In this blog post, I talk about the one tool every small business leader needs when they’re recruiting. An Applicant Tracking System for Small Business.
As a solopreneur or small business you need to invest in an applicant tracking system. An Applicant Tracking System is an online tool that helps you organize your entire recruitment effort.
My name is Sadaf Shaikh and on this blog, I talk about everything that you need to build and nurture and grow your high performing team.
An Applicant Tracking System helps you organize your candidate flow as they move through your recruitment process. You can add little notes for yourself, figure out what you liked about a candidate, what you didn’t like about the candidate. And the best part is it helps you eliminate the need for saving multiple documents in on your drive or having to print copies of resumes or interview notes or handwritten notes. Everything is contained in that one system.
I did a video on the on the Top 5 Applicant Tracking Systems that are out there in the market specifically for small businesses and I did a walk through of each one, so check out that video.
Do you need an Applicant Tracking System?
You might be thinking to yourself, hold on a second, I’m just a small business, with only a small team and we don’t hire all that often. Perhaps a person here or a person there. Or perhaps you’re a micro business where you only really hire one person every few years. So, why then do you need an Applicant Tracking System? I’m going to share exactly how an ATS Applicant Tracking System will change your life.
Now, if you know me you know I am all about organization. I’m all about putting things into a process and systematizing them so that you know exactly what you’re doing, and your processes don’t change week after week, year after year, day after day. Because the worst thing you could possibly do (and this is very prevalent in smaller companies) is have every person on the team do things in a different way each time. And because you’re a small company, you likely say, “do I really need to have a process for this because we are such a small team”. The difference is that when you do have a process for something, it automatically elevates your status. So you could still be a small company but it elevates your status from small business to a professional organization.
Benefits of an ATS
So, when I share that an Applicant Tracking System will change your life, I don’t mean it literally, but I think that it’s worth mentioning that it will eliminate all of the different things that you have on the go when you’re hiring. One thing I know for a fact is that when you are smaller organization, everybody on your team is doing multiple things. Every person on your team wears different hats which is understandable because you want generalists in a smaller company. The problem is that if everyone’s doing their own thing, and they have a lot of things on their plate, when you add this extra element of recruiting on their task list, things can get a little bit hairy. An applicant tracking system is designed to keep everybody on your team on the same page. It is sort of like a Kanban board if you are familiar with that terminology. It has columns like a pipeline or a workflow for how the different candidates proceed through your recruitment process. It will show you all the people that applied, all the people that went for interviews, all the people that that you call back in for a second interview, and who you you give an assessment to and will show you who you’re giving an offer to.
Reach More Candidates
Your Applicant Tracking System will share your job posting out to multiple job boards at a time. Some ATS will send it out to as many as 200 job boards! Now not everyone of those job boards may be relevant to you and likely you may only get your candidates from a few select sources. However, the thing that you have in your favour is that as a small organization you don’t have the clout and you’re not well-known in the market place. So the more people that hear about your job the better because you don’t have your brand to fall back on as far as finding talent is concerned.
Streamline Communication
Finally I do think applicant tracking systems are really good for eliminating the need for email communication related to that particular role and a particular candidate. Most ATS have a built-in a communication feature. You can tag people on the recruitment team to say you really like a candidate and think they have all the requirements that you’re looking for but you want another team member to take a look at the resume too. So, instead of sending an email to the person and attaching the resume you do all that through the system. You can tag the person and the resume is already attached to that message.
Small Business Friendly Price Tag
These are just some of the reasons why investing Applicant Tracking System is beneficial for you to maintain your sanity. However, one other reason is that there are Applicant Tracking Systems out there in the marketplace specifically for small businesses that start at $0. That’s right they’re 100% free! There’s no credit card required. But even if you do decide that you want to have some of the extra features that they provide on the paid plans, I think it’s still worth the investment. A quick hack: you could sign up for the paid plan when you’re hiring and then downgrade to the free plan afterwards.
I firmly believe that having an Applicant Tracking System in your toolbox to help you find the right person is the way to go.
If you are currently hiring, you want to attend my live masterclass I’m hosting. In it I teach you my what your recruitment process should look like. While an ATS offers you a tool, I will give you the roadmap for how you need to set up your recruitment, how to set yourself up for success so that you hire the right person every time. Not just that, I also show you how you need to lay the infrastructure to ensure your new hire performs to the best of their ability once they get start.
Now, I want to hear from you. Have you used an Applicant Tracking System for small business? And, if not, what did you find most helpful in today’s blog post to convince you to sign up for an ATS. Comment below and let me know.