Brassring vs. myStaffingPro

Kenexa is is well suited for any organization that has more than 3000 employees globally. I would not recommend this to startups or a growing organization with less than 3000 employees. But once you cross this number, Kenexa becomes useful and is a brilliant tool for global operations - recruiting. I would recommend this tool to any organization that has offices in many countries/geographies as well.

Incentivized

myStaffingPro is very easy to configure and setup and takes less than 2 business days to configure and get it up and running. It facilitates the HR Business Partners in their recruitment activities. For the Open Position in the Organization, with the use of the software, they can quickly shortlist the candidates with quick mix and match of the requirements. Interviews can be scheduled with the candidate. If a Candidate is selected, the proper background screening process is initiated and finally, the Onboarding process is also tightly integrated within the software.

Incentivized

• Kenexa allows Boolean key word search within a particular requisition so it makes sifting through a high number of applicants manageable and effective
• Kenexa can be tailored to meet individual business needs. During the time we’ve had Kenexa here I’ve used it in support of a few different business segments and for each the way the system was used to “position” candidate statuses have varied based on the individual need of the business. One example is when interviewing a high volume of applicants internationally, we were able to send qualified applicants through to the “event manager” and it would enable the candidate to select his/her interview date/time based on previously submitted options inputted by our Kenexa users.
• Kenexa allows one to customize and score questions for each open requisition that applicants complete as they apply. The system then sorts applicants according to the score of candidate answers allowing for easy sorting of top qualified candidates.

• One strength of myStaffingPro is because of its heavy manual interface, there is a lot of detail and very specific reason codes. This is very useful for later reporting to get specific information on hires and rejects.
• Also the ability to upload documents (CVs, resumes, phone screen notes, etc) is all located in a convenient place
• The calendar function is good, there are stop measures to prevent double booking and the time zones are preset

• BrassRing's application system for candidates is prone to freezing and crashing in the middle of the application causing potential candidates to lose all progress. I filled out the application myself and witnessed these issues first hand, on top of several complaints I received via phone and email from candidates attempting to apply via the BrassRing service. Also, the Parsing system within the application is not capable of pulling any meaningful information out of text documents.
• Each user must be added to each job in order for that job, and the candidates in it, to show up in relevant searches. This becomes a problem when a new team member joins the account and needs access to all of the previous openings just so that they can find candidates already in the system. The account I was working on involved literally hundreds of new openings a month, meaning that any movement of personnel on or off the account would mean having to update potentially thousands of old positions just to allow them to be able to mine the ATS for candidates. I don't see any particular reason why someone with access to the system should have to be given access to each individual job. If a particular position needs to be kept confidential for whatever reason then that individual position should be able to be set to only show to authorized recruiters. The rest of the positions should automatically be searchable by anyone with appropriate access to the ATS to allow for basic level candidate mining and movement.

• This product is not particularly easy to use because it is not intuitive.
• It is difficult to generate accurate reports.
• It is difficult to add notes and find particular requisitions.
• Does not integrate well with our internal system in changes candidates to employees.
• If a step in the hiring process is missed, it does not give any notifications.

I am confident that the Kenexa product will continue to evolve to meet the needs of our business in an ever changing work environment. The affiliation with IBM also plays a factor as we have a long standing successful relationship with IBM products. We will be looking to integrate other Kenexa products in the near future to streamline our HR processes.

If I were a decision maker, I would not choose to renew myStaffingPro because of the overly manual process and lost productivity. I've found other ATS's that have the same functionality but are more intuitive, user friendly and appealing. Getting a hold of customer service and support was difficult and they were rarely able to fix the immediate issue.

I feel like I am pretty decent with computers and systems. It was fairly easy to use it after about a week or two . But I have seen people struggle with it as well as some people not use it at all. It can be slow at times and not work at times. But Its a fine system.

I have used a lot of applicant tracking systems in my career. I've always gone back to MSP saying that it's always been my favorite. It's easy to use, I've never worked with a system so easy to use. It's also easy to figure out if you don't know where something is located - you can typically figure it out on your own without having to ask anyone.

They are good about scheduling maintenance during overnight periods. There have been a few server issues with the e-signature system over the weekends.

Incentivized

Just slow for what we are doing here

It is a very basic system. It may be OK for entry level positions only. The practice of removing CVs while the recruitment process is ON is disturbing and there is no one to explain or to inform why it is being done. Even a routine mail is not sent to the client/consultant. I am surprised how this system is continuing without too many complaints.

We recently had an issue where it was brought to our attention by a candidate that specializes in Information Assurance and Network Engineering that their site was missing a secure socket layer for entering in your ssn, which means that when entering it, your ssn is in plain text in plain site. It should hide it with dots or asterisks as you type it to make it secure like when you enter passwords online. I turned off the field that collects SSN's immediately and have been waiting for a response as to when this would be updated so I could turn it back on. I submitted this to our rep back in October 2013 and they said they would forward it to their IT team. I never received any further follow up as to whether or not they would be updating this. I sent a follow up email and left voice messages asking for a status update in Jan. 2014 with no response. I finally called again at the end of Feb. 2014 and emailed. The rep seemed put out that I was telling her I was frustrated with the lack of follow through and that I told her I needed a response on whether or not this would be resolved. She then forwarded me an email from the IT team that said they didn't think this was an actual requirement, they would look into it. Today she emailed to let me know the IT team will not be making any changes.

Whether or not the issue above is a DoD issue or not, the length of time to receive the final response was way too long and involved too much follow up on my part. The fact that they are unwilling to update the SSN field is also troublesome. Even if this is not an actual DoD violation or a mandate, it's a pretty common practice on most websites for collecting private information. Would you enter your PIN number into an ATM if it showed your PIN number until you hit enter? Identity theft is very high these days and people should feel like the company cares enough to help provide that extra layer of protection of their personal information.

This recent development has really changed my opinion of MyStaffingPro drastically since I last wrote my review

We purchased an out of the box solution and that worked well for us.

Incentivized

SF ATS was not available at the time and Taleo was thought to be too expensive. In retrospect, given the amount of customization and leveraging of other vendor technology for things like analytics I suspect any cost advantage we realized evaporated

Incentivized

We thought it would've been better than ADP, but it wasn't. Also, the sales person who sold us on Paychex promised that this and Paychex would be able to do a lot of things we needed, which turned out to be a lie when we were implementing it, and the MyStaffingPro expert told us it wasn't possible, and it never was. It wasn't as user friendly either.

Incentivized

• Kenexa has assisted us in identifying top talent within our target market of applicants.
• Kenexa may exclude potentially good associates that don't test well.
• Kenexa clearly defines specific categories and general notes for training, development, & coaching of associates on areas of opportunity.

Incentivized

• Positive - Went from tracking candidates to excel to having a proper tracking system to move candidates through the hiring process faster
• Positive - Always working to improve current program to make it easier to use for recruiter, hiring managers, and candidates applying
• Negative - Bumpy start, but after building a relationship with the staff, smooth sailing to what we invested in