iCams from A to Z
All innovative features in iCams.
Administration & Management
Candidate Engagement
Implementation & Support
Administration & Management
Candidate Management
Customised Application Process
iCams is fully customisable to your needs. You can determine how you want to use iCams to match your application process – adapting it to suit the way you want to work. You can use your own style and tone in email templates as well as customise the back office to translate any terms/functions or roles to meet your organisation’s requirements. Your workflows can be customised to your exact needs.
Personalised emails
iCams enables you to send personalised emails to candidates. Email templates are stored within the back office and are easy to access and simple to adapt to your preferred tone and style and of course are fully branded with your corporate email template. Quick and simple to communicate with large numbers of candidates yet presented in an individual and personal style and format.
Candidate data in one place
Every candidate has their own individual candidate profile in which all their data, documents, CV, recruitment steps and communications are stored – every piece of information and communication about individual candidates is stored in one place. Easy to find, easy to access and easy to manage.
Bulk processing saves time
The capability to communicate with large numbers of candidates with the click of a button is a real time saver. iCams enables you to send the same fully branded email to multiple or selected candidates instantly but each email personalised for each candidate.
Process alert reminders
You can set-up timescales within iCams for your recruitment processes. For example, you can request candidate feedback from a manager within 3 days. If a response is not forthcoming, an alert will be displayed on your Dashboard and a reminder issued.
Duplicate candidates in your database
Your candidate data must be accurate and iCams scans daily to detect any duplicate candidates. If any are detected you will be notified on your personal Dashboard and given the option to delete or merge candidate profiles as necessary.
Share Information
You can share CVs/documents with colleagues and/or managers by simply sending an email within iCams and choosing the information you wish to share. Upon receipt, your colleague/manager can access the information or documents and, depending on your request, supply feedback or additional information. You have complete control over who can access candidate information and what actions they are able to take. You can choose to convert all documents into PDF documents if required.
Manual Applications
On occasion, you may receive an email or telephone application. As a user, you can input this manually within the iCams back office, entering key details such as name and email address and upload a CV or covering letter. You can email the applicant with their iCams login details for them to access/manage their account and to complete their registration/application.
Talent Pools
Talent pools are a way to collect particular candidates, for example, for future recruitment opportunities or because they have specialist skills. These candidates can be stored in a Talent Pool in the form of a folder to which you can continue to add suitable candidates or delete as required. These folders can be shared with other users or simply stored until appropriate opportunities emerge. Candidates can be stored in one or more folders if required.
Candidate Newsletters
Once you have a candidate database or talent pool you may wish to keep in regular contact with them about opportunities or particular recruitment events or company news. You can use the bulk email option but iCams also offers an e-Newsletter option. You can create and edit your own branded newsletters with opt in / opt out so that your newsletter is not seen as spam.
Doc / Word to PDF converter
CVs can be uploaded in a range of formats; to simplify sharing and opening you can simply convert such documents to PDF – easy to then forward or open.
Portal for Recruitment Agencies
If you work with recruitment agencies you may wish to give them access to iCams via an Agency Portal. This will ensure an efficient method of receiving CVs rather than traditional email delivery. In addition, you can then share this information with colleagues and managers within iCams.
Vacancy Management
Easy vacancies
Creating a vacancy in iCams is really simple. There is no set format as it is completely customised to your requirements. You can select from a range of options and include as much or as little text as you require. You can publish your vacancies for internal candidates only or for external candidates too and you can use our multi-language support (MLS) option which is particularly useful for global organisations or multi-language sites. Vacancies are automatically indexed within iCams for Search Engine Optimisation and are fully branded on your careers page so they look good and are easily found by candidates! 
Job archive
Past jobs which have been filled or withdrawn are stored within iCams and can be re-activated if required.
Job Posting
iCams is integrated with a range of job posting technologies including Broadbean, Knollenstein and Academic Transfer.
Twitter
Twitter is used as a recruitment tool by some but not all organisations but whether or not you are a fan, Twitter has become an integral part of the social media trend and more frequently used to aid recruitment. Job Tweets are an easy and inexpensive way to promote jobs. Whilst some recruiters are very active on Twitter others do not feel it is appropriate for their organisation or perhaps just some of their vacancies. So, within iCams you can set up an account to Tweet all your jobs or only the Twitter friendly ones. And, in addition, job Tweets will improve your vacancy rankings on Google making them automatically much easier to find by potential candidates.
Search
Search functionality
All information within iCams is easily searched. We have built iCams on Oracle 11G technology which allows you to search any entered data with Google like functionality. You can search simply by a candidate’s first or last name or part thereof, email details, particular key words such as the name of a company or a particular role or skill. In addition, iCams allows you to search a particular geographic radius or post code area. Searching can be customised too using criteria fixed fields embedded as questions within your online application or registration forms.
