The top 5 features you should look for in an ATS

An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) should be full of features that help you get the most from your recruitment process. From helping you to attract and manage candidates to providing data analysis, an ATS must preform multiple roles for your business but there are some key features that we believe you should not be without. 

We have curated the top five features that you should take into consideration when you are looking at purchasing an ATS for your business.  

Configurable Applicant Forms 

Offering a positive candidate experience should start from the application form. With a good ATS, you can configure your forms, tailor them to specific roles and be optimised for mobile allowing for candidates to apply quickly and easily.  

Not only does it allow you to configure forms it can add a pop-up ‘apply now’ button as well as quick apply on LinkedIn and CV drop section to help enhance candidate experience.  

With an applicant tracking system you can add questions that ensure only candidates who meet essential requirement progress to the next stage.  

Self-Service Interview Scheduling 

Interview scheduling is an important tool that an ATS can offer you. This allows you to set specified interview times and dates for candidates to choose from eliminating the need for email or telephone tennis.  

This feature can minimise candidate no-shoes and reduce the time you spend on interview admin. An interviewing scheduling tool can even help you save money as seen by our customer StepChange Debt Charity who have used Hireserve for several years and have seen a significant improvement with their interview process.  

They have estimated that using the scheduler saved them 30 minutes per application which is an approximate £20,000 per annum in cost savings.  

Read the full case study here 

Candidate Screening Tools 

Being able to find an application or application document easily and quickly in a secure, online database, which allows you to share them with colleagues with ease. This feature will also allow you to share feedback with your colleagues in the system with a simple scoring process therefore streamlining your recruitment.  

This can help to streamline and maximise the effectiveness of your hiring process helping to ensure that you hire the best applicants.  

Find out more about candidate screening 

Different Portal Access 

 Portals for candidates, hiring managers and even agency are a top feature that your ATS should have.  

Candidate Portal: 

A candidate portal is a way to help showcase your brand and attract and engage with top talent and is shown to improve candidate experience. Candidates can use this to access and update their information and track their progress making them feel more empowered within the recruitment process.  

Hiring Portal:  

A Hiring Manager Portal allows hiring manager to approve vacancies, review candidates and schedule interviews in one place.  

Agency Portal: 

An agency portal can allow agencies to submit candidates via your ATS reducing the admin in working with outside agencies.  

Reporting 

Your ATS should be able to offer you a wealth of recruitment data and reporting tools which will help you improve recruitment and optimise performance. 

By creating standard reports, you can pull data on the cost-per-hire, time-to-hire, candidate demographics and sourcing channels.  

With Hireserve’s ATS you can easily share the reports you build with colleagues as well as being able to save and edit your favourite ‘scenes’ to embed them in documents for to engage and provide evidence to stakeholders.  

Find out more about reporting with Hireserve here: Your ATS Reporting Guide: The basics – Hireserve  

These are five top features of an ATS, from reporting tools to an interview scheduler. These will help decrease your recruitment admin.  

Request a demo of Hireserve’s ATS here.