In my opinion the killer feature in executive search FO/ATS applications is who-knows-who functionality. We've added this question to our standard FO RFI and have found that staffing FO vendors don't offer this feature - at least not yet.
Successful executive recruiters rely heavily on referrals and capture a contact's network continuously. Executive recruiting software includes a simple feature which allows recruiters to enter the name and characteristics of the relationship. So, for example, the system has a simple way of capturing the fact that board members Sue and Joe golf together, used to work together, hate each other, etc.
Professional and social networking sites allow recruiters to view the network that contacts want you to see but it is impossible to characterize the relationship or to leverage the connections in a sophisticated way. That is, you can work you way to the person you want to know but you don't know the quality of the relationship, especially with open networkers.
Simple who-knows-who functionality allows recruiters to capture the portion of the network that matters to your staffing firm and to characterize the quality and type of the relationship. Some executive search software helps you visually see the links across your database so that you can find a warm, high quality path to contact them, within your very own, honed database.
I don't know about you, but I think this feature would be a great addition to FO and ATS software as long as it is extremely easy to use.
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