Recruitment software systems cost money. Let’s be honest. If you’re in the staffing business, you know for certain that you will be using your recruitment database software daily. Hence, recruiters must learn how to buy this tool for success and not for failure.
Begin with understanding your recruiting challenges
The right purchase process always starts with research. And it includes being fully aware of what the major business challenges are and how a good CRM system can help mitigate the problems.
Sit with a few colleagues, have a team meeting, brainstorm – do anything, but make sure you have thrashed out all the problems and challenges that crop up during work. Then outline what your expectations are for a recruiting software solution. What do you want it to do and what are the results you expect from it?
Doing this will help narrow down all the options available in the market and keep the focus on a suitable CRM software partner.
Do market research and book product demos
Now that you have the list of serious recruiting issues you want solutions for, it is time to start your market research. A simple online search can get you hundreds of vendor names in a few minutes.
Do brief website tours initially to get a feel of what the product appears to offer. Create a shortlist. This list will be for potential product demonstrations of recruitment software vendors. Demos are mostly offered for free and conducted online. Take advantage of this.
Product demos are great opportunities for recruiters to learn all about the software features and see how it functions before investing money in it. Take this time to clear doubts and ask questions. Have a few colleagues join you so that you can share insights and exchange observations after the demo.
Ask for references and read testimonials
Selecting an appropriate recruitment software, let alone finding the best recruitment CRM, is difficult and often confusing work. One way of helping you close the gap and focus the search on suitable vendors is by looking at references and reviews.
Software vendors will be pleased to send you their customer testimonials. These are good sources wherein you can begin to understand the strong points of a product and the supplier. But remember that these testimonials are more than likely to be from happy customers.
To get a comprehensive outlook, visit Trustpilot where you will find more objective reviews. Both happy and unsatisfied customers use sites like this to show appreciation or rant. Whether it’s a negative or a positive review, there is something to be learned from it. Seeing how the supplier responds to the comments also demonstrate how whether they would be a good fit for your recruitment agency.
Make your recruitment software a final choice, don’t buy twice
At the start of your search to find and use the best recruitment agency software, work with the intention to find the most suitable recruiting tool. Don’t be careless with the search process or in choosing the CRM.
It is easy to think you will take what seems good enough and run with that for now. Because you can always restart and go with a different supplier if it doesn’t work out. But that is simply careless. Researching, finding, and onboarding software systems require an investment of time and money.
Why would you do it twice when you can do it once and be happy with your investment? So make sure that your recruitment software integrates well with all the other tools you need (like skills testing software solutions, e-signature tools), that it offers you smart solutions to your problems, and that it makes recruiting work easier and better for you.
