iApplicants is a cloud-based ATS that offers batch or mass communication with potential candidates via multiple channels, resume parsing, and data management. This particular platform is sought and used by small to midsize companies and is offered on a flexible payment schedule.
$800
per year
Paycom
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Paycom is an automated HCM platform, built on a single database that eliminates redundant data entry through automation. A payroll and HR software solution, Paycom is used by organizations of all sizes to access employee data without navigating multiple systems.
In my opinion, they are well suited to any hiring scenario in which there are many applicants and you need to do an initial screening. The tests we use are effective in filtering out people who we have learned later or from experience would not work in our organization, those who have scored well have went on to be successful. It is an excellent tool.
well suited for smaller businesses. most of our functions are housed in the payroll system, so that makes things easier. Not sure how sophisticated the labor allocation and job costing system would work with a large organization. We have to closely monitor tax profiles and multi-state things. Hard to follow and understand at times.
Innovation - iApplicants partners with other related businesses and develops tools to streamline processes. Their integration makes sense - e.g. integrated background checks or HR software integration.
Responsiveness - I don't think I've ever had a response that was beyond 24 hours of my request.
Training and Updates - The dashboard offers tutorials at your fingertips. Updates/announcements are displayed upon logging in. I appreciate having it there as a constant reminder, but without getting a lot of email notices that clutter my inbox.
Customization - I love that we can brand the application for a professional recruiting "portal" and add additional details about our company. Additional customizations are accessible to me as an end user via the GUI, so I don't have to make a request for everything.
The application is long enough to deter job hunters who are "click-happy" and apply to every job they come across - applications that allow job hunters to store their resume in the system and click to apply generated hundreds of unqualified people who were desperate for anything and didn't even read the job description. On the reverse side of the spectrum (particularly government systems), I've seen (experienced) online submissions that were so long and tedious and could take hours to complete online. While some fields are mandatory in the application, iApplicants doesn't require a candidiate to essentially re-key every piece of their resume into sections of an online form.
Before Paycom we were using Paylocity and in about six months of running payroll with Paylocity, we never once had 100% accuracy from a payroll standpoint. So we had disgruntled employees because either their time was off or their pay was off. With Paycom, we've never had a case where our payroll was not 100% accurate.
The version we used didn't have the look and feel of more sophisticated ATS systems, which often feel more user friendly. It would be nice if it had less of a database format.
The posting feature utilized a third party which was great but didn't post to real time and required some follow up administratively. The feature of posting from the system is fantastic and the number of options is great but for sites that require manual entry and approval just knowing you are waiting on a third party company to manually enter those postings, have them approved and then verify they have actually been posted live requires a bit more follow up than I prefer.
We had a posting delete and no technical explanation as to why or how. It took someone several days to realize it was gone which lost traction and was alarming when we realized that the technical support team had no idea how it happened or what could prevent it from happening again. Needless to say that led to having to verify all postings were active daily for several weeks after which was time consuming when you have 30 open requisitions at a time.
I think that when we do need a response back, which is very unlikely from the contact about something that's happening or going on, it can take a little long to get back to us. Longer than we would like because obviously it's an emergency to us, but we understand they have tons of emergencies they have to solve. But I think that's the only aspect.
I know from a payroll standpoint, which I'm not really privy to because I don't work on the payroll side, there have been some little hiccups that about certain formulas used, certain credits being issued that we've already filed for tax credits that we filed for. So I know that my CFO's already on top of it and pay comes on top of it as well and it's getting resolved, but obviously that's a big issue that needs some work there.
This is simply because as we expanded our business to include a staffing division, our technical needs of a tracking system greatly increased because now we needed to also track job orders, time sheets and billing. Had we simply stayed a software development company, we would have stayed with iApplicants as it fulfilled our needs at that time.
Because it has everything that we need and as we grow, we are learning how robust Paycom can actually be but we need to be willing to spend the money. It's not expensive but we, as a company, are not used to spending that much on a system for HR and payroll.
iApplicants is rare -- they offer both a great company (service, innovation, and ongoing development) with a product that really focuses on the needs of its users. It provides the basis for HR/legal reporting. It's easy to use, just logging in for the first time, so even my not-so-tech-savvy managers love it.
