Around 99% of Fortune 500 organizations utilize applicant tracking systems (ATSs) for hire. 

Additionally, as per the same report, ATS users make up 86% of recruiters who claim they can fill positions more quickly. 

Both candidates and recruiters benefit from the exceptional user experience that ATS provides, which makes the hiring process simpler for everyone involved. Changing to an ATS can shorten the hiring process and make it easier to locate qualified candidates. 

What aspects of the recruiting process can an ATS enhance, and how exactly does it occur? 

applicant tracking system (ATS)

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Six ways an applicant tracking system (ATS) can aid your search for the best employees in 2023

An applicant tracking system (ATS) makes it simple and streamlined for employers to locate and hire prospects. Want to discover how? 

Our article will delve more into an ATS, its advantages, and how it gives companies a competitive edge in the quick-paced staffing sector.

1. Create a conduit for talent

With the help of an ATS, your HR team can create a talent pool so that when a position opens up, you won’t have to spend time scouting candidates – since you’ll already possess a pool of skilled individuals at your disposal.

By keeping all the applicant details in the ATS, you may create this funnel. The available funds typically govern hiring decisions in your company. Thus, it’s critical to draw attention to a strong candidate who you believe isn’t suitable for your present role but whose skills you may require in the long term.

Save the information for each of these contenders, then aggregate the data over time. Get in touch with them again when you believe their profile fits your vacant positions. Therefore, your chances of discovering the best talent grow when you possess a buffer of a strong candidate stream.

Additionally, by providing your team with quick and simple exposure to discussions, documents, and applicant details, an applicant tracking system (ATS) embodies cooperation. You can take notes during each meeting and assess the quality of the candidate’s answers to your queries. 

The applicant profile is correlated to every piece of input you provide, keeping your files tidy and preventing you from losing sight of where your data is. Since all people must do to examine the most recent information on the prospect they’re evaluating is bring up their profile, it gives recruiting managers peace of mind as they get right into conversations with applicants. 

Following the session, your staff can evaluate the applicant according to their evaluation and provide their own input, advancing your pipelines and assisting to focus your employee hunt.

2. Promote your firm’s career page

ATSs aren’t simply tools for managing candidate applications. Additionally, the method might assist you in luring top employees. Interestingly, your career account is where the hiring process begins and determines the types of resumes you receive.

You can advertise your job on your careers website. Include all the information that enhances working at your company on this page. Display all of the positive aspects of your business, ethos, and clientele.

Excellent talent is encouraged to submit applications to your organization when your career website is fully customized and promoted.

For instance, Freshteam’s software streamlines the hiring procedure into a single piece of software, saving recruiters’ time from jumping between tabs. With just one platform, they can establish career sites, generate jobs, and post them to job sites and social networks.

Since individuals can log their recommendations and recruiters can observe and maintain track of applicants, it serves as a one-stop destination for the entire business. Once all parties involved are in agreement, collaboration takes on a framework, and offering fantastic recruiting experiences stops being a utopian dream and starts being an actuality.

3. Cut down on costs and time with a streamlined process

For recruitment teams, increasing recruiter performance is a prime focus. The quicker resumes can be reviewed by employers, the quicker positions may be filled. Process acceleration and time savings are both dependent on technology. 

An applicant tracking system (ATS) could assist by automating laborious tasks, such as:

  • Posting job openings on social media and job sites
  • Scheduling emails for follow-up
  • Tracking the answers of candidates

In addition to saving time, such automated operations are much more precise and trustworthy than the manual entry of data. Additionally, they lower the cost of hiring by 60% and increase recruiter production efficiency by 80%.

All applicants receive step-by-step registration instructions from an ATS. It provides guidance on how to take examinations, submit supporting materials, and finish applications, allowing individuals to apply in a timely manner.

An ATS enhances the standard of the overall application procedure by serving as a reputable and reliable venue, which benefits not just the first stages of the hiring process.

