The New York Public Library is more modern and accessible than ever

NYPL used the same ATS for 14 years. The team found it clunky and slow, and when new functionality did become available, longtime customers like The New York Public Library had to pay for it. Rollouts of new features could take a year and there was no continuity from customer service.

All this meant that:

• Candidates didn’t have the positive experience that NYPL’s incredible Employee Value Proposition (EVP) promised
• Hiring managers struggled to engage in the recruitment process
• The library was paying a high price for an ATS that made the TA team do all the heavy lifting

Craig Senecal, Senior Director of Employee Experience, knew NYPL could do better. And with his love for what he calls “the world’s library,” he made sure they did.

With the NYPL finance team, he vetted 150 ATS providers, selecting their top 15 for interviews. Amidst that wealth of choice, Pinpoint rose to the top.

To walk away from a legacy applicant tracking system (ATS), and switch to a younger, newer provider was a big decision for NYPL. Especially given the scale of the switch.

Craig and his team wanted to ensure that every candidate from the old system moved to Pinpoint. No exceptions. The Pinpoint team worked tirelessly to make this happen, putting in the hours to migrate the data over from the legacy system. Craig also noted that support was available to suit his timezone.

“I’ve never had that level of service with any other system I’ve worked with in the past.”

The ease of Pinpoint’s software and support took the pain out of change. Craig was even an active part of the implementation, despite a complete lack of digital skills. “I can barely use email sometimes,” he confessed, “but I was able to configure our organization and do it quickly.”

After such a simple implementation the next potential hurdle was getting everyone at NYPL using the new ATS. Again, Pinpoint made it easy. The 400+ hiring managers at NYPL are “stunned with how well Pinpoint works for them,” according to Craig.

Craig knows how busy his hiring managers are. And the more open jobs they have, the busier they get. So making the recruiting process easy for them is a huge win. Most hiring managers also only log in once or twice a year, so ease of use is essential to prevent constant re-training or access headaches.

It’s amazing to see how a century-old institution is now thriving with modern recruitment software in its toolkit. Hiring managers can comment, add tags, rate candidates, and have back-and-forth conversations with the recruitment team, all recorded in a single location for future reference. For the talent acquisition team, that’s a huge bonus.

Speaking of the TA team, Craig remains committed to helping them do their best work. And he feels Pinpoint has been a consistent partner in those efforts.

“Whenever we request an enhancement, the answer is, ‘Wow, that’s a really good idea. Let us work on that.’ We’ve gotten some of those enhancements already, with more on the way.”

The integration between background check provider, Checkr, and Pinpoint is a perfect example. Given its public-facing role and frequent work with children, NYPL has to run background checks on every new employee. This means over a thousand background checks a year, some with high levels of depth and or in-person health screenings.

Craig wanted a fast, efficient tool to support his team. The choice was Checkr because, for Craig, “the speed with which they do background checks is unparalleled. Nobody else can touch them.”

Pinpoint hadn’t worked with Checkr before, so Craig raised it with his Customer Success Manager at Pinpoint. Less than a month later, Pinpoint had built the integration and it was ready to go.

The benefits of this integration go beyond ease and time-saving. It delivers a simple experience for candidates and keeps them updated on progress. And as Craig points out, “the candidate experience is key for us.”

The library’s work is everywhere and it does a lot more than lend books. It teaches children to love reading, helps reincorporate incarcerated people into the community, and provides language and career services. The library is the perfect place to work for community change-makers.

Craig is passionate about giving these incredible people the candidate experience they deserve. And Pinpoint helps him do that:

• The hiring process moves faster – helping both candidates and the library.
• The TA team has the time to provide hiring managers with more coaching on creating a great experience for candidates.
• Pinpoint has taken away the barriers, like logins and manual interview scheduling, that the library’s old ATS had put in front of candidates.

With Pinpoint, candidates can apply directly from mobile. They can upload their resumes in seconds, schedule their own interview times, and sign offer letters with no hassle. Craig describes the interaction as “friendly and approachable”—precisely the right vibe for a community nonprofit that’s all about helping people.