A Definitive Guide for Recruiters on Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)

Overview of an Applicant Tracking System

Applicant Tracking Systems have become a pillar for recruiting and hiring. An ATS should be the most crucial investment for your business, as it has become an indispensable tool for all recruiters. In this

Applicant tracking systems provide a plethora of tools to save valuable time, provide a better overview of applications, automate the hiring process and enable a much more efficient and productive hiring process.

Unfortunately, recruiters come across countless daily tasks which can become time-consuming and tedious. However necessary these tasks may be, the manual handling of these tasks prevents recruiters from performing the most critical job—connecting with candidates and nurturing the employer brand.

In addition, the more time your recruiters spend on repetitive tasks, the less time they’ll get to focus on sourcing top talent.

Fortunately, we live in a technologically advanced world where intelligent programs and software can complete tasks at the tap of a button, which is where Applicant Tracking Systems come into force.

According to statistics by Capterra, 94% of recruiters and hiring professionals say their ATS or recruiting software has positively impacted their hiring process.

Simply put, Applicant Tracking Systems are software solutions that organizations and recruitment agencies can use to facilitate and streamline the recruitment process. This kind of software is an excellent way to sort and store applicant data to simplify the sourcing process for recruiters.

In addition, an ATS can help identify the ideal candidate through keywords and helps maintain an entire candidate database.

The system is designed to optimize and manage the entire hiring process. It also offers an all-in-one solution for communication throughout the hiring process, ensuring that nothing falls through the cracks.

As a result, the process becomes immaculate for both the recruiter and the candidates, further improving the candidate experience.

Top Benefits of an Applicant Tracking System

Saves Time For Hiring

One of the most prominent advantages to using an Applicant Tracking System is the level of time it cuts down for performing tasks. Time is money, and an ATS saves precisely that. An ATS automates and manages countless tasks, reducing time spent on these tasks from hours to seconds.

With a variety of valuable features, from managing emails to resume parsing, an ATS is a must-have for all the busy recruiters who waste time by manually handling these tasks.

In addition, speeding up the recruiting process significantly improves efficiency and productivity for the entire team, which helps recruiters focus on other crucial aspects of recruiting like candidate interviews and communicating with clients and candidates.

Easy Job Postings & Communication

Applicant Tracking Systems provide an all-in-one solution for your job postings and social media, so you don’t have to keep multiple tabs and windows open simultaneously. Instead of opening separate tabs for each job posting or social media platform, an ATS allows you to get an overview of all your job postings in one single place.

In addition, an Applicant Tracking System can easily integrate with popular job boards and social platforms like LinkedIn, Indeed and Monster, so you can quickly post your job ads in just a single click.

Automation Of Tasks

Automation is a gift when it comes to the advancements in technology that have taken place over the years. Thanks to automation and AI technology, the tasks that used to take hours are now completed within seconds.

With the help of an ATS, recruiters no longer have to scan through piles of applications and resumes. Automation does the work by seamlessly scanning through candidate files and information, presenting you with the most relevant data.

Enhances Candidate Experience

It’s pretty evident that an Applicant Tracking System is a lifesaver for recruiters, but it also leaves a positive impact on your candidates! When recruiters work with much more efficiency and productivity, without a doubt, it leaves a positive impact on candidates as well.

In fact, studies show that 69% of candidates would like to see improvement in employer response time. Using an ATS can attract a larger pool of candidates by keeping them in the loop with communication updates!

With so much time being saved with the help of an ATS, recruiters are left with more time to focus on candidates and interviews. In addition, an ATS helps improve communication by providing a single space for all your communication and social needs, which directly enhances the candidate experience. Communication is key when it comes to a positive candidate experience, and an ATS provides just that!

Improves Cost-Per-Hire and Candidate Quality

Research shows 78% of recruiters who use an ATS have improved the quality of candidates they hire as well as improving their cost-per-hire.

Applicant Tracking Systems reduce the manual efforts to fill a position by automating a majority of tasks. This reduces cost-per-hire and makes your hiring process more effective. If you use an ATS to speed up your hiring process, you’ll increase your chances of attracting highly coveted candidates.

In addition, enhanced communication through an ATS allows recruiters to build a rapport with candidates, which can play a significant role in their acceptance for a position.

How Does an ATS Function?

An Applicant Tracking System is powered by AI technology that enables searching and sorting resumes and applications using keywords entered by the recruiter. An applicant tracking software sorts and stores applicant data to streamline the sourcing process and make it more straightforward for recruiters.

Once the resume is sourced, recruiters can evaluate it based on qualifications, experience and skill matches before determining if the candidate is a suitable fit for the position. Recruiters can also filter out candidates based on specific skills, educational backgrounds and work experience.

Best ATS Features

Powerful Search & Filtering Capabilities

A powerful candidate search in recruitment lets you leverage large databases like LinkedIn, Indeed and Google to perform searches that find relevant candidates quickly. It’s a massive time-saver, and a powerful tool for sourcing ideal profiles—allowing prime candidates to be identified and hired for positions faster!

Job Posting Board

A job posting board allows you to post and stay updated on open job position postings on different websites and platforms. This feature in an applicant tracking system allows recruiters to directly post on social media platforms through one page instead of keeping track of multiple accounts and tabs.

In addition, this feature makes it easy to keep track of all your postings on job boards and social media by providing a single place where information can be filled in all at once to help market your open positions.

Integrations

A crucial factor that should be considered when investing in an applicant tracking system is the availability of integrations. When an ATS easily integrates with social media, other software, job boards and email, the hiring process becomes much more streamlined and manageable. This way, you won’t have to keep multiple windows open, which can become confusing.

A good applicant tracking system should contain the necessary integrations; otherwise, you’ll end up with a fragmented system that makes the hiring process even more complicated. Here are some integrations that are usually present in most applicant tracking systems:

• • • Job boards
    • Email and other communication apps
    • Social media platforms
    • Your website

Resume Parsing

Recruiters receive piles of applications, resumes and other candidate data on a day to day basis. In addition to this, segregating the relevant data from the sea of information can be an uphill task. The conventional route requires hours of manual resume scanning to obtain the relevant data, but this process has become much more simplified with resume parsers.

A resume parser completes the task of resume assessment in a much more manageable and streamlined manner. Instead of relying on the manual labour of recruiters, a resume parser automatically analyses the received resumes.

Resume parsing extracts the data of candidates onto a database where important candidate details can be identified, like keywords and contact information and turns the information into structured data. This allows recruiters to gather, store and organize large quantities of resumes online.

 

Candidate Relationship Management

An applicant tracking system has become an ideal tool for recruiters but have you ever considered integrating your ATS with a Client Relationship Management System? As a recruiter, maintaining a candidate database is a crucial part of recruiting; therefore, it’s essential to invest in an ATS that helps you manage your talent pool as well.

A CRM integration is highly essential for any recruiter. It helps maintain and create talent pools and build fruitful relationships with both active and passive candidates and current and previous candidates.

In addition, the integration of a CRM allows recruitment to become more cohesive, which further improves the recruiter and candidate experience. 

Key Takeaway On Applicant Tracking Systems

Applicant Tracking Systems have evolved in a great way. From simple tools made for gathering and parsing resumes to sophisticated software equipped with artificial intelligence and automation that can streamline the hiring process end to end. With more and more companies opting for ATS, their indispensability in recruitment is unequivocal.

An intelligent Applicant Tracking System will help raise hiring standards, cut costs, save time and enable automation in candidate sourcing and tracking. As a result, the candidate database of recruiters will be stocked with the top talent in the market, meaning a reduction in time-to-hire.

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