Don’t let management misconceptions keep you from getting the technology you need to do your job successfully. In “4 Steps to Getting Executive Buy-In for the Recruiting Platform You Need,” the first eBook in our new Insight4theEnterprise series, you’ll learn how to get executives to see the real ROI behind recruiting technology. - See more at: http://recruiting.jobvite.com/

1. Part 1:
4 Steps to Getting Executive Buy-In
for the Recruiting Platform You Need
Insight4theEnterprise Series

2. 2
CONTENTS
Introduction 3
Framing the Discussion: We’re Not Talking about an ATS 4
Step-by-Step Guide 6
Step 1: Team Up with a Line-of-Business Sponsor 7
Step 2: Know the Potential ROI 8
Step 3: Get IT Involved Early 10
Step 4: Report Your Proof 11
Conclusion 12

3. 12
Recruiters need more than the so-called recruiting “components” of large-scale talent management or Human Resources Information System
(HRIS) suites. They also need more than a basic Applicant Tracking System (ATS) that simply posts job requisitions to a website and tracks
resume submissions.
They need real recruiting functionality.
Getting executive buy-in on this obvious fact, however, can still be a challenge. People not mired in the day-to-day tasks of the recruiter tend
to think that an enterprise suite’s so-called “inherent integration” or “sweeping scope” will magically eliminate every recruiting headache with a
single installation.
But that’s not true. Recruiting is its own animal. Broad talent management or HRIS suites provide limited real recruiting functionality. Why?
Because recruiting is now less of an HR function than it is a sales and marketing function. It’s about closing deals with candidates, not just
posting jobs and scheduling interviews.
Want proof? Recruiting now has the greatest business impact of any HR function—with at least 3.5 times the profit growth and 2.0 times the
profit margin, totaling 5.5 times the performance of a lower capability HR function.1
This should be compelling to most enterprises, right?
We certainly think so. That’s why, in the first book of our Insight4theEnterprise series, we’ll help you zero in on the numbers and value
potential of implementing a real recruiting platform. Armed with this data, you can spell out the advantages to executive decision-makers—and
then get the technology you need to succeed.
In the following pages, we’ll outline four steps that will help ensure a smooth selection and purchase process when evaluating recruiting technology:
1 Team up with a line-of-business sponsor 3 Get IT involved early
2 Know the potential ROI 4 Report your proof
Let’s get started.

4. Framing the Discussion:
We’re Not Talking about an ATS
First, you need to clear up misconceptions. You can’t convince management to
help you if they don’t understand the situation clearly. That means, at the very
least, finding a way to convey that today’s recruiting technology requirements
extend far beyond the capabilities of the traditional ATS.
Consider this:
Everything’s changing—technology, jobs, and jobseekers alike. As baby
boomers continue to retire and jobs become more STEM-focused, the
qualified candidate pool diminishes rapidly. The result is a dramatic increase
in the competition for quality talent.
To convince the right talent to choose your company over the competition,
you must now build and communicate a marketable employment brand.
That means you need to source and capture prospects and then nurture
them continuously, the way marketers nurture leads to close deals.
The ATS was not originally designed for this purpose. Traditional systems
are largely administrative and lack critical sourcing and referral technology,
along with other tools that help fully integrate the source-to-hire process.
Unfortunately, most HRIS suites only offer a glorified ATS. Recruiting is
typically an after-thought for these employee-centric systems. Their “recruiting
components” provide limited functionality and little innovation. That’s not going
to cut it anymore. Recruiters need a candidate-centric tool.
Despite the high
unemployment rates in
many countries, more than
65% of global leaders
cite ‘talent and leadership
shortages’ as their #1
business challenge. 2
Yes, ATS’s are not the
sexy application they used
to be—but now they’re the
platform for all the other
recruiting tools you need—
and they become the data
platform for analysis as
well. —Josh Bersin3
4

