SaaS (“software as a service”) recruiting software refers to on-demand software, whereby the database and features are hosted in the cloud.
It’s essentially the prevalent model of recruitment software delivery right now.
The benefits of SaaS recruiting software
- Cost effectiveness: You save money because SaaS recruiting software doesn’t need IT infrastructure, maintenance, or staffing costs. All of that is handled by the provider and baked into your subscription cost, but said subscription cost is likely to be significantly less than the implementation and overhead costs of infrastructure and maintenance.
- “Hit the ground running:” You can import existing data fairly easily, and because you don’t need to install and implement the software yourself (the provider does it), you can be up and running in hours.
- Anywhere/anytime: This is the great promise of the cloud. Are you on an airplane and need to access your recruitment database? If you can get Internet connection, you’re good. Are you in the middle of a lake in Idaho? Does the lake area have WiFi? You’re good. Nothing about your recruitment process is tied to a specific desk or location. You can get at it anywhere via SaaS recruiting software.
- Mobile-friendly: Most SaaS is, or is becoming, mobile-friendly, because that’s largely the trend in ATS/CRM design now.
- The upgrades are the provider’s responsibility: You don’t need to worry about that or need to throw another deliverable to your IT side.
- Fiscal flexibility: Usually with SaaS recruiting software, you pay for a specific suite of services and number of recruiters. So basically, you pay for what you need, as opposed to paying for everything under the sun — which can happen in on-premise options.
What does SaaS mean for the future of recruiting?
There are a few trend lines to follow here:
- More remote, freelance, and contract recruitment opportunities will become available in different industries as recruiting will become more about networks, contacts, and relationship-building as opposed to being tethered to a specific desk or office.
- The more tedious aspects of recruitment – “the business of doing business” – will get automated out. This will typically be screening, sourcing, and shortlisting task work. In turn, your recruitment team is freed up to work on more value-add tasks.
- Searchable cloud-based recruitment databases make candidate rediscovery easier. This is hugely beneficial in high-growth or high-volume hiring situations. Maybe your company is growing 20% per year. (Awesome.) It’s possible in that situation that you hired 10 sales reps last year, but need to hire another 20. Well, when you hired the 10, you had other candidates who just missed the cut. Dive into your SaaS database, find them, contact them, and candidate rediscovery just made your growth needs much easier.
- Integrations with an ATS and other software will continue to get easier, which hopefully boosts candidate experience too because all the different products and services a recruiter needs will be “speaking” to each other more effectively.