Adway Live: The Evolution of the ATS

On March 10th, Teamtailor’s Head of Partnerships Fredrik Mellander, joined our partner Adway’s Senior Advisor of Digital Talent Acquisition, Sara Dasfelt’s live stream, to discuss how much hiring has changed in recent years! (For the full live stream please visit Adway.ai.) Here are some of their top takeaways and useful tips from the session:

Hiring Has Come a Long Way

The role of HR has changed dramatically in a short amount of time, and it’s only just recently that Talent Acquisition has been a key part of the process. The traditional definition of an “Applicant Tracking System” is, simply put, a tool to help people manage applicant tracking. And its sole purpose hasn’t changed. It takes candidates from the initial inbox through the hiring stages, and it’s usually built to help in an administrative capacity.

The Compelling Case For a Modern TA Suite

To hire great candidates, you have to make an important business case: we need an ecosystem that helps us cover the fundamentals of talent acquisition: attracting, engaging, converting, and hiring candidates. Building up your talent ecosystem with niche systems is a great recipe for maintaining those fundamentals in the future and keeping the hiring managers on board through the process. 

Getting Passive Candidates to Notice Your Company

The vast majority of all candidates on the market are “passive” candidates not actively seeking jobs. 

So how do you get them? By ensuring they know exactly what your company has to offer. Make it easy for them to click through your career page in less than two minutes and apply for the job in thirty seconds. A well branded career page tells the story of what it’s like to work at your company and is an enticing way to get passive candidates to take notice.

Getting Passive Candidates to Apply to Your Company

To get passive candidates to go the extra step and apply to your company, you have to make it simple and straightforward. Passive candidates don’t have resumes. They won’t spend hours putting one together or jump through hoops just to apply. Make the application “process” one in which they almost accidentally applied for a job. 

The Importance of a Smooth, Simple Application Process 

In the fine art of “candidate seduction,” it’s up to recruiters to make the candidate experience easy, fast and worthwhile. Outdated mindsets think making the application process complicated will ensure the most diligent candidates rise up to the task. Today’s best candidates value a process that’s easy, transparent, and lowers thresholds. 

Delivering an Easy, Engaging Candidate Experience 

It’s up to recruiters to lay out an optimized candidate experience:

1. Communicate the why. What’s in it for the candidate? Sell the company and the role and deliver the “wow factor.” 

2. Strategize for mobile and then optimize accordingly. Be as mobile-friendly as possible because, odds are, that’s where the best candidates are viewing information about your company and interacting with your TA team. 

3. Ask a few filtering questions. Instead of going right in for the resume, guide the experience and keep it engaging. 

4. Keep it simple. Maybe just ask for the candidate’s name and contact info so the company can reach out.  

Why Mobile Optimization Matters

When it comes to why mobile optimization matters, it’s all about the data. It’s super important to lower the thresholds for mobile applicants in the application process because their conversion rates are low and their drop off rates are high. 

Here are a few interesting numbers around mobile optimization from Adway’s ads over the last six months: 

• Conversation rate: the share of mobile career page visitors who registered an application was 47% lower than desktop users.
• Drop off rate: the risk of a mobile candidate abandoning an application halfway through was 31% higher compared to a desktop user.

Here’s how you can lower the thresholds of the mobile candidate experience: 

• Make it easy to upload cover letters.
• Don’t force unnecessary account creation.
• Make descriptions readable and easy to understand.
• Remember: you’re competing with the coffee machine, the evening commute, the first relaxing after-work moment, and much, much more. 
  
  

Fredrik’s Top Two Takeaways 

1. Think of this process as your New Year’s Resolution! You need to make sure you set a goal that’s achievable and actually enjoy doing it. That will make it easier for you to deliver an epic candidate experience.
2. The aim of your ATS ecosystem is to focus on recruiters, productivity, hiring managers, engagement and deliver a world-class candidate experience. 

Closing Thoughts: Recruitment is a Marketing Function 

At the end of the day, recruiting is a marketing function. But, if you compare what the toolbox marketing professionals are given with what recruiters are working with, it doesn’t match up. It’s time to empower everyone in TA to explore marketing-focused systems and solutions so we can win the best candidates, no matter where they are!  

About Adway: 

As a data-driven talent acquisition partner, Adway actively guides global employers in finding, connecting, and converting talent efficiently and strengthening their unique employer brand.

For the full live stream please visit Adway.ai.