5. When you don’t have the right tools for the job, you cause measurable
damage. You waste valuable resources, you work inefficiently, and—over the
long term—you risk creating skills gaps or turnovers that hurt the bottom line.
Only a comprehensive recruiting platform, built for recruiters to tackle
today’s recruiting challenges, will deliver the desired results. And as you
work to make a case for executive buy-in, this is the fact you will need to prove.
Well, recruiting uses the same type of funnel. Take a look at this infographic—
you’ll want to use this when making your business case.
Put it in Pictures
The sales & marketing funnel—where you
capture leads, nurture leads, and close
deals—is a standard within most enterprises.
Executives would never dream of skimping on
the tools required to keep this funnel running.
They want marketing teams properly equipped
to build databases and launch communication
campaigns. It’s how they convert prospects to
customers. It’s how they make money.
Thanks to tools like
Facebook and Glassdoor,
your entire brand represents
your employment brand –
so…you should make sure
your employment brand and
corporate marketing teams
are well connected.
—Josh Bersin4
Read more about the rise
of the more comprehensive
and innovative recruiting
platform in our eBook,
“Phoenix from the Ashes.”
5

6. 4 Steps to Getting Executive Buy-In
for the Recruiting Platform You Need
Step-by-Step Guide

7. Team Up with a
Line-of-Business Sponsor
Once you’ve decided to look for a comprehensive recruiting platform—because
it’s the only way you can do your job successfully—you need to find an ally who
will listen to your thoughts and align with you as you select a vendor and make
your case.
Determine who has the most at stake outside of your recruiting team. Is there
a technical leader in desperate need of key talent for the engineering team?
Is there a manager looking to quickly hire more salespeople before a product
launch? Who can you see directly and rapidly benefiting from the technology
you’re looking to implement?
Select several potential sponsors, and schedule some time to outline your
plan. And be sure to get your sponsor involved early in the process, so you can
maximize his or her ability to help drive consensus.
STEP 1
7

8. Know the Potential ROI
Be prepared to show the measurable upside to using a comprehensive recruiting
platform—as well as the measurable downside to not using one. These are the facts
that will make your case, and most of them center on the ways in which the right
technology can help you save time, boost productivity, eliminate fees, and hire longer-
lasting, more qualified talent. Be certain you select a vendor that delivers on this
potential. In short, you’re trying to find the recruiting platform that will empower you
to find the best hires, in the shortest amount of time, for the least amount of money.
STEP 2
The U.S. average cost-per-hire was $3,479 in 2011.5
The
average cost-per-hire of a referral was $2,306 in 2012.6
Referrals are hired 55% faster than those hired through job
boards or career sites.7
Referrals account for approximately 25% of all external hires,
making them the number one source for recruiters. And
candidates who have secured referrals from an employee are
about 3-4 times more likely to be hired.8
Only about 3% of new hires come from third-party agencies.9
On average, staffing agencies can charge between $7,000 and
$21,000 in fees for each hire.
Technology that increases the number of referrals you receive
could help you cut expenses by at least $1,170 per hire.
Technology that can help facilitate employee referrals will shorten
your time-to-hire and reduce the hiring team’s workload.
Bolstering your employee referral program could dramatically
increase your hiring efficiency.
The right sourcing and referral technology could vastly reduce or
even eliminate the need for thousands of dollars in agency fees.
Fact OUTCOME
8

9. 9
Employees hired by referral stay with a company longer than
those hired through other sources.10
If recruiters can save just 30 minutes per day on typical hiring-
related tasks over 240 working days out of the year, they can
each reclaim 120 hours per year. Likewise, if 15 hiring managers
cut just 30 minutes per month off their recruiting tasks over the
course of a year, they can save six hours apiece.
Recruiters can spend as much as 45 minutes per candidate, per
job, scheduling interviews.
Without leveraging the advantages of social media, companies
can expect to spend 2-3 times as much on sourcing.11
The longer your employees remain with the company, the lower
your turnover expenses. In other words, quality talent that
remains with the company over time delivers a year-over-year
return on the initial investment.
A comprehensive recruiting platform that helps streamline the
source-to-hire process can save real, quantifiable amounts of
time and money that can be reinvested in other business-critical
projects.
A more advanced recruiting platform that includes video
interviewing technology can help recruiters reclaim about 8
hours per open job.
Technology that natively involves social media in the sourcing
and recruiting process can reduce hiring costs.
Fact OUTCOME

