The increasingly diverse needs of organizations big and small demand a myriad of options in recruiting software solutions. Recent activity—including Salesforce’s acquisition of Rypple—is pumping new energy into this niche market. In the last month, VC funds have been flowing into the human resources software market, with large investments in SmartRecruiters and iCIMS. I’ve taken an in-depth look at how this dynamic software market will be impacted, how vendors will be poised for greater success, as well as how all of this may affect users.
Historically, CRM and recruiting have been the first business sectors to adopt new communications tools, and that continues today. Social tools have seen the most widespread adoption in these two markets. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is the greatest evangelist of the social enterprise, and continues to drive deep social integration in business management software. With Sand John Wookey (previously of Oracle and SAP) heading their HCM unit, Salesforce is in a strong position to help HR departments extend social media functionality across their various applications—including recruiting.
Many of the core functions of Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software—from sourcing to screening to interviewing—thrive in the social media arena.Iit makes sense that you’ll see more social capabilities evolving in this area first. Though I can’t speak directly to Salesforce’s plans to build out recruiting applications in their social enterprise, I can say that other vendors focused solely on the recruiting and applicant tracking systems are making strides. There are a few that stand out:
As innovative companies like Salesforce continue to dazzle, driving social tools deeper into business management, recruiting software will be right there leading the charge. In-house and third party recruiters alike would be wise to pay attention to continued movement in the market in the coming months.
For further reading, check out the full analysis and forecast on my blog.
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