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.  

LinkedIn is Not a Dynamic Recruiting CRM. Stop Treating It Like One. - Part Two

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

Check out part 1 in this blog series on the CRM. 

You’ve probably seen by now that LinkedIn shook the recruiting world momentarily when it changed its policy on downloading connections and contact information, requiring a waiting period of up to 72 hours. Previously, users could instantly download this information, which is obviously an important feature for recruiters and sourcers. After uproar from the media and the recruiting world, LinkedIn reversed this change and now once again offers an easy download.

While there’s no harm done in the long run since this decision was reversed, this occurrence provided a reminder to our industry that LinkedIn may be a frequently used tool for recruiters, but it is not a dynamic recruiting CRM. I mentioned in part one of this series that there are a number of obvious downfalls to using the social network as a CRM, but many recruiters are using it as such. If it’s not enough to know that integration with other candidate sources is a problem and that you don’t own the data you use of LinkedIn, then perhaps looking at how it stacks up against modern and future CRMs will shed a bit of light on how LinkedIn can complement, but not replace a CRM. 

There are four main areas of a modern CRM (candidate relationship manager) where LinkedIn and other social networking sites including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram fall short:

Fostering communication and connections

While LinkedIn is a great place to make connections and initiate contact, it’s not a place that truly fosters and encourages communication and connections between passive candidates, active candidates, recruiters, hiring managers and employment brand ambassadors. A modern CRM absolutely must provide this capability, and LinkedIn just isn’t the best place for this.

The ability to handle many candidates

Recruiters are handling more open positions and candidates than ever before, and these candidates are likely coming from multiple sources. LinkedIn is an incredibly useful tool for sourcing but it just doesn’t provide the ability to handle and keep track of the many open positions and hundreds of candidates a recruiter could be juggling at any give time.

Compliance and record keeping

One of the biggest jobs an HR department must undertake is ensuring compliance in hiring and employment, making it a major problem to use a social network as a CRM. Since it doesn’t offer record-keeping capabilities like a modern CRM should, you’ll either be forced to keep records in a separate system and transfer to another system upon hiring, or worse, you may not be keeping great records during the hiring process, putting your company at risk for legal exposure. A modern CRM simplifies record keeping and if used correctly, helps ensure legal protection if a situation arises.

The best of both worlds

While the two of the categories above touched on engagement and organization, it’s important to note that what a recruiter needs is a system that offers a way to engage with candidates and tools to keep it all straight, all in one place. There are plenty of tools that do one or the other, with LinkedIn being one of them, but a modern CRM delivers on both fronts. And having a system that is capable of both streamlines processes, leads to better tracking and follow up and makes life as a recruiter easier. 

Data ownership

Most importantly, is that you own the network, it's systems and accessibility. Unlike resume mining or other recruiter specific products, you are not just renting space. You and your recruitment team have full control over the candidate experience, information being shared and the manner in which candidates and prospects are communicated with. There isn't a limited number of email messages or search strings. You have full access to the dynamic candidate community you've worked hard to build and can engage, search and access on your own terms and at your own pace. 

This is a two part series on the candidate relationship manager or CRM. Click here to access part 1. 

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.  

LinkedIn is Not a Dynamic Recruiting CRM. Stop Treating It Like One. - Part One

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

LinkedIn is one of the most valuable tools a recruiter has at his or her disposal today. There’s no better place to see so many professionals all in one place, essentially providing you with one convenient place to source and learn about candidates. However, for as much as we rely on the social network to do our jobs, there are limitations to the system. I have seen so many recruiters treat LinkedIn as if it were a dynamic recruiting CRM or candidate relationship management system and as we were all reminded last week when LinkedIn announced a change to a long-standing policy concerning the ability to export a user’s connections and contacts, it certainly is not.

Before this change, a recruiter could simply download a list of their connections. When LinkedIn made this change, they required that users request the information and then wait up to 72 hours for a list of their connections and contacts. Upon learning of the change, I immediately requested my profile copy, which was sent to me less than 24 hours later. While I’m certainly glad it didn’t take the full 72 hours, I think we can all agree that 24 hours is about 23.5 hours too long to have to wait for that information since most of us will access that information when we need it, not days in advance.

As you probably know by now, this change did not go over well. LinkedIn users, as well as the media, responded to the change with a firestorm of articles and posts via social media, forcing the company to reconsider their position and allow users immediate access.