10. Get IT Involved Early
While bringing IT in before a project has even commenced can feel like overkill—
or an invitation for unwanted complexity—it’s a wise decision whenever you’re
considering investing in a software-as-a-service (SaaS). The good news is that
most modern recruiting platforms are available in the cloud, and that spells all
kinds of benefits. Cloud apps are more affordable, require less maintenance, and
are far more accessible to both hiring teams and candidates. Product updates are
streamlined as well, which makes staying current less of a concern.
Nevertheless, your IT team will likely have questions about security, downtime,
data back-up, and so on. These are valid issues, and you’ll want a recruiting
platform that addresses them clearly. Put your IT team at ease by discussing
these topics, along with other critical infrastructure requirements, so you know
what solution will best cover your bases.
And remember: Waiting too long can cost you. If you broadside IT with a project
that’s in the final decision step, they may feel excluded or pressured to provide
rubberstamp approval. This has been proven too often to backfire, resulting in
project delays or—even worse—complete project failure.
STEP 3
10

11. Report Your Proof
Finally, be sure the vendor you choose has the reporting capabilities you need to
measure success. This is a key requirement for most executives, as data-driven
decisions increasingly influence the company’s strategic direction. Analysts and
industry writers also believe that the use of data to make smarter hiring decisions
is an important, growing trend that will likely shape the future of recruiting itself—
from how you hire to how you spend your budget.12
You will need a recruiting
platform, therefore, that can capture data and create reports that make sense for
your company and your industry.
For example:
You’ll want to track applications and hires—along with their productivity—by
source, so you know where your money and effort is best (and worst) spent.
You’ll want analytics that help you determine the success of your employee
referral program. How many employees participate? Who are your top
referrers? How long do your referral hires remain with the company?
You’ll want to know the success of any nurture campaigns you conduct
among prospective candidates, so you can decipher which messages have
the greatest impact.
In short, one of the greatest benefits of a comprehensive recruiting platform is the
data it enables you to harness from the end-to-end recruiting process. But data
does nothing unless you can analyze and apply it to increase your success.
If you aren’t already
analyzing your recruiting
process in detail, you
should be. Companies that
measure recruiting well are
dramatically outperforming
their peers. —Josh Bersin13
Progressive firms…
continually measure new-
hire quality and use that
information to fine-tune the
recruiting process. 14
STEP 4
11

12. 12
As recruiting continues its evolution into a more marketing-focused function,
recruiters are increasingly craving enhanced technology that speaks directly to
their needs. But getting executive leadership to understand this fact—and invest
in recruiting beyond the generic HR suite—is still an uphill battle.
If you band with the right alliances, however, and uncover a vendor solution that
can deliver the ROI you need while satisfying your IT and reporting requirements,
you will make a strong business case that executives will have difficulty denying.
The next book in our Insight4theEnterprise series touches more on the metrics
that matter most, both to recruiters and to the leadership that supports their
endeavors.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2013/07/04/the-9-hottest-trends-in-
corporate-recruiting/3/
There is tremendous
innovation taking place
in the recruiting market.
Remember that among
all the HR, talent, and
leadership programs you
work on, the #1 most
important is ‘hiring the right
people in the first place.’
Focus on recruiting: you’ll be
a better business for it.
—Josh Bersin15
CONCLUSION

13. 12
1
http://www.ere.net/2012/09/04/news-flash-recruiting-has-the-highest-business-impact-of-any-hr-function/
2
Bersin & Associates, TalentTrends® Fall 2012
3
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2013/07/04/the-9-hottest-trends-in-corporate-recruiting/2/
4
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2013/01/11/hr-leadership-technology-and-talent-management-predictions-for-2013/2/
5
http://marketing.bersin.com/rs/bersin/images/111111_ES_TAFB-ExecSumm_KOL.pdf
6
http://www.ere.net/2012/05/07/10-compelling-numbers-that-reveal-the-power-of-employee-referrals/
7
http://recruiting.jobvite.com/resources/recruiting-data-employment-statistics-by-jobvite-index/
8
http://www.careerxroads.com/news/SourcesOfHire2013.pdf
9
http://www.careerxroads.com/news/SourcesOfHire2013.pdf
10
http://recruiting.jobvite.com/resources/recruiting-data-employment-statistics-by-jobvite-index/
11
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2013/01/11/hr-leadership-technology-and-talent-management-predictions-for-2013/2/
12
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2013/02/17/bigdata-in-human-resources-talent-analytics-comes-of-age/,
http://www.ere.net/2013/04/11/analytics-transformed-recruiting/
13
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2013/07/04/the-9-hottest-trends-in-corporate-recruiting/3/
14
http://marketing.bersin.com/rs/bersin/images/111111_ES_TAFB-ExecSumm_KOL.pdf
15
http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2013/07/04/the-9-hottest-trends-in-corporate-recruiting/3/