No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

IBM Kenexa vs Oracle Taleo comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Kenexa
Ranking in Benefits Administration
18th
Ranking in Talent Management
19th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.3
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Applicant Tracking and Recruiting Software (10th)
Oracle Taleo
Ranking in Benefits Administration
9th
Ranking in Talent Management
8th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
5.5
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the Benefits Administration category, the mindshare of IBM Kenexa is 1.7%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Oracle Taleo is 2.2%, down from 2.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Benefits Administration Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Oracle Taleo2.2%
IBM Kenexa1.7%
Other96.1%
Benefits Administration
 

Featured Reviews

Karan Grover - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Suitable for larger-scale companies aiming to streamline and automate their processes digitally
The deployment of the solution took between six to eight months. When we introduced BrassRing at my company, we encountered several challenges. First, moving data from our old system to BrassRing was tough because it needed reformatting. Second, connecting BrassRing with our HR data was tricky due to manual processes for roles and departments. Third, setting up the workflow in BrassRing was complex. Fourth, configuring user access and approval levels was a detailed task. We also had to manage the change process, including running both old and new systems in parallel, communicating changes, and training users. Lastly, monitoring and reporting were needed to ensure data accuracy and proper system usage once everything was in place. We had a team of six to eight people managing the project from our side during the BrassRing deployment. I'm not sure about the size of the BrassRing team, and we also had our own technical team, which had three to four members. The solution required maintenance, particularly from my side as the administrator. Maintenance responsibilities were divided into two parts: some tasks we, as end-users, could control, while others were the responsibility of the BrassRing team. Payment-related tasks were a regular part of our responsibilities. I wasn't the only person maintaining the solution. There were three power users from Infosys, each responsible for a specific geography. My counterpart managed it in the US, and I, along with my colleague in India, managed it for other geographies.
Raghu Varun - PeerSpot reviewer
Talent Acquisition Specialist at Autodesk, Inc.
Supports recruitment workflows effectively but requires better AI search and mobile capabilities
Oracle Taleo lacks AI right now when everyone is transitioning into AI. It is very limited with a single word search. A chatbot could be added to Oracle Taleo as most of the current existing tools have. Career site redirection could be more advanced with the user interface.AI-assisted search can help in the sourcing platform, which would be an added advantage compared to Oracle Taleo. The filters are good, but when trying to use a Boolean search or customize search options, it only takes a limited selection of keywords. AI could help in more advanced search capability, which might be a drawback for Oracle Taleo. Additionally, creating campaigns and bulk messaging is lacking.Regarding the mobile-friendly candidate experience, there are better options from other tools. You are limited to the approval part. Difficulties arise when wanting access to applications or dashboards connected to Oracle Taleo or viewing the transition on mobile.When it comes to stability and performance, there are prior communications about downtimes on Saturdays, but there are some issues during weekdays which are faced occasionally. The scalability aspect is not quite scalable.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Overall, from a recruiter's perspective, it is an excellent product and is probably one of the best recruitment products out there in terms of usability, ease of understanding, and management of large applicant pools."
"We use the Viewpoint and that is an absolutely powerful tool; it is extremely helpful to get more insights, and to start a conversation with our employees to grow and improve."
"As I said, IBM are doing a great job with us at the moment, but we're always looking and speaking and open to having conversations with other people because the market's changing and IBM are aware of that."
"Scalability is great, as we use the system for everything from a very low-volume, high-touch corporate recruiting model to our tax office, high-volume approach, which is 80-100,000 people each season."
"It has definitely improved my organization by being able to help the recruiters move candidates through the interview process."
"The most valuable features are that we can upload documents and download them on demand, whether it is joining documents, employment screening, or your employment history, and it's easy enough to upload, find, and retrieve whatever you are looking for."
"BrassRing, the applicant tracking system, has brought a high level of automation, specifically for our mass-volume hourly processes."
"It is extremely user friendly. It is very flexible in managing recruitment, especially when you have thousands of applicants as we did. We easily had over 20,000 applicants within a year for some of our positions, so it made it very easy to manage a large application pool. It was very easy to customize by recruiter preference. When you open up someone's profile to see their experience, education, or other things, you can customize that for yourself. It was flexible in that, and each recruiter could set up their preferences. It didn't have to be set up so that everyone had to have the same landing platform, which was very helpful. As someone who trained other HR people on how to use the system, it was very easy to pick up and learn."
"Oracle Taleo Enterprise is a good solution based on quality and cost."
"Oh yes, when we began to utilize e-signatures it saved us a lot of money because prior to that we were manually documenting completion, we have 12,000 employees so it was a lot easier to put a notice up and have an electronic signature in which everyone signs off and then report on it."
"The solution has good integration capabilities and extensibility, and there's the standard integration between Fusion and Taleo as well as the validations that can be done on top of Taleo."
"Oracle Taleo's integration capabilities are good."
"It has allowed us to be able to source candidates, have them apply for the job, or put in applications online, and all of our onboarding is done via the web as well, which makes everything easy, stable, and reliable."
"It works okay, I've found good resources using Taleo, it saved me a lot of time, I just put a requisition in and then I just grab the candidates, the resumes, and I scan them, okay, I want this guy, I don't want that guy, the rest is done by HR, so it's less trouble for me as a manager, and I am dealing with a very special group of people."
"The advantage I see is the presence of the industrial Taleo stack, which is beneficial for large-scale companies handling a higher load."
"It is a really competitive solution in terms of technical features and user experience."
 

Cons

"The user interface could do with an overhaul."
"Once-a-year engagement kind of seems to be a little bit lagging in terms of how we can actually shape and improve organizations, so I was looking forward to understanding a bit more where IBM Kenexa's thinking is going in terms of pulsing with the employee voice and how that kind of integrates and works with tell-it-as-it-is, and the other two applications we have; it's just too early to know."
"The price can always be better. Right now, we can only do part of that, but not as much as I want to."
"Technical support was not always great. They tend to push you towards workbench admins or paid support."
"The reporting feature currently is our biggest struggle point; getting the data we need and in the fashion that we need it is a current struggle point for us."
"I get a real sense of frustration when you see the kind of customer insight teams and what they can do and then you look at the colleague insights teams, which I'm leading on as well, and seeing there's a gap and we need to close that gap."
"In the past year, there has been a significant increase in the amount of internal errors that are displayed."
"2xO was created by brain-damaged monkeys in front of keyboards."
"The recruiting section needs work."
"Oracle Taleo felt a bit outdated, and we didn't use it for every step of the candidate process. We mainly used it to track job IDs, create job requisitions, and add candidates when making an offer. It wasn't very user-friendly for moving candidates through different stages of the recruitment lifecycle."
"The product was not very sophisticated in terms of what it could do."
"In terms of Oracle Taleo as a product, there are a lot of things which can be developed; most feedback which I have heard from customers is about the dashboard and the home page, both of which are quite basic."
"The pricing could be improved."
"Taleo doesn't really provide us with the systems that we need."
"It would be beneficial if Oracle Taleo included AI-based CV screening, rather than just keyword matches."
"When editing some components such as requisitions, the solution does not respond quickly in terms of performance, maybe because of the technology in which the solution is currently built."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Kenexa was fairly priced. However, in 2019, before I left my previous organization, they significantly increased their pricing. It can be affordable, but their pricing is going up. It is not just licensing; it is how many applicants you have in your system on the database side."
"Whether you pay annually or on some other payment schedule depends on the license model you choose. Typically, clients pay a yearly subscription."
"Oracle Taleo is an expensive solution."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Benefits Administration solutions are best for your needs.
890,027 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
12%
Comms Service Provider
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
22%
Financial Services Firm
13%
University
7%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business3
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise28
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise14
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What needs improvement with Oracle Taleo?
Oracle Taleo lacks AI right now when everyone is transitioning into AI. It is very limited with a single word search. A chatbot could be added to Oracle Taleo as most of the current existing tools ...
What is your primary use case for Oracle Taleo?
I have been working with Workday for the last one and a half years, but prior to that, I was there for Oracle Taleo and SuccessFactors for almost six years. I migrated to Workday and Oracle HCM app...
What advice do you have for others considering Oracle Taleo?
When someone is trying to implement Oracle Taleo, they should look into the systems and what features can be integrated. Not every organization helps you in integration with third parties, and you ...
 

Also Known As

IBM Smarter Workforce, Outstart
Taleo, SonicRecruit
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Sweet Spot International (SSI), Leo Burnett Worldwide (LBW), Sika AG, Legacy Health, Apollo Group Inc., Regeneron, Transurban Group, National Health Service, New Zealand Police, Overland Footwear, Yealands, Johnson Controls, Allscripts, Kerry Foods, Masterpet, AMD, Balfour Beatty
ICA Fluor, Monsanto Company, Hitachi Consulting, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, Kalpataru Ltd, DELL Inc., JSR Micro Inc., Skanska AB, Acciona, Baloise Group, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, Logicalis Inc., Garmin International, Intuit Inc, The Dow Chemical Company
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Kenexa vs. Oracle Taleo and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
890,027 professionals have used our research since 2012.