5 Signs Your ATS is Dying

5 Signs Your ATS Is Dying

Page 2

Introduction

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS’s) come in a variety of manifestations touting a variety of features and claims. What they all have in common is that they aggregate

information into a centralized database with the express intent of automating the recruiting process and managing workflow. Additionally, the best ATS’s facilitate a

streamlined workflow, incorporate collaborative mechanisms, and are entirely intuitive to use.

Unfortunately, not all ATS’s are created equal.

In your search for the perfect ATS, you may encounter products that fly high at the start only to experience a gradual decline in performance over time. Others don’t

manage to make it off the ground, failing to live up to their advertised expectations even in the initial stages.

So how can you tell if your chosen ATS is a dud? If you notice any of these five signs, it’s likely that your ATS is dying.

5 Signs Your ATS Is Dying

Page 3

Sign 1: Your ATS Doesn’t Track SocialThe social Web has uncovered new frontiers in business exposure and candidate sourcing. Companies seeking

new talent are scrambling to figure out how to maximize their use of social recruiting. But all the Tweets, Facebook

posts, and LinkedIn invitations are for naught, if you have no way to track from which source your highest quality

candidates are being directed.

Inferior ATS’s, that don’t provide social tracking mechanisms, force recruiters to make their “best guess” as to

where to direct resources or to rely on candidates submitting this information. With no data or analytics about

which recruiting outlets are producing high quality results, recruiters may be devoting unnecessary time and

capital toward unproductive outlets and ignoring, or undervaluing, those that compel superior candidate interest.

This is where recruiting intelligence comes into play, and any comprehensive ATS should include some platform or resource that provides analytics and source

tracking – especially on social. This information is vital for companies to identify and focus on only the most effective outlets, while redirecting resources away from

underperforming sources.

A high performing ATS should also include a seamlessly integrated and branded career site.

You want a site that provides an attractive, but easily navigated, user interface and blends

with your existing website both visually and in representing your brand message.

A career site is the jumping off point for many of your social recruiting endeavors, and your

ATS should incorporate the necessary tools for you to maintain a certain level of quality for

the site. You can see examples of some of the strongest career sites in the eBook 21 Career

Sites that Sell.

Finally, a superior ATS will aggregate information from all of your recruitment marketing

campaigns into a single, easy-to-use interface. In an ideal world, you’d be able to track and

analyze all your job promotion activities – be it social media, employee referrals, job board

and career site postings, or advertising – in one robust and straightforward platform.

5 Signs Your ATS Is Dying

Page 4

Sign 2: Your Candidates Have to Do the Hokey Pokey in Order to ApplyWe’ve all had to suffer through the experience of filling out cumbersome forms

and navigating complex websites for one service or another. Tedious and

time-consuming application forms will prevent prospective job seekers from

completing an application because of frustration with the user interface.

Some applications ask the applicant to both upload a resume, and then

manually enter a lot of the same information into the application separately.

The information is redundant and time wasting for both the applicant filling

out the form and for the recruiter who looks at two sets of data from the same

candidate.

Other applications are constructed on an unstable ATS platform full of

technical glitches that can cause data loss. For most applicants who go

through the arduous process of inputting all their information and are met by

an “Error” screen, the experience is more than demoralizing. Only a handful

will circle back and re-enter everything from scratch.

Ideally, an ATS would simplify this process to render it foolproof for any

serious candidate. Many top ATS options offer integration with an applicant’s

existing social media profiles, allowing them to immediately parse personal

information from their LinkedIn or Facebook accounts.

5 Signs Your ATS Is Dying

Page 5

However, even the ATS’s that successfully create a positive candidate experience often neglect another very important consideration – the usability of their platform for

the recruiters working these candidates.

The multitude of tasks a recruiter needs to undertake simultaneously forces them to navigate between windows and websites cluttering up their desktop. Some ATS’s

have combined many of these tasks into a single web interface. The most advanced have developed intuitive, easy-to-use specialized interfaces for mobile phone or

tablet, allowing you to take your job on-the-go without losing any of the important features or usability of a full website.

Other ATS’s incorporate candidate relationship management tools that aggregate information about leads, allowing for easier organization and preventing potential leads

from being neglected or falling through the cracks. These tools also allow you to communicate seamlessly with your entire pool of job prospects. Real-time metrics are

another tool that many ATS’s incorporate right into their platform or dashboard.

The most comprehensive ATS’s available on the market have taken both the job seeker and the recruiter into consideration in crafting their product.

5 Signs Your ATS Is Dying

Page 6

Sign 3: Your Auto-Responders Sound Like R2D2Technology has allowed for the automation of many activities previously

taken on by people. Call up a bank or airline, and 80% of the time you can

complete whatever task you had in mind without ever needing to speak to

another individual. However, most customers still would prefer a sense of

human interpersonal interaction. The same holds true for job seekers and

prospective candidates.

