The Recruiting Guru (@recruiting_guru) is passionate about all things recruiting: tricks, tools, tips, technology and beyond. As an avid blogger and recruiter at heart (day job), the Recruiting Guru is a sleuth, a social media junky and an all around curious guy seeking out the next big things in recruiting. He asks the tough questions and isn’t afraid to speak his mind. Interview taken from The Recruiting Guru - ‘Interview with Joel Passen of Newton Software’ 3/10/2010
[Guru] Joel, thanks for agreeing to the interview.
[Joel] The honor is mine. I read your tweets.
[Guru] You guys claim to have the easiest to use applicant tracking software. Easy-to-use - I hear this all the time. What makes Newton any different?
[Joel] Frankly, most vendors can’t really explain what makes their software easy-to-use. We can. Newton is easy-to-use because it has recruiting DNA built in. This is particularly evident when you look at Newton’s workflow. It’s flexible and is designed to work the way that recruiting works. So, from day one, our customers get an application that is smart and understands what they are trying to do. This smart, flexible workflow also allows us to enable critical features like automatically tracking EEO and OFCCP data, sending thank you letters to every candidate and providing real-time analytics.
With Newton, on day one, you get a login, get your job listings online, do a short walk-through with one of our product specialists and that’s it- you’re ready to go. Giving Newton to hiring manages is simple too. And, it takes just minutes to get them entirely set up. Tell them to hit the green button if they like someone and the red button if they don’t. They love it and they use it which makes life easier for recruiters.
[Guru] So, you can activate Newton in a day?
[Joel] To us, easy-to-use translates to easy to activate – easy to get started. We don’t require customers to wade through paperwork or sign their first born away to get started. And, even better, it doesn’t take much training at all to get started with Newton. Recruiters are up and running in an hour and training a hiring manager takes a matter of minutes. We activate 95% of our customers, soup to nuts in less than 24 hours. And, activating Newton is 100% free – no activation or implementation fees. Oh, and we don’t charge for support either.
[Guru] Ok, so what do you charge for?
[Joel] (laugh) We have tiered pricing plans at Newton and charge for only staffing users. Hiring managers, interviewers, executives and HR stakeholders are all considered general users and we encourage companies to create as many general users as they want for free. And, we never require long-term contracts. Newton is a month to month service, pay as you go. This forces us to earn our customers’ business every month and holds us accountable. We’re forced to provide a stable platform and to continually strive to make Newton better, to be innovative, to listen. We have a saying here: “We design software that we’d want to use and we sell it the way we’d want to buy it”
[Guru] With this type of model, how do you make money? How do you compete?
[Joel] Well, my simple answer is that we charge people to use our software Guru. And, we have quite a few customers so we’re doing really well. But, I know what you’re really asking – how can we survive? Listen, we’re pioneering a trend that’s taking place not just in the applicant tracking space but in the software industry as a whole. With the availability of common platforms and open source tools combined with pure internet distribution models, delivering software is getting more efficient every day. Simply put, it’s gotten cheaper to offer better technology and we’ve built our company and business model reflect the times. Plus, we don’t have the baggage that our competitors have, the debt, the huge teams to support, the fancy offices, the tradeshow booths. We don’t need to charge exorbitant prices or charge for training implementation or any of that peripheral stuff that makes buyers weary.
[Guru] What do these new models mean for the recruiting software space?
[Joel] Well, for the buyers of applicant tracking software, these new trends are great. There’s finally some innovation in the market. It means that software is getting better and less expensive at the same time. Buyers like that. It’s a buyer’s market and it will remain this way.
As for the vendors, this means that they are going to have to find ways to adapt. The competition is going to continue to increase as new vendors come on line offering innovative technology delivered in more economical ways. It’s going to get harder before it gets easier for vendors that aren’t prepared to adapt to the new software economy.
[Guru] So what’s next for Newton Software? Are you guys heading into Talent Management or the HRIS space?
[Joel] Well, as you know, we just released Newton RPO, a version of Newton designed for recruitment outsourcers. We’ve actually had customers using this edition since 2008 but just recently started to market it. We’re comfortable in the recruiting software space. We know recruiting and there are other opportunities in this space. Otherwise, we have a full product roadmap for scheduled for Newton for the rest of the year consisting of some really killer new features that continue to focus on improving and simplifying recruiting. Beyond that, we have some plans for a new product that we’re not talking about at the moment. You’ll have to stay tuned.
This weekend we launched another small Newton enhancement: when assigning candidates to jobs you can now copy attachments over to the new job. We also increased the maximum file size for attachments to 2.5MB.
