User Adoption Archives - Newton Software

Choose an Applicant Tracking System That Your Hiring Managers Will Use

May 14, 2013 By Joel Passen Leave a Comment

Choose an applicant tracking system that your hiring managers will use. Pretty obvious advice right? Well, it’s harder than it sounds. These days applicant tracking software comes with all sorts of bells and whistles and it’s easy to lose sight of what matters most. In today’s connected world where recruiting moves faster than ever, it’s critical to choose recruiting software that hiring managers can and will use.

When applicant tracking software lives up to it’s potential and is easily adopted by hiring managers, employers win big with:

Overall process improvement
Enhanced collaboration
streamlined efficiency
Accurate recruiting analytics
foolproof recruiting compliance

Here are 5 must-haves when choosing applicant tracking software that your entire team will want to use.

1. Usability is #1

Shop for usability above everything else. Don’t be distracted by features that your hiring managers will never use. Remember, you are selecting a system that will touch all of the actors in your hiring process. If it’s easy-to-use they will use it.

2. Accessibility is key

Choose an ATS that works on any browser, any computer and on tablet devices.

3. The 90/10 Rule

Choose an applicant tracking system that does well what your hiring managers do 90% of the time. Reviewing resumes should be a snap. Making decisions should take one click. Providing feedback shouldn’t even require a login in. Make it simple and they will use it.

4. No Login Required

Choose an applicant tracking system that empowers your team to make decisions, submit approvals, and provide feedback without even logging in. That’s right, let them have email! Some hiring managers will just never login to your ATS. If that’s the case, choose a system that lets them work how they want to work.

5. Low to No Training

Let’s face it, nobody likes training. Choose applicant tracking software that’s easy to roll out and ramp up. If the ATS is easy to learn and easy to remember, everyone wins.

Filed Under: applicant tracking software, Applicant Tracking Software Reviews, applicant tracking system, choosing recruiting software, Corporate Recruiting, Design Philosophy, Infographic, Recruiting Advice, User Adoption

New in Newton- update the ATS, no login required

April 8, 2013 By Joel Passen 1 Comment

This week we released a new set of features in Newton. We called the release Echo. You can read the full press release here.

Newton Echo is the simple and smart answer to busy hiring managers and executives that don’t have time to log in to Newton. With Echo, hiring managers keep the recruiting system up-to-date just by responding to email.

This innovative feature is the first-of-its-kind to come to any ATS. And, is designed to improve Newton’s already industry leading user adoption rates. Plus, it’s just cool and a nice upgrade for our users.

Check out Echo in action

Filed Under: applicant tracking software, Company News, Feature Spotlight, News, Press Releases, Release Notes, User Adoption

Newton Echo

April 1, 2013 By Joel Passen 4 Comments

Our idea: Simple tasks should only take seconds. With Echo, people can change the status of candidates, capture interview feedback, and approve jobs and offers using email—no login required.

At Newton we’re always looking to make hiring simpler, smarter, and safer. Newton Echo is the simple and smart answer to busy hiring managers and executives that don’t have time to log in to their applicant tracking system. With Echo, your managers keep the recruiting system up-to-date just by responding to email.

How does Newton Echo work?

There are two parts to a Newton Echo response: the Comment and the Command. When someone replies to an Echo email it is saved as a comment on the job or candidate. Recipients also may include “command tags” in their reply (optional). These command tags (#approve, #deny, #phonescreen, #interview, #private) ask Newton to take action on the recipient’s behalf.

List of Commands

Commands can be placed anywhere in the response as long as they are above the line that says “please put your response above this line”.

#phonescreen commands Newton to change the candidate to “Schedule a Phone Screen”
#interview commands Newton to change the candidate to “Schedule an Interview”
#approve commands Newton to “Approve this Job/Offer”
#deny commands Newton to “Deny this Job/Offer”
#private commands Newton to store your response as a private comment. This can be used in conjunction with any other status.

At this time there is not a “Pass” command. For OFCCP compliance someone needs to choose a Reason for Non-Selection when passing on candidates. Replying #pass would not keep our customers in compliance, so we have not implemented this command.

