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Kenexa was acquired by IBM in 2012. the Kenexa suite contains recruiting, performance management, assessment, learning, on-boarding, succession management, compensation, and analytics. It's strongest offering is around recruitment.https://dudodiprj2sv7.cloudfront.net/product-logos/0r/lH/P4ZMU5EG1GR0.pngHiring through KenexaKenexa is used across the organization globally for recruiting and recruiting operations. Its used for candidates applying to various roles, scheduling interviews, acts as a single database for feedback for interviews, making offers to candidates and storing important data like Visa, work permits, passport soft copy, compliance and any work / country specific regulations. It also acts as a triggering tool for sending mass communications, emails and information about the role and organization.,Applications on Kenexa - this I believe is the best strength of Kenexa. It is very easy to segregate candidates based on the skill set, role, country, level, etc., hence being the single source for all information. Feedback Forms - As soon as the interviews are done, the tool allows us to send feedback forms with a detailed feedback (up to 4000 words). This allows a detailed documentation of every interview, enabling the organization to make the best possible hires. CRM like features - like any CRM (customer relationship management) tool, Kenexa allows you to be very personalized with every person you are interacting with. The emails directly go to the inbox of the candidates and are personalized as well (with first names, role, and phone numbers).,API's - I believe this is one area where Kenexa lags, the ability to talk to other systems. This tool is impossible to integrate with lots of other tools, requring human involvement and manual intervention. Search - Searching is not an easy task. It requires a lot of time and effort to search basic data. But due credit to IBM, they have improved on this a lot. But still the system requires more optimization. Openness - Kenexa is a user defined system. It functions only in one described way. There is no way to reduce time, or have an alternate way. This is sometime irritating.,8,I believe it has a positive impact. The work gets segregated easily and speaking from operations point of view - its great to have everything in its place. The interface of the software is easy and workflow is great. The only negative impact is the software is not talking to other software - It's difficult to integrate it with other tools,ADP Workforce Now and Kronos Workforce Ready,Cisco WebEx Room Series (formerly Cisco Spark Room Series), HireVueKenexa connects you with candidates quick and efficientlyIt was used as an ATS and CRM for staffing. We housed all candidate and client details; used it to search for top profiles and reporting. It solves the problem of candidate documentation and back-office administrative needs. It has solid search tools and easy to navigate tools and also UI.,Candidate retrieval and documentation Client documentation Reporting,We would love to see a more comprehensive dashboard and having to not use as many clicks to get to where I need sometimes. Perhaps more parsing options for even easier, more automated usage.,8,It was great for an ATS and helped improve busienss It allowed the recruiters to streamline their candidate searching Allowed for more palcements,Bullhorn Recruitment CRM,Paylocity Web Pay, Microsoft Office 365, Skype for BusinessA steep learning curve post go liveWe use Kenexa's 2x Brassring as ATS in a global organisation. It allows our Hiring Managers to provide the data required by them, and start/be part of the recruitment process without requiring access to the system.,We can build/configure as required, to respond to both planned and ad-hoc business requirements. Global sparring and knowledge about global recruitment issues, which are not always ATS related. Customizable automations are fantastic,A Client Services Consultant is pretty much required to navigate between bugs and the global support center. A Workbench trained administrator is invaluable. Once languages have been added to a requisition, it is not possible to remove them without rebuilding the req and sending it for approval again. Many defaults point to the system having been originally designed to for system users to only work within a single req language. Reported issues seem to too frequently end up in a loop between the 1st and 2nd level of support, or returned as being fixed, when it isn't. Too many bugs, especially following a release of a new functionality. The system is designed for all users to access the system, even though it may be sold as data can be accessed via emails. Out of system approvals and notifications are disappointing. Too many functionalities which would help usibility are only available to standard fields, which for the most part are unusable. Product releases are normally too far between and lacking functionalities which one would expect in 2014. The Internet Explorer version supported is always behind, by at least one version, if not two.,10,Transparency to business in regards to their requisition requests. Compliance requirements are tightly adhered to. Much improved screening and pipelining tools, and a very flexible UI, allowing users to see what is important for them.,3Honest and StraightfowardIt allow you to track the progress of a potenital candidate from start to finish You can set up email templates that you can send and label for each part of the process You can pull resumes fron different sources by using keyword searches for the type of employees you are looking to hire You can track communications to each candidate to see when you email or last contact the candidate,Send emails after using the search Function to find the candidate The number of clicks to move a candidate from start to finish Not having to reclick after changing Multiple status for candidates after reviewing If you search for a candidate and find them in the search, you can't send emails to them even if they are in your req. Must go in req to send emails for template.,5,We have a large number of candidates to choose from that are sourced from Career Builder and Monster. It allows for better follow up and better service to the candidate that we are trying to reach. Increased tracking of employees. Better time management for employees.,0,6,Vendor implemented Implemented in-house,1,Email Function Status Function Search Function,Tracking Too Many Clicks Uploading PDF Files,6,5Kenexa? You Betcha!My company currently uses Kenexa as our applicant tracking system and new hire onboarding solution. We have multiple entities and Kenexa lets us customize the different apply and onboarding experiences based on entity, job, etc. As far as problems, we had a horrible go live experience. When we went alive a few functions did not work as tested and there was a lot of rework that had to be done. That being said, our experience post go live has been great. We are currently undergoing the Talent Suite upgrade and the service provided so far has been amazing.,Customization of communications being sent to candidates Onboarding experience for candidates Implementation teams are very responsive A desire to listen to what clients want/need next,The current mobile application process isn't very sleek or "pretty" They tend to over promise on system capabilities There has been past issues with resolving issues/help desk tickets. This has improved overall but the weekend support is lacking,8,Increased new hires Increased job visibility Increased ease of applying Increased ease of onboarding,
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Kenexa
50 Ratings
Score 6.7 out of 101
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Kenexa Reviews

