5 Flaws in Your Applicant Tracking System (ATS)

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

The face of recruiting has changed greatly over the last decade, but the tools our industry uses have essentially stayed the same. The standard run of the mill ATS that most of us use has been around for decades having evolved or updated which is extremely frustrating. This creates a major problem for our industry as the abilities of an ATS don’t match up with the way recruiters work now and what we need it to be able to do.

Of course there was a time when an ATS did almost everything a recruiter needed it to do. It was created for applicant storage and compliance and it does a great job at those things. However, it’s not a marketing and engagement engine, which presents limitations in what you can do to ensure candidate experience and engagement. You can get creative and piecemeal together multiple software products to get what you need, but after adding MailChimp, Gmail or Chrome extensions and your typical ATS to the mix, you have a patched together system that is inefficient, flawed and probably still not capable of all that you need.

The future of recruiting is changing and the systems we use must evolve as well. A recruiter’s job goes far beyond what an ATS can do. We source, engage and build relationships, and we need a system that supports us in those areas. Take a look below to find out about the five main flaws in your ATS.

No dynamic search

Recruiters are juggling more than ever before as they work to find the best candidates for multiple job openings. We need our system to assist us in this area by providing a dynamic search and job matching that does the initial dirty work for us, identifying candidates that are qualified for a position without us having to weed through resumes. Most standard applicant tracking systems don’t have this capability, but it’s a must for the ATS of the future.

Ability to add notes

Recruiters today are more focused on the candidate experience and fostering relationships, which means there’s more communication happening in recruiting than ever before. It order to make the most of this groundwork you lay, you’ve got to keep track of those conversations. Unfortunately, that’s not a capability most ATSs have. Recruiters should be able to add notes from a phone call or social interaction with ease.

Profile sharing

Your standard ATS probably doesn’t give you the ability to connect a candidate’s social profile with their ATS profile with ease, or share those within your system. Since so much of the recruiting we do happens through social, this is a big hindrance and something that a modern ATS absolutely must allow for.

Scheduling reminders

We’re all busy, but following through on what you tell your hiring managers and candidates is so important. Applicant tracking systems may help you keep things organized, but most don’t support you in being timely. Of course you can use your Google or other email-connected calendar to set reminders, but this is a perfect example of how integrating a capability could save time and cut down on mistakes. I'd like to have my ATS work seamlessly to help notify not just my own calendar but the hiring manager and others that are part of the interview.

Modern workflow management

The standard ATS was created before we began using multiple channels to help manage our workflow. The days of using just a desk calendar and phone are over, but that’s what your standard ATS probably supports. Now we use text message, phone, automated email and more, so an ATS that helps manage workflow on multiple fronts just makes sense.

TalentCircles is the most comprehensive candidate engagement platform on the market. Take a product tour or request a live demo today. 

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology anthropologist specializing in HR and recruiting. She's the Chief Blogger and Founder of Blogging4Jobs and author of The HR Technology Field Guide. You can follow her on Twitter at @jmillermerell.  

How to Move Beyond Your ATS When It Comes to Talent Acquisition

By Jessica Miller-Merrell 

There’s not much in our lives or jobs that still resemble anything from two decades ago. From the time we wake up to the time we go to bed, our lives have dramatically changed with the adoption of smart phones and other smart technologies that we rely on. Our candidates’ lives have also changed, as has their job search. In fact, as a whole our candidates’ career expectations have even changed. Unemployment numbers are at record lows, job creation is increasing and candidates are going beyond compensation and health care benefits when accepting job offers. They care about career experiences, advancement, flexible schedules and the culture of the company.

With all these changes that have occurred, one area that has stood still is our applicant tracking systems. You can’t help but wonder, if the candidate has changed, why hasn’t our recruiting technology? We are recruiting and hiring in a job market that we haven’t seen in nearly two decades and even though our lives and candidates have changed in almost every way possible, most of us are still operating within the confines of an ATS that we used in 1996. We can’t expect to be competitive in this competitive job economy with the technology of the past. Our candidates’ interests, job search and methods have evolved, but the technologies used by talent acquisition teams are stuck in the past.

