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Applicant Tracking, or Applicant Blocking? Is your ATS the weakest link in your hiring process?
Applicant tracking systems (ATSs) have gained favor as a solution for overwhelmed HR departments, who in a floundering economy are receiving more resumes than they can manage. While ATSs may make processing resumes easier, some authorities have noticed that because ATSs often make the application process cumbersome for candidates, they may tend to deliver job seekers who are desperate" and weed out more desirable, or passive candidates.
Marysville, WA - March 11, 2002 - Applicant tracking systems (ATSs) have gained favor as a solution for overwhelmed HR departments, who in a floundering economy are receiving more resumes than they can manage. While ATSs may make processing resumes easier, some authorities have noticed that because ATSs often make the application process cumbersome for candidates, they may tend to deliver job seekers who are desperate" and weed out more desirable, or passive candidates.
According to Frank Heasley, PhD, President and CEO, MedZilla.com, a leading Internet recruitment and professional community that targets jobseekers and HR Professionals in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and science, Passive candidates-those who have jobs but want better jobs-often are required to fill out lengthy, multi-paged job applications by poorly designed ATSs. Frequently, they cant even find the job on the corporate site that they already tried to apply for at the job board. So, we know companies are losing those candidates and getting those who are desperate and willing to endure multiple obstacles to apply," Dr. Heasley says.
I absolutely believe that the applicant processing methodology that causes people to make multiple applications is cumbersome and difficult. You eliminate top people instantaneously," Lou Adler, a veteran recruiter and author of several books and tapes on the topic, including the audio tape program POWER Hiring: How to Find, Assess, Hire and Keep Great Talent. We go to a number of our clients and actually audit that whole process. If the job cant be found quickly; if the application process isnt convenient and easy, youll lose everyone."
Adler says the key elements are a compelling ad and a simple screening process, capturing the minimal amount of information. Based on minimal information, the system can be designed to either respond quickly to the candidate or someone can call the candidate.
What weve discovered is that you absolutely have to make it easy on the candidates," he says. A good candidate always has three or four options [and usually chooses] the path of least resistance. You should therefore design the process around the needs of the best person-not around the needs of the worst. And thats what they [companies] tend to do is design it around the worst person-the desperate candidate who doesnt have a job, is willing to jump hurdles to get it, will do anything to get an interview."
Adlers company surveyed 700 candidates in fall 2000 and 50% of respondents indicated they didnt apply to a job because they felt it was too difficult to find the job or go through the application process. He says the issue of multiple processing (having to fill out multiple job applications from job boards to company Web sites) is a far worse effect than he imagined. The onus, he says, falls on the employer to eliminate the dual step and make the link a direct one from job boards to companies; then, they have to make their applications simpler. Just go for the core four or five things you need to determine for connecting with this person. Couple that with a creative, compelling ad," Adler says.
ATS glitches, such as the problem of having to make multiple submissions to one employer arent new, according to David Manaster, president of Electronic Recruiting Exchange at www.erexchange.com <http://www.erexchange.com>, an Internet-based hub for recruiters and HR professionals, produces an annual ATS Research Report. The 2002 report, reflecting the opinions of more than 700 recruiters, will be out in April 2002. Its certainly true that there are no standards within the industry and that definitely creates duplication of efforts for people," he says. Whether thats a problem with the ATS or a problem with the company--I dont know the specifics--but anytime a candidate has to apply twice for the same position, theres a problem."
The biggest benefit of ATSs is traffic control, according to Manaster. The areas where employers generally voice concern when it comes to ATSs are pricing, implementation and service. Some ATSs are still charging per resume, Manaster says, ...and frankly in this environment that is the wrong way to go. In this environment company budgets are tighter and at the same time, their résumé flow is increasing because there are so many candidates out there applying for every job."
The other concerns are implementation and customer service. The education process is key for employers being trained to operate ATS systems. Manaster says that he hears often about companies using ATSs the wrong way and ending up with problems, such as job seekers having the apply twice or more for a posting.
John Sumser, founder of Interbiznet, a niche strategy consulting firm in the human resources area, says that despite the current glitches, todays job seekers have it good when looking for jobs. ... the only people who could possibly complain about how hard it is to apply for a job today, didnt look for a job 10 years ago when they didnt have the Internet to do it with. You had to go to the library, you had to call people-you had to do all sorts of really hard work to get what people get in a couple of steps now."
The concern that Sumser is hearing from employers is that theyre getting too many resumes and the quality of candidates is lacking. While theyre not blaming ATS systems for this, ATS systems magnify the problems. You can complain more precisely about a problem youve always had because now you can see it more precisely," Sumser says.
Sumser says that employers can ease frustration on the part of job seekers by treating candidates like humans, rather than numbers. Its not a personal or friendly process. It never says thank you, Im sorry or excuse me. I think thats where a lot of friction comes from," he says. Theres an imbalance in the communications process that could be fixed partly by technology and partly by figuring out how to teach people that what theyre dealing with is other people-not data in a database."
This whole challenge of making things friendlier will get more important as time goes on because employers wont have too many" resumes for very long, Sumser says. Theres a real demographic problem cooking. Pretty soon, its going to be the case that employers cant get employees and theyre going to have to be nice to everyone that looks their way if they want to stay competitive. Thats the way it is in healthcare right now."
Problems where candidates apply for positions on job boards and then have to fill out additional forms from the companies ATSs, will be difficult to conquer, Sumser says. Most of the ATS companies have done some of the work necessary to make automatic communications between the job board and ATS better. However, if you have an ad on job board 'x and a resume goes to your ATS system, its still the case that you might not know where it came from, and its still the case that it might not be in the right format. So, if the ATS is one of the lower quality ones, it wont have an automatic function that allows you to map the data that comes in through the job board to a function that the ATS system supports. The problem is that there are at least 90 companies and no job board can really afford to design itself to communicate in a friendly way with the ATS system. There are 25,000 job boards and no ATS system can afford to have a friendly integration with all of them," he says.
According to Adler, the problem is solvable with a change on the front end. It doesnt mean throwing away ATSs; rather redesigning them to better capture good candidates. The system, itself, tracks, resumes and data, which is very critical when you get to a high level. What happens though to get a new candidate into the system is where the problem arises," he says.
Solving the problem will take a change in thinking, Dr. Heasley says. Were seeing a trend across the Internet in terms of job applications and screening candidates in which employers and recruiters are looking toward computers to make intuitive, subjective decisions that should be made by people. Recruiters may think that theyre saving time, but theyre actually losing good people," Dr. Heasley says.
About MedZilla
Established in mid 1994, MedZilla is the original web site to serve career and hiring needs for professionals and employers in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, science and healthcare. The MedZilla jobs database currently contains about 7000 open positions. The resume databank currently contains approximately 6500 resumes, less than three months old. These resources have been characterized as the largest, most comprehensive databases of their kind on the web in the industries served.
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