An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a must to automatically manage your recruiting and hiring process. But if you’re only using it to keep resumes in one place, you’re not using it to its fullest potential.
Applicant tracking software can function as a recruiter, assistant and database as it can help you find, communicate with and hire new employees faster and more efficiently than manual processes.
Top Benefits of Using an Applicant Tracking System
1. Use an ATS to Efficiently Post Jobs
Traditionally, when you need to fill a position, you write and then individually post each job description on your website’s careers page, social media channels and on job boards. Using your ATS, this process becomes much more efficient.
There are templates to follow to quickly create a job description so you’ll never have to retype the same information over and over. Plus, your descriptions will be consistent ensuring essential information won’t be accidentally missed.
Posting the job is automatically done with just a click to one job board or one hundred, without the need for third parties. Options exist to put money behind sponsored posts or simply rely on organic listings. One button also posts the position to your website’s career page and tells it to run until you say stop, eliminating the need to manually refresh.
2. Utilize ATS Data for Reporting
If you’re a federal contractor or a business that implements an affirmative action plan (AAP) reporting is required. An ATS can track all your Good Faith Recruiting Efforts to ensure you remain compliant with creating an equal opportunity workforce. ATS software can help with AAP reporting, IWD and VEVRAA federal contractor compliance and also pre-populate your voluntary surveys with specific language, including your EOE disclaimer.
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3. Use an ATS to Build a Candidate Base
There are currently 6 million unemployed workers in the United States, and with unemployment holding at just 3.7%, you have to work harder to find candidates. With the amount of data an ATS holds, you already have a large amount of candidate data at your fingertips. Not only does it store the essential information on the candidates you’ve hired but also the ones who’ve applied. It stores:
- Candidate Name
- Contact Information
- Education
- Skills
- Uploaded Resumes
You can access this information at any time which is particularly useful for when you need to fill a position quickly, as you’ve already vetted this candidate once. Even if this candidate took another position, the’re still viable as a passive candidate.
A passive candidate is one who is working hard at their current job, but willing to look elsewhere for the right opportunity. Applicant tracking software helps recruit these passive candidates by targeting them through social media. Since passive candidates are employed, they aren’t scanning job boards. Using an ATS to post jobs to social media reaches passive candidates on the platform they already scan daily.
4. Use an ATS to Get Employees Hired Faster
An ATS can speed up the applicant process reducing applicant drop off. If it takes more than five minutes to apply for jobs through your ATS, you’re going to lose applicants. According to Indeed, applications with 20 screener questions lose 40% of candidates. It should be easy, with no login or password required, and mobile-friendly. Use your ATS to develop an online application process that is:
1. Short and Simple. Keep it less than five minutes. Allow candidates to upload resumes and have their basic information populate automatically.
2. Mobile. If applicants can’t apply with their phones, you’re going to lose them during the process.
3. Login-free. A strategic ATS shouldn’t require a password. Just this one change will land more applicants and fewer dropoffs.
If you have an ATS and you feel like you’re not getting enough out of it, contact us. We’re happy to answer questions and help you figure out how to make your applicant tracking software work for you.
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