When it’s your job to find the right applicant tracking system (ATS) for your company, how do you go about it? With so many suppliers and products out there, and your hiring outcomes contingent on what you decide, you need to make sure you’re choosing an ATS that suits your company’s demands and needs. Otherwise, you could end up spending a fortune on a product where you only use 40% of its features and functionality.
An ATS can save your organisation time and money, increasing the quality and quantity of candidates by improving and simplifying how you hire talent. What are the factors that should go into your decision-making? Are you clear on which features you require? Will a cloud-based system be beneficial, and should it work on mobile, for instance? The reality is any solution should match your organisation’s needs the closest.
Start with your needs
Talk to your team in the first instance. Meet with your HR team, recruitment team and departmental managers who are involved in recruiting. Find out their pain points and wish list of things that would improve their recruitment experience.
Document your processes, share your notes and make a comprehensive list of your requirements and features. What would they like from a future system that they don’t have right now? What are their main pain points? How could your new ATS create further efficiencies and savings in time and money?
Do your research
Once you’ve gathered your organisation’s needs, it’s time to do your research. Talk to your peers in the industry, carry out some online research and read trade articles. Join some industry groups like The FIRM and In-House Recruitment Network. What recruitment system are your competitors using? Check comparison sites to see how products stack up against each other. Here’s Tribepad’s listing on Capterra, for example.
Know your budget
Be clear on the budget you have to invest in an ATS, speak with your Financial Director, and cut your cloth accordingly. Don’t be swayed by bold claims and too much sales-speak. Call the providers you’re considering and talk to a human about your budget and requirements. And if any don’t have a number you can call, perhaps they’re not the right fit for you.
Feature forward
The most popular features among Tribepad’s own ATS customers include posting to multiple job boards at once, integration with other HR and payroll systems and the automation of tasks, such as email notifications when there is an important update to share. Which features are non-negotiable for you and your team? Think about your IT department and involve them early.
Data-based decisions
Your ATS should also offer and then help you understand its wide range of data, which will help you make informed strategic decisions. For example, recruitment managers can see their team’s performance and target areas where it can improve its process. In fact, a quality ATS will measure all your company’s key metrics, such as time to hire, retention rates, cost per hire and offer acceptance rates. That means you’ll have all the insights you need to make ongoing adjustments that drive your business forward.
Pre-screening tools
Think about how you pre-screen candidates? A wide range of tools including killer questions, auto-shortlisting, video interviewing, gamification and psychometric tests are available. Some services come as standard, others need to be integrated from third parties. Do you have preferred providers and can they be accommodated?
Manage recruitment on the move
Is managing recruitment anytime and anywhere important in your organisation? Most companies are looking for mobile-optimised recruitment software, because of the flexibility it affords. Being able to acquire and manage talent on mobile also means you can get regular updates, can keep an eye on analytics and check new applications at a time and place to suit you.
Support for you
Introducing a new recruitment system requires a commitment to change in any organisation. Before you dive in with a new ATS, check that your recruitment team will get the responsive customer support it needs to get started. What does your provider offer by way of account management? How much time do you get with them and how often? What happens if something goes wrong outside of office hours? Be clear on how any account management and support works.
Final checks
Once you’ve worked through the steps listed above, ask yourself: can you see exactly how a new ATS is going to help you deliver your business goals and personal targets, using the features you’ve identified, on time and at the right price? If so, it sounds like you’ve almost made your decision – good luck!
Learn more about Tribepad
If you’re on the lookout for an ATS, why not start by finding out what other companies use? You should also take a look at some of the success stories for our own award-winning Tribepad ATS to see if it might be right you.
Contact one of our team for an informal chat by emailing team@tribepad.com or calling 0114 3122 110.