Kenexa
50 Ratings
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Score 6.7 out of 101
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December 03, 2018

User Review: "Hiring through Kenexa"

Verified User
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Kenexa is used across the organization globally for recruiting and recruiting operations. Its used for candidates applying to various roles, scheduling interviews, acts as a single database for feedback for interviews, making offers to candidates and storing important data like Visa, work permits, passport soft copy, compliance and any work / country specific regulations. It also acts as a triggering tool for sending mass communications, emails and information about the role and organization.
  • Applications on Kenexa - this I believe is the best strength of Kenexa. It is very easy to segregate candidates based on the skill set, role, country, level, etc., hence being the single source for all information.
  • Feedback Forms - As soon as the interviews are done, the tool allows us to send feedback forms with a detailed feedback (up to 4000 words). This allows a detailed documentation of every interview, enabling the organization to make the best possible hires.
  • CRM like features - like any CRM (customer relationship management) tool, Kenexa allows you to be very personalized with every person you are interacting with. The emails directly go to the inbox of the candidates and are personalized as well (with first names, role, and phone numbers).
  • API's - I believe this is one area where Kenexa lags, the ability to talk to other systems. This tool is impossible to integrate with lots of other tools, requring human involvement and manual intervention.
  • Search - Searching is not an easy task. It requires a lot of time and effort to search basic data. But due credit to IBM, they have improved on this a lot. But still the system requires more optimization.
  • Openness - Kenexa is a user defined system. It functions only in one described way. There is no way to reduce time, or have an alternate way. This is sometime irritating.
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.
Read this authenticated review
James Reich profile photo
April 25, 2018

Review: "Kenexa connects you with candidates quick and efficiently"

James Reich
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
It was used as an ATS and CRM for staffing. We housed all candidate and client details; used it to search for top profiles and reporting. It solves the problem of candidate documentation and back-office administrative needs. It has solid search tools and easy to navigate tools and also UI.
  • Candidate retrieval and documentation
  • Client documentation
  • Reporting
  • We would love to see a more comprehensive dashboard and having to not use as many clicks to get to where I need sometimes.
  • Perhaps more parsing options for even easier, more automated usage.
It is great for the staffing industry or really any B2B sales organizations. It can be used as an ATS or CRM. It is not a HRMS just a solid ATS, so I don't think it should be overly leveraged just for human resourcing needs or functions other than those linked with staffing.
Read James Reich's full review
Brent Morffew profile photo
July 29, 2016

Kenexa Review: "A steep learning curve post go live"

