Talent Management

Tips & Tricks to build an A+ Talent Acquisition RFP

18 May 2020

3 min
Finding the right talent management system can seem a herculean task. In large organizations, especially in the public sector, that means navigating a noisy software marketplace to find a solution with the scope, modularity, and intuitive processes necessary for meaningful talent management. The request for proposal (RFP) process can cut through that noise, but the RFP itself is a skillset that modern HR directors and people managers need to master, especially if you wish to find the best value for your budget.

RFPs may be considered a formality, part of an open-bidding process to comply with government regulations or with your company’s own procurement policy and anti-bribery practices. But most importantly, they are an effective tool for decision makers in any organization to:

  • Help identify requirements from all stakeholders involved in your project and ensure the future system meets their expectations.
  • Get buy-in from users and managers key to a broad adoption of the new system.
  • Rationalize your selection criteria and reduce the risk of making an emotional decision based on -yes- good marketing or a dazzling salesperson!

Most organizations publish their RFPs on a variety of national and provincial bid sites. Many of these sites also offer automated emails that proactively notify vendors when talent-management related RFPs have been published.

Some may directly request an RFI or RFP directly to the vendor. However, while many organizations have preferred choices before jumping into an RFP, many organizations have found that issuing an RFP has given them visibility on other vendors that had better bids than others.

Matt Combs, Responsible for Bids at Cegid Talents North America shares his tips for organizations launching RFPs for Talent Management Solutions as follows:

  • Clarity of Goals: Within the RFP, clearly state of the types of processes you want the solution to accomplish and/or the types of challenges you want it to address – this will help reduce the number of proposals you receive from non-relevant or non-compliant vendors.
  • Clarity of Questions: Fully review and fine-tune your corresponding question lists for the RFP – this will help reduce the number of follow-up questions you receive from vendors.
  • Working Together: In order to ensure that the implementation is on-time and on-budget, make sure you have a dedicated project team ready to work in conjunction with the vendor project team and committed to completing their assigned deliverables on time.

 

But, what are the steps towards building a successful Talent Acquisition System RFP?

Easy! 3!

1. Prepare

Cegid provides a worksheet of jobs to do and raw materials to collect prior to drafting. You can access it here.

1. Launch

Remember: Your ATS solution is directed to two audiences.

The recruiter: who will be looking for a place to manage candidate pools, CVs, job offers, and interview planning. What’s more, they’ll want to keep a record of their opinion on successful candidates and facilitate interactions with them.

The candidate: The candidate will want to simply and quickly access offers that are relevant to them at any given time and from any device. They’ll also want to easily submit their application and monitor its status in real time.

Click here to download a full list of 60 top ATS questions and functionalities to include in your RFP.

PRO Tip: If the procurement department is the project owner and the person responsible for communicating with suppliers during the process, always remember that it is essential that human resources, procurement and IT departments stay close to each other during the process to ensure alignment.

3. Select

The process now falls back to you. The strength of your RFP brought back a raft of proposals from top vendors.

Download the full guide that includes 60 Talent Acquisition ATS questions, checklists (step by step of the process and jobs to do), 1 demonstration script template, and selection criteria guides to help you build your own RFP here.

Contracts don’t have to be complicated. One size does not fit all. Get the most out of reviewing your vendor contract (especially if you’re committing to a SaaS contract) because it will meet your specific SaaS model needs.

The RFP is one of the first lines of dialogue in a long conversation between vendors and buyers. Building it successfully can result in a long-lasting partnership. You’re not alone in building it, though.

Talk to one of Cegid’s RFP experts today.

Download a full list of 60 top ATS questions and functionalities to include in your RFP