How to Improve Recruiting in a Tight Job Market with Your ATS

Great candidates are quickly snapped up in today’s market. Using (the right) ATS enables better recruiting in a tight job market. Here’s how. 👇

Where is the talent? Recruiters have been scratching their heads to find out where all the suitable candidates are. Aside from a brief period during the pandemic lockdowns, it has been a candidate’s market for many years.

Finding the right people with the right skills for a job vacancy has always been challenging. That’s why so many businesses turn to specialist recruiters! Recruiters have a valuable role to play since the availability of skilled candidates has never been as scarce.

The reason for the scarcity is manifold. The population in Europe and America is ageing, with the vast baby boomer generation now either retired or considering retirement. During the Covid-19 shutdown, many people took the time to assess their life and decided that it was time to reduce working hours or retire.

There has also been a worrying upsurge in people leaving the job market due to health-related issues. Between June and August 2022, around 2.5 million people in the UK reported long-term sickness as the main reason for economic inactivity. People exiting the workforce is similarly disturbing in the United States; 4 million workers have stopped working for various reasons since the pandemic.

The past few years in recruitment have been turbulent, and recruiting strategies are evolving to reflect the complexity of modern labor markets. The pandemic rocked the world, shutting down entire companies and shifting vast numbers of employees into a new era of remote and hybrid working.

Recruiters have had to navigate a tough period. But, perhaps the toughest is yet to come.

Now more than ever, recruiters must utilize tech to their advantage. An innovative applicant tracking system (ATS) is a must-have to overcome today’s recruiting challenges. This blog explains why.

Automate Recruitment Tasks to Save Time and Money

Time savings is one of the most significant advantages of using an ATS. Without it, staff jump between emails, job boards, resumes, application forms, and social media, which is as frustrating as it is time-consuming. Notably, hiring bottlenecks are notorious, so if any steps in the recruiting process are carried out slowly, incorrectly, or forgotten, it wastes time, energy and money.

In a tight job market, time is of the essence when it comes to recruitment. Lag behind, and other recruiters will pip you to the post and drag talent away from your business.

Many arduous recruiting tasks can be automated using an ATS, such as job posting, communication, candidate matching, parsing resumes, interview scheduling, prospect nurturing, and much more. Automating workflow boosts activity, increases productivity, and improves recruiter, candidate and client satisfaction. Remember, clients and candidates will recommend and work with you again if they rate their experience. Reputation matters and automation of tasks can make your whole operation slicker and reduce cost-per-hire.

Consider sourcing and job board integration, as an example. With the right ATS integration, you can build better candidate pipelines and increase your job posting reach instantly. There’s no chance of missing a vacancy as the system constantly matches candidates. The once time-consuming tasks of job sourcing and finding new candidates happen automatically 24/7!

In a dog-eat-dog world, every second counts. With draining manual tasks automated, recruiters can spend more time getting to know clients and candidates and focus on developing their interpersonal skills.

Publish Job Openings on Multiple Boards in One Click

Juggling numerous job boards without recruitment software is every recruiter’s nightmare. An ATS enables you to save hours each week by not having to author and post to multiple job boards individually. It is a must for any recruitment tech stack.

Nurture Your Talent Pipeline

A few key elements need to align for the perfect hire. It’s a well-used phrase, but having the right candidate for the right job at the right time is fundamental.

The best chance you have of achieving this goal is to build your talent pool in advance. An ATS is a candidate database you can draw upon anytime. First, you can categorize candidates on their skills, location, and experience. Then, use search semantics to find potential applicants and re-engage with them when a role comes up that matches their profile. For example, Tracker’s “Boolean Search” functionality uses AND, OR, and NOT qualifiers, weighted terms, parenthesized terms, and proximity searches to pinpoint the perfect candidates.

Workflow-based email automation (another great feature of recruitment software) can also work wonders for maintaining candidate relationships. You’ll also be able to track which candidates open, click and reply to your emails.

Fill Positions More Quickly

An applicant tracking system’s most robust characteristics include its capability to quickly screen applicants, analyze and assess applications, and efficiently move candidates through the hiring process.

A longstanding challenge for recruiters has been how to prevent candidates from dropping out. But, of course, you can hardly blame a candidate for dropping out if the hiring process is too long or too complex!

Great candidates will be quickly snapped up in a tight job market.

An ATS allows you to vet resumes, communicate with candidates and arrange interviews in a few clicks. In addition, automated emails keep candidates up to date as they move through the different stages of the recruitment process.

Time-to-hire (total time spent to fill an open position) is a critical metric in recruitment. Moving quickly and optimizing the process will ensure you beat the competition.

Keep the Whole Team on the Same Page

Recruitment software enables you to communicate quickly and effectively with team members about specific candidates. The team can access newly sourced and archived talent and view active and passive candidates from a single dashboard.

An applicant tracking system gives your team instant access to discussions, documents, and applicant details. With everyone on the same page, there will be no more missed opportunities.

Gain Critical Insights 

Shrewd recruiters will watch the labor market like a hawk and seize every opportunity. The power of data should not be underestimated. Without critical insights, such as which platforms reap the best candidates, knowing where to put effort is impossible.

With an applicant tracking system, many daily mundane manual tasks are automated, meaning the team can spend more time sourcing quality candidates.

This involves getting to know candidates and acting in their best interests. Building a picture of candidate personas, skills, and experience and understanding what would prevent them from accepting a role will ensure they genuinely fit the jobs you are matching them with.

Analytics provides information to help you identify high-quality candidates and solve hiring bottlenecks. You’ll also see which team members are struggling through analysis of unsuccessful hires. This will give you the insight you need to make positive organizational changes.

Such critical insights keep you one step ahead of your competitors. By the time they spot an opening, your ideal candidate (prioritized by Auto Match) can already be fully engaged in the hiring pipeline!

Recruiting in a Tight Job Market with Tracker

A great ATS brings so many benefits and has the power to optimize your recruitment operations. Contact our brilliant and helpful team at Tracker today for a next-generation recruitment software solution.

Let us know you are interested in discovering more about Tracker here. 👇

CEO of Tracker for over 12 years with an overall 25+ years in business process, IT strategy, and management

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