R.I.M.S. Part 1

RIMS - Recruitment Information Management System

Last August, I wrote here about the challenges most companies face with their recruitment systems. Most organizations do indeed have a love-hate relationship with these systems, and much is written about them, including blog posts last week by Sarah and Dave. The general recognition is that all of these systems have their warts, but if implemented correctly, they should serve as powerful tools in the war for talent.

In my post last Fall, I discussed how we at my prior employer used the term RIMS to describe these systems, rather than the traditional ATS acronym. Words (and acronyms for that matter) can be powerful when used in certain situations and certain contexts. When acronym-master Gary Cluff coined the term RIMS, he did it with the view that using technology to 'track applicants' was not enough anymore for top performing recruiting organizations. RIMS represents something bigger, broader, and more useful than ATS. RIMS was an acronym that I brought to my new job, and to my surprise, was adopted almost immediately. When I got to my new firm, an RFP was underway to select a new system. The timing was perfect, and Gary should be proud, his acronym is gaining traction, if one company at a time.

In my first week on the job, I was able to meet with the recruitment system Project Team, and due to my decade-long experience as a power use with three different RIMS, they appointed me to the Project Team as an "expert" resource. I couldn’t be happier with our progress so far. The project plan has been well thought out and crafted, deep research was done, and the right people were put on the team. Experience to RIMS was a first for the IT members of the team (including a Project Manager, Business Analyst, User Experience Specialist, and QA Specialist). Selection of the right enterprise technology takes heavy due diligence, and I have been consistently amazed by the detailed, focused nature of the effort to date. The hard work of our Project Team culminated last Thursday with demos from four well known, top-tier vendors.

Part 2 will explore our process and the demos.