SmartRecruiters implementation: best practices from an expert

In an ever-changing recruitment market, efficiency, agility and optimisation of the candidate experience have become major challenges. With this in mind, Arago and Rhaegal have combined their expertise to offer companies unified support based on SmartRecruiters, combining the robustness of SAP environments with cutting-edge ATS expertise.

At the heart of this alliance, Julie Catteau, consultant and HRIS project manager at Arago, a specialist in SmartRecruiters, supports companies in the design, deployment and optimisation of their projects. With a pragmatic approach, she highlights the key elements for the success of such a project: smooth processes, simple adoption and technology designed to enhance the human value of recruitment.

Here are the six key points to remember from his testimony:

SmartRecruiters enables you to quickly structure a recruitment process.

SmartRecruiters stands out for its ability to bring clear, operational structure to organisations whose recruitment practices are sometimes fragmented, manual or poorly formalised. Unlike other solutions that require lengthy configuration phases, the platform offers agile, ready-to-use configuration. This allows companies to quickly benefit from a functional ATS, reduce time to value and avoid endless projects. In concrete terms, this means that a team can very quickly move from a DIY system (spreadsheets, emails, scattered tools) to a single, consistent solution that offers clarity, data reliability and a better experience for both candidates and managers.

Changing your ATS can transform team efficiency, even when you are already equipped.

Adopting SmartRecruiters isn't just for organisations starting from scratch. Even those that already have an ATS can find real leverage for improvement. The platform provides a more intuitive interface, simpler workflows, better collaboration between recruiters and managers, and a more fluid flow of information.

This change often results in fewer points of friction:

fewer back-and-forth exchanges to approve a position or candidate,
greater visibility on the stages of recruitment,
a more professional candidate experience,
more accurate monitoring thanks to clear reporting.

Changing your ATS can therefore be an opportunity to modernise your organisation, improve collective efficiency and bring recruitment more in line with business needs.

A rollout structured around a six-step methodology

The deployment of SmartRecruiters follows a precise methodological framework that ensures controlled implementation.

The 6 key steps:

Evaluate existing processes, identify irritants, clarify objectives.
Design target processes, aligning ambition, operational needs and tool capabilities.
Build the solution, test, adjust, validate.
Officially implement ATS with the teams.
Ensuring adoption, a crucial phase: supporting recruiters, HR and hiring managers in getting to grips with the tool.
Continuously optimise through KPI analysis and user feedback.

This method makes it possible to secure each stage, involve the right stakeholders and avoid common pitfalls: lack of buy-in, overly complex configuration, or a solution that is only half-implemented.

Three essential integrations to ensure a project's success

For SmartRecruiters to function fully, certain integrations are essential foundations.

The three critical integrations to anticipate:

User integration: detailed management of roles, rights, scopes, SSO, etc. All recruitment stakeholders should only see what concerns them, no more, no less.
The organisational repository: entities, sites, locations, business lines. This is what enables you to post a job in the right place and avoid errors in the recruitment structure.
The link with recruitment and onboarding: essential for avoiding double entries, harmonising HR tools, and creating a smooth employee journey from the moment they sign on.
These three building blocks guarantee a consistent experience, smooth data flow, and natural adoption of the solution.

A solution tailored to international deployments

SmartRecruiters is designed to support organisations operating in multiple countries, with two possible strategies:

The Big Bang, where all modules are deployed simultaneously in all regions.
Phased deployment, which spreads implementation over time according to geographical priorities.
The key still lies in building a global core model: a common framework that harmonises processes, ensures consistency and facilitates governance.
This model is then adjusted locally by country administrators who adapt the configuration to the realities on the ground: labour law, specific organisation, recruitment volume, local culture, etc.

This combination of global and local is essential for effective international deployment without losing consistency.

AI integrated into core processes to free up time for high value-added activities

AI is not a gadget or an optional module in SmartRecruiters. It is natively integrated into the core processes.

Its role:

take care of repetitive and time-consuming tasks,
support operational teams,
improve productivity without complicating the work of recruiters,
enabling them to focus on what really matters: candidate relations, human assessment and internal collaboration. This approach makes AI accessible, useful and immediately actionable, without requiring parallel projects or heavy technical investment.