Being a Native Texan, I have eaten my share of ribs and I can tell you that they are one of the more expensive items at your local BBQ establishment. So, when I order them, I make sure I get all the meat off of them. With that being said, there is no easy way to segue from a discussion of Ribs to Applicant Tracking (ATS) Systems so…here goes: In order to get the most of your ATS, follow some of the following tips:

POPULATE

Make sure that you are populating your database with both client contacts and candidates. Do not let your Sales Reps and Recruiters work out of their Outlook, Business Cards or with Paper. Most places that have successful ATS programs usually live by a saying “If it is not in the ATS, it doesn’t exist”. Good motto to run a thriving recruiting practice. It is also important to get candidates off of the Job Boards and into your system. Sooner of later, these candidates will be unavailable and will most likely remove themselves from the Job Boards. Once the candidate is in your system, you might have access to a resource that will not be readily available to your client or your competition. Which brings me to my next tip……

Important Note: Do not select an ATS that does not have some type of resume agent, parser, or inhaler to populate your ATS quickly

MAINTAIN CONTACT WITH YOUR CONTACTS

Once you have candidates and/or client contacts in your database, maintain contact using the systems Task and Calendar events. Too many times I see recruiters talk to a candidate that has recently taken a position without asking simply “When should I follow up with you” or, more importantly, telling them that you will follow up in a couple of months to see how their position or contract is working out. Schedule regular email updates with links to your Corporate Job Site or Available Candidates. Notify previous candidates of upcoming events or invite them to join your Social Network.

REFERENCES

Select or develop a reference section for your candidates that can also be used as leads for business development. It is one of the most useful tools to generate leads for your sales reps and, in some cases, you will have to check references anyway. Might as well kill 2 birds with one stone.

NOTES

Cannot reiterate this enough: Always..ALWAYS populate your ATS with notes regarding correspondence with Client Contacts and Candidates. As a business owner and recruiting manager, I would suggest making Notes Correspondence mandatory for ownership over Contacts and Candidates. Without the notes, you are starting from scratch and most people are more open to speaking with you if you can begin a call referencing previous correspondence.

CALENDAR EVENTS

I wrote about this briefly in the MAINTANING CONTACTS section but I wanted to reinforce how important it is to market your Jobs, Candidates, Social Network, Company Events and Culture to your candidates and clients. Schedule regular Mail-Outs to your database contacts / candidates – quarterly, monthly, bi-monthly..your choice.

Additional things that you can add to or look for in your ATS

1. Automated Job Postings to Job Boards and Corporate Sites

2. Texting Capability

3. Mass Emailing Functions – Not Spam. These are 2 different things

4. Integrated Search Capabilities like Talent Hook, Infogist, AIRS etc.

5. Resume Parsing, Inhalers

6. Resume Search Agents

7. Integration with Social and Business Networks such as Linkedin, Zoominfo, Hoovers, Salesforce.com

If you follow some of these basic functions and use your ATS to it’s full capabilities, you will generate more revenue for yourself and your company. You might even make enough to order as many ribs as you want the next time you go out for BBQ. I knew it would come back around……..NICE.