The University of Alabama

Aligning your ATS to Deliver Recruitment ROI with The University of Alabama

We continue to be able to provide things to the campus that we haven’t been able to provide before. We continue to build partnerships, and we continue to get positive reinforcement from our users and from our applicants as well.

Amy Heatherly,
Director Human Resources, The University of Alabama

For the University of Alabama, implementing PageUp’s Talent Management platform has not only helped the institution meet its yearly goals: it’s also helping it set and achieve even greater milestones for the future.

Setting future goals

Previously constrained by the limitations of its old system, the University of Alabama found itself unable to meet its yearly goals, according to Director of Human Resources Amy Heatherly. “I meet with my team once a year and we go through our goals and accomplishments and we found that our goals continued from year to year,” Heatherly observes. “As we sat down and analysed why that was, we realisedrealized it was based on system limitations. We really did not foresee a future for accomplishing those goals with our current system.”

For Heatherly, the only way forward was with a new system that empowered the University to meet current goals and set future milestones. “PageUp spoke to some of those limitations – they really showed us how we could meet those goals and how we could take it to the next level.”

More than must-haves

PageUp didn’t just answer the University of Alabama’s immediate talent management needs: it also allowed Heatherly and her team to plan for the future and set aspirational goals. “As we were analysing who to go with we realisedrealized PageUp met our ‘must-haves’ and met our next level of ‘we wish we could’ but they also provided us with the ability to meet some of our future ‘perfect world’ types of goals,” she explains. “They’ve really delivered on those goals and they continue four and a half years later to help us achieve those goals that we didn’t think we would ever be able to achieve.”

Seeing real ROI

The PageUp solution has also been embraced by faculty at the University of Alabama, which has allowed the system to become a central hub for the institution’s talent management processes from start to finish. “I think the return on investment is really having the buy-in of our campus partners and our users,” says Heatherly. “Having individuals use the system that would never use it before, being able to provide our new hires with an experience that we were not able to do before with our onboarding process, being able to build that bond with our new hires from the day they accept their offer through to their employment and relationship with the University. We’ve invested a lot of time and effort in the system and it’s paid off,” she explains. “We continue to be able to provide things to the campus that we haven’t been able to provide before. We continue to build partnerships, and we continue to get positive reinforcement from our users and from our applicants as well.”

A Growing and Innovative Partnership with The University of Alabama

We really feel like PageUp is family to us: we were one of the first universities in the US that started partnering with PageUp and it’s been very successful for us since day one.

Amy Heatherly,
Director Human Resources, The University of Alabama

For the University of Alabama, PageUp is more than just a talent management solution: It’s a partner that has grown side-by-side with the institution since day one. Whether it’s helping the HR team leverage the full functionality of the system, or working to strategically realiserealize new, innovative initiatives, PageUp has accompanied the institution far beyond implementation.

A successful partnership from day one

“I would describe our working relationship with PageUp as a very close partnership,” says Amy Heatherley, Director of Human Resources at the University of Alabama. “We really feel like PageUp is family to us: we were one of the first universities in the US that started partnering with PageUp and it’s been very successful for us since day one.”

A spirit of innovation

When Heatherly was searching for a new HR vendor, she knew the university needed to find more than just a software solution. She needed a partner with the long-term buy-in and agility to grow in step with the institution. “We went into this project of finding a new vendor with the hope that we could find somebody to grow with us and to do things differently and to become more innovative than we were before,” Heatherly says. “We love PageUp’s innovative spirit.”

Working hand in hand with PageUp has empowered Heatherly and her team to implement greater improvements in their talent management processes from the ground up. “PageUp has really given us that opportunity to be innovative, to change the way we are thinking, and to provide so much more to the campus than we were able to do before,” she says.   

Awesome service

PageUp’s all-inclusive support has extended far beyond implementation, and with dedicated account managers and a 24/7 help desk, assistance is never far away. “PageUp are very open to information, to ideas, they listen to us when we have requests or even when we have complaints. They’re there to help us find a solution,” Heatherley says. Beyond responding to day-to-day queries, PageUp also supports the University of Alabama to strategically make the most of their HR processes. “They really understand our system and understand how we can take it a step further than we thought we ever could,” she says.

