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, picking the right ATS, getting hiring managers on board, keeping it simple, setting realistic expectations, getting your recruiters to use your ATS, monitoring change management, garbage in, garbage out and know what reports you need.
Step 12. Look after your ATS!
You wouldn’t just buy a car and not have it serviced. The same is true of your ATS. Be kind to it and give it regular check-ups (and the occasional hug). Continue to invest and your systems will continue to deliver improvements.
Don’t forget to give the project an identity and meaning and note the message may well be different for different stakeholder. Management may want to know how it’s going to cut costs or reduce dependency on agencies. Perhaps, hiring managers will want to know how it will save them time, give them more transparency or ownership of the process. Then you’ve got your Recruitment and/or HR teams, Web/IT team, Marketing, internal job applicants, etc. what about external stakeholders? Do you have an agency PSL? If you do, make sure you prepare them for the change. If not, now may be a good time to introduce one. What about using this as an opportunity to shake up your external employer brand. Now you’ve really opened Pandora’s box… Have a robust change control procedure, be clear in your scope and stick to it. You can always do more in a future phase (see point 3).
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.
-Emily
Picture credit: Interior Crocodile Alligator
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