Congratulations! You’ve convinced the powers that be that your recruitment team needs an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). That’s an achievement to celebrate in its own right. Now comes the tricky bit –making sure that your project is a success. This can be easier said than done. To give your project the best start in life, you need to carefully plan how you will roll out your new ATS companywide. This article is the result of years of experience of helping to make ATS projects work for our clients. Please use it as a guide to help you think about your entire implementation process from beginning to end. And if you have any questions – please don’t hesitate to give us a call.
Our previous posts included understanding your processes, creating baseline measurements, considering a phased approach, and picking the right ATS.
Step 5. Get your hiring managers on board.
Hiring Managers are busy people and winning their support can make or break your implementation. The key to this is keeping it simple. Don’t make busy mangers have to remember yet another login ID and password. Design a system that takes minimal training. Keep forms simple with clear instructions visible right on the page. Put yourself in your managers’ shoes. Keep any data input forms short and only capture information that is genuinely needed. An ATS implementation should not be seen as a way of offloading data entry work from the HR or Recruitment team to Hiring Managers, unless it really makes sense and improves your process. If you do plan to do this, make sure managers know, understand why and support your approach. Make forms email-based so all they have to do in press a link from an email message. Then make the process clear to managers – what to expect next and whom to contact if there is a status question.
Our next post talks about keeping it simple.
This post is an excerpt from the white paper "Twelve steps to a successful ATS implementation". If you would like to read more, you can download it now.
-Susanna
Photo credit: gladius
