It takes very little time for recruiters and HR departments to realize the value and the effect of a good recruiting software. As a concept, investing in an ATS (Applicant Tracking Software or System) yields optimal results while removing the difficulties and hurdles that recruitment is infamous for. But such a software’s role goes beyond simplifying the task. It’s about finding the right talent at the right time, better managing data, recruiting while maintaining data regulation compliance and even defining the very stages of the recruitment process. The right recruiting software meets your company’s recruitment needs on more than one level. We’ve put together the various aspects to consider when choosing an ATS.

Simplicity & ease of use
Change is difficult to deal with in every capacity, more so in the professional world than everyday life. When software of any nature is introduced to a company with an already established process, the team may be reluctant to change the way they operate. A good ATS is designed for ease of use, so that a couple of hours is all the time needed for everyone to learn how to use it. It’s important to remember that adopting an ATS means a lot of time and effort will undoubtedly go into using it. As such, you need to make sure that the platform, the features, and the functionalities are both useful to your team and are easy to learn. 

Candidate sourcing & channel aggregation
Sourcing takes a tremendous amount of time, especially when you have to copy-paste candidate data one profile at a time. Social channels and professional networking platforms have become the most commonly used pathway to reach passive candidates. Your recruiting software of choice should offer features and extensions that allow you to source a profile more easily for smoother, faster, and more efficient sourcing. Moreover, as a stage within the recruitment process, analyzing and extracting specific data from a resume can be a stressful time-consuming task. This is why a good ATS would be able to take charge of resume parsing and analysis. The optimal recruiter-ATS partnership limits the user’s involvement to providing resumes while the software draws, analyzes and fills the candidate’s information automatically. Not only does software optimize the process in this particular regard, it also covers the more passive methods of candidate sourcing. A good ATS provides the ability to aggregate multiple recruitment channels (such as LinkedIn, job portals, social media platforms, career page applications and more) and funneling data directly into one platform.

Reports & analytics
Being able to track your recruitment metrics can provide insights as to which stage requires optimization, what your targeted candidates prefer, and just how well your process performs over time. When choosing an ATS, it’s important to consider options with reports and analytics dashboards so that you can track and analyze your key recruitment metrics such as Time to Hire, Source of Hire, Cost per Hire, and so on. These insights can help you find out why some candidates are leaving instead of applying to your jobs, and optimize your entire recruitment processes for long term results.

Enabling teamwork & collaboration
The main difference between an applicant tracking system and an excel sheet is that the latter does not encourage collaboration. It certainly doesn’t forego the concept altogether, but it certainly limits what can be done in a team setting. An ATS worth the investment should include features that enable and encourage collaboration in every way your recruitment team needs. It should include features such as being able to leave a note on a candidate’s profile, directly scheduling a meeting, leaving notes and comment on specific profiles, and allow hiring managers/decision-makers to get involved and collaborate on projects to name a few. When faced with several ATS options, check if any suits your collaborative needs and it will create synergies within your team.

AI & innovative features
Innovation in software is at the very core of its purpose. The aspect that sets recruiting software apart lies in the various innovative and intelligent features which take the recruitment process to the next level. Such features streamline the entire recruitment journey and provide a fresh approach to how recruitment is conducted. When you have a large pool of candidates, sorting through every available profile can be an exhausting task. Consider ATSs that can score and rank candidates based on their skills or the requirements you need for a particular job. An AI recommendation engine can automate the resume analysis process and deliver rated and scored profiles recommending the top candidates for the position.

Support & potential for growth
This is often displayed through the software provider’s response to your needs, queries, and feedback in the form of customer support. An ATS that puts effort into reviewing your feedback and utilizes it to improve the user experience on their platform shows promise in terms of long term growth. This also displays that the software provider takes support queries and suggestions seriously, which in turn can position your company for considerable positive change as the ATS evolves. When considering an ATS, a key method to fully understand its value and potential, would be through assessing the quality of its customer support and how detailed and/or helpful its documentation and guides are. As your company’s recruitment needs change and develop, so does the ATS’ support and reaction to your feedback.

Pricing
Pricing is certainly a major factor in the decision-making process here. The common mantra is “The cheaper the better”, and though this is true to an extent, always make sure that you get all the features you need. Making a decision based on pricing alone without contemplating specific features first can do more harm than good. Your ATS of choice needs to provide a clear and transparent pricing plan. 

In conclusion, selecting an ATS involves evaluation of several parameters. In addition, if the ATS is integrated to other value-adding solutions like Technology-enabled background checks and learning platforms, it becomes an even more worthwhile investment as it will be able to offer a versatile suite of solutions. 

This article is authored by Manatal, a leading ATS provider, integrated with Avvanz ScreenGlobal and LearnGlobal.