Recruitment System Tenders/RFP's - be careful out there!!

A word of warning for companies investing in recruitment management systems. I've seen too many firms struggle with a solution they have chosen, simply because they didn't really know what they wanted. The difficulty is in documenting the requirements which are often sophisticated, and writing it in such a way that vendor responses are properly evaluated and investigated. Many companies in the region are investing in ATS technologies for the first time, and so don't understand the many pitfalls.

A common mistake is to focus in one area and not understand the breadth of these solutions. An example would be to focus on functionality simply to make it easier for the jobseeker to apply, but to ignore Line Manager access to that data. That often leads to loads of CV's, but hiring managers being inundated with emails that haven't been vetted.

Often IT run a tender as they're buying software after all, but they don't understand recruitment at all. Of course everyone thinks if they've been to an interview then they understand recruitment, so they don't consult the business and the Recruiters when
writing the RFP. Recruiters (or Users) are brought in then to see the products on show, but often the scope of the solutions are very limited.

The opposite is more common, where Recruiters write a requirement, but of course the typical technical understanding of a recruiter is limited. Sure we all understand how to post a job ad online, and we may know about blogs and search engines, but data security, back-ups, storage, SLA’s, uptime, bandwidth, servers, systems integration??, the list goes on.

The risk potential is enormous, and I see many companies making mistakes in this area. You have to start of course by putting together a team, who will commit to the requirements gathering/tender/evaluation/selection/implementation process for a whole year, because often it takes that long. You have to ensure the team reflects the needs of all sides of the business, and that there is an agreed recruitment strategy or a vision of what recruitment should look like in 2-3 years.

It’s a tricky area, but the more effort you put into, the more chance there is of getting a solution that is fit for your firm. Good luck with those RFP’s!!