Hiring roadblocks increases costs and lowers the odds of reaching ideal candidates. Optimizing your approach with the right technologies improves recruitment and hiring outcomes. An applicant tracking system (ATS) can alleviate the main pain points — a lengthy time-to-hire process, applicant sourcing issues, and scheduling problems.
Moreover, ATS software benefits extend to your brand reputation and candidate experiences. Learn how an applicant tracking solution can help your business.
Decreasing time to hire
Industry surveys often ask HR professionals about their time-to-hire rates because this is a key metric. The entire hiring process (job posting, sourcing, interviewing, and hiring) is lengthy, and leaders want to speed it up. Their reasons for slower rates differ. Some don’t have enough qualified applicants, whereas others get a tremendous response, causing a backlog.
ATS software helps businesses find the root causes of the problems, whether the issue is an unoptimized job posting or bottlenecks in the interviewing stages. Aside from overall time savings from organizing candidate profiles and hiring manager communication, automation tools reduce repetitive tasks and improve scheduling. Other capabilities like built-in background checks, surveys, and interviewing tools can save time across the board.
[Read more: How to Hire Employees Fast When You Need to Scale]
Protecting your brand reputation
According to CareerPlug, 35% of respondents “said they’ve left a negative review online after having a negative experience.” On the other hand, 60% gave a positive review after a good experience. CareerPlug pointed out the significance of these statistics, stating, “More than half of job seekers abandon their pursuit of a company after reading negative reviews on employer review sites like Glassdoor and JobSage.”
Many platforms let you generate branded career pages, email templates, and text messages. That consistency improves candidate experiences and increases trust in your brand.
Additionally, ATS solutions support data privacy regulations, helping businesses comply with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). They also abide by federal and state legal requirements for hiring employees.
Enhancing candidate experiences
Aside from leaving reviews, you want candidates to have great experiences so they consider signing on with your company. Over three-fourths of CareerPlug respondents said a positive hiring experience affected their decision to accept an offer. Notably, “Very few job seekers reported that the hiring process was of low importance to them.”
ATS software helps your business keep candidates updated. It automates replies and follow-ups or flags messages so your team can respond promptly. Applicants can access job information on any device and schedule interviews through online booking software.
Standing out in a competitive market
With many businesses vying for the same candidates, companies must optimize their approach to remain competitive. Indeed, 80% of employers told ZipRecruiter that “they had made process improvements to help their recruitment efforts in just the past year.” Of the improvements mentioned, many can be achieved through ATS software.
For example, 37% reported improving the mobile application experience, and 21% added a new job board or search site to their sourcing strategy. Most applicant tracking tools automatically connect hiring managers to dozens of job sites, assist with job post optimization, and provide mobile-accessible applications.
[Read more: Best Practices for Recruiting and Retaining Employees]
Besides in-app communication with applicants, ATS software supports internal collaboration between hiring team members.
Improving candidate quantity and quality
Too many positions go unfilled due to a lack of qualified applicants or hardly any responses at all. In addition, sorting through resumes to find the best candidate is time-consuming and challenging. ATS software can solve both problems.
ATS allows hiring managers to publish openings on many job boards with one click. Tools like curriculum vitae (CV) reviewing and keyword research let you screen and shortlist candidates according to custom criteria. Some systems integrate with pre-assessment software, allowing HR professionals to test cognitive ability or personality before moving to the next step.
Connecting hybrid hiring teams
Companies need a comprehensive system to review job candidates objectively. This often involves a lot of back and forth between hiring staff and leaders. Businesses with low-volume hiring needs may use project management systems to organize applicant information and track internal conversations. But, an ATS offers purpose-built tools.
Besides in-app communication with applicants, ATS software supports internal collaboration between hiring team members. Professionals can tag others in candidate profiles and assign them tasks. Teams can share notes and interview transcripts or videos. Automatic notifications keep leaders informed and the candidate moving along the pipeline.
Reducing administrative burdens and costs
Manual tasks and paperwork increase the time-to-hire and reduce the effectiveness of your process. HR professionals spend significant time searching for applicants, filtering applications, contacting candidates, and scheduling interviews. Each task must be documented and possibly signed off on.
Automating the hiring process allows teams to focus on human-intensive recruiting efforts, like interviews. Indeed, over 40% of employers told ZipRecruiter that “they set up automated responses to applicants in their applicant tracking system” to improve hiring processes.
Applicant tracking software helps your business reduce administrative costs in the following ways:
- Eliminating manual job board posting.
- Filtering out irrelevant resumes and applications.
- Automating initial and follow-up responses.
- Organizing candidate information in one place.
- Supporting applicant self-service scheduling.
- Providing templates for job descriptions, rejections, and offer letters.
- Automatically tracking an applicant’s status.
- Adhering to a custom approval process.
[Read more: What Tools Do Hiring Managers Use?]
Providing actionable insights
You can’t improve a talent pipeline based on a gut feeling. Businesses require data to better understand trends and patterns. ATS software benefits executive leaders and hiring managers by supplying reports, notifications, and real-time dashboards with role-specific metrics. Most systems provide interactive tools with graphs and charts showing the average time spent on hiring, the cost per new hire, and the most effective job boards.
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