Did you know that 75% of modern recruiters use an Applicant Tracking System? Here are the 6 keys reasons why every successful recruiter needs an Applicant Tracking System.

Applicant Tracking System: A revolution in recruiting?

When first Applicant Tracking Systems appeared 20 years ago, they completely revolutionized recruiting.

HR professionals were finally able to get rid of tons of paperwork and spreadsheets and use a specialized, modern HR software to help them recruit.

However, not all HR professionals had the chance to use an Applicant Tracking System back then. Using an Applicant Tracking System was a luxury reserved for the enterprise companies with huge budgets.

But that was then.
Fast forward to today and you’ll find out that now 75% of modern recruiters use an Applicant Tracking System.

This means that the Applicant Tracking System is now being used not only by large corporations but also by most medium and small-sized companies.

The popularity of an Applicant Tracking System is obviously growing. Why is that so?

The benefits of using an Applicants Tracking System

An Applicant Tracking Systems are software programs designed to automate, streamline and improve your whole hiring process.

By automating tasks such as resume storing, processing and screening, Applicant Tracking Systems save recruiters a lot of time, money and energy.

You have probably already heard that, with the help of an Applicant Tracking System, recruiters can effectively increase the speed and quality of their work.

Indeed, the list of solutions offered by Applicant Tracking Systems can be extensive.

All these benefits of an Applicant Tracking System aren’t that easy to understand. This is why we compiled them into 6 main reasons to use an Applicant Tracking System.

6 reasons why you need an Applicant Tracking System

Here are the 6 key reasons why successful recruiters use an Applicant Tracking System:

Reason #1: Save time

An Applicant Tracking System saves recruiters a ton of time by automating many tasks that previously required manual work.

For example, with an Applicant Tracking System, you can automate every step of your resume processing.

When candidates fill in your application form, an Applicant Tracking System will automatically do the rest. It will store their resumes, create their rich profiles, screen their applications and eliminate unqualified among them. Your only job is to pick the best one of the most qualified candidates, served to you by your Applicant Tracking System.

But that’s not all!

An applicant Tracking System can also automate interview scheduling.

In addition to automated interview scheduling, ATS enables recruiters to automate communication with candidates without losing that personal touch.

Reason #2: Save money

There are 3 main ways in which an Applicant Tracking System can save your money:

By automating manual tasks, it saves recruiters hours of work.
They’ll do more work in less time, which will make their work more productive and cost-efficient.
An Applicant Tracking System will show you where your best candidates come from. That way you can stop wasting your money on recruiting strategies, ads and channels that don’t work.
With an Applicant Tracking System, you can easily build and maintain talent pools. This way, you can have a great candidate even before you have a next job opening!
This is the most efficient cost-saving method of recruiting because it propels your recruiting process straight to the last phase – interviews with a few best candidates.
That way you will save a ton of time. It will also save the time and money needed for the advertising of your open job positions.

Reason #3: Streamline the hiring process

An Applicant Tracking System will simplify and streamline your whole recruiting process.

An Applicant Tracking System will organize your whole recruiting process and unify different recruiting tasks and tools in one single platform.

This means that you won’t have to shift between different systems and tools that you previously relied on to do your job. You’ve probably had to rely on tools such as email, excel spreadsheets, calendar, mobile phone, job boards, social media, your company web page, candidate testing tools, video interviewing tools, etc.
All these different tools will be accessible through a single, user-friendly Applicant Tracking System interface.

This means that you will be able to access, track and manage candidates’ progress directly from a single platform. As a result, your hiring process will be more organized and streamlined.

It also enables easy team collaboration. With an Applicant Tracking System, you can easily share info about candidates with team members who need them.

Reason #4: Improve candidate experience

The main way that an Applicant Tracking System improves candidate experience is by enabling continuous communication with all your applicants and candidates during the whole hiring process, and beyond it.

The lack of response from employers is the main cause of the bad candidate experience.

According to research, an overwhelming 81% of candidates said that the one main thing that would greatly improve their overall candidate experience is employers continuously communicating status updates to them.

An Applicant Tracking System has built-in recruiting email templates that you can automate and send in bulk. That way you can ensure timely communication with all your applicants and candidates, without wasting your precious time and energy.

You can also set up personalized email campaigns that will keep your silver medalists interested and engaged until you have a new job opening that perfectly matches their profile.

There are many other ways an Applicant Tracking System can help you provide impeccable candidate experience.

For example, with an Applicant Tracking System, you can easily create and maintain a beautifully designed, mobile friendly and SEO optimized career site. You can also optimize your career site to get more job applicants and provide a better candidate experience.

Reason #5: Ensure legal compliance

The use of an Applicant Tracking System eliminates the possibility of human error and bias, thus ensuring the compliance with all the legal rules and regulations concerning recruiting and hiring.

An Applicant Tracking System will ensure that U.S. employers are able to demonstrate that they are equal opportunity employers following The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) regulations and the laws and policies of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), thus protecting them against employment discrimination claims.

For the EU companies and organizations, an Applicant Tracking System will ensure compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). GDPR is the new law that protects the personal data and privacy of EU citizens. It will be enforced on May 25, 2018 – at which time those organizations in non-compliance may face heavy fines. Note that organization located elsewhere who is collecting or processing data on EU data subjects also has to be compliant with GDPR.

Reason #6: Get valuable insights

An Applicant Tracking Systems have robust built-in analytics that will enable you to improve your hiring process.

An Applicant Tracking System will automatically track and measure every step of your hiring process and each and every one of your applicants.
This means it will automatically gather a tremendous amount of data, calculate many different recruiting metrics and create beautiful, easy comprehensible reports.

These reports will provide insightful data on the parts of your recruiting process that bring results. Reports will also show you those that don’t, pointing out to bottlenecks and aspects of your hiring process that need adjustment and improvement.
For example, an Applicant Tracking System reports can tell you:

Which of your job posting stand out and attract most candidates?
Which channels bring in the best candidates?
What is your time to hire and cost per hire?, etc.

Based on these and similar insights, you can take the necessary steps to optimize your recruiting process.