These days, it’s not enough to buy new software for your company solely because of its capabilities. You also have to provide a measurable ROI to back up your decision. When you’re evaluating which ATS or applicant tracking system to purchase for your recruiting firm, you need ways to measure the return on investment that your business will see. A well-managed talent database software can help boost both recruiter efficiency and the candidate experience overall. This leads to more placements and in turn, more revenue. Let’s explore how implementing the right ATS can not only streamline workflows for your employees but intrinsically benefit your company’s bottom line.
Saves Your Recruiters Valuable Time
As cliche as it sounds, it’s true: time is money, especially at small to mid-size recruiting firms. You want your recruiters to devote their time to meaningful tasks like connecting with candidates-not administrative work such as manually tracking the candidate process. A strong ATS saves your team countless hours that would otherwise be wasted to manually performing administrative tasks. An article from Lever puts it this way: “If your annual salary is $80,000 and you waste one hour per day on purely administrative work that an ATS could accelerate for you, that time is worth $10,000 a year.” 10k per year, per employee, is a substantial number.
The ATS should also be easy to setup and deploy; training employees on a new talent database software can be extremely time-consuming-in other words, costly!-for your company. Stick with an ATS that requires minimal setup time and is easy to implement. (Crelate was named the “Most Implementable” recruiting software based on factors like ease of setup, implementation time, and user adoption rate.)
Streamlines Communication + Speeds Up The Hiring Process
The right ATS allows your recruiters to usher candidates through the appropriate pipelines in a more timely manner. The ATS needs to be flexible and essentially not get in your way; you shouldn’t have to enter fake data to get to the next step. Similarly, if you make a mistake or need to skip a step, that should be acceptable as well. A strong applicant tracking system will also be able to automate communication steps that can mean the difference between an engaged candidate and one who quickly loses interest and falls off the radar. Nothing frustrates a candidate more than a slow hiring process, and you’re likely to lose out on top talent if you and your client don’t act fast. Utilizing an ATS can help you stay in constant contact with potential candidates. A speedier hiring process allows you to better match high-quality, highly interested candidates with the companies looking for them.
More Placements
Because the right ATS will make your recruiters more productive and the hiring process expedited, your team will be able to make a higher number of placements. Statistics back this up: research conducted by Bullhorn found that firms who use an ATS see a 10% increase in placements each month and a 15% decrease in time-to-fill overall. This is especially true of applicant tracking systems that are intuitive, flexible, and fast. Slow systems defeat the purpose of automating specific processes; if you’re waiting for the system to respond and have to make a bunch of unnecessary clicks to get where you want to go, this will slow down your recruiters considerably. On the other hand, the right ATS does what it says it will: makes your processes more efficient and allows your recruiters to make more placements.
Another way you’re likely to see more placements by using an ATS is through possible integrations the ATS offers. A quality system should integrate with job boards, social media sites, and more. These integrations help you consistently get your jobs in front of more prospects. (Recent data says that as much as 78% of candidates are using mobile job search apps to apply for jobs.)
Offers A Better Candidate Experience
A poor experience throughout the recruiting process can be a major deterrence to potential candidates. If the process is too lengthy, time-consuming, or doesn’t include enough follow up, it’s easy for someone to get lost in the shuffle and immediately lose trust in your organization. Think about it: if someone has a bad experience with your recruiting firm, not only will they not come back, but they’ll likely tell others about it, too. The money your company can lose due to a poor reputation can have serious effects on your business. Using a flexible, fast, intuitive ATS will speed up and streamline the application process for candidates in addition to making things easier on your recruiters. You’ll create a more positive hiring experience and turn candidates into brand ambassadors, too.
If you’re looking to purchase an ATS, you need to be able to provide measurables on how it will deliver a return on investment. Saving countless hours for your recruiters, boosting the candidate experience, and delivering more placements will all contribute to your company’s bottom line. At the end of the day, choosing a talent database software shouldn’t be viewed as an overhead expense, but a worthwhile investment that can truly deliver ROI.