Quickly screen candidates to save precious hours

The capability of the ATS to quickly and accurately screen applicants is among its strongest characteristics. You now have the mobility to analyze and assess applications even when you’re on the move thanks to this feature. 

Even for a single job vacancy, hiring managers are aware of how difficult it’s to keep up with all the candidatures and resumes which arrive at their desks. When you increase that by two, three, or more unfilled posts, it’s easy to understand how this duty may become too much to handle.

By screening resumes as they’re received, an ATS alleviates your burden. As a result, you won’t be wasting time screening resumes for unqualified applicants. The advantages of ATSs go beyond basic scanning and sorting options, such as real-time comments and discussions of prospective candidates. 

As a prospective employer, you can quickly remark on a person’s attributes you appreciate, and don’t care for. This input will be available to all teammates, ensuring complete openness and agreement as you proceed with your recruitment strategies.

4. Schedule and support interviews

Standardizing applicant interaction is a key component of an effective recruiting approach. Keeping track of discussions with hundreds of candidates can easily turn into a hassle. However, there’s no reason to worry. 

You can guarantee that you’ll never allow applicants to miss out on an opportunity with an applicant tracking system (ATS). You can manage your schedule and maintain track of conversation logs through an ATS. Inside the application, you can easily arrange discussions and notify everyone who will be taking part. 

This implies that once it concerns interview scheduling, you aren’t required to be concerned about skipping calls or keeping candidates waiting. Everyone is kept up to date throughout the entire process thanks to these strong scheduling capabilities.

Additionally, built-in feedback features allow you to write notes regarding interviews and prospects, keeping your team informed about the types of queries to pose and qualities to search for. 

It goes without saying that once your team analyzes a predetermined list of attributes while posing meaningful questions, interviews turn out better. You can employ score-based assessments and make better hiring selections thanks to your ATS.

5. Utilize dashboards for talent metrics

Without a question, an applicant tracking system (ATS) aids you at each step of the hiring process. However, its main objective remains to simplify the process of handling and tracking applicant applications. You must use your dashboard to the fullest extent possible in order to achieve talent acquisition needs.

You can access all the essential candidate information on the platform, including geography, expertise, talents, and sector. Then, depending on their application materials and pre-employment diagnostic testing, rate and grade the prospective candidates using filters.

To locate the applications that are compatible with your existing available positions, this process will assist you to reduce the number of applicants.

6. Get rid of duplicate tasks through automation

Streamline the routine and get rid of the unneeded. An ATS provides processes for hiring that allow you to completely customize your recruitment. You can make sure your technologies operate for your firm if you have that degree of authority over your tech.

With the correct applicant tracking system (ATS), you may automatically allocate and delegate duties to keep the recruiting team focused while ensuring that your employment process runs seamlessly. You can easily observe what level each applicant is at during hiring thanks to the insights provided by your ATS.

It takes time to write, distribute, and manage emails, particularly when managing dozens of candidates. You can control when messages are distributed to prospects by using the correct ATS, which allows you to generate email response draughts and layouts. 

Select a theme from your existing collection, specify the receiver, and set the delivery window. This mechanism lets you create a smooth employee experience that maintains the applicant impression top of mind while saving your staff numerous hours responding to candidates.

Creating customized job offers utilizing pre-populated layouts is another aspect of the ATS that employers adore. Such templates allow you to adapt and personalize communications that prospects want while freeing you from frequently writing appointment letters. 

An ATS enables you to keep these papers in one centralized spot, similar to the way you work with other data, ensuring continuity and usability throughout your company.

With an ATS, achieve customization from the very beginning

Since every organization is unique, each one needs its own strategies to succeed. With an applicant tracking system (ATS), you can alter how the software identifies, evaluates, and interacts with applicants from the first contact to the acceptance of a letter of offer. 

It entails developing unique workflows for every job posting, customizing your job page, adding customized fields to recruitment information, and building powerful, adaptable reporting – which is essential for assessing and improving your employment procedure.