Research Manager, Talent Acquisition & Strategy
Leaders
SAP SuccessFactors
iCIMS
Workday
Oracle
Cornerstone
GreenhouseFeatured Vendor
Jobvite
SmartRecruiters
PageUp
Oleeo
Major Players
ADP
Ceridian Dayforce
Lever
Cegid Talentsoft
Infinite
PeopleFluent
Ascendify
isolved
GR8 People
Tribepad
Talent acquisition (TA) technologies and services are offered in abundance across a large variety of capability areas for recruiting. Talent acquisition specialist and talent management suite (TMS) vendors, while competing with each other, also contend with niche third-party solutions as they seek to engage clients in more technologies pushing the boundaries of innovation. At the same time, these providers need to offer robust integration with third-party applications that may offer similar services. This creates a competitor/collaborator ecosystem that is quite complex and difficult for clients to navigate.
This study assesses modern talent acquisition suites vendors through the IDC MarketScape model. The research includes both quantitative and qualitative criteria that can be used to evaluate a vendor’s offerings as well as current and future success in the marketplace. Twenty talent acquisition vendors were analyzed through buyer feedback and vendor interviews. Vendors were evaluated on various criteria categories (detailed in the Appendix section), including user experience, core applicant tracking system (ATS), candidate relationship management, recruitment marketing, analytics, internal mobility, and onboarding.
IDC individually examines talent management suite and talent acquisition specialist vendors in the concurrently released studies IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Modern Talent Acquisition Suites Within Talent Management Suites 2022 Vendor Assessment (IDC #US49199121, June 2022) and IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Modern Talent Acquisition Suites, TA Specialist 2022 Vendor Assessment (IDC #US49198921, June 2022). Within those studies, IDC examines some of the key characteristics of talent management suite and TA specialist vendors and how they enable successful talent acquisition.
As part of the research process, IDC engages with clients that are utilizing the technologies offered by the vendors in this study. Through those engagements, some common themes come to the surface. Observations and takeaways from speaking with clients from both TMS and TA specialist providers include:
The burden of choice for talent acquisition technology buyers is evident through the sheer volume of solutions providers offering solutions that range from a complete end-to-end hiring life-cycle enablement to those that target very specific capabilities that assist with just a single piece of the process. When reviewing applicant tracking system vendors, buyers should consider the following:
This section briefly explains IDC’s key observations resulting in a vendor’s position in the IDC MarketScape. While every vendor is evaluated against each of the criteria outlined in the Appendix, the description here provides a summary of each vendor’s strengths and challenges.
Greenhouse is positioned in the Leaders category in this 2022 IDC MarketScape for worldwide modern talent acquisition suites.
Greenhouse takes a streamlined approach to its product segmentation for talent acquisition solutions. The “Recruiting” product includes ATS and CRM functionality that includes intelligent search capabilities to fill pipelines and robust analytics to measure success. The “Onboarding” product includes two layers of functionality: standard onboarding services, such as document collection and introductory materials, and Greenhouse Welcome, an application launched in May 2021 that is focused on new hire experience. Welcome provides a personalized experience that is designed to excite and quickly integrate new hires into the organization, improving hiring outcomes and retention rates.
Greenhouse’s go-to-market approach is centered on four main differentiators: structured hiring, modern interface, hiring ecosystem, and the Greenhouse Hiring Maturity Methodology. Structured hiring focuses on recruiter and hiring manager alignment on goals, clearly defining the attributes of a successful candidate based upon job description, skills, and experience. The process is standardized to provide consistent workflows that evaluate candidates fairly and consistently based on their skills and experience. This accelerates time to hire and time to fill and encourages organizations to adhere to a consistent process founded on data. Greenhouse’s modern interface is designed as a collaboration tool to improve accessibility across all stakeholders in the recruiting process. The hiring ecosystem references Greenhouse leveraging the vast talent acquisition technology landscape to enable clients a high degree of customization across its ATS but also point solutions. Finally, the Greenhouse Hiring Maturity Methodology is designed to help clients evolve their internal processes and strategies for recruiting, moving clients from chaotic and inconsistent hiring practices to systematic and strategic.
Greenhouse continues to expand its solution and geographic footprint as part of its product road map. In January 2020, the vendor established a new EMEA base location in Dublin, Ireland, and is subsequently increasing its presence in the region through strategic client wins. In October 2021, Greenhouse acquired Interseller, enhancing CRM functionality with outbound sourcing automation capabilities launched in May 2022. The vendor continues to grow its partner ecosystem to allow clients accessibility to over 400 integration partners for improved flexibility as they build custom technology stack solutions.
The criteria for inclusion of vendors in this IDC MarketScape analysis are as follows:
For the purposes of this analysis, IDC divided potential key measures for success into two primary categories: capabilities and strategies.
Positioning on the y-axis reflects the vendor’s current capabilities and menu of services and how well aligned the vendor is to customer needs. The capabilities category focuses on the capabilities of the company and product today, here and now. Under this category, IDC analysts will look at how well a vendor is building/delivering capabilities that enable it to execute its chosen strategy in the market.
Positioning on the x-axis, or strategies axis, indicates how well the vendor’s future strategy aligns with what customers will require in three to five years. The strategies category focuses on high-level decisions and underlying assumptions about offerings, customer segments, and business and go-to-market plans for the next three to five years.
The size of the individual vendor markers in the IDC MarketScape represents the market share of each individual vendor within the specific market segment being assessed.
IDC MarketScape criteria selection, weightings, and vendor scores represent well-researched IDC judgment about the market and specific vendors. IDC analysts tailor the range of standard characteristics by which vendors are measured through structured discussions, surveys, and interviews with market leaders, participants, and end users. Market weightings are based on user interviews, buyer surveys, and the input of IDC experts in each market. IDC analysts base individual vendor scores, and ultimately vendor positions on the IDC MarketScape, on detailed surveys and interviews with the vendors, publicly available information, and end-user experiences in an effort to provide an accurate and consistent assessment of each vendor’s characteristics, behavior, and capability.
IDC defines talent acquisition as those functions that serve to attract, source, engage, and assess candidates as well as to select, hire, and onboard new employees. The scope of talent acquisition has rapidly expanded in recent years, and the function itself has evolved accordingly — as has its technology requirements. As a result, the core recruiting system, the applicant tracking system (ATS), has evolved to meet demand for broader capabilities and deeper functionality. Competitive solutions in this category offer far more than applicant tracking to include modules for new hire onboarding, candidate relationship management, and internal mobility. This IDC study represents a vendor assessment of modern talent acquisition suites among vendors that offer TA solutions as a standalone solution or as part of a broader talent management suite.