Now, HR professionals are using the software and don’t have to worry about spending hours and hours organizing a ton of paperwork.
However, although the Applicant tracking system
(ATS) has been around for two decades, not every recruiter actually uses it. Back then, an ATS seemed to be another luxury device to use, but now, it is more of a necessity than a luxury.
Over 95% of Fortune 500 companies use an ATS to simplify the hiring process and to be able to manage thousands of daily applications.
Without further ado, we will show you the top four reasons you need an ATS for your business.
Let’s dive right in!
4 reasons why you need an applicant tracking system (ATS)
1. Saves time
An Applicant tracking system saves HR recruiters lots of time only by automating the tasks that once required manual work. Before the ATS was introduced, recruiters would lose many hours to check every application and write down what they had to remember. 75% of large companies will use an ATS to rank resumes even before a recruiter sees them!
If you were to post a job poster, it would be easier than it once used to. There can be thousands of applications, but the ATS will check all applications. The truth is that before mobile phones and the internet existed, there weren’t as many applicants for a job as there are now, but it was still hard to check hundreds of applications manually as the recruiter wasn’t the only person to decide if they should hire the candidate or not.
The ATS will store resumes, create profiles of the applicant, screen them and then eliminate all of the unqualified applicants based on how you requested it to do so. The only job you have to do is pick who is qualified and continue with that. After unqualified members are eliminated, it becomes easier to scan through applications manually.
Applicant tracking systems can also automate communication with potential candidates without losing personal interactions. Additionally, it can also automatically schedule an interview.
You are saving even more time than you think!
2. Saves you money
Many recruiters won’t know how much money an ATS can save you. The average amount of money companies lose in the hiring process ranges anywhere from $3000 to $4000 per year. That is quite a significant number regarding only the hiring process, and this number will double if you post more job openings.
So to solve this problem, the ATS has three methods in which it helps you reduce costs. Here they are:
- Automating tasks
- Building talent pools
- Finding the right candidates
If you are an old-school recruiter that has been in the industry for over 15 years, you would understand how much an ATS would save you money regarding the number of hours you spend on finishing tasks manually. Time is money, so the less time you spend on tasks, the more money you are saving to do more productive things.
The second method is building talent pools. Now, with talent pools, an ATS has the power to build and maintain them without you having to intervene. If over 1000 applicants apply for a job, the ATS will pick a few qualified people to add to the talent pool. This way, you have a good number of excellent candidates long before you have another job opening.
By building and maintaining talent pools, the ATS allows recruiters to focus on hiring the right applicant, not wasting time and money to go through CVS. In short, they can continue to the last phase of recruitment.
So, the third method of how an ATS saves you money includes finding suitable candidates. Before the ATS existed, businesses would spend vast amounts of money on setting up ads, strategies and even pay other agencies to find the right candidate. That isn’t really common anymore and significantly impacts your financial resources.
An ATS would only find out where the qualified candidates come from and how they are the right fit for the job. The ATS does this by setting the years of experience, location, skills, and other minimum requirements that the employer requires.
So, for example, if someone applied to the job and had one year of experience and the requirements are three years, or different skillsets than the job poster requires, the ATS would automatically reject the candidate.
3. Improves overall candidate experience
An ATS improves the overall experience for both the candidate and the recruiter by enabling communication with all candidates throughout every phase of the hiring process, even after it!
According to research, one of the most significant issues candidates face when applying for a job is the lack of communication from employers. Over 80% of applicants mentioned that the main thing that bothered them when they applied for a job was getting no response. This experience would improve if employers continuously communicated with them.
To add to that, many applicants are now applying through job-applying apps such as LinkedIn, Indeed, and more. LinkedIn is considered to be a business social media platform, mainly where a hiring manager can communicate with an applicant. If you spend enough time on the platform, you will see many posts from candidates expressing their anger at how they never got a response from the employer.
An ATS will automatically respond to candidates with a series of email templates, especially a built-in system, to solve these issues. Through each phase of the hiring process, candidates will receive an email either asking them to proceed to the next phase or an email that they didn’t get accepted.
Furthermore, most Applicant tracking systems will also send emails after the job opening is closed. These emails include other job openings or a follow-up email of the latest news within the company previous candidates applied to.
Never forget that people want to work with someone who uses technology to their advantage. So, whenever you communicate with all applicants, you are being different from many other employers. This is the advantage you have and how it directly improves your company’s image.
4. Protects you against the law
One of the best reasons you should use an applicant tracking system is its ability to do everything legally and not go against the law and regulations.
The ATS will ensure that all employers can show their equal opportunity employers, ensuring that there is no discrimination upon selecting any applicants. Regarding these laws, compliance is to be ensured depending on which region you live in:
- For EU companies: an ATS will have to follow the GDPR, a law that protects the privacy and personal data of EU citizens. Any employer within the EU who goes against the GDPR will pay significant fines. Often, this is employers who use personal data without permission.
- For US employers: the ATS will need to follow regulations set by the EEOC (The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) and The CCPA (California consumer privacy act). The EEOC provides laws and policies that each employer within the US has to follow regarding employee discrimination; Thus, the EEOC protects all employees against it by law. Discrimination will usually include favoring one candidate over the other regarding race, sexual orientation, gender, and much more. The CCPA is similar to the GDPR, which protects personal data and the privacy of US citizens.
Some companies don’t know about every law that a government states. Although, the ATS can be regulated to proceed with selections without going against these laws. The possibility for human beings to be biased and commit errors while selecting candidates is possible, but not with the ATS.
Wrapping it up
We come to an end for this article. Hopefully, you now understand the importance and reasons you need an applicant tracking system in your business. Even though it has been around for two decades, many businesses (especially small ones) refuse to install it.
This article states the four main reasons why you should use the ATS and goes into an in-depth review with each reason stated. Especially if you are a large company, going through hundreds to thousands of applications isn’t easy at all.
Your time and money are the most valuable assets within your company, so if a human being isn’t the one to help you out with it, the ATS will definitely do it for you. Long gone are the days when you spend hours going through applicants and investing in ads and strategies to find potential candidates for a job opening.