Brent Morffew
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We use Kenexa's 2x Brassring as ATS in a global organisation. It allows our Hiring Managers to provide the data required by them, and start/be part of the recruitment process without requiring access to the system.
  • We can build/configure as required, to respond to both planned and ad-hoc business requirements.
  • Global sparring and knowledge about global recruitment issues, which are not always ATS related.
  • Customizable automations are fantastic
  • A Client Services Consultant is pretty much required to navigate between bugs and the global support center. A Workbench trained administrator is invaluable.
  • Once languages have been added to a requisition, it is not possible to remove them without rebuilding the req and sending it for approval again. Many defaults point to the system having been originally designed to for system users to only work within a single req language.
  • Reported issues seem to too frequently end up in a loop between the 1st and 2nd level of support, or returned as being fixed, when it isn't.
  • Too many bugs, especially following a release of a new functionality.
  • The system is designed for all users to access the system, even though it may be sold as data can be accessed via emails. Out of system approvals and notifications are disappointing.
  • Too many functionalities which would help usibility are only available to standard fields, which for the most part are unusable.
  • Product releases are normally too far between and lacking functionalities which one would expect in 2014.
  • The Internet Explorer version supported is always behind, by at least one version, if not two.
Configurable automations are fantastic, but for the candidate and user, it is lacking what you would expect from a system in 2014.
Read Brent Morffew's full review
Dennard Melton profile photo
July 29, 2016

Kenexa Review: "Honest and Straightfoward"

Dennard Melton
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
  • It allow you to track the progress of a potenital candidate from start to finish
  • You can set up email templates that you can send and label for each part of the process
  • You can pull resumes fron different sources by using keyword searches for the type of employees you are looking to hire
  • You can track communications to each candidate to see when you email or last contact the candidate
  • Send emails after using the search Function to find the candidate
  • The number of clicks to move a candidate from start to finish
  • Not having to reclick after changing Multiple status for candidates after reviewing
  • If you search for a candidate and find them in the search, you can't send emails to them even if they are in your req. Must go in req to send emails for template.
I would tell a colleague to make sure you what you are trying to get out of the system. Are you mass recruiting or are you trying to fill a position every once in a while in your company? Make sure you understand the search function as well as how you can get the folders and the files built the way you need it. I am not sure they are tools that would help with mass recruiting. I think removing some of the tools would make it easier to get to resumes and not to have some many clicks with each candidate.
Read Dennard Melton's full review
Juan Kuilan, MBA profile photo
July 22, 2016

User Review: "Kenexa? You Betcha!"

Juan Kuilan, MBA
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
My company currently uses Kenexa as our applicant tracking system and new hire onboarding solution. We have multiple entities and Kenexa lets us customize the different apply and onboarding experiences based on entity, job, etc. As far as problems, we had a horrible go live experience. When we went alive a few functions did not work as tested and there was a lot of rework that had to be done. That being said, our experience post go live has been great. We are currently undergoing the Talent Suite upgrade and the service provided so far has been amazing.
  • Customization of communications being sent to candidates
  • Onboarding experience for candidates
  • Implementation teams are very responsive
  • A desire to listen to what clients want/need next
  • The current mobile application process isn't very sleek or "pretty"
  • They tend to over promise on system capabilities
  • There has been past issues with resolving issues/help desk tickets. This has improved overall but the weekend support is lacking

Kenexa is best suited for job postings, applying, and onboarding candidates.

Less suited for talent management.

Read Juan Kuilan, MBA's full review
Daniela Whitfield profile photo
July 18, 2016

Review: "The ins & outs of the Kenexa assessment"

Daniela Whitfield
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source

My company currently uses the behavioral MDP (Management Development Program) assessment to identify candidates for our training programs, which take place three times a year. This test is one of the determining factors as to whether or not a candidate gains entrance into our MDP cycle. Typically the candidate goes through three phases in the interview. First a phone screen or face-to-face meeting with the Human Resources Field Recruiter, then the invitation to take the Kenexa assessment. Based on the score, the panel interview is scheduled.

We also use the test for current Assistant Store Managers that are seeking a promotion in the near future. In between recruitment cycles, I test the top performers in each zone and give them feedback on areas of opportunity and highlight their strengths with the feedback from their testing.

The assessment breaks the scores down into three categories. 0-20= Fail; 21-49= Pass with Caution; 50-100= Pass. Currently, any candidate, whether internal or external, that fails cannot proceed in the interview process. Candidates are allowed to retest 6 months later.

The Kenexa assessment gives situational examples of real life scenarios and assessing whether or not a candidate can deal with the stresses of retail management.

