Excerpt: All recruiters should focus on making their recruiting and hiring process more efficient and quicker, and there’s no better way to do it than by incorporating technology and its tools in their work. ATS is one of the most preferred software in the recruitment industry, and we have listed in the article the eight features you should be focusing on while choosing one for your agency.
Technology has revolutionized the process of recruitment and hiring. We have multiple software today that help us to keep track of our goals. It is evident how technology has gained an even essential and more significant role in the recruitment industry in the past few years. Everyone is competing with everyone, so one must do proper research about any tool before using it. It is also understandable that one might be hesitant to trust tools that they are entirely unfamiliar with, which is why we have decided to help you out and have done the research for you.
Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) helps in making recruiting more effortless and a lot faster. It filters out all the applications that do not fit the candidate’s profile you are looking to fill up any open position. The filter works accordingly with the demands your client has put forward. This saves time on the recruiter’s end, and the recruiter can, in turn, redistribute their time to other phases that may require his attention. The software helps one with screening and shortlisting as well. The software that you will find in the market today will have even more additional features ingrained in them. They will also provide you with features to schedule interviews and maintain a good rapport with your client for whom you are recruiting and your candidate. Today, most large corporations rely on some recruitment software, so it’s high time one abandons the traditional and time-consuming recruitment techniques and gets software to do most of the tasks for them. Faster and more efficient service will help you build a brand for yourself and your agency. We have decided to help you with this and have listed down eight features that you should look for in an ATS before you choose the one most suitable for your agency:
1. User-Friendly
For any platform to be accessible to everyone and equally provide service to those unfamiliar and those who are used to such software, they must have a user-friendly interface. If a customer finds it easier to navigate around by themselves on your website or mobile application, then it is bound for them to keep coming back. A user-friendly interface helps users locate and interact with all the features of the software quickly. In addition, it will help bring in newer potential customers and help showcase that you prioritize your clients’ preferences and that you make sure that they won’t have to face any problems with the interface.
2. Employee Referral
An employee referral holds a lot of value and often dost most of the hectic work required in the first stage of recruitment. When employees from the organization looking to fill up an open position themselves refer to someone, it is essential to know that they will be prioritized even in the long run. As the aforementioned, referrals help make recruitment easier, which is why if the ATS you choose to invest in prioritizes the candidates and their applications that the employees of the organization have referred to. This will help streamline your work and make the whole process a lot quicker, so look for an Applicant Tracking System with an integrated employee referral system.
3. In-Built Analytics Tools
An ATS that comes along with an in-built tool for data analytics and reporting is much more preferable. It helps you keep up with your client’s demands and allows you to change your product or service according to their demands and expectations. It is also essential to get an insight from time to time to see how the different activities you have assigned for different stages of recruitment are performing. Therefore, it is more profitable to choose software that provides real-time reports about your recruitment process and its activities. It helps you keep an eye out for the competitors and analyze the market every once in a while.
4. Scheduling & Managing Interviews
We are finally discussing the stage of the process that is considered to be the most exhausting. It is crucial to maintain a form of continuous communication between you and your pool of candidates to know about the progressions and regressions and help conclude who is the best candidate. In recruitment, this is usually done through several rounds of interviews. To know what is in your client’s best interests and what kind of person would suit their company the best is necessary, and interviews help you get to know that. A candidate should not be judged only based on their technical skills, and this is why one-on-one interactions help one get to know each other. An ATS that schedules and manages your interviews for you is a must and is also one of the most basic features in all ATS, so you must know what you are looking for.
5. Customer Support Service
The key to offering quality support service to all of your customers is by making sure that the line of communication between you and your client never gets disrupted. Maintaining a continuous flow of communication on both sides is essential and helps build trust in the customer. Trust is important in any form of business as that is what brings in loyal customers. So please look into if the support service offered by the company is 24/7 available and caters to you at all times or not before you decide to invest in any software.
6. An Integrated CRM
As the name implies, Candidate Relationship Management Software (CRM) helps you keep track of your candidates and be up to date with them at all times. It helps build and maintain relationships with the candidates, and it is considered a bonus point if the ATS you have chosen for your agency comes with an integrated CRM. It helps save time and money while also increasing your productivity and is of extensive use during a hiring freeze. Suppose you have all the software you need to make recruitment faster and easier on one platform. In that case, you will have access to all of them and won’t have to go on another search-hunt the next time you are looking for CRM software, so research around and make sure that your ATS is flexible enough.
7. Security
Your software needs to be stable and secure at all times to ensure seamless workflow. The database has to be protected from external threats or internal mishaps at all costs so that the overall flow of work doesn’t get disturbed. One is advised to check the reviews to know if the other users of the software had to deal with any problems related to cyber security or not to have the best idea about this.
8. Automated Workflow
Automation means letting your software take over most parts of your job that you might have otherwise done manually and wasted a lot of time and resources upon. This leads to an increase in productivity and better results, along with a more collaborative workflow. Any good ATS software should have an effective automation tool that should also help in customizing the workflow or how to create a workflow . This helps centralize all the work on one platform for all the departments that influence how the recruitment process will progress.
We would also suggest checking out the reviews for any ATS before you decide to invest in them. Several reviewing sites like Capterra and many more can help you get a glimpse of what you are about to get yourself into. Be mindful and know beforehand that there are often many fake reviews even on the most trusted websites, so know how to tell them apart. Happy recruiting!