Applicant tracking system (ATS) is used for covering recruitment needs in an electronic and more optimized way. Advantages of ATS are that they can be stored and accessed online. There are various ATS for small and medium businesses or enterprises. Depending on business needs and functionality implemented, ATS can be free, open source, sold as standalone software or on software as a service (SaaS) basis for subscription.
Initially the applicant tracking system were used only by large corporations, which had to deal with thousands of job applications weekly. However this tool turned to be efficient for businesses of every type and size, so now almost 95% of Fortune 500 companies successfully use ATS to manage and streamline their recruiting.
ATS is much like customer relationship management (CRM) systems, however, they have specifics, related to recruitment tracking process. Comprehensive Applicant Tracking Systems, like PeopleForce, keep detailed database of applicants, including CVs and personal data, hiring process management with options of assigning responsible people, tracking recruiting process, sending automated notifications, accepting electronic signatures and detailed access control over sensitive information.
Learning about job opportunities and applying for jobs has become so much easier worldwide. Recruiting managers receive and look through at average 250 applications per vacancy, as reported by Inc. Only 4-6 candidates of those will be invited for interview. Can you image how much time and effort recruiters put into searching through all applications, reviewing and selecting the most relevant ones, and afterwards sending both negative and positive feedback to applicants. Here comes ATS as high tech solution to HR managers and recruiters needs.
Robust ATS provide functionality to organize and save CVs and all personal data of applicants for later. That makes easier for recruiters to refer to previous applicants in case of new job opening or different position. If recruiter has ever contacted you months later, then (s)he probably makes good use of ATS. ATS preserves applications and applicants data even after the vacancy was closed.
If you see an online form for job applications, then most likely that Applicant tracking system will handle your information. So here are several tips for candidates for successful job application.
However, we must admit that Applicant tracking system of PeopleForce parses all data from CV correctly and leaves room for manual entering of applicant’s information. So these tips are applicable for applicant tracking system other, than PeopleForce 🙂