1. You’re spending more money & time than ever submitting the same job ad to multiple job boards

Especially when hiring for tricky to fill positions you want to cast the widest net possible. This means getting your job ad on a variety of paid and free job posting sites. There are a bunch of places to post paid job ads, still many of which can be only little helpful for you to get the qualified candidates you need in a hurry. All of them have different posting mechanisms and even with a dash of copy paste this takes time. The better ATS and candidate management systems enable you to post jobs directly on your website & also makes your job openings visible on Google Job Board. When you need a handful of job applications this is a cute time-saver but when you’re posting to 15+ job boards, it’s a lifesaver. In addition to saving time per hire, it can also save you money, as the best applicant tracking systems helps you hire faster, smarter & easier.

2. Your Inbox are being choked by the irrelevant applications from unqualified candidates

This is one of the biggest headache in hiring. The advent of online job boards has been a boon in terms of getting the word out far and wide that you’re hiring. The problem is that the message is often received and misunderstood by people who aren’t even close to being qualified for the job you’re hiring for. This means precious recruiting time is lost sifting dozens of irrelevant resumes. An applicant tracking system, or candidate management system, can help in two ways. Firstly, the best applicant tracking system options have customizable application forms where you can include screening questions that focus on your core requirements. If you need a relevant degree and related work experience you can add a screener and avoid a large percentage of the unwanted applications. Secondly, a best-in-class ATS is built to deliver structured information about all applicants making it quick and simple to disqualify applicants who aren’t going to be considered.

3. You want a better careers page but you can’t find the resources to get one made or you’re not sure how to maintain it

Your careers site is the shop window through which prospects see your open jobs and get an idea what it’s like to work for your company. Two-thirds of all job seekers will go straight to your careers page when they’re interested in working for you. It makes good business sense to have an up-to-date and attractive careers page, it’s also the foundation of your employer brand. Building and maintaining an effective careers page in-house just isn’t an option for all companies. And it can be daunting to get the development resources. One huge applicant tracking system benefit is that it’s easy to create a branded careers page with no coding required. Hiring tools, like Recooty, Workable, offer a job board which gets directly integrated to your website’s career page. Candidates can directly apply for the desired job openings from the list.  PS… Attract the right candidates by providing a real sense of the environment they’ll be working in, as well as the team they’ll be working with. Don’t just stick your company logo on it, use photos of the office or a video of your team.

4. You were tracking your hiring efforts in a spreadsheet and using email to communicate with your team and the candidates but it’s starting to get overwhelming

Let’s get this out of the way now. Spreadsheets are great at so many things, they were life-changing when Dan Bricklin invented them. But spreadsheets suck as a hiring tool. If you’ve ever wrangled multiple Excel tabs, while mining down seemingly endless email threads trying you’re not alone. This is the most likely sign that you need an applicant tracking system. At its simplest and most powerful, an ATS brings together job posting and sharing in all forms with the ability to track candidates, build a shortlist, schedule interviews and make new hires. A best-in-class ATS should enable you to browse rich profiles of candidates, compare them easily and work effectively with your hiring team on a platform that keeps your notes, communications, feedback, schedules and analytics all in one place. No one who has used a good ATS goes back to spreadsheets and email.

 

5. Your hiring team is having problems coordinating feedback on candidates and making decisions

This covers a little of the same ground as the email and spreadsheets previously. When you run a one-person hiring process it’s your inbox that tells you it’s not working. When you’re part of a hiring team working without an ATS, you get the message from all directions. Sharing notes, feedback and evaluations of candidates over email, forwarding PDF resumes and running multiple calendars, it’s an invitation for a headache. An ATS does all this in one place. Everyone’s notes, feedback and evaluations on the same candidate profile, together with their resume, application form answers and relevant history. With the right ATS, a new member of the hiring team can jump in and catchup on what’s happened so far in less than an hour. With no ATS forget about it.

 

6. You know you saw a potential star last time you were hiring but the position wasn’t right. Now you’re hiring again you can’t find them

We’re all guilty of being over-reliant on our email. For most of us the inbox is the heart of our working life but it relies on us being able to remember a name, an email or a date, in order to retrieve what we’re looking for. A well-run hiring process is not just about hiring for one open position, it’s about meeting prospects for future jobs — referred to by recruiters as a “candidate pool”. Don’t have a call or an interview with someone great only to lose track of them six months down the line when you’re hiring for a position that would suit them. An applicant tracking system keeps an entire record of everyone your hiring team has considered.