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How Modern Applicant Tracking Software Works

In the January 2015 issue of HR Magazine, human resource expert Josh Bersin predicts that 2015 is the time for companies to move to cloud-based, modern applicant tracking software. Does your HR technology provide the features your company needs to compete?

Why Choose Modern Applicant Tracking Software?

It improves your hiring experience through speedy screening, effective interviewing, efficient decision-making, data-driven actions and a faster return on investment.

1. Speedy Screening

The pace at which you screen your applicants is important for a number of reasons. If you take too long, you will lose talented candidates to your competition and you will give candidates a bad impression of your company’s efficiency. Also, the longer the process takes, the more it costs your company.

With the large number of resumés that pour in through online job boards, social media and other advertising efforts, sifting through paperwork is not an option. Modern applicant tracking software automatically analyzes and tags all incoming applications so that your hiring team has the information it needs to quickly decide if a new applicant is a “go” or a “no-go”. By quickly screening out those who don’t fit the position, you team can then focus on the most promising candidates.

2. Effective Interviewing with Modern Applicant Tracking

Modern applicant tracking software makes it easy for your hiring team to schedule, plan and prepare for interviews. By integrating tools like Google calendar and Microsoft Outlook, all interviews scheduled in the system are also booked in the calendars of interviewers.

The software keeps your hiring team organized, ensuring that all interviewers receive a complete interview package to prepare them to meet and assess candidates. The interview packages sets out the right interview questions to ask, ensuring that your team can consistently interview and assess the appropriateness of each candidate for the job.

Modern applicant tracking software also keeps your interviews moving forward at a brisk pace with alerts to notify you if candidates are spending too long at that stage in the hiring process.

3. Efficient Decision-Making

Hiring is a team activity and modern applicant tracking software helps team members to collaborate and make smart and timely decisions. With cloud-based technology it is easy to bring your team together wherever they are. They can even connect to the software with mobile devices.

As each team member logs in to the program, they can add their input about each candidate. The program collects all input from these evaluations and ranks candidates by their scores, so your team has at hand the information needed to compare candidates and decide on a hire.

4. Data-Driven Actions

With modern applicant tracking software, your team acts based on evidence rather than instinct or whim. As Bersin notes, your HR software needs to support data-driven recommendations for hiring, learning, retention and leadership development. “Your HR software should ‘recommend’ people, experts, programs and management changes, rather than just give you lots of reports to run.”

With the right software, the entire hiring process is data-driven and it is easier for your team to make decisions with the insight the data provides.

5. Better Return on Investment (ROI) with Modern Recruiting Software

Finally, modern applicant tracking software pays for itself by increasing your return on investment (ROI) throughout the hiring process. For example, with the valuable data gathered about the sources of your successful candidates, your team can reduce recruitment costs by focusing on the proven methods rather than spending money on every recruitment method out there.

Time is the greatest factor in determining the cost of your hiring process. Modern applicant tracking software reduces the length of your hiring period by automating the screening of resumés, the scheduling of interviews and the scoring of candidates. But more than this — the software also keeps your team moving efficiently with built in work flows and alerts to notify your team when they are lagging behind at any stage of the hiring process. By making each stage of the hiring process more efficient, your modern applicant tracking software helps to eliminate wasted time and to provide a smooth experience for both your candidates and your employees.

Has your company made the move to modern recruiting software? Contact us today to give Simplicant a test drive.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash