Why Every Business Needs an Applicant Tracking System
TechsPlace | There is a shortage of qualified candidates. In an extremely competitive market, recruiters are challenged to find the best applicants. Most talented candidates with the most sought-after skills can shop around for the company that best meets their needs and offers the best contract. If you don’t have an applicant tracking system (ATS), then that’s not likely to be your company. Even though you can use manual methods such as a spreadsheet, this is a time-consuming approach unlikely to provide an optimal candidate experience. If you want your company to be the first choice for candidates, you need an applicant tracking system.
A candidate tracking system can improve the recruitment process in six ways:
- Hire faster by speeding up the hiring process
- Improve the quality of candidates you source
- Analyze recruitment results
- Candidate experience should be improved
- Collaboration should improve
- The process of hiring should streamline
Shorten the hiring process
All candidate information about your hiring process can be centrally stored in one place, giving you access to all the information you need to make better and more informed decisions. By doing so, you can quickly see what actions need to be taken and when, as well as move candidates smoothly through the various stages of a workflow.
Since workflows can customize, you can set up the optimal applicant management process for each open position rather than using the same stages for all roles. A leading applicant tracking system, such as Breezy HR, can also automate the next actions to speed up the hiring process even further.
By eliminating manual pipeline checks, you never leave candidates in the dark about their applications, and you save time. You can, for example, assign candidates to a hiring manager or send an automated email or SMS when they apply for a job. As part of the interviewing process, you can choose to use employee evaluation techniques and ask your team for feedback.
Find candidates of higher quality
A major headache for recruiters is locating and acquiring talent. Unlike well-known companies, smaller companies cannot rely on their brand name to attract candidates. Rather than waiting for candidates to apply, recruiters often have to seek them out proactively.
There are many ways in which applicant tracking software can help you find better candidates. A marketing campaign geared toward a specific audience can be the start. Social media channels and Google will display your job openings based on demographic information, such as location and title.
In addition to listing available positions, candidate tracking systems enable you to build up your employer brand by showcasing your work culture and perks and letting candidates subscribe to updates when new positions are posted.
ATS tracking systems such as Workable can help you find the best candidates for each job opening more quickly. Auto-Suggest uses artificial intelligence to search public online profiles in order to find candidates who match your job description’s skills and requirements.
Using Facebook makes these people aware of the job and encourages them to apply using highly targeted campaigns.
Monitor recruitment performance
It’s impossible to spot ways to improve your recruitment process or do more of what’s working if you don’t know how effective it is. You should set up metrics that you want to track before you start recruiting so you can monitor recruitment performance.
The following metrics should track:
- Hiring time has come
- Sources of candidates
- Stages of the process
- Stage-by-stage dropout rate
Your workforce planning and forecasting will be more accurate if you know details such as how long it will take you to recruit for certain positions. Zoho Recruit’s free applicant tracking system offers built-in reports that help you easily compile hiring data and present it visually for better understanding.
Develop a better candidate experience
A candidate’s first impression of your organization is formed in the recruitment process. Your business will not get a good impression if you take weeks to reply, reschedule interviews often, and communicate haphazardly. You can be sure they’ll leave the hiring process and tell others about their experience.
Through an applicant tracking system, you can allow candidates to schedule their own interviews rather than requiring a lot of back and forth to secure dates. Since they are already in your system, you don’t forget about them after all.
As a result, your communication becomes faster and more accurate, and your company appears well-run and organized. An applicant tracking system (ATS) such as ApplicantPro allows you to communicate directly with candidates. Email or SMS are both available to you according to the preferences of your candidates. It allows you to offer a coherent candidate experience by storing all messages (and candidates’ replies).
Collaboration should improve
It takes more than one person to find the right candidate. Members of your hiring team should provide input, advice, and help, and each member of the team should be aware of what is going on. What would it look like to a candidate if two different people from the hiring team contacted them to schedule an interview?
By using an ATS, you can grant access based on roles so that everyone in the company is able to access the information they need. Recruiting team members can discuss candidates more easily, and you can make joint decisions about whether to move candidates forward. Your recruitment strategy and status of job openings are also on the same page.
The process of recruiting should be simplified
There are almost always unnecessary steps in the recruiting process. It’s unnecessary to have two screening calls with a candidate. What is the point of asking candidates to attend three in-person interviews? There are two sides to this process. Recruiting the right candidate isn’t just about you; the candidate also decides whether or not to join your company.
A candidate tracking system will allow you to see the various stages and workflows involved in attracting, screening, and hiring candidates. With this information, you can streamline your hiring process so it does not overwhelm candidates and your hiring team.
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