Tips on replacing your talent acquisition system technology

3 mins, 13 secs read time

“Organizations that are great at hiring have made hiring a first-class process that deserves continual attention,” wrote Greenhouse Co-founders Daniel Chait and Jon Stross in their book Talent Makers. They also outlined signs that your process isn’t as strong as it could be. For example, you know there’s work to do when your systems and tools don’t mesh and people would rather work outside the system than within it.

Unfortunately, for many talent acquisition (TA) professionals, this is a pretty accurate description of the current situation with their TA provider technology, especially their applicant tracking systems. More than half – 58% – are dissatisfied with their current provider. Seeking to improve the situation, Greenhouse recently partnered with Aptitude Research on an eBook, Moving from a legacy ATS: When you need a modern talent acquisition system. Read on to explore highlights of the next best steps for replacing your current TA tech provider.

Step 1: Start with an internal needs analysis

An internal needs analysis is an exploration of your organization's strengths and weaknesses. Going through this process helps you understand your requirements before you start considering different providers.

There are several activities you can engage in as part of your needs analysis, such as interviews with key stakeholders, assessments of your existing technology solutions and budget planning.

During this step, your goal is to answer some of the major questions about introducing a new tool, including:

• What is the formal process for evaluating technology and who is involved?
• What is the budget cycle at your company?
• Who will be a champion for this project?
• Are there activities that are still being done manually? If so, are there systems that can help you automate?
• How effectively are your HR systems working together?

Step 2: Consider the return on investment of new technology

Before they give approval or secure the budget for a new tool, business leaders want to know what to expect in terms of the return on investment (ROI). What are the measurable ways this tool is going to make a positive impact?

But you don’t have to wait until you’ve already purchased new technology to figure this out. You can begin to make ROI calculations while you’re still in the consideration stage. Here’s how you can approach this.

ROI can be calculated simply as the net benefit compared to the total cost of the project, but the time period is also an important consideration.

Some of the benefits you might get from a new TA tech provider include:

• Reduced spend on ineffective solutions
• Less bias in the hiring process
• Improved candidate experience
• Increased productivity for recruiting teams

And some of the costs to consider include:

• Solution provider costs (products, licensing, services, etc.)
• Third-party costs (consulting firms, implementation specialists, etc.)
• Internal costs (implementation labor, management, support, training, facilities, etc.)
• When it comes to the time period, you might want to model out a few options – the first three months, six months, year, etc.

Step 3: Get buy-in from key stakeholders

Once you’ve identified your internal needs and modeled how you’ll demonstrate ROI, you’ll want to get buy-in from key stakeholders. Choosing a TA tech provider is a major decision and you’re going to need support from people across your organization, including HR/People/Talent leaders, business leaders, IT and Finance.

Keep in mind that each stakeholder may have a different set of priorities and metrics to consider. For example, HR/People/Talent leaders are likely to care about metrics like quality of hire, candidate experience and employee engagement while IT leaders are more likely to be concerned with compliance, adoption and security considerations.

Stay tuned for the next installment, where we’ll explore how to create a TA roadmap for the future.

Are you interested in digging deeper into the TA tech market and defining your own TA tech needs? Download the eBook here.

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