Last night I attended the first Sydney networking drinks for Sourcers organised by the ARN & Quest Research.
When the discussions turned to technology and recruitment software, I was surprised to hear that some agencies still use MS Excel to manage applicants and candidates. One company’s reasoning was that Excel offers a simple dashboard to monitor candidates quickly, especially in a small niche market.
The use of Excel to track and manage applicants is actually common in Australia. In fact, in a study we conducted, The Sources of Talent, three years ago we found that a large 13.8% of Australian organisations use Excel to track the sources of their candidates; a further 23.92% use excel to record their candidate referral campaigns.
Perhaps, as the adage – it’s not technology, it’s what you do with it – reminds us, if a technology can deliver value the type of technology used doesn’t really matter. Still, my own opinion is specialised recruitment software offer far greater productivity gain than any generic spreadsheet can offer.
Some of the companies admitted to using other ATS system as well, but they just prefer Excel sometimes. What’s your experience?
Using Excel works great for us, we have to manage around 20 applicants at a time and Excel ticks most of the boxes. We have software built into the system we use around the office but never use it as its to clunky.
Would love to know of any good software you have come across for recruitment.
Regards
Jordan (North Hants, UK)