Though HR leaders and recruitment teams seem to be divided on the importance of an ATS in hiring, it is still revered as the backbone of recruiting technology.
Over the years, the ATS technology has evolved phenomenally, with lots of added functionalities incorporating advanced AI capabilities, reporting tools as well as automated workflows making the lives of recruiters, and candidates a lot easier.
With infinite number of ATS options in the market today in terms of price and features, it is quite vexing to choose one. Recruiters are quite lost, wondering about the right the factors that need to be considered to choose the most befitting one for them.
From customization options to automation capabilities to user interfaces to integration and reporting, here is a precise guide to help the recruiters to help them invest in the right ATS.
Factors to Consider When Choosing an ATS
From expensive yet futile features, it is important and imperative that the organization needs to identify their needs and requirements before choosing an ATS.
When choosing an ATS, below are the key factors to take into consideration.
Size of the Organization
The organizational size is one of the major deciding factors when considering the adoption of a new technology or system. The requirements of a large organization employing thousands will have a different set of needs as compared to a firm that has under hundred employees. Popular ATS for large companies might not be the best option for a medium or a start-up company.
Evaluating & Optimizing Recruitment Strategy
Another important factor when deciding on an ATS is to reevaluate and optimize the existing the recruitment strategies of the organization to identify and correct any inherent flaws in the process, to begin with. An evaluation can help to identify the pain points of the recruiter.
Moreover, choosing an ATS also depends on the evolving recruiting needs of the company.
It is critical for companies to ensure that their recruiting processes align with their strategic business objectives and remove any redundant processes before employing a new ATS.
Reporting Features & Tools
A near perfect ATS can help with creating simple and customized reports like the quality of sourcing channels, time-to-hire or candidate drop-out rates as well provide robust and vital information. It is most often the lack of reporting tools and features that push recruiters to create additional processes, thereby never making their jobs easier irrespective of having an ATS.
There are several ATSs that score on giving candidates the best possible experience but fail to offer recruiters a similar seamless experience especially with regard to reporting. Recruiter often want to have comprehensive yet detailed reports that can help in identifying the different sources and channels of hire, the number of candidates in process for a particular role etc.
To ensure you are getting the best, most vendors, today, offers prospective clients a demo account, to get a hands-on experience before actually investing in it.
Automated Features & Workflows
The whole function of an ATS is to ensure that recruiters are relieved of the repetitive, monotonous tasks and is able to focus better on high value tasks like strategizing. HR leaders opine that “An ATS today needs to be able to remove the burden of small tasks on a recruiter’s plate. Automation has particular value in the areas of candidate sourcing, screening and scheduling interviews”.
Automating the tasks is to ensure that the processes are improved phenomenally without compromising on the candidate experience offered. An example, some of the best ATSs automatically inform candidates when they progress into the final stages of a recruiting process.
Automation is thus a key factor when planning to invest in an ATS. From automating the tasks of interview scheduling for all the candidates to providing chatbot functionalities, are some of the vital components involved in enhancing the candidate experience, as well as decreasing candidate drop-out rates.
Flexibility
The ATS that you are implementing should be scalable and flexible, to accommodate any changes or additions in future, as the organization grows, evolves or diversifies. Similarly, data migration is yet another very important factor to keep in mind. At some later point you are looking to move into a new ATS, you should be able to access or export all the data.
User-friendliness
Apart from making life easier for recruiters and hiring teams, ATS is also intended at enhancing the candidate experience. Hence, the point of view of not just hiring teams should be taken into account while considering an ATS but the candidates as well, their ease of use and simplicity. The ATS should be accessible and compatible on all of the most common platforms and devices. Responsiveness is undoubtedly one of the most important criteria your ATS should meet.
Scalability & Integration Capabilities
Is your ATS capable of being scalable, ready to accommodate expansions and any additions when the organization is growing, scaling and expanding. This is especially with regard to SMEs.
Also, can you easily integrate the ATS with relevant other technology platforms that are part of an HR ecosystem?
After Sale Support
A key differentiator when comparing ATS vendors is definitely the after-sale support and services they offer. There are many vendors who offer free trainings to HR and recruiting teams to understand the features and functioning of the ATS better, after the sale has been completed.
Customizable or Additional Functionalities
Depending on the type of your company, or the hiring processes, there could be additional functionalities that you may require. Most vendors are ready to offer custom features to accommodate the organization’s needs.
AETIUS is one of the most popular and recommended ATS in the industry today, offering hiring teams and recruiters all the above features and more. Integrating AI, AETIUS is redefining the hiring and recruitment processes.
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