BirdDogHR Talent Management Suite

Pros

Jobs automatically posted to boards, e-mail reminders to renew listings, EEO tracking, e-mail notifications for new applicants listing name and position applied for.

Cons

Candidate and Jobs sections take you to different candidate summaries, confidential EEO Information listed in summary, can't send offer letters through system, not partnered with HRIS for easy on-boarding, no e-signatures. Resume/application was not attached to e-mail notification.

Pros

I am thoroughly please with the compliance tracking and the record keeping reports that we are able to produce.

Cons

Over the course of our use, the navigation and ease is improving but previously has been harder to navigate. Would be nice to have built in requirements for the compliance perspective. General reminders to hiring managers.

Pros

Great to have all candidates in one place to manage applicants, keep documents and manage stages of hiring process.

Pros

Excellent Customer Service - Any time we need assistance, our Account Manager is quick to respond with a helpful answer.
User Friendly - The system is very easy to navigate, of course there was a learning curve, primarily because it was our first ATS.
Customizable - The more we use the ATS, the more we make it our own; emails, logos, job posting, sort and search functions, etc.

Pros

BirdDog HR is an outstanding product. Easy to use, great customer support, all around wonderful product.

Cons

I would like to see more sorting features and reporting options. The good thing is, BirdDog HR is always listening to their customers and constantly installing updates, keeping their customers informed as well.

Look at other options. There are so many out there, many that are more integrated with an HRMS and that have responsive customer service. Consider your candidate experience as well and you'll find a better solution.

Pros

*It's geared to my industry (Construction).
*It's also used by several others in my industry which can help people in our industry find postings for open jobs.
*They also manage some of the free boards that are specific to the construction industry.
*The system does make it easy for multiple people to be informed when an application is completed.

Cons

*The user experience leaves a great deal to be desired. Both for applicants and recruiters. When I used this system, I often wondered how many people abandoned the application mid-way through the process. (I was hired using this system and I was certainly not impressed by the ATS.)
*The system is not very intuitive.
*The system tries to rate candidates for you but we found the criteria used to be very poor. The 5-star applicants were often very poor candidates and the low scoring candidates were often a better fit.
*Emails informing you of new applications are sent only once per day rather than as they happen.
*When there were concerns, customer service rarely had solutions. They are not terribly responsive (except in the last few days before your contract is up for renewal).

Great overall system. Meets all of the Government contracting requirements. BirdDog actually pushes out updates to ensure we are compliant. Great people, great product.
Customizable system is great, and allows us to use their system in different ways than initially intended.

Pros

The Customer Service at BirdDog is truly second to none. Customer Service reps are knowledgeable, friendly, and will help with whatever your needs are. They even will make enhancement recommendations on your behalf. While we were implementing the system, I made suggestions for things I wanted to see in the system as future enhancements. They implemented them very quickly! They actually ask for feedback and are always looking to improve their product. While the product isn't perfect, a company who is interested in fine tuning and keeping the customer happy is a welcome change. (We recently left a much bigger, much more expensive product that never quite worked right, and there was no desire to help us fix it.)

Cons

There very little documentation, because of how customizable the system is, however, Customer Service will gladly walk you through any issues.

Pros

Easy to use platform, aesthetically pleasing. Customer service is by far the best in the business. They are attentive and take may needs, questions and concerns seriously.

Cons

Has so many features of an HRIS. Adding info about benefits and time off (PTO) management would be great.

Pros

This is a good product for the price, it has lots of features and is user friendly. The added integration of free job boards was one of the main reasons we selected the product and have had good results so far. Customer service is usually very fast and helpful.

Cons

Not enough customization when needed. There are many times when we need a small process changed or need another option for our users but they are unable to accommodate. The dashboard and custom reporting need more work to be fully functional and customizable, errors pop up frequently or results are returned incorrectly.

I've never used BirdDog HR until my company decided to try it out. Initially, it was hard for me to adapt. I was able to get in contact with a team member and after receiving training on the systems capabilities and options, it had a lot offer and was pleased.

Pros

It is easy to understand how the system works.

Cons

System is slow and times out quickly. I don't like how when I want to filter through, I don't have the option to filter open, closed or all requisitions.

Pros

Customer Service, layout for candidate is easy with the drag and drop in your resume feature. Honestly, that's all I can say so for about the pros.

Cons

No SOP to try and troubleshoot or learn features on your own; I always have to email an account rep to clarify or show me how to use a feature. Talent feature is very time consuming, as you have to load everything manually into their system and there have been several bugs and glitches.

BirdDogHR is easy to use however it is a slow system. Good for basic use.