WCC Elise
We will shortly be incorporating WCC Elise, an agile and sophisticated search and match system, into iCams. This optional plug-in will provide exceptionally fast and versatile text matching search functionality.
User Interface
Dashboard
The iCams Dashboard is your own homepage and presents an overview of your candidates, vacancies, tasks, favourite reports, recent applications, reminders – in fact, a complete summary of your current work status. And, from your Dashboard, you can quickly and easily navigate throughout iCams.
Account Sharing
You can share your vacancies and candidates with other iCams users if you wish and they can reciprocate – it is simple and easy to work together in a secure, collaborative way with your colleagues.
Customizable Help Text
The iCams Help System gives users guidance and assistance in a flexible way. The online help system is easily accessible from the back office and users can, if they wish, edit text or export to PDF and print pages if required.
Multi-Language
iCams is a multi-language system and the back office supports a range of languages. It has so far been implemented in French, Dutch and Icelandic!
XLGrids
XLGrids is our new way of displaying data within iCams. It offers spread sheet style functionality, similar to Excel, allowing quick and efficient data sorting and filtering. XLGrids is a fast and simple way to access and modify your data via editable or read-only grid options.
Html editor
We use TinyMCE HTML editor which offers a variety of styling options and is a simple tool to use. Text can be copied directly from MS Word and the familiar functionality within the editor is simple and straightforward to manage.
Effective data measurement and analysis
Effective and Useful Reporting
iCams' reporting functionality gives users a range of standard reports, presenting data in lists, tables, charts and grids. Reports can be shared with other users, added to a “Favourite Reports” list on your Dashboard and can be set to automatically run on a timing of your choice such as daily or monthly with the report details emailed directly to you and/or additional recipients. And, reports can be exported to Excel or PDF if required. In addition to the standard reports we can also create a unique report for your organisation’s specialised requirements too.
Google Analytics
iCams is fully integrated with Google Analytics to effectively measure traffic to your careers site. From this, you can get a real understanding of what recruitment initiatives or advertising campaigns are effective and directing candidates to your careers site. Google Analytics offers a comprehensive range of analytical data which can make a real impact on which recruitment strategies are working well both in the number of good quality candidates you attract and the ROI on your recruitment advertising costs.
Recruitment Cost Mapping
Do you know how much is spent on each vacancy? It is valuable information and easily accessible within iCams by tracking job costs. This, together with Google Analytics, ensures you have detailed data to show you which recruitment channels are the most effective for your organisation.
Candidate Engagement
Careers Site
Fully integrated careers page
We think that it is vital that your careers page fully reflects your organisation’s branding and style – not only does it look better but it will give potential candidates a more positive application experience. We do not use iframe technology, used by many other suppliers, which gives a “site within a site” look and feel – this looks unprofessional and will not promote either your organisation or your vacancies in a positive light. iCams technology ensures your careers page has exactly the same look and feel as the rest of your site – it should be seamless!
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
Your careers page is fully indexed for optimum search engine exposure ensuring candidates easily find your vacancies when searching online. iCams uses sophisticated SEO indexing unlike many recruitment software products which use iframe technology with its limited and inflexible search options.
Internal Recruitment & Employee Referral
Organisations can use their intranet to source internal candidates for vacancies or to assist with the re-deployment of staff. In addition, an employee referral programme can be introduced and administered within iCams whereby employees can be rewarded for introducing and recommending new employees. Employee referral schemes are a reliable and economic way to recruit staff and iCams can automatically handle this process alongside all your other recruitment practices.
Application Forms
iCams gives you complete freedom with your online applications forms – they can be long and complex or short and sweet! You can have a range of forms for different positions and if you have multi-brands, the forms will reflect the different branding or style. You can have mandatory questions, free text sections, optional questions, pick lists, tick boxes and so on – the application form builder within iCams is extremely versatile. And, documents and CVs can easily be uploaded if required.
Google analytics
You have to know how well your recruitment activities are performing so iCams is linked to Google Analytics. You can establish the source of all your candidates to ascertain which advertising channels are most effective. You can also verify at what stage of the application process candidates might be leaving your site and determine steps to avoid this and encourage candidates to complete their application. Google Analytics offers sophisticated analysis and will give you everything you need to measure the effectiveness and success of your recruitment campaigns.
Multiple Brands
iCams is easily adapted to help multi-site or multi-brand organisations reflect the style, logo or branding across individual brands or site careers pages whilst all administered from the same back office system.
Send to a Friend
iCams can include a “send to a friend” button within a job description for candidates to forward vacancy details to friends or colleagues who may be interested in the opportunity.
Pre-selection Questions
You may wish to include pre-selection questions at the initial stage of an application. You can determine what essential questions you might need to ask candidates to determine if they are suitable for your vacancy. If the candidate’s answers indicate that they do not possess the essential skills, attributes or qualifications the role requires, you can establish at this initial step that they are unsuitable to progress to the next stage of the application. This ensures you only get the right candidates for your role which makes the selection process far easier to manage.
