Top 7 Reasons to Clean the ATS During an Economic Downturn

An application tracking system or ATS, is a software used by recruiters and employers during the hiring process to collect, scan, sort and rank the applications submitted for their openings. It acts as an Electronic Gatekeeper for an employer. It typically phrases the resumes into categories and scans it for specific keywords to determine its eligibility. In a nutshell, the job is to essentially weed out unqualified applications for the rest to be evaluated.

In the current scenario, where the urgency of work from home emerged as the ‘New Normal’, the companies are bound to rethink their hiring strategies. With the major economic turndown, as the irreplaceable negative impact of the ongoing Global pandemic, many companies are halting themselves to rethink their hiring strategies as well as the hiring needs, which is resulting in a massive hiring freeze. With every nook and corners of the economy being changed, new and flexible business goals are created every day. As a result, the entire hire process is bound to hit the reset button as well.

Thus, in the process of decluttering the entire system, certain benefits are to be considered as to why it is important.

ATS is the first and foremost step for a company to hire its employees, and amidst the recent picture, the need for office employees is close to the ground level. As a result, the major pile of junk lies in the Application Tracking System. So, let’s consider some of the benefits of cleaning the ATS amidst the economic turndown, for a fresh start maybe, and soon!

Rethinking the Initial Step

As ATS software allows one to speed up the process on a large scale, many companies are still actively on board with their Hiring needs to meet the current consumer demands. The process has to undergo a critical change in every niche. As the need for WFH is rising rapidly, the companies ought to transform their hiring procedure to serve even more digitally-driven consumers throughout the Globe.  Thus, hiring the right applicant is essential for its survival in the near future.

Keeping in mind the rise in the job applicants, it will be a critical step for a recruiter to channelise different sources of talents. Thus, broadening the scope for the participants is required. One would need to deal with the different talent pools actively and subsequently engage them in the database and resume files. ATS should be used as a comparing platform to identify and compare candidate resumes from different fields. ATS also acts as the selective field where the applicants are well aware of the company’s goal. Thus, proper outsourcing and updating is the need of the hour to save time as well as money.

Removal of Inefficiencies

When the business model undergoes a drastic change, the ways of sourcing and hiring also changes. The Data flow of the ATS will determine the nature of the analysis and the effectiveness of the new account. Rebuilding the data flow up, one must analyse the pros and cons of the existing process. Searching out for the inefficiencies, adapting the new structure into the existing ATS structure, all these things are in need of a rethinking. Removing the inefficiencies opens up enough space for evaluation on a broader perspective. Picking out best candidates, and ultimately welcoming them to the genre results in a secured future for the company.  The best part, cost-effectiveness.

Hiring a third party like a Database Regeneration Service Provider results in the professionalism of the task. Identifying the strengths and weaknesses, and blending them to maximise productivity, without any extra labour. Also adapting a customisable ATS to intend the intended workflow enriched in best data while simultaneously synchronising them between various platforms and the ATS can rule out the unwanted and incorrect data in the tracking system.

Change in Employment status of Potential Candidates

With the curse of cost-cutting and unprecedented shutdown of several small-scale industries, and as more and more people start filing for unemployment, many of the existing candidates still are present in the ATS. So, updating the candidate profile is a mandatory task to keep it smoothly functional. Recruitment Database Regenerators can experience a plethora of changes in the system on the whole. Through various ATS integration and online software, the whole process is completed within a stipulated time frame without any heavy manual Labour. And why is this cleaning required? To pick out the resurfaced ‘qualified’ candidates who have gained some experience, might be available since the last interaction with them!

Not Just a Mere Employee, but also a Family member

– One of the most important and serious aspects to keep in mind while scanning and researching about a potential candidate is their personality and emotional intelligence. As once hired, the candidate becomes a part of the family as a whole. Employer branding is an important aspect nowadays. Also, a Good and Strong employer brand helps in attracting and engaging better candidates. The hiring committee prioritises the Employees who care for the company and its future. A company who treats their Employees like family are often considered on top of the list. And thus, the ATS should be built in a way to make a meaningful and humane connection with the candidates first and foremost.

