Applicant Tracking System Data Migration – Don’t Panic!

Would really love to hear from my network of HR Tech and TA Tech specialists on this one!

So...you’ve decided to change your Applicant Tracking System (ATS)! Congrats! You thought the hard part was over, but it isn’t. Nope. Now you have to determine your data migration plan and that isn’t for the faint of heart. Where do you start? How do you tackle it? Why can’t we just migrate everything!? When you moved out of your last house...did you take everything? Okay then. Sidenote, if my house was an ATS, it would be Resumix (OG ATS from 1988 and the first one I worked in), because I’ve been in my house 20 years. At any rate, let’s look at ATS data migration concepts, challenges, questions to ask, best practices, and planning essentials.?

It is important to sit down as a joint project team to discuss the data migration process and the overall implementation plan. Identifying data to migrate or not migrate will be a difficult conversation. These conversations are critical to your team’s success going forward.? There will inevitably be good arguments from both sides on the data to keep and the data to toss out. Go in with an open mind, be prepared to ask detailed questions, and adjust your plan based on the feedback you receive.??

Why best practice isn’t to migrate all your ATS data – Less is more!??

One solution that may be proposed is to copy over all historical data to your new ATS or even a large subset of data. While it sounds good on the surface. Good luck with that!? Attempting to migrate X+ years of data from one ATS to another is super complex. The less you migrate, the simpler your data migration will be. Changing your ATS provides an opportunity to refresh data and only move what is most valuable to your recruiting process and data that is compliance relevant.?

• Data Complexity: Transitioning a large volume of candidate/requisition records from one ATS to another can lead to several issues related to source data, configuration, duplicate records, field parameters, etc.?
• Data Quality: Over time, the ATS will become inflated with stale, irrelevant and incomplete data, making it difficult to find the information you need or that helps you improve hiring time and efficiency. If you copy all your data to your new ATS, the same problems will persist. This will effectively move poor data from one system to another.??
• Compliance & HR Governance – If bound by OFCCP regulations, your HR Governance and Legal teams will want to know about data migration plans and how this impacts OFCCP reporting requirements. Migrating all data may not be their recommendation either, if it increases risk in the face of an audit.?

Other Questions to Consider??

• How will the team work while data is migrated???
• Will we continue to work in the legacy ATS for a period of time???
• When will your team officially transition over to the new ATS??
• Will you have a blackout period???
• Can data migration happen during a slower hiring period??

Some migration plans call for a blackout period of anywhere from a couple days to several weeks, while others call for a period that talent acquisition teams are working in parallel in the old system and the new system, until all requisitions are closed in the legacy ATS. These are all conversations to have and decisions to make, together.?

We Have a Plan, Now What??

After the team has built out your data migration plan, it should be reviewed by key stakeholders/sponsors for alignment and agreement.? Once a decision is finalized on the data migration plan, it is also advised to communicate relevant details and important deadlines to your entire recruiting organization and any ATS provider, even if you are managing the data migration internally without the assistance of the vendor. Leverage your change management professionals as they will be solid partners for this element of your implementation.?

While we all want a perfectly laid out plan with no hiccups, it’s important that the team remains flexible for the duration of the migration process. Issues will inevitably occur. Be prepared and don’t panic! Data migration does not have to be a bad dream or like when you tried to move all your old stuff into your new house!?