PeopleXS official blog

Expanding into Asia

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 10:42:00 +0200

Given the success in Europe of recent years PeopleXS has decided to continue the current growth strategy and further develop an establishment in Asia for the "Asia Pacific" market. Singapore to be exact. Nils Frenkel has been appointed as Managing Director and is currently exploiting the market there. Nils has brings experience in setting up new offices and doing international sales. In one of his recent roles as 'Director of Sales' at a service company he was responsible for the APAC region. The expansion in Asia is a logical result of the path taken in earlier years. to become a global player in the field of recruitment and talent management. With our current platform, we are well placed to serve multinationals and able to also quickly roll them out and make distinction into various countries or regions by segmenting the application. Our different language modules can also be used when deploying the system in these regions. We have great confidence in this market and the growth they are currently experiencing. Expansion in Asia will make our product and our community of users even more interesting, larger and more professional because more users will participate and contribute ideas. Customers who have an office in Asia will be contacted by us or they can contact us for their recruitment and talent management activities to professionalize it further. Eelco

Maximize your PeopleXS

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:31:00 +0200

Maximize your PeopleXS is a project to get the most out of your PeopleXS application. With each new release more and more functionality is added, functionality you might not even know existed! And the good thing is you can use it without additional license costs! For example did you know PeopleXS has the tools to cover privacy law regulations on your candidate database? Or did you know PeopleXS has a mobility solution for your organization? And have you set-up Job Alert or Tell-a-friend on your standard portal yet? If you would like to know what you can do to Maximize your PeopleXS please comment on the article here or contact your implementation consultant. Here is a list of items you might have missed over time:

Temp Hires
Mobility
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) on standard vacancy portal
Match profile for account
New privacy law mailings
Custom objects
Motivation field on application level
Show logo per vacancy yes/no
Job Alerts
Tell a friend
Assignment rules
Renaming objects & standard fields
Add documents to vacancy text on vacancy portal
New Roles to contacts on vacancies
Mass/Bulk update options per vacancy
Preview vacancy without publishing
Appetizers on vacancy portal
Vacancy search form on candidate portal
Automatic search on new applicants
Automatically changing ownership
New features on managers portal
Application Committee
Email templates linked default to workflow
Custom flow (killer questions)
Textkernel* CV Parsing
Custom forms in email
Agency portal options
duplicate alert at entry
Grouping portals
Knollenstein* multi-posting
and much more!...

Eelco Scheltinga

items with a (*) do require a product license from the 3rd party supplier

Improve your recruitment conversion

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:19:00 +0200

Studies from Textkernel customers show that after the implementation of CV extraction, completing the application form by candidates is improved with 80%. We have arranged that all Peoplexs customers can get a 50% discount on the installation costs of Textkernel. On top of that, you get a Textkernel license the first 2 months for free! If you want to make use of this offer or you would like to know more please comment on the article here or contact your implementation consultant. This offer is valid until the 1st of March 2010.

Unusual userconference at an unusual place

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:20:00 +0200

Last week Thursday PeopleXS Nordic held their yearly userconference at Middelgrundsfortet in Oresund, close to the harbor in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was a very unusual day at a very unusual place. Middelgrundsfortet is an old fort on an island built during the reign of King Christian IX. It is the worlds largest artificially built island without any permanent connection to the mainland. Surely it had its charm, but the facilities were very used and not so well maintained, well, what can you expect for a fort more than 100 years old? It was with great excitement we could welcome customers from all parts of Denmark. We were very pleased that so many had taken a day out from their busy schedule to spend the day with us. The main purpose of this user day was, from our side, to give our users an opportunity to network, listen to what they have to say, and of course increase their knowledge of PeopleXS. One of the highlights of the day was our CFO Eelco Scheltingas presentation. It was over social recruiting and the campaigns some companies make to attract a certain target group and what we in the future can expect from social network. Also an important session of the day was the 'unconference', where the users could decide the agenda. Here different PeopleXS topics were discussed. All in all it was a very inspiring day, both for us and the users which we can see from the evaluations forms. What we can work towards for next year's userday is to make more room for networking. We left the island with manner, to everyone's surprise, they fired a cannon, all there is left to say is salute and see you next year! Maiken Sørensen.