Commands in Action…

Example 1: Mark Manager receives a Review Request email and wants to phone screen the candidate.

One of your recruiters sent Mark and Review Request email. Mark thinks the candidate looks good and wants his recruiter to schedule a phone screen, here’s how:

Mark Responds:

This candidate looks great. Please #phonescreen right away.

Example 2: April Approver receives an Offer Approval Request and wants to Deny it

Let’s say April thinks the salary is too high for this candidate. Denying the offer is easy….

April Responds:

#deny (this salary is way over budget)

Example 3: Frank Feedback is asked to provide feedback after a Phone Screen.

Frank Phone Screened one of your candidates at 4PM yesterday. Based on your settings, Newton asked Frank for feedback at 5PM the same day. Frank liked the person and wants you to schedule an interview.

Frank Response:

This candidate was really great. Let’s bring him in for a round of interviews with the team.

#interview

Special Considerations…

You can send an Echo email to anyone, even people that are not Newton users.

For example, if you request interview feedback from non-users their responses will still be saved to Newton.

Commands from non-users will be ignored.

Only Newton users can execute commands. So, if you send a non-user a Review Request and they respond with #phonescreen, Newton will ignore the command.

Redundant Commands will be ignored.

Newton will ignore commands that would have no effect.

Some examples of commands that would be ignored (this is not a complete list):

#interview when the candidate is in the “schedule interview” stage
#phonescreen when the candidate is already in the “schedule phone” screen stage.
#approve for a job that has already been approved.

Commands that move a candidate or job backwards in the process are ignored.

Newton is going to err on the side of safety and ignore commands that might have deleterious effects. As such, Newton will not move a candidate backwards in the process and will not close jobs that have already been activated.

Some examples of commands that would be ignored (this is not a complete list):

#phonescreen when the candidate is in the interview stage will be ignored
#interview or #phonescreen for a candidate in the offer stage will be ignored
#deny for a job or offer that has already been approved will be ignored

Approval and Denial of Jobs/Offers can be commanded only by Approvers.

Let’s say you cc: a Newton User on a Job Approval Request but they are not one of the job’s approvers. If this person responds with #approve or #deny Newton will ignore that command (i.e. the response will be saved as a comment in the job’s history, but the action will be ignored).

Filed Under: applicant tracking software, applicant tracking system, Company News, Feature Spotlight, New Releases, Release Notes, User Adoption

On a Mission to Build an Applicant Tracking System that Improves Process

March 25, 2013 By Joel Passen Leave a Comment

Newton is the brainchild of recruiting professionals (that’s us) that launched the product in 2009. Since day, one we’ve been on a mission to build an applicant tracking system that improves process. We wanted to design something that would make rolling out, ramping up, managing, and improving corporate hiring programs easier. We wanted something that offered a more collaborative experience for all users. And, we needed something that was simple and easy-to-use so people would actually use it.

Today, the recruiting software market is hot. Just look at the latest numbers. There are over 300 new companies tagged with “recruiting” on CrunchBase alone. Shiny tools are popping up every week that promise to optimize or disrupt some aspect of recruiting or another. What was a space all but ignored by investors is now in the spotlight. Responsive applications that promise to mobilize, socialize and gamify recruiting are all over the web but none ever make mention of actually improving the recruiting process. I guess that kind of talk isn’t that sexy.

Our mission to improve the recruiting process for employers has never really been perceived as cool or sexy. In fact, even the mere mention of the word process often causes eyes to glaze over. But that doesn’t stop us. Having run corporate recruiting programs for over 15 years prior with paper resumes, email, spreadsheets, legacy software, sparse resources, demanding hiring managers and even more demanding executives, we understand that good process is actually as important as it gets. That’s why we obsess over designing Newton to be the best process manager possible instead of constantly chasing the next new potentially disruptive trend.

To be clear, I am not dissing or dismissing mobile, social and gamification. I do know that despite all the shiny new tools on the market, recruiting is still tough for employers. And,when recruiting technology does well what 80% of users do all the time, it truly lives up to it’s potential. More users means more data. More data yields better analytics. Better analytics help employers find bottlenecks and issues before they become bigger problems. Sounds pretty sexy to me.