The interface is very intuitive, you can navigate it pretty well. Everything's pretty much spelled out and the features just flow really well. They make it easy for you to go back and forth with the UX/UI type of interface. So I think it was built pretty well.
I've used this product consistently for 8 years now. In that time, I've seen ONE time that they had a technical glitch -- and THEY were all over it. The only reason I even knew about it was an email alert they sent out to all clients, explaining the issue. They also had it fixed the same day.
It works. It's easy for everyone I've shared it with -- even my not-so-tech-savvy staff. When I hired a coordinator to handle routine HR duties, this was a simple transition to hand off to someone else without a lot of training. Sometimes it's a little slow downloading documents (resumes) from the site, but that could be a combination of issues that may not be related to their product. At one time, it wasn't able to accommodate newer Word documents (.doc vs. .docx), but they fixed that, as well.
Responses are always within 24 hours. They don't nickel and dime for everything we request. I like that they understand the request and we're not caught in a flurry of emails or failed attempts. Customizations, when needed by the vendor, have been at no charge. Most modifications can be made from my administrative panel. Everyone I've dealt with at iApplicants has been positive -- there seems to be a great sense of ownership across all staff there.
Our TSR has been wonderful to work with. Every step of the way he was quick to respond and answer any questions we had. I knew I could reach him at any time (day or night) and he would be available to assist. Implementing a new HRIS system is obviously a huge task and I contribute all our success to our rep Kurt! Of course, with any implementation, there were bumps along the way and issues. But I always knew we would work as a team to get those issues figured out. Working in the Paycom system has been smooth and easy to learn and I enjoy the employee self-service interface. Our managers have had positive things to say and are all excited about the changes we have been able to make to our organization due to Paycom being implemented.
I thought the training was well structured and the demos well-paced. Topics are set up sequentially so one can watch each one and build on previous tutorials. However, they are broken down into segments so a user can hone in on just a specific area where help is needed and not waste time on other topics s/he may already know. I also like the fact that the tutorials are available on the home page of the admin login, so we don't have to hunt for topics in a huge "knowledgebase." It's easy to get a quick refresher when needed (or when ready to try out something a little more advanced) and apply it immediately.
All the online training modules were short and straight to the point. Every module teach you how to use the system. If there is one thing they know how to do is training. We did implementation during the pandemic so all had to be done online or via zoom meetings.
Not at all satisfied it was a nightmare we spent over 8 months with the implementation team having issues after issues all related to the Puerto Rico regulations (half my employees are in Puerto Rico) and at the end we were moved over from the implementation team to the production team without all the issues being resolved
I would say the overall capability with the iApplicant system is fairly similar to what other products can offer. Our recruitment goes in streaks where we can have several positions at once and then there are times when we have no recruitment at all. So we didn't want to spend a lot of money on an applicant tracking system. I would say the biggest selling point for us was that the iApplicants allowed for our applicants to apply online and would improve our processes. But also that it was reasonably priced compared to the other products.
We really only had Paychecks and that was our biggest problem is that with several different companies, it was very hard If you had a salary employee and didn't terminate them in the prior company, they get paid twice, so this has really been definitely a big help for us.
At the very basic level, it provides a place to post jobs and cross-post to free job boards. It could just be used by HR staff. However, it's more than just another place to post if one opts to utilize the full functionality-- it's an applicant management system that allows a user to pre-screen, organize, and collaborate on candidates with other users. They've added built-in background checks, reporting tools, community boards, integrated with larger/broader paid marketing opportunities, and affirmative action programs.
I would think the most time would come from applicant tracking and I don't think that's a Paycom issue necessarily. I think it was a training issue during implementation. I would say that that has improved now that we had onsite training. But initially the applicant tracking piece can be difficult when you're used to just using an ATS. That's specifically for talent acquisition because there's a lot of nuances that goes into the system that Paycom bills.
