Choosing an ATS

When looking at different applicant tracking systems it can be tricky to decide which is right for you. There’s a vast range of choice and with that comes complexity and confusion.

From talking to lots of recruitment professionals, I’ve uncovered key aspects to consider when deciding which ATS is right for you. To simplify the findings and what to remember to think about when choosing an ATS, thinking of APPLICANT TRACKING as a mnemonic can be remembered.

Attraction

When considering which ATS is best for you, thinking about your recruitment channels is vital. What hiring acquisition channels are important for you? Where and how will potential candidates in your sector and role search for jobs? Some ATS systems can post to lots of jobs boards and others can’t. Some post individually and some post automatically and on repeat. Think about the volume of attraction required too. Some ATS systems benefit from economies of scale and significant media savings in job advertising across premium job boards, others don’t. With attraction it’s not just about the number of job boards, it’s about the right job boards for your audience. Attraction criteria assessment of a ATS systems is also about other channels like social media, direct website applications, recruitment events, referrals and how systems can work with these channels to maximise attraction via both paid and organic means. In addition, attraction is about making your employer brand appealing to encourage candidate applications, your careers and job vacancies page should be attractive for candidates, quick and easy to use. Not super long forms that candidates don’t like to fill in and that frustratingly often repeat the information on their CV. Without effective attraction there’s simply not enough candidates to choose from.

People

Think about everything from the people perspective of both the candidate and the recruiter. If they’ve not been designed well, ATS systems can be very time-consuming for recruiters to use. Automation in ATS system design is vital to enable the system to save you admin time. Otherwise the system itself can become an admin nightmare. Recruitment is ultimately all about people, it’s about people before process. The process should be designed to be as human as it can be whilst maximising efficiencies. By maximising admin efficiencies, it allows for a more human hiring experience for both the candidates and the recruiters. When assessing features think about people and the systems’ ease-of-use too. What’s the day-to-day of using the system going to be like for your recruiters. ATS systems can become full of lots of candidates very quickly if attraction features are working well. A focus to think about when thinking about people is also thinking about how candidates profiles within the system can be utilised, engaged with and categorised.

Processes

For an optimal candidate and recruiter experience, customising the hiring stage processes in an ATS system is vital. Processes within the ATS should be easy to configure and customise. The email and document automations should be easy to establish and keep track of. Processes should help to save time, not over complicate things. Processes should help to save time for recruiters and help in selecting the right candidates.

Lowering cost-per-hire

A well-designed ATS can help to significantly lower the cost-per-hire but some have more time-saving functionality than others and some drive more candidate applications than others through attraction channels. So, it’s important to think about lowering cost-per-hire in both a time cost-saving and a recruitment advertising channel spend cost-saving perspective.

Interviews

Ultimately, deciding between equally qualified candidates boils down to interviews and some ATS systems can help to make interview procedures more effective whilst others don’t encompass this. Systems can have question sets and candidate skills rating functionality to better gather information from interviews. Regarding organising interviews, some systems can help to save lots of time with candidate time-slot self-selection booking and multiple recruiters calendars’ synchronisation.

Candidate communication

ATS systems need to enable quick and effective candidate communication that can be easily recorded and initiated. Well-designed ATS systems encompass communication capabilities like that of CRM and email marketing automation software. Communication is key as they say, both in keeping candidates informed and recording recruiter to candidate communication interactions.

Automation

Automation is a part of ATS systems to a vastly varying extent. Systems that are specifically designed for high-volume recruitment tend to have the best automation capabilities as it’s part of the very fabric of their design focus. High-volume recruitment software is great for high-volume but it also helps to save a lot of time for lower volumes of recruitment too. Automation helps to save significant time regardless of the volumes involved. When assessing ATS systems regarding automation, it’s important to think about what aspects of your hiring processes could be automated, what are the robotic and repeatable admin tasks that automation could help to avoid. Thinking about the parts you’d like automating and which ATS systems are capable of the automation you want to achieve is a key consideration.

