PeopleSoft 9.1 Recruiting Management: An Overview

November 11, 2009
Pamela Brown
Blog

As any HR pro has learned from the past 18 months, sweeping changes in the economy create changes in recruiting concerns. Chief among these is the misperception that talent is easier to find now because of a saturated, supply-side market. That is correct, but it’s also largely irrelevant when it comes to smart recruiting.

Getting talent is not the issue; the raw applicant pool isn’t the clear answer. Finding the right talent, for the right position, at the right time is still the key. The challenge to HR is now to get to the right person instead of sorting through a hundreds of resumes in brute-force fashion. Having an solid, systematic way of putting the best candidates on top of the pile is even more important than ever; in other words, smart filtering and screening processes matter.

If an organization is looking within its own walls, sourcing right internal candidate is equally important. Why? These days, the candidate’s old job may not be available if placed in the wrong new position. Productivity is not lost just by a new (and wrong) person in a job but also as a result of lost productivity in the old job.

If you’re a PeopleSoft shop, how nice would it be to be able to tie these requirements directly into your PeopleSoft applications and business processes? Well, that’s what PeopleSoft Recruiting Management is all about.

General Description of PeopleSoft Recruiting Solutions

Applicant’s online experience

PeopleSoft’s Candidate Gateway allows applicants to set up personal profiles, upload resumes and attachments, search job postings, save searches and apply to positions, all within a secure environment. With version 9.1 your applicants will also be able to receive offer letters and related documents and accept or decline their job offer online.

Recruiter’s online experience

Talent Acquisition Manager (TAM) accommodates standard requisitions as well as continuous openings. In 9.1, there are integrated workflows to make the job opening process seamless, reducing the amount of time that the recruiter spends on the administrative aspects of recruiting.

Additionally, recruiters can review applicant or job opening information in a single view. To dig deeper in a particular area, the navigation is designed such that most detailed information can be accessed in one click. Actions are easy to see and track so that decision making is an efficient process.

The interviewing process can also be managed within PeopleSoft. Interview schedules can be set and guides and notes maintained online for the applicant. With version 9.1 these schedules can be directly integrated with Outlook 2007. The recruiter can check the availability of internal applicants, interviewers and locations and update their statuses as appropriate. There is also the ability to send one way messages to those without Outlook 2007.

It’s fairly well known that PeopleSoft’s TAM gives recruiters the tools to be able to quickly and efficiently screen and rank applicant information. How? Examples: applications that do not meet the minimum required standards can be quickly and easily isolated and responded to with a system-generated response. Those that do meet the minimum qualifications can be ranked according to the criteria that your organization deems important. This allows you to quickly focus on the top tier candidates first using an objective screening method.

With 9.1 these processes are made even more efficient. Prescreens can now be put into place to review and prevent an applicant from completing a formal application. The candidate will be notified immediately of their status. If the recruiter links an applicant to a job that they have not applied for, the applicant will be notified that they must complete an online questionnaire. In addition, candidate responses can be accessed directly through the candidates’ record.

Very cool stuff.

Other PeopleSoft 9.1-centric HR/Reporting Goodies

In no particular order:

All of the information you need to comply with OFCCP regulations is contained in the system. All applicant information (including self disclosures) is maintained, as are all generated system searches. PeopleSoft provides delivered reports that make it easy to comply with these requirements.
Successful applicants can be quickly and easily transferred to HR for hiring. The applicants’ data and information about the job opening will follow the applicant through the entire hire process.
PeopleSoft Recruiting Solutions can be integrated with external recruiting vendors. Using Oracle’s Open Integration Framework you can integrate this solution with any vendor you choose.
PeopleSoft delivers tighter integration with Profile Manager in version 9.1. Recruiters can do searches on more types of information. Profile searches can be run that will compare job vs. applicant/employee profiles and show the recruiter where there are gaps. People and job profiles data can be used to update requisitions making them more targeted and specific without increasing the time it takes a recruiter to complete this activity.
PeopleSoft delivers other, more generalized enhancements in version 9.1. Recruiting team members can now directly print job opening information and applications. Your organization can decide if the offer letter will be prepared in recruiting or HR. There is also rich text formatting allowing you to customize the look and feel of your posted job openings. Fairly minor stuff, but their value, UX-wise, is more than the sum of their parts.

I realize this is a high-level overview of a topic many HR professionals are asking us about. This is not meant to be a definitive guide. PeopleSoft 9.1 Recruiting Management is efficient and user-friendly, offering modern amenities such as powerful search capability and other workflow refinements. In the end – especially in today’s job market – it goes a long way towards making a tough job considerably easier.

If you’re looking at PeopleSoft Recruiting Management or just want to know a bit more than this blog post offers, please email me (seriously!) and I’ll be happy to chat with you. This is a hot topic among the PeopleSoft 9.1 chatter, and nearly every conversation I have with clients leads to other areas of consideration. The rabbit hole is deeper than you might originally expect – in a good way.

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