An applicant tracking system helps you overcome many business hiring challenges. If you’re using a spreadsheet, please read on to understand why applicant tracking systems are not luxury software. They can be critical to a business’s success.

Check out these ten signs that you may need an applicant tracking system:

  1. You’re using spreadsheets to track applicants

When businesses start using an ATS, they tend not to look back at their spreadsheet days. A spreadsheet remains a powerful tool … for the right purpose.

Back in the day, it was useful for managing applications.  Today’s software is more practical, more effective, and affordable. Why not use it?

  1. You’re contacting candidates by email

We predict that this is taking up a significant amount of your time. If you have only a few candidates, you can make email work for you. As the number of communications increases, however, so will the complexity of tracking it all.

Labels and folders are rarely enough to stop people getting muddled.  An application tracking system can take care of it.

  1. Discussing hires is a nightmare

Co-ordinating feedback is tricky by email. An ATS includes a facility for everyone involved in the decision-making process to share their information. This is organized logically so that you can find it when you need it.

  1. You’re developing RSI from submitting the same text to multiple sites

There are plenty of things that people are better at than software, but filling in similar forms, copying, and pasting are not included. If there’s one thing that machines are good at, it’s repetition.

Why not allow software to take care of submitting ads to multiple job sites so that you can get on with something more … human?

  1. You miss candidates because you are overwhelmed by irrelevant responses

Great candidates get lost in the swamp of emails following an ad listing, especially when a business posts to multiple job sites.

ATS software can take control of your email, filtering the relevant resumes according to your criteria.

  1. You’re thinking about web design and not about your candidates

A branded, authentic, useful web presence is part of attracting and retaining high-quality talent. We’re not all web designers, though. Fortunately, ATS software can help businesses develop and maintain a compelling career page using a simple editor.

  1. You can only track applications at the office

An ATS works with mobile devices so that you can input leads, monitor progress, and receive feedback in real-time, wherever you are. A mobile-ready ATS will help teams collaborate and process applications more quickly so that you fill positions efficiently.

  1. You’re paying for an external recruiter

Outside help can save you hours. For most roles, however, businesses often find using an ATS  more cost-effective. An ATS can perform many hiring functions and keeps you up to date at every stage.

External recruiters can also access a business’s ATS to help them provide better results, better reporting, and enhanced accountability.

  1. You don’t know how to explain whether your hiring is successful or not

Measuring your hiring process is about more than whether or not you filled a position. You can measure success by how many relevant candidates you were able to attract, the efficiency of the process, how the employee is doing post-hire, and more.

An ATS can provide data to help you understand and explain your hiring system’s strengths and areas for improvement.

  1. You don’t think you can compete with the hiring power of a big firm

Small businesses with an ATS don’t wonder if they can compete with their larger competitors; they know. An ATS is an affordable but powerful system that can help a business of any size connect with great candidates and process them all the way to a hire.

An ATS puts all key information in one secure and centralized location to be access at anytime in order to help you make better decisions.

It will help a business attract, hire, and monitor candidates and the hiring process itself. For an affordable, effective solution to hiring challenges, an ATS is the answer.

If you find that one or more of the above signs relate to you, you’re not alone.  Get in touch with us to learn more about what an applicant tracking system can do for your business.