We have another large feature release coming near the end of the month. We’ll be addressing the following:
Hiding system history messages
Adding “review request” email templates (the end of alerts as you know them)
At Newton Software we’re passionate about recruiting. We’ve been members of the recruiting community for over a decade and what motivates us day in and day out is continuously learning about and trying new things. This is why we created NED, a series of web-based discussions, that showcase recruiting industry influencers and innovators who share their tips, tools, techniques and knowledge with our diverse audience.
Whether you’re a recruiter, HR professional, business leader or someone generally interested in talent acquisition, we provide valuable information relevant to the business of recruiting.
Join Newton’s, Joel Passen, for an interview with Stephanie Thomas, the Director of the Equal Employment Advisory and Litigation Support Division of Minimax Consulting, as she outlines 5 easy steps to take to be a proactive employer.
Dr. Thomas specializes in the application of economics and statistics to questions arising in employment decisions. She has more than a decade of consulting experience, and has provided expert economic and statistical testimony in federal and state courts throughout the country. She has published several papers in professional journals and regularly speaks on equal employment topics. Dr. Thomas is the author of a blog, Statistical Analysis in Employment Law, and hosts “The Proactive Employer” podcast.
This installment of The Proactive Employer with Dr. Stephanie Thomas features Joel Passen, the Vice President of Marketing at Newton Software. Topics include: Recruiting software best practices and trends, EEO and OFCCP compliance, and recruiting software analytics.
Favorite out take:
“Newton is pioneering this trend in the recruiting software space and other vendors will either have to adapt or will fade away. New vendors in the space will definitely perpetuate this trend. ” – Joel Passen talking about the new business model in HR technology: Providing easy-to-use, affordable, best-of-breed, collaborative products with a pure internet distribution model. “
In this installment of The Proactive Employer with Dr. Stephanie Thomas we’ll be discussing recruiting technology with guest Joel Passen. Joel is the Vice President of Marketing with Newton Software. Topics include: Recruiting software best practices, EEO and OFCCP compliance, and statistical analysis of recruiting and hiring practices.
About Newton: Newton Software is a leading provider of on-demand applicant tracking and recruiting software solutions. Newton software delivers an easy to use, fast-to-deploy, affordable solution for creating, managing and improving corporate recruiting programs with no hardware to buy or software to license. Featuring the most modern, intuitive application on the market, Newton is not only pushing the boundaries on how recruiting software is designed, it’s also changing the way business software is delivered and purchased. Newton is not just another recruiting tool-kit. Rather, it’s an application that works like recruiting works from day one- no massive customization required. Requiring very little training to get started, Newton can be activated in less than 48 hours and implementation is always free. Tiered pricing, no long term contracts, no hidden costs and free seats for standard users all make purchasing Newton hassle-free – a unique experience in the HR Technology space.
Doing the right thing (sending Thank You Letters to every candidate that has ever applied to or interviewed for one of your jobs) feels good. While we didn’t invent the thank you letter, we did make them easy to send and both employers and applicants are speaking up.
“Just wanted to let you guys know that I’ve sent out two thank you letters to “non responsive” candidates. Both of them got back to me the same day.” – Sr. Recruiter, SolutionStream
“I really appreciate your feedback!Almost all the time, I hardly get any reply back from the employers/recruiters I apply to for jobs.You’re one of the very few exceptions.” – Job Applicant, Newton customer
Thanks for send me a note to let me know where I stand. A couple of my co-workers are looking right now. I will suggest that they check out your open jobs. – Job Applicant, Newton customer
“I love it! I was able to send out all my Thank You Letters today -thanks” Recruiter, Relyon
“It’s nice when recruiting software can actually do some of my heavy lifting and at the same time provide such a high level of service to candidates. You guys built a double whammy” Sr. Technical Recruiter, Proofpoint.
Newton Software, a leading provider of on-demand applicant tracking and recruiting software solutions, and Minimax Consulting, a leading provider of expert statistical analysis of employment decisions and employment litigation risk management, are pleased to announce a joint marketing agreement that will provide significant benefits to customers.
Stephanie R. Thomas, Ph.D., Director of the Equal Employment Advisory and Litigation Support Division (EEA/LS) of Minimax Consulting stated, “Our agreement with Newton will position both organizations to enhance service offerings to new and existing customers. We’re looking forward to introducing our clients to Newton, and to providing expert insights and analysis of EEOC and OFCCP compliance for Newton’s customers.”
