Hiring groups can solely appeal to the most effective expertise through the use of the most effective instruments. They want software program constructed for his or her distinctive wants. That’s the place an applicant monitoring system (ATS) is available in.
Recruiting groups use applicant monitoring techniques to handle job candidates and transfer candidates via the hiring funnel. Nonetheless, the time period “ATS” will get tossed round a lot that it’s even used to label options that don’t match the precise ATS definition. This error could lead expertise leaders to put money into the incorrect tech.
On this information, we’ll equip your workforce with every little thing it’s essential choose the best ATS, answering regularly requested questions, debunking ATS myths, and reviewing our beneficial supplier.
Applicant monitoring system FAQs
What’s an applicant monitoring system?
An applicant monitoring system is a user-friendly answer used to trace energetic candidates who apply for job openings and passive prospects recruiters proactively interact for open roles via all the recruiting course of — from resume-reviewing and interview-scheduling to feedback-compiling and offer-extension.
Have a look at the expertise acquisition (TA) tech stacks that Fortune 500 corporations use. For 99% of them, you’ll discover a best-in-class applicant monitoring system proper on the heart, serving to recruiters to higher determine and have interaction certified candidates and expertise leaders to investigate workforce efficiency.
What you received’t discover of their tech stacks, nevertheless, are legacy applicant monitoring techniques that deter environment friendly recruiting and hiring, stopping TA specialists from being extremely productive and collaborative. Because the Lever ATS purchaser information highlights:
“An old-school ATS helps recruiters evaluation functions and resumes, and transfer job seekers via the interview course of. Additionally they allow recruiters and different hiring stakeholders to rent for key roles. As soon as this course of is over, although, all that information disappears right into a black gap, turning into inaccessible and unusable for expertise groups.”
A number one ATS is an indispensable recruitment and hiring platform that each group — no matter business, measurement, or enterprise mannequin — must fill key positions throughout their corporations.
What are the misconceptions about applicant monitoring techniques?
Should you’ve been within the expertise acquisition house for a while, you would possibly already know every little thing there’s to learn about ATS — or so that you suppose. In actuality, you may need been misled by these ATS myths, however no worries — we’ve busted them for you.
- Synthetic intelligence (AI) dictates which candidates TA specialists interact. Whereas an AI-powered ATS can display and rank candidates based mostly on their {qualifications}, the hiring workforce nonetheless sees all choices, which means they’ve the ultimate say and might attain out to anybody they deem match.
- Recruiters attain out to prospects in bulk. An ATS doesn’t bypass the resume evaluation step altogether. As a substitute, it permits hiring groups to tailor private, focused communications extra effectively.
- The only aim of an ATS is to serve recruiters and TA professionals. In actuality, candidates have quite a bit to realize from utilizing an ATS. An ATS permits employers to nurture and join with candidates, making the method extra significant and interesting for everybody concerned.
- Solely Fortune 500 corporations want an ATS. An ATS can profit all organizations, from small companies to multinational firms. You simply want to seek out the answer that greatest enhances your finances, wants, hiring fashion, and technological prowess.
Advantages of a super applicant monitoring system
For hiring groups
1. Unifies candidate information and particulars
Reliance on disparate instruments and spreadsheets to retailer candidate data is a standard ache level for expertise acquisition groups worldwide. That mentioned, the precise ATS could be a single supply of fact and streamline your workforce’s workload.
The greatest ATS centralizes all information factors and data associated to potential hires. This helps recruiters simply discern who’s who of their database and know which prospects are price participating for sure roles.
2. Streamlines and automates duties
Not each recruiting exercise could be placed on “autopilot” via automation. Nonetheless, chances are you’ll be shocked by simply what number of of your workforce’s every day duties could be automated, eliminating a lot of the tedious guide labor concerned. For example, an ATS can mechanically ship communications, get rid of duplicate information, and schedule interviews based mostly on candidate availability.
An important ATS balances between overly automated and overly guide, ensuring you don’t compromise your human contact or worthwhile time. Main ATS suppliers like Lever assist recruiters implement guidelines and workflows and, in flip, streamline their requisition, job posting, and provide approvals.
3. Improves communication and collaboration
Poor communication and an absence of communication between recruiters and hiring managers can result in missed targets and frustration for hiring workforce members — all the way in which as much as the C-suite.
