9 Signs Your ATS is Past its Expiration Date

Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) have been around since the late 90’s. Since then, companies like Brassring, Recruitsoft and Recruitmax (which pioneered the space) have been renamed, assimilated, or simply vanished. Today over 98% of Fortune 500 Companies use applicant tracking systems to work efficiently and save time. However, no technology is without some flaws. In a perfect world, an ATS saves a recruiter time by filtering out candidates that are unfit for the role. Moreover, an ATS tracks the strengths and skillsets of candidates interested in working for your company; such a database is invaluable when recruiting future jobs. Yet despite the benefits, there are some disadvantages that can occur with some applicant tracking systems. For example, the automatic elimination of resumes due to the software misreading the information on the resume. 

All that being said, an ATS should be improving the entirety of your hiring process; handling details that don’t require direct human intervention. Ultimately, it should bring the best talent to your notice, whenever you need it, now and in the future. But that does not always happen. Technology progresses and the expectations of a positive candidate experience comes with that, however some talent leaders resist the necessary upgrades. Why? Simply put, they prefer to maintain the status quo, avoiding any change management. This is despite several tell-tale signs that a new ATS is needed! Chief among them, the obvious factor that legacy applicant tracking systems cannot perform as a single source of truth. Third-party tools must be integrated to handle functions the legacy ATS simply cannot do. For instance, scheduling candidate interviews, sourcing the web for passive candidates and/or nurturing past applicants in the event of future opportunities. Poor customer support would be another leading indicator signaling that it was time for a new ATS, especially if it was in conjunction with any (or all) of the following liabilities.  

• You cannot create job descriptions and post to job boards from one place. 
• You cannot search through existing candidate profiles and resurface past applicants 
• You cannot nurture candidates and track every level of engagement (to include opens and replies). 
• You cannot message all the stakeholders involved in the hiring process and thus, insuring everyone is updated in real-time on every aspect of the recruiting process. 
• You cannot customize the interview workflow for individual jobs. 
• You cannot automatically track any diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) measures that would decrease bias and discrimination in your pipeline 

Perhaps the most glaring red flag in all these indicators is simply this – you hate using it because it does not improve the recruitment process.  

If you can identify with any of what I have related then, we should talk. Proactive Talent is perfectly positioned to help you align the right technology to your recruitment strategy. We can simplify the operation tasks that recruiters usually have to do in their roles by utilizing the most innovative tech tools and smart recruiting technologies. From CRM and ATS recruitment to sourcing tools, we’ll help you integrate and align the right recruitment technology to your strategy. We’ll also keep you informed on best practices in moving your data from old to new systems, so your old data won’t get lost in transition. 

Book time on our calendar now to discuss… 

• Audit and advising on current tech stack - We'll audit and evaluate current technology and how it’s being utilized and provide recommendations on tech gaps or process changes as well as opportunities for better integrations. 
• Selection process support - On top of identifying and selecting tech platforms, we'll manage the initial vendor introductions and process of scheduling demos, helping guide conversations therein, and negotiating.  
• Implementation and integration of the new tool - We'll manage your project from start to finish, incorporating new software with your existing recruitment workflow. 
• Optimizing of existing tech - We'll evaluate opportunities to better leverage your current recruiting tech and support the reconfiguration of those tools to stay aligned to your strategy. 

Some clients sing our praises, we would welcome the chance to include your company in our chorus of satisfied customers.  

Proactive Talent executed a deep analysis and audit of our recruiting engine at Earnest. The outcome was an organized, actionable plan meant to optimize our existing operations, and expand our recruiting functions and employer branding strategy.  

Kimberly Maher 
Head of People Ops, Earnest 

We look forward to hearing from you!