ATS, an abbreviation for "Applicant Tracking System," is a type of recruiting software that helps the company streamline its hiring process from beginning to end. Many organizations use ATS to analyze and improve their current hiring process. It helps to post job openings on multiple job portals, stores applicant data, and screens the applications for potential matches. A lot of filters, such as experience, qualification, skills required, etc., are used to determine the candidate’s suitability for a position. An advanced ATS has an in-built communication system, which provides communication channels between the recruiter and the potential candidate.
The applications stored in ATS will be parsed into separate sections and scanned entirely to search for certain keywords to identify the job position. If the keywords are matched, the application will be passed for further process.
It clearly suggests that an ATS bifurcates applications to help recruiters find a best suitable candidate for the role. Another important thing is that ATS does not identify candidates who are a perfect match; it rather eliminates the applications of the ones that are less qualified. This means if the resume is not prepared considering the rules, even competent candidates can be skipped.
Different vendors may offer different features, though the following are some of the common ones.
As an owner of a small or medium companies, your might think of not needing software for your recruitment process. However, ATS can be beneficial even for such organizations in a way you can’t think of.
ATS can simplify your hiring process by optimizing manual and time-consuming tasks such as managing and recording candidate applications, sending custom emails, tracking candidates throughout the process, etc. Additionally, you can generate custom reports with detailed insights, which can be challenging to create manually.
Many applicant tracking system vendors provide features that are specially customized for SMEs.
Large organizations mainly have more vacancies and thus target a larger pool of candidates. This creates additional pressure on recruiters to review and screen resumes with limited time and cognitive ability. A similar situation may also happen in small or large organizations. An ATS enables those recruiters to stay organized by managing all the applications in one platform.
Additionally, an applicant tracking system becomes useful for organizations in the following ways.
As the ATS scans applications based on pre-defined keywords, their format should be compliant. Following are the steps to create a well-formatted resume to pass through ATS.
An ATS helps recruiters track candidates and store their resumes. However, recruiting software combines these features in addition to scheduling, connecting candidates, email marketing, and mobile application.
The average cost of an ATS is $4 to $7 per employee per month, and it may depend on different business models. The most widely used models for ATS are pay per user, pay per feature, and pay per position.
The price may also depend on factors such as vendors, features, company size, installation, and maintenance.
