5 Reasons Every Company Needs an ATS

It doesn't matter if your company has 25 employees or 250...

the manual process of posting and advertising new jobs, filtering through resumes, and narrowing down candidates is time-consuming and overwhelming for whoever is in charge of hiring. Think about this, you have an open entry-level position to fill, and you get 300 resume submissions on Indeed and another 100 emailed directly to your inbox… where do you even begin?

Applicant tracking systems are the magic piece that you’ve been missing in your recruiting process.  Many times, businesses look for a quick solution to solve this challenge – they ask their HR consultants, their networks, a Google search, or inquire with their current HRIS system about an easy-to-use ATS. It can seem like a big, costly process, but it doesn’t have to be. An ATS can help filter out the candidates that don’t work for you, saving you time and money by keeping your hiring team focused on a strong talent pool. Plus, you can retain all applicant information in one easy spot for potential future openings.

Even if you aren’t filling hundreds of roles each year, an ATS can help you sort through and hire the best talent. Here are five reasons why every company (of all shapes and sizes) needs an ATS.

Reason 1: Create Positive Experiences (All Around)
Not just for you, the recruiter or hiring manager, but also for the candidate. A customizable ATS will meet all your business needs, while also making it easy for your next hires to join the team. Hiring managers can easily post jobs, screen applicants, communicate with candidates, and set up interviews. All of this while the candidate can apply on their phone, receive text updates and stay engaged in the interview process.

Reason 2: Develop Efficient Processes (That Are Repeatable) 
Stop.printing.out.resumes! Leave the manual processes in the past. Create templates to make job posting easier. Build questionnaires to quickly narrow down the candidate pool without spending hours reviewing resumes. Picture it – you are trying to fill an open role and all the resumes start to look the same. All the candidates are using the same keywords and skills. How do you narrow it down? An ATS with strong filtering features can help save your time for the best applicants.

Reason 3: Get In Front of Your Ideal Candidates
Push openings from your ATS to job boards with the click of a button and save yourself a TON of time and frustration. Job seekers are looking for positions all over the place – LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed, and even on social media. It is essential your postings are there and not just hidden on your company’s website. Plus, when all your applications land in one spot, you can say goodbye to all your individual logins and passwords.

Reason 4: Use Date & Metrics to Change What's Limiting Your Recruiting Success
Applicant tracking systems provide data to help you see how candidates are moving through the applicant funnel. With trackable disqualification reasons, you can learn where you should be spending money on postings – and where you shouldn’t! And, the best ATSs will let you see exactly why candidates opted out of working for you, too. Let’s say you keep losing candidates due to pay rate… RED FLAG. This tells you that there is an issue with your opening and it is time for you to reevaluate the salary for the position.

One of our clients noticed several top-tier applicants opting out of the process because they’d accepted another offer already. They realized their hiring managers were too slow to review candidates and let the operations team leads take over. Focused on getting help in their own departments, they spoke with the best candidates sooner. They ended up reducing candidate losses and filling open roles more quickly, to boot.

Reason 5: Improve Internal Processes You Didn't Know Needed Help
Are hiring managers doing the right thing? What’s working and what isn’t? With an ATS, you can see when outreach to candidates is taking too long, or other bottlenecks along the way. This information can help you make important business decisions you may not have even been aware of and you’ll have the numbers to support them.  

One client studied cycle times to see how long it was taking candidates to move through the system, and ultimately get hired. They noticed a lag in the cycle times from the point of marking a candidate qualified to getting an interview scheduled. They opted to start texting candidates to try and speed things up. Candidates responded to texts much more quickly and interviews were scheduled within hours.

A lot of people think an applicant tracking system can be too expensive and difficult to implement. We understand that fear, so we built a Core Bundle that gives you everything you need to fill your open positions – easily and without breaking the bank. When you think about the costs associated with bringing on a new hire, a few hundred a month on an ATS system that does it all is worth every penny.

If you need an HR tech package that can help you post jobs quickly in more places, and filter candidates so you’re spending time with the best, our Core Bundle can help you get it done.