M.I.T. (Manpower IT) Shortens Time to Market and Improves Relationships  

Executive Summary
M.I.T. (Manpower IT) needed to replace its aging Applicant Tracking System (ATS) with a web-based solution. Reducing their time to market was a major goal, since even for highly qualified candidates, with their old system it could take several days to a week to get a new resume sorted, processed and sent to a client. They also wanted to improve their relationship with their candidates, so that they would feel a partnership in the process. Lastly, M.I.T. wanted to reduce their cost of data entry by implementing an automated system.

The results of implementing Redmatch Recruiter exceeded their expectations:

• One day after launching the system, all recruiters and account managers were fully trained and operational.
• One week post-launch, all manual data entry was eliminated.
• Three weeks post-launch, the time it took to sort, process and send a resume to a client was reduced by more than 50%, from days to just a few hours.

About Manpower Information Technology
M.I.T. (Manpower IT) is a leading IT recruitment agency in Israel, and a subsidiary of Manpower (NYSE: MAN). Founded in 1997, M.I.T. has a team of 20 account managers and full-time recruiters.

The Problem: Slow Time to Market, High Overhead
M.I.T. was using an outdated off-the-shelf ATS based on Microsoft Access. The old system was not built to manage the sheer quantities of data that they dealt with every day, i.e. tens of thousands of candidates and hundreds of thousands of lines of data about each ("activities"), and they were concerned that the aging system would fail them.

The old ATS had a cumbersome process for manually inputting new resumes, which required a large back-office staff. Resumes would sometimes take a day or longer before they were entered into the database. Then, for each new position, M.I.T. recruiters would search the Access database and pull out profiled candidates. The next step was for the recruiters to start telephoning candidates to gain permission for M.I.T. to send their resume to the client company, which could take several days. In the highly competitive world of recruiting companies, the company that sends a resume first is the one who gets paid, so this lengthy process was costing M.I.T. in lost revenues.

Lastly, candidates had no window into the process, except by telephoning their M.I.T. contact. "Even though behind the scenes we were working hard to promote candidates, with the old system candidates felt like they were sending their resumes into a black hole," recalls Edith Padan, Managing Director of M.I.T.. "For a company that considers its candidates clients, this was very troubling."

The Solution: Redmatch Recruiter™ Staffing Edition
After testing several competing systems, M.I.T. elected to implement Redmatch Recruiter Staffing Edition, to move their entire business online.

The improvement in the candidate experience was felt immediately. Candidates self-register on the M.I.T. web site, and within twenty-four hours receive a response of relevant/not relevant for any position to which they have applied. "Candidates are calling and writing to tell us how much they appreciate the transparency of knowing where their applications stand," Padan said.

Their time-to-market has been shortened dramatically since the permission process can happen remarkably quickly. "We know immediately if the person is available and interested in the position, simply by virtue of the fact that they have applied online," Padan said.

Padan mentioned the case of a candidate who registered on the M.I.T. web site and had a job interview scheduled with the client company within just a few hours, and was hired within a week. "This kind of immediate, palpable success would not have been possible with our previous system," Padan said.

The key to the rapid access is the heart of Redmatch's system, Job Matching. Similar to a dating site, the system matches candidates' fielded responses regarding skills and preferences to the job requirements keyed in by the recruiters. Once a position is created, the system immediately presents a graded list of candidates who match the job requirements. Any new candidate who registers or applies will automatically be matched against the requirements of all the available positions and will appear on the recruiter's dashboard in the relevant positions.
 
Another key feature that saves time and improves relations with their clients is the ability for clients to reveal a candidate's contact details online. "Previously our customers would have had to track down the recruiter by phone to get a candidate's details, and it could take days or weeks; now they can express interest in a candidate at any time of day, from any location, and receive their contact information immediately by clicking a button" Padan said. 

Upcoming Developments
Padan has her eye on branding M.I.T.'s web site as the key place for IT professionals to manage their careers. Through extensive promotion and advertising, she intends to double the number of qualified candidates in her database by the end of 2006.

"By the end of this year, everyone will know that 'if you are not in M.I.T. you are not in high-tech,'" Padan said.

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