Why iCIMS is the best ATS on the market
Updated February 27, 2015
Why iCIMS is the best ATS on the market
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with iCIMS
We use iCIMS at Vology as an applicant tracking system. We house all of our internal and external (and confidential) recruiting activity within the tool. It is used solely within our Human Resources department. It allows us to post jobs to any job board directly from the ATS, and track the workflow of candidates through various steps of our recruiting process, it allows us to perform batch actions such as sending thank you letters and rejection letters. We also utilize iCIMS for a completely paperless onboarding process, allowing candidates to complete all of their new hire paperwork - both the standard W-4 and I-9 requirements as well as customized policies and Vology-specific forms - on their own time before their first day. This saves lots of paper and time, and houses the forms permanently in the employee record within iCIMS, eliminating the need for paper records. At Vology I am the main user of the system and we fill about 55 jobs/year. We also use it for AAP reporting at the end of the year, as well as other custom reporting of data such as source of hire, time to fill, etc.
I also used iCIMS at a prior company - Sage - where we used the system across a large enterprise of 5,000 employees, filling hundreds of jobs each year. At Sage, we also used the tool to feed directly into the HRMS system, automatically creating employee files and payroll records with simple clicks.
iCIMS is a tool that allows for the organization of candidates who have applied for jobs, it creates a searchable database of candidates for your organization, eases recruiting transactions, communication with candidates, reporting on talent acquisition activity and it is the first step in taking your entire HR department paperless.
I also used iCIMS at a prior company - Sage - where we used the system across a large enterprise of 5,000 employees, filling hundreds of jobs each year. At Sage, we also used the tool to feed directly into the HRMS system, automatically creating employee files and payroll records with simple clicks.
iCIMS is a tool that allows for the organization of candidates who have applied for jobs, it creates a searchable database of candidates for your organization, eases recruiting transactions, communication with candidates, reporting on talent acquisition activity and it is the first step in taking your entire HR department paperless.
- Ability to customize. I have not come across anything within iCIMS that I cannot customize to be the way I want it to be. Such as the names of fields, order of fields, reports, communication to candidates, uploading any and every document that I share with candidates within the system. Anything I have ever wanted it to do it can do, either through my own ability to customize (they give users free reign to customize away - and it's very easy to do), or with the help of their tech support.
- They don't nickle-and-dime. I have used other ATS's in the past such as Ultimate Software, Kenexa, Taleo, and some others, and all of them charge for the things I want to change or customize, and in most cases, they simply couldn't do it. If they could do it, it would take them months upon months and it would be expensive. With iCIMS, if I have a customization request, it is usually done within a day or two and I have never been charged for anything. This is an amazing strength of theirs that I hope they never change!
- It's the one-and-only TRUE ATS. This is a true applicant tracking system. iCIMS is not part of a different company that is an HRMS trying to be able to round out their solution offerings by having a recruiting module. They ARE a recruiting module ONLY. The other products only frustrated me because if they were an ATS, as in the case of Taleo or Kenexa, they are owned by a larger organization (in Taleo's case it's Oracle, Kenexa is IBM), and just one tiny line of a very big business. That never works because service is slow, they nickle-and-dime for changes, and they don't know what they are doing when it comes to ATS so they can't offer good solutions. In the case of HRMS systems offering an ATS module, those modules are never good - it's something that is fairly simple so they can say they have an ATS module (as in the case of Ultimate). So if you really want a real ATS, there is no other solution than iCIMS. It integrates with ANY HRMS and it's a great solution for a great price.
- I am not happy that iCIMS recently changed their job-posting provider. They switched from TalentBrew to JobTarget. It's not as smooth, there are more clicks and steps, and I have a feeling that I'm going to start being charged for this which will make me very unhappy. I miss the ease of TalentBrew.
- Even though their customer service is fast and great and they still do anything that I ask them to, I have noticed that over the past several months their response time has gotten a little slower. It used to be that they'd get back to me the same day and generally have my customization or problem solved in the same day. Now, it takes a few days. I've had one as long as a week. So if you are really reading this iCIMS - please know that your customer service, ability to do whatever the customer asks and respond fast sets you WAY apart from the rest. Please don't change....tighten it back up. It's still excellent and better than anyone else in the market, but I'd hate to see that slip to average.
- Major time savings. There is no reason to be doing recruiting manually today. This product will be a life saver in terms of saving time and organizing your candidate pools. It's also a great way to take notes in the candidate records so you can always remember as the years go on the reasons you passed on a candidate. Just great for organization.
- It has allowed us to communicate with candidates. It's a fact that 77% of job seekers get absolutely ZERO communication from employers when they apply for a job. iCIMS allows for immediate and automatic communication which is essential for candidate experience and employment brand.
- It allows us to work faster, respond to candidates and hiring managers faster, as well as easy end-of-year AAP reporting.
- The ROI is difficult to calculate because it the benefit is time, efficiency, speed and saved trees - i consider an ATS a basic necessity for any organization that has a need to fill jobs. ...it is not a question of whether to purchase an ATS, but which one to purchase.
I have seen and used a variety of other products, and as I said in a previous answer, there is no comparison. iCIMS is the ONLY true ATS. The others are simply modules that were slapped on to round out a HRMS system, or a small product within a very large company that doesn't care at all about the tiny little ATS line of business within their portfolio.