So, you’re in the market for a new ATS or Recruitment CRM. Where do you start your search?
There are over 450 applicant tracking system providers in the UK alone, so shopping for a new ATS can be a labour-intensive task with little reward other than circling back and forth between search terms on google.
However, getting your choice of Applicant Tracking System right is absolutely business-critical, as recruitment becomes more urgent, more digital and more personable – according to TalentLyft, “86% of recruiting professionals say that using an ATS has helped them hire faster”.
Speed-of-hire is one, vital metric in which we judge the efficiency of an ATS. However, recruitment in the modern digital era isn’t just about speed – consider the shift in candidate and client expectations in regards to communicating company culture and good onboarding processes that have so dominated the recruitment conversation post-pandemic.
These other recruitment and job-seeker behaviours – how candidates engage with the more holistic, culture-led aspects of a company – are equally, if not more important to the modern job seeker than ever.
Applicant Tracking System providers have, in the main, met the moment, and these sorts of holistic and process-led features now come as standard in many solutions.
So considering the explosion of ATS providers and new features that those ATS providers have built into their products, how do you know which solution is the right one for you?
That’s where we step in – as any recruiter knows, recruitment is more than simply putting candidate A into job A and stepping away. From application to video interviewing to onboarding, candidates demand a more agile, more immediate and far more human service from their consultants.
ATS and recruitment CRM systems are often the platforms from which many of these connections are built.
So here is the Rectec guide to comparing ATS and recruitment CRM, to make sure the platform you choose is right for your enterprise.
Assess your ATS needs.
As we mention at length in another article, choosing the right ATS is only as effective as your prioritised list of requirements. You need to make sure you know which features of an ATS solution you need, as well as the ones you don’t.
We advise you to create a simple system in which you can easily refer to the features you need from an ATS provider. For example, a traffic light system, where certain features are colour coded; Green (those absolutely must-have features), Amber (those you will get regular benefit from) and Red (those which are not required). This will help in any conversation you have with an ATS rep, or any search terms you enter into search engines or, as we discuss below, into an ATS or recruitment CRM comparison service.
When in doubt, ask for an ATS or recruitment CRM recommendation.
Often recruiters and HR leaders will seek recommendations of ATS providers, not only because industry peers will, in some cases, have similar recruitment needs, but because it’s a great way to obtain first hand feedback of what solution your peers are using, and what those solution providers are like to work with.
Recommendations are trusted connections between peers and ATS providers and will come with a lot of positive brand advocacy. But, like with any major investment, caution is the word of the day, and we always urge recruiters to shop around before settling on a recommendation.
ATS and recruitment CRM comparison services.
Rectec are proudly flying the flag for a relatively new, and novel form of ATS/client introduction, the ATS comparison service.
ATS comparison services are fast becoming the first port of call for recruiters seeking the perfectly matched Applicant Tracking System. Because ATS comparisons follow the same sort of customer UX journey as other, more well-known comparison service platforms (such as Compare the Market), comparison services are easy to use, free, and provide an enormous amount of feature flexibility and choice as standard.
Comparison services do all of the heavy lifting and handle the main pain points that come with looking for new ATS – for example, which provider to choose from the litany of options, based on customised inputs and tangible requirements, all of which are controlled by the customer, not search engines or sales reps.
Rectec, and our ATS comparison platform Rectec Compare, are the only provider of such a service.
The bottom line.
Choosing an ATS or recruitment CRM should take time – you need to build a relationship with the provider and their representatives you work with through navigating new tools and migrating data from one provider to another, and you need to make sure whichever ATS you choose, it has all the features you need and more.
But some of that patient shopping around can be expedited, as long as you know the features you need and understand the critical job ATS platforms provide to the modern job seeker.
A quick, responsive process is what you need to attract and engage the best talent.
At Rectec we help organisations to find the best Applicant Tracking System or best Recruitment CRM to suit your needs, accompanied by our unique complementary technology marketplace, to help you build the perfect recruitment tech stack for your business.
You can click here to register for Rectec Compare – and best of all, it’s completely free of charge.