Applicant Tracking, or Applicant
Blocking? Is your ATS the weakest link in your hiring process?
By: Lisette Hilton
March 11, 2002
Source: MedZilla.com
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 can't 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 can't
be found quickly; if the application process isn't convenient and
easy, you'll 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 we've 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 that's what they [companies] tend to do is design it around the
worst person-the desperate candidate who doesn't have a job, is willing
to jump hurdles to get it, will do anything to get an interview."
Adler's company surveyed 700 candidates in
fall 2000 and 50% of respondents indicated they didn't 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 aren't new, according
to David Manaster, president of Electronic Recruiting Exchange at
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.
"It's certainly true that there are no standards within the industry
and that definitely creates duplication of efforts for people,"
he says. "Whether that's a problem with the ATS or a problem
with the company--I don't know the specifics--but anytime a candidate
has to apply twice for the same position, there's 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, today's 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, didn't look for a job
10 years ago when they didn't 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 they're getting too many resumes and the quality of candidates
is lacking. While they're not blaming ATS systems for this, ATS systems
magnify the problems. "You can complain more precisely about
a problem you've 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. "It's not a personal or friendly process. It never
says thank you, I'm sorry or excuse me. I think that's where a lot
of friction comes from," he says. "There's an imbalance
in the communications process that could be fixed partly by technology
and partly by figuring out how to teach people that what they're 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 won't have
"too many" resumes for very long, Sumser says. "There's
a real demographic problem cooking. Pretty soon, it's going to be
the case that employers can't get employees and they're going to have
to be nice to everyone that looks their way if they want to stay competitive.
That's 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,
it's still the case that you might not know where it came from, and
it's still the case that it might not be in the right format. So,
if the ATS is one of the lower quality ones, it won't 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 doesn't 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. "We're 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
they're saving time, but they're actually losing good people,"
Dr. Heasley says.
