5 Ways an ATS Can Improve Your Hiring Process

In today’s fast-paced hiring landscape, efficiency is key. An applicant tracking system (ATS) can significantly accelerate your hiring process by automating critical tasks and improving team collaboration. From automatically posting jobs to streamlining the interview and offer letter stages, an ATS can help you attract, screen, and hire top talent more quickly and effectively.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the five biggest benefits of using an ATS.

Wait—What is an Applicant Tracking System?

At its most basic, an applicant tracking system, or ATS, is software designed to make the process of finding and hiring excellent candidates faster and easier.

Applicant tracking systems can help you improve your hiring process by managing things like job postings, application screening, candidate communication, and more. They make it easy to keep track of candidate data so no one falls through the cracks. And many modules also allow you to examine the steps of your hiring process to understand where bottlenecks occur, where communication breaks down, or where candidates drop out.

Perhaps you’re browsing for an ATS for your organization, or maybe you’ve already found one and want to get the most out of it. Either way, this article is for you, because we’re going beyond the basics and looking at five ways you can use an applicant tracking system to build the best hiring process for your business.

#1 Post Your Job on Social Media Sites

When it comes to strategies for how to hire good employees, we’re seeing a significant shift to social media. A study from the Aberdeen Group shows that Millennials are driving this recruitment trend: 73% of candidates in the 18–34 age group found their last position through social media.
Not only does this mean you need to create an engaging employer brand on social media—it also means you must build your job postings with social media and mobile access in mind.

In today’s cutthroat recruiting market, you can’t afford to miss out on potential candidates. That’s where an ATS can be a lifesaver. The right applicant tracking system improves your hiring process by providing mobile-friendly job postings and one-click sharing to all the top social media platforms, ensuring you don’t miss out on mobile candidates ever again.

#2 Automatically Share on Job Boards

Speaking of sharing, applicant tracking systems also simplify the process of posting your job ads to the most relevant job boards. Instead of copying and pasting ten times over, you can send your job postings to free job boards with a single click.

And a great ATS will ensure these job postings are mobile-friendly. You can meet candidates at their level—on the job boards where they’re searching and on their mobile devices where they’re communicating and applying. All from a single system.

#3 Record Interview Notes

When we discuss how to hire good employees and create the best hiring process possible, we often focus on speed. The best talent is usually the first to be hired, and moving slowly—whether during posting, application reviews, or interviews and offers—means you’ll miss the cream of the crop.

But while that’s true, it’s equally important that your hiring process is compliant, thorough, and fair. An ATS can help you reach these goals as well.

With an applicant tracking system that includes internal communication as well as external, everyone involved in the hiring process can learn about new candidates and prepare for their upcoming interviews. This helps collaborators settle on the best interview questions to assess candidates more equally.

At the end of each interview, collaborators can often use the ATS to record their interview notes so hiring managers may compare notes on each candidate. Not only does this make collaboration and feedback much easier, it also helps ensure fair hiring practices are being followed within your organization. Because an ATS provides you with a record of the entire process, it can be a useful tool for proving your organization’s fair hiring decisions should the need ever arise.

#4 Track How Long Your Hiring Phases Takes

The average time-to-hire (beginning when you post the job and ending with an accepted offer letter) has risen to 44 days. Move too slowly, and you may miss out on the best candidates out there.

It’s time to sync up. An ATS is one significant way to speed up your hiring process. BambooHR’s ATS module includes an Applicant Funnel report to give you insight on how candidates navigate the application process and how much time each phase usually takes. This gives you the power to break down bottlenecks and optimize those steps where you’re losing candidates due to time or confusion.

#5 Automate Offer Letters

Finally, an ATS helps get your ideal candidates across the finish line at the end of the process. One reason candidates reject offers is because of poor candidate experiences like unclear communication or slow processes. Considering the cost of recruitment, you can’t afford to lose a candidate because of a slow offer letter.

Automating your offer letters also frees up time for HR and recruiters to focus on the candidate experience. Imagine how jarring it might be for a candidate to communicate consistently with their recruiter, right up through the final interview, only to get sudden radio silence.

On your end, you might not notice this gap in your hiring process because you’re busy prepping the offer letter. But trust me—the candidate will notice. And if an offer is slow in coming, your dream candidate may begin to doubt whether they want to join your organization, even if they don’t have a competing offer. As far as onboarding goes, seeding doubt is the worst possible start to the process.

Automated offer letters through your ATS make your entire recruitment process more effective, from first application through accepted offer.

Hire Better Candidates Faster with BambooHR

Improving your hiring process and creating an incredible candidate experience may seem like daunting tasks when you’re trying to manage both on your own. But when you team up with the right applicant tracking system, these goals move within your grasp. In-depth reports help you understand what to improve, while a streamlined funnel attracts and retains high-quality candidates. With help from BambooHR, hiring the best talent is easier than ever before.