SmartSearch ATS vs. Zoho Recruit

I think our environment has stretched SmS and their capabilities (positively) but we have grown together and developed an enormously capable system together that is now very well integrated into our business. For doing applicant tracking, requisition management and offer management that has really been strong. I think we can partner together and build some better analytics and reporting capabilities that would be better suited for our business.

With the business I am in I have to be able to search and reach potential candidates from hours away due to the scope of the contract we have covering a solid couple hundred sq. miles of the state; so being able to have a software that can search, sort, rank, and suggest candidates without having to spend ours of time or driving hours for an interview I can connect with one person and make a decision and have the software there for them and send an email or two with the steps and instructions and 5 minutes later be doing the same for another candidate hours away without even needing to leave the office or even from home and knowing that I'm able to monitor and adjust the steps or make adjustments along the way and being able to trust that it is choosing quality candidates and able to help me hire the right people to do my job to keep my contractors and homeowners safe is amazing for our business.

Incentivized

• The search functions are outstanding. It is the reason we originally went with SmartSearch many years ago. The ability to do very simple or complex searches gives the recruiting staff great flexibility in how they look for and narrow down candidates.
• The hire and onboarding traks allow us to create very specific processes we want our staff to follow to insure a consistent and repeatable result. I can create traks that can be very general or traks that literally provide emails and reminders to all of the players (recruiters, managers, candidates, etc...) every step of the way. This is particularly helpful where we have customers who have extremely stringent contractual guidelines that must be followed.
• Support. Their customer support is second to none. We always joke that they are our favorite vendor to deal with.... Anytime we have an issue or question. They are there to walk us through it. The training is on target and the staff has always been friendly and more than eager to help make us successful with the tool.

• Like other HR-based services, Zoho Recruit allows you to track the behavior of candidates during the execution of your hiring process, so that you can create constant notes of any problems that may arise and that may prevent a proper job.
• The relationship between employers and candidates can be measured, which is excellent for creating reports on the development of each hiring process, and employees can then be evaluated on their ability to manage and communicate correctly with each candidate under their direct care.
• Hiring sessions can be recorded using a variety of methods. It does not necessarily have to be done using an audiovisual recording tool (which is possible through different integrations) but a convenient recording system that allows you to note down important data, and where even the candidate's photographs can be saved.
• We believe that some features of Zoho Recruit's support service could be improved, although this is probably a general service by the Zoho team for all their programs. The staff is not sufficiently explanatory, and therefore we have not been able to meet our expectations for troubleshooting.
• We like that using Zoho Recruit is so convenient, and that it interfaces well with the other services that the entire Zoho suite has to offer: Zoho Recruit is a good alternative for human resources, which shows a reliable and easy-to-manage operability, so that all registration and follow-up processes are simple.

Incentivized

• SmartSearch has a steep learning curve if you want to extensively use the features like automated tasks and the report writer
• Technical support is spotty and sometimes very frustrating, they don't respond for weeks at a time.
• SmartSearch user interface is old and has far less ability to customize the interface than other tracking systems
• SmartSearch has virtually no ability to connect directly with other software and allows now other software to connect in - so no Microsoft Flow, no Zapier, no mail parser, etc. and since Smart Search capabilities are limited, not being able to integrate it with other platforms easily is unfortunate.

• Zoho Recruit should allow for customization of pipelines based on department/role to be hired.
• Zoho Recruit should allow for customization of the vendor portal allowing the vendor to type in key data points about candidate profiles that are typically not found on the resume, such as notice period, current salary and expected salary.
• Zoho Recruit could simplify the blueprinting process built into the tool which allows for smooth flow of candidates through the system.

Incentivized

I believe over the past 30 or so pages (or so it seems), you have every reason for my business to continue as a SmartSearch ATS client and user. The support is off the charts great the few times I need them (generally not even once per year). My business has been a client since 2004. That should say it all.

We have evaluated every other ATS on the market, and do so every 1-2 years just to make sure we aren't missing out on anything better, and found that Zoho offers more functionality than any ATS with a per-recruiter-price under $100. Once it introduces automated job alerts and candidate login functionality there will be no reason for us to look elsewhere.

Incentivized

There are so many facets of SmartSearch, that to know everything about it is nearly impossible. While it is mainly straight forward, there is a lot. After using the program for a while, you become pretty comfortable with the basics and can start adding some of the other features.

Incentivized

My license for SmartSearch goes back to 2004. It has always been available for me - don't remember a single time it was not available in all of those years.

Once you get the 1 person on the phone they are very knowledgeable and tend to solve the problem. The issue is there are not enough resources to handle all the clients. Their primary clients are "recruiting firms" and I think that is where most of the their support resources go

I give Zoho Recruit this rating because over all, it has helped me to organize my candidates and saved me time and energy in organizing them myself. Without Zoho Recruit, I simply would not be able to keep my talent pool straight, and it certainly gets the job done. I took off a couple points because if I download a resume after already inputting the candidate into Zoho, it won't automatically sync the two profiles up. It also does not remind me when a task is expired.

Incentivized

Using the basic functions of SmartSearch is an easy implementation. But consider carefully what your organization needs to really drive placements. Because we only did a basic implementation first, we were caught off guard when later trying to implement more functions and realizing that the capabilities were limited or were difficult to learn and implement and realizing that tech support was not going to be consistent.

Functionally, SmartSearch is not on the same page as ZipRecruiter. ZipRecruiter as a platform is much more geared toward helping applicants and is essentially a glorified resume database. SmartSearch offers so much more in terms of features and abilities, that would not really be appropriate to try and compare the two. Similarly, the overall use of SmartSearch is an apples and oranges comparison to LinkedIn Talent. LinkedIn is great for sourcing and attracting talent, but in terms of tracking candidates all the way through a hiring process and tracking a heavy volume of job orders across a variety of states and locations, the two just don't really compare.

Incentivized

Zohorecruit is the best platform for small and mid-sized companies. It will help us to save lots of time in the recruitment and hiring journey. We have used Oorwin also in the past, but this is much better than the Oorwin, and it's very robust and easy to use, and the site is very fast.

Incentivized

• That's easy - they have helped us grown and make more money. The core element of their technology (e.g. the ability to search for, identify and contact candidates is excellent).
• They are a business partner and do their very best to help us succeed.

• I can't say anything about ROI, but Zoho Recruit made our recruitment process highly effective.
• We did not need to hire more HR managers as the system helped to manage the processes automatically.
• We saved money with Zoho Recruit for sure. And this was very best.

Incentivized