As a recruiter consistently making placements is linked to your ability to source quality candidates. To help boost your recruiting efficiency, you must have come across a number of solutions that include an ATS, but what does it mean? How does an ATS help boost productivity and most importantly how does it work?  This post will talk you through everything you need to know about an ATS.

What is an ATS in recruitment?

An ATS is an applicant tracking system, ATS ’s technology solutions that automate a vast array of recruitment processes and simultaneously exists as a central archive for candidate data. ATS’s house and store candidate data - including pipeline history, CVs and various job applications. ATS’s are engineered to provide visible pipelines across the recruiting process - from sourcing to placement. With candidate data housed in a central database, teams with the right ATS transform their productivity, increase business growth and drive margins.

How does an applicant tracking system work?

The main component of an ATS functionality allows recruiters to track and manage all candidate information within their databases in a centralised system.  Depending on the recruitment software functions or the provider that you use for your recruitment processes, your ATS system should allow you to

• Post jobs on multiple boards
• Candidate email marketing
• CV importing
• CV parsing to the ATS system
• Candidate pipeline management
• Candidate tracking

ATS’s can be purchased as standalone solutions or as an integrated feature within a more extensive solution. Our solution EVA combines an ATS, CRM and AI bot in one easy-to-use web platform.

Using EVA, recruiters are able to accelerate their work, easily managing applicant volumes 10x greater than with a conventional ATS. EVA increases:

• Placement rates
• Speed of selection
• Candidate satisfaction

How to know if you need an Applicant Tracking System (ATS)?

A good applicant tracking system is designed to help solve a large number of the most prevalent recruiting challenges and pain-points that a recruiter faces in their day to day roles.  

Do any of these sound familiar to you?

• Are you struggling to find quality candidates in the current competitive landscape?
• Do you find it difficult to aggregate multiple candidate sources of data and spreadsheets?
• Lack of time to engage with candidates?
• You find it difficult sending personalised responses to all candidates
• Do you want to increase the number of candidates that apply to your company?
• Do you spend hours posting jobs on multiple career sites and job boards?
• Does manual CV screening and formatting take up a large chunk of your time?
• Would you like to automate and speed up your interview process?
• Would you like a transparent communication workflow for every member of your team?
• Do you want visible recruiting metrics and be able to visualise your data?

What features you should look for in an ATS

If you answered Yes to one or more of the questions above, then here are some features you should make sure your ATS software can deliver before your next recruitment software purchase decision.

Candidate sourcing

An ATS (Applicant Tracking System) should be able to help you source candidates for vacancies based on candidate profiles that exist within your system. EVA uses machine learning algorithms to recommend the most relevant candidates for a vacancy, allowing you to consistently place quality hires over a long period of time.  

Job boards integration

A good Applicant Tracking System (ATS) will save time and effort, by allowing you to post job ads across multiple job boards in a single click.

Centralised candidate database

An ATS should provide a single and central location, that make managing candidates relationships seamless. The ATS should house all candidate information and make it easy to search and find candidate profiles.

Rich candidates profiles

When a candidate sends over a CV, an ATS should automatically parse the information within a CV directly to the database. The Applicant Tracking System should save all information including cover letters, contact information, previous work history etc - to form a detailed candidate profile that becomes searchable and relevant. Discover how EVA uses candidate data here

Interview scheduling

A good ATS should automate the process of scheduling across the stakeholder communication process. Whether it's via SMS, email or even via ChatBot, your ATS should be able to sync calendars and set up interview dates.

Real-time analytics

An ATS should provide real-time tracking and analysis that cover the most valuable metrics against your recruitment activities. It should be able to aggregate all sources of data to allow you to make data-driven decisions.

Transparent Processes

An ATS should make communication seamless across a recruitment team. Different tiers of access should be available within the system, as well as different roles assigned across the recruitment process.

The Benefits of an ATS

The benefits of a good ATS are simple - productivity, better processes, communication transparency and much more.

Read a one pager on how an intelligent bot can help you scale engagement and placements at the peak of your productivity.