Multi-Language Support
iCams supports multi-language functionality. This lets you choose from a wide range of languages both on your careers page and the back-office with individual users able to select their preferred language. This is hugely helpful to international organisations or multi-site recruitment teams as well as overseas candidates who are given the option to apply in the language of their choice.
Google maps
As soon as you publish a job iCams can, if you wish, automatically include a Google Map highlighting where the position is located - a helpful touch for candidates and particularly useful for multi-site organisations.
RSS
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds can be included on your careers pages for potential candidates to subscribe. This is a quick and easy way for you to notify potential candidates of new vacancies or recruitment initiatives which they might be interested in exploring including a direct link back to your careers page.
Branded Mobile Application
iCams Mobile works on all modern smartphones and tablets, like the iPad, giving you a fully branded careers site on the go! Users can search your vacancies, use “Send to a friend” and apply directly via their mobile too. It is a really neat interface which is easy to use and navigate through and we’ve designed it so that everything is optimized for a small screen to ensure it works fast and looks good. It is fully styled to your organisation’s corporate style and branding and any jobs on your careers site are automatically available on iCams mobile. It cleverly uses the candidate’s location to highlight local opportunities and he or she can open vacancy details with one simple click and apply online with the application going directly into the iCams database. And, if you have multiple sites, it will highlight all your vacancies on a map. Hover over the preferred location and click to see the roles available at that site. If you have additional details about a post or a training scheme you can include a link to a text page giving further information – it really is extremely useful and flexible and is a slick and smooth application. Let us know what you want to achieve from a mobile application and we can work with you to ensure you can take full advantage of this new recruitment tool.
Candidate Experience
Simple and Easy Application
Whatever the size of your organisation or complexity of your application process, you need to make it simple and easy for candidates wishing to apply for your vacancies. You can have quick and straightforward applications – a simple click of the apply now button taking candidates to a brief application form or you can create more detailed application forms. Ultimately, when candidates have seen your jobs and want to proceed with an application you want to make it as easy as possible for them to apply with intuitive steps and as few clicks as possible.
Speculative Applications & Talent Pools
Adequately storing and referencing speculative applications or strong candidates can be a time consuming and lengthy process for recruiters but iCams simplifies this. Within iCams you can create folders or “talent pools” with specially skilled candidates, role specific candidates, previously interviewed talented candidates, graduates, work experience students, in fact, whatever differentiation you wish to make you can create a folder. These “talent pools” can be searched when you have a particular opportunity or requirement and/or shared with hiring managers seeking specific candidates. Suitable candidates can then be contacted and invited to apply – simple, straightforward, time-saving and free! In addition, if and when you have a recruitment campaign, or perhaps an apprenticeship/traineeship scheme, you can bulk email or send an iCams e-newsletter to all or some of the candidates that you have stored in your various folders/“talent pools”.
Candidate Portal
Giving candidates access to their own personal candidate portal enables them to manage and take control of their application. This secure page gives them access to their application history and enables them to monitor its progress, upload documents if required, update their personal profile, sign up for newsletters and determine and monitor their preferred search agents. This is an improved method of communicating with potential new employees and begins the steps of building a bond with candidates as well as presenting your organisation as having an efficient and thorough recruitment application process. It is less likely that you will receive telephone queries or requests for confirmation of receipt of documents or applications from prospective candidates as all this information and more is available via their personal candidate portal which relieves the administrative burden on your recruitment team. 
Job Alerts
Some people may wish to work for your organisation but you may not have a job to match their skills and if they do not submit a speculative application form it is likely you will lose their talent and enthusiasm to work for your organisation. You could rely on the fact that they will keep returning to your site to see your current vacancies but this is unreliable and inconvenient. iCams allows potential candidates to sign up for Job Alerts – a simple and straightforward system which alerts them to suitable new vacancies the moment they are published on your careers page. Potential candidates will feel valued and encouraged that you are interested in them as potential employees and that you have provided a quick and efficient route for them to progress their application.
Implementation & Support
Security
Emergency Provision
We know that our system has to be available to our customers all day, every day and we do not like system complications that might lead to downtime. With this at the top of our customer care policy, we have built a very strong process to manage system failure situations, ensuring that if they ever happen we react robustly and quickly to limit the inconvenience and potential downtime. Our entire infrastructure (hardware, software, and network) is operated by Quantix, providing a fully secured and up-to-the-minute backed-up service environment.
Safe and Secure
Safety and security is a key priority for Hireserve. We have taken steps to guarantee iCams is a safe and secure recruitment platform to limit even the possibility of illegal or unauthorized access. Our web and database servers are independently protected by firewalls.