The unexpected, inconvenient change and subsequent backtrack by LinkedIn highlighted something that many of us needed reminded of. As I said above, LinkedIn is a wonderful tool, but a dynamic CRM it is not. We want access to our contacts, relationships and community in real time. We don’t like waiting, but unfortunately only a true CRM can provide us with that kind of uninhibited and unlimited access. As long as we see and use LinkedIn for what it’s not intended to be and doesn’t have the capability to act as, we’re going to continue to be disappointed when things beyond our control occur.

Candidate Relationship Management: The Breakdown

A CRM offers functionality that LinkedIn doesn’t offer to the average user, or even those in the recruiter seat. There are many obvious flaws to using LinkedIn as your CRM, but there are essentially two main areas where things really break down. Most importantly, you can’t upload your own engagements, profiles and contacts of candidates you are engaging outside the network or community. This creates a major inconvenience, as you’ll most certainly have candidates you need to track outside of LinkedIn. If this isn’t the case, it should be! A CRM provides one central location for all those profiles to live, which LinkedIn doesn’t.

Secondly, LinkedIn has demonstrated that we don’t own our user information or data. We don't own our profiles, contacts, group members and status updates. We can request access to it, but it is in the hands of and at the mercy of LinkedIn. We can use it, but they are in charge of who has access to it, which isn’t true of a dynamic recruiting CRM. 

Aside from these two main areas, it’s also important for us to look at whether or not the social network will be able to meet our CRM needs in the future, even if it can’t now. Watch for part two of this series to see how LinkedIn fits in with the future of the CRM in HR and recruiting.

Be on the look out for part two in our CRM series. 

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 Sourcing is Separate (and Different) From Recruiting - Part 3

By Jessica Miller-Merrell

This is a three part series on phone and internet sourcing. Check out part 1 and part 2. 

We’ve probably all seen the lines between sourcer, recruiter and hiring manager get blurred. There seems to be a lot of confusion in our industry about the responsibilities of each party and how it all fits together. For some, it’s that the jobs aren’t so clearly divided in their organization, and for others it’s a matter of understanding what exactly sourcing is and what it isn’t. Whatever the reason for the confusion may be, there’s no doubt that it can stall the process, cause chaos and leave people frustrated, especially the person in that sourcing role. 

This seems to be a topic that I’m hearing a lot about lately, one that is causing real headaches for sourcers who find themselves in awkward situations where there role is unclear again and again. If fact, I recently spoke with a sourcer who shared that it feels as though they are having to re-educate managers on an ongoing basis.

Rather than dealing with confusion and frustration on a regular basis, recruiting teams would be wise to address the issue, determine where each party stands and establish hiring process standards. However, individual sourcers can also take action themselves to help clear up the confusion. Take a look at these five steps for doing so – and reinforcing those standards – in your organization.

Define responsibilities

Often times it’s just simple confusion about a sourcer’s role that ends up causing chaos. You can clear this up by developing an official process document to use as you work with the hiring team, highlighting what your responsibilities are, showing how those tasks fit in the larger process and what a typical timeline looks like.

Go a step further

In addition to defining your role, work with your team to include their roles in the process document as well so there’s an explanation of and information on everyone’s role in the hiring process. If you decide an all-encompassing process document is too farfetched or you don’t have the support of the team, try an informal meeting. Don’t be too hard on those who don’t understand the process. After all, we usually don’t know what we don’t know.

Maintain ongoing communication

As nice as it would be to share the information once and know that everyone will absorb and use it, that’s not realistic. Communicating with your hiring managers and recruiters on an ongoing basis reinforces and reminds them of your role. You can also help people avoid making assumptions by being available to answer questions and provide them with insights and information into how you are sourcing their talent.

Provide weekly reporting and metrics

The best way to head off frustration and confusion is for all parties to be knowledgeable about what’s happening. Make this happen by providing reporting that goes beyond just candidate source. Include sources by platform, social network, etc. and consider evaluating the percentage of your candidates sourced who receive interviews and are extended offers, and later on, their turnover, all of which helps demonstrate your value.

Use multiple communication channels

Meet your hiring team where they are and become a valuable resource for them. Share your favorite articles or information about new tech tools with your team, host a monthly or quarterly webinar talking about your what’s working and how sourcing is growing, evolving and changing, and always ask for feedback as well.

This is a two part series on phone and internet sourcing. Check out part 1 and part 2. 

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.