Often SAP products are prejudged as being too complex and hard to use even before users get a chance to really try them out. Sure, there is room for improvement, but there is with any product. SAP has come a long way in improving the user experience of it’s products. It’s like I often joke when talking about how users feel when told they have to change from one software product for another – “change is bad”.

Some end users assume that changing to SAP products is a bad thing.  But you could argue that changing to any new software can be difficult, especially if you’ve used a product for years. Take myself, for example, after years and years of using PCs, I’ve recently switched over to a Mac. I know so many people swear by Macs and applaud how useable they are and how they are just the bees’ knees. I’m still not totally sold. Even after months of using a Mac, I still get frustrated by the Mac navigation and long for my old PC. User experience is so subjective.

One way SAP has made SAP E-Recruiting more usable is to make it easy it is to create custom worklists. This means recruiters are able to define worklists with the information they want to see in case it’s not already pushed to them in one of the many standard delivered dashboards.  Below is a video tutorial I recorded on how you can easily take the My New Applications dashboard worklist and set up a filter to only show new employee referrals. But remember, this is just an example and you can create custom queries or worklists based on any of the worklists in SAP E-Recruiting. Try it out and have fun!

You can this and more videos on our Resources page as well as our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/kimlessley. If you subscribe to the channel you will be automatically notified when I post new content.  

Cheers, Kim

kim@ingramtalent.com

Twitter: @KimLessley

As mentioned in my last post, today I want to talk about how you (the end user) can create a custom view of the New Applications worklist so that you can be alerted to applications that come in from employees of specific companies. Recruiters worth their salt know the companies that their own organization competes against and who the leaders are in their industry. It goes to reckon that they want to pay special attention when employees of those companies apply for jobs they are recruiting for, especially in very specialized industries and positions.

This is just an example of how SAP E-Recruiting allows recruiters to create their own custom views of worklists.  I recorded the video below to show how to create a custom view of the New Applications Worklist filtered by the applicants’ last employer, but know that you can create custom views of any worklist.

You can this and more videos on our Resources page as well as our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/kimlessley. If you subscribe to the channel you will be automatically notified when I post new content.  

Cheers, Kim

kim@ingramtalent.com

Twitter: @KimLessley

In a previous blog post I talked about the introduction of dashboard worklists in Enhancement Package 4. One of the coolest features introduced for end-users was the amount of personalization enabled in Enhancement Package 4. Users can control what columns of information they see in worklists and how it is presented to them.

I recorded the video below to walk through how users can tailor the columns shown in worklists to meet their needs, how they can create their own custom views for lists and how easy it is to toggle between their own views and the standard views. This is just another example of how easily the solution can be tailored to end-user’s needs.

You can this and more videos on our Resources page as well as our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/kimlessley. If you subscribe to the channel you will be automatically notified when I post new content.  

In my next post I will talk about how you (the end user) can create a custom view of the New Applications worklist so that you can be alerted to applications that come in from employees of specific companies.

Cheers, Kim

kim@ingramtalent.com

Twitter: @KimLessley

In Enhancement Package 4, SAP rewrote the user interface of SAP E-Recruiting from Business Server Pages (BSPs) to WebDynpro for ABAP. This technical rewrite was accompanied by a large initiative to revamp usability and process flows. I was part of a multi-disciplinary team of product managers, developers and user experience specialists that visited prospects and existing SAP E-Recruiting customers in multiple countries to gain better insight into how recruiters really work. We all learned a lot by sitting with recruiters and watching how they work with applicant tracking software, whether it was SAP software or something else. I highly recommend this approach to anyone developing software products, or any product for that matter. Sit with end users and watch how they use it. When you ask end users about how they work, they will generally tell you the party line of how the process is supposed to go, but when you actually watch them work, they generally take shortcuts and “streamline” the process.  You can use these insights to improve your own products.

All of this research fed into the rewrite of SAP E-Recruiting in Enhancement Package 4. One of the key elements introduced was the concept of dashboard for recruiters. The dashboard contains worklists (or queries) grouped into categories that push relevant information to recruiters. SAP delivers five categories of worklists – Requisitions, Postings, Applications, Tasks and TRM. Customers, and even end users, can rename and create their own categories and queries. I will cover this in upcoming video tutorials.

For now, have a look at how you can navigate the dashboard and personalize the layout in SAP E-Recruiting.

You can this and more videos on our Resources page as well as our YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/kimlessley. If you subscribe to the channel you will be automatically notified when I post new content.  

Cheers, Kim

As part of my campaign to get the message out about SAP E-Recruiting (see my related my blog post from July 18,), I have set up a new YouTube channel where I will be publishing video tips on how to use SAP E-Recruiting more effectively. You can find the YouTube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/kimlessley. If you subscribe to the channel you will be automatically notified when I post new content.

The first published video is on how to use the filter row that is available in most queries in SAP E-Recruiting. I cannot tell you the number of times prospects or even existing users have gotten excited by this feature during a demo. It’s one of those really useful features that not everyone is aware of. I’ll be posting more video tips as time goes on. Feel free to send me a request too if there is something you’ve always wondered about and I’ll see what I can do.

For now, have a look at how you can use the filter row in SAP E-Recruiting.

Cheers, Kim

Twitter: @KimLessley

E-mail: kim@ingramtalent.com

This past week I was reflecting on how many questions I’ve answered about SAP E-Recruiting over the years. As product manager and solution owner at SAP I received daily inquiries about the solution and it’s capabilities. I certainly did my share of conference presentations and sales demos too. So I decided to challenge myself to tweet a tip / fact about SAP E-Recruiting each work day and to see how long I can keep this going without repeating a tip or fact. Some days the information may be trivial and others more obscure.  I hope you enjoy and learn something along the way. Feel free to share your own facts or tips with me and I’ll retweet them and give credit.

Let the games begin!

Cheers, Kim

Twitter: @KimLessley

I jumped the gun with my first blog post and neglected to properly introduce myself. I’m just so excited to get going! So here is a brief note on who I am and why I joined the company. First let me start with the fact that I am a die-hard SAP fan. I worked at SAP for 20 years (since I was 6 years old I like to joke). If that is not a testament to SAP as a good employer I don’t know what is. Prior to joining Ingram Talent I was the Solution Owner in the HR Line of Business responsible for SAP’s recruiting products. A fancy title meaning I was responsible for the strategy and direction of SAP’s recruiting products. I was part of the SAP E-Recruiting product from the time it was conceived as an idea until the current product. I also held a number of other positions in the company along the way, both in Walldorf, Germany and Palo Alto, CA.

So why leave if I love the company so much? Because I need to experience what it’s like for our customers from outside the organization and because I know I can have a direct positive impact on our recruiting customers at Ingram Talent. I truly believe that Ingram Talent has the best skills for advising around and implementing SAP’s recruiting products and that they have the customers’ best interests at heart. And finally I joined Ingram Talent because I want to be able to spend more time with my kids while they still want to spend time with me – remember my other work-life balance post? I imagine I’ll still work crazy hours, but with more flexibility.

I have lots of exciting plans for Ingram Talent – including kicking off more regular newsletters, creating some video tutorials to help customers understand the power of SAP’s recruiting products as well as some other tricks I have up my sleeve. Watch this space...

Cheers, Kim

Twitter: @KimLessley