SkillSet Brings Recruiting to AS/400
Businesses run on AS/400s have some help in finding and hiring the best talent in the sellers' job market of today.
SkillSet Software has announced that its Desktop Recruiter recruiting automation software package is now available for the Lotus Domino AS/400 server. SkillSet also formed a worldwide marketing agreement with Infinium Software (Hyannis, Mass.) that will allow both companies to market SkillSet's Desktop Recruiter to Infinium's AS/400 customer base. The companies will also develop an interface between their applications.
Desktop Recruiter accelerates the time between opening a job requisition and selecting the ideal candidate. Based on the Lotus Notes and Domino architecture, it provides applicant tracking while managing the recruitment process for multi-platform, client/server environments. SkillSet says companies using Desktop Recruiter can shorten their hiring cycles up to 60 percent by re-engineering the entire hiring process electronically, from identifying potential candidates to systematic closure of the requisition folder.
"It allows customers to reduce the amount of 'administrivia' involved in the process of hiring," says Clyde Gillard, VP of emerging markets and technologies at SkillSet.
Desktop Recruiter generates a Notes-based database of all documentation involved in the hiring process, from job requisitions to resumes and job applications to interview notes, rejection letters and offer sheets.
A hiring manager can submit a query listing the requirements for the open position. Desktop Recruiter then matches those requirements with the skills of the candidates in the database. The manager can then send e-mail to others in the organization with links to the candidates' resumes. Follow-up correspondence to the candidates can then be automatically generated.
"The entire process shrinks the time and effort it takes to hire an individual," says Gillard. "You're taking unstructured data and doing a structured query on it. You can use this technology to bridge the gap and bring so many pieces of information together."
Gillard says Desktop Recruiter lends itself well not only to large companies that field hundreds of resumes a day, but to any company suffering from staffing issues that needs to view hiring as a competitive practice. It also helps in filling positions in the tight IT job market, since people with IT skills would be most likely to use electronic means of disseminating their resumes, he says.
And Desktop Recruiter will be a good fit for the AS/400, Gillard says. "It's a huge market for us," he notes. "This takes us to a platform that has a low cost of ownership, is extremely available and extremely reliable."
Carol Aitken runs Information Technology Search (Chadds Ford, Pa.), which recruits AS/400 personnel in the tri-state area of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Aitken hasn't used Desktop Recruiter, but she says such a tool will be welcome in the AS/400 world. However, she cautions that it probably won't help much in finding IT personnel with AS/400 skills.
"Certainly any tracking equipment is going to be an asset," Aitken points out. "As far as helping you in the IT market, that's something else altogether. We have 110 percent employment right now. You're not going to find candidates who are unemployed and if people do change jobs, they do it quietly and discreetly, probably going through a recruiter, not answering ads in the paper."
But she says Desktop Recruiter can still be a good fit for AS/400 shops, such as call centers, that need to hire large numbers of people.
"It can be very valuable for a company to have a tool like this to track all kinds of people. Will it help in IT recruitment? Probably not because of the [job] market right now. Can it help in all other areas? Yes. To keep track of large numbers of people, a tool like this is very helpful."