  • Identifies how a candidate will deal with stressful situations within Retail Management.
  • Weeds out potential risk factors with overall performance through detailed, behavioral questions.
  • Assesses key behavioral categories that a manager needs to be successful.
  • Some of the questions under situational judgment are subjective and don't take into account different scenarios.
  • The test is a little lengthy.
  • Some people do not test well and I am not sure if there is a contingency built in for that margin of error.

Kenexa asked a lot of questions that pertained to real life scenarios for retail managers. It is very helpful to see how people react under pressure. It measures the years of experience in comparison to how an individual would react thoroughly.

Some of the more complex math and theory questions may or may not apply to the type of manager we need for this specific industry given all you need is a high school diploma and 2-3 years of management experience to be considered for the role.

Read Daniela Whitfield's full review
sanjeev shrivastava profile photo
July 29, 2016

User Review: "Kenexa -A defective HR system"

sanjeev shrivastava
Score 2 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We are Human Resource Consultants. Managerial positions by are client are forwarded to us via Kenexa and candidates are uploaded by us on Kenexa.
  • The system is good for sorting applications however any activity slightly more complex and it collapses.
  • I have no idea where to start.
I do not have more information of other products but Kenexa is not recommended. It cannot even maintain applications.
Read sanjeev shrivastava's full review
Courtney Pontbriand profile photo
February 19, 2016

User Review: "Kenexa Rocks!"

Courtney Pontbriand
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
I use Kenexa as an applicant tracking system for both external and internal hires within the corporation.
  • It's very user friendly, it's easy to use even if you have no experience with it.
  • Information is easy to find and navigate which makes doing your job that much easier.
  • Sending candidates invites to apply makes the applicant pool much more diverse.
  • You should be able to add attachments to applicant files.
  • A great enhancement would be to pre-populate fields that you use frequently so you don't have to type everything in multiple times. (ex. Store Managers & Store Numbers).
I feel Kenexa worked well for a large corporation.
Read Courtney Pontbriand's full review
Kallen Loos profile photo
February 13, 2015

"Kenexa Review"

Kallen Loos
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Kenexa was used at my past company in the centralized recruitment center. Kenexa forced us to move away from the printed paper (applications and resumes) and review these items online via the Kenexa portal. The portal was easy to use and navigate, I liked how organized the portal was. I could view applicants with ease and move them through different stages in the portal.
  • Easy to use
  • Easy to view applicants
  • Organized portal
  • Our on-site trainer from Kenexa was awful.
I found Kenexa very appropriate for recruitment. The recruitment portal worked very well and was very organized. I would ask how it will meet your business needs specifically and what it will help you do better. There is certainly a learning curve and a different angle of approach with this system vs. PeopleSoft.
Read Kallen Loos's full review
Jennifer Uriguen profile photo
February 13, 2015

"Kenexa review"

Jennifer Uriguen
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Kenexa is used across the HR organization globally. BrassRing is used for applicant tracking and OrgMappers is used for engagement data.
  • Kenexa BrassRing is a great tool for applicant tracking, posting roles, tracking EEO data, background check info, candidate profiles, templates, reporting,
  • Kenexa technician support is valuable in providing what their customer needs are to run their business effectively
  • Kenexa OrgMappers is a great tool to host engagement surveys, pull data easily, enter data easily
  • Understanding the industry and where technology is going and offering services to customers to bring them up to speed. i.e. solutions for career conferences to easily have candidates apply on the fly
  • Offering to send a rep to the conference free of charge to enhance the customer relationship
I would recommend Kenexa because their applicant tracking system has everything needed to run a successful recruitment process where there is a high volume of roles and strong strategy to bring in diverse top talent. I do think this type of tool is for larger companies or companies that are global. For smaller companies with less than 500 employees whose volume of recruitment is low, you may not need this type of system.
Read Jennifer Uriguen's full review
Kelly Risley PHR, MBA profile photo
June 03, 2015

Kenexa: "BrassRing Applicant Tracking Review"

Kelly Risley PHR, MBA
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Our organization currently uses Kenexa BrassRing as an applicant tracking system and requisition approval tool. Both internal and external candidates apply through our open jobs this way. We track affirmative action reporting through the tool as well as various other reporting for our organization. We are looking at integrating background checking and onboarding through the tool as well.
  • Uptime of application
  • Ability to be used globally
  • Technical Support - It is extremely difficult to get someone to respond to tickets quickly and understand what the problem is
  • Lack of a dedicated account resource
Kenexa is not suited for businesses that have a lot of one off scenarios or procedures as well as businesses that do not have a dedicated resource for administering the tool.
Read Kelly Risley PHR, MBA's full review
Ellen Pham profile photo
February 06, 2015

Kenexa Review: "Not so bad, yet no too good."