Next stages

Moving candidates between stages should be straightforward in a good design of ATS. Visually moving candidates between stages is a great way to understand quickly which candidates are at different stages. Modern design of ATS systems can benefit from a Kanban board style of design with moving candidates to next stages. Automating the filtering out of candidates can help regarding candidate questionnaires and incorrect answers automatically disqualifying candidates; automatically moving them to a disqualification stage. Regarding successfully completed questionnaires and moving to the next stage automatically helps to save time and clearly see the stage of candidates too. To prevent candidate drop-off, It’s important to be clear with candidates about the hiring stages. Informing them at the start and keeping them informing is a great way to improve the candidate experience.

Talent

Talent acquisition is as much about attraction as it is identifying the talent already in your ATS from past candidate applications. Significant cost savings can be achieved from past candidates filling positions. Candidates who narrowly missed out could be a good fit for future positions. ATS systems can be used to create talent pools and filter past candidates to find those who might be a good fit for current or future roles. ATS systems that help to categorise talent by rating and categorising candidates can bring significant advantages.

Training & Support

Having an ATS system is only great if you know how to use it, therefore training is vital. You have to watch out. Some providers charge extra for onboarding, training and support so costs can add up. When thinking about your ATS systems think about how easy they are to use and what training is needed for current and future members of your recruitment team.

Reporting

ATS systems are a brilliant tool to centralise recruitment processes. The data in systems can be aggregated for recruitment stats reporting but some systems provide automated reporting and others don’t. Modern powerful ATS systems can provide automated dashboard reporting of recruitment stats and analytics across candidates, jobs, recruitment campaigns, channels and DE&I.

Advancement

We all know technology is advancing quickly. For example AI is becoming evermore present in lots of technology systems and therefore it’s good to think about future capabilities and what an ATS could do for you. Different providers are adding different features based on technological advancements, some more regularly than others in different areas of focus. Advancement is great, but thinking about what features are most important to you should be the priority and thinking about a provider that aligns with your sector and type of recruiting helps to establish a great working relationship with a supplier.

Collaboration

Recruitment collaboration should be fluid and and a good ATS system can help to foster better collaboration amongst recruiters and also employees who could be part of the interview processes perhaps. When thinking about systems, it’s important to think about how many users you’ll be wanting to use the ATS systems too. Some systems have user limits and others don’t.

Keeping in touch

Keeping candidates informed vastly improves the candidate experience and vastly lowers candidate drop-off-rates. ATS systems enable seamless contact via automations and one-off communication too. Keeping in touch with past candidates and informing candidates throughout all stages, including rejection, is of utmost importance so your brand is presented and remembered in an professional way. Candidates shouldn’t experience ghosting and neither should recruiters. Good ATS systems can enable automatic follow-up, automatic chasing of information from candidates, saving recruiters lots of time and keeping communication going.

Integrations

Some ATS systems focus on core functionality and then integrate with other software to add or extend capabilities. Also, API integrations can enable synchronisation with other HR and business systems to share data and link systems together. When considering ATS systems, thinking about integrations can help to think how the software can fit the flow of information and process you want. It’s also important to bear in mind that no software company can specialise in everything. Suppliers specialise in recruitment ATS software and therefore the features are advanced and specialist. As the saying goes, better to be a master of one than be a jack of all trades and a master of none.

New features

When choosing an ATS provider, thinking about establishing a relationship with a supplier who can add features to meet your suggestions and requirements can also be good. Having completely bespoke software is far too expensive for most, with suppliers spending millions and countless hours to build powerful ATS systems but some providers are focused on niches that can closely relate to your sector recruitment challenges and focus areas. Aligning with and choosing the right provider who you can establish a long-lasting relationship with is key. One that is focused on your industry or your type of recruitment. Sector specialisms operate across industries for a reason, not just in ATS software. Specialism brings expertise, understanding and comprehensive well-thought-through innovation.

Goals

Start with the end in mind. Think about what you want to achieve. Software is ultimately a ways and means to an end. List what you want the software to do, what benefits you want and how this aligns strategically with business objectives too.

I hope this article has provided some food for thought and if you’d like to find out more about occy’s all-in-one recruitment marketing and ATS software, send me a message.

In the past, I’ve written about choosing health and safety software and remembering the mnemonic FAST USP can help when choosing any software too (functionality, accessibility, scalability, technology, users, support and price).

Thank you for being connected and any likes and shares of this article are much appreciated.