ATS: Your Secret Weapon for Employee Onboarding

employee onboarding system

A company is only as good as its employees. All the intriguing brand logos, buzzwords, and business plans in the world are worthless without great people that execute. This is especially true in the recruitment industry, where relationships reign supreme.

So how can you train recruiters and salespeople to be effective and productive as quickly as possible? Discover one of your most effective employee onboarding tools: your applicant tracking system (ATS) and find out how to choose the best ATS system for you.

Does an ATS help with Employee Onboarding?

In a recent study, recruitment pros were asked how long it takes recruiters and salespeople at their agency to be productive. One group with particularly slow ramp-up times? Not using an ATS/CRM—84% of respondents at these agencies had a ramp-up time of a month or longer.

Aiming for a ramp-up time of a month or less? The use of an ATS/CRM increased the likelihood of a recruitment professional reporting a quick ramp-up time (a month or less) by 57 percent.

So the data shows a strong correlation between a faster onboarding time and ATS/CRM use. But how does an ATS actually help in the employee onboarding process? Here a couple key ways in which an ATS helps you to train your employees to be effective in short order.

It Allows Recruiters to Be Better Faster

Relationship management is everything in the recruitment industry. Neglected candidates and clients won’t just end their relationship with your agency; they’ll tell everyone about it. Unfortunately for new recruiters, relationship management isn’t always a skill that comes easily.

The sheer number of candidates a recruiter contacts—both prospective candidates and previous applicants that could be ripe for redeployment— makes maintaining consistent communication difficult. Juggling multiple relationships and determining the right time to follow up with candidates are skills that even the most experienced recruiters can struggle with. So how can new recruiters possibly expect to keep up?

A strong ATS will automatically capture all of the emails a recruiter has sent to a candidate, flagging relationships that need more attention.  Recruiters can also use an ATS to simplify the process of personalizing emails to candidates. By segmenting candidates into groups, recruiters can customise drafts that specifically apply to the unique circumstances of that particular candidate.

Suddenly, that new recruiter appears to have the relationship-management skills of a much more seasoned professional.

It Enables You to Pinpoint Problem Areas Quickly

All recruiters are not created equal. One recruiter may have great time management skills but be terrified of phone calls. Another recruiter may be a social butterfly with sourcing struggles. An ATS allows you to track the performance metrics of a new hire so you can easily compare their results to those of the more seasoned members of your team. Because a good ATS will track the entire history of communication with a candidate, you can also audit qualitative, communication skills easily as well.

By monitoring their development from the beginning, you can customise your feedback for each recruiter so that each new recruiter gets the attention he or she needs to excel. Don’t wait until the end of a quarter to discover that a recruiter isn’t making as many calls as he or she needs to be productive; squash bad habits before they become ingrained.

Want to learn more about what you should look for in an applicant tracking system? Check out the ATS Buyer’s Guide for everything you need to know to make a worthwhile investment in your recruitment agency’s future.

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