Archive for the ‘product review’ category

Newton Applicant Tracking Software Going Social

July 15th, 2012
Newton Applicant Tracking Software Goes Social

Newton Applicant Tracking Software Goes Social

Who knew that Newton Software, the creators of popular corporate applicant tracking software, have a skunk works lab outside of the Bay Area churning out new features? A source tells HiringSciences.com that there are at least two (likely more) developers working full time on Newton’s new social suite.

Dubbed Newton Labs, the team is gearing up to release the first of several features that will fulling integrate with Newton’s recruiting software and empower employers to engage and attract applicants through mainstream social channels.

Follow Newton on Facebook for updates.

Recruiting with a Fresh Twist – Accountability

July 9th, 2012

JobEscrow is a new online marketplace where employers and recruiters conduct business leveraging a pay-for-performance model based on new hire retention. Companies can buy a job credit for @ $400 – similar to the price of a job posting on LinkedIn. They select an approved, qualified recruiter through the JobEscrow ecosystem and both parties agree to a fee structure and a payment plan over a set period of time.  The cool this is that JobEscrow does’t take a cut of the recruiting fees like other services and the fees are paid out over time through an escrow account based on new hire quality and retention.

Here’s a screenshot. Looks slick!

JobEscrow is currently in open-beta and accepting customers. Here is how to connect with the JobEscrow team.

Connect with the JobEscrow team on FacebookTwitter, or better yet become an early adopter and sign up for Job Escrow updates and beta testing.

Applicant Tracking Software that Drives the Decisions that Drive Hiring

November 9th, 2010

Groundbreaking ideas spring from companies that find innovative ways to solve problems, rather than just focusing on technology or staying ahead of competitors. While Newton Software isn’t rolling over for competitors, they are focusing on the problems that their peers in the ATS space continue to ignore like user adoption and driving the critical decisions that drive recruiting. In fact, at the core of Newton, their popular applicant tracking software, Newton Software has invented a way to allow recruiters and hiring managers to complete the most critical paths of the recruiting process with just one click of a mouse.

Here’s a video demonstration of how Newton, easy-to-use, modern applicant tracking software drives the decisions that drive recruiting.



New productivity features come to popular applicant tracking software

September 1st, 2010


The product managers at Newton are at it again. New in a release scheduled for September, 10th, are several features designed to make corporate recruiters more efficient.  Hiring Sciences obtained this video from the Newton Software site.  The video is a preview of at least 3 new features that Newton has added to their already easy-to-use applicant tracking software.  On their blog, the product managers carefully point out that they are adding new features but refuse to compromise ease of use in the process.

3 Easy Way to Treat Applicants Better

March 25th, 2010
Companies don’t intentionally treat applicants poorly. Many don’t have the resources to create a positive experience for job seekers.
So, how can companies improve how they treat job applicants and, at the same time, convey a positive brand image despite limited resources?

Companies don’t intentionally treat applicants poorly. But, many don’t have the resources to create a positive experience for job applicants.  So, how can companies improve how they treat applicants and, at the same time, convey a positive brand image despite limited resources?

This is a helpful presentation but, assumes that you already use applicant tracking software.  If you don’t already use some sort of recruiting software, this presentation also has a nice plug in it.

Recruiting Insurance: Newton Announces Cutting Edge EEO OFCCP Reporting and Tracking

January 6th, 2010

EEO  / OFCCP compliance, until now, it’s been  real headache. Applicant flow logs, hired/offers logs, reasons for non-selection for every applicant, minimum requirements for every job. Tracking all of this was nearly impossible let alone actually reporting it – until now.

Newton Software announced that they will release a powerful feature to track and report all of your EEO data for you – automatically. No more going back in time to add missing data, no reason for spreadsheets and no extra work for your team. Newton’s EEO / OFCCP tracking feature is the most advanced of any applicant tracking software and they’ve designed it to be the easiest-to-use too.

