Choosing an Applicant Tracking System – 4 tips to restart your project

How do organisations restart a recruitment technology project?

‘Time kills all deals’. It’s a well-known maxim and one that rings true to this day.

The other factor that proves fatal is momentum – or rather lack of it. Remove momentum, you remove any sense of urgency, excitement, or desire to get things done. Instead, it is replaced with a feeling of despondency and a culture of resistance.

If this has happened with your own experience of selecting and implementing an ATS then feel assured, you are not alone. But it doesn’t have to be the end of the road. Take a look at our guide that shows what organisations can do (based on real experience) to get these vital projects back on track.

How do you restart a project?

1. Re-focus the need

What were the drivers for needing an ATS in the first place?  Invariably experience dictates that there are often two key reasons: to make the process more efficient and save costs, or to improve the level of engagement with candidates to attract better people to the business.

Of course there are nuances within these two drivers, but all roads fundamentally lead back to one of these reasons being the underlying need.

So revisit the initial need – and freshen the case based on these factors.  Ultimately most businesses want to address one or both of these issues. 

In a survey undertaken by PWC in 2017 it was reported that:

93% of CEOs believe their own organisation’s recruitment function needs “a fundamental overhaul”. 

Against this backdrop, consider what the drivers of the business goals are for the coming year or two and how an improved recruitment function is going to address those needs.  Simply saying that you need an ATS because it will help with workload and organisation may not be enough – it is really saying that you can’t cope and are disorganised at the moment.  And that is why CEOs are questioning the recruitment function.  So don’t focus on what is wrong, focus on what the needs are and how you can support the business better in achieving its goals.

2. Gather your facts

In support of tip 1, you really need to gather evidence of how you’re currently performing as a function.  And by performing, we really need to focus on how you support and deliver the goals of the business.

Some key areas we would suggest looking at would be:

• How much is current advertising spend? How effective is it and what is your cost per hire?
• How much is spent on agency fees? Amazingly, if you can show the potential of saving just 2 or 3 agency fees, the ATS will probably have paid for itself.
• How many roles per year are you required to fill? And how many of those were unfilled in the last 12 months?
• What is the average time to hire (from when you are notified to when the offer is accepted)?
• What percentage of candidates changed their mind after initially accepting the offer?
• What are your best sources of candidates? Both advertising and referrals.

Unless you can measure something, you cannot always improve it. If you don’t have the data to hand (it can be difficult without some sort of system in place) then that in itself starts to make your case. Particularly in areas such as compliance – the key one being Diversity and Inclusion. Failure to keep good records here could leave you very open to a claim if you cannot show the demographic of applicants for each vacancy as well as those people you actually hired.

On a related theme, one area to focus attention that’s often overlooked is to review your own application process through the eyes of a candidate. We would suggest following a few key steps:

• Search for one of your own vacancies via Google (it’s where most candidates start).
  Just search for, say, ‘Marketing Manager’, Bracknell; or ‘Credit Controller’, Dundee and see what results are brought back. Can you find your own vacancies? And if you can, what is the application process that candidates are led through? You may be surprised to see that it’s not what you think – particularly with Google Jobs indexing the vacancies and displaying them. It’s intended to make it easy for candidates, but unless you (or your ATS) has integrated with Google, you may be quite shocked at the route that candidates are led down.
• Once you start the application, how long does it take?
  Maybe get a friend or one of your colleagues who is less familiar with your process to give it a try. But bear in mind that according to a survey conducted in December 2018 by Recruitment Grapevine, more than 70% of applicants say that they would give up on a process that takes longer than 15 minutes.
• Try searching for the job and applying via your smartphone.
  This is how; 85% of candidates now search for jobs (again according to Recruitment Grapevine, Dec 2018). If they are searching and applying using a mobile, does your site make it a friendly experience for them?

3. Stakeholders, business sponsors and resource

Round up the troops early! Engaging project sponsors like Heads of Departments, Finance, IT and Hiring Managers and sharing the impact against your target outcomes and ROI will go a long way to ensuring you get over the finishing line this time around.

4. Your own team

Your own team is often forgotten when considering the downside of a project going on hold. But many recruiters often have targets against certain metrics and want the tools to help them do their job better. What’s more, many want to deliver something more purposeful and move away from mundane admin tasks – and the lack of systems prevents that. Don’t let good people leave your team because of stagnating projects. Try to get them to work with you on influencing stakeholders as well. That way they can be part of the solution and not another problem for you.

Ultimately we are not suggesting anything revolutionary, but be brave and push for the projects you believe will make a difference. Ensure you have the right support and leave no stone unturned when planning your proposal to the board or the senior team for sign off and budget allocation.

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you will always get what you’ve always got”

A proverb attributed to Tony Robbins, Albert Einstein, Henry Ford and even Mark Twain. No matter the origin, it makes sense!