Pros

Easy to use

Cons

Wish it would time stamp information and notes

We purchased the ATS, Onboarding and Talent Management modules within BirdDog. One of my biggest concerns when shopping around was trying to find a product that we could use from the time of application through review periods without a lot of extra work. Our salesman, Sean assured us that these products would work together. Upon implementation we discovered that these products in fact DO NOT speak to one another. The talent management module is essentially a completely different product. You have to enter information separately in order to add an employee to this system. And on top of that, it has way to many functions for which to choose from. If I simply want to send an evaluation I have to click through a million boxes. It's probably easier for me to take the time to email someone an evaluation then it is to click through the options. I appreciate that they were trying to be thorough, but something user friendly was more of what we were looking for.

We also had trouble with the functionality in the onboarding piece. I find it frustrating that after an employee submits their paperwork, they have no access in coming back to make a change. We are a company trying to be as green as possible. When I asked what an employee should do if they need to change their w-4 deductions or direct deposit information, I was informed that we would need to print the document in order to submit it to our payroll department. This is defeating the very purpose of implementing the program. This was supposed to eliminate the need for extra paperwork.

Other snags we have run into involve the reporting features within the ATS. They do not always populate after you have entered dates. We have also run into issues with scheduling. The system has sent out wrong dates and times for different interviews causing major confusion and scrambling on our end when a candidate shows up unexpectedly.

We loved our implementation specialist, My rep, but are very disappointed in our salesman. There are functions we have enjoyed, but this may not be the system we were looking for.

The experience my company has had with BirdDog has been very up and down. At first it seemed like a dream in solving our recruiting and hiring problems, and it helped get us organized. However, lately we have had troubles with it sending wrong times to candidates and hiring managers for their interviews, which makes the company and our department particularly look unprofessional and the candidates unprepared. We have had to take extra measures to ensure that everyone is on the same page resulting in a waste of company time. This was one of the main processes we were hoping this program would streamline. Not only has this been a problem, but it remains unresolved going on two months.

Pros

It is very helpful in keeping all candidates to each job application separate and organized.

Cons

Viewing notes is done in two places, and cannot be linked. This does not save much time as you have to click and both are on separate screens. When we voiced our concern, they told us there was no way to change this and it is the way it is.

Had some really good and bad experiences. Overall, it does a great job of managing applicants but lacks some umph.

Pros

love the ease of use (when it works properly)
attractive interface
great staff - love my account manager
very willing to take system enhancement suggestions
very fast response to any issues

Cons

no customer reporting
sometimes has time zone reporting issues
sales staff over-promised capabilities

Overall, over the past year, my experience with BirdDog has been a positive one but you can tell that they are a young company and many of their modules are still in development while being operational at the same time.

Pros

Good pricing even with a bundle of coursework provided.
Easy to use
Making updates regularly

Cons

They are young company and new to the idea of converting a company from an existing LMS to their LMS. Most of their LMS customers so far are new to having a LMS.

Advice to Others

Be willing to help them develop their products, be patient.

Likes Best

Centalized database of candidate information. 50+ job boards and the ease in applying.

Likes Least

One long list of candidates and no good way to search for "bench" players or good candidates that we would want to contact later.

Recommendations

Give it time, we did not like it the first few months.

Likes Best

The integration to job posting sites is a great feature.

Likes Least

Lack of refreshing before 30 days and that you can't archive jobs.

Recommendations

Overall good, just a few glitches with minor functionality.

Likes Best

It is very user friendly and if you have a question you can get an answer quickly from their customer support.

Likes Least

I would like it if a calendar could pull up when entering in dates.

Recommendations

This is a great ATS for companies that don't have a system in place to keep track of applicants coming in and if they are currently using paper aps. Easy way to get an online application instead of building it into your web site.

Likes Best

The best thing about this product is how easy it is to use and the customer service behind it when questions arise. It has been obvious that BirdDog HR takes pride in its product and the services it provides, from installation to maintenance and the overall training for the customer.

Likes Least

While the posting to multiple job sites is an excellent feature it does not allow you to individually sponsor the jobs to keep them at the top of the job board (for example on indeed). The jobs can get pushed to the bottom of the job boards fairly quickly (depending on how many other positions like yours are being posted at the time) and can make recruiting for large numbers of applicants difficult. You may have to find alternative ways to recruit.

Recommendations

This is a wonderful tool for organizing and keeping up to date records of candidates. It is a great way to track all the candidates and allows you to quickly pull up past or present applications when candidates call to inquire on their status. I would highly recommend this product for how user friendly it is, how easy it is to learn, and above the support you get when issues do arise.