Applicant Tracking System — Wait, but why?

As a recruiter, what drives you?

Talking to potential candidates and getting to know them?

Or spending time filtering candidates based on their location, education, current role, company, domain, etc?

When you get hundreds of applications and reject a large percentage in the first round of sorting, it doesn’t make sense to waste your HR resources on repetitive tasks that can be automated.

How about a software which lets you do your core job?

Enter Applicant Tracking System.

ATS in simple words- takes care of everything you perceive to be the mechanical part of your recruitment cycle and lets you do what you like.

Often job seekers crib that many times, they are not informed about the hiring status and the process is not transparent. This leads to poor Glassdoor reviews and hurts the employer brand in the long term.

Over 77% of candidates who’ve gone through an interview process prefer to have a human interaction.

Factors like transparency, communication, feedback can make or break your corporate image in the long term and often companies underestimate the importance of providing a positive experience for the job applicants.

But, while it’s good to have a human touch in the hiring process, hiring managers spend almost 23 hours on an average sourcing candidate, of which roughly  88% applicants are unqualified.

So unless you can automate this part with a good AI, it’s quite impractical to add the human touch.

This is where a good ATS comes in the picture. Not all the ATS are same. If you ask me to boil it down to the basics I would say, ask yourself two questions while deciding on the right software- 

• Am I getting good quality candidates?
• Is the candidate enjoying the application process?

Makes sense?

Now let’s jump on to the major points to consider before purchasing an ATS.

Usability

Picture how your team’s workflow would need to change if you implement it.

Would there be more productivity or confusion? Will you be adapting to the needs of the ATS? Will the ATS adapt to your need? Will there be a fine balance between you two? Your ATS should evolve like you.

Fitment

Is the software’s UI well thought or sloppy? Is your account manager helpful or is she eager to close the ticket? Is the ATS with the right amount of novelty or is the learning curve high? At its very worst, an ATS initiative can slow down processes and hinder communication. With the right implementation and a knowledgeable partner to support you, it can improve processes, free up resources and provide the insight you need.

Tip: When requesting a demo, involve your team folks so that they can see their comfort levels with the product. The inputs they provide during the demos would be valuable.

Data security

Is your data safe? Is the ATS United States-European Union and Swiss Safe Harbour certified? Have you encrypted your data using SSL? Safety first.

Scalability

How flexible is your ATS provider? It’s good to be adaptable in terms of scalability and pricing once your company grows. It should give you the opportunity to export all your data and go somewhere else if the need arises. In fact, ATS providers that make it easy to take your data with you, tend to be honest companies that empathise with the customer experience. These are the kind of relationships you want to grow with your company.

Money

Think on these lines- do you need the extra bells and whistles? Will you get the right value addition for the price you pay? Which parameters you’ll be paying for- the number of resumes, job postings? Which ones of these would affect your bottom line?

Customisation

What if I wish to video-interview, my candidates? How do I opt for pre-hire assessment? How can I source passive candidates?

Manufacturing companies manage the hiring process quite differently than a retail store. Consultancies hire differently than hospitality industry. Different industries have varied requirements when it comes to a good ATS and the more you can tweak it as per your needs, the better the results.

So..

An ideal applicant tracking software can help you with various things like a good talent database, CV parsing, multi-user access, mobility, access to online candidate profiles, easy linkage to your own HR system, workload distribution, customisable reporting module, referral recruitment tools, email options, multilingualisms, data analytics, workflow management, smart matchmaking and even tools for your job alerts.

In short, by handling most of the repetitive tasks, an ATS saves your time, reduces workload and allows you to do the things you love.

It’s good to understand your priorities before scheduling tons of product demos. Once you are clear on this, hiring can be fun.

Happy recruiting!