How applicant tracking system works? The biggest change the recruitment industry is experiencing today is an overwhelming use of Applicant Tracking System Software. Almost all the fortune 500 companies have opted for ATS and even the middle sized companies are going for it. These days’ candidates have to learn the mechanism of the ATS, if they want their resume to reach a real recruiter. So let’s find out how applicant tracking system works .
What is an ATS Software?
An ATS software works as a software for recruiting and hiring. One of the basic jobs performed by an ATS is resume parsing. Resume parsing is one of the reasons, why ATS software is being preferred so much by the organizations. It saves them from the huge burden of going through thousands of resumes.
Hence, as most of the organizations are opting for ATS software a candidate needs to realize that his or her resume is never going directly to the HR manager. Each resume will go through the filtration of the ATS. ATS will extract the relevant information from the resume and segregate it standard categories.
Thereafter, it will save the file into the system in machine readable format. Once all the above mentioned procedures are completed then only your resume might reach to an HR depending on the ranking it received. Your resume ranking depends on the algorithm of the Applicant Tracking System.
Employers prefer ATS Software
Any big or even mid-sized organizations have hundreds of jobs at a time and they receive almost thousands of resumes for each and every vacancy. When it was done manually it use to took several days to complete a recruitment process. Whereas with the use of ATS 95% of the hard work can be avoided as it filters out all the relevant resumes at once.
ATS stores and maintains all the records in a centralized database which maintains data hygiene. It helps the recruiters and the managers in staying organized and maintains the compliance with rules and regulations. An ATS also saves time by instantly filtering out the best and the most relevant candidate profiles.
ATS Software is taking over recruitment
According to the survey all fortune 1000 and 500 companies are using various Applicant tracking Systems for their recruitment needs. There are a number of ATS systems in the market with their features, lags and specialties. But a good ATS will have a cloud based system with a centralized database. It will need to have a good operating platform to work efficiently. Moreover it has to be accompanied by some extra features such as CRM, Vendor Management System, filtered search etc. to perform at the optimum standards.
How ATS Software functions
ATS collects and stores the candidate profile in a centralized database which professionals can access. The databases works with various social platforms and job portals to cross check the records and maintain a huge talent pool. The information in an ATS software can be stored even if the HR’s are searching for relevant profile and someone is not actually looking for the job at that point of time. It also helps further in background check.
Filtering Resumes
Some recruiters still prefer to go through each and every resume so that no top talent goes unnoticed. In such scenarios also, an ATS software comes handy as a recruiter can go through all the information, once they have been presented in a systematic format. This helps more, in instantly reading out some key features of the resumes and then evaluate that does it deserve further attention. Hence, from candidate’s point of view one should be crystal clear about mentioning the keywords and there should not be any ambiguity.
Automated Ranks
ATS these days have become smart enough to compare the candidate’s profile with the job description. It will evaluate that how well your resume information is in line with the job description and will provide rankings on its basis. It eases the burden of the recruiters as they can focus on the best matches and spare themselves from going through the whole lot.
Keyword search
An ATS concentrates mainly on the keywords entered by the recruiter when searching for relevant profiles. Usually a search contains multiple relevant keywords. It makes a recruiter’s job much easier and uplifts the quality of the recruitment as they can concentrate on researching the profiles. From a candidate’s point of view, they should research and include all the relevant keywords in the resume to perform well with an ATS.
Resume format
Resume formats were also becoming a problem in manual recruiting as every candidate was coming with different formats and designs. First of all, many of the resumes looked much flashy rather than professional. Secondly finding the relevant information through various formats was becoming tedious and time taking. Hence, an ATS turns every resume in a machine readable document by segregating the information in a streamlined way.
Due to the volumes of resume, these days most of the recruiters never get your original resume, rather they get the machine version. This is an avenue, where your ATS needs to be really a functioning one. If your ATS algorithm is not equipped to go through complex information or not backed by a strong CRM operating system such as, Salesforce, Microsoft dynamics, Sap etc., then the results produced by ATS might miss some of the crucial profiles.
Viability of an ATS
While obsolete frameworks are still being used at some substantial organizations, we are seeing new ATS being created for the cutting edge technological companies. As managers battle for the best Profiles, interaction with candidate is gaining more importance. With the introduction of AI in the recruitment software the automation and the ranking system is here to stay and are just becoming more complex. So to go ahead in the current market an ATS software optimized resume is a necessity.