Coming soon in the community: Labs

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 13:19:00 +0200

As the upcoming release is just around the corner and focus is on the improvements of the application itself, I would also like to put a new community area in the spotlight. This new area is called "Labs". Here we will give you an preview of what community ideas and other improvements we are working on, as they are being developed. With the new "Labs" you will not have to wait unto the final weeks before the release when you receive the release notes. You can see what is coming out of our hands and how we have interpreted your ideas while we are working on it. In the community spirit it is possible to comment and discuss with each other and directly with our developers. So you will not only have insight on what we are working on, but you are also able to influence the final outcome. To avoid raising expectations to high, not everything that is set in motion will see the light of day. As with real "Labs" :-) Leo

Flexibility in SAAS

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:12:00 +0200

Flexibility as SAAS supplier remains an interesting and disruptive topic. Even though PeopleXS has set a new standard since the year 2000 in approaching software development for an Applicant Tracking System, it seems that different parties are finally trying to catch on. What does flexibility mean?
Typically all suppliers say they are very flexible in their system. They can change things such as tab labels, workflows, reports, etc. But that is just it. They can change it, but "they" have to do it! Real system flexibility however means that admdinistrating users of an application can change these items themselves. And I am not talking about changing a label on a field or tab or changing the data selection for input on a standard report. The kind of flexibility within a SAAS model that I am talking about (or that PeopleXS is enabling) includes creating your own new custom fields that:

you can immediately use in the application;
you can immediately use in reports;
you can use in the report wizard when you are creating your own reports;
you can use and immediately display on an application form on the website;
you can use as a field on the vacancy text dislay on your vacancy portal;
and that you can use within your search engine.

That is the kind of flexibility that we are talking about at PeopleXS. Customizable by your own administrator within our normal user interface. Why would I want to have this flexibility?
The foremost reason is that you don't need a PeopleXS expert, you don't need development and you don't have to spend money to get it done. Secondly Software as a Service (SAAS) is per definition suitable for this kind of functionality. Isn't this what the internet is all about? Making things easier for all involved! If we would not create these kinds of benefits within SAAS we might as well have stayed with the client-server model that we were all used to. As a third reason we can see that technology and organizations are constantly changing and so, even though you may standardize your work processes and candidate and vacancy handling, you should have the same options to change your ATS along just as quickly and easily. Again, without the use of expensive expertise. Ofcourse, when you don't want to be bothered with system settings you should have the option to have your supplier do it, but it should be an option, not something you are forced to do as otherwise your investment becomes worthless. PeopleXS is still market leader in customization within one standard product. We have been doing this since day one, and even though, others are trying to catch up. It is not done this intensely to serve the end-user and value the people that are using the tool. This was recently confirmed by Jacco Valkenburg, Dutch Recruiter of the year 2009 and author of the book "Recruitment via Linkedin". Jacco is currently writing his new book "Recruitment Systems and Technology" where he is comparing the different Recruitment Applications on the market. After a meeting with Jacco as one of the last ATS suppliers on his list he stated about PeopleXS "I am very impressed with the flexibility of the system setup and have not seen it in this intensity before" Eelco Scheltinga March 2009 announcement of the infrastructure upgrade. Overall, the infrastructure upgrade was a roaring success, and customers have been raving about the speed. Here is a quote that reached us: "is peoplexs really so fast or is it only me?" We got a cake from Pieter Hazelhoff, PerSelectief
As predicted, unfortunately there were a couple of "hiccups" on Monday. But with a full day of "enterprise" level logs/information to analyze, our team of engineers were able to quickly troubleshoot and solve the issues. With a stable system first thing Tuesday, we are able to concentrate on the few bugs that were caused by the upgrade, and those bugs have nearly all been solved and fixed in production already. The biggest surprise is how fast PeopleXS is now. In the announcement blog, we predicted 20% speed increase, but we have found that nearly across the board the speed improvement is 40% to 200%, and even more in isolated cases. The speed comes from new servers, new application software (ColdFusion 8 Enterprise), a new database platform (MySQL 5.1 Enterprise), and what we call "Automatic Performance Correction". Errors, time outs, and "white screens" have also been greatly reduced in the system, and we have improved systems to log and report such problems, so that our engineers can rapidly fix them. Thank you, everyone, for your patience and positive remarks. This new platform will now enable us to focus on developing new features, and enhancing the current user experience to allow our customers to get things done more easily and efficiently. Enjoy! Aaron Longnion

And now? Do it!

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 10:53:00 +0200

With excitement I have been looking forward to the launch of the community. The goals were beautifull and expectations high. Open communication about what should be improved and changed in PeopleXS. Involve customers in decisions on which road to follow. My history at PeopleXS is long and I always had a lot to say in what should be delivered and what not. For me personally the community therefore also was to let go of my own preferences and opinions. I follow the new ideas and the way they evolve on a daily basis. Many times ideas follow an unexpected path. Ideas from which customers before had given me the impression to be not important are now voted to importance, and vice versa. That in itself is a great result. We have now started with high spirits to deliver the first ideas in the april release. This time only a handfull but that is because it is already april next week :-). And in the spirit of the community is it possible for you to see what exactly we have start working on. For me and my team it is a great source of inpiration to be able to say "it matters!" about what we are working on. Leo

New Managing Director in Denmark

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 09:34:00 +0200

David van der Put has been appointed as Managing Director PeopleXS Nordic. Our team in Denmark has delivered some remarkable results in the last couple of years and has performed well in a highly competetive market. As always at PeopleXS, we started out in Copenhagen as a "garage" business (with David as the first employee) back in 2007. Now, only two years later, we have build-up an impressive track record and are one of the main players in the Danish market. Customers love us for our flexibility and ability to deliver high quality fast. We wish David all the best in his new position (and in the move to our new office:-) Leo

Citius Altius Fortius

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:29:00 +0200

This is the credo that belongs to the Olympics. Always striving to be swifter, higher stronger in achievements. As you agree, this credo applies not only to sports. However when I was asked to write about my preparation for the Marathon, I thought about the words Citius, Altius, Fortius many times. I have been training and try to get better all the time. I have to make a confession to you: I am not a runner by birth. And still after many work outs, getting to a run takes me some energy. I am always a bit grumpy before I go. It's just not my comfort zone. Better put: I am leaving that zone entirely, once I put on those light weight shoes getting ready for that thing. Only when the first steps are completed it becomes real fun. And that is normally after 5 minutes of running or so. And the run is completed I, like all runners, relive the joy because of released endorphin.

I experienced an expected, but nice surprise some weeks ago. I wanted to run the City Pier City half marathon (21 km) in The Hague, but couldn't, because there were some other commitments I had that Saturday. Although I did some 25 workouts prior to the CPC, according to the running schedule I was still not ready to the full 21km. Two weeks before the actual CPC date, I left home for an 18km run. On half way point (Nike+ and Ipod tell you exactly when you reach it) I felt there was much more energy in my legs than only another 9km to get me home. I figured that, if I would run an extra 1,5km before returning, I would complete 21km. Not too difficult to understand, and doing it felt equally easy. So I did.

