What if you could let the most draining aspects of recruitment and hiring handle themselves with modern tools designed to make it easy for you?

Applicant tracking systems (ATS) are important for all companies and businesses so that you can automate, streamline, and make the most use of your resources. A tailored recruiting solution to your business needs and available positions will cut out a significant portion of those repetitive tasks on your to-do list.

It doesn’t need to be so hard.

If you don’t know how to explain whether or not your hiring process is successful, it’s one clear sign you need an ATS. It helps you focus on hiring the professionals for the career you need filled at the right time.

 

What Can an Applicant Tracking System Software Do For You?

An applicant tracking system enables you to manage a large volume of job applications.

That’s the short answer and simple version of what this powerful software can do. There are countless features within an ATS that can greatly benefit your business. You can do things such as:

  • Post a custom job description
  • Sort through resumes and applicants
  • Schedule interviews
  • Improve the onboarding process

It works at all hiring stages. Your organization can optimize its ATS to meet all of your recruiting needs. Whether that’s managing an influx of resumes or getting more talent in the pool, it acts as a central repository for information.

Therefore, it puts power behind recruitment that manual entry can’t match.

According to Capterra, 75 percent of recruiters and talent managers use applicant tracking or recruiting software. Of those recruiters and talent managers, 94 percent say the software improves their HR experience. These numbers hold up across industries and company types. User satisfaction is across the board.

 

How an ATS Improves Recruitment and Available Talent

Talent shortage for a specific job in an industry is a real and growing problem. Manpower Group’s talent shortage survey found that employers struggle to fill open jobs.

And, that challenge is increasing.

They see global talent shortages at a record high. More than half of global companies report talent shortages. The survey shows that the United States is among the countries with the highest percentage of difficulty.

Some of the most in-demand roles include:

  • skilled trades
  • sales and marketing
  • technicians
  • engineers
  • driving and logistics
  • IT
  • accounting and finance
  • manufacturing
  • construction
  • healthcare

If you are hiring in those fields, you probably already know the impacts of talent shortage.

For companies trying to hire excellent talent, the competition is stiff. Your organization suffers if applicants can’t find you, and if the hiring process is unpleasant or inefficient, or if candidates get lost in the resume shuffle.

Each of these areas is your ticket to sourcing, screening, and securing talent. This holds in the face of a global talent shortage.

But, exactly how does an applicant tracking system improve the selection process?

And, how does this platform increase the level of talent available?

It happens in a few ways.

 

Finding Potential Employees

First, an applicant tracking system integrates with top job boards and search websites.

Through a social media integration such as LinkedIn, you’re more likely to pinpoint the winning candidates you need most. In a digital advertising world like today, staffing firms and agencies can use the internet to their advantage to attract the ideal recruit.

Applicants who are actively seeking a job are more likely to find you. Your company can get its postings in front of job-seekers without delay and extra HR work. For a human, it can take hours on a standard workday whereas automation is a lot more easy and straightforward. In the long term, this can help you decrease costs by saving time as management becomes more friendly.

The software communicates with your selected online job search sites to post the position. It also automatically collects the applicant information from the sites for you. It’s easy to keep on track of this too as it’s all stored in an internal database that your team and users can access.

In today’s economy, it’s not uncommon for a potential employee to apply for any job.

This may not be overwhelming for less popular roles. However, it can start to jam up an in-demand position. In a situation like this, the recruiter benefits from having an automated system that can quickly learn and read who the most qualified people applying are.

The applicant tracking system serves a critical purpose in finding qualified employees based on what they’ve put on their resume and any other relevant document, including their skills, experience and background. This enables you to make more accurate assessments, a more efficient job searching process, and hire someone objectively based on their professional record.

 

Filtering Candidates

Every time your organization posts a position, you can set the ATS to look for certain criterias, e.g. keywords or answers to questions. This information will then be filtered through the system.

Next, it highlights the resume and application that prove to be a good match. With these details, you can move forward with a solid list of potential employees. The employer or manager will know if they have included the keyword, experience, or skills you’re looking for.

If not, the person will easily be identified. This also helps you avoid those who aren’t qualified and those who are spamming.

Anyone who declined because of this filtering system should receive an automated thank you message. The ATS can also keep their resume and application, along with any relevant information for future job postings.

For an enterprise, having this support when you receive resume after resume, can simplify the acquisition process and improve your overall performance.

The best applicant tracking system will provide a solution specifically for your organization to build the list of candidates with the skill you need most for a current job posting. At the same time, expanding your available talent pool for the future.

 

Interviewing, Choosing Successful Applicants, and Onboarding

First, the ATS narrows down the field of potential applicants. This makes selecting the best of the best even easier.

Recruiters who hold the final decision in hiring will receive a list of pre-screened, qualified candidates. What this means is high-quality candidates will hear back from your organization faster.

As a result, it keeps them engaged in the process.

When your team works through interviewing candidates and collecting more information about them, the ATS is an invaluable data repository.

Any notes from interviews, candidate portfolio information, or other relevant information, is stored in the system within each single candidate profile. Teams in the HR department can collaborate, score candidates, as well as make better decisions by reporting in full transparency while having access to information they need.

An ATS helps maintain a high-quality talent pool that does not best fit the present position. All the information stays with the candidate profile. As the interface is intuitive, you can look within the data the next time your organization has an opening.

Ongoing communication is key. That’s one thing an ATS can do for you at ease.

Follow-up emails, screening surveys, scheduling requests, and other outreach are all run through the ATS. Because of this, the risk of dropping communication with a candidate is very low.

Not just for candidates, but it can remind internal managers of the next steps.

As successful applicants are onboarded, the ATS continues to do the heavy lifting. Such tasks include repetitive data entry and transferring information to personnel files.

 

Conclusion

Make the most of your hiring process by using an ATS to improve the way you operate.

With this, it ensures that your organization is competitive in finding the best talent for the right role you need fulfilled. It also keeps all information secure and easily accessible for you and your team.

You’ll be empowered to only hire the best of the best and build a strong talent pool.

If you have any further queries about how applicant tracking systems work, please don’t hesitate to contact us!