As software vendors, we’re always claiming our solutions deliver value for money, provide an excellent return on investment, and generally lead to a more efficient, pleasant worklife.
Prospective customers are understandably more cautious. It's important to assess your recruitment management system options carefully before committing to implementing any new tool. Especially solutions involving talent management and acquisition. It's fundamental to be conscious of the type of brand experience your hiring, onboarding, and general People Management processes offer.
However, not all Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) are the same. Forget the monstrous enterprise versions. In this context, we’re talking about small businesses, SMEs and agile companies.
Sizing up an ATS usually involves some Cost-Benefit Analysis.
‘What’s the upside of deploying a system like this?’
‘What are the downsides and risks?’
‘What do we stand to lose if we don’t?
When investing in an ATS, you should start by adding up what you’re paying now. Not just the obvious recruiters’ fees (e.g. 15% of annual salary) and job board ads or admin costs in terms of time spent. But also the cost of losing talent to your competition, meaning you don't achieve your organisational goals.
Look how much an ATS for small businesses costs and you’ll see instant ROI!
If you’re a small, agile, growing business, where roles are often shared – for example, where operations, admin or owner managers are responsible for hiring and people management – you’ll need help from a dedicated application more than a professional.
Sorting, shortlisting and responding to candidates is particularly time-consuming. You also need a consistent standard of on-brand, timely and well-pitched messages to advise candidates if they’re successful or not at each stage of the process.
You might like to analyse the typical lifecycle of a new vacancy to refine your process, from the creation of the job description and output of the ad, through shortlisting and interviewing, to the final appointment and onboarding. (Will your solution integrate with a wider HR system at this stage?)
We call systems that do all of this ‘end-to-end' recruitment software.
Reporting insights will illustrate what you need to adjust in your pitch, process, and the personnel responsible for recruitment.
But the most important thing, ironically, about automation in this context is the opportunity to deliver a more human experience during person-to-person interactions and to be more proactive about sourcing candidates. After all, that’s what the best talent expects!