At 10,5km (and 125 meters to be exact) I returned. The run back through the dunes, with great ocean views was an easy and fun time. On the way home I realized that going the extra mile makes gives you energy! The mental realization that I would run the first ½ marathon ever in my life, fueled me with a feeling of exuberance, that made forget about sore legs, thirst or the temptation to stop and relax. I only wanted one thing: run it out! A lesson learned was that, being at a half way point and extending a little, (for even better results) makes it relatively easy, because you only have the same predictable distance ahead of you. So getting half way is my focal point now, the rest will follow easily. That is for running.

I have been trying to apply this metaphor in other walks of life, the only difficulty is: finding an answer to the question "when am I half way?" This can apply to your business dealings, projects, relationships or even your life! No Nike/iPod available to tell you exactly where you stand in those situations! However our heart and intuition help us to discover these things. But we simply don't get exact answer on such questions. And that's only good! We better not know when some things will end. So enjoy the ride, because just like running, before you know it, it's over! Citius Altius Fortius, and...Carpe Diem!

Have an outstanding day!

Frank Oddens

Upcoming technical infrastructure upgrade

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 09:52:00 +0200

After many months and lot's of hard work, the PeopleXS IT Department is excited to announce that the entire technical infrastructure will be upgraded soon. How soon? The date will be announced within a couple of weeks! What's in the upgrade, you ask?

New top-of-the-line, faster servers
Upgraded server operating system
Upgraded Enterprise Application software
Upgraded Enterprise Database software
Upgraded web servers
Added more Application servers
New and improved infrastructure monitoring
Automatic Performance Correction - if something starts to get slow or shut down, in most cases the Application will know about it and heal itself

So? How does this affect me while I work in PeopleXS day-to-day?

Speed, speed, and more speed. We expect a minimum of a 20% speed increase system-wide, and some operations will be even faster. We want you to be able to get more work done in less time.
Fewer errors. Hopefully, you haven't ever received an error while using PeopleXS, have you? Well.... just in case (wink), the new upgrades should reduce errors, and allow the IT Department to fix them more quickly.
With additional and improved monitoring, PeopleXS will know there are problems with the system long before you even have to report them.
Even if PeopleXS usage doubles or triples in the next year or two, the system should behave normally and you will not experience any drop-off in performance or otherwise.
One note of warning: with such a large infrastructure upgrade, there is a small possibility that there could be some temporary problems or errors within the first few days; however, we have spent tireless hours and resources testing and re-testing the new system to minimize the possibility of problems.
With the new Automatic Performance Correction capabilities, the possibility of the system being down has been greatly reduced.

We'll submit another blog entry after the launch of the new system. But for now, just know that we're working hard to make your PeopleXS system better all the time.

Aaron Longnion

Alumni programs to stay connected with ex-employees.

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 17:12:00 +0200

Crisis time, economic downturn is all we hear these days. Many companies are less occupied recruiting and more involved with mobility management in order to make sure the best people are staying at the right place in the organization. Preventing real talent from leaving has become a bigger concern these days. Unfortunately not all companies can escape this tycoon and people made redundant seem to be unavoidable. Good employees arrange for outplacement possibilities and redundancy packages, however do they also think about the future? Of course not! That is, I expect that the majority of companies don't. We are having problems now and so we act accordingly, now. Mostly without thinking about the future or at least not over a term of more than 1 or 2 years. After all there is a crisis going on and it is hectic! Jobs that have to be made redundant within a company in a free-fall economy are like lead in a sinking ship. Clean up now and patch up later.

However it would be wise (of course) to take time and set up a good re-hire or alumni program (a.k.a. 'boomerang recruitment'). After rain there will be sunshine and the market will make a come back eventually. Whether it will be in 2009, 2010 or even later it does not matter. The past few years most companies have invested in recruiting campagnes and a 'company brand' in order to attract most current employees. When companies are now at the eve of massive layoffs or are already in the middle of it, they must consider the wasted money invested in these same employees. A good alumni program can ensure that these investments do not go to waste completely. It gives the opportunity to re-hire employees that have had to leave your company.