Although the goal of the ATS is to streamline the application and hiring

system and to reduce the workload for recruiters, job applicants want to leave

your website feeling like they were interacting with a person and not just

outsourced to a robot.

The best ATS’s will have incorporated this innate desire for human interaction

into their model. Once the job seeker submits an application, rather than

shooting out an obviously canned auto-responder, like “Your application has

been received and is under review,” a good ATS will allow you to devise a

more personal means of communication and candidate interaction. From

the auto-responders to the direct communications from the recruiters, an ATS

should facilitate personable interaction between companies and candidates.

The more personal of a connection candidates feel with your company, the

more positive they will feel about your company’s investment in them and in

their potential work.

5 Signs Your ATS Is Dying

Page 7

Sign 4: Your Hiring Managers Take a Month to Respond to Your EmailsIn any business, large or small, there’s an inevitable delay in communication between various parties. People flag e-mails but never get around to responding to them,

communication lines are crossed, and you even get the occasional message that inexplicably gets filtered into your Junk Mail. Unfortunately, many of us depend on

these responses to move forward in our own projects and purposes. With e-mails constantly getting lost in the ether for whatever reason, how are we expected to get

anything done?

Many of the more advanced ATS’s have integrated invaluable tools for collaboration in their platforms, often completely on web-based interfaces that require no

download or installation of additional software. Rather than relying on random shots of communication being sent out in various mediums, these systems allow

participants to communicate and collaborate on projects in a single platform, without having to negotiate between e-mail, phone, and (for fanciers of the archaic) fax.

The best ATS’s provide robust integration with the most popular e-mail and calendar clients like Outlook and Gmail. Scheduling changes are seamlessly incorporated

in a two-way fashion. These ATS’s also automatically send out communications containing necessary information to team members exactly when they need them –

interview schedules, applicant information, approval requests, and more – so there’s no need to fish for this information; and it eliminates e-mail silos.

In keeping activity centralized, you have the added benefit of maintaining a single chronological record of all activity on a particular project, making your life

exponentially easier if you need to refer to a previous action. These tools also facilitate organization among team members, and give them an efficient and cohesive

means to execute projects. With everything in one place, your roadmap becomes simpler and your goal more attainable.

5 Signs Your ATS Is Dying

Page 8

Sign 5: Your Employees Don’t Know What Positions Are OpenEmployee referrals are the “it-girl” for recruiters. Generating higher quality

candidates at a lower cost per hire, referrals are at the top of many recruiters’

lists. An ATS that doesn’t take employee referrals into consideration is missing a

crucial and cost-effective element within the recruitment process.

The vanguard of ATS’s has incorporated tools to assist in the referral process

that integrate seamlessly into its tracking platforms. These systems provide

a hub for employees to easily learn about open positions and for recruiters to

track how referrals have fared.

For example, when an employee at Groupon visits their job openings page and

sees a position that may be a fit for one of their social contacts, that employee

need only make a few clicks to send a Jobvite that not only provides exposure

for the opening, but tracks that referrals progress. If the Jobvite goes viral,

Groupon’s recruiting team will be the first to know. And in the end, it all gets

attributed to the right employee referrer.

To learn more about referrals and how to build and maintain an effective

program, see How to Reduce Cost-to-Hire with a Successful Employee Referral

Program.

5 Signs Your ATS Is Dying

Page 9

Conclusion: Pull the Plug and Upgrade

If, in pondering your current ATS, you find yourself checking off more than a few of the above signs, perhaps it’s time to reevaluate. You and your ATS may have had

some good times; but if the efficiency spark just isn’t there anymore, maybe it’s about time for you to start seeing other ATS’s.

Swapping over your entire system may be a daunting prospect, but the best ATS’s make the transition as smooth and painless as possible. You should start seeing the

benefits of your upgrade immediately, and if your shiny new ATS is truly comprehensive, you won’t find yourself bumping up against any of these five signs again.

5 Signs Your ATS Is Dying

Page 10

About Jobvite

Jobvite is the only recruiting platform that that delivers real-time recruiting intelligence with innovative technology for the evolving social web. Leading, fast-growing

companies today use Jobvite’s social recruiting, sourcing and talent acquisition solutions to target the right talent and build the best teams.

Jobvite is a complete, modular Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that can optimize the speed, cost-effectiveness and ease of recruiting for any company. To find

out more, take a product tour.

Jobvite Hire is a practical, intuitive web-based platform that helps you effectively manage every stage of hiring. It’s the only social recruiting and applicant tracking

solution that makes it easy for everyone to work together on hiring. With Jobvite Hire, you can improve the speed and quality of talent acquisition, create a great

candidate experience, and increase referral and social network hires – all while using fewer resources.

Jobvite Source is an easy-to-use web-based application that can help you achieve your recruitment sourcing goals today. It’s the only social sourcing and candidate

relationship management application that helps you target relevant talent through employee referrals, social networks and the web – then build and engage your talent

pool. Jobvite Source is one intuitive platform to manage all sourcing programs and see the results.

Ready to learn more? Request a free demo.