There are many reasons you may tell yourself you don’t need a small business applicant tracking system, or ATS, but you should reconsider. If you do any hiring beyond the stray person here or there, you probably need an ATS for small business. Let’s go over all the reasons why many people delay getting one to see if you don’t decide it’s time to get yourself a small business applicant tracking system. It’s both game-changing for your business and easy.
Don’t Tell Yourself You Don’t Need An Small Business Applicant Tracking System
Cost
Many small business owners think an applicant tracking system is too expensive for them. First, you should know that many small business applicant tracking systems are free, like the free version of Recruiteze. We offer three options, the free version, one for $9.95 per month, and one for $39.95 a month. These are not expensive.
One should also know that whatever money you do spend on your small business applicant tracking system is an investment in massive cost savings and increased profits.
Rather than looking at a small business applicant tracking system as a cost, it should be seen as money gained. A better question than how much will this cost is what will it cost me to not use an ATS.
How a small business applicant tracking system saves and makes you money:
- save time spent reading every resume
- save time spent inputting resumes into a spreadsheet
- save time spent finding information on a candidate for interviews and communication
- save time spent manually writing and/or sending emails that could be automated
- save time spent sharing hiring information with other owners and managers
- save time spent posting jobs to job boards
- attract better candidates with better employer branding
- attract better candidates by having time to add self-screening measures to job ads
- acquire better employees with a top-notch careers page
- acquire better employees with online and mobile responsive application options
- acquire better employees by having more time to carefully vet them
- have more time to devote to strategizing
- enjoy less turnover and less hiring costs
- enjoy higher productivity
Impact on candidate relationships
Applicant tracking systems have gotten a bad reputation for making candidates feel unimportant or even discarded unfairly. They hear that an ATS for small business ranks their resumes by keywords and discards resumes because of formatting errors and feel that the hiring process is holding them back from the job.
While this does happen, it shouldn’t. Everything candidates complain about with an ATS could be rectified by more efficient planning and diligence on the part of the human behind the ATS.
If you are not purchasing a small business applicant tracking system because you’ve heard candidates don’t like it, that decision is negatively impacting both you and your candidates.
An ATS should actually help candidates. They should be receiving a better candidate experience because of the greater efficiency the hiring manager has to devote to them.
How an ATS can improve candidate experience:
- a more responsive careers page
- more frequent communication
- more informative communication
- feedback on rejections, including notification, explanation, and an invitation to apply again
- a more thoughtful hiring process because the hiring manager has more time to be strategic
- quicker hiring times
- less confusion and unprofessionalism than with inefficient hiring processes
What makes your hiring processes more efficient should mean a more efficient and considerate hiring experience for applicants. So, you don’t want to avoid one for their sake. The best answer for your candidates is to get a small business applicant tracking system and use it effectively. Then they might get the candidate experience they crave while you stress less and spend less giving it to them.
You think it’s going to be hard to implement or learn
It may seem that a small business applicant tracking system is this major thing to install and to learn how to use. You’re already super busy, you feel you don’t have time to devote to all this setup and education to anything. But the busier you are, the more you need the time-saving benefits of an applicant tracking system.
#1, applicant tracking systems get easier to install all the time. Usually it’s just like installing any other program on your computer, just click a few buttons and viola! There will be a little setup to personalize it for your business, but again, many programs you are already using are no easier.
#2, while choosing your small business applicant tracking system, it’s a good idea to try out some of them to determine how comfortable you feel with them. You can find free trials and even demos, with expert live assistance, to help you get acquainted with the software before purchase. The right small business applicant tracking system should be easy for you to learn and use. Start by searching for easiest applicant tracking systems and/or reading reviews of popular applicant track