Powerful and Robust--but not friendly for the new user!
Updated June 09, 2016

Powerful and Robust--but not friendly for the new user!

Mark Story, MPA, SPHR | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

TBE

Modules Used

  • Recruit

Overall Satisfaction with Oracle HCM Cloud (includes Taleo)

We use TBE or Taleo Business Edition Recruit as our company's ATS. We use it everyday and have counted on it to support our recruitment processes since 2012. I've personally used it since late 2012 through early 2015. In 2014 we faced a significant growth cycle--a time when we absolutely counted on Taleo to perform as the recruiting tool we needed to process, track, and communicate with hundreds eventually to a few thousand applicants. Taleo is currently used only by our HR department with 2 users.
  • Taleo is a very powerful ATS providing many options for recruiters, hiring managers, and hiring decision makers. Options is a strength because it allows flexible configurability to a particular company's needs.
  • Taleo updates are regular and generally come with enhancements that most users experience as positive.
  • Taleo is cloud-based and the platform has been extremely stable and the service highly reliable--I can't remember any 'downtime' due to the provider (Oracle) in over 2 years.
  • Taleo is missing a strong training/education piece for new users. It's not an easy program to learn. And it's not an easy program to use until you learn enough about how it operates and the rules that govern its structure--like using a lot of energy and slowly pushing a big heavy object until it gains enough momentum to make pushing it noticeably easier.
  • For a small to mid-size business (250 employees now) to expand the functionality of Taleo (which definitely exists in the program) you're looking at a substantial investment in time and money to train well an administrator and daily users as well as hiring managers.
  • I'd like to see an easier and cost effective interface with other HR software such as payroll and a core HR program.
  • Positive impact has been Taleo's been extremely reliable platform. It's never crashed on me.
  • Positive impact is that we've been able to use the basic features over a period of high growth with almost zero glitches, bugs, or performance inconsistencies.
  • Negative impact is length of time it takes to train a new daily user or an infrequent user.
I've used spreadsheets and ADP's enterprise level ATS back 4-5 years ago. Taleo is the 1st ATS I've used over time and I was looking forward to it because I had heard such great things about it. So, in fairness my ability to compare Taleo is limited. I like what I consider much better user friendly programs that I've only viewed or touched as a demo--such as Silkroad's ATS module, and MyStaffingPro. Also, Workday's product acts like I want it to act--as an HR user and as I want a tool to act as an applicant or an employee or manager. Some of the newer products coming out such as ApplicantStack appear promising and BambooHR--which offers more than just recruiting functionality. Until I actually 'use' another program though, Taleo has grown on me--enough that I can pick-up the tool everyday and get right to work.
Taleo's strength is also its primary weakness--in my opinion. It's a very robust and powerful recruiting program or ATS--actually capable of advanced features such as position control, multiple users with different access levels from hiring managers, to interview panelists, to outside recruiters. It was onsite when I started with my current employer so it's only after using it for over 2 years that I've been able to learn enough so I can use it well enough to experience appreciation when I log-in instead of something closer to loathing. As an early user I would have rated the program a 3 or 4--having spent a lot of time teaching myself about what Taleo can do and the way I have to use it to get the results I want, I rate it a 7. If I were to use it for another 2 years on a daily basis maybe I'd rate it a 9.

Using Oracle HCM Cloud (includes Taleo)

Evaluating Oracle HCM Cloud and Competitors

No - Taleo was selected by a prior administration and before that our company had no application tracking system
  • Product Features
  • Product Reputation
  • Vendor Reputation
The reputation of Taleo as being the ATS of choice (2012) was the single most important factor in the prior administrations choice of the software.
The company is in the process of evaluating a new HRIS including ATS and LMS options. We understand that Taleo has strong capability for integrating with a number of different HRIS options. Evaluation is focusing on data integration, vendor transparency/customer service track record/training options, and the level of internal FTE support (HR & IT) necessary to achieve optimum utilization.

Oracle HCM Cloud Implementation

Oracle HCM Cloud Reliability

Taleo (owned now by Oracle) continues to be an incredibly powerful product and it's scalability is among the most robust of any ATS in use today.