What is the purpose of an Alumni program?
This kind of program allows management to consciously think about and consider investments made in employees that will leave the company. The goal is to establish a relationship with these people or better to continue your relationship with these people in order to re-hire them when the time is right. This requires time and effort to set up with quality, however the returns are immediately visible when the market comes back. The second goal is to keep a positive brand recognition as an employer. Even after it is forced into massive layoffs.

With today's technology it is easier to set up a kind of program and achieve an ROI. Or even better without the current technology, Social Media, you should not even try. Even you would really like to take this ahead you can set up a website specifically for your company's alumni and present a full program. This may include:

the latest developments of the company
the status of the recruitment and hiring policy
events at which ex-employees could be involved
industrial developments
innovations in specific products, industry or business processes, provided this can be release on this format
benchmarking and best practices
portals with opportunities for updating work experience and education on a personal profile as well as a vacancy overview when you start hiring again.

Other benefits Many employees remain within the same industry or within the same corporate chain. By maintaining good contacts, these people serve as ambassadors or prospect anchors for your existing business. The creation of a strategic partnerships page within the alumni support program may even give additional benefits.

Key differentiators for success A few key items of importance in the set up of an Alumni program are:

to use technology and social media
create a strong business case. It should be an initiative with a business approach (ROI) and not just an interpretation of an HR trend.
regularly evaluate on the basis of statistics and key indicators
ensure a full program and in depth content for your target group otherwise you are doomed to fail.

As you can tell a farewell does not have to be permanent. With good policies and a structured program it can actually bear fruit. PeopleXS can always give advice or help you develop a plan. If needed in collaboration with one of our communication partners.

(Source: ERE)

Use PeopleXS for internal-external mobility

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:26:00 +0200

The last few months the focus has shifted from recruitment to mobility. Companies are facing major changes with workforce reduction as a result of the resession. Did you know PeopleXS can also be used for Mobility? Companies can increase the visibility of this group of employees and forward them to other internal vacancies. The mobility process can be integrated with portals which recruitment agencies can use, and thus offer jobs. The company may also choose to pass the employee profile through the portal if it is desired that a recruitment agency should take over the entire process. The employee will, via a link in an email or a portal login, be able to create a profile and indicate what positions are of interest. Like all PeopleXS functionality, mobility can be custom made to adapt to your needs. Leo

PeopleXS goes blogging...

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:11:00 +0200

The internet is evolving, and so is the blogging phenomenon. Today we don't only see the well-known personal weblogs, the blogging community has evolved to be a more topic-based system. When you look around, you will soon discover that most personal blogs have started focusing on a few topics - design, art, welfare, history, religion, movies etc. Along with the personal blogs you will also find business blogs. And yes, that's what this is. They are often known to be even more focused on a few topics, and their goal is also somewhat different than the personal blogs. We at PeopleXS felt a blog to be a good choice, since it will reach out to recruiters, (users of PeopleXS or not - it does not matter). Also to other HRM professionals, partners and all other people that have an interest in "the buzz" in and around topics related to Talent Management and Talent Acquisition in particular. Our goal is to be transparent, informative, and (even) organic about it! Anyway, enough said about the "why" we go blogging. And now for something completely different: The media bombards us with the "credit crisis" Every hour we get new updates on how the billions of Euros that are (or were?) available by the governments are provided at high interest to dinosaurs (such as Fortis and ING Bank in the Netherlands for example) But, how does it effect you as a recruiting professional? Do you see the number of vacancies decrease? In finance sector there is obviously a downturn, but how is your specific sector doing? If you are a corporate recruiter, are you nervous? Or do you even see positive effects? One campus recruiter Marijke van Rij (managing director at CV Butler) noted a very nice consequence related to the economic turmoil to me: "Candidates are way more decisive and choose much faster than before the crisis started". Let us know what you experience, we are anxious to know. Have a good week and hire with passion! Frank Oddens, CEO www.PeopleXS.com