Streamline Your Hiring Process with an ATS
Your team is growing and you know you need to find the right people, but you dread the process because it takes so much time. Whether you are writing the job ads and placing them online or collecting and sifting through hundreds of resumes, one thing is certain: there has to be a way to streamline your hiring process.
You’re in luck – there is a way!
Over the past few years, Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) have become more and more popular, and for good reason. Running a profitable business takes a lot of flexibility and focus, and you just don’t have time to spend days or weeks trying to attract the right candidates and picking through all of your options.
When you need your next rockstar, you need them now. I get it. My team is growing rapidly, and I’ve had to find effective ways to streamline the process. I’d love to share what I’ve learned!
No More Piles of Resumes!
Tell me if this sounds familiar: you need to hire a new team member and while you need the help, you’re not looking forward to the steps ahead. The process starts with spending a couple of hours writing a job ad – and a couple more placing it on all the relevant job boards. Perhaps the wording is a bit off and some of them kick it back…and you spend more time rewriting and reposting it.
Within a day or two, resumes start coming in. They flood your inbox, so you set up rules to filter them. After a week or two, you look at the resume folder and see that you have hundreds of applicants to sift through. You print their resumes and cover letters (using a lot of ink in the process) and set to sifting through them.
Pretty soon, your desk is covered with piles of resumes: those that are qualified, those that are not, and those that have impressed you enough to go to the next step. The stacks are covered in Post-It Notes, and as you sift through the ones you’re interested in, you start to draft emails to each. As they advance through the written interview, personal interview, and reference checks, the stacks begin to divide and the Post-It Notes multiply.
Along the way, you and your Admin are spending hours trying to keep up with them all and hoping that you find the right person, the first time through. Because you really don’t want to have to repeat the process.
Now, imagine if that entire process could be automated – and with the click of a few buttons, you could filter through hundreds of applicants to find the few that fit your exact needs. This is the beauty of an Applicant Tracking System!
Save Yourself – And Your Candidates – Precious Time
The time you will save with an ATS doesn’t stop with the filters. It extends all the way through the hiring process!
As your candidates move through the system, your ATS will not only keep them organized, but will also send out any necessary emails – and save you hours in the process.
If a candidate does not fit your requirements, you can simply move them into that category and your ATS will send out an email thanking them for applying but notifying them that they will not be moving on to the next step. While this is never welcome news, the vast majority of applicants prefer it to simply not knowing. This step helps your company maintain a professional approach while allowing those applicants to confidently apply to other companies.
For the candidates who move on in the process, your ATS will automatically walk them through each step. It will send out the written interview and notify you when it is received, and it will allow you to easily schedule a personal interview. When you need to check references, the information is there, and if you choose to hire the candidate, it will send all necessary paperwork!
These steps alone will save you hours of typing emails, keeping up with all the paperwork, and trying to respond to everyone (or fielding follow-up emails and calls). As an example, I recently hired a new Executive Assistant – and I was able to weed through several hundred resumes and find the perfect person within a week. Before the ATS, I would have hoped to find her within a month.
If you’re interested in learning more about what an ATS can do for you, click here to set up a free call with a specialist on my team. We are happy to talk with you, discuss your needs and goals, and help you find the solution that works best for your business!