IBM Kenexa Reviews

We chose Kenexa for a number of reasons. One was because of the science that sits behind our survey approach. What we liked specifically was the high-performance engagement model and then, over the course of the relationship, in helping us to understand much more than we've ever done before, the relationship between emotional engagement and rational engagement. This is where behavioral science and business psychology is really starting to play a much more important role in Lloyd's in helping us to be able to ask the right questions in the right way through the right channels.

Using Kenexa and the conversations I think that we have now had, we have focused and worked really hard with the team in London. They've been great. I think what they've done as well is they've really challenged the thinking. What we've benefited from is having a partner who challenges us, who is not afraid to call out stuff.

Basically you want a partner who makes you think. We don't need a partner who delivers surveys. There are numerous companies out there, suppliers, that will run a survey for us. It's about the ability for a partner to make a bank as complex and large as ours to really take stock and think about what it is we want, where it is we're going, and the progress we're making. I think that's really what we get from the IBM team.

I think the feature that really stands out for us, at least lately is, the fully responsive experience for applicants. We have our end-to-end application experience fully mobile responsive. They also host our career site, so having that be mobile responsive, and really configurable for us has been awesome. I'd say the most valuable feature is being responsive, and then a close second for us is probably the automation capability.

They call it RAM, the Rules Automation Manager. The fact that basically any action in the system can trigger something else to happen automatically, allows us to really automate our different processes and accommodate our business needs. We have a lot of volume, so having things happen automatically is a good thing. Those are probably the big two.

First of all, it has improved the applicant experience. We went from, last winter, if an applicant went on through a mobile device, they would actually be told, "Stop, now you have to go to a computer to finish your application." If they did manage to get through, past that, it was a lot of pinching, and a lot of pages, and a lot of text.

I think having the responsive be something that's standard – we're not paying a third-party vendor to get that functionality, it's just something they do – is one of those game changers for us. There aren't many companies out there that can say, Our end-to-end applicant experience is responsive, but on top of that, we didn't have to engage another vendor to do it. We're able to just do it with our current tool, and do it pretty well.

I used IBM Kenexa BrassRing for a number of years. It is a cloud-based system that helps manage the recruitment process. With BrassRing, we could easily keep track of job applicants, right from when they applied to when we hired them. One convenient feature is that it lets you integrate it with your other systems using single sign-on, making everything accessible in one place. We used it for all our international hiring needs outside of India and China. While BrassRing allowed us to customize our recruitment process to suit our needs, it has limited built-in connections to other systems, so if you need more advanced integrations, it often requires expensive custom development.

Using BrassRing was helpful because it made our processes more digital, which is important nowadays. IBM, in the beginning, provided great support and showed us how to connect with other tools, which was valuable. But recently, since the ownership changed, it hasn't been as innovative, causing some clients to look for better, more modern options.

For us in particular, I love how configurable the system is; I can use the same technology for different parts of my business. I can run a unique process for store hourly hiring as I do, and then create a different and separate process to use for corporate applicants as well. If you design it, you can build it.

The level of configurability and the partnership are huge for me. I’m not in it alone. If I'm trying to nail down a business process, if I'm trying to build something, they're there, no matter what. If something happens with the system – it's technology; stuff happens – they certainly are there to help us get on board as fast as we can.

It has given us the ability to have a unified platform. Previously, we had more than one technology that we used for applicant tracking, so it's given us the ability to have one technology, ensure that we're compliant, consistent and repeatable on everything that we do. It gives us great flexibility to do that, and being in the cloud gives us great flexibility. We have 1,750 locations, and it gives us great flexibility to ensure that they all have a great experience as well.

Great value and flexibility in an ATS, mainly through the automation and the configuration through Workbench you can do to manipulate the candidate experience to really be something that candidates like and allows them to apply to your site easily and put them in a pipeline for recruiters to access and move through a process and get somebody hired.

We've really used Kenexa to, at this point, look at the application process, make sure that it is as clean as possible and be able to get that time down, so candidates don't walk away from the experience, as well as automate a lot of things for recruiters, administrators, all those types of folks, so they aren't having to do manual tasks. The system is really doing that for them.

We used Kenexa BrassRing as our recruitment database, where we received all applicants. We also used it to run compliance reporting based on our applicants. When you are a large employer, certain reports are required if you are federal contractor, such as, affirmative action plans. However, we did utilize it's onbaording capabilities. 

1. Very easy to use, flexible, customizable UI for recruiters.
2. eLinks feature allows recruiters to easily share candidate resumes and covers letter with Hiring Managers via email. Hiring Managers did not require a login, so doesn't cut into user costs

The most valuable feature of Kenexa, I believe, is the flexibility to configure the tool the way that you need it to work; with the various tools, offer letters, forms, and the way that the system's structured. Being that it's an off-the-shelf system, the flexibility makes it easier for companies to configure the system, to suit their needs.

It's benefited our organization, because we don't have to worry about all of the background configuration, and coding, and development. They provide the tools, and Kenexa behind the scenes does the work of all the coding and developing the product. They give us the flexibility to do what we need to do in our business.

We are using IBM Kenexa for onboarding employees.

It reduces the amount of time it takes to share drives and search for a person. It is quicker joining documents when you can just put in a person's name and find the entire onboarding history and recruitment options. 

That makes it easy because it's all centralized, it's easy to download and navigate.