vendor ran) program or in-house software fit one's company's needs more efficiently?
Can the recruiting software adapt to the company in question as it continues to grow? Does the company marketing the software provide full training? What format of customer service is available for the software? Also, can the software vendor provide references in the same industry that the company considering purchasing it deals in.
These questions help a potential recruiting software buyer to identify exactly what they may or may not need from a product. What may work for one company, may not be the best choice for another.
And remember, it never hurts to ask for a free trial of the software one feels is most likely the best choice for their business. This helps to avoid paying for and being stuck with a product that is not as useful as one had hoped.
