What does one look for in the perfect Applicant Tracking System? This could be a question you're asking yourself after wasting far too much of your HR team's effort on sourcing and evaluating potential candidates for a role.
In this article, We will give you some important information along with benefits and advice before you choose to buy an ATS system. Hope this can help!
Key Insights:
- Simplification and standardization: The Applicant Tracking System simplifies and standardizes the hiring process, making it easier for HR teams and hiring managers to manage recruitment activities.
- Enhanced candidate experience: Effective ATS improves the candidate experience, increasing the likelihood that candidates will accept job offers.
- Enable team collaboration: ATS plays an extremely important role in connecting team members and working on a standard process. It's essential to ensure team excellence and avoid miscommunication.
What is an ATS (Applicant Tracking System)?
An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) streamlines the hiring process by tracking candidates through each stage, ensuring recruiters have an organized approach and keeping applicants updated on their status.
An ATS automates recruitment operations, serving as a centralized hub for collecting candidate information such as CVs and applications. By leveraging automation and screening features, an ATS assists recruiters in refining the applicant pool and spotlighting the most qualified candidates by matching their profiles with job descriptions.
What makes a great ATS?
All key features of a modern Applicant Tracking System.
You will find various types of Applicant Tracking Systems with their set of features and functionalities, ranging from market niches within this one category to general diversity. Now, to decide on the right one for your organization, evaluate your current hiring needs and see which one stays within your budget.
To help you make an informed decision, here are some key functions to consider when evaluating ATS:
- Cloud-Based: A modern ATS is cloud-hosted, hence easily accessible from any place and at any time. It provides for smooth collaboration and data management without drag in the form of on-premises infrastructure.
- Job Board Integration: Good ATS integrates with numerous career job boards, allowing recruiters to post openings in a single step across a myriad of platforms. This feature aids in enhancing the reach of likely prospects.
- Resume Screening: Automated resume screening capabilities help weed out hundreds of applications to see the most relevant candidates based on predefined criteria. In this way, it accelerates the initial vetting process.
- On-Platform Collaboration: A strong ATS includes tools for on-platform collaboration. Some standard options can be Email Integration, Notes and Interview Feedback requests, which enable a hiring team to communicate, note, and make collective decisions regarding candidates, all from within the system and never having to leave.
- Evaluation: Built-in evaluation tools like interview kits enable the assessment of candidates by recruiters in a systemic way and provide an opportunity for fair and consistent evaluation using standardized forms and scoring systems.
Interview Scheduling: Integrated interview scheduling features make it easy to schedule interviews with prospects, eliminating back-and-forth communication for a seamless experience when scheduling.
Hireforce Interview schedule feature with candidate self-schedule.
Improved UI: User-friendliness is a factor that's often overlooked but is crucial for successful implementation. Even the most feature-rich software won't be effective if your team finds it difficult to use. Look for intuitive interfaces and easy navigation. Many vendors offer free trials or demos – take advantage of these to get a feel for the HR software's usability.
Hireforce's clean and customizable UI.
Hireforce Interview schedule feature with candidate self-schedule.
- Analytics: The ability to have an analytics and insights view into the recruitment process helps human resource teams keep track of important metrics, notice bottlenecks within the process, and thus make decisions based on data to improve overall efficiency.
How does an Applicant Tracking System work?
An Applicant Tracking System is one such powerful tool in changing how you run and manage candidate information. Letting an ATS automate data entry throughout a recruit's journey ensures that the Human Resources team gets time for things that count as effective connections with prospects.
From the moment a resume hits your inbox to final placement and beyond, all candidate activity is captured and organized in an ATS. This real-time data collection creates not only simplicity in workflow but also provides immense value through reporting and analytics that help in fine-tuning your recruitment strategies.
The typical recruitment process usually goes through several important stages such as screening, interview and hire/offer all of which can be managed with the help of an effective ATS. Consolidating these phases will help your company offer seamless types of experiences to both your recruitment team and candidates alike.
Why should a recruiter use Applicant Tracking System?
Save time
One of the key features of an ATS is that a recruiter can automate recurring tasks in the recruitment process. It facilitates screening resumes and also allows one-click job posting to multiple job boards. In addition, it supports the work of a recruiter while designing interviews and collecting feedback from the hiring team about a candidate; it maintains the whole workflow.
Improved collaboration and workflow integration
A cloud-based ATS ensures that all information concerning the candidates is passed to members of the team, with real-time updates on their location for ease of access. Real-time candidate tracking/profiling and status upgrades also ensure that your team is always armed with the current information.
On top of it, integrated communication tools and collaboration features make it easier to provide effective communication among the hiring team members for organized and smooth work.
Find and eliminate bottlenecks
Using ATS's advanced reporting tools can provide insightful details about your time-to-hire and time-to-fill metrics. From these insights, you can identify and attend to the bottlenecks in your hiring process with strategies on how to improve these critical metrics of your recruitment strategy.
Hireforce's comprehensive data dashboard is a valuable tool for recruiters to identify performance.
About Hireforce
Hireforce is the next recruitment software designed with simplicity, flexibility, and collaboration in mind. We equip excellent teams with robust tools to manage candidates effectively, encourage teamwork, and simplify decision-making for a better, optimal hiring experience.
Ready to level up your hiring? We're currently in Beta and offering a 6 months free trial with full features and dedicated support. Sign up now and experience the future of recruitment!