Filed Under: applicant tracking software, Applicant Tracking Software Reviews, choosing recruiting software, Corporate Philosophy, Industry Trends, Mad Scientist, User Adoption

The Secret to Hiring Manager Adoption

September 30, 2012 By darothschild Leave a Comment

Choosing the best applicant tracking software for your organization can be a confusing experience. It’s easy to lose sight of what’s important. Most vendors have a sweet spot, a set of features that address at least one critical part of the hiring process. Sit through a couple of PowerPoint presentations with sales engineers clicking through their demo scripts and lots of us are back to where we started: unsure of what to think and what really matters.

My advice is to forget about the feature checklists and focus on the big picture, end user adoption. For employers, there are very few other fundamental concepts that matter more. If your line managers consistently use your applicant tracking platform to request and initiate approvals, you’ve addressed the paper processes at the very beginning of the talent chain and created a layer of exception management that can only exist in a digital environment. Even more critical, if hiring managers consistently help drive the decisions that drive today’s hiring programs and do so on any platform effortlessly, you’ve got a solution that will make everyone happy.

Here’s another reason to focus on manager adoption as key concept driving your ATS selection. If you’re like most HR and recruiting leaders, metrics have become the front and center topic especially when you’ve recently invested in technology. I am not talking about “big data”. I am talking about measuring what matters most like are you getting candidates the managers want to speak with? How are you processing those applicants? How long does it take your line managers to make decisions?

Remember, hiring manager input is necessary to gather the most important metrics. If the recruiting and HR users are the only ones using your system, it’s only logical that the system will capture metrics exclusively from administrative users. This won’t yield helpful insights without significant data manipulation (you know, building spreadsheets by hand on Fridays). Only when hiring managers are consistently using an ATS will you be able to get holistic recruiting performance metrics that will help you automatically generate reports and have the knowledge to pinpoint bottlenecks and areas for improvement.

As you create your ATS shortlist, ask yourself: what system will garner the most adoption amongst all of my users? What system is the easiest to use and will be the easiest to roll out to new managers and interviewers joining the organization every week? What system will make the most sense from day one and require the least training? Whether or not your hiring managers will adopt an ATS shouldn’t even be a question.

Here are 5 tips to help you choose applicant tracking software that will promote user adoption.

1. Choose an ATS that works on every platform that your managers work on and remember that many people want to work on the iPads these days.

2. Shop for usability. You won’t make ATS software easier to use by buying the product with the most bells and whistles.

3. Hiring managers balk at complicated training. Any ATS that requires extensive training will only be adopted by a small number of users.

4. Remember, only features that provide the best user experience will be used. Expecting managers to do too much is a recipe for failure.

5. The 90/10 rule applies to user adoption. Choose an ATS that does well what your hiring managers do 90% of the time. Hint: think about how easy it is to review resumes and make decisions.

Here’s how we do it at Newton Software

Filed Under: choosing recruiting software, Design Philosophy, Industry Trends, Recruiting Advice, User Adoption, Videos

Buyers of Applicant Tracking Software Deserve Free Training and Support

June 25, 2012 By Joel Passen Leave a Comment

People choose Newton, our applicant tracking software specifically designed for small and medium-sized businesses, because it’s easy-to-use and intuitive – really. The funny thing is, every recruiting software vendor claims that their ATS is easy-to-use. Makes sense. As a vendor, you can’t advertise that your product is confusing but has some other feature or functionality that may be initially appealing to buyers. And while some buyers are convinced that they need this or that feature, at the end of the day everyone still needs to weigh everything against one questions: will the employees at our company use this tool? If’ it’s truly easy-to-use, they will. And, if they use it, you’ll gain the organization, efficiency and insights you need.

