What is our primary use case?
We are using this solution for a combination of things. We use it for sourcing candidates for posted positions, scheduling interviews, and running offers through the system. We are doing everything our of the system.
How has it helped my organization?
The candidate quality was better and having the ability to do everything out of the system.
The all-encompassing ability to manage the process cohesively out of the SmartRecruiter system was valuable.
The ease of use helped a lot. Frankly, it was easy to use, and the transparency with the hiring manager was also very good. Managers could just look at the system, they could see things, and they could stay current on what was going on.
What is most valuable?
The sourcing features were quite good. They did a good job of identifying candidates.
The way the posting interface went out of the system worked quite well, and we always generated a pretty dramatic number of candidates for the position.
It's very easy to use. It only takes a matter of days to understand it and feel comfortable with it.
We are very happy with the customization and the dashboard, and it's very intuitive.
What needs improvement?
It wasn't a pain point with SmartRecruiters. It's more of a pain point with our company, turning on all of the features.
We were really looking for the field application part of the system for college recruiting.
The company was reticent to turn that on. So we couldn't use the system on college campuses, for example, when I was going to career fairs. That was one issue.
The artificial intelligence capabilities with SmartRecruiters was not used, either. We, in the US, would have liked to turn it on, but the company in Germany wouldn't allow it.
There were limitations with the system that we would have liked, not in the time, but our company in Germany really dictated that. We couldn't do everything in the system we would have liked to.
Part of the solution is not fully open on a global basis.
SmartRecruiters became a global tool for the business and the company has operations worldwide.
We in the US would have loved to have had a pre-college recruiting application, had their artificial intelligence capability, and some of those other things that are part of the SmartRecruiters system, but we couldn't do it because of global considerations the company had in place.
From our standpoint, again, we didn't have access to all the features. I really wanted to have the field application and artificial intelligence capability. They are already in the system, we just couldn't get past some of those international hurdles that we have at this point.
That was the limitation or what I would've really liked to have seen, but I don't even know how I would have worked necessarily because we didn't have access to it.
I can't really say what the next generation would look like because it couldn't support the first generation that I wanted.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for the last 18 months when I left my previous job, and nine years prior to that.
Going back to March, we were using the most current version for that time.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is very stable. We had no issues with stability whatsoever.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We can't scale it much more than we did at the company.
We are looking at multiple countries around the globe and having the system operate in each of those environments with any legal considerations that are part of each of those countries.
From a scalability standpoint, it's very scalable.
There were HR people, HR business partners that used the system on a regular basis, and there was a recruiting team that worked on the application daily.
Hiring managers had access to the system so they could view what was going on with the requisitions. It was an enterprise-wide solution.
It's a global tool. From a business standpoint, for us, it was being used all over the world.
I don't know that we would be expanding it. We are looking at a company with 400,000 associates, so I don't know that you could get much bigger or more comprehensive than that.
Now the only question is, would we be allowed to turn on those additional features that we would have liked to have had? That would be the question of expansion.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is very good.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I've used all manner of solutions over the years. There are a variety of different solutions that I've worked with. SmartRecruiters was very good in my opinion.
The ease of use of the system would be the reasons we switched to this product, as well as the global scalability. At the time that we went with Smart Recruiters, there were different ETF applications being used globally. This was an opportunity for us to get under one system on a global basis.
The ease of use and the ease of implementation were important considerations and in the company, choosing to move to SmartRecruiters.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is pretty straightforward. We made it complex because we are who we are.
The deployment took months to complete. It probably took longer to deploy because it was who we are, and we were trying to take everything into consideration globally.
Originally it was deployed in Germany, then rolled over to the US, from there to China and parts of the EU. It was a fairly complex rollout strategy just based on the global nature of the organization.
What about the implementation team?
There was a dedicated team that was coordinating the effort on a worldwide basis.
We have a dedicated team and I was involved in the user testing at the time that we rolled out the system.
I didn't have any real issues. It all made sense as we moved through the process. It's really pretty much a plug-and-play solution if you turn on all the different aspects of the system. Our only limitation was that we couldn't turn on all those things.
It was an ongoing series of, "Hey, can we do this?", and, "Hey, are we allowed to do this?", which is why it became more complex just because we didn't turn on all the solutions initially.
Anytime we wanted to do anything, we had to get permission from Germany.
There were quite a lot of limitations and that's one of the challenges.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I wasn't exposed to the pricing. it was handled by the global implementation team.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend SmartRecruiters to others who are interested in using it.
I would recommend you use the full functionality of the system because it has some great capabilities, you just need to be able to turn on all those features and utilize the system fully.
From my standpoint, and from where I was sitting as a talent acquisition manager, the biggest thing that I have learned would be if you're going to implement the system, implement it wholly.
Don't do a piece by piece, because you want all those capabilities, and unfortunately, you are limited in that because the organization was doing this on a global basis.
We couldn't do everything that we would have liked to have done here in the US.
Ideally, I guess there's a lesson learned. For us, it would be, "Can we please just turn all that functionality right out of the gate?", as opposed to phasing it in over time, or if we can phase it in over time.
I would rate SmartRecruiters an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.