Treating them well, and helping them to overcome the hurdles, nurturing the ones who are still in consideration or recently was rejected, and how the company treats them, puts a long-lasting impression of the company. A genuine connection is a personalised connection. Also, each and every employee of the company expects to be treated well and equal. Thus studying the database and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the Applicants, results in better communication between the candidate and the hiring board. Mutual respect and understanding is the first stepping stone both for the industry and the employee and thus ensuring a better candidate experience.

Downsizing of the recruitment teams

Another downside of cost-cutting results in the downsizing of the recruiting bodies from most of the companies. Yet, despite the hiring break, the number of incoming applications is not in bad shape. And as a result, it’s possible that the recruitment process is most likely to be handled by a small number of recruiters. The most challenging task is managing the huge volume of applications.  And due to the lack of workforce, and effectively reduced bandwidth, the data process inefficiencies will add up to the unwanted clutter in the ATS. Thus, first and foremost, the ATS needs to be flexible to support a recruitment team of any size.

Once the inefficiencies start to open up, it will eventually lead to blockage of the whole ATS, significantly lengthen the time required, incomplete research results, poor communication with the candidates and lastly, result in the sabotage of the entire hiring process.

Hiring a small group of professionals, to declutter the existing as well as new formed obsolete data, can result in the process to run smoothly without any major disturbance. These Database Regeneration Service Providers closely monitor the daily data input and output and carefully channel out the unwanted data. As a result, despite the small recruiter group, the right amount of data proficiency helps in a fair hiring process.

Collaboration leading to better results

The whole of the ATS works upon the strategy of Data feeding. But also, on the efficiency of the recruitment board members as well. The recruitment team collectively needs to be well acquainted with the management and navigation of all the tracked data modules. So experienced hiring managers and interviewers also may need to level up their Hiring skills. Hiring teams need to communicate fast and evaluate the candidates easily, along with documenting each and every step of the way. So, if there’s a misbalance between the in-come and out-come of the whole process, this time should be utilised in training the Employees. Efficient recruiters are tasked with coordinating all the communication as well as the administrative tasks.

So, this is an excellent opportunity to reinstate the old norms and update the recruitment team as well. Training them to prepare for interviews, encourage them to take tests themselves to identify their hidden biases and how to look through them—also educating them thoroughly through the data process, mock interviews and recruiting resources to make the hiring process faster and efficient.  Another most important outcome of this step is, this can play a crucial role in distinguishing the data collected before and after the economic downside and also the difference between the handling of the situation in both the cases.

The End Goal

Clearing out the system is a major step in optimising how data is collected, shared and at the end implemented. Several Database Regeneration Service Providers in the UK only focus on a good strategy to declutter the system as efficiently as possible without any harm to the main field. And going through these challenging times, sound planning is the need of the hour to plan what the future beholds!

Gathering as much as important and serious data possible is like taking the first step of the broader planning to the future. The best in class ATS distinguishes itself with absolute automation, particularly focused on the candidate experience front. If used correctly, ATS can be leveraged for communication with applicants in a way that is not possible otherwise. The recruiting process, as well as digital communication, becomes easily accessible to the entire recruiting team. The automation of digital applications via email or so are widely accessible to the company for acknowledgement and update.

The company needs to ensure that they get the most from their ATS by avoiding unintentional filtering of candidates along with reduced application abandonment. So, companies can use recruitment data and metrics to continually test and improve their recruiting process and make more informed decisions. It also ensures the team to recruit fairly, without any unconscious biases. Hiring objectively is, in a way, beneficial for the business as it helps to hire the best possible candidate without any interference of stereotypes. As a result, this results in an inclusive workplace full of potential candidates.

Thus, investing in ATS can be beneficial, some of which are stated above. It streamlines the hiring process by making it possible for the hiring team to collaborate and keep all the candidate data in one place for easy access. It also reports capabilities, extracts useful insight from the past experiences and improves the upcoming ones, screens and evaluates potential candidates best suited for the position. All of it is to power up the process in no time. So taking care of the ATS is equally important for the convenient future of the company as a whole.

Originally published Dec 07, 2020 12:12:36, updated Nov 24 2021

Topics: Recruitment, Recruitment Technology