What Customers Want From HR Service Providers

Whether you provide support for internal customers, external customers, or both, the key to effective service lies in filling the needs of your customers, or coming as close as you can. In order to better fulfill those needs, proactively readying yourself to provide support will enable a faster turnaround time and a greater likelihood of customer satisfaction and repeat business if applicable. What exactly is the point? Though it may not be relevant for all companies, many HR services providers should be able to look at what requests are made most often, streamline those processes and position themselves strategically for when the next customer inevitably makes such a request. If you are unsure what might be trending for the year in terms of customer demands, look to sources such as Recruiter.com for the recruitment industry overall and plan accordingly.

Recruiter.com compiled information from interviews with various CEOs and VPs regarding what their customers asked for more than anything else. Utilizing this resource and others, you can figure out how your organization might better assist clientele and improve services. According to the executives cited, customers want:

Customization in Technology

Our customers are asking for more customized solutions and access to data based on the customized efforts.

They're requesting more data-mining capability to optimize how their recruiting technology and process gains intelligence and gets more intelligent.

Bryan Wempen, Chief Strategy Officer, PeopleClues

Specialized Skills & Business Process Optimization

Signature specializes in recruiting technology and IT talent for our clients. Right now, we've seen a tremendous surge in demand for candidates with mobile technology skills and those with experience in Big Data and Data Analytics, e.g. MPP technologies. In addition, finding candidates with in-demand skills for "bring your own device" jobs (such as network administrators and data security analysts), cloud computing jobs and infrastructure projects has been a top challenge for us for the past couple of years, and based on input from our clients, these jobs will continue to be hot in 2013. Java and .NET developers continue to lead the market in demand.

In addition, Signature's recruiters are seeing demand for a new high-level consulting role: Business Process Optimization or Business Process Re-engineering. In this position, a consultant with a range of high-level business and technical skills is hired to look at an organization's overall systems to spot outdated technologies, redundancies and inefficiencies and to offer counsel on cutting costs and improving productivity.

Pat Powers, Recruiter, Signature Consultants

Improving the Candidate Experience

There has been an explosion of new products to support the front end of recruiting (i.e. sourcing, screening, candidate relationship management) the technology landscape has become fragmented. Customers are looking for tighter integration of the solutions to create a better candidate experience.

With the convergence of social media, cloud computing, mobile, there is a perfect storm of innovation in the recruiting technology industry and I expect many more new products and solutions to emerge in 2013.

Ed Newman, Vice President of Strategy, iMomentous

Enhanced Candidate Selection Process

Our customers want our platform to give them more actionable information about which candidates to spend time interviewing. They want more automated features that help filter the candidate pool, and they want to buy selection tools like skills testing, background checks, drug screening, and behavioral assessments from one vendor, not four. They want tools that help them make the right hiring choices, rather than simply a database of resumes. Customers also want flexible pricing models, and, increasingly, they want an on-demand delivery model that doesn't require a contract.

Adam Robinson, CEO, Hireology

In-Depth Hiring Strategies

This year, our customers want...

• More automation on the front end of the recruitment/talent acquisition process to move more applicants more efficiently through the hiring pipeline.


• Better integration between operational performance systems/ measurements and pre-hire systems to improve quality of hire.


• Holistic view of the entire employee lifecycle through all phases including sourcing, recruiting, training, and on-job performance.


• Predictive analytics to link sourcing strategies with predicted on-the-job performance (e.g., candidates from one source perform better, stay longer and are more reliable)

Kevin Hegebarth, Vice President of Marketing and Product Management, HireIQ

Efficient & Objective Recruitment Solutions

In 2013, our clients expect self-serve assessment solutions that help determine candidates' abilities at the start of the process, as well as advanced analytics for the interview experience. They're seeking solutions that can help them be more efficient and objective - ultimately allowing them to spend their time more wisely, building relationships with the right candidates - during the recruiting and interviewing process.

Chip Luman, COO, HireVue