The candidate experience is an area garnering significant attention. In most cases, a great candidate experience boils down to communicating to candidates about the selection process and where they stand. Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) should provide an easy and automated method for managing candidates throughout the hiring process. Your candidate experience should not only be about the candidate, but about the hiring managers and recruiters as well.

An ATS should be able to provide structure so candidates are sorted so recruiters and/or hiring managers can be more productive with their in person interview time. An ATS helps candidates be “seen” while creating efficiency for the employer to spend time on candidates with the highest probability of being successful in the role, organization and industry.

The Best ATS Should Assist You With the Following:

• Streamline and automate your current hiring process,
• Ability to integrate and post on social networks
• Source and increase quality of candidates,
• Integrate assessments with applicant tracking system
• Allow mobile access for candidates and administrators
• Assist you in selecting the best applicants,
• Reduce time to fill positions,
• Improve the culture of your organization and
• Enhance the applicant and customer experience.

What Questions Should You Ask Yourself Before Partnering With An ATS?

Do you understand how your current recruitment process works?

You should have a vision for your future-state selection process. Understand your current recruitment process workflows and the outcomes for candidates and for those who interview candidates. What is the hiring brand you want to project to candidates? How do you want that experience to feel to them? What additional capabilities will be required to bring this to life? The largest challenge for hiring managers and/or recruiters is to be able to respond to all applicants in a way that is in keeping with their organization’s ideal employment brand. Knowing the hiring brand you want to project to candidates and the capabilities required to bring this to life is essential.”

What features should you consider as the most important in an Applicant Tracking System?

Applicant Tracking Systems are a mature technology product category, so most will have the basics you’ll need. One of the most critical features is the ability to make connections to other systems and platforms in the talent management space. Check out the vendor’s partner space and ask them to share their vision for how they connect and collaborate with other providers.

Why Bundle An ATS With Talent Assessments?

Adding assessments makes the hiring process via an ATS more effective and efficient for the recruiter. The greatest worry for most recruiters is wondering whether out of ‘pile’ of applications – whether someone was left in that pile who would have been an amazing candidate. Talent-based assessments predict on the job performance and outcomes allowing candidates with the best potential to rise to the top. An ATS combined with an assessment, allows employers to sort by assessment scores focusing on candidates with the potential to be successful – shoring up hiring managers and/or recruiters time for in person, fit interviews.

With an ATS you should be able to access:

• Postings to social job boards
• Candidate sourcing analytics
• Branded career site
• Design, set-up and integration
• Unlimited frontline assessments
• Training to maximize results
• Some type of outcome for applicants to improve the candidate experience and extend employment branding by recognizing individual strengths. At Talent Plus, we offer our client partners a Talent Card – an outward and visible sign of someone’s top talents. It’s a memorable piece in the candidate experience.

At Talent Plus, we integrate with a number of applicant tracking systems, as well as our own ATS, Talent+Hire. Pairing highly predictive, performance-validated Talent Online Assessments with an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) helps hiring managers and/or recruiters source top talent, direct applicant flow and identify candidates who are the best fit for the role and organizational culture.

Simple, cost-effective recruiting and hiring tools should streamline and automate the selection process, providing an organization with integrated applicant information and a validated talent assessment in rank order. You want to be able to spend more time learning about the best candidates who are more likely to succeed –reducing time to fill positions and enhancing the experience for applicants and hiring managers.