3 ways to make your ATS smarter

There’s no way around it, your applicant tracking system (ATS) is core to your recruiting stack and essential to your recruiting process. However, it can easily become a resume black hole. 65% of resumes received for high-volume roles are completely ignored – and those applicants are among the most valuable. They’ve already shown interest in your company and are much more likely to convert as a result.  

Although an ATS has become a must-have for recruiting teams, there’s so much potential to make more of your ATS using other technology in your ecosystem than most companies realize. It’s possible to drastically improve your ATS functionality through smart integrations with AI and analytics technologies.  

Here are 3 strategies to make your ATS smarter and create a more efficient and successful hiring process:

1. Refresh all resumes with up-to-date information

If you’re going to hire the cream-of-the-crop candidates, you need to ensure that you know exactly who they are and what they bring to the table. Using artificial intelligence, you can update all the existing resumes in your ATS with candidates’ up-to-date job titles, attributes, and career development information. This gives you a holistic, enriched view of every person and their suitability for your open roles.  

By using AI to do all the heavy lifting, you can go beyond resumes and a single source of data. Cross-checking data beyond your ATS gives you an up-to-date profile of people who have shown real interest in your company. Your hiring team won’t have to manually cross check profiles for the latest information

2. Discover and engage with ideal candidates

Assessing the resumes of thousands of applicants is a huge challenge. As a result, it’s very common for candidates – sometimes even the best ones – to not get the attention they deserve in the hiring process.

Instead of using a standard keyword or Boolean search, matching algorithms can automatically screen every resume in your ATS – as well as inbound applications – to find the most qualified candidates for your open roles. Matching can be based on their real-world attributes such as whether they’ve had fast career progression at a stage-relevant company, whether they build diverse teams or embody your company values. This gives your company the best opportunity to make the right hire.

Once you’ve identified the top candidates, you can kick off automated email campaigns to these candidates’ current personal email addresses and re-engage their interest in your company. Try personalizing these email templates with the attributes that make them a perfect fit for this new position and increase the chances of them responding and, ultimately, converting.

3. Access detailed analytics for your talent funnel

Another way to improve the capability of your ATS is through integration with an analytics technology. With candidates entering your ATS from a multitude of different channels, it’s difficult to see where your best hires are coming from without leveraging analytics for your ATS.  

When you zero in on which channels are driving the most conversations and which recruiters are really moving the needle, you can utilize your resources in the most effective way. Adobe’s recruiting team generates analytics reports to give company leadership market insights at every stage of the process.”

ATS analytics also give you the ability to identify talent trends before they hit the mainstream. The result is improved hiring outcomes across the board and a clear competitive advantage in your industry.  

What’s more, deep pipeline analytics allow you to answer your most pressing questions around candidate flow, conversion rates, stage-by-stage targets, and the long-term business impact of positions going unfilled.

Wrapping up

Applicant tracking systems have come a long way in recent years, but there’s still plenty of room to expand their capabilities. Incorporating artificial intelligence, machine learning, and in-depth analytics with your ATS are great ways to improve your hiring results.

To learn more about how Findem can help you update, find and engage matching profiles in your ATS – and deliver deep pipeline analytics – request a demo today.