The Applicant Tracking System: The Unsung Hero of Recruitment

The Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is often an afterthought to most people outside of recruitment … and maybe to some talent acquisition professionals as well. But truly it is the unsung hero of the recruitment world. Often viewed as a glorified spreadsheet, a truly modern ATS does much more than track applicants — it automates, evaluates, and personalizes the hiring process in a way that resonates not just through the hiring process, but through the entire employee experience.

What separates a truly great ATS from just an applicate database is largely in automation and integration. Automation allows hiring to be done at a scale that just can’t be done manually, especially in today’s environment of hiring done outside of traditional locations.

HireRoad, a Brandon Hall Group Preferred Provider, understands the importance of automated hiring processes that configure to organizations’ business needs and preferred recruitment workflow. The company goes well beyond that, however, and sees “being hired” to include everything from job posting to employee success. 

This strategic approach is critical for attracting applicants of all different worker types, demographics, and geographies. Add to that the need to manage those applicants if you can successfully bring them in, and the power of automation truly makes itself known. Automation can:

  • Allow for instant candidate communication, regardless of volume 
  • Automate self-scheduled interviews and video screening for a more adaptive approach to remote recruitment
  • Complete new hire paperwork digitally 
  • Automate new hire training to improve time-to-full-productivity 

Also, having the right systems in place to support the candidate experience (and by continuation, the employee experience) is important for recruitment, but being able to tell if differentiated recruiting is having a positive effect requires more than just one system. Currently, just over half of organizations can connect their LMS, HRIS, and onboarding to their ATS, but at most only two-thirds of all organizations have any systems integration at all, according to Brandon Hall Group research. 

With more workplaces becoming hybrid or fully remote, it becomes imperative that we create candidate experiences that reflect our unique cultures and organizational brand. The ATS may hide in the shadows, but successful organizations will see that now is the ATS’ time in the spotlight.

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Mike Cooke

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Mike Cooke

Chief Executive Officer of Brandon Hall Group Mike Cooke Prior to joining Brandon Hall Group, Mike Cooke was the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of AC Growth. Mike held leadership and executive positions for the majority of his career, at which he was responsible for steering sales and marketing teams to drive results and profitability. His background includes more than 15 years of experience in sales, marketing, management, and operations in the research, consulting, software and technology industries. Mike has extensive experience in sales, marketing and management having worked for several early high-growth emerging businesses and has implemented technology systems to support various critical sales, finance, marketing and client service functions. He is especially skilled in organizing the sales and service strategy to fully support a company’s growth strategy. The concept of growth was an absolute to Mike and a motivator in starting AC Growth, in order to help organizations achieve research driven results. Most recently, Mike was the VP and General Manager of Field Operations at Bersin & Associates, a global analyst and consulting services firm focused on all areas of enterprise learning, talent management and talent acquisition. Tasked with leading the company’s global expansion, Mike led all sales operations worldwide. During Mike’s tenure, the company has grown into a multi-national firm, conducting business in over 45 countries with over 4,500 multi-national organizations. Mike started his career at MicroVideo Learning Systems in 1992, eventually holding a senior management position and leading all corporate sales before founding Dynamic Minds. Mike was CEO and Co-Founder of Dynamic Minds, a custom developer of software programs, working with clients like Goldman Sachs, Prentice Hall, McGraw Hill and Merrill Lynch. Also, Mike worked for Oddcast, a leading provider of customer experience and marketing solutions, where he held a senior management position leading the company into new markets across various industries. Mike also serves on the Advisory Board for Carbon Solutions America, an independent sustainability consulting and carbon management firm that specializes in the design and implementation of greenhouse reduction and sustainability plans as well as managing the generation of carbon and renewal energy and energy efficiency credits. Mike attended University of Phoenix, studying Business Administration and Finance. He has also completed executive training at the Chicago Graduate School of Business in Chicago, IL.

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