The Rise of the Recruiting Suite

Tim Sackett A.I., Assessments, ATS, Canvas, Communication, Employment Branding and Culture, HR, HR Tech, HR Technology, HR Vendors, Mobile, Mobile Recruiting, Online Applications, Recruiting

When it comes to HR and recruiting technology, almost all companies right now have a foundational tech stack:

  • Payroll
  • HRIS
  • ATS

Many of you also have learning, performance, add-on tech, etc. But almost all of us have the big 3.

What we’ve seen recently with the talent acquisition technology space are organizations merging and buying each other at a rapid pace to create recruiting suites or platforms.

Think of a “recruiting suite” similar to that of your HRIS suite. HRIS suites were created under this belief that we just want ‘one’ system and not a bunch of systems. Most HR suites do a bit of everything but mostly do payroll and core HR really well. Often you’ll still get performance, some learning, some light recruiting, etc.

A recruiting suite is based on this notion but takes the concept up a few notches. The premise being organizations need talent, it serves a critical function, and ‘light’ ATSs that are built in HRIS suites are not enough.

Recruiting is too important to not have great tech.

A recruiting suite, foundationally, would then have the following technologies built within:

  • Applicant Tracking System (ATS as the foundation)
  • CRM or Candidate Relationship Management
  • Communication tech (text, messaging, etc.)
  • Pre-employment assessment tech
  • Background screening

As we build out recruiting suites/platforms (pick a name you want to call it), we will see additional features like:

  • AI screening and matching
  • Interview scheduling
  • Interview technology (video, automated, SMS, etc.)
  • Employment branding
  • Employee referral technology
  • Full recruitment marketing beyond just CRM
  • Candidate experience tech including survey
  • Programmatic job advertising
  • Etc.

The reality is we see this divergence beginning to happen across the world. Where we have traditionally sold one suite (HR) that was supposed to do everything, recruiting has become too important to take a back seat to HR and Payroll.

HRIS suite providers are not investing in recruiting deep enough and fast enough to build out the types of capabilities that stand-alone recruiting suites already have, and by the time they catch up, the recruiting platforms will be years ahead again.

Having an ATS built into your HRIS suite is no longer enough if talent is critical to your organization’s success. Many organizations, especially large organizations, are currently stuck in this environment. It doesn’t mean you can’t succeed, but you have to understand you’ll be buying a bunch of additional recruiting technology to make your HRIS/ATS work the way you need it to. Which means, your ‘one system’ just became a lego set of twenty systems.

ATS provider Jobvite, CRM provider Talemetry, Text recruiting platform Canvas, and employee referral software RolePoint have all recently merged together to create one of these all-powerful new recruiting suites. We see many others making similar moves in the industry right now, which is truly leaving the HRIS suites in the dust and making it even more difficult for them to catch up.

As recruiting pros and leaders we need to keep our eyes on these industry moves and understand the impact on our own core technology stack we use daily.

When was the last time you had a sit down with your current recruiting tech provider to ask them about their roadmap for their technology?

FOT Note:  We here at FOT like to think we get talent and HR at a different level. At the very least, we are probably going to have a different take than the norm. So it made perfect sense to ask Canvas to be an annual sponsor at FOT, where they’ll sponsor posts like this one, allowing FOT contributors to write, without restriction, on all things related to using new and innovative ideas in recruiting, like using text messaging to interview candidates. If you find yourself thinking, “Hey, I should really look into Canvas!” then go do it, I think you’ll love the technology!