After selecting a beautiful new applicant tracking system, it is only natural to be excited to install it and put it to work as fast as possible. While there are the obvious challenges associated with training and user adoption, one of the most important parts of any successful implementation is integration. The better integrated an ATS is with existing digital systems, the more useful it is apt to be.
Integrate ATS with Your Website
One of the best ways to make your ATS work for you is to integrate it with your website. Embedding an ATS widget into your website allows top talent that wants to find out more about working for your company to find it quickly and easily. Adding a widget that links to the ATS, rather than restructuring the website, can save time and money while providing a more pleasant user experience.
Allowing candidates to come to you can save you money and time trying to attract those very candidates. While you certainly shouldn’t stop posting job ads or take other drastic measures after placing an ATS widget on your website, you may automatically set yourself up to attract those ever-coveted “passive job seekers” and thereby potentially raise the bar on your hiring standards.
In addition to actually making life easier for those that wish to apply to your company, adding a careers widget on your website can make your company look more organized and appealing. Even customers that are simply looking to find out more about your company may remember seeing the careers option on your website and may be tempted back as employee candidates.
HR Software and ATS Cooperation
Integrating ATS software with new or existing HR software can make the process of importing new employee information from the ATS to the employee database easier. This can help you to avoid duplicate entry errors and can make information easier to cross reference for analytics and reporting purposes.
Being able to reach all HR information from one place can also help to eliminate dreaded data silos.
Integrating Software during ATS Implementation
Integrating ATS software with your website, your existing HRIS or HRMS, and any other disparate systems that may make sense to link up is best achieved during the implementation process. Your team will already be contending with changes and spending time to learn the new system, so it makes sense to take care of the technical aspects and introduce the system as it will be used for the foreseeable future.
Integrating the ATS with your existing systems may not be easy, so it is best to anticipate a bit of website downtime and maybe even put your recruitment efforts on hold for a moment so that applicants receive a consistent and high quality experience. You may have to involve third parties or vendors of your current systems to handle the technical aspects of system integrations.
A top ATS generally functions better as one point of a multi-faceted approach to employee management, rather than as a stand-alone system. Integrating the ATS with other systems during implementation can help to ensure a better user experience and may even increase your overall system ROI by making it more effective at reaching candidates and converting them to employees.