If you’ve ever tried to hire someone to fill a position at your company without the help of an effective applicant tracking system, you’re probably familiar with how daunting it can be. Sifting through a long list of applications, keeping track of which applicants have resumes which speak to the skills you need, and sending interview requests out to your refined pool of applicants can take a lot of time and energy from your company’s leadership.
A good applicant tracking system can make this process more manageable, saving you time and money with each new hire. Lift HCM has helped businesses like yours implement talent acquisition and applicant tracking systems which free up a lot of the operational bandwidth that you would have otherwise needed to sink into filling each new role you’re hiring for.
Let’s take a closer look at what you stand to gain from implementing an effective applicant tracking system for your organization and leave you with a better idea of what to look for should you decide it’s time to make a change.
Benefit #1. Applicant Tracking Systems Cut Down On Wasted Time
Reviewing resumes and interviewing candidates takes up a lot of time. This is time that gets taken away from managers and decision-makers whose attention should be narrowly focused on issues which have the greatest impact on growing the business.
A good applicant tracking system parses the data from each application and automatically filters out candidates whose skills and experience don’t align with what’s required of the role. It’ll also prioritize remaining applicants to help you identify the most qualified candidates.
In doing so, an effective applicant tracking system frees up your leadership to focus on more pressing issues and only asks them to interface with candidates which have already been vetted and flagged as being highly qualified for the role you’re looking to fill.
Benefit #2. Applicant Tracking Systems Can Reduce Hiring Costs
Data from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) suggests that the average cost of hiring a new employee was $4,700. Though SHRM notes that some employers reported that cost to be as much as four times the salary for the position in question.
Streamlining the vetting process by filtering out unqualified applicants and identifying the most qualified candidates instantly and drastically reduces your potential hiring cost. Streamlining the application process, interview scheduling, and candidate experience can reduce your cost per hire beyond that.
When paired with an effective onboarding system, an applicant tracking system can further reduce your hiring costs by increasing the retention rate of newly-hired employees, thereby preventing you from having to repeat the hiring process all over again to fill the same role a few months down the road.
Benefit #3. Applicant Tracking Systems Create a Better Experience for Candidates
An effective applicant tracking system can create a better experience for candidates by improving the operational efficiency surrounding each hire. This can mean making it easier to send rejection letters to unqualified applicants and streamlining the process of getting qualified candidates in for an interview.
Creating a positive candidate experience is important, considering data from HR Zone found that a happy candidate is 38% more likely to accept a job offer. Meanwhile, a 2021 study found that 58% of job seekers turned down job offers due to a poor candidate experience. Improving your applicant experience can have many benefits for your company in the long run as well.
Even receiving a timely rejection letter in response to their application gives candidates more of a reason to apply for roles for which they’d be more qualified to fill moving forward. For successful applicants, a streamlined interview and onboarding experience helps ensure they hit the ground running with a positive view of the company on their first day on the job.
Benefit #4. Applicant Tracking Systems Can Give You a Competitive Advantage Over Similar Job Postings
When hiring for any role, you’ll likely find yourself selecting from a pool of applicants largely filled by candidates who are forced to divide their time and attention between a small handful of similar positions for which they’ve been selected to interview. A good talent acquisition or applicant tracking system can give you a competitive advantage over other companies hiring for similar positions.
Offering a streamlined application and interview process to candidates can free up their time to learn about your company, prepare for their interview, and get ahead of any follow-up they might have planned.
It’s Time to Find an Applicant Tracking System That’s Right for Your Business
A good talent acquisition or applicant tracking system helps you minimize your cost per hire. It reduces the time spent identifying the most qualified applicants for a role and can help you create a more positive candidate experience. The right ATS can even help you gain a competitive edge over employers hiring for similar positions and retain employees by streamlining the handoff to your onboarding system. Because of this, an applicant tracking system can play an instrumental role in increasing your operational efficiency.
Lift HCM has been a trusted provider of human capital management services since 1967. If you’re ready to free up your company’s leadership to focus on making only the decisions which stand to have the greatest impact on your business, it may be time to consider partnering with Lift HCM to implement an applicant tracking system. In the meantime, you’ll want to make sure you’re handing successful applicants off onto a good onboarding system.
