Item: SmartRecruiters
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SmartRecruiters is being used as an applicant tracking system for the Human Resources department. It is being used by all the recruiters working for Ancestry.com. It is very efficient and much better than Taleo, the applicant tracking system we used previously. There was a small learning curve at first, but once we were used to it, it was great.

Pros and Cons

Very efficient,
Easy to use.
Had built-in rejection letters to use when necessary.

The notification system was way too much and notified you constantly with mostly useless information. It was like a needy, pestering 4 year old constantly tugging at your clothes for attention, trying to interrupt what you were doing. It was very stressful and made it hard to focus on my job until I figured out how to shut all those constant, annoying notifications off. Other than that, it's the best ATS I've ever used.

Candidate Experience

I like the way you can choose what kind of rejection letter you want to send when that is necessary.

Usability for Hiring Managers

Hiring Managers are not used to using an ATS the same as a recruiter is. Some of them had difficulty figuring it out. It's not as easy to use initially as Taleo or Jobvite, but once they were used to it, most of them began to like it. The star rating feature was good. It allowed the hiring managers to see at a glance which candidates I thought were the best, and they could also re-rate them if they disagreed with my assessment.

Return on Investment

I was an external contractor with Ancestry and not part of the internal decision making or internal metrics process. I'm not qualified to answer that.

Alternatives Considered

I was not a decision maker at Ancestry. The person that chose SmartRecruter was Robert Merrill, the recruiting director at that time. I think it's one of the best decisions ever. Once I got over the initial learning curve and figuring out how to shut off the notification overload, I was hooked. I think it's the best applicant tracking system I've ever used.

Likelihood to Recommend

All the constant notifications every time someone applies for a job is totally useless in a corporate HR environment. It's actually a distracting detriment. On the other hand, for a recruiting agency dealing in contractors, it could be useful, since time is of the essence in that environment. It might not be a bad idea to have 2 versions, one for corporate clients like Ancestry.com without the all constant notifications every time someone applies through the website; and another version designed for recruiting agencies that need the notifications when they get a new applicant.

Best ATS Ever!

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with SmartRecruiters