Candidate Tracking Systems

Annually, $400 Billion are being spent on recruiting services and systems and even then, businesses are struggling to find the right talent, interested candidates are not finding their dream jobs, and star talent are still stuck in a job which they are not interested in doing. One of the main reasons behind these frustrations amongst the hiring managers, recruiters, and candidates is the use of outdated systems like emails and spreadsheets for hiring.

One of the crucial aspects, which are often overlooked in the recruitment process, is the candidate’s application experience. In the bigger picture, a positive candidate experience can play a significant role in boosting the organization’s reputation and attract a larger pool of qualified applicants. Taking shorter time to make hiring decisions also helps in catching the top talent before they accept another offer.

Need For An Automated Candidate Tracking System

HR Experts calculate that the average cost of hiring a new employee is around $3,500. Companies are obviously looking for ways to reduce these costs while improving the candidate hiring experience.

A Wall Street Journal article quoted that Starbucks had once received 7.6 million job applicants in a year for its 65,000 job openings. Procter & Gamble Inc. got over a million applications for 2,000 jobs. Google receives over 75,000 resumes per month! Managing such a huge number of applications manually can be very tedious and overwhelming for the recruitment team and it can also be very costly for the company.

Candidate Tracking Systems help in transforming the application process and make it easier to parse and sort applications without having to read them all manually. These systems scan the resumes for keywords, former employment, experience levels, and educational qualifications and identify the suitable candidates. Based on this scanning, applicants are ranked and high-ranking applicants make it to the next round. Such automated screening helps companies in considerably reducing the costs.

The Candidate Tracking Systems do not replace human scanning entirely. These systems, however, narrow the field in such a way that it becomes easier for the hiring managers to handle.

A company with 8 employees can save $10,000 using a Candidate Tracking System

Key Benefits of a Candidate Tracking System

In today’s digital age, modern workplaces have no option but to use technology and recruitment is one area where the recent times have seen a growing adoption of technology and automation.

As high as 90 percent of the large organizations today are using one of the other Candidate Tracking System and the adoption is probably 100 percent in the Fortune 500 companies.

Investment in a good Candidate Tracking System provides a host of benefits to the companies including :

1. Streamlined Application Process

The initial rounds of recruitment process require the recruiters to go through a stack of resumes, check the suitability; do background checks, and so on. Instead of manually examining all such logistical information, the Candidate Tracking Systems consolidates the information into a single window and makes it available for the recruiters – quickly and easily. The Candidate Tracking Systems also help recruiters in putting up the right job ads with clear instructions, salary information, and send out an automatic confirmation email to candidates when they apply for the job, and also help in providing clear instructions about the interview to the candidates. These systems also send out a notification to the candidates when the position is filled. Through better communication and timely responses, the Candidate Tracking Systems help the recruiters in keeping the candidate engaged and interested in the job and create a better candidate experience.

2. Workload Reduction and Better Productivity

Candidate Tracking Systems help the recruiters with online job posting, resume screening, interview scheduling and relieve them of much of the manual work associated with these activities. This allows them to concentrate their time and energies to the more important and strategic hiring activities.

3. Meaningful Data

Since the Candidate Tracking Systems gather a tremendous amount of data about the applicants, they can offer meaningful insights to the stakeholders helping them to take strategic decisions and build a sustainable recruitment strategy. For example – It can offer insights on which efforts brought best results, which efforts did not yield any results.

4. Cost Saving

Manual data entry, communication with candidates, and administrative duties tend to be costly in terms of man-hours. With Candidate Tracking Systems, such personnel-related expenses, as well as the costs associated with paperwork are minimized, resulting in tremendous savings for the companies.

5. Reduced Time to Hire

Candidate Tracking Systems maintain a rich database of resumes. Anytime the company needs to fill a current position or a new opening, the system provides a ready access to quality resumes which helps in reducing the time to hire.

6.Employment Brand Improvement

Candidate Tracking Systems help the recruitment teams in maintaining an ongoing communication with the candidates, provide those appropriate reasons for non-selection, and also offer a smooth experience during interview setup – all these things help in building a positive brand for the employer and create a better image in the minds of the applicants.

7. Improved Communication

With Candidate Tracking Systems, the ad-hoc communications through email and record maintenance in Excel sheets are no more required. Everything is centralized and all the communication flows through a centralized channel. Such standardized communication flow exponentially improves the quality of communication and optimizes the information flow.

8. Prevention of Discrimination

Several laws prevent employers from discriminating against job seekers because of their age, gender, ethnicity and more. It is important for the companies to demonstrate that an otherwise suitable candidate is not being disqualified because of any such reasons. Through automated, non-biased screening, Candidate Tracking Systems avoid such instances. The systems also allow companies to show that they are complying with all federal laws.

9. Compliance

Candidate Tracking Systems help companies in writing the right job posting by using the right language and conducting a proper interview by ensuring that certain questions are avoided. These systems help the companies in ensuring that they are unknowingly not being discriminatory. Also, in the case of litigation or any audit actually happening, a Candidate Tracking System can provide the information needed to prepare for it.

Companies that have formal candidate relationship processes (such as through software), and that track all their applicant communications, are 40% more likely to be “best in class”.

Key Features to look for in a Candidate Tracking System

When it comes to selecting the right Candidate Tracking System, there is no single answer which is suitable to all. The choice of the system depends a lot on the business requirements and needs. Companies should do an internal analysis of their recruitment process, identify the issues and areas of improvement, and then look for a system which can help them address those issues. Here are a few considerations to help you make the right choice when considering an automated candidate tracking tool:

1. Integration Capabilities

The Candidate Tracking System should be able to seamless integrate with the company website, email system, social media accounts, and other business platforms which the company might be using.

2. Mobile Capabilities

In today’s age, when people are used to using two or three devices simultaneously, mobile applicant tracking, providing the recruiters up-to-date information anytime, anywhere is a must. Mobile compatibility brings in a tremendous improvement in accessibility, response time, and communication.

3. Ease of Use

Instead of getting impressed with a lot of bells and whistles offered by many Candidate Tracking Systems, go for a system which is easy to set up, intuitive, easy to use, and easy to maintain. The recruitment teams should be comfortable using it with minimal training.

4. Social Media Recruiting

Modern-day recruiters are heavily leveraging the power of social networks for hiring the right candidates. When people are flocking on social networks for work, entertainment, networking, and other reasons, these platforms are the best places to look for passive candidates. Look for a Candidate Tracking System which integrates well with your social platforms and makes it easy to share jobs on social platforms.

5. Employee Referrals Management

Even today, employee referral is one of the top and most effective sources for hiring the right candidates. Only having the employee referral bonus in place is not sufficient. Companies need to get their employees involved in the hiring and referral process. The right Candidate Tracking System can help you effortlessly integrate employee referral capabilities and allow your employees to share referral information through the system.

The popularity of Candidate Tracking Systems is growing, not just for the large companies but mid-size companies, as well as startups are also looking to advance their HR and recruitment processes by using automation. While automation is the current trend in recruitment, selecting the right Candidate Tracking System requires due diligence and plenty of efforts. Once the right system is in place, it can go a long way in reducing the ongoing operating costs and improving the overall recruitment process.

By Sheetal Kale