Choosing the right Applicant Tracking System for The University of Alabama

The demonstrations felt more like planning sessions for us.

Amy Heatherly,
Director Human Resources, The University of Alabama

Finding the right Applicant Tracking System (ATS) platform is often a lengthy process for organizations. Rightfully so, as they have to ensure the ATS will:

• deliver on organizational needs
• provide greater efficiencies in day-to-day operations
• easily integrate with their existing vendors

Amy Heatherly, Director of Human Resources at The University of Alabama explains her organization’s search to find an ATS platform – and how PageUp ultimately delivered the right solution.

Plan your vision

Heatherly and her team met with numerous internal stakeholders to work out a vision for their organization. It was a time-consuming process, but a crucial one for the team to get right. “We went through a rigorous process of really trying to determine the specifications we were looking for. We invited numerous campus partners to join us to evaluate where we are now, and where we wanted to go,” she says.

The University had to work out what their ‘perfect world’ looked like. And they were tasked with choosing a platform that would deliver a perfect world experience.

Implementing PageUp

It took 12 months for Heatherly and her team to go through the entire selection process. And it was PageUp that finally ticked all of the boxes for the University. Surprisingly so, as PageUp were not originally on their radar. “We put out an RFP, we got quite a few vendors. PageUp was the one that was unknown for us.”

As Heatherly and her team spent more time with PageUp, they realized they deeply understood their pain points, and could identify solutions. “The demonstrations felt more like planning sessions for us,” says Heatherly.  

Making the OFCCP audit quick and easy with The University of Alabama

We were really excited and proud that PageUp made it so easy and simple for us to pull that data out really quickly.

Amy Heatherly,
Director Human Resources, The University of Alabama

The University of Alabama was under pressure to complete compliance for The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). The team were up against tight deadlines and reporting had to be actioned in a timely manner.

Amy Heatherly, Director of Human Resources and her team experienced the process firsthand. “We were under an OFCCP audit for approximately a year. It pertains to our hiring processes and our applicant pool data, as well as some of our advertising and outreach efforts,” she says.

Data is crucial

For Heatherly’s team, having access to data was crucial, given the tight timeframes imposed by the OFCCP. “It is a data-intensive process. They will give you a very limited time that you have to respond to their requests.” Having the faculty with a different ATS provider posed another challenge for the University. “We also have our faculty on a different site, and there was a lot of difficulty on their end with being able to pull the data.”

PageUp’s easy accessible data

It was PageUp that helped Heatherly and her team access the data they needed during the OFCCP audit process. “We were really excited and proud that PageUp made it so easy and simple for us to pull that data out really quickly.”

One-click integrated background checking with The University of Alabama

This integration we have with our vendor has enabled us to basically have one click in the PageUp system.

Amy Heatherly,
Director Human Resources, The University of Alabama

Everyone engaged and collaborating in recruitment success with The University of Alabama

We have the ability to share information which has greatly enhanced our collaboration across campuses.

Amy Heatherly,
Director Human Resources, The University of Alabama

As the Director of Human Resources at the University of Alabama, Amy Heatherly needed an HR solution that everyone in the organization would embrace.

Anywhere, anytime approvals

At the University of Alabama, PageUp isn’t just used in the HR department. The system has also been embraced by upper management thanks to its capacity to be used anywhere, anytime.

“We have a lot of users at the higher levels of management that will use the system in the approvals process – before people weren’t doing that,” Heatherly explains. “That’s all based on the mobility of the product: our managers, supervisors, directors, even vice presidents approve recruitment activities on their own because they can do so through the email function. They can approve things from wherever they are: be it an airplane, a hotel or their own office.”

Easy information sharing

PageUp is also empowering the transfer of valuable information between the University’s campuses, allowing for greater collaboration and transparency between departments.

“We have the ability to share information which has greatly enhanced our collaboration across campuses. We can now provide reports and information to departments on a regular basis that allow them to do their jobs better,” Heatherly says.

“That’s been a great benefit for us and has meant all our users really like using PageUp.”