SmartRecruiters - A Free Alternative
Updated January 29, 2014
SmartRecruiters - A Free Alternative
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Personal
Overall Satisfaction
We use SmartRecruiters as our central platform for recruiting throughout our entire organization. HR posts the positions and we invite hiring managers to view and rate candidates, while HR continues using the tool throughout the hiring process. SmartRecruiters has as addressed our past problem of not having a recruitment tool for our managers and for human resources. Having a replaced a paper-based application and hundreds manual emails, it has vastly streamlined our process. The best part, as a non-profit, is the cost - free!
- Streamlined communications with candidates - send emails and invites directly from a candidate's profile
- Posting jobs - SmartRecruiters has dozens of major job boards built into the system, allowing for an easy "pick and click" job posting function
- Strong support team. Through a message board system, as well as an assigned company representative, questions are typically answered quickly and honestly.
- Ease of use. The interface is very user-friendly, both from an administrative and end-user perspective.
- Flexibility in adding additional questions to the application. While there is a custom area for additional application questions, it is very limited and looks like something thrown in to the end of the application as an add on.
- Customization. More customization of the product would allow us to capture additional information we need for specific positions.
- Better customer service - we are able to communicate quickly and effectively with candidates throughout the job posting process, including informing those we do not select.
- Eliminated the printing of thousands of emailed resumes, saving annually on paper and printer supplies. (Part of this was just the fact that we went from a paper application to an online system).
- Cost savings on recruitment. Multiple hours were spent posting jobs to individual websites in the past, now all done on one screen via SmartRecruiters.
SmartRecruiters was a simple choice for our organization at the time of our implementation of an online recruitment system because of cost. While other systems maybe had more bells and whistles, integration, or better support, we chose SmartRecruiters because if was free. A government-funded non-profit is rarely stable and often facing budgets cuts, we based our decision extensively on this factor. The ease of use of the product was also very important.
Product Usage
20 - As the organization's recruiter, I use SmartRecruiters on a daily basis. Additional members of HR use it when I am out of the office. Otherwise, all of our hiring managers are required to use it as the main piece of our recruiting structure. These positions range from mid-level managers on up to our Executive Director.
20 - I provide all of the in-house support to our end users whenever they need help. As part of our policy, HR oversees all job postings and communications with candidates. This limits the amount of features management needs to use. If there are ever any major questions, I ask SmartRecruiters directly. Skills needed would be knowledge of web-based applications, strong writing skills (for job ads and email responses). It's a fairly easy product to implement and teach to staff.
- Time Savings - The ability to post to multiple job boards in mere seconds
- Ease of use
- No cost
- Web-based
- The ability to post jobs to multiple websites with one click.
- Time savings. The user interface makes it easy to view and rate all applicants quickly and efficiently.
- Job widget. No longer do we have to manually create the job ad for our website.
- Full-featured reports (If we upgrade to Enterprise edition)
- Agency management (A feature we currently do not use)
- Mobile recruiting
Evaluation and Selection
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
For a non-profit facing budget cuts, cost was the initial reason. To have a full-featured ATS for free is amazing.
If I was working from a larger budget, I would probably request demos of other products and compare, utilizing and internal test group.
Implementation
- Implemented in-house
Change management was minimal - We were very careful in implementing the product, presenting it multiple times and getting feedback from our managers before our final decision and go ahead.
- Resistance to change - some managers "didn't want to learn another system with a password"
- Ability to track all of our EEO data the way we had previously
Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved No escalation required Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
No - Not in our budget at this time.
Yes - Yes to both.
I was emailed immediately from SmartRecruiters when I had posted an issue on the community message board. Albeit a small problem, it was taken care of quickly.
Usability
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using Familiar | None |
- Multiple job site postings
- Adding users
- Contacting applicants
- Modifying/customizing application
- Simple edits of job postings are cumbersome
Reliability
Upgrading
Yes - If we get to the point where the additional features are needed, we will surely explore the option of paying.