Product Review: ExactHire Applicant Tracking System - MyExactHire

This is a snapshot from the ExactHire current website.

Recently, I’ve been getting some requests for recommendations on applicant tracking systems (ATS).  Now, before I get into the specifics of ExactHire, I do want to say that with some research, you may be able to find other similar products that work well for you.  The applicant tracking system was a revolutionary HR product in the early 2000’s, but has since become somewhat of a commodity, with nearly endless options available.  There are a lot of really good options on the market, at all price points.  Before buying, just make sure you’re getting the features you think you’re getting, and make sure you’re getting a fair price.  Make sure you see a demo, ask to use the system on a trial basis to check it out, and speak to other firms who’ve used the product and get a fair assessment before signing.

Now, on to ExactHire!  A note – I’ve not used ExactHire on a daily basis for nearly 2 years, and I understand there have been some upgrades to the system – which I will not be able to speak to.  The product I’m familiar with is called MyExactHire.  I’m reviewing this product, specifically for small to mid-market sized firms.  If you work for a large firm, or have a very high volume of job applicants, you may want to look at options more specifically designed for enterprise sized firms. 

Background:  ExactHire is an Indiana-based firm, which I believe was founded sometime in the mid 2000’s, prior to the economic downturn.  They have a small, but consistent team.  I don’t believe anyone at the firm actually developed the ATS software that they sell, but they do know the product well, and I believe they have a strong relationship with their developers – I never noticed an issue with the fact they didn’t create the software themselves.  You will actually notice a lot of similarities to the ExactHire ATS product and another mid-market ATS product called iApplicants – I believe they use the same, or a similar development team.

 The key staff have experience in selling HR software and as HR practitioners.  This means that they understand the HR software market, as well as pain points that you may have as an HR pro or as a small business leader.

Implementation:  As with most SAAS products these days, ExactHire does most of the heavy lifting during implementation, which is a big benefit, especially if time and resources are limited.  Typically, HR and internal IT teams have relatively little time to dedicate to initiatives like applicant tracking.  Also, if you have a lot of jobs, getting those jobs into the system can be a pain.  ExactHire handles the initial uploads of current jobs which can be a big time saver, or just a nice added benefit.  Additionally, the cost of hosting on premise is known to be an outdated business model, so the benefits of SAAS from an implementation standpoint, as well as a maintenance standpoint are really ideal for most small and mid-size businesses.  Last point on implementation is that it doesn’t take long.  They will work within your timeline, but it doesn’t take long at all to get the software up and running.

Configuration/Customization:  From my understanding, ExactHire’s new product, called “HireCentric” allows for a lot of configuration and customization.  The MyExactHire product also allows for some configuration and customization.  The job landing page can be uniquely targeted and matched to your regular website, so as to align to your branding and online messaging, as well as to create a professional candidate experience.  There is also the ability to configure the online application to ensure you are able to get the information from candidates you are seeking. 

Customer Service:  Since ExactHire is a smaller provider, you tend to get better service than you do with larger market providers.  For example, with Taleo’s ATS, you have to submit a ticket through the Oracle customer service portal, and response time is dismal at best.  ExactHire has a support email address you can use when you have issues or questions, and the response time was always under 24 hours when I had an issue.

Pitfalls:  So far, this has been a pretty good review, but this wouldn’t be valuable if I didn’t disclose some of the pitfalls, as there are always some when it comes to HR software.

• High Volume of Applicants – ExactHire is not the best solution if or when you have a very high volume of job applicants.  When you have a high volume of applicants, you need ways to sort, search and rank applicants in order to maximize your time and ensure you’re recruiting as efficiently as possible.  While you can ask questions as part of the process, the ability to rank or rate applicants based on responses does not exist.  You still have to go in and open and read all of them in order to form judgment.  Additionally, the ability to search the system is not great.  Let’s say you wanted to search all job applicants within the last year that included the term “SEO” on the application or resume.  You can’t do it in ExactHire.  Searching applicants for key terms, company names, job titles, etc. is important when your applicant volume is high, and unfortunately, this system falls down here.  However, to be fair, I didn’t find this to be problematic, until the daily applicant volume exceeded the 30-50 applicant per day mark.
• Integration with other HR systems – I don’t believe that ExactHire was created with the intention of integration with other systems.  That’s not to say that something probably can’t be built, but integration was and is an afterthought with this product.  Again, when applicant volume is lower, this isn’t so important.  However, for organizational efficiency, this becomes increasingly important, the more open jobs, and the more applicants you have.
• Reporting – the system does offer some powerful reports, particularly if you’re unaccustomed to having reporting mechanisms.  For example, it makes EEO reporting a breeze.  It also provides some reporting for applicant sources, and other general fields that applicants are asked.  However, if you want deeper analytical insight into your recruiting process such as time to hire, applicant flow, quality of applicant, etc., there’s really nothing there to help you.  There’s a focus on analytics in the world of human capital, and I imagine their newer product addresses some of these shortcomings, but having data insight capabilities is important to a lot of businesses, so be sure the reporting meets your level of expectation in this regard.

Perks:  I usually prefer to end on a positive note, so I want to list a few additional perks that I found with this system:

• You can create an entire career page using their software.  If your IT team is unable to commit the time or resources to building out a career page, you can do it yourself using this system.  In addition to the page which lists job openings, you have the ability to create other pages on your MyExactHire page that might outline employee benefits, the company culture, the application process, what it’s like to work at the company, etc.  It’s also relatively easy for non-tech savvy people to create these pages using their templates and page builders.
• You get to have a slightly closer relationship with the vendor than you might with other larger providers.  You’ll get to know the staff well, and they’ll remember your questions, challenges, and what’s important to you.  It’s hard to place value on this, but trust me, it comes in handy.
• The system automatically posts jobs to several job boards for you including Indeed.com, SimplyHired, Oodle, etc.  While not quite as high profile as CareerBuilder or Monster, and not as niche as Dice.com, these are great job boards and will secure a lot of leads for you, and help spread the word about your openings.
• The cost of this ATS is very reasonable.  For Cadillac systems, you will pay a high price tag.  And while this system doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles that the top market leaders possess, it does have a lot of great features and unlike those systems, it won’t break the bank.  In fact, for most companies, I imagine it would be pretty easy to establish a business case for this software saving budget dollars.

Overall, to all the folks who've been asking about mid-market applicant tracking systems, I would encourage you to check out solutions at ExactHire (www.exacthire.com).

If you have additional specific questions about this software, or my experience with it, please contact me at CatapultHRSolutions@gmail.com.

*I am not affiliated with ExactHire, and was not asked (or compensated) to write this product review.