Customer collaborations that inspired new product features

July 30, 2024

 

Alex Oliver

4 min read

There are some perks to building a house versus buying an existing home. Naturally, you have some say over the process. From windows to flooring, what you want gets factored in. The project’s success is measured, in part, by whether the vision for your dream home became a reality.

Recruiting software should be the same.

Our seasonal releases include hundreds of product innovations and new features – some big, some small. But we can’t take all the credit. Some of our best ideas come from you.

In this post, we’ll share enhancements from recent releases that were inspired by customer feedback. Some are quality of life improvements. Others address more fundamental and pressing issues. All solve a specific need or challenge our customers told us they had.

Access denied: Multifactor authentication enhancement

Context: In a world of data breeches and deepfakes, security is top of everyone’s minds. That’s especially true where sensitive information like candidate data is concerned.

The ask: Many customers already use our multifactor authentication (MFA) solution. However, participation at the user level was always optional. As a result, the vast majority of users and candidates opted out of the MFA. Increasingly, organizations have been asking for a multifactor authentication enhancement that requires MFA for logins deemed to have a higher risk profile.

Result: Organizations looking to enhance their security can now prevent users (recruiters and candidates) from bypassing the MFA step.

Have my people text your people: WeChat for Text Engagement

Context: Remember when texting candidates was considered being too familiar? Times have changed in a big way, and texting is preferred by job seekers and recruiters alike for how fast and easy it is.

The idea: It’s not just SMS texting that dominates the market now. Many candidates use other forms of text-based communication. Increasingly, talent acquisition teams have been using WeChat to reach a global audience.

Result: iCIMS Text Engagement now includes WeChat alongside SMS, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Recruiters have more options than ever to connect with candidates without leaving the iCIMS platform.

Question for you: Discover Questions in Video Studio

Context: Teams all over the world use iCIMS Video Studio to feature their employees’ stories and provide prospective candidates with an inside look at their organization’s culture.

Here’s how it works: Recruiters nominate current employees to record themselves answering one or more prompts. Video Studio includes a library of these prompts, but recruiters can write their own as well.

The idea: Users told us they wanted more question prompts to spark new ideas and avoid repeating prompts.

Result: We gave teams more questions on a wider variety of topics and an easier way to save them. iCIMS Video Studio now includes a Discover Questions feature that provides recruiters with suggested questions on various topics. Users add the questions they like to their library for use when nominating someone to record a video.

Model behavior: Employee feeds in Video Studio

Context: Recruiters aren’t the only ones getting new features in Video Studio.

The options employees had in Video Studio were somewhat limited by design. We wanted to make it as easy as possible for someone to record themselves on a phone or laptop. If you can take a selfie, you can make a high-quality testimonial in Video Studio.

The idea: Customers told us that employees wanted to see videos that their colleagues made to use as inspiration – specifically those in their same role or region. Recruiting teams were sending employees to their organization’s career site to see examples. In many cases, not all videos were displayed there, however.

Result: Employees can now review and familiarize themselves with what final, approved videos look like before recording their own.

Free at noon on Wednesday: Manual interview scheduling

Context: Ever tried to book a meeting but had difficulty finding a time that worked for everyone? Us too. Now add in other mandatory meetings, tentative commitments and flexible time blocks people use to focus on work without distractions. It’s no wonder it’s so difficult to find a time that works for everyone.

The idea: iCIMS ATS customers asked for a way to schedule interviews that works better than relying on the first mutually available time slot. Often, the options given were too few, or too far in the future.

Result: Recruiters can now see free and busy time of all participants, giving them the ability to manually schedule an interview with the fewest number of overlapping conflicts.

Know who no-showed: Reporting on interview scheduling

Context: While we’re on the topic of scheduling interviews…

The idea: Organizations told us they wanted greater visibility into their interview process so that they could optimize the experience and track performance.

Result: Teams can now review reports on interview attendance, statuses, times and location. Like all iCIMS reporting, users can create customized dashboards, charts and exports to further refine the data they’re looking at and presenting.

Keep the requests coming

No system or process is perfect. And we want to hear from you when it’s not.

Each seasonal release we make includes updates, enhancements and new features big and small. Many are inspired either directly or indirectly by you, our customers. The requests and suggestions you make have a big impact on the user experiences of recruiters, hiring managers, candidates and employees.

In short: keep submitting your ideas. You can do that on our Community site or by talking to your account representative.