Personio Reviews

I have been working with Personio for a little over a year.

I mainly used the recruitment module of Personio because I was a manager talent acquisition. I focused on the implementation and use of the recruitment module, but I spent time with some of the other features as well.

I used the application tracking system in Personio and tried to utilize the analytics and reporting aspects for the recruiting part.

As an HR tool, Personio is really good. It is straightforward adding your organizational structure through it with the accounting codes so you can interface with many accounting modules and payroll modules. People can get access to it, so if they move, they can add their new address to Personio themselves. The self-service module is pretty good. Time tracking in Personio is really straightforward compared to SAP time tracking and others. I was really impressed with it as an HR platform, but not impressed with it from a recruiting point of view.

I escalated questions to the Personio tech support when we weren't sure if we could do something and how we could do it. We had a contact we could call, and there was also an option to access and chat with the help desk in the platform.

Personio is pretty user-friendly and quite self-explanatory, as there are other HR or recruitment software options that take substantial time before you can comfortably navigate through them. With Personio, that aspect is quite good.

The application tracking system makes it easy to post a job and add all the details. It is also straightforward to move applications through the workflow connected to the role and to process candidates and make notes on the profile.

The self-service module is effective, and time tracking in Personio is really straightforward compared to SAP time tracking and other solutions.

The analytics and reporting aspect in Personio for the recruiting part was below expectations compared to some other applicant tracking systems. It is clunky and cannot be tailored to specific needs. The reporting and analytics for the recruiting part are insufficient.

The ability to filter applications based on filtering questions added to applications was missing in recruiting. Other recruiting software performs this function much better. Keyword searches within applicants' resumes in the database within recruiting were not possible. I brought this up with the Personio account manager and was told it was on the development list, but these are essential features for any recruiter.

I would advise companies looking for an ATS and considering Personio to get a separate recruiting piece of software that can interface with Personio instead.

I was involved in the initial setup and deployment of Personio. There were no significant deployment issues mentioned, except needing to understand the way of thinking and the theory behind a new HR system with help from a consultant.

There were moments where Personio was down, but not outside of the norm for SaaS platforms. With any software as a service solution, there will always be times that you cannot access it. Personio experienced this as well, but nothing shocking or out of the ordinary.

Based on my experience with different HR solutions, I would rate Personio quite high unless you are a massive corporation. For corporations Google, Meta, IBM, and other massive organizations, I probably would not recommend Personio.

The support was pretty good. I escalated questions to the Personio tech support when we weren't sure if we could do something and how we could do it. We had a contact we could call, and there was also an option to access and chat with the help desk in the platform. Both were really good.

I would rate the tech support or customer service an eight on a scale of one to ten.

Positive

I have extensive experience with Recruitee, which focuses on recruitment and talent acquisition, and they are a far better option than Personio recruiting. I also have extensive experience with Workable, and although I rate Recruitee higher than Workable, I would still prefer Workable over using the recruiting module of Personio.

It was pretty straightforward getting started with Personio. We had a consultant who helped us with the initial setup because we needed to understand the way of thinking and the theory behind a new HR system. Once we understood the logic behind Personio, it was straightforward with organizational structure, teams, departments, and similar elements. It was also straightforward to take an extract of the staff database and upload it into Personio.

We had a consultant that helped us with the initial setup because we needed to understand the way of thinking and the theory behind a new HR system.

Just around the time that I left, the decision was made to look for a replacement software tool for recruiting because recruiting in Personio was lacking essential features.

I cannot comment on the pricing aspect, setup cost, or licensing cost of Personio because all those things were tackled before I started. Comparatively, Personio is much more affordable than some others SAP, Workday, and PeopleSoft.

There are several alternatives available. I have extensive experience with Recruitee, which focuses on recruitment and talent acquisition, and they are a far better option than Personio recruiting. I also have extensive experience with Workable, and although I rate Recruitee higher than Workable, I would still prefer Workable over using the recruiting module of Personio.

I did not decide to switch to Personio, nor was I involved in the evaluation process; when I joined the company, the choice was already made for Personio.

I cannot comment on how the performance management tools in Personio have helped my company to improve employee productivity because I did not use it.

There is better recruiting software available that can do what is needed. I would advise against using the recruiting module, though as an HR suite for your employees, it is great.

On a scale of 1-10, I rate Personio a 7.

I'm a consultant, so I do in-house recruiting, embedded recruiting for various clients, and one of my clients is using Personio as their ATS, so that's how I work with it.

As a recruiter, I primarily use Personio for recruitment activities through the applicant tracking system. I use it day-to-day to screen resumes, send out invites, progress candidates through the funnel, and communicate with them through a message system inside Personio.

I don't use Personio as an HR tool myself. The company I work with uses it as an all-in-one solution for HRM and the recruitment system. Because of my position, I just use the ATS part.

I use Personio's reporting and analytics tools rarely for analyzing the funnels, but I'm not really utilizing it much because I don't appreciate the output.

The dashboard with all messages when opening the app is beneficial, as it has all the communication with candidates in one place. You can mark candidates that are high potential, making it easy for the hiring team to identify them. The intuitive scheduling system allows you to see calendars in one place, which is quite effective.

When I joined the company, I set up all the interviewing processes and streamlined them, as before they were hiring without structure. Personio provides an opportunity to set up structure with certain steps, creating a clear interviewing process. This resulted in hiring better candidates faster because having a system in place is better than having none.

The screening of candidates in the ATS part is quite complicated. In Greenhouse, you can have a CV of one person on one page at a time, zoomed in immediately for easy screening. In Personio, it requires many clicks, and you need to open the CV in a different tab to see it closely, creating unnecessary extra steps.

Movement of candidates throughout the funnel is problematic, as nothing can be automated or streamlined, requiring manual processes. With numerous roles and candidates, candidates can fall behind because Personio lacks reminders about scheduling and good visibility of candidate status.

Interviewing questions are complicated because when you create questions, you must create one question for all positions and make it fit all positions simultaneously. The way questions are created for every position is counterintuitive and involves monotonous work that should be unnecessary.

Personio is not scalable as an ATS, and I struggle to work with it.

I have been using this solution for five and a half years.

The system was pretty stable and reliable. There were a couple of outages that prevented us from using the solution, but over these two and a half years, it happened just once or twice, so overall it's quite stable.

I am not currently using the scalability features of this solution.

I spoke to customer service once, and they resolved issues relatively quickly.

Positive

I use Greenhouse with two other clients. The screening process in Greenhouse is more streamlined, allowing for easier candidate review and automated reminders. Greenhouse provides better visibility of candidate status and a more intuitive system for creating interview questions per job post.

The setup was straightforward, as it was configured before I joined. When I needed to work on the ATS part, I watched tutorials on the Personio website and learned the process. Setting up the basics is straightforward, but improving or changing processes later becomes complicated. As a basic ATS it works, but implementing meaningful changes is challenging.

The company acquired it directly from Personio without any marketplaces. This company is in Germany, and the founder of this company and the founder of Personio are in the Munich club. They know each other quite well, so it was likely a direct sale.

I cannot provide information about the return on investment as I am not responsible for the financial aspects.

I cannot provide information about the setup costs as I am not responsible for the financial aspects.

I use Greenhouse with two other clients. I currently work with three different companies - one using Personio and the other companies using Greenhouse.

I have rated Personio an 8 out of 10 for this review.