A recent study by the Australian HR Institute (AHRI) found that half of Australia’s HR leaders don’t believe their existing workforce has the required skills to face the challenges of recovery. Recruitment is going to play a critical role in filling these resource gaps, yet HR leaders list it as one of their biggest sources of anxiety.
And one of the reasons for this is because the process is typically time and resource intensive. The good news is that if you have the right technology, it doesn’t have to be. Most recruitment companies use intelligent Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to make their jobs easier – and it works for HR too.
Here are six reasons an ATS should be on the agenda for your HR team.
1. Make your hiring process faster
In Australia, it takes an average of 68 days to fill a vacancy, and this may only increase as we see higher numbers of candidates for every role. Even before you start taking applications, the administration begins. From posting your job to contacting unsuccessful candidates and booking interviews, the admin can be extensive, and many HR departments are still doing this manually.
The right ATS can help you manage and automate these tasks, reducing the administration headache and saving your team significant time. The automation tools available today are sophisticated and make it easier than ever to manage every aspect, from the job ad to communicating with candidates, scheduling interviews and even integrating reference checks. And even going beyond the hiring process, your ATS can help you move the successful candidate into the onboarding phase.
Of course, technology shouldn’t replace every human interaction, but it’s perfect for those repetitive, time-consuming admin tasks that take your team away from where they can really add value.
2. Pre-screen large candidate pools quickly
One area HR and hiring managers can really benefit from is pre-screening tools that screen out candidates who don’t meet the minimum job requirements, and even notifies them by email, before you have even looked at a job application.
You can also seamlessly integrate video interviewing into the process. Through your ATS, you can select those candidates you would like to video interview, and then automatically send them the questions and instructions. You can then review the videos as they come in and make a more informed decision as to who you will progress to the all-important face-to-face interview stage.
3. Take control of the recruitment process and keep compliant
If you work in HR, you know the challenges of managing recruitment when the hiring is done downstream by hiring managers. It can be hard to know where recruitment efforts are at, and even more importantly, ensure the process is compliant.
An ATS can act as a single source of truth so that you can track the progress of recruitment in real time, ensuring compliance and identifying any bottlenecks that may be costing the organisation time and money.
4. Find people who want to work for you
An ATS can help you determine the most successful sources of hire for your organisation so you can allocate resources to the avenues that work best for you.
It can also help you capture the details of anyone who is interested in working for you, so that when you are ready to hire, you have a list of potential candidates before you even advertise the role. This is done via a self-service portal, like Salesforce Communities, that allows prospective candidates to complete and update their details themselves with no interaction or admin required from your team.
5. Integrate with existing tools, like your CRM or HRIS
Rather than acting as a stand-alone system, your ATS should integrate seamlessly with your existing CRM or HRIS, so that you can manage every step of the hiring process and move on to onboarding and employment management without skipping a beat.
This puts the entire history of your candidate, from when they first applied to when they exit the organisation in one easy place.
6. Generate insights to make data-driven recruitment decisions
Because your ATS holds all the information about previous job listings, candidate applications, video interviews and interactions, you can start to generate reporting that will help you make decisions and allocate resources that save time and money – not just for the HR team but for the entire business.
If recruitment is a challenge for your HR team, you’re certainly not alone. Get in touch to find out how CTC people can help you take the headache out of your recruitment process and deliver results for your organisation.