3 ways an ATS can save you time

Can’t managing your recruitment process be such a time consuming task?

Using traditional methods, such as email applications and paper CVs, can be difficult to manage and it only takes one slip-up from the postman or a missed email to potentially lose out on top talent for your business. Not to mention the trouble your team go through wading through masses of CVs and emails on a daily basis.

So how can an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) help save you time when recruiting?

1. It automates tasks, reducing paperwork and manual processing

Communication with applicants can often be one of the lengthiest tasks when it comes down to recruiting. If you have a large number of applicants, it can be difficult to keep track, especially if candidates are all at different stages of the process. Having an automated system in place can help you to completely eliminate this through the ease of creating personalised emails that you can send in bulk to your candidates. Moreover, arranging interviews can be quick and easy; a simple tick of a box and a candidate will be able to pick their interview date and time.

There is also the difficulty of having a team of employees working on recruitment. Who is in charge of forwarding CVs and applications round to each member of staff? Whose job is it to manually type these up so that everyone has access to the most up-to-date information? An ATS will hold this information in one central database for everyone in the team to access, reducing administration time and manual processing. Instead, everything is centrally positioned in one, easy to access location. Although creating an Excel spreadsheet may initially seem like a simple way to organise your potential recruits, it can be difficult to keep track of what stage each candidate is at in the recruitment process.

2. It centralises recruitment

Even if you have several teams across the UK, you can implement your recruitment strategy in one central location. The central recruitment team will have access to all regional offices and be able to manage recruitment more efficiently than from several locations, meaning that you’ll only need to pay for one licence.

An ATS can be particularly helpful if you are sourcing candidates from a range of platforms, including your own careers site and job boards, as every application, despite its source, can be centrally grouped together for you to review at your own pace.

Furthermore, if you are still using agencies, the integration of an agency portal will speed up the process as you can communicate all recruitment information directly through the portal, rather than wasting valuable time emailing back and forth.

3. It aids candidate attraction

An as employer, you want to fill vacancies in the shortest amount of time possible in order to reduce costs to the business. With an Applicant Tracking System, you will be updated when new applicants have applied and at which stage of the process each candidate is. This means that you will be kept up-to-date at all times, helping to move the process along at a faster pace and reduce your overall time to hire.

Research by Indeed and The Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), states that nearly half of all jobs advertised have not been filled after a month, with 27% still being vacant after 3 months. If you can attract candidates at a faster rate and encourage them to apply, this number could be significantly reduced, saving your team money and resources.

An ATS should help to give your business greater visibility, using SEO tools to index your job vacancies as well as integrating with social media to help promote your job adverts to a wider audience. An ATS should offer a professional candidate experience, as candidates are more likely to apply for a job if they are presented with an attractive, user friendly careers site that mirrors your brand.

An ATS should help save you time as an employer, finding you the best candidates through an automated system which reduces the hard work and manual processing. Through a centralised system, recruitment can be managed more effectively, helping you to source candidates across the country, saving you time and money, whilst aiding candidate attraction.

Not only that, they’ll be plenty more time for tea breaks…

Find out more:

Read the 3 ways an ATS can centralise recruitment

Find out how an ATS can aid your screening process?

Or if you’d like a demo, get in touch