What You Should Consider When Selecting an Applicant Tracking System - American Society of Employers - Tom Jackson

What You Should Consider When Selecting an Applicant Tracking System

applicant tracking systemAs part of the recruiting process, most organizations understand the need to create job descriptions and post them to various job boards and social media platforms with the intent to get in front of a large and relevant talent pool. However, all this effort to catch the attention of top talent can easily go to waste when the organization is not equipped to handle incoming applicant interest in an organized way with a good applicant tracking system.

This is especially true for companies that either don’t take advantage of modern applicant tracking and recruiting technology – or might still be stuck with an old applicant tracking system that is hard to use for the applicants as well as the internal recruitment team.

A good Applicant Tracking System can boost a company’s recruiting effectiveness by helping to streamline sourcing, social engagement, and the entire hiring workflow into one integrated platform. In addition, modern recruiting software would also make sure that the candidate experience is awesome and that the internal recruiting teams also find it easy and efficient to use the applicant tracking system. Nevertheless, making an incorrect decision when choosing your ATS is likely to have an adverse impact on your company’s hiring success. This could result in lost talent, unhappy management, and a huge waste of time and money. It leads to a high degree of frustration for the internal team that can see that they could not successfully hire top talent due to problems with the internal systems and processes or lack thereof.

First, it is critical for you to understand that the business requirements of your company is critical to determining which systems would serve your organization’s needs best. This is certainly true in the case of selecting a good applicant tracking system for your specific needs. At a high-level in general, users can be categorized as SMB, large enterprises with global operations, or staffing agencies. While many vendors would try and fit their solution into every situation, the reality is that many of the current systems come short in terms of providing organizations with modern methods of creating effective recruiting practices. A cookie-cutter approach to recruiting is the last thing you want your organization to sign up for. Just because another company uses a certain system is not a good reason for your organization to select it. The prudent thing to do is to understand and define the needs of your particular organization by mapping your current processes and aligning the technology to what you are doing and where you would like to be. Develop a list of must have features and another list of features you would like to grow into as you complete your migration to a new system.

Next, find out if the vendor is willing to work with you to clearly understand your requirements and provide a recruiting platform with a good applicant tracking system that can be tailored to your specific needs. This would include the ability to automate basic workflow processes to eliminate administrative support requirements within your recruiting cycle.

In upcoming articles we will discuss other items that should be considered before choosing the right ATS for your organization and they include:

  1. Quality and Ease of Communication
  2. Candidate Experience, Career Site, and Employer Branding
  3. Social Media Recruiting
  4. Employee Referrals
  5. Quick and Accurate Candidate Searching
  6. Ease of Integration
  7. Increased Task and Workflow Automation
  8. Data Migration
  9. Better Quality of Hires

If you have any questions regarding this topic, please contact Tom Jackson, Director of ASE’s Staffing Services Group.

 

Source: Simplicant Blog, 10 Rules For Choosing A Good Applicant Tracking System

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