The Great Resignation impacted many organizations in 2021, with over 4 million employees quitting their jobs and employers losing over $15,000 per employee due to high turnover rate and recruiting costs. To curb the high resignation and the related expenses, employers should take various measures to hire and retain the right talent. But how can organizations retain employees in the face of the tidal wave of resignations? Employers should begin embracing data-driven approaches to recruit and hire talents.
During recruitment and hiring of new employees, organizations experience loads of applications that could go up to hundreds or even thousands of job seekers. Many employers miss out on the right talents because they lack systems to scrutinize all the applicants and identify suitable potential employees.
The good news is that technology has simplified the recruitment process. Organizations can now use an applicant tracking system to recruit and hire employees. Using this system streamlines the hiring process, creating more efficient experiences as employers focus on hiring the best candidates. Read on to learn about the advantages of an applicant tracking system.
What Is An Applicant Tracking System?
An applicant tracking system (ATS) is recruiting software that recruiters and hiring managers use to track and hire the right talents. This software helps recruiters in parsing and storing information during recruitment. It extracts the essential elements such as name, email, education, and skills from the candidate’s CV.
The software supports resume parsing and storing candidates’ contact details and work history. The database grows over time, and once the resumes are parsed and indexed, you can effortlessly search for the information.
Why Do Companies Use ATS?
Companies that have invested in applicant tracking systems enjoy a wide range of benefits during talent acquisition. Below are ways ATS helps businesses during employee recruitment.
Save Time on Administrative Tasks
Investing in ATS enables you to track candidates’ pipeline during the recruitment, speeding up the process. This saves you time and money to focus on other essential tasks. The software takes the manual work out of your hands like posting open vacancies on job boards, tracking candidate applications to different departments, and the overall interviewing process.
Manage Candidates in a Single Place
With the many potential candidates looking for jobs, you will likely get multiple applications for different positions. Tracking all the applications can be challenging, and you might leave out qualified candidates and settle for people who may not be suitable for the positions. With ATS, you can see and manage all your candidates at a glance, enabling you to track and determine the best candidates for the job.
Screen Resumes Instantly
Screening applications manually can be challenging, tiring, and time-consuming. This may be even more difficult if you have more job postings. ATS makes resume screening quick and instant, thus, saving you time and money in the long run. It enables you to save algorithms matching each candidate per the job description and overall requirements. Applications that don’t meet the requirements get rejected by the system. The qualified candidates get ranked effortlessly as per their qualifications.
Easily Post Jobs
Using an applicant tracking system lets you post multiple job openings on different job boards. You do not need to waste time and money posting one job at a time. The software also helps you determine the best platforms that yield great results in the long run after posting the jobs. It gives you more time to focus on other activities, thus, improving efficiency and productivity.
Improved Quality of Hire
You want a seamless recruitment process, whether hiring employees from out of state or within. Investing in ATS enables you to engage only the suitable candidates for each job posting. The software also automates administrative tasks, giving you more time to focus on hiring. You will interact with the candidates more and make thorough assessments before hiring the qualified candidates.
Speed Up Recruitment Cycle
ATS speeds the tracking of job applicants and candidate profiles. It also makes interview scheduling and the hiring process quick and seamless since everything is centralized. With the automated communication features in the software, you can quickly move candidates to the next step, experiencing a more efficient and effective workflow.
Better Compliance
Organizations should comply with hiring standards and policies within their niche. After employee onboarding and finalizing paperwork, you should follow the laws and regulations. This can be challenging and an extensive job by itself. ATS enables you to comply with the industry laws, thus protecting the employer brand from a poor reputation, penalties, and other non-compliance issues.
What Are The Disadvantages Of An ATS?
While ATS provides many benefits to companies, it can also have downsides. Some organizations may face challenges using the software depending on its compatibility with the resumes. Below are the potential issues you may encounter with ATS.
- Elimination of some resumes that the system cannot read and interpret.
- You may miss out on qualified candidates when resumes are eliminated.
- It may incorrectly read resumes with incompatible formats.
- Strict hiring could cause you to miss out on applicants that fit your culture, even though they may lack every prerequisite.
It’d be best to do due diligence when shopping for an applicant tracking system. The primary reason for the solution is to simplify the hiring process and offer a great candidate experience. Great experiences can boost employee referrals through social media, enabling you to hire top talents in the long run.
Improve Your Hiring Process with ATS
An applicant tracking system is a vital tool that makes employee recruitment and hiring seamless and efficient. However, the time and money you save from using an ATS depend on how much data re-entry is required. Human resources should ensure that the ATS gets integrated into payroll, benefits enrollment, and employee self-service portals to avoid manual processes.
Therefore, investing in a cloud-based ATS is imperative to allow smooth integration with other HR modules. Zamp HR offers a best-in-class, integrated ATS as part of its HR outsourcing services. To learn more, access the demo.
