As a recruiter, I know that an applicant tracking system (ATS) is one of the most important tools for success. At Dataspace, we rely on our ATS system, HireHive, on a daily basis. During one of our weekly meetings, we had a discussion about what features we felt were missing in our current system and what we wished we had to make our jobs as recruiters easier and quicker. We came up with a few key points:
- AI Features — We were curious about AI and how effectively it was implemented in other ATSs. We specifically wondered if there was a way to quickly evaluate a resume using AI to determine whether the candidate is a good fit or check for potential fraud. It would be great if this new system could highlight lines that were repeated in the resume multiple times, making it easier for us to identify potential red flags.
- Customizable Pipelines — We wanted to be able to customize the candidate pipeline steps to reflect our process.
- Customizable Hiring Questions — We wanted to be able to customize job-specific hiring questions within the system, so that we could better tailor our recruiting process to each job.
- Better Screening & Interview Processes — We were looking for a system that could potentially replace how we screen and interview candidates currently.
- Easy to Use — We definitely need this new system to be easy to navigate and intuitive, since we don’t have a full-time IT department to help with setup or troubleshooting.
Narrowing down our ATS options.
After dedicating several weeks to researching different applicant tracking systems, I delved into an array of options available to recruiting companies and recruiters. My exploration led me to consider:
- Isolved
- Recruit CRM
- JazzHR
- Tracker
- Rippling
- Zoho ATS/CRM
- Breezy
- HireHive (our current system)
Following in-depth discussions with their solutions consultants, I managed to narrow down my search to three promising systems: Recruit CRM, Jazz HR, and Tracker. Subsequently, I underwent demos of all three systems and also had the opportunity to test them through a free trial. It became clear that each system possessed unique capabilities while offering similar functionalities, making the decision-making process quite intricate.
Recruit CRM
Website: https://recruitcrm.io/
Pricing: from $85 per user per month
Free Trial: unlimited
System Pros:
- No limit trial
- Robust candidate matching AI
- Seamless integration with LinkedIn, including candidate import and updating
- CRM functionality
- Customizable job questionnaires
- 24/7 support
- Intuitive to use
Recruit CRM offers an impressive all-in-one system that combines ATS and CRM functionalities. What stood out to us was the trial account, which has no time limit. This means you can fully explore the platform by adding up to 50 candidates, 50 contacts, and 4 open jobs to test all its features. We were particularly impressed by the system’s robust AI capabilities in candidate matching, which provides a rating from 0 to 100, and its seamless integration with LinkedIn. The quick and smooth process of importing candidates’ profiles from LinkedIn was a feature that we particularly appreciated.
And, the system’s ability to function as a CRM was an added bonus. It’s worth noting that some major pros of this system include the capacity to request candidates already in the system to update their profiles, the availability of customizable job questionnaires, and the 24/7 support team.
While the platform was intuitive to use, we discovered that it would entail a significant amount of customization to align with our specific needs, and unfortunately, we lacked the time and resources to dedicate to this task. Additionally, we felt that the pricing was higher than what we were comfortable paying.
Final Thoughts:
In conclusion, we believe that Recruit CRM would be a great fit for larger teams due to its comprehensive features.
JazzHR
Website: https://www.jazzhr.com/
Pricing: starting at $75 per month for 3 active jobs
Free Trial: 14 day
System Pros:
- Free training before trial
- “Knock out” questions to narrow pipeline
- Ability to create interview guides for candidates
- Candidate scorecards
- Calendly integration for interview scheduling
Our experience with JazzHR was quite positive. We found the ATS and HR solution to be particularly user-friendly, which made the entire process smooth and efficient. Prior to implementing the free trial, we received helpful training from their solutions consultant, which allowed us to make the most of the 2-3 week trial period. One feature that stood out to us was the ‘knock out’ questions, which helped streamline our screening process. Additionally, the ability to create interview guides and take notes, as well as rate answers during interviews directly within the system, enhanced our interview processes significantly. We appreciated that all notes and ratings were stored within the platform for easy access and reference. The customizable scorecards in candidate profiles provided valuable insights, and the in-depth interview scheduling options, including manual scheduling or allowing candidates to self-schedule via Calendly, added a lot of flexibility to our recruitment workflow. Although we do wish the self-schedule option included Google Meet.
However, we found that the system lacked capabilities in certain areas. For instance, the absence of a customer relationship management (CRM) solution, email drip campaigns, marketing capabilities, and a lack of AI matching were drawbacks for our needs.
Final Thoughts:
We appreciated the transparency in terms of pricing and features. One aspect that resonated with us was JazzHR’s focus on small businesses. We hope to see the integration of more AI-focused features in the future to further enhance the platform’s capabilities.
Tracker
Website: https://www.tracker-rms.com/
Pricing: from $80 per user per month
Free Trial: available after demo
System Pros:
- AI ranking
- Custom workflows
- “Automatch” to locate potential candidates from Tracker database
- Client portal
- CRM functionality
The last system we evaluated is Tracker, another all-in-one system that combines ATS and CRM functionalities and approaches their trials in a different way.They want to ensure that both they and the end user are aligned with pricing, set parameters, and are in touch a few times before offering complementary pilots.
Overall, we found Tracker to be a highly customizable system that offers AI ranking capabilities for candidates and the ability to create custom workflows. Their “Automatch” feature would find candidates in the Tracker database if they met the specific job criteria. Additionally, their “watchdog” feature enabled auto search for new candidates, allowing you to email them first once found. We really found their client portal option to be beneficial and were pleased that the CRM piece was included. However, we found its interface to be too busy and not intuitive, which would require significant time to customize and train on. We faced additional challenges such as the inability to create application questions to go along with our job postings, and we disliked the chat GPT integration as we found things to be oddly written.
Final Thoughts:
Ultimately, while we did like many of the AI features, Tracker lacked some critical components that we are currently using in our ATS that are tailored for our specific recruiting workflow.
Why we decided to keep our current ATS, HireHive
In the end, we decided to stick with Hirehive. Among the different systems we reviewed, we found that none of them offered the full range of features and capabilities that would justify making a switch. In terms of both pricing and functionality, our current system stood out as the best fit for our needs. Moreover, our experience with HireHive’s support team was exceptionally positive, as they promptly addressed our queries and took our feedback into account. It was also heartening to learn that they were actively working on incorporating some of the features we had requested.
HireHive
Website: https://www.hirehive.com/
Pricing: starting at $120 per month for 3 active jobs
Free Trial: 14 days
Pros of HireHive:
- Best range of features for our needs as a small recruiting firm
- Excellent support
- Open to our suggestions to improve the product
While choosing a recruiting software system can be a challenge, evaluating different options can help you better understand what is available and even inspire new ideas to improve your candidate sourcing and placement strategies.