Ever wondered why a fresh graduate from a university does not get a job? It is because 70% of the recruiters do not open applications because they never get filtered by the application tracking system.
Recruiting human resources has become an easier task with the use of ATS. Now let’s learn what ATS is and how essential it has become for organizations.
What is ATS?
Earlier, recruiters were used to spending many hours filtering the right candidates for a job. But now, with the increasing use of technology, this process has also evolved with the Application Tracking System.
ATS is a software application that is used by hiring managers and recruiters to attract, source, evaluate, and hire quality candidates quickly. HR can easily determine which candidates match their skill set, experience, and education. And those candidates who match any of the particular skills or experiences get filtered by the ATS, and the rest get rejected. This is the main reason why Job applicants do not get a call back from recruiters. Thus, it is advisable for the candidates to prepare a resume that can be filtered by the ATS.
How ATS works?
When candidates apply for a job, their information, like contact details, education, experience, skills, and all other related information, gets already saved into the system. Let’s see how it works :
1. Scan resumes based on keywords :
Every now and then we hear that AI is about to take care of all the things that humans used to do. Indeed, with the vast use of technology, all tasks have been simplified. Now ATS can scan resumes easily and quickly based on keywords. If the similar key words do not match the Job Description, then the resume of the candidate gets rejected. Suppose you are hiring an Android developer, and the skills that you mentioned in JD are Python, SQL, and all other programming languages that are required to perform the job.
If any of those skills are not mentioned on a candidate’s resume, then that resume gets disqualified, and the IT Recruiter never opens it.
2. Sources the quality candidates
If you want the right and quality candidates to perform a job, don’t forget to check the job description first; otherwise, you may attract the wrong candidates. To source the right candidate, ATS makes use of some questions, which are compulsory for the candidates to answer. If candidates answer as per the company’s expectations and standards, After that, only the candidate’s details are processed further.
3. Scan and filters the applicant
ATS comes with various unique features, like HR recruiters can set the keywords, education, and experience they want, and by this setting, ATS filters the candidates as per what HR managers want.
This scanning and filtering feature of the ATS lets HRs view the resumes and schedule interviews with candidates who are suitable to perform a job.
4. Tracking Applicants
With Application Tracking systems, you can easily track the stage applicants have reached. You will come to know which applicants are new and which of them are at the interview round level or technical round.
Even if some of the candidates are disqualified, they will remain in your database for future positions.
Features of ATS :
ATS has made life easier for all of those who are working in Human Resources. Let us discuss the following amazing features that every ATS should have :
1. Job Posting
This feature allows you to create and publish job descriptions across multiple channels like LinkedIn, Naukri.com, Indeed, Monster, and other applications. You just need to click once, and Job descriptions will get posted all around where you want them to be.
2. Analyse Resumes
The most difficult and hectic task for the recruiters is analysing the resumes based on skills, education, and experience. But with the AI ATS, it has also become easier, as it quickly scans all the resumes within a second by matching the skills and all other things set by HR in the system. Thus, transforming a stressful task into a stress-free task.
3. Candidate Screening
Before recruiters conduct an interview with the candidates, they go through the screening process. The suitable candidates are shortlisted, and the other remaining candidates get denied. It can also be done based on pre-defined questions that are compulsory for the candidates to answer.
4.Interview Scheduling
After screening the right candidate, you can schedule an interview with them. All you need to do is sync with the calendar and send invitations and reminders to interviewees and interviewers. Besides this, you can also set up a virtual interview. After the interview, you can collect the feedback too.
5.Sending offers
ATS can also help you with this, as it can send offers to candidates who have passed the final stage. You can customize offers, add terms and conditions, and trace whether the offer is being accepted by a candidate or not.
There are other additional features that help recruiters during the onboarding process and conduct training and development programs. But those features vary according to the software. Some major Application Tracking software companies are Pinpoint, Zoho, Recruitee, etc.
Benefits :
There plenty of benefits of using Application Tracking System to the Job recruitment agencies and other companies. So, let us learn about the various benefits of it :
1. Saves time :
Posting job descriptions on various sites and then shortlisting the right candidates is a quite chaotic process, and it takes a lot of time for the recruiters. ATS has resolved all these time-consuming things. It already disqualifies candidates who are not suitable for the job. Now it takes seconds for the HR people to sort the candidates that are perfect for a job.
2. Manage database easily :
There are a number of applicants that apply for a specific job, and all the applicant’s data is managed in the ATS. Recruiters can easily overview the details of candidates, like their experience, skills, and education.
Moreover, a recruiter can compare the candidates with other candidates who have applied on a different platform. And the best ATS system does not lose information about disqualified candidates. It also keeps track of them to hire them fast if they match the skills that are required.
3. Improves cost per hire :
Cost per hire is a recruitment metric that is used to calculate the total cost a company has incurred in hiring a candidate. You can find this out using the formula :
Internal recruiting cost + External recruiting cost / Total Number of hires
Many businesses do not like to invest in costly hiring processes, and for these businesses, it is quite suitable to use an ATS, which will save a lot of expenditure and time. With the introduction of an application tracking system, the cost of hiring has reduced.
4. Better Quality candidates :
According to the research, it was found that 80% of recruiters hire quality candidates with the help of an ATS. Already, the candidates have been filtered, and thus there are chances that the recruiter will hire the best candidate for a specific job. You should increase the recruitment process as soon as possible; otherwise, they will be grabbed by your competitors.
5. Smooth recruitment process :
Recruiting a candidate is a long process that includes preparing a job description, sourcing, screening, selecting, hiring, and onboarding candidates. Would you believe that this long process has been sorted out as all these tasks are handled by the application tracking system? This helps recruiting agencies work quickly and provide the best candidates to companies.
6. Flexible system :
ATS is a blessing in disguise for recruitment agencies. Both employers and recruitment agencies benefit a lot from using ATS. The recruiters can easily track the applicants status on application tracking software. Would you imagine a life where you need to send plenty of emails to schedule an interview or maintain a database of candidates in an Excel sheet? Obviously, no.
Future of AI and ATS:
In this article, we have learned how ATS has solved each problem related to the recruitment process, and right now, we can’t even imagine how many tasks would be replaced by AI. In the future, there could be chances that AI Robots will take interviews, and the day is not far when this will start happening. With the advancement of technology, everything will change slowly and gradually.