That’s a central motive that the ATS was constructed. It ensures expertise specialists can liaise intently with different hiring stakeholders to remain on the identical web page about every little thing, from which roles are high precedence at a given second to the place candidates of curiosity are of their hiring funnel.
For candidates
1. Improves transparency
Consistently reaching out to unresponsive hiring groups — whether or not they’re slowed down with work or just have an outdated ATS — can really feel irritating for candidates and make them much less prone to settle for a suggestion out of your group. Offering a transparent channel for communication permits hiring groups to contact candidates extra simply, making all the course of extra clear.
2. Enhances function matching
Some candidates determine to use to your group due to your values or repute earlier than they even know which roles can be found. Should you obtain normal functions or a candidate applies for a number of positions, an ATS can match them with the most effective positions given their {qualifications}.
3. Is accessible on-the-go
Candidates are often navigating a number of totally different utility processes without delay, on high of the opposite duties they’ve of their on a regular basis lives. Through the use of an ATS that’s accessible on the go, candidates can conveniently keep up to date on the method and attain out to your hiring workforce without having to place their cellphone down.
What options ought to a super ATS have?
Whereas an ATS is taken into account important for recruiters and hiring managers to make use of in changing candidates into candidates, not each ATS is identical.
Should you’re wanting into a brand new main ATS — ideally, one which additionally integrates with sturdy candidate relationship administration capabilities (CRM) — to exchange your present recruitment platform, you’d be sensible to put money into one that provides the options beneath:
Intuitive consumer interface (UI) to assist observe duties/candidates
Any software program supplier, no matter their goal customers, together with recruiters, entrepreneurs, or gross sales representatives, is aware of the worth of a easy and navigable UI. It goes a good distance in serving to customers simply discover the screens, filters, and data that they should simply full their recruiting duties. And but, not all of those distributors provide such an intuitive UI.
Any ATS you think about leveraging will need to have an intuitive, visually compelling UI constructed with recruiters in thoughts. You’ll be able to gauge an ATS UI by requesting a demo to expertise it your self or by studying software program critiques from unbiased third events.
Job utility and resume evaluation characteristic
As a hiring skilled, lots of your every day actions revolve round reviewing resumes and matching candidates with the best function match. Your ATS ought to make the resume evaluation course of as easy and easy as attainable, serving to you advance candidates sooner, whereas not compromising hiring high quality.
For instance, Lever presents Quick Resume Overview. This characteristic permits recruiters to arrange expertise based mostly on whether or not the employer needs to skip them, archive their data for later, or advance them shortly without having to deal with each element.
Potential to universally submit to key job boards
Many ATS join with common job boards like LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and Certainly, in addition to area of interest job communities like AngelList and GitHub. Nonetheless, not all ATS allow common posting to every of those platforms in a couple of easy clicks like Lever does.
Interview-scheduling and monitoring capabilities
Managing interview schedules for each candidates and interview panelists was a nightmare for each recruiters charged with organizing the interview cycle and the candidates themselves.
That’s not the case anymore — so long as you might have a top-rated ATS. For example, Lever clients can use Simple Guide, which permits prospects to choose days and instances for interviews that align with openings in interviewers’ schedules, because of a direct sync with their digital calendars.
Analytics capabilities to trace all the funnel
Recruitment dashboards don’t need to be overly granular and conceptual. Dashboards powered by the highest ATS observe real-time progress for quite a few aspects of the method, resembling pipeline progress, job listings, open requisitions, operations, interviews scheduled, and presents prolonged/accepted.
Candidate expertise and DEI survey instruments
You already understand how necessary range, fairness, and inclusion (DEI) is for recruitment and total organizational success, however placing DEI into apply by negating ingrained biases could be difficult.
Nonetheless, the precise ATS may also help you employ Bias Blocking expertise and amassing suggestions from candidates about how one can higher combine DEI into the hiring course of.
Constructed-in nurturing with customizable templates
As the talent-nurturing eBook for recruiters explains, “Effectively-timed, bespoke communications with candidates have confirmed to be a aggressive differentiator for expertise acquisition groups.” However it’s solely a major differentiator with an ATS that has built-in nurture performance and pre-set templates you may edit and reuse for a number of roles and groups.
