8 reasons to switch from Excel and email-based hiring to an Applicant Tracking System
It is a known secret that the key to a successful business is success in hiring the best talent that helps build the business. However, it is surprising that given how important an aspect hiring is to the overall success and future of the company, it doesn’t receive the importance it deserves. And therefore, instead of specialized recruiting software, a lot of companies make do with Excel spreadsheets and emails. Humans are creatures of habit. When one is used to doing something a certain way, one tends to continue doing it the same way for ages, without questioning it. The answer you might get to the question “Why?” is almost always “because this is how it has always been done.”
Picture these scenarios:
1. A resume comes into your inbox. You review the resume and find it a great fit, but accidentally permanently delete the email and are unable to recover it or ask the candidate to reapply (you didn’t make a note of the candidate’s name or contact details).
2. The candidate clears the interviews and is made an offer but decides to reject the offer. A few months later the candidate reapplies. You are trying to find the feedback notes from the previous interviews and realize they were on your team member’s computer, and they are no longer with your organization.
3. The hiring manager asks for a report on the hiring activity for his/her position and you’re spending hours trying to manually collate the data from across spreadsheets and inboxes of your team mates, to prepare the report.
Sounds familiar?
While Excel and email might help you get by in managing your hiring without a designated ATS, they are a time-consuming, cumbersome way of conducting recruitment, especially while collaborating with multiple recruiters, recruiting managers, hiring managers, interviewers etc.
Here are some reasons why you should replace email & Excel-based hiring with an Applicant Tracking System
1. Central system: An ATS functions as the central system where all resumes and hiring activity associated with all applicants is stored. Applications can be routed directly to the ATS instead of inboxes of individual team members, providing greater transparency.
2. Single source of truth: While recruiters and coordinators maintain candidate data and statuses on their spreadsheets, there is scope for error and discrepancy as they’re updated manually. While one has to refer to spreadsheets for candidate status and details, they have to refer to the email folders for the resume. An ATS houses all the data centrally, acting as the single source of truth, which is very critical for good recruitment.
3. Reduce manual tasks: Reduce repetitive tasks like manually cross-checking candidates against the spreadsheet for duplication or previous history, copy-pasting content from resumes, storing/filing of resumes in appropriate folders by adopting an ATS to manage all recruiting.
4. Workflows to save time: Workflows in ATS’ allow you to set up custom hiring scorecards for each job, schedule interviews, send notifications to candidates and interviewers all with a few clicks, helping save numerous hours each week.
5. Automate mundane tasks to save time: Certain ATS’ automate tasks such as reviewing and shortlisting of resumes, helping recruiters save hours every week on repetitive monotonous tasks like resume screening, helping them use that time on more high-impact tasks like candidate engagement or sourcing.
6. Improved candidate experience: With systems and workflows in place, and recruiters saving time on mundane tasks like resume screening, scheduling interviews, feedback collection etc, recruiters are able to spend more time on candidate engagement, helping improve candidate experience, which is very critical in a candidate-driven job market.
7. Optimize usage of applicant data: Organizations often have a goldmine of talent hidden away in their archaic ATS’ or email folders across inboxes of numerous team members and spreadsheets. New age ATS’ help utilize this data more effectively, helping build instant talent pipelines for active positions, or nurture the contacts for future positions.
8. Collaborate: Hiring is a team effort involving recruiters, coordinators, hiring managers, interviewers etc. An ATS helps build a coherent hiring team from all the fore-mentioned people, giving them a platform with shared access to all the relevant information and communication, making hiring a team effort.
If you would like to know more about an intelligent Applicant Tracking System that can help you get started on hiring better and faster, please write to us at hello@param.ai.
