Do startups need an Applicant Tracking System?

Honestly, not all startups need an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) immediately. To decide, consider these four pointers

1) Your hiring projection for the next few quarters

2) The number of people collaborating over hiring decisions

3) The need to grow a talent database

4) Presence of fiercely growing teams.

If you are growing fast and need to hire faster, and if your recruiting team involves more than one recruiter, then your startup is ready for an online applicant tracking system.

WHAT IS AN APPLICANT TRACKING SYSTEM?

An Applicant tracking system helps track job statuses, candidate data (like profiles and resumes) and all recruitment activities of an organization in one system. It brings order and improves the efficiency of the entire recruitment process starting from candidate sourcing and screening until hiring.

How can an ATS help a startup?

An ATS can help recruit more efficiently while also freeing up time and resources to refocus on the most important, at-the-moment business needs. You can screen faster, engage with your candidates, and hire better. Collaborating over hiring decisions becomes more effective and easy. Interviews, whether it’s scheduling them, communicating with people involved, or collecting and processing feedback, it can all be coordinated from a single central hub.

Questions to ask when you are choosing an ATS

Is it simple?

Pick an ATS solution which is easy to learn and use. Your recruiters should be able to start recruiting right away. Strike out those with complex features, deep customizations, and demand a lot of training.

Is it affordable?

Choose one with a straightforward pricing model. Do the math to see how the ATS will directly affect hiring spend. Consider at least a time period of 6 months to a year to understand the long-term wins.

Does it integrate with job boards?

The ATS should swiftly integrate with the major job boards, your career site, and social media sites. Also, look out for other integrations like pre-assessment tests, video interview tools, etc.

Is it relevant for me?

If there are any challenges specific to your firm, test to see if the ATS can solve them for you. A list of use cases would be a good place to start. Ask for a free trial to explore and try the ATS.

What about support?

Check if support is available over multiple channels - phone, email and chat. If it is, is it free for all customers or does it bring an additional cost? Look for testimonials from other users.

What automation options does it have?

A few simple automation options would be a great addition. If your ATS can take care of routines like screening, emailing and following up, your recruiters can focus on the things that matter.

Freshteam features you can use right away

Creating and posting jobs

Freshteam comes with over 50 inbuilt job descriptions you can use right away. Use them to quickly create jobs and post them to the major job boards, and even share them on social media right from Freshteam. Freshteam also allows you to quickly create a personalized career site to boost your employer brand and help candidates find you.

Managing/Engaging candidates

When applicants apply through job boards, social media sites, or the career site they will automatically be added to the respective jobs in the ATS, making it easy for you to manage them and engage with them. You will also be able to track the source and medium of each candidate to understand which sourcing channels are working in your favor.

Collaborating with team members

Invite and add your team members to Freshteam - hiring managers, panel members, interviewers, all of them. Collaborating inside Freshteam is lot easier than when using emails. You can view candidate profiles, leave comments for each other and follow up on each other conversations with candidates - all in one place. Even scheduling interviews, and coordinating with candidates and interviewers is less chaotic and way more organized with Freshteam.

Talent pool

If you find impressive candidates but don’t have a suitable role for them currently, archive them to the Freshteam talent pool. The talent pool will eventually grow to become a reliable source of great candidates. As more relevant roles open up, you can invite candidates from your talent pool to pursue them.

Automate repetitive tasks

You can automate everyday routines like screening, emailing, and following up. This will help you channel your time and resources into investing in employer branding and talent search instead.

Integrations

Freshteam integrates with the major free job boards such as Adzuna, LinkedIn, Glassdoor and ZipRecruiter, to enhance your sourcing. You will be able to manage them all from Freshteam without logging in and out of multiple platforms. To further simplify screening and interviews, it integrates with pre-assessment test providers like HackerRank, HackerEarth, Classmarker, and video interview tools like Skype and Hangouts.

You can also make offers easily, get letters e-signed to complete your process through Fresteam's Integration with e-sign platforms like DocuSign and SignEasy. 

One-click career site 

Freshteam also helps you set up a career site in practically one click. List all your jobs and you have yourself a new career site in seconds. 

You can customize it however you want to suit your brand's guidelines again in simple steps. As a startup, the last thing you want to spend resources on is developing a career site and we get it, totally. 

Award-winning HR software, Freshteam