“The services offered by Minimax’s Equal Employment Advisory and Litigation Support Division are a perfect complement to Newton’s capabilities,” said Joel Passen, Newton Software’s Co-Founder and VP of Marketing. “We have a growing number of customers that are relying on our EEO and OFCCP Compliance feature to capture, track and report critical employment data. Dr. Thomas and the Minimax team will now offer our customers the ability to analyze this data to make better employment decisions and to manage employment litigation risks.
About Newton Software:
Newton Software is a leading provider of on-demand applicant tracking and recruiting software solutions. Newton software delivers an easy to use, fast-to-deploy, affordable solution for creating, managing and improving corporate recruiting programs with no hardware to buy or software to license. With deep domain knowledge in corporate recruiting, a best-in-class software-as-a-service platform and a fast-growing community of customers, Newton enables smarter recruiting practices that allow for companies to quickly become more competitive, compliant, and efficient.
Minimax Consulting is a full service consulting firm providing quantitative services across a wide variety of industries. The Equal Employment Advisory and Litigation Support Division of Minimax Consulting brings more than ten years of experience in expert statistical analysis of employment decisions and employment litigation risk management. Headed by Stephanie R. Thomas, Ph.D., the EEA/LS Division provides consulting services, dispute resolution support, and expert testimony to small businesses, Fortune 500 companies, major law firms, and local, state, and federal governments and agencies.The EEA/LS Division specializes in labor and employment issues in both advisory and litigation contexts.
We get asked about careers pages pretty often. Every Newton customer receives a fully-branded careers site that looks exactly like the rest of their corporate website, same colors, same fonts, same everything. Typically, it takes just a couple of hours for our team to set up a job listings page for a new customer. And, best yet, it’s always free.
Now, you’ll add and remove jobs easily, on your own, without any special training or support from IT. And, Newton makes it easy for applicants to apply to your jobs, online, without creating yet another user name or password. And, we don’t believe in lame popup windows or sending applicants to a new browser. With Newton, the applicant’s experience is seamless. You’ll even be able to link Newton to all of your job postings and funnel your online applicants’ right into Newton – No more email folders, no more spam.
Broadcast your openings to the largest job advertising sites, Indeed and SimplyHired, for free with just one click. And, we know that you will want to keep track of your best sources of applicants. Newton will do this for you so you’ll know exactly where to advertise your jobs in the future to get the best results.
In 2004, when we started to design the first iteration of Newton, one of our core ideas was to design applicant tracking software that could easily show someone what’s happening inside of a recruiting program at a glance. We wanted Newton’s home page to be “air traffic control”, only the stuff you need, the blips, not a bunch of peripheral clutter. We also knew that this “dashboard” needed to be interactive so users could drill into the data unlike the spreadsheets that so many people still use today.
Lately, we’ve been exploring some very cool ways to expand on the progress we’ve already made. Recently, we announced an enhancement that gives our customers the ability to view and manage recruiting data for multiple divisions or business units from on central dashboard – one login. Now our customers with multiple recruiting teams can stay on top of what’s going on in various BU’s or regions simply.
Currently, we’re working on enhancing the Newton home page by surfacing more critical data for our users in our 4.0 release due out in several weeks. And, our product design team is also working on improving Newton Analytics, currently our most popular recruiting dashboard. We even have some secret things in the mix that will come to fruition in the summer, stuff no one has seen yet. More to come.
The Recruiting Guru (@recruiting_guru) is passionate about all things recruiting: tricks, tools, tips, technology and beyond. As an avid blogger and recruiter at heart (day job), the Recruiting Guru is a sleuth, a social media junky and an all around curious guy seeking out the next big things in recruiting. He asks the tough questions and isn’t afraid to speak his mind. Interview taken from The Recruiting Guru - ‘Interview with Joel Passen of Newton Software’ 3/10/2010
Join Newton’s, Joel Passen, for an interview with Stephanie Thomas, the Director of the Equal Employment Advisory and Litigation Support Division of Minimax Consulting, as she outlines 5 easy steps to take to be a proactive employer.
This installment of The Proactive Employer with Dr. Stephanie Thomas features Joel Passen, the Vice President of Marketing at Newton Software. Topics include: Recruiting software best practices and trends, EEO and OFCCP compliance, and recruiting software analytics.
Newton Software, a leading provider of on-demand applicant tracking and recruiting software solutions, and Minimax Consulting, a leading provider of expert statistical analysis of employment decisions and employment litigation risk management, are pleased to announce a joint marketing agreement that will provide significant benefits to customers.