Why ATS systems do not care about mobile device users?

We live in the 21^st century and the smartphone use stats are overpowering all news, analytics reports, markets and industries, including HR. This year, for the first time since mobile devices went ‘smart’, mobile users are spending almost as much time on their phones as they are in front of TVs. Big black boxes (flat or tube, LED or plasma, 2D or 3D) are about to lose its long-standing living room dominance as the modern family fireplace. Instead, the new vision of living room is…everyone stare at your own mobile device screen.

And what are ATS vendors doing to change and adopt this paradigm shift in technology and embrace its users’ new behavior? It appears that they are doing absolutely nothing. Doesn’t matter which ATS solution you have, large or small, custom or not, they’re pretty much all looking the same way since before the age of smartphones.

Now it would be half the battle for applicants if smartphone makers would just include a magnifying glass in place of the regular screens. However, it is doubtful that smartphone manufacturers would be persuaded to make such a bold move for one industry. The other half of the battle would be to allow applicants to somehow effortlessly attach a resume via smartphone. And believe it or not, it can be done – by less than 5% of all users and through painful installation of certain apps to make it happen.

So will somebody please tell me, is there an ATS out there that handles mobile applications well. If not, I would truly appreciate any industry insights, however factual or speculative, as to why ATS system have this luxury of not innovating and modernizing for the 21^st century applicant?

Thank you so much!

Rokson Dobson

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Permalink Reply by Sarah Calverley on December 11, 2012 at 8:14pm

Very true and very relevant to a few discussions I have had recently. We as an industry need to put pressure on the ATS vendors to innovate and keep up with the times. I know there are a few job board vendors who are fully on-board with mobile applications. For the ATS to go mobile, it doesn't necessarily have to contain all the information that the desktop version has and workflow can be much more simple.

I am not 100% certain how good it is but I know Canadian based Maxhire (recently acquired by Bullhorn) do have mobile enablment...

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Permalink Reply by Rokson Dobson on December 14, 2012 at 2:59pm

Thank you for that insightful information Sarah! And absolutely true that an ATS wouldn't have to contain all the information, or all the bells and whistles; bare essentials would be a great start.