Ajax my ATS already!

I'm not asking for a rich web interface because it's nifty, though it is that. I'm just tired of waiting for the Applicant Tracking System space to come up with an interface where I don't have to wait for an entire page refresh any and every time I want to update a phone number or log a call. Those seconds really add up over time and I'd much rather be using that time on the phone talking with candidates.

Last year at the HR Technology Expo in Chicago, I had high hopes that by this year the ATS's would have jumped on the clue train and rapidly developed an interface that makes sense for busy search professionals. This year, though I didn't get to spend long poking around, I was in despair. Looks like little to nothing has been done in this area. Everybody is too busy developing add-on modules to integrate with HR systems, it seems.

I hope I'm wrong on this. Has anybody seen an ATS that takes advantage of the Ajax approach to web data?

Ning update

The new SPR alumni network I started up on Ning has grown up pretty nicely in just a day or so. The invitations are slowly getting accepted and people are starting to converse and upload pics on the site.

So far, my only annoyances with the Ning site have to do with not being able to upload pictures automatically to an album (existing or new). Right now, you have to upload first, and then organize them.

My second annoyance has to do with my other (so far pending) Ning memberships. How do I get at them? Ning has a brown frame at the top of all of its pages that pulls down with a click. By default, it shows who my friends are, but I should be able to see and navigate to all of my Ning groups from there. Can't do it as far as I can see. But I did see the groups up there once when replying to a message from someone. What gives Ning guys?

These are really minor quibbles, though. The site has been really easy to maintain so far and I am looking forward to seeing how it grows.

Broadlook Diver Rocks

Last week, as part of the Wisconsin Professional Recruiters Resource series, we were lucky to have Donato Diorio agree to come and give us a presentation on "10 Ways Technology Can Double Your Billings," a preview of a keynote he will be giving for NAPS.

As an additional treat, we got to take a look at the newly unveiled Diver application from Broadlook. Diver is a standalone app that is, essentially, a specialized browser. It includes several preset search engines into which you enter your standard sorts of search strings for skill sets, company names, and so on, except that you really don't need to get too fancy about boolean expressions designed to net you only resumes. The engine itself finds either resumes or contact information for people matching your search criteria and parses them into a handy spreadsheet-looking window in the bottom of the browser. Those results can then be exported into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet--instant call list.

It's a cool app and I want to do more with it, but it does seem to be having some issues running on Windows Vista, so I'll probably need to download it on another trial sometime soon.

Ning me!

I finally took the plunge today and joined Ning. I had been meaning to start experimenting with it for some time, but what with starting a new blog it seemed like it was time to stop postponing. For those of you who haven't heard of it, Ning is a site that lets you create your own private or public social networks. So... like LinkedIn, except more specialized, more private, and more conducive to holding conversations between members (for an article that tries to put Ning into the context of the social networking tools out there, check out this article by Dave Lefkow on ERE.

The site's got a nice look and feel to it. Signing up was fairly painless and I enjoyed tooling around to see what kinds of networks were out there. Finally, I tried setting up my own. With the exception of picture uploads not working very smoothly, I've had an easy time of it.

Why would you want to create a Ning network? John Sullivan talks about the need to start developing "talent pools." These are highly specialized groups of professionals in the same area of specialization. In my case, I decided to try and set up an alumni network of individuals who used to work for my company. I hope that it may become a sufficiently useful recruiting tool to attrack past employees back into the fold. Or maybe not. We'll see!

HR Technology Expo in Chicago

There's still another day for the HR Technology Expo, held at the Navy Pier in Chicago. From all appearances, it looked like it was better attended than last year and the exhibit floor was buzzing with demonstrations and activities geared to leveraging technologies for both HR and recruiting functions.

In the short time I got to visit, I spent the most time with the folks from Taleo and SonicRecruit. Jennifer Jacob, one of Taleo's smart and helpful regional sales managers, patiently endured my many questions about the Taleo Business Edition Applicant Tracking System. Several of my colleagues have been telling me that they really like Taleo, and this was my first real opportunity to see it in action.

I'll have to write a more in-depth review of the package once I have arranged a more thorough run-through of the package, but suffice to say that it has straightforward design and does what I'd expect of any ATS. Where Taleo Business Edition really shines though is with its strong personalization attributes. For example, as an administrator, you can turn fields on and off, but you can also move them around so that the working screen reflects the information your business needs most often. It looked like it was pretty easy to do and was probably accomplished using some JavaScript, though probably not anything executed with Ajax.

In fact, that was one of the main things I was looking for this year. I have gotten pretty spoiled by rich application experiences with Google and 37signals over the past year or two and I am looking forward to the day when HR and recruiting apps catch up. I'd like to know if there are any companies I've missed out there who are using these technologies in the ATS space.

Another blog?

What's this blog about? Hiring technology... that is, issues surrounding hiring bright technology professionals, but also another big interest of mine for anyone who knows me, the technologies we use to find and hire those individuals. That can be anything from the best-known job boards to applicant tracking systems to social networking sites to the latest little doodads that give us an advantage in tracking down that elusive, smart next hire.

I'll be kicking off this blog with an entry or two about the HR Technology Expo in Chicago this week. I can't stay long, but I hope to see a few new technologies on the floor and report on them here.