Stacking Up

Christopher Novak explains how the current economy has changed the ways that companies are purchasing talent management software.

“Individuals do not want to take the chance of putting in a costly solution that does not meet the original requirements”
-Christopher Novak, netMEDIA

First off we can see that the overall vendor review and selection process has changed pretty dramatically: Before the economic downturn, for example, many companies simply pushed out an RFP to five or six vendors and selected the product the recruiting team liked the best. Now, we see the decision being made much higher up in the organization and with greater involvement from different departments. Many companies have been burned in the past by selecting a product that looked great in a demonstration, but there was not much behind the curtain. Therefore, we see IT departments taking a larger role in the selection process, digging deep into the infrastructure and core components of the solution to make sure there will not be any surprises during implementation. Additionally, we have seen EVP’s of HR sitting in on the vendor demonstrations, which was not the case two years ago. These individuals do not want to take the chance of putting in a costly solution that does not meet the original requirements.

Also, as you would expect, companies are struggling to get budgets approved for new recruiting solutions. The knee-jerk reaction for a request to fund a new recruiting software solution is, ‘Why invest in a new solution now? We are not really in hiring-mode.  Let’s wait until things get a bit better’. However, insightful HR Executives are able to argue that it is the exact opposite.  As the economy worsens, more people are out looking for jobs. So when a company does have an opening they are getting inundated with resumes, many of which are from candidates who are clearly not qualified for the position. This, coupled with the fact that many companies are now operating with a ‘bare bones’ recruiting team, makes it almost impossible to efficiently weed out the non-qualifieds without a solid recruiting software solution.

Finally, we see much more due diligence being done by companies prior to executing a contract. Companies are taking the extra time and effort to thoroughly vet a solution provider. Before the downturn, reference checks were more of a formality for a company, but now, it is something they take very seriously and put a lot of time into – as they should. Additionally, they are looking much more closely to a vendor’s financials. The last thing an HR Executive wants is to choose a vendor, only to find out three months later that they were acquired and the new company will no longer be supporting their solution.  This has happened a few times in the past couple of years and has caused some severe headaches and additional costs to some unfortunate companies. 

Christopher Novak is currently netMEDIA’s VP of Sales for North America. netMEDIA has been providing Talent Management solutions to global organizations since 1998. In the 10 years since inception, netMEDIA has grown into the premier provider of talent software for companies in need of a very flexible, personalized global solution. With this solution currently implemented in over 85 countries and 25 languages, netMEDIA is able can offer a truly global solution to companies looking to consolidate their global technologies.