Once the decision is made to select Newton, it’s time to eat our own cookin’. One of the first things we tell any customer when they choose Newton is, “If you don’t understand something, no matter how small, it’s our fault, not yours. Let us know.” We ENCOURAGE technical support emails and phone calls. Yes, we’re being serious. We’re sure some of our peers think that we’re crazy for offering training and support for free. We think they’re crazy for trying to charge for training whether it’s the initial go-live training or follow-on and “refresher” training. If the applicant tracking system is truly easy-to-use, it should be easy to train users. Period. If it’s easy to train users, it shouldn’t be viewed as a profit center. Applicant tracking software training should always be free for small and medium-sized businesses. After all, you were promised that this would be easy.

At Newton, we don’t expect you to have any problems getting started or running our applicant tracking software, however, we also make it our priority to provide fast, friendly and free technical support and free training for all of our customers. And, if you used Newton for a while and want to get back on the rails with “refresher training” it’s always free and our Services team is happy to help. Add a new Administrative User like a new recruiter? Free training. Have some turnover in HR? Free training. Our motto, message and focus has remained the same since the beginning: “If you don’t understand something, no matter how small, it’s our fault not yours. Let us know.” There, we’ve said it again.

Finally, we view training as an opportunity. Our teams value feedback and absorb it in order to understand where users are getting confused. This allows our product team to continually engineer complexity out of the product. We realize that our customers are the best gauge of how to improve our product – so we take suggestions seriously.

Don’t just take our word for it. Here are a few highlights of what real people have to say about Newton. And. there are plenty of other endorsements on our LinkedIn Products Page. Just click here to see for yourself.

“Newton is a great system!! It’s easy to use and gets our hiring managers more involved in the recruitment process. The Newton team has been more than helpful in getting our employees trained in Newton. I would recommended this software to any recruiter.”

“Prior to selecting Newton as our ATS, I was on the cusp of selecting Taleo, but am thankful that Newton came to my attention and I’ve not looked back since. I’ve used several ATS systems in my career – PC Recruiter, iCIMS, CBIZ – none were as user-friendly as Newton. I look forward to a long relationship with the Newton team.”

“I’ve been in recruiting for years, and of all the applicant tracking systems I’ve used (7 total), Newton is by far the best. It’s easy for everyone to grasp, even the technically challenged, it makes sense. Newton provides free training and great customer service.”

Filed Under: Applicant Tracking Software Reviews, Blog, Business Model, choosing recruiting software, Optimism, Trends, User Adoption

Choose Applicant Tracking Software that Promotes Hiring Manager Adoption

May 14, 2012 By Joel Passen Leave a Comment

Choosing the right applicant tracking software can be a daunting experience. With so much to choose from, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s important. Most vendors have a sweet spot, a set of features that address at least one part of the talent acquisition process. Sit through a couple of PowerPoint presentations with sales engineers clicking through their demo scripts and lots of us are back to where we started: the realization that this decision requires careful thought and a look at the bigger picture.

Here’s a tip. Forget about the feature checklists. Focus on the biggest concept, hiring manager adoption. For buyers of corporate applicant tracking software, there are very few other fundamental concepts that matter more. If your managers willingly use the platform to request and initiate approvals, you’ve zapped antiquated paper processes and created a layer of exception management that can only exist in a digital environment. Even more importantly, if hiring managers consistently help drive the yes and no decisions that drive today’s hiring programs and do so quickly and easily, it’s a huge win for you and your organization.

Here’s another reason to focuson hiring manager adoption as key concept driving your ATS shoice. If you’re like most HR and recruiting leaders, metrics have become the front and center topic. If you are going to get budget approval for a new ATS, trust me, the executives are going to want reports. In the end, if the recruiting and HR users are the only ones using the system, it’s only logical that the system will capture metrics exclusively from administrative users. This won’t yield helpful insights without significant data manipulation (you know, building spreadsheets by hand on Fridays). Only when hiring managers are consistently using an ATS will you be able to get holistic recruiting performance metrics that will help you automatically generate reports and have the knowledge to pinpoint bottlenecks and areas for improvement.

