Through automation and streamlining of processes we were able to create a better candidate experience and improve efficiency within the HR department. Many elements were improved dramatically, from email communications with candidates, manager and HR colleagues, a seamless automated emerging talent workflow and contracts and new starter forms being automated, and manual data entry and uploading removed.
Avature has so much capability, but it takes time to look into the detail and implement. The power of time is so important in a recruitment market.
Previously, from application to onboarding stage, we would work between 3 separate systems as well as Excel trackers. This meant that time was being wasted by both employees and candidates on duplication of data. Our Recruitment and Admin teams were spending vast amounts of time doing low value activities like pushing candidates through statuses, emailing CV’s via Outlook to Line Managers to review, emailing candidates to arrange interviews, posting and receiving onboarding forms and then typing the data into systems.
I like how I can easily search by job title and keywords and location to see any open internal jobs. Or, I can simply just search by location or even just view all open jobs. This way it gives me transparency as well into possible open roles that can be the next step in my career path. By seeing all open jobs, the added benefit is I can see jobs that I didn't even know about that I may be interested in. I also like how I can create job alerts to stay abreast of when jobs I'm interested in are open. Super cool feature! This way I don't have to keep signing in to search. Additionally, I like how I can submit referrals to roles as well and keep track of the progress made with each person that is submitted. The layout is simple and easy to use. I like how there is not much whistles and bells so it just makes it easier to navigate and it doesn't take me long to find what I need. I also like the branding and company-specific pictures throughout the site. It makes it feel much more customized. When I ended up applying for an internal role, it was short and simple as well. It was a short one page form with just a few questions and then a place to upload my resume and cover letter. Really speedy and then afterwards I got an email to confirm. Can't complain.
What I don't like is that when you apply to an internal job, it should show you after you submit it, a confirmation page. I don't remember receiving that and I had to wait for an email back. Also, there should be a dashboard to track progress. This is two-fold. If you submit an internal application, it can be a black hole because you don't know when it's been viewed or if you've been moved on to the next step so lot of suspense. Would be nice to have a list of each application you submitted and where it is sitting or what step you have been moved on to, if any. Also, the same would apply for referrals. We should be able to track on Avature what step our referral has advanced on to. Otherwise, we have to email the HR person in charge or message them and it's back and forth that could be avoided if there was just something on Avature to show that.
We really value career development here. As such, we want to make it transparent when roles are open and with Avature, anyone can search for roles in any department, even ones in departments that they don't currently work in. You are able to apply to any of those roles as long as you meet that qualification. It is refreshing to have such open ability to apply to wherever - whatever location or department. Love that! It's a one stop search for the next step in your career. This also helps with retention because then you can see if there's another role at this company that fits your next step vs searching on job boards and possibly moving to another company. Also, another benefit we have is at least when were growing, we needed hires fast. The best hires often come from referals. The referal system is quick and easy for you to submit people you know that may be a fit for various roles.
Ease of use and having the ability for a shared data model
The cost of the product causes some heartburn. I would like to see the yearly cost be switched with the one time implementation costs.
Reporting workflow tracking, marketing engagement, automation of tasks. My recruitment coordinators have had great success and reduced turnaround times by having automated emails to candidates for form completion and task assignments. We are three months into utilization so are still working out the pipeline and dashboard reports but this has been greatly improved over the last CRM that provided no automation.
I like the fact that there is a lot of flexibility with the configuration side of Avature and that they have regular releases and feature
From when I used Avature last, the cost was sometimes an issue. When there are releases, it's not obviously what is free and what needs to be purchased
Nothing at the moment as I'm not working on an Avature project at the moment
Avature product is very configurable and enables great measureable value in a global solution.
The need for clients to learn how the system works to really get the maximum value through the implementation phase. Avature have great solution consultants that know the product very well but when the rubber hits the road its down to the client to define the need and when they may not fully understand the product, (you don't know what you don't know) there is a risk that the end configuration is not fully optimised.
We are aiming to improve recruitment brand position, drive a consistent quality of candidate experience with a segmented process to meet the needs of junior through to exec hires.
Complex functionality with an easy to use, intuitive user experience. Avature CRM is the perfect companion to our recruitment function in best managing current and future talent. Actively supports direct sourcing strategies, which is essential in this cost conscious climate.
Would be good to have better integration with other platforms such as Linked in.
Diversity & Inclusiveness is a huge focus for us as a firm and by using Avature we have been able to actively target and mine data based on some protective characteristics. We've only just scraped the surface with this and can see this benefits of this vastly increasing.
The customizable nature of the solution is excellent for teams that need heavy segmentation and complex data models. Workflows are powerful and the features added to work with portals are impressive. Overall it's a great software for anyone looking to capture and leverage a large amount of data. The ability to communicate effectively outside the platform via forms, landing pages, and portals is a true selling point.
There often seem to be inconsistencies within the product itself. Developmental sloppiness is a problem across the entire platform. I would expect this of a true start-up, but not of one that often references its 15+ years of experience. It seems to have been lost that you can develop quickly and in an agile way and still develop with integrity. I am constantly finding incongruities and running into problems, which is remarkable. Yet, the Technical Support team at Avature are so infuriatingly challenging to work with that it's not worth it most of the time to bring it up. I say TS, but in reality, it's clear that this is an internal problem across teams. The lack of communication between your various groups shines through in how easily tickets get lost, are ignored, or take far too long to fix (how long does it take to change the value in a config, really? Weeks? Is that being justified internally somehow?). The operations team has failed tremendously in its cross-team organization. It's understood that lower-tier clients will receive less attention, but that should not equate to me spending my time correcting and directing your teams when work needs to be completed or bugs need to be fixed. Don't even get me started on how Avature will try to charge you for work that needs to be done because of THEIR poor development. It's ridiculous. The issues above and the "AI" solutions being marketed are the biggest reasons I would not recommend using Avature. When I do, it's with significant caveats.
We manage essentially all internal operations related to customer interactions and projects in Avature (think a combined AM, TS, Deployment situation).