Item: SmartRecruiters
Rating: 7
Author: Matt Dyer

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have a bit of unique setup with regards to our use of SmartRecruiters as our parent company is an incubator and so there are actually several different companies that use the single instance. All of the companies are using the platform and each of the technical groups uses it to manage various job posts and candidate hiring processes.

We made the move to SmartRecruiters from another platform that really wasn't addressing our needs, it just wasn't flexible enough, and there was too much manual work required. We are hiring 50-60+ people a year and we screen 100s if not 1000s of candidates so needed a platform that could really help simplify the process from gathering candidates to shuffling them through our hiring process.

Pros and Cons

Job postings - I really like the ability to create job templates and then to use those templates as you are putting up new posts. It simplifies a lot of the overhead required in creating new job listings.
Email templates - probably one of my most favorite features of the platform. You can create different email templates, e.g. setting up an initial phone screen, requesting a technical phone screen, gathering references. Then you just need to select the template and hit send. Saves me a tone of time from having to copy and past emails every time.
Hiring team management - I appreciate the simplicity of managing the different folks who are on the hiring team. The platform makes it easy to add/remove individuals and makes sure that any confidential information, e.g. salary is exposed to those that shouldn't see it.
Offer template - Another area where SmartRecruiters really makes my life easy. The ability to upload various offer templates so when we are at the point of making an offer to a candidate we just have to select the template, specific a couple of inputs (e.g. salary, options, start date) and hit save. PDF is automatically created and I can then send in a quick email directly from the platform.

Job board postings - when we first started we would get a lot of organic candidates coming to us from various job boards that SmartRecruiters would post for free. Then all of a sudden the number applying just dropped off dramatically as it appears that the number of free job boards they post to was shrunk.
Letters of reference - there is no way to request/collect letters of reference directly in the platform. This means you have to manage that piece yourself outside of the platform which creates a lot of busy work. They have the ability to handle emails and attachment directly within the tool, I don't see why they haven't added support for this very common step in the hiring process.
Notifications - notifications are sporadic at best. Sometimes a candidate applies or notes are added to a candidate's profile and you get an email and other times you don't.

Candidate Experience

I think in general our experience has been pretty good, especially in comparison to previous tools, in that most of the interaction can be automated, or at least drastically simplified from within the tools versus a lot of manual work that we had to do with the previous tool. Candidates seem to appreciate our process and having everything tracked and standardized (via templates) makes it a lot easier for us.

Usability for Hiring Managers

For the most part in our use case, the tools are sufficient even using the most features. There are a lot of bells and whistles you can use to track specific applicant attributes and ratings from various folks on the team, but we haven't used that because it has been a bit difficult to understand exactly how to set those up and use them efficiently.

Return on Investment

Streamlined and made consistent our hiring process.
Better tracking of candidates and where they are at so we have a better picture at any point in time.
As with any tool, there is always a little bit of learning curve and selling to get people to use.

Alternatives Considered

LinkedIn Talent

We've used a couple of different platforms in the past before settling on SmartRecruiters (I can't remember all of the names). SmartRecruiters seems to have a decent balance between costs, tools, and the amount of work required to learn and adopt the platform. Every platform has its pluses and minuses.

Likelihood to Recommend

I think if people are looking for an all around solid platform that doesn't break the bank, SmartRecruiters is a good fit, especially if you are looking for a tool that can manage all of the basic work around finding, managing, and hiring new talent into the company. It is a fairly easy platform to learn as well.

HRIS Integration

No, we use SmartRecruiters as a standalone recruiting solution.

SmartRecruiters works well for us

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with SmartRecruiters