Paul is a member of the Database development team and, alongside his role as Applications Developer, he is also our resident expert on creating and using ATS reports.

Today we’re picking his brains on how ATS users can get the most out of their candidate data and reporting tools.

Hi Paul! We often hear Applicant Tracking Systems boasting about their ranges of reports. But what exactly are reports, and what’s included?

Put simply, ATS reports give users access to the data they’re interested in that the system has gathered, such as candidate and job data.

We then help them make sense of that information with standard reports or custom reports that we can write for them. Not every ATS provider will offer the same standard reports; ours are the reports that we think are most useful to users. These are available to all our customers, but are not necessarily industry wide.

Got it, thanks. And why is reporting important?

Reporting is important because you want be able to focus your energies in the right direction – and using reporting can make sure you’re going that direction.  So, you take a set of data and review over a certain period of time. If you then start doing something different – if you’ve changed direction – you can look at that information again over a certain period and see if you’ve improved.

What one piece of advice would you give to someone using ATS reports for the first time?

I think with most standard reports you almost just want to dive in, run a report, take a look at the information and see if it makes sense to you – can you use that information to help your business? Jump in and have a play with the data you can get out of the system, and contact your support team if you can’t make sense of it. They should be able to let you know what information on that screen means and can explain how different types of information knit together.

What do you think the most important reports are?

That’s really difficult. Off the top of my head, I’d say the Source report – it means you’re able to focus your resources into the right sources – the right agencies, right advertising, etc.

The Section Stats report is also a good one, as you can then see if people are getting hung up on certain sections of your application form and restructure them. Candidate data is also helpful, but only if you know what you’re looking for – you need a plan of attack, otherwise you can get a bit overwhelmed with info!

Find out more

Take a whistle-stop tour of the 3 ATS reports you need to be using

Understand how to make sense of your candidate data

Discover how we can help you measure your recruitment success