7 Ways an ATS Automates Workflow and Saves Time

It’s hard to keep up with the never-ending innovations that promise to revolutionize your business. The current buzz centers around automation and AI technology. Everyone seems to be talking about its potential (and risks). With so many innovations, it’s no wonder people feel confused when it comes to updating workplace tech! 

While it is fun to experiment, keeping abreast of all the latest ‘game-changing’ advances is impossible. But that doesn’t mean you should bury your head in the sand and try to pretend things aren’t changing.  

The answer is to embrace the innovations that are tried, tested, and proven to work in what really matters to you. In recruitment, the most significant tech disruptor is SaaS (Software as a Service). SaaS Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) may not be the new kid on the block, but they are evolving fast. The most innovative ones (combining a CRM with applicant tracking and recruitment automation) are now on the must-have list for automating recruiters’ workflows and saving time.

An ATS allows you to automate repetitive tasks and track an individual’s recruitment journey. As well as saving time (and consequently money), an ATS enables you to provide an interactive, streamlined, and thorough service for applicants and clients. It genuinely is an example of technology working for you and your business. 

This blog outlines precisely how an ATS can be that elusive game-changer. It’s a must tech-grab to stay ahead of the recruitment crowd!

How an ATS Automates Workflow and Saves Time

1. Recruitment Automation: Say Goodbye to Oodles of Tedious Manual Tasks

When you first implement an applicant tracking system, you will wonder why you left it so long to join the ATS revolution. This is because many daily, weekly, and monthly repetitive manual tasks can be automated with an ATS, saving recruiters so much time. For example, you can automate job postings, emails (set up event-triggered sequences), screening, resume parsing, interview scheduling, onboarding, etc.

Think how much time this will save your recruitment team! Clients using Tracker report our software is saving them, on average, 20 per cent of their recruiters’ time! Moreover, our clients tell us that staff are happier and more motivated, and engagement with candidates is richer.

2. Match Candidates to Jobs Faster and Secure the Perfect Hire

An ATS enables you to refine and optimize your talent search. By supercharging your talent sourcing process, you’ll fill positions faster and save time.

First, the number one time-saver comes from posting vacancies on multiple job boards in one fell swoop with just a few clicks. Then, incoming applications are automatically funneled into a centralized platform, cutting laborious tasks and saving time. Rapid screening (automated resume parsing) refines the search process and saves even more time. If your search parameters are specified, you will get precise results.

Tracker’s ATS offers recruiters comprehensive job board sourcing and automated candidate matching. It takes the busy work out of matching by automatically (and intelligently) bouncing candidates off your open jobs to fill your recruitment funnel. And Tracker’s Watchdog feature sources candidates while you sleep, crawling job boards every night to find new candidates, process them and automatically engage with them. That’s a pretty neat bit of workflow automation!

3. Take the Strain Out of Your Comms

How much time does the average employee spend composing, responding to, and checking emails? The average office worker receives 121 emails per day and sends 33! Shockingly, on average, an employee spends 4.1 hours a day reading, writing, and managing emails. Imagine how much time could be saved if you could automate some of this activity.

Well, with an ATS, you can!

With Tracker, your team can automate the communication sequences you use across your processes, from candidate nurturing and onboarding to client lead prospecting.

And let’s not forget about texting. Both email and texting in recruitment have their place. Your ATS should be able to integrate with text too. Research shows that twice as many people prefer texting over email. Engagement time with texting is also much quicker (the average email is replied to in 90 minutes, whereas the average text response is just 90 seconds). These days, you can’t afford to ignore the time-saving texting brings.

Tracker’s ATS integrates with third-party business messaging Apps to provide texting technology within its platform. This means you can set texting sequences to run automatically based on event triggers, just like you can with emails from within the Tracker platform.

Using Tracker, you can automate sequences of emails, set up notifications, and apply them to candidates, clients, leads, and placements. Recruitment communication doesn’t get slicker than that!

4. Link With Your Favorite APIs

With the right ATS, it’s possible to create a powerful combination of software solutions to seamlessly integrate all your workflows and reduce or eliminate multiple data entry points.

With Tracker, you can connect your ATS to other applications, job boards and social media channels (via a premier social enabling platform). Data stays in sync, and event triggers can action something in another application, such as Sage, Quickbooks, Google, Hubspot, and more. 

SMS integration makes it quicker and easier to stay in touch with candidates and clients via text. Outlook and Gmail Add-ons mean you can seamlessly send and receive emails from one place instead of having multiple tabs open. We’ve already mentioned the time-savings you get from automating event-triggered texts and emails.

API integration cuts down information hand-offs, reduces the number of data-entry errors, and claws back time.

5. Sharpen Collaboration, Strengthen Teams

You may be thinking, what does collaboration have to do with time-savings, and how does an ATS help? A SaaS ATS enables real-time collaboration, discussion, and feedback on candidates from multiple locations. The basic premise of any SaaS application is the portability and flexibility to work from wherever you are!

There are lots of tools within an ATS that contribute to better collaboration within teams. Tracker’s ATS, for example, provides an in-built instant chat so recruiters can engage with colleagues whenever and wherever they wish. Tracker’s @mentions feature enables the creation of instant links to any record in the system allowing quick access to specific records for review and consideration.

An ATS improves communication and collaboration among the recruiting team members. They can leave notes, ratings, and feedback on each applicant. Tasks can be quickly assigned, and everyone is kept on the same page.

6. Simplify Onboarding

It’s not uncommon for the onboarding process to involve many emails, maybe a few phone calls and some sticky note reminders. It’s fair to say that a ton of admin time is spent getting candidates up and running.

Tracker’s ATS optimizes workflow throughout the recruitment process and saves admin time during onboarding. Combined with onboarding best practices, Tracker enables recruiters to create a customized onboarding workflow. Tracker’s key features and time savers for onboarding include:

• Sequences
• Candidate Planner
• Compliance Module
• Remote Onboarding

Intuitive and time-saving features for candidate onboarding allow you and your team to work smarter, not harder.

7. Get the Most Out of Your Data With Comprehensive Analytics and Reports

How can you improve your recruiting process and save time without tracking and monitoring it? Data-driven recruiting allows you to make informed hiring decisions, analyze metrics, and report on productivity. Ultimately, effective use of data will enable you to build a more cost-effective and time-efficient recruitment strategy.

Every field of data in your ATS is potentially available to you to use in custom reports. Leveraging data provides you with critical information across your business and processes.

Tracker’s scheduled reporting, for example, collates and delivers your favorite reports to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly. And a vast library of standard KPIs and lifecycle “widgets” allows you to build and share critical performance information quickly!

Do More by Doing Less With Tracker

Automating tasks and sequences across candidates, client contacts, leads, placements, and more, minimizes busy work while boosting activity. Tracker’s ATS boosts productivity and saves time.

We are confident that our innovative ATS can cut time spent on tasks in the recruitment cycle by 20 per cent. Don’t just take our word for it. Book a demo with our incredible team today. We’d love to show you how Tracker’s ATS can improve workflow and save time in your recruitment cycle.