Recruiters and hiring managers all face a large set of the same organizational challenges, no matter what industry they’re in. The workload, communications and data can quickly get to an unmanageable state. When that happens, recruiters get stressed, the candidate experience suffers and the company brand is compromised. What most people don’t realize is that even a small opening, with few applicants will have dozens of moving parts each with bits of data that have to be organized stored and made useable.

As applicant tracking systems become more common place, even in smaller businesses, they are becoming more robust. Most smaller companies aren’t aware of what a good ATS is capable of. 26% of employers use an ATS to manage their hiring process. Here’s what the other 74% are missing out on:

1) Automated Social Sharing

Once a listing is created in the system, the user can then push that listing out to search engines, jobs boards and social media channels. This feature eliminates several redundant steps that can take a good deal of time. Posting job listings on several different channels is now done with very few clicks, all from inside the software.

2) Manage Your Careers Page

The ATS will also automatically post new listings to the company career page for further coverage, again eliminating another redundant process. Keeping the careers page fresh and up-to-date is just another click, rather than a process.

3) Automated Prioritization

Whether you’re tracking 5 candidates, or 50, it’s hard to stay on top of the individual stages that each candidate is in. One of the most critical steps of your hiring process is to check on the progress of sourcing and interviews. The right technology will let you know the status of all applicants in your system and what action is require for the next steps…without the use of Excel.

4) Workflow Templates

Speaking of tracking stages and priorities, the right ATS will actually allow you to define these stages. You can create custom hiring steps for your own unique hiring process. You can set up your process for a particular opening and then easily replicate your default process for all other openings.

5) Create and Delegate Tasks

Within those steps you can design and delegate tasks, all in one place. The software will provide a bird’s eye view of each task, its progress and who it was assigned to. Nothing and no one is able to fall through the many cracks of recruiting and hiring.

6) Share Profiles, Notes and Evals Internally

Finally, a way to make collaborative hiring simple! You can easily share candidate profiles and information with specific members of the team for input and notes.

Many businesses ask candidates to participate in multiple interviews with different company members. An ATS makes this process more efficient and safe.

7) Email Templates

The massive amounts of emails that are required to keep candidates in the know and offer a great experience through the hiring process can burry even the most seasoned of hiring managers. You can now see what stage the candidate is in and send them the appropriate canned email with one click, or automate this action.

8) Applicants from Multiple Sources in One Place

You’ve got emails with attached resumes, job board applicants and those who have applied through the company career page. All of these different applicant sources are automatically parsed, stored and made searchable through the ATS.

9) Email Candidates Directly from Your ATS

Canned email templates are great, but there are going to be several times when you need to craft a more personal email to a candidate. Instead of using multiple programs, users can simply email any candidate directly from the ATS.

10) Parsed Information

Managing contact information from resumes can become cumbersome and time consuming. Luckily, with an ATS, contact information from the resume is automatically parsed in the candidate profile. This information is then made easily searchable.

If you’re wasting time on any of the above processes that can be streamlined or automated, it’s time to stop. Applicant tracking systems are more efficient and affordable than ever. Especially where smaller businesses are concerned, the resources that recruiting and hiring eat up can make a huge impact on the organization.

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