Customer Stories 
Summary
After struggling with fragmented systems and inconsistent user experiences, Cisco consolidated seven different recruiting systems for talent acquisition into one platform. Using a single system, Cisco now manages its entire talent acquisition process on Avature, including job creation, events, application, evaluation, offer, onboarding, university program management, CRM, and related handoffs between teams.
Increased productivity, user experience, and data-driven results are just a few of the gains from Cisco’s one-platform approach to recruiting using Avature.
About Cisco
A global technology company, Cisco creates Internet solutions that make networks possible. The Fortune 500 company also specializes in security, collaboration, cloud and data centers. Cisco hires over 10,000 new employees annually from a pool of 800,000 candidates.
Challenges Before Avature
Information Fragmented in Different Systems
Prior to partnering with Avature, Cisco relied on a legacy Applicant Tracking System that lacked tools for collaboration, request management, recruitment marketing, mobile optimization, or events management. To meet an increasing demand to engage candidates in new ways, Cisco overlaid additional solutions and added unintegrated tools to their technology ecosystem. Eventually, recruiting teams worked with seven different systems — many of which didn’t integrate at all.
Burdensome Candidate Experience
The disparate solutions also cost candidates time and energy. The application process was long and required multiple pages and candidates needed various usernames and passwords. As candidates hopped through the different tools, Cisco lost valuable metrics such as source and referral information, making it difficult to measure the success of various campaigns.
Manual Data Entry
Recruiters were forced to input and manually update the same information into separate systems throughout the process. Different systems contained varying information, causing confusion, making certain data obsolete and ultimately leading to miscommunication, duplication, wasted time and an increased risk for errors.
Solutions
Ready for a change, the Cisco team opted to retire their legacy ATS and the disjointed systems in favor of a consolidated Avature platform. The unified technology, bundled together, manages the entire talent acquisition process, from shoulder tap to the first day. From a user perspective, there is a consistent experience with one interface, one universal login and one repository of candidate and employee information.
“When everything is digital, with strong data integrity, flowing through one system with workflow automation; your processes will flow much more smoothly and at a higher class level."
Sally Hu, Business Architect, Talent Acquisition at Cisco
Results
Higher Productivity
Cisco recruiters and coordinators can focus on higher value-add activities rather than spending time on manual data entry, administrative tasks, or rework.
Improved Hiring Manager Experience
Hiring managers can perform key functions during the recruiting process through a dedicated site that enables them to take action on jobs and candidates and easily access status updates and reports.
CRM
Using Avature as a centralized platform allows recruiters to view a candidate’s history in one place, from sourcing and events to onboarding. Having this visibility at their fingertips helps recruiters make more informed decisions, improving both the recruiter and candidate experience. They can use the CRM capabilities for their events and sourcing requisitions too.
Offer & Onboarding
Offer creation on Avature is seamless and simple for the recruiter while supporting complex options and needs. Before generating the offer, the recruiter can collaborate with stakeholders and receive the necessary approvals on the Avature platform. Globally, new hires accept their offers with full e-signature capabilities, which has improved the candidate experience and reduced the average offer acceptance rate by two days.
Upon acceptance, Avature automatically generates the correct onboarding tasks and documents based on location, entity and type of hire. Once the candidate completes onboarding, Avature notifies stakeholders and exports necessary documentation directly into our internal repository.
Ultimately, the one-platform approach serves all key stakeholders, from C-suite executives to candidates on their smartphones.
“Cisco culture is articulated through our Cisco People Deal: Connect Everything, Innovate Everywhere and Benefit Everyone. Actually, this could have been a good Avature tagline, too, because this is what Avature does. The Cisco People Deal includes a working environment where we empower our employees with tools that provide a great user experience, enable collaboration and support high productivity. Our Avature recruiting platform helps in each of these areas."
Sally Hu, Business Architect, Talent Acquisition at Cisco