In addition, iCams is regularly checked against the OWASP top 10 Internet threats and the application undergoes rigorous testing for any potential security intrusions. Our software is developed using standardized methods to ensure security and safety are maintained and guaranteed.
Data Storage
iCams data is stored on dedicated servers within the Quantix data center in the UK.
Helpdesk
And if something does not work...
….you need to be able to contact us as soon as possible so we have several ways to help!
Livechat
A quick way to get answers to your question or a response to your problem is to use our Live Chat feature. When you are working in iCams and hit a problem or are unsure how to proceed, simply click the Live Chat logo which activates an instant “chat” session with one of our technical team. Nine times out of ten we can resolve the issue or answer the query there and then and all the relevant information is immediately available to us, such as which organisation you are calling from, what operating system you are using and which browser you are working in.
We can ask the relevant questions and give you the best immediate advice to get you back working as quickly as possible – much quicker and easier than a yo-yo email dialogue and no need for you to provide us with the more technical information that we might need because it is instantly available to us.
Support Desk
Our Support Desk is available throughout working hours and you can either email or telephone for assistance. Each reported issue is recorded in our support database, given a reference number and a priority listing. Depending on the severity of the issue, we try and solve it as soon as we possibly can, keeping in close touch with you to let you know when it has been fixed or is expected to be resolved. Good customer care and support is a top priority for the Hireserve team and we provide a consistently high level of service and assistance.
Help System
In addition, we also have a comprehensively documented Help System within iCams. Simply, click “Help” on any page and you will be taken to that subject area within the Help System. If you wish, you can export the Help System pages into PDF for printing and it is also possible to edit pages to suit your own organisation’s needs.
The Technical Facts
iCams – The Building Blocks
iCams is built on Oracle11g technology with data stored in an Oracle database; the system logic is written in Oracle PL / SQL. We use HTML, CSS and Javascript for all our screens whilst in the iCams back office we use the Sencha (Extjs3.3.1) JavaScript library. iCams runs on all mainstream browsers (IE6, IE7, IE8, IE9, FF3, FF4, and Safari5 Chrome (Windows, MacOS))
Modular Set-up
iCams is a completely modular application which uses configurable system parameters to activate and control functionality. These system parameters can be configured for each individual customer to ensure iCams meets their recruitment process requirements.
Which server platforms are supported?
iCams will run on any platform on which the Oracle 11g Database is certified – this includes multiple distributions of Linux (Red Hat and Oracle Linux are the two we favour) plus Solaris and Windows Server platforms.
Implementation
You are unique!
All implementations are unique and the duration and cost will depend upon your organisation’s requirements. A straightforward and standard implementation can be up and running within a week. In reality, however, few organisation’s fit the “standard” model and we prefer and endorse a process which ensures you get exactly what you want in terms of functionality and are completely satisfied with the look, feel and styling of your careers page and candidate portal. This can be done quickly, of course, and we do our very best to do so, but we won’t rush an implementation just so that you can place a tick in the speedy implementation check box – we much prefer you to tick the customer satisfaction box!
Team work is best
Implementing an e-recruitment solution will impact on several parts of your organisation and with this in mind we always suggest a project team approach with representatives from HR, Marketing and IT. Of course, not all organisations are large enough to encompass this size of team so our implementation teams are expert in guiding you easily through the implementation.
Working Together
We will work closely with you to understand and determine your recruitment process, any statutory obligations which you may have to adhere as well as understand your documentation and correspondence pre-requisites to ensure we translate your requirements into iCams. We will project manage the implementation ensuring we spend time with you to fully understand your organisations requirements and the detailed steps of your recruitment process – having this information first hand ensures we deliver a successful implementation.
Hireserve User Group
We have an independent Hireserve User Group which is run and managed by our customers. You can share knowledge and best practice with other users as well as determine and influence system enhancements which may be developed as part of the donated free consultancy days we award the User Group each year. We always attend the meetings and it is a great way for us to meet our you and keep in touch with your needs and expectations and opinions as well as being available to offer immediate support and advice.
Customisation
If customisation is required, its feasibility will be discussed with you and a specification drawn up to determine the timescale and cost required to deliver. Sometimes, customer requests are designated as product improvement for all iCams users and development charges waived or kept to a minimum but complex changes for individual customers are likely to require additional development costs which are agreed on a case by case basis.
Footermenu Customers
Footermenu Partners
Stay informed
Stay informed through Twitter and RSS
Copyright © 2011 Hireserve.
Social Media
Social Media buttons
Social Media buttons can be imbedded within your job descriptions offering you additional promotional opportunities. Potential candidates to your careers page can promote a vacancy to their friends or colleagues via Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter links.
Automatic Job Tweets
You can easily promote your vacancies through Twitter with iCams. Job Tweets can automatically place standardized text including a link back to the vacancy on your website.