Online Recruitment Magazine - What role does ATS play in the recruitment process

Applicant tracking systems have been a godsend to many a company, but not everyone understands their role - even those fully signed up to a system may not be realising its full potential. We asked some experts in the field to describe the role of ATS from their perspective.

Tim Richards, Managing Director, Bond UK explains: ìApplicant tracking quite simply saves time and streamlines the recruitment process from initial application through to decision. The impact on internal resources of sifting through hardcopy CVs and email applications can be enormous. Without adequate filtering through intelligent and focused screening questions, recruitment departments can quickly become deluged with applications, only a select few of which will be worth spending the time on.î Duncan Macintyre, Director of GTI Recruiting Solutions says his ATS clients see these systems as essential in moving the recruitment process forward and importantly for measuring that process in real time. He says: ìThey want instantaneous stats and reporting at a click, the tracking of star candidates or the success or not of specific recruitment agencies. ATSs allow recruiting professionals to be just that professional, efficient, supporting the employer brand, improving the candidate experience and above all be consistent.î

According to Sebastien Sepierre, Head of Resourcing Technologies EMEA, Alexander Mann Solutions, Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are being used more and more by HR professionals. He believes: ìTheir role should be to work in parallel with and support the recruitment process, underpinning it all the way through from job requisition, to extending the contract and onboarding the candidate. Before purchasing an ATS, HR professionals should ensure that their recruitment process is strong. This means taking the time to do a proper audit and designing a process that will deliver the companyís objectives. Instead of this, we often see situations where the ATS has been added as a solution to fix the old recruitment process problems. Reviewing the recruitment process first, provides a backbone, which enables selection of an ATS that is the right match for both the company and its recruitment needs. Broken processes, badly managed implementations or poorly utilised systems can completely undermine a systemís effectiveness and restrict the benefits.î

How do HR professionals and employers perceive ATS?

However it is not clear that all HR professionals and employers realise the benefits of ATS and may have misconceptions about their purpose or capability. Torsten Muth at Experteer says he is not sure how far the benefits of ATS have yet been recognized. He thinks that: ìIt will be particularly now as cooperations and recruitment companies will look for ways to save money. ATS systems can offer this if a company has a database on its own that is big enough to not be properly handled anymore on a manual basis.î

Duncan Macintyre believes that there is still the perception that the system replaces the person, not so these systems are work tools that enable recruiters to do more of the ëdoingí of recruitment and less of the administration. Sebastien Sepierre feels that the full potential of ATS is not always utilised, saying: ìMany HR professionals see the benefits of e-recruitment an ATS, although they may not see or realise all the benefits. For example, talent pooling is a key area in an ATS and a real value add; yet this is often not used. HR professionals will use the e-recruitment function to manage their candidates, but will forget to search through the other candidates in the talent pool that have already applied. Such a step often secures a suitable candidate in a shorter timeframe.î

Tim Richards believes that employers are increasingly viewing ATS as an integral part of their overall HR strategy. He says: ìATS has long been seen as a vital part of recruitment strategy for high recruitment organisations such as airlines and retailers, who traditionally experience high volumes of applications and have therefore been best placed to take advantage of the associated benefits. However, more recently interest has undoubtedly grown within industries and organisations who have lower volumes of recruitment, but who nevertheless see the clear benefit from streamlining their processes through the right technology solution. Naturally, there will always be a level of reluctance to change from more traditional recruitment methods, though this is commonly because the organisation in question has not had the opportunity to see firsthand the potential benefits of putting an ATS solution in place. In the current economic climate, there will understandably be some reluctance to invest in new technology. However, those organisations who have implemented the right ATS will see that the long term savings far outweigh the cost of any initial investment, and those who have not may well see their recruitment drives suffer in comparison. Implementing an ATS is fundamentally a cost-saving exercise, and as recruitment will continue despite the economic conditions, it is therefore more important than ever to explore ways in which technology solutions can streamline the process and, most critically, reduce cost-per-hire.î

How will the role of ATS develop in the future?

ìIt ultimately should replace the paper application process of a company,î says Torsten Muth. He predicts that ATS will improve the effectiveness of predominantly larger cooperation HR departments and recruitment companies, as it should help to find talents within an existing database that otherwise might not be visible. When used effectively it can not only save time but also money as the company can avoid going for external hiring but find talents better within its own workforce. ATS has some boundaries too. It cannot replace the need to still go and look for fresh profiles outside of a company as the information within a given and self owned database usually doesnt get updated for candidates that have been applying from the outside.î

Duncan Macintyre sees more integration of technology, but also consolidation: ìATSís will become ever more integrated with other elements of the recruiting process, job boards, assessment tools, on boarding processes, talent management and other technologies like SMS texting and PDA technology. More controversially however there will be a consolidation of providers. When you now look at the ERP market with HR systems there are probably seven major players with most people only able to quote one or two. Likewise with ATSs the current crowded market place will become less so as companies seek to consolidate and buy market share, in this last year weíve seen acquisition activity in the States along just these lines.î Sebastien Sepierre agrees there will be an even greater array of functions, but also systems and providers. This makes getting the right ATS for your business more difficult than ever before. He says: ìWhen such systems first started they were focused purely on recruitment- raising a vacancy, getting candidates to apply and managing them through to an offer. We are now seeing providers expand their scope to include the development of sourcing tools, talent management functionality and HR process systems - a trend that has been led by companies such as Taleo. Where as we first saw companies such as SAP and Peoplesoft develop and add recruitment to their HR process systems, we will now see businesses who provide recruitment systems developing HR process systems. It will be interesting to see how this develops, as often companies that specialise in one area will not achieve the same standards when they expand into a new area. This could present HR professionals with a choice – choosing between one platform to provide everything, where there perhaps isnít so much specialisation, or selecting niche providers for talent management, recruitment and HR process systems within the same offering. Regardless of the changes made by providers, the focus for HR professionals should still be the same. Before selecting a provider and product, first review current processes and design the process to fit the company, and then select the provider that offers the best systems to support these processes.î

Whether you are considering investing in an ATS, or have already – How do you perceive its role? You may discover thereís more latent potential in an ATS than you first imagined.