As you create your ATS shortlist, ask yourself: what system will garner the most adoption amongst all of my users? What system is the easiest to use, easiest to activate and will be the easiest to roll out to new managers and interviewers joining the organization every week? Most importantly, whether or not your hiring managers will adopt an ATS isn’t even a question anymore. Hiring manager adoption is no longer a nice benefit. It’s not a feature. Hiring manager adoption is a must.

Here are 5 tips to help you choose applicant tracking software that will promote user adoption.

1. Hiring managers don’t care about the technology. What counts is what it does for them.

2. Shop for usability. You won’t make ATS software easier to adopt by shopping for the most features.

3. Hiring managers loathe software training. Any ATS that requires extensive training will only be adopted by a small number of users.

4. Remember, only features that provide a good user experience will be used. Expecting managers to login proactively and complete a task is unrealistic.

5. The 80/20 rule applies to user adoption. Choose an ATS that does well what 80 percent of your hiring managers do all the time. Hint: think making reviewing resumes as simple as possible.

View and share the digital booklet with a friend.

Open publication – Free publishing – More user adoption

Filed Under: Applicant Tracking, Applicant Tracking Software Reviews, Blog, choosing recruiting software, Corporate Recruiting, Industry Trends, Recruiting Advice, User Adoption

Infographic: The Evolution of Newton Software

February 16, 2012 By Joel Passen Leave a Comment

We like pictures. They tell a story. Our story is unique. Newton is designed by recruiting industry veterans to solve the problems that haven’t yet been adequately addressed by other vendors. In short, we were frustrated with existing corporate applicant tracking software so we decided to do something about it. Instead of trying to compete in the “feature arms race”, we focused on usability and simplicity not fads, not gimmicks. Today, our mission remains the same as the day we decided to build this company, to help internal recruiting departments become more efficient, more effective, more strategic – leaner!

Filed Under: Applicant Tracking, Blog, Business Model, Corporate Philosophy, Infographic, Optimism, User Adoption

Old vs Newton [Infographic]

October 2, 2011 By Joel Passen Leave a Comment

Click the infographic to enlarge.

Newton is modern, easy-to-use applicant tracking software designed to organize and improve internal recruiting programs for small and medium sized businesses (30-3000 employees). Newton features best-of-breed dashboards that create unparalleled visibility and transparency. And, Newton is the only ATS designed to drive the decisions that drive hiring taking into account all users in the corporate recruiting workflow. Industry leading adoption rates (+90%) ensure easy collaboration and powerful performance driven metrics allow HR and Recruiting users are always in control.

Filed Under: Applicant Tracking Software Reviews, Blog, choosing recruiting software, Corporate Recruiting, Industry Trends, Infographic, User Adoption

Customization: You Shouldn’t Have to Teach Your Applicant Tracking Software How to Work

September 26, 2011 By Joel Passen Leave a Comment

Here’s an interesting fact about Newton. All of our 300+ customers use the exact same core workflow. Yeah, that’s right, Newton customers don’t customize the core recruiting process. Why? Because they don’t have to and no one ever really complains. The reason that customization doesn’t come up is because Newton works. We designed the platform to work the way recruiting works. Our customers don’t have to tell Newton how to do recruiting. In other words, there is more than just a little recruiting DNA in the product. A native understanding of corporate recruiting is a huge advantage of Newton’s and our customer’s.

A recent blog post by Steve Boese, a popular HR technology product strategist, instructor, blogger and HR community leader got us thinking about the topic of customization. In his post, Steve writes,

“While choice, options, and freedom to adapt technology are all necessary components in the modern enterprise and consumer software age, let’s not forget there is quite a lot to commend software and hardware solutions that simply work. Turn them on, activate them, answer a few questions in configuration sure – but the sooner solutions can start solving business problems and delivering positive impact to users, without asking users to morph into armchair software developers is really the hallmark of a great solution.”

We couldn’t agree more. When applicant tracking software integrates into your day to day without massive customization only then does it really live up to its potential. And, when you deliver customers a product that’s designed to address a specific set of business functions, (in our case corporate recruiting at small and medium-sized organizations) there is immediate impact, little support required and it’s easy to teach others how to use it.

Filed Under: Applicant Tracking, Blog, Business Model, Corporate Recruiting, Design Philosophy, Industry Trends, Recruiting Advice, User Adoption

New in Newton: Automated Job Approval

July 26, 2011 By Joel Passen Leave a Comment

Automated Job Approval features aren’t a new thing. We’ve decided it’s high time to make the job approval process better. We’re excited to announce the arrival Newton’s Automated Job Approval feature, the latest addition to our popular corporate applicant tracking software.

First, we have something to admit. This was the hardest feature for us to design to date. We’ve been redesigning and enhancing this feature for nearly a year. We could have shipped our original design months ago, most vendors would have so they could add Job Approval to their feature matrix ASAP. Instead, as with all of the enhancements we make to Newton, we wanted this feature to work great.

3 reasons to love Newton’s Automated Job Approval feature.

1. Easy for Hiring Managers and Approvers

What we’ve learned is that when applicant tracking software achieves something valuable without being distracting or requiring hours of training, only then will it live up to its potential. The 80/20 rule applies here: we want to do well what 80 percent of your users do all the time and together we will create a great user experience that promotes adoption. With Newton’s Job Approval feature, managers can simply login and request to get a job approved with a few simple steps. And, job approvers will love the easy approval process: Green is go. Red is no.

2. Ultimate Flexibility

Hiring is dynamic. Your tools need to be flexible. Newton’s email driven Job Approval Process is the most flexible on the market. Some companies don’t really want to reinvent the wheel. They have a ‘requisition form’ that works well and they just need a vehicle to expedite and track the actual process. We do that. Some organizations want to start over and create an optimized automated requisition process. We do that too.

3. Ultimate Visibility

If you know anything about Newton Software, you know that we are the ones that bring transparency and visibility to corporate recruiting programs. If you don’t know us, we used to be corporate recruiters and we understand that having visibility into all aspects of the recruiting process is not only critical – it’s power. True to form, we’ve provided our users with a dashboard that allows them to see where all their approvals are in real-time. Anything less would be…..annoying.

If you’re a Newton user, please contact our support team to enable the Automated Job Approval Process starting on Monday, August 1st. Support@newtonsoftware.com

If you’re investigating Newton for your organization, please know that we may not have every feature that other ATS systems have. BUT, the features we do have, the 80% that people use all the time, are easy-to-use, intuitive and work great. Please contact us for a demo today, we’ll prove it to you. Sales@newtonsoftware.com

Filed Under: Applicant Tracking, Blog, Design Philosophy, New Releases, User Adoption

Supersized Applicant Tracking Software

May 12, 2011 By Joel Passen Leave a Comment

Occasionally, folks will send us screenshots of Newton but this takes the cake. Check out how this Newton user is using their living room wall as a monitor. Our team got a real kick out of this. We love when people take our popular applicant tracking software to a new level – literally. Oh, and yes, Newton works on a Mac.

Filed Under: Applicant Tracking, Blog, User Adoption

7 Tips for Promoting Applicant Tracking Software User Adoption

December 16, 2010 By Joel Passen Leave a Comment

This is going to sound crazy to the old guard enterprise software enthusiasts out there. Ready? It’s not about more features anymore. The game has changed. The features arms race is dead. More features is increasingly taking a backseat to better functionality, a close relative of usability. This is where user adoption comes into play, a concept that’s become the focal point of the business software industry. The less features an application has, the less confusing it is and consequently, more people are willing to use it. There’s a concept – people other than just recruiters actually using applicant tracking software and not just finding ways to work around it.

What we’ve learned is that when recruiting software achieves something valuable without being distracting or requiring hours of training, only then will it live up to its potential (those enterprise guys call this concept “return on investment”). Let’s face it: it’s usually harder to do simple things exceedingly well, than to just pile up features. The 80/20 rule applies here too: do well what 80 percent of your users do all the time, and you’ll create a good user experience that promotes user adoption. That’s the goal isn’t it?

Here are some tips that we put together regarding promoting adoption for applicant tracking software. These concepts can be applied to just about any technology.

Say goodbye to the age of more features. Say hello to the age of the killer usability.