11 Signs That You Need An Applicant Tracking Solution

Hiring people is one of the most crucial processes in any organization. It is a lengthy and continuous process. Organizations cannot flourish and run the risk of becoming stagnant with improper recruitment. So, it becomes necessary to approach it with complete gravity. 

The selection process is nothing but reaching with proposals or requirements and attracting the right candidates. This might sound quite simple and straightforward, but it’s quite the opposite.

Right from the start, when availability is announced to on-boarding of successfully hired candidates, a lot of complexities are involved. There are various checks and approval, a lot of coordination and communication, and plenty of human elements involved in streamlining the journey of the closure of a job opening. 

Considering all that, businesses certainly don’t have spare time to try to get by with manual hiring strategies. Right processes need to be implemented to prevent any kind of undesirable moment for either applicants or the recruiters.

Wouldn’t it be great to have an all-in-one, integrated system that would make the process of recruitment seamless? In such a scenario, one absolutely wishes for it.

Many companies still face issues when it comes to hiring personnel. Below are the following clues that suggest that it’s finally time for such companies to turn their attention towards applicant tracking solution.

11 Signs That You Require an Applicant Tracking Solution 

1. Having A Hiring Plan but Lacking Solid Data to Base Your Budget of Time & Money

Multiple factors affect the hiring process from economic conditions to location and type of industry as well as work responsibility. Proper recruitment strategies involve knowing realistic timeframes.

Applicant tracking solutions provide key metrics such as ‘time to fill’ which means the time required for a job offer to get accepted after it was published. The primary aim here isn’t to reduce this time period but to allocate the resources with reliable data. 

2. Managing and Keeping Track of Applications Through Email, Spreadsheets or on Papers

It is likely that you’ll receive hundreds of applications if your company has multiple openings across different departments. This means recruiters will need to manage and correspond with all these individuals.

And on top of that, you’ll need to coordinate with interviewers and HR managers to make sure everyone remains on the same page.

This can get pretty overwhelming. Having an applicant tracking software can eliminate all these hassles. Its feature provides transparency so you can easily check where you stand at every stage of the hiring process.

3. Posting Same Vacancies on Multiple Job Portals Manually

It’s obvious that companies would want to reach out to a large number of candidates as far as possible to hire the best talents. This means the talent acquisition team has to post the openings on many job portals and social media. Doing it manually is not only a waste of time but also its repetitive and tiresome task. Applicant tracking solutions offer job posting on some of the most recognized and popular job portals in one go.

4. Getting Irrelevant Applications from Ineligible Candidates

There’s a distinct advantage in spreading the word out far and wide about your organization’s vacancies. But there’s a downside to it as well. Often times, people who are not eligible for a post ends up applying for it anyway because they misinterpret or misunderstood the information provided for the opening.

Thus, a significant amount of time is wasted in evaluating those irrelevant applications. Applicant tracking solutions can come in handy here as it allows you to prepare screening application forms in which you can put customized questions focusing on the skills you require.

Also, Read: Top 19 Recruiting Software Tools of 2020

5. Having Trouble Updating and Maintaining the ‘Careers Page’

Almost all the companies have a ‘careers’ or ‘work with us’ page on their websites as it acts as a shop window for the prospects who can check the job openings and get an idea about what it’s like to work in a company. Two out of every three applicants will go through a company’s careers page if they’re interested in working with them. It creates an impression and tells about the brand value of the company.

So it becomes mandatory to update and maintain the careers page. And doing it manually can be a tedious task because it needs frequent updates. Having an Applicant tracking solution means you can always keep careers page up-to-date with just a few clicks. Moreover, it lets you build a branded careers page without any use of coding.

6. Candidates have to Follow a Lengthy & Complex Application Process

Earlier, job aspirants were in the clutches of employers. But that’s not the case anymore. Job applicants have empowered now, thanks to the innovative technologies. These applicants expect a certain kind of candidate experience. And if your organization comes short in it, then they will simply move on elsewhere.

Complex and lengthy job application process leads to a significant amount of candidate drop-off rate. Studies show that applicants will refrain from filing an application form if it takes more than 15 minutes to complete. And as smartphones continue to expand at an unprecedented rate, more and more job applicants prefer mobile job search. Indeed, a leading job portal, revealed that more than 70% of Millennials and Gen Xers click on jobs from a mobile phone.

Hence, the benefit of having an applicant tracking software is that it allows recruitment teams to create customized, short, and simple application forms. Also, everything is optimized for mobiles. So you don’t have to worry about creating different ads for different platforms.

7. Finding Candidates is Becoming a Pain in the Neck

It is possible that your recruitment team comes across candidates who might not fit in for the current openings, but they would fit in for a role in the future. So recruiters record and store such candidate’s data. They refer to it as a candidate pool. This helps them keep track of future prospects. 

But each candidate has a unique set of data, and there could be hundreds or even thousands of such applicants. And what if you don’t have any means for searching and identifying those applicants in your candidate pool? Searching through emails, spreadsheets, resume stacks, and folders can get overwhelming. 

Applicant tracking systems provide an effective solution. With its advanced candidate search feature, you can quickly find the list of all the desirable applicants.

8. Scheduling Interviews is Becoming a Loose Cannon

The process of hiring involves a lot of email exchanges. And when it comes to scheduling interviews with applicants, the recruitment team needs to know the availability of the candidate, and then they need to align it with the availability of the interviewer.

Even after this, their work is not done as they need to inform both the parties about the date, time and place of the interview. It seems hectic, right?

Not if you employ applicant tracking tools. It integrates with digital calendars so your recruitment team can know the availability of interviewers, managers, and other staff who are needed for an interview. ATS prevents scrambling while scheduling the interviews.

9. Approaching External Recruiters for Mid-Level Hiring to Reduce Administration Hassle

External recruiters are a good source for recruiting, but they should only be approached if you’re hiring for a specialized or a higher position. Approaching them for regular hiring just to save time and administration hassle is a clear cut sign that you are finding the recruitment process uneasy.

However, you certainly don’t have to go on a spending spree for it. All you need is a system that can streamline the whole process for you.

Properly designed applicant tracking solution comes with a built-in process through which you can manage and control the entire recruitment pipeline.

Also, Read: How HR Departments Can Use Tech to Improve the Recruitment Process

10. Delaying or Failing to Follow-up With Candidates

It is estimated that half of the applicants do not receive any updates on the status of their applications. Isn’t it a bit unempathetic? Every candidate is worthy of being provided with a closure.

It’s not about just being professional; it’s about treating people with decency as human beings. Instead of playing the blame game, leaders need to understand that communication can slip through cracks when it is handled manually.

A quick fix for this would be to invest in an applicant tracking solution that provides multiple customizable templates for not just closure letters but for every stage of the recruitment process. And you have the power to schedule, delay, and even edit it on the go. 

11. Losing Candidates Due to Delay in Offer Approval

There’s always a worst-case scenario. Imagine you had an excellent candidate and he/she was ready to extend the offer but were kept waiting for their offer to be approved.

Meanwhile, they receive an upgraded or competitive offer and they decide to go with it rather than waiting for your approval. How horrific would that be?

Having Applicant tracking systems can prevent such incidents. They are automatic and email-driven, so the formality of offer approval can be processed without disturbing the schedule and workflow of your peers or managers.

Conclusion

Applicant tracking systems will streamline your entire hiring process to leverage the available resources. It minimizes manual intervention and makes everything trackable so that your recruitment team can bring in the best possible talents in the fastest way possible.

Overall, ATS ensures that recruiters, as well as candidates, have a positive experience throughout the process.