It’s time to move beyond your ATS, rethink how you use it and step outside the box to recruit competitively. A recent Aberdeen study revealed that the vast majority of companies agree. In fact, 94% of companies think talent acquisition is critical to their organization’s ability to execute on its business strategy in 2015 and beyond. This leads me to believe that it’s the execution of talent acquisition strategies that may be causing our industry to fall behind in our use of technology.

To elevate your efforts and move beyond the ATS, implement these four tactics in your organization and watch what they do for your recruiting:

Consider your brand

Employment branding is a relatively new trend and definitely isn’t something most recruiters were considering when they were relying heavily on an ATS 20 years ago. Read more about employment branding and put it to work for you. You’ll reap the befits in the short term and feel its effects for years to come.

Listen and research your job seeker

As a whole, candidates’ wants and needs have changes drastically over the years, so ask questions and listen to what they have to say. You’ll never be able to anticipate needs and know what features to highlight without having those simple discussions.

Focus on building a talent pipeline

Building a talent pipeline is essential for workforce management and succession planning, especially since today’s worker is not likely to be a lifelong employee. Go beyond your ATS and use a talent network like TalentCircles to grow and develop future candidates that will become part of your talent pipeline.

Candidate relationships are everything

The relationships you develop with candidates can’t ever be adequately expressed in your ATS. They are real and are the very thing that will cause a candidate to choose you and your organization over the competitor. There’s no better place to invest your time than in candidate relationships.

TalentCircles is the most comprehensive candidate engagement platform on the market. Take a product tour or request a live demo today. 

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology anthropologist specializing in HR and recruiting. She's the Chief Blogger and Founder of Blogging4Jobs and author of The HR Technology Field Guide. You can follow her on Twitter at @jmillermerell.

Anticipate the User Experience in Corporate Recruiting & Hiring

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

When we think about the variety of players involved in the recruitment process, there are multiple stakeholders. Picture the “typical user” when I mention recruitment technology and you may imagine the job seeker.

There is no doubt that the job seeker’s user experience must be optimized to successfully attract and manage the candidate’s recruitment process, from the technology to the overall strategy. However, when it comes to the user experience of the actual recruiter, the interface is equally important.

After all, you, the recruiter, are ultimately the key person sitting in the driver’s seat. Your recruitment strategy is the road map and the technology you have deployed is like the dashboard that provides you all of the key components to move your hiring process forward.

Our tendency to consider the job seeker’s interface as the only user experience that matters can result in a technology platform that is difficult for recruitment team to use. Because the recruiter’s performance and experience directly impacts the job seeker’s, a great user experience for both sides of the hiring process is important.

TalentCircles has a great user experience for both. Visually, the interface is clean with a well organized layout. There are several great features that allow effective flow of communication and professional interaction between the recruiter and the job seeker such as the ability for recruiters to provide a welcome video.

Also, once candidates import their social profiles to the system, recruiters can have all of the necessary information on each candidate that is located in one place and is up to date.

The live online interview feature is robust. It provides the capability to interview one or more candidates at a time, access documents and take notes all from one screen. You can share the candidate videos and have the opportunity to get feedback from your colleagues. There is a brilliant scoring system and report function recruiters can benefit from as they make their selection.

Additional user interface features include calendars and social sharing buttons that allow recruiters to grow their talent network. For example, using calendars to organize webinars is one great way to increase an interest in your talent community. Also, the social sharing buttons that can be added throughout the process provide all users the ability to amplify new job opportunities or other announcements to their own social network.

Overall, the appearance is professional and clean and the use of buttons and tabs make the user interface intuitive. TalentCircles is one of the best technology platforms that provide recruiters with an optimal interface. This is true for the enterprise system used for the desktop as well as the mobile app, TalentCatch.

What I think is specifically amazing is the user-friendly capabilities to easily apply your company’s own brand elements to the app platform. Uploading the particular fields can be done in a snap and the outcome is great for both the recruiter and the job seeker as candidates enter their contact information in person from an iPad.

If you haven’t tried TalentCatch, the mobile app, I strongly recommend it! Here is a link to get you started using the free app for your next job fair or candidate meeting.

Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR is a workplace and technology strategist specializing in social media. She’s is the Chief Blogger & Founder of Blogging4Jobs. You can follow her on Twitter @jmillermerrell.