Applicant Tracking Systems

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is an application that enables the electronic handling of corporate recruitment needs by tracking candidates through each stage from sourcing to hire. According to Business Week, there is a great need to "consider centralization of recruitment resources and investment in recruitment technology to maximize the effectiveness of the workforce plan" and "improve the ability to measure the effectiveness of the organization." Is an applicant tracking system (ATS) the answer to centralization and standardization of internal hiring practices?

Although talent acquisition has been shown to work best as a defined process, a wide variance often exists amongst different managers a typical company’s hiring process. Recruitment practices impact everything from the ability to attract top talent to a company's bottom line. Without an ATS in place, inconsistent hiring practices can lead to discrimination and other unfavorable recruitment tactics that expose an employer to hefty fines and millions in lost revenue. Compliant recordkeeping is a growing concern for corporate recruitment as the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) set new guidelines regarding discrimination. Consequently, the effort to track hiring procedures continues to gain momentum.

BusinessWeek notes that there are many benefits of an ATS. Notably, "the defined recruitment stages within an ATS force recruiters and hiring managers to document their recruitment, resulting in a higher level of consistency and visibility. The resulting data can be analyzed for systemic discrimination as well as a host of other issues (e.g., time-to-fill, source of candidates, interview-to-offer ratio, etc.) to help pinpoint areas for improvement in the talent-acquisition pipeline." In other words, standardization improves execution and promotes the accountability of the brand.

nextSource's VMS solution, TAMS (Talent Acquisition Management Solution), goes beyond an applicant tracking system by fully integrating the hiring process for full-time labor with the procurement process for temporary labor. TAMS eliminates the need for Procurement and HR departments to use separate systems for tracking full-time candidates and temporary workers. Additionally, TAMS offers access to The People Ticker, the industry's only real-time rate and salary benchmarking tool developed to assist HR and Procurement professionals in pricing labor. The People Ticker helps organizations set internal rate structures by ensuring that salary and rate offers are competitive and aligned with the current labor market. Together, TAMS and The People Ticker can help organizations standardize hiring and labor procurement practices while tracking, managing and pricing their workforce in a cost-efficient and timely manner.