What follows is a cautionary tale for recruiters still not using an Applicant Tracking System. If instead you’re considering whether you’ve made the right choice with an ATS and recruiting CRM that seems like it’s falling behind, consider starting with 12 Reasons You Need a Modern Applicant Tracking System.
As recruiters it is far too easy to move so fast that we slow ourselves down and miss easy opportunities.
-Chris Hesson, Crelate Sr. Product Consultant & Former Recruiting Trainer
Be honest, does this sound familiar?
You pick up a new search. Congratulations!
And then what do you do? What a lot of recruiters do: spend 2-3 minutes searching through your current database, maybe hit a few job boards, then straight on to LinkedIn.
Over the next 2-3 hours you source 20, 30, maybe even 60 candidates that look great. Where to next?
Naturally, the printer! You return with a three-inch stack of printed LinkedIn profiles and resumes. After a little recruiter magic you source email addresses and phone numbers.
Now the fun begins – you grab a pen, and your headset, and begin making those calls.
You start with the first piece of paper at the top of your stack. The phone is ringing – but hey, you’re a recruiter so you know where this call most likely goes – voicemail.
You use your pen and in the top right corner jot down todays date, and the letters VM. Then you take that piece of paper and move it right to the bottom of the stack.
Fresh new profile in hand, you grab your pen and your headset, and it’s off to your next call.
After 10 or so LM messages with todays date you finally get someone to pick up the phone. Congratulations! And look at this, you already have a pen and a piece of paper with information about them – so naturally you take notes right on their printed LinkedIn profile or resume.
The candidate is good… really good. However they’re looking to move back to Chicago, and your role is in Atlanta.
But, hey, you took really good notes.
You take that piece of paper with all of your fantastic notes and set it to the side in a pile on your desk – or maybe you have a file folder you use to put all of those amazing pieces of paper with incredible notes that could make you tons of money in placements if only you would remember to look there.
6 months later, you have a new search – just like the one before, but this time in Chicago – what do you do?
You spend 2-3 minutes searching through your current database, maybe hit a few job boards, then straight back to LinkedIn”¦
All the while your amazing handwritten notes with a solid-fit candidate sit in that file folder in the bottom drawer of your desk.
A year or so later, you get the ‘spring cleaning’ bug and spend the last hour before you leave the office for the day cleaning out your desk, and clearing up space to make room for newer file folders of candidates you will forget to follow-up with.
Anything you hand-write will end up in one of two places, a museum or that round filing cabinet under your desk.
However, I have yet to find that museum to recruiters.
As recruiters it is far too easy to move so fast that we slow ourselves down and miss easy opportunities.
If a piece of information is worth writing down, put down the pen and instead pull up your ATS or CRM and add it there. If you don’t have one, get one.
Why Use An ATS as a Recruiter?
- A good ATS will provide a framework to keep you organized and on top of your game.
- A good ATS enables you to capture all that transfer of knowledge from candidates and clients you speak with into a usable form that does not rely on you having a perfect memory.
- A good ATS will enable you to increase efficiency and productivity, and ultimately placements and revenue.
- A good ATS can’t make you successful, but a good ATS can give you a leg up on being more successful.
- A good ATS can do a lot, but like anything else in life – you will get out of your tool, what you put into it.
If you, like most of us, find yourself in the position of not having a perfect memory, and aren’t infinitely organized by nature, let’s talk.