Newton customers will track reasons for non-selection for every candidate, build appropriate minimum qualification questions  for every job, ensure that customer are being equal opportunity employers and build the same reports that used to take weeks or months in just  minutes.

The official release date is 1/10/10.  We’ll have a full review of the product then.

Stay tuned.

Bamboo HR: Good for Companies not Pandas

November 17th, 2009

So, here’s another company worth watching.  Check out Bamboo HR. Bamboo HR is an online HR database that gives you easy access to your employee records. Bamboo HR allows you to manage employee records, track required training, and store important documents securely on the web so all of you HR information is in one place. There is even a reporting function so you can slice and dice information as you like.

Not only is their name cool, I admire their business model too.  Bamboo HR offers a 30-day free trial, simple pricing listed on their website and their service is provided on a month-to-month basis – no long-term commitments! Seem like a no-brainer for companies looking to organize employee data.

Lear more about Bamboo HR at www.BambooHR.com

Battle of the Online Resume Builders

November 11th, 2009

As the popular commercial reminds us, there seems to be an app for just about everything these days. For the past year or so, I’ve noticed a new category of online apps gaining visibility: online resume creators. Google search “resume builder” and you’ll find dozens of tools, some free some not.  Oh, and you’ll come across plenty of humans hocking their “expert” resume writing skills, many for a fee.

So what gives with these online resume builders?  Well, I decided to see for myself.  After wading through hundreds of search results and weeding out the pay sites (see rip off), I decided to try the 4 products listed below. To get an idea of how these systems work and to evaluate them more accurately, I created a resume on each site.

ResuWe

ResuWe is a free site that allows users to format, structure and optimize their resume simply by uploading a current version of the document. The site recognizes the key components of a user’s resume and automatically parses the information with minimal data entry necessary. I found ResuWe generally intuitive but the site is a little cluttered and the navigation is a little clunky.

ResuWe has teamed up with Indeed.com and has added the ability to search for jobs.  The site also plans to offer tips on preparing cover letters and will offer general job search tips. The service has some basic SNS functionality and simple promotional tools.  On the FAQ page, they also claim that they working on an advanced job match service that will be offered for a fee.  But, the automatic parsing is the knockout feature here.

Pongo

Pongo has a couple subscription options, including a free trial account, or, for a monthly or annual fee, you can download the resume you create and have access to other tools like advanced job matching and task management.  The free service is pretty limited.  The tool takes you through a monotonous step-by-step process by which you create your resume that is stored on the site.  If you’ve ever used free tax preparation software or renewed your driver’s license online, you’ll recognize the UI. T was no able to export my finished product because I didn’t upgrade to a paid account.

JobSpice

Jobspice is free and for good reason. Unless they are in stealth mode, creating some killer app behind the scenes, this seems more like a school project than a commercial app. Currently, the service is exclusively designed to make your resume visually appealing by allowing you to select from about 10 preset templates.  The site uses CSS to style resumes; Think WordPress blog templates. Unfortunately, I created 2 resumes and neither exported properly to .pdf.

Visual

VisualCV is an online resume tool allows you to include all the facets of a traditional resume, with add-ons like video, images, and links to your accomplishments. Think of VisualCV as Resume 2.0. VisualCV has incorporated easy-to-use job search capabilities and has simple privacy settings that allow you to control who has access to view your profile.

VisualCV could be a good tool for anyone working in a creative profession or consultants promoting their portfolios and client recommendations. You can download your profile to .pdf but, it will be branded with a VisualCV footer.

Overall, I like ResuWe the best because it’s thoughtful. ResuWe was created by recruiters that understand that a simple well-written resume is the way to go. Their service doesn’t let you use crazy fonts or insert videos or pictures. It only exports plain old MS Word docs. MS Word doc files are the standard and easiest for applicant tracking systems to upload and parse and frankly the easiest for humans to read too.  And, who doesn’t have the ability to open and .doc on their work machine?