Canadian HR Reporter

CANADIAN HR REPORTER SEPTEMBER 2018 FEATURES 23 ✔ To keep employees paid accurately and on time ✔ To help YOU Pay Yourself First ✔ To keep organizations compliant Talk to your payroll professional and download free resources at payroll.ca/npw NATIONAL PAYROLL WEEK SEPTEMBER 10-14, 2018 #NPW2018 RECRUITMENT The benefits of using an ATS Ineffective hiring process can lead to poor staffing decisions, project delays By Gerald Adams W e've all heard our share of stories about the joys of the employee hiring process, from the posi- tive "Pat has been an incredible asset for our group — we were so fortunate she applied for our job posting" to the not-so-positive "Boy, did we ever make a bad call on that one — he looked so good on paper." Let's face it — even if an organi- zation is batting .500 for new em- ployee selections, the hiring pro- cess can still be time-consuming and difficult, whether it's a small business or large corporation. And many businesses still rely on the traditional method of gath- ering potential employees. is includes sorting through an over- flowing inbox of email submis- sions, printing piles of resumés and cover letters, reviewing each document, and then conducting meeting after meeting to see if applicants match their submitted resumés. An ineffective hiring process such as this can lead to poor staff- ing decisions — and those deci- sions can have many adverse ef- fects on a business. ese begin with project delays as they try to fit the wrong person into a role, and continue with added costs if the decision is made to release the unsuccessful employee and restart the hiring process. at's why it might be time to consider the alternative — an ap- plicant tracking system (ATS), a software tool that helps an em- ployer manage recruitment needs electronically. From the time a po- tential candidate reads a job post and submits her application, to the time the employer receives her resumé and sets up an interview, an ATS will help track the appli- cant's progress. Different approaches ere are different types of ap- plicant tracking software that rely on fundamentally different approaches with respect to can- didate management. Keyword-based approach: Some applicant tracking systems use a keyword-based approach that weighs an employee's initial suitability based on words and phrases that are found through- out his resumé, cover letters and other submitted correspondence. Using this approach, a higher oc- currence of pre-defined words and phrases may indicate the ap- plicant is more suited than other applicants who do not include as many of the "desired" terms. One of the drawbacks of the keyword approach is that some web-savvy applicants will em- ploy the use of resumé optimiza- tion tools that may increase their chances of achieving an interview. Such tools scan the employer's job posting and suggest words and phrases that may cause their ap- plication to be ranked higher. Questionnaire-based ap- proach: Other systems are ques- tionnaire-based, with weighted answers that automatically rank the best applicants based on their responses. This allows the HR team to create a set of questions that will pre-screen candidates and calculate an overall weight- ing score based on the values that have been assigned to each ques- tion. If a particular question is more important to the position, then the question is assigned a greater score. is approach is popular with those who are looking to choose an ATS for the first time, due in part to its ease of use. Many busi- nesses also believe the question- naire approach results in a more accurate submission because it requires each applicant to pro- vide responses to a specific set of questions. e benefits of an ATS For each challenge listed below, an ATS is able to provide a viable solution: Slow hiring times: Vetting a prospective candidate is one of the biggest challenges in recruit- ment. With so many variables to consider for each person, HR managers can become side- tracked during the hiring pro- cess. As a result, companies that hesitate and are slow to make a job offer often lose out on talent- ed workers. A 2017 report from Top Echelon on recruiting trends noted that the third highest rea- son candidates turn down jobs is if the employer takes too long to make an offer. An ATS will help to streamline the hiring process by organizing the top applicants' data and then tracking each person's progress throughout the recruitment pro- cess. at means less time wading through unsuitable submissions, and more time dealing with good candidates. Better organization means a faster hiring decision. Retaining employees: Losing recent hires to a different com- pany is another challenge faced by HR managers, especially with the growing number of millenni- als entering the workforce. With one-third of new employees choosing a different job after just six months on the job, according to a 2014 report from Equifax RICH > pg. 28 One of the drawbacks of the keyword approach is web-savvy applicants use resumé optimization tools to increase their chance for an interview.

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