5 Useful Qualities Of Applicant Tracking Systems

Hiring today is different from what it was twenty or even ten years ago. Everything is more automated, background checks are more important than ever, and tracking systems can streamline the process to simplify life for hiring managers.

If you haven’t yet tried working with applicant tracking systems (ATS), we’d like to point out the many benefits you’ll enjoy from such a system. Know that you can outsource ATS services, which means your company does not have to invest in its own dedicated systems or software. Outsourcing can simplify the hiring process, enabling you to tap into dedicated expertise without having to invest a large amount of time or money implementing a system internally.

Here are five useful qualities employers find in applicant tracking systems that have been designed well and implemented correctly.

Interview Schedulers

When you post a job, you may get hundreds of applicants for the position. Without ATS integrations, it would take a great deal of time to review every single resume and application. The applicant tracking system, however, can do this for you automatically. It will screen all of the applicants, searching for the keywords and terms that you’ve specified and alerting you of matches.

Beyond this, a good system will include interview schedulers. If you or your recruiting manager tries to schedule an interview the old-fashioned way, you’ll be playing a great deal of email and phone tag; this is a wasteful way of going about the process. Instead, work with ATS tracking tools that handle interview scheduling for you. ATS integrations with popular scheduling applications will greatly simplify the process of setting up interviews with your top candidates, and neither you nor your hiring manager will be wasting time trying to pin down a mutually available time for each candidate. Your applicant tracking system’s interview scheduling features will do that for you automatically.

Social Recruiting Capabilities

More and more applicants are turning to social media as part of their job hunt. This means that you need a convenient way of promoting your job openings on social media to reach your ideal candidates. It’s called social recruiting, and your ATS integrations must allow you to share your job posts on multiple social media platforms automatically.

Social sharing extends your reach; your ideal candidate may not see your post on a job board, but if their best friend sees it on Facebook or LinkedIn and sends them an alert, they’ll come across it and may even apply for it. Never underestimate the power of social media!

Mobile Optimization

Job candidates increasingly rely on their smartphones for every step of the job hunting process. They conduct job searches, narrow down possibilities, send resumes and cover letters, and track email all via cell phones. For this important reason, the ATS tools you use for your hiring and employment screening process need to be optimized for mobile devices. Make it easy for candidates to apply; make your job applications mobile-friendly.

Automated Communications

Very little frustrates job applicants more than applying for a job, getting excited about the possibilities, and then never hearing back from the company. Even if you’re not interested in an applicant, they deserve a response. An applicant tracking system with automated communications capabilities can be set up to reply to every declined applicant, without you having to be involved in the process beyond drafting the short email message the system will then deliver for you automatically.

Candidate engagement is important; word travels, and when applicants learn that your company has a reputation of responding to everyone, more people will be willing to follow through and complete the application process. This is important to you, because the more people that apply, the higher your chances of finding the perfect fit for your open position. Being known as the company that communicates well will encourage more applicants to reach out to you and take action on your new job postings.

Onboarding Tools

So far we’ve talked primarily about recruiting candidates, scheduling interviews, communicating with applicants, and having important employment recruiting and screening tasks handled automatically. But what about after you find and extend an offer to your perfect candidate? Your applicant tracking system doesn’t have to stop working for you once an applicant has accepted your offer. In fact, the ATS can continue to serve you well by simplifying and streamlining the next steps via onboarding tools.

What do these tools look like, and how can they help you complete the hiring process and bring your new employee up to speed quickly? Here are several ways that onboarding ATS features can help you, your hiring department, and your new hire:

• Complete All The Necessary Paperwork Online: After accepting your job offer, your new hire will have to fill out a ton of paperwork. Through ATS integrations, these forms can be filled out online, and the ATS can easily keep track of what’s been completed and what still needs to be taken care of.
• Automated Welcome Procedure: Onboarding tools streamline this procedure, filling in the new hire about important information regarding your company and their job, without the hiring manager having to take valuable time to explain everything all over again each time a new hire joins the company.
• Streamline Introductions: Especially if your company is large and there are many key individuals the new hire needs to be made aware of, having all this information easily accessible online during the onboarding process will make it easier for new hires to familiarize themselves with these principal roles.
• Training And Orientation: Over time, new hires will be collaborating closely with team members and learning details specific to their job. Initially, though, training and orientation will be more general and non-specific, and the ATS can automatically deliver the introductory training and orientation required to get the new hire off to a good start.

Reach Out To NationSearch For Help

Ready to see how ATS integrations can streamline and vastly improve your hiring process? Contact NationSearch! We deliver reliable, accurate employment screening services, including applicant tracking system services that will help you locate, hire, and onboard the ideal candidate faster. To learn more, reach out to NationSearch today!