Direct integration with different recruiting instruments
The perfect ATS combine with high recruiting instruments that assist you to conduct background checks, gather e-signatures from new hires, liaise with interviewers, file video interviews, and execute different very important recruiting duties. For example, Lever integrates with most of the high recruiting instruments available on the market to offer a seamless expertise to your workforce.
The best way to choose an applicant monitoring system
Now that you simply perceive why having a better of breed ATS is necessary, you is likely to be questioning how to get began. Comply with these steps to seek out the most effective match to your group’s hiring wants.
1. Establish your necessities
You is likely to be tempted to decide on the ATS that has probably the most options, however investing in additional options than you want can current challenges to your hiring workforce. To maintain your prices low and your workflows optimized, you want an answer that intently adheres to your wants. Earlier than you make any huge shopping for choices, sit down along with your workforce and determine:
- Your finances
- The time you might have out there for implementation
- What number of seats you’ll want
- What options are crucial based mostly on hiring priorities
- Consumer expertise
Nailing down your non-negotiables from the outset lets you keep centered and discover the precise answer effectively. That mentioned, making certain workforce cohesion is equally necessary. Seek the advice of all necessary events in the course of the planning course of, together with your hiring workforce, center managers, and even the C-Suite, so that you get well-rounded views of what it’s best to prioritize.
2. Think about integration capabilities
Your ATS will turn into a serious element of your every day recruiting operations, so it ought to slot in seamlessly with the construction and instruments that work greatest to your hiring groups. That’s the place software program integrations come into play. When you have present instruments that work nicely, the best ATS ought to combine with them so that you don’t need to spend intensive time transferring information between techniques.
To seek out details about integration potential, go straight to the supply on the supplier’s web site. For instance, right here’s how yow will discover out if Lever integrates along with your instruments utilizing the recruiting instruments information:
- Navigate to the Companions web page. That is the primary search web page for all of our integration companions.
- Use the collections and classes tabs. These tabs mean you can sift via the entire database, filtering to the instruments you want. Use key phrases to categorize outcomes by normal standards, resembling options or reputation, or recruitment-specific classes.
- Analysis the instrument. Earlier than you make any choices, totally evaluation every instrument’s integration course of, licensing phrases, and capabilities, so that you choose the precise one.
- Learn activation directions. When you determine on a recruiting instrument, you can begin the activation course of. Click on the “Study Extra” button in every integration’s itemizing to evaluation detailed activation directions.
Each ATS is totally different, however they need to have the same market search instrument — if not, they may not have an intensive integration catalog.
3. Request demos
No person is aware of your workforce’s preferences and strengths higher than you, which makes making an attempt the system via demos probably the most necessary elements of the decision-making course of. You’ll possible both have a guided demo or a trial interval to check the system. Regardless, it’s best to intention to reply the next questions on consumer expertise:
- Are the reporting dashboards easy and helpful?
- Are workflows customizable to funnel place?
- Are you able to simply search and filter via candidate information?
- Are you able to talk effectively with workforce members?
- Are candidate-facing parts responsive?
When you’ve answered these questions, it’s best to have a good suggestion of whether or not the ATS is practical on each your finish and your candidates.
4. Learn critiques and search exterior suggestions
Whereas company-provided sources and demos are extraordinarily necessary, they may not inform the entire story or converse to your group’s distinctive state of affairs. Flip to your friends to get trustworthy, holistic critiques concerning the answer, drawbacks and all. You’ll be able to both ask your connections in your business for his or her suggestions or use a software program evaluation web site like Capterra.
5. Think about safety, scalability, and assist
These options deserve their very own part due to how necessary they’re to your long-term success.
Earlier than signing any contracts, guarantee your answer can develop with what you are promoting, shield necessary data, and supply assist sources so you may simply prepare new workforce members.
In reality, it’s price asking the gross sales workforce or demo chief instantly if the ATS presents these options so you recognize if it’s match unquestionably.
Adopting an ATS can really feel like an awesome choice, however for those who comply with the following tips, you’ll discover the best answer to your hiring targets and challenges. Obtain the entire ATS Purchaser’s Information to get insights into the eight particular steps you and your group should take to pinpoint the precise recruiting platform to your expertise workforce.