Ellen Pham
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
While using Kenexa, I encountered issues repeatedly. The ATS itself was extremely slow and was not compatible with many systems. I was not able to use it for a regular session without growing frustrated. It would constantly freeze during all my searches as well as giving me error notifications for status checks. This would happen ALL THE TIME.
All Recruiters and leads used it to search for candidates, but it was still awful.

Here is a basic overall look:
1) Lags 24/7
2) Outdated information
3) Constant Outages
4) NON user-friendly interface (needs to be updated)
  • It's really good at stalling time.
  • I liked that documents were easily sent with a single click.
  • Easy to learn and use (at times)
  • The interface needs to be more user-friendly and updated. it seems as though it hasn't been changed or updated in a decade.
  • It needs to be compatible with Google Chrome. Internet Explorer is slower and crashes more often.
  • There needs to be an automatic clean-up option to detain and get rid of outdated resumes to speed up recruitment processes.
I think companies should look into Bullhorn Reach. it's much more usable and minimized. Sleek, modern, fast, compatible and cloud based. It also offers mobile recruiting, that way all processes can be made anywhere and anytime--which makes it more convenient for recruiters who are also out in the field more. Bullhorn Reach also has consistent activity tracking. Every bit of process or communication made by recruiters and users is tracked and can be seen by every one else. Which ultimately helps us stay updated on everything. The less clicking we have to do to get to something that we need to know about, the more user friendly it is.
Read Ellen Pham's full review
Aaron Binkley profile photo
December 15, 2013

Review: ""Kenexa 2x BrassRing" comes up short when reaching for the proverbial brass ring."

Aaron Binkley
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
  • BrassRing did make it easy to create and post new jobs as well as unpost and close filled jobs.
  • Kenexa 2x BrassRing is capable of running many useful reports for keeping track of candidate flow and overall recruitment progress.
  • 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.
Other products in the same category as Kenexa 2x BrassRing would be Taleo and PeopleFluent. I would also look into Avature as an ATS option. I am currently on the sourcing side of the recruitment process and use Avature for tracking and candidate mining purposes. I would recommend getting any kind of demo possible since the user interfaces vary quite a bit between them. Ease of use and overall stability should be kept in mind when comparing ATS prices.
Read Aaron Binkley's full review
No photo available
April 17, 2017

Kenexa Review: "Decent ATS for smaller companies"

Verified User
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Kenexa is used globally for salaried hiring. It provides a single, integrated hiring solution.
  • Integration with HRIS and job boards
  • Contact management
  • Actual user interface is fairly intuitive
  • Setting up integrations is extremely tedious. For instance, setting up an address feed would have required sending over 5 different spreadsheets on a daily basis (one each for every facility name, street address, zip code, state, country) and a 6th sheet to make the connection between the other 5 elements. We opted not to set up that integration as a result.
[It's] good for smaller organizations with a low level of complexity in terms of geographic scope and reporting structures.
Read this authenticated review
Brett Kummer, PHR profile photo
December 20, 2013

Review: "Optimize your Recruitment Performance with Kenexa"

Brett Kummer, PHR
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
  • Kenexa's "Data Insight Tool" allows for real time metrics to be collected and shared to make decisions that impact our company.
  • Applicant flow data is easy to track as the HR Status options are customizable to adopt to specific work processes.
  • Kenexa customer service allows for an expert technical liaison to help consult any and all implementation decisions that my company decides to pursue.
  • RAM Trigger logic allows for optimal automation of the transactional recruiting processes.
  • Talent Records can be located with Boolean search logic which aids in the recruitment process.
  • Kenexa "Agency Manager" for Third Party Agencies is a primitive tool and could be enhanced to help manage agency usage.
  • System outages are particularly troublesome for our international locations as the generally occur in the middle of their work day.
  • Work Bench Training is only held several times a year and is instrumental to a company's ability to adopt BrassRing as their applicant tracking system.
I would recommend that any colleague should complete the due diligence process of examining all products to find the right fit for their company culture. Some of the questions I would ask in a search are: 1-What does the customer service process look like? 2-Who will be performing any enhancements or alterations to my instance of the product? 3-How will this product integrate with existing HR systems already employed by my company.
Read Brett Kummer, PHR's full review
Simon Meth profile photo
December 14, 2013

Review: "Is Kenexa 2XB the Right ATS for Your Recruitment Team?"

Simon Meth
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
  • 2XB is SaaS and it is up and running most of the time. Performance is usually good and there is only very minimal downtime.
  • 2XB allows corporate recruiters to work the way they want to work. It provides a clear snapshot of everything on the recruiter's "desk": what there is to do now, what there is to do later, and what can be ignored.
  • 2XB can handle companies/organizations of various sizes including the very largest and handles multi-site, multi-countries well.
  • The GUI has undergone several major revisions since I first used it in '03. It is far from Windows compliant. As the market transitions away from pure Windows compliance, now is the time to redesign and bring the UI up-to-date.
  • Reporting is very poor. A redesign of the reporting engine to use modern technologies is needed.
  • There is little that the user can do to customize their experience other than moving columns around, adding and deleting columns, and rearranging the landing page. This should be addressed when architecting the new UI.
  • The implementation of 2XB that I use has no social media integration that I'm aware of. However, Kenexa has announced Release 13: Social media integration and mobile functionality are at the top of the holiday wish list of recruiters this year. Just in time for the holidays, we’re excited to roll out Release 13 of Kenexa 2x BrassRing. Highlights of the release include expanded functionality for social, mobile, on-demand video interviewing, SMS/Text Messaging, user interface advances and candidate relationship management. No idea if that's vaporware or not but at least they are headed in the right direction.
Kenexa 2XB is certainly worth consideration. It's important to determine if the UI is going to be acceptable. Whether or not that is true will depend on the rest of the software suite in use. Reporting is also important. While you can report on most of the data, doing so is cumbersome and not readily available and intuitive for most users. That may be an issue in environments where users are expected to generate their own reports. Modern software should work the way that users expect. Given that most users are now used to using Web applications, tablet applications, and smartphone applications, shouldn't their ATS be available and work consistently on each of those platforms? 2XB does not!
Read Simon Meth's full review
Angela Cartwright profile photo
December 10, 2013

User Review: "Kenexa is worth considering."

Angela Cartwright
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
  • Candidate View includes the resume which allows for quick decision making on suitability of candidate.
  • The reports generated from Kenexa worked well and easy enough to configure.
  • The flow to the careers page was simple.
  • Posting to external sites was easy to do.
  • The version we had did not include social network sharing and that would have been nice.
  • The version we used didn't support .docx or .pdf but I'm sure that has changed now.
  • Some functionality, like template creation, needed engineering customization and would have been nice to do ourselves.
  • Workflow jump to the next step would have been a nice feature.
Depends on size of company, if a bigger company Kenexa worked well but for a smaller one it was too pricey.
Read Angela Cartwright's full review
Gayatri (Gigi) Goswami profile photo
December 11, 2013

Kenexa Review: "OK, but there are better ATS Systems out there"

Gayatri (Gigi) Goswami
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
  • Has a good UI.
  • Able to navigate through the tool easily.
  • I'd like to see better searching capabilities.
  • The search results are not 100% accurate. It requires more time to find the right candidate.
Able to work through the entire hiring process. Can pick up at any point and leave notes for candidate actions.
Read Gayatri (Gigi) Goswami's full review
No photo available
September 19, 2016

Review: "Kenexa just another one of the big dog ATS options that recruiters don't like"

Verified User
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Currently Kenexa is being used enterprise wide by recruiters and hiring managers for recruiting and hiring.
  • Kenexa has been trying to do a better job of understanding the client and candidate needs in the last 12 months but they still have room to improve in this area.
  • With Kenexa's acquisition by IBM, the ticket and support process became more difficult.
  • With resources like IBM behind Kenexa, I was hoping to see things move faster but updates to functionality have come at a slower pace than expected. When new features are added, they are not fully functional at launch e.g. mobile job search and mobile apply - they are communicating that both functionalities are ready however when working through the projects to turn on both, we have discovered a lot of limitations and functionality that have made us hesitant to go live with a less than great experience for our users.
  • No one can clearly communicate the roadmaps for new features and enhancements - we often get conflicting information depending on who you talk to.
Kenexa is one of the big dogs in the ATS space so if you want a traditional enterprise wide ATS for recruiters, it will meet your expectations - no recruiter loves their ATS. If you are looking to be cutting edge and candidate experience focused, I think that there are more nimble systems out there that are trying to take it to the next level. Kenexa has a reputation as being difficult to work with and we have found that to be true - while we have liked several of the special project folks we have worked with, there is a lot of back and forth with engineering to get things done.
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July 26, 2016

Kenexa Review: "Good for some but not all!"

Verified User
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
We were using Kenexa as our applicant tracking system. HR and Hiring Managers was the user population that had involvement with using the system. The system is robust and had many good features from a recruiting perspective but did not integrate easily with out current HCM system so we ended up going away from it and using a different system. The mobile capabilities of the system were subpar at best which was another problem for us since we are a sales based organization.
  • The system is intutive and easy for the recruiters to manager through reqs and candidates.
  • The system has Gobal language capabilities.
  • The sytem has integration posibilites with many different background vendors such as HireRight, and Talentwise.
  • Kenexa does not integrate with other HCM's easily such as Workday.
  • The support for Kenexa is not very good at all. It takes a long time to get tickets resolved and their tier one staff is not very knowledgeable.
  • Their Social Source product was a waste of money. It is very time consuming for recruiters to manage.
It think as an overall applicant tracking system Kenexa is a good tool. If you need to integrate with another platform I would not recommend it. Also I would also do a deep dive with an implementation consultant before purchasing to see if it will actually work for your business. The sales people sometimes give a false sense of what the system can really do and are not upfront about all the add ons that cost extra money. In other words some people pay for a Pinto but expect a Mercedes Benz to be implemented because the sales team snowed them a little bit through the sales process.
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July 12, 2016

Kenexa Review: "Truly awful product, even worse support"

Verified User
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Kenexa was used as the primary application tracking system for the entire company to handle over 10,000 hires a year. We had a few hundred recruiters using the system along with various support staff and hiring managers across the company.
  • Data extraction - this is about the only area where Kenexa did fairly well. Although there weren't built-in tools to get very meaningful data within the system, you had many options to extract data in ways that would allow ingestion into other systems for processing and analysis.
  • Almost everything - the system is clearly a legacy system that has been patched together over time and never really received the updates it needed to be competitive in a modern web environment. The recruiter experience is very poor, requiring tedious processes for even the most basic tasks. The job applicant experience is also very poor, unless you very heavily tweak the poor interfaces (and even then it's not possible to get it looking and working particularly well). The back-end administration is also quite painful and non-intuitive. The system is capable of doing some powerful things, but you really have to "trick" it into doing what you want. It doesn't appear to be designed with useful functionality in mind. Most of the solutions we implemented for were hacks that worked around silly limitations within the system.
  • Support - really, really poor. We paid for a dedicated consultant, and would regularly go days without getting responses (much less resolutions) to our issues. We replaced the consultant after a few years of pain, and the new consultant wasn't much better. They are not responsive, not knowledgeable, and regularly dropped the ball. Even if the system was excellent, based on the quality of the support we paid to receive I could not recommend this company.
Stay away from Kenexa. I could not recommend using any of their products in any circumstance. Look at newer players in the ATS field, where you're likely to find a more innovative, well-designed system that will provide a better experience for recruiters, managers, applicants, and back-office support. It'll probably be a lot less expensive as well.
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February 03, 2015

"Review of Kenexa"

Verified User
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
Kenexa is being used as our primary ATS (applicant tracking system). It is currently being used by the department. We use Kenexa to track requisition assignments, candidate status and applicants.
  • Interface is clean and concise - It is very easy to see the information needed in one screen. The usage is pretty intuitive.
  • Information and fields displayed is very customizable to individual preference.
  • Easy to see actions that are pending and needing to be addressed and real time status'
  • A better training program may be helpful. A lot of key features I needed to figure out on my own.
  • System can hang up or is slow at times
  • More customization could be provided for default settings.
It acts as a more than adequate applicant tracking system(ATS). The interface is intuitive but the system tends to be slow. At times, he system takes a few tries to log-in as it cannot locate appropriate credentials.
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December 14, 2013

User Review: "Kenexa- my personal expereince"

Verified User
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
  • 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.
  • When onboarding a new hire, Kenexa sends our new hire documents via a portal link to be submitted online by the candidate. The system is not easily compatible with Mac users and so it can complicate the candidate experience for many of our creative hires.
  • I’ve experienced a high volume of system outages where I was not able access Kenexa. These outages have been resolved in some cases by a system restart, clearing my “cookies” and in the majority of cases, the Kenexa tech team had to make the fix on their end as more often the not the issue tended to be user wide. They are usually great about fixing bugs in a timely fashion but there have been instances where I’ve been blocked out for a few hours.
  • In my ideal ATS, a system should be able to compose and edit offer letters with the click of a button. Unfortunately there is much manual entry needed to generate offer letters in Kenexa, and once completed, it is no possible to edit. For example, if a new hire’s start date changed we have to create an completely new offer letter, we cannot go in and just make the minor adjustment.
1. Is the system compatable with both Mac and PC platforms?
2. Can the system be customized to unique individual business needs?
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December 20, 2013

Kenexa: "2XBrassRing Review"

Verified User
Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
  • Implementation of a new product.
  • Listening to current users design requests and suggestions.
  • Willingness to set up meetings with multiple groups within the organization to find solutions to known issues.
  • Roll out of new functionality.
  • Testing new functionality prior to roll out.
  • Communicating functionality changes to all clients, and providing complete documentation showing how to implement those changes without help from consultant.
My advice would be that the level of service received from the consultants is not what it once was. I believe their service model changed two years ago, and as a result the consultants are responsible for more clients. As a result the consultants have less time to really learn the system, as they are constantly on calls from one client to the next with no real down time to troubleshoot.
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December 17, 2013

"Kenexa Review from a Recruiting Coordinator"

Verified User
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Review Source
  • It is an easy transition from the Recruiting team to the HR team when it comes to onboarding new employees.
  • Great for keeping track of candidates and organizing information by requisition numbers.
  • Easy process for sending out offer letters.
  • Can be very tedious when offer letters are filled out incorrectly, or need to be updated. There should be an easier tool to edit offer letters that need to be revised instead of plugging in all of the info again.
  • I experienced a lot of glitches with the format of the offer letter. At times the formatting and fonts would be skewed when copy/pasting into Kenexa.
  • "Moving a candidate through Kenexa" could be confusing for people who do not use all of the points (1st interview, 2nd interview, Manager review, etc). There should be a smoother process where you can jump from one status to the next easily.
I would advise to go over the functions step by step a few times a day with the trainer in order to get comfortable with it. You need to click on a lot of things to navigate through the product so be prepared to take a significant amount of time a day to review.
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Kenexa Scorecard Summary

Likelihood to Recommend (50)
6.7
Likelihood to Renew (12)
6.0
Usability (3)
7.0
Performance (1)
5.0
Support (2)
1.8
Implementation (2)
2.6

Feature Scorecard Summary

New hire portal (10)
7.9
Manager tracking tools (10)
6.9
Compliance tracking and reporting (6)
6.2
Corporate goal setting (3)
8.0
Subordinate goal setting (2)
5.5
Individual goal setting (3)
8.0
Line-of sight-visibility (3)
8.0
Performance tracking (5)
7.5
Performance plans (2)
6.0
Plan weighting (2)
5.0
Manager note taking (1)
8
Performance improvement plans (2)
5.0
Review status tracking (4)
8.0
Rater nomination workflow (2)
5.0
Review reminders (2)
4.0
Workflow restrictions (3)
6.3
Multiple review frequency (2)
7.0
Reporting (4)
8.0
Create succession plans/pools (4)
6.9
Candidate ranking (5)
8.5
Candidate search (6)
8.5
Candidate development (4)
8.0
Job Requisition Management (8)
7.5
Company Website Posting (7)
7.9
Publish to Social Media (7)
7.9
Job Search Site Posting (8)
7.9
Customized Application Form (8)
8.4
Resume Management (7)
8.4
Duplicate Candidate Prevention (7)
6.9
Candidate Search (7)
7.3
Applicant Tracking (7)
6.9
Collaboration (5)
6.9
Task Creation and Delegation (3)
6.9
Email Templates (7)
8.3
User Permissions (6)
7.5
Notifications and Alerts (7)
8.3
Reporting (7)
7.8
Learning content (1)
7
Mobile friendly (1)
2

About Kenexa

Kenexa was acquired by IBM in 2012. the Kenexa suite contains recruiting, performance management, assessment, learning, on-boarding, succession management, compensation, and analytics. It's strongest offering is around recruitment.
Categories:  Talent Management

Kenexa Competitors

Kenexa Technical Details

Operating Systems: Unspecified
Mobile Application:No