How an ATS Improves the Applicant Journey

Jan 5, 2022
Applicant Tracking, Recruiting Best Practices, Recruiting Software

Welcome to our How To Hire Your Next Employee Series. Whether you are a new or veteran hiring manager, our series can help you improve your recruiting processes. In so doing, you will find employees faster. And it will cost you less.

The Applicant Journey

In today’s post, we describe the process from the applicant’s point of view. This is called the applicant, or candidate, journey. Unfortunately, the applicant journey doesn’t always receive the attention it deserves. Yet the ApplicantStack candidate interface is key to our success. That means it’s key to your success as well.

ApplicantStack creates an exceptional applicant journey and your company deserves nothing less.

Branded Recruitment Marketing

With ApplicantStack, you can brand your recruitment marketing. Or use our default layouts.

In this article we’ll show you examples of both.

The Applicant Moves Through Stages Along The Applicant Journey

Before we continue, let’s talk about applicant stages because it’s important to understand how they work.

A stage refers to one specific step in the hiring process. For example, an applicant could be in the interview stage. Or they could be in the manager review stage.

As you move an applicant through the hiring process, you change their stage in the system. Stage changes can trigger actions. For example, if you change an applicant’s stage to Do Not Pursue, you can cause the system to send a ‘Thank you for applying but you’re not a fit for the position’ email. You create a template for the email and even personalize it with merge fields. ApplicantStack will insert the applicant’s name.

As we talk about each point of contact between the applicant and your company, keep in mind that you can tie the applicant’s stage to auto communications.

The Applicant Sees Your Job Posting

Your job posting is the first point of contact in the applicant journey. Candidates can find your job posting on your chosen job boards (such as Indeed, Google, JuJu, CareerBuilder, Monster, etc.), social media sites, or your careers page.

Here are ApplicantStack job postings on Indeed. See the listing for the SwipeClock jobs:

 

ApplicantStack applicant journey

 

Candidates look at these sites for jobs. Your ApplicantStack job postings start engaging candidates immediately. With branded postings, the applicant meets your employer brand at the first point of contact. Branded postings reflect the look and feel of your website.

Application

When the candidate sees your posting, they click a link which takes them to your application. (An application is called a ‘Questionnaire’ in the ApplicantStack system.)

Here is a questionnaire created in ApplicantStack:

 

How to Hire Your Perfect Next Employee

Notice how easy it is to upload a resume. Applicants can use Dropbox or Google Drive. ApplicantStack makes everything easy and natural.

ApplicantStack has flexible settings to fit your ideal candidate. You can set the resume upload to allow the applicant to write a cover letter. If that isn’t customary in your industry, leave that turned off.

ApplicantStack Eliminates Redundant Processes

When the applicant uploads their resume, ApplicantStack parses some of the contact information. The applicant won’t have to reenter all of their contact information going forward.

Repeating tasks unnecessarily is frustrating for everyone. It’s especially frustrating for a job candidate who is in the process of applying for jobs at multiple companies.

Reentering contact info again and again wastes their time. And it makes your company seem twenty years behind the technological curve.

Personalized Candidate Emails

When the candidate fills out the application, they immediately receive a personalized email that confirms you received their application. If they are a good fit, you can reach out to them immediately.

The applicant never wonders ‘Did they get my application and resume?’ They see that your company is prompt and professional. You respect their time and appreciate their interest in your company.

Candidate Screening

In ApplicantStack, you can use questionnaires for prescreening. Screening questionnaires can play a role in a great applicant journey.

Here is a screening questionnaire:

Screening Questionnaires

Prescreening questionnaires with knockout questions help eliminate unqualified candidates. This is how a questionnaire with knockout questions works:

You create a screening questionnaire with knockout questions. The knockout questions will depend on the job description.

The candidate completes the questionnaire. If they aren’t qualified, the knockout questions will filter them out.

You won’t waste any more of their time. If a candidate is eliminated, you can program ApplicantStack to send a ‘Thank you for applying but you aren’t a fit for the position’ email. You create an email template and ApplicantStack will use merge fields to enter the necessary information. (As mentioned previously, all candidates receive a ‘We have received your application,’ email immediately after applying.’)

If they pass the prescreen questionnaire, the system presents the more extensive questionnaire.

If you want your applicants to receive the full questionnaire initially, you can program it that way. You understand the recruiting standards of your industry and company type. The job position also influences how you want to craft the process for your applicant.

You customize ApplicantStack to create an applicant journey that’s most effective for your hiring pool.

No-Hassle Reference Checks

In your questionnaire, you can ask for references. Your applicant will enter them when they apply. ApplicantStack saves them in the candidate profile. If the applicant passes the prescreening and interviews, you can move them to the ‘Reference Check’ stage. When this happens, ApplicantStack will automatically email the references. This is called a Questionnaire Action in ApplicantStack.

This saves your applicant the trouble of re-entering their references. And you won’t have to ask them for their references again or find them on their resume. It keeps the process moving and eliminates a common bottleneck.

Interview Scheduling Reinvented

If the candidate passes the questionnaire screening, they are invited to schedule an interview. ApplicantStack interview self-scheduling is a game changer. ApplicantStack integrates with Google and Office365 for interview scheduling. Because of the integration, any non-available time slots will be hidden from the applicant.

 

How to Hire Your Perfect Next Employee

 

Let’s discuss this in detail.

Decide how many members of your team need to be in the interview. For this example, let’s say three team members need to be there.

ApplicantStack will pull information from Google Calendar or Office365 for each member of the interview team.

Let’s suppose there are four specific time slots where all interviewers are available. The applicant is only presented with these time slots. The applicant can choose the most convenient time slot.

Let’s suppose there is only one time slot for which all hiring members are available. If this is the case, ApplicantStack presents the applicant with one interview time.

Your Applicant Won’t Be Frustrated With Scheduling Hassles

Interview scheduling is a hiring process bottleneck for many companies. With slowdowns, you run the risk of abandoned applications. Interview self-scheduling keeps the process on track.

Job Offer

When the background and reference checks are complete, it’s time to offer the job. Here is an offer letter email:

 

How to Hire Your Perfect Next Employee

Notice the electronic signature. The applicant can sign and accept the offer immediately.

ApplicantStack ensures that you never lose an applicant because they are confused. ApplicantStack is always ready for each stage change. Candidates advance through hiring stages as quickly as your team chooses to process them. You will never have a slowdown because of the ApplicantStack platform. Your hiring team, the applicant, and their references control the timeline.

ApplicantStack can send hiring team members task reminders. Task reminders help your hiring team support a fluid, timely applicant journey.

ApplicantStack Reports

By running reports in ApplicantStack, you can identify bottlenecks in your hiring process. This allows you to continually refine your process and keep improving your company’s applicant journey.

How to Hire Your Next Employee

We hope you’ve found our How To Hire Employees series helpful. Here are the links to the posts on each step in the process.

Liz Strikwerda

Make Recruiting and Onboarding Easy

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