Hi, everybody. I’m back from a multi-city tour that took me all over America. I had fun at my last stop — an event hosted by a recruiting company called Greenhouse.
You might wonder, “What is a recruiting company?”
Well, hang with me.
When you apply for a job online, there are several distinct categories of software that make the whole thing possible. Then, when you finally get an interview, another set of tools works to make an interview happen. If you’re finally given an offer, I can count five different classifications of software that make it possible to for someone to ask you to join the company and start on a specific day.
All of that software could be one company, or it could be many companies integrated through one platform. And it’s usually a mess. That’s because most companies use paper and/or messy databases that barely talk to one another to manage the information required to hire someone.
That’s why my last name is always misspelled on my first day of work.
Greenhouse tries to fix the paperwork and messy database problem. They have their core software — it’s called an applicant tracking system (ATS) because it tracks people who apply for jobs — but also asks managers and recruiters to be structured and organized in their interviewing and hiring processes. They also have bits and pieces of code to clean up databases, keep everyone appraised of the recruiting process, and onboard a new employee without a ton of chaos.
The other stuff that needs to happen — salary benchmarking, background checks, etc. — can happen through partnerships with other tech companies.
Okay, this is not a commercial for Greenhouse. I’m telling you about what it takes to hire someone because, honestly, there are 300+ applicant tracking systems out there, and most of them suck. Recruiters often blame bad technology for their crappy behaviors, and in many cases, it’s true.
But Greenhouse seems okay, and they appear to solve a lot of problems that recruiting systems have had since 1999. It’s not just a bunch of shaky databases knitted together with subpar code. The platform is built with best-in-class recruiting methods in place without beating you over the head with those practices.
Mostly, I like Greenhouse’s approach to the market. It’s very Midwestern and plainspoken. It’s like — let’s tackle the stupid failures and complaints in the recruiting industry from 1999-2015. While we’re at it, let’s not pat ourselves on the back for doing our jobs. Let’s fix the obvious flaws in recruiting software so we can rebuild the trust of our colleagues and candidates and move the profession forward.
A recruiting software company that’s proud of its good work without being too obnoxious or self-congratulatory? Love it. A lot.
It’s a good way to run a business, and an excellent model for your recruiting department. That’s why I was glad to have spent some time with the Greenhouse team. Their approach to hiring